The Letters of William Cullen Bryant: Volume V, 1865–1871 9780823287314

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The Letters of William Cullen Bryant

Century Association

Bryant, marble bust by Launt Thompson , 1868.

The Letters of WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT Volume V

1865-1871 Edited by WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT II

and THOMAS

G. Voss

New York FoRDHAM UNIVERSITY PRESS

1992

The text of this book is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/.

Open Access edition funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities/ Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Humanities Open Book Program.

© Copyright 1992 by Fordham University Press First Open Access edition, 2020

All rights reserved. lc 74–27169 isbn 0-8232-0997-0 (set, vols. I–VI) isbn 0-8232-0995-4 (vol. V) First edition. Limited to 1,000 copies. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Bryant, William Cullen, 1794–1878. The letters of William Cullen Bryant. Bibliography: v. 1, p. [487]–489. Includes indexes. Contents: v. 1. 1809–1836.—v. 2. 1836–1849.—[etc.]— v. 6. 1872–1878 1. Bryant, William Cullen, 1794–1878—Correspondence. I. Bryant, William Cullen, 1908– . Voss, Thomas G. PS1181.A4 1975 811′.3 74—27169

ISBN 0-8232-0995-4 (v. 5) Printed in the United States of America

Visit us online at www.fordhampress.com.

Contents

XXV • XXVI • XXVII • XXVIII • XXIX • XXX • XXXI •

Key to Manuscript Sources Acknowledgments Bryant Chronology, 1865-1871 Bryant's Correspondents, 1865-1871 Thy Task is Done: 1865 (LETTERS 1510 TO 1584) The Morn Hath Not the Glory: 1866 (LETTERS 1585 TO 1673) Wandering Home to Manhattan: 1867 (LETTERS 1674 TO 1750) First Centurian: 1868 (LETTERS 1751 TO 1829) Classics and Art: 1869 (LETTERS 1830 TO 1902) Literature for a People: 1870 (LETTERS 1903 TO 1969) Homer Completed: 1871 (LETTERS 1970 TO 2033) Abbreviations and Short Titles Index of Recipients, Volume V Index

Illustrations

between pages 248 and 249

Vl Vll

1

3 5 65 139

241 301 352

401 447

451 453

Key to Manuscript Sources Often Cited in Footnotes BLR Bryant Library, Roslyn, New York. CU Columbia University Libraries. DuU Duke University Library. Harvard College Library. HCL HEHL Henry E. Huntington Library and Art Gallery. Homestead Collection The William Cullen Bryant Homestead Collection of the Trustees of Reservations, Cummington, Massachusetts. JHUL The Johns Hopkins University Library. LC Library of Congress. LH Longfellow House, Cambridge, Massachusetts. MHS Massachusetts Historical Society. NYHS New-York Historical Society. NYPL-Berg Henry W. and Albert A. Berg Collection, The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations. NYPL-BFP Bryant Family Papers, Manuscript Division, The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations. NYPL-BG Bryant-Godwin Collection, Manuscript Division, The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations. NYPL-Bigelow John Bigelow Papers, Manuscript Division, The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations. NYPL-BPMP William Cullen Bryant, Personal Miscellaneous Papers, Manuscript Division, The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations. NYPL-Bryant-Moulton Letters Letters of William Cullen Bryant to Leonice M. S. Moulton, Manuscript Division, The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations. NYPL-GR Goddard-Roslyn Collection, Manuscript Division, The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations. NYSL New York State Library. NYUL New York University Library. PUL Princeton University Library. QPL Queensborough Public Library. RLA Redwood Library and Athenaeum. Ridgely Family Collection Letters of William Cullen Bryant to Leonice M. S. Moulton, Hampton, home of the Ridgelys, Baltimore County, Maryland. Sleepy Hollow Restorations. SHR UTex Humanities Research Center Library, The University of Texas at Austin. UVa The Clifton Waller Barrett Library of the University of Virginia Library. WCL Williams College Library. Collection of American Literature, Yale University Library. YCAL

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Bryant letters from fifteen collections not heretofore represented bring to a total of 112 the number of institutions and private collectors contributing to the first five volumes of this edition. Grateful acknowledgment is made to the libraries of the University of Delaware, Gettysburg College, Illinois State University at Normal, Kent State University, Marietta College, Union College, and Vassar College; and to the Cincinnati Historical Society; Fondation Martin Bodmer, Geneva, Switzerland; Free Library of Philadelphia; Minneapolis Public Library; Saint Paul Public Library; Sleepy Hollow Restorations; and Walter Hampden Memorial Library. Letters have also been received from one additional private and nineteen printed sources. Representatives of other institutions have been helpful in various ways. Among these are the Brockton, Massachusetts, Public Library; Office of Alumni Records, Colgate University; Columbiana Collection, Columbia University; Department of Manuscripts and University Archives, Cornell University Libraries; Long Island Historical Society; Metropolitan Museum of Art; National Academy of Ireland; National Museum of American Art; Performing Arts Library, and Print Collection, New York Public Library; New York State Library; Pitzer College of the Claremont Colleges; Office of the Historian, United States Department of State; University of Virginia Library; and Williams College Library. The Associate Editor is E. D. Lowry; the Assistant Editor, JoAnne W. Boyle; the Research Assistant, Richard C. Hare. Other individuals who have been especially helpful include Winthrop Murray Crane, III, Betty Crouch, Ruth L. Cummings, Elliott C. Cutler, Jr., the late Richard Dana DeRham, Evan M. Duncan, Betsy Fahlman, Donald Fowle, Norma H. Fox, Giovanni Giovannini, Thomas E. Greiss, Richard J. Hofsted, Kathleen Jacklin, David K. King, Clara Lamers, Siobhan O'Rafferty, Mrs. Eugene C. Paige, Beverly Wilson Palmer, Paul R. Palmer, Patricia Pellegrini, Katherine Roberts, Nancy Sahli, Jonathan Seliger, John R. Shea, Richard N. Sheldon, John D. Stinson, Jane C. Voss, David Wallace, Ernest J. Webby, Jr., Robert Neff Williams, and Alexandra Wolff. In addition, several persons have been from the outset of indispensable help in the preparation of this work. These are James T. Callow, H. George Fletcher, Kathleen Luhrs, Andrew B. Myers, and Mary Beatrice Schulte. The editors acknowledge, with a particular sense of gratitude, the assistance of the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Board of Trustees of Tusculum College, the Catholic University of America, Mrs. Fred H. (Nancy) Parvin, and the Herbert L. Schulman and Barbara Silvers Foundation. Publication support for this volume has been provided by The National Historical Publications and Records Commission, National Archives.

Bryant Chronology

1865-1871

I865. January I, "To the Soldiers of the Union Army," Evening Post. February 29, death of Cyrus Bryant. April 9, Confederate surrender; I4, assassination of Lincoln; 2I, EP declares Edwin Booth's loyalty; 26, Bryant's "The Death of Lincoln" read at President's cortege; 25-30, urged to write Lincoln's biography; 28, dedicates National Academy building. May, acquittal of Isaac Henderson; repossesses Cummington homestead. September 7, death of William Baylies. November, renews friendship with William G. Simms. I866. February I, death of Austin Bryant. March I7, Godwins sail for Europe. May I4-d8, visits Cummington homestead. July 27, death of Frances Bryant. August 30-September c25, at Cummington. November I7, sails for France. I867. April c20, death of Walter Godwin. May I, Henderson buys for Bryant a home at 24 West Sixteenth Street, Manhattan. July 3I, death of Catharine Sedgwick. September 5, lands at New York; ci0-20, visits Cummington and Berkshires. November I9, death of Fitz-Greene Halleck. December I3, death of Charity Olds. I868. Elected president of International Copyright Association. January I, elected president of Century Association; 30, testimonial by American Free Trade League. cFebruary, Godwin sells EP shares to Bryant and Henderson. cJuly I8, at Cambridge; ~August 23, at Cummington. I869. February 3, eulogy of Halleck. cMay I7, Godwins return from Europe; I8, death of Edmund T. Dana. cJune I, death of Alfred Pell; c25-28, elected president of Williams College Alumni Association. cJuly 20-August I5, at Cummington; c17-2I, at Newport; 27-cSeptember 20, at Cummington. October 30-December 11, jarilla published in New York Ledger. November 23, presides at organization of Metropolitan Museum of Art. December, Letters from the East; The Iliad of Homer.

I870. Given Doctor of Humane Letters degree by University of the State of New York. January, declines nomination as umpire in Mexican-American claims; Godwin accuses Henderson of fraud against Bryant and himself; 3I, elected vice president of Metropolitan Museum of Art. February 22, speech, "Translators of Homer." March I8, death ofGulian C. Verplanck. May I7, eulogy of Verplanck. June II, death of William G. Simms. July 20-0ctober 7, at Cummington. cSeptember, A Library of Poetry and Song. I871. Elected vice president of American Unitarian Association. January 3, elected Foreign Corresponding Secretary of New-York Historical Society March 30, letter on "Health Habits." May c23-June c7, visits Princeton, Illinois. June, Poems published by Appleton; 10, dedicates Morse statue in Central Park. July c19-cSeptember 30, at Cummington; buys grandfather Snell's farm. July 30, death of Edwin W. Field. September 26, The Odyssey of Homer, Volume I.

Bryant's Correspondents

1865-1871

ALTHOUGH BRYANT WROTE FEWER LETTERS during this seven-year period than in the previous one, his varied activities and commitments as he gave up dayby-day control of the Evening Post's editorial columns are reflected in the larger number of his addressees. Of 638 known letters between 1865 and 1871 to about 300 recipients, 524 appear herein. One hundred twelve are unrecovered; two others are insignificant and are not printed. Frances Bryant's death in July 1866 ended an intimate correspondence of nearly fifty years. His daughter Julia and brother John were thereafter his chief family correspondents. In addition to fifteen letters to Frances in 18651866, he wrote sixty-two to near relatives. Early friends and business associates formed the largest group of recipients, with 14 7 letters. Among these, twenty went to Richard Dana, sixteen to John Bigelow, fourteen to Isaac Henderson, eleven to Christiana Gibson, ten to John Durand, and seven each to Jerusha Dewey and Leonice Moulton. Bryant was somewhat less often in touch with George Bancroft, Orville Dewey, Samuel Dickson, Ferdinand Field, John Gourlie, George Harvey, Horatio Perry, Willard Phillips, Julia Sands, Catharine Sedgwick, William Gilmore Simms, and Robert Waterstonbut saw most of these friends not infrequently. His sustained vigor during his early and middle seventies found Bryant in frequent correspondence with editors and publishers of the various works which absorbed his time and solaced his mind after his wife's death, such as his translations of the Iliad, the Odyssey, and jarilla, the compilation of his Letters from the East, and his comprehensive Library of Poetry and Song. Sixtytwo letters pertained to these matters. Fifty went to Robert Bonner, James T. Fields, John B. Ford, James R. Osgood, George P. Putnam, and their firms. Fewer were directed to artists and writers, and Bryant was less concerned than during the late war years with political matters. On the other hand, increasing involvement with civic and cultural associations is inadequately mirrored in his correspondence: his presidency of the American Free Trade League, the Century Association, and the International Copyright Association; his part in bringing the Metropolitan Museum of Art into being, and his election to the vice presidency of that institution; and his responsible offices in the New-York Historical Society and the American Unitarian Association. These activities were more evident in his public addresses, many of them printed in the Evening Post and other journals and collected in his Orations and Addresses in 1873. Evidence of the wide regard in which Bryant was by now held, beyond his stature as poet and journalist, appears in the concurrent insistence of Bancroft, Holmes, Whittier, and others, immediately after Lincoln's assassination in April1865, that he was uniquely qualified to become the President's

4

LETTERS OF WILLIAM CuLLEN BRYANT

biographer; by the tribute in 1868 of the nation's leading proponents of free trade; and by his nomination in 1870 as mediator in sensitive negotiations over claims arising from the nation's war with Mexico a generation earlieran appointment which he declined, as he had all previous offers of political positions, but which, nonetheless, reflected the great esteem of the Mexicans made further apparent in his triumphant visit to their capital in 1872.

XXV

Thy Task Is Done 1865

(LETTERS 1510 TO 1584)

OH, slow to smite and swift to spare, Gentle and merciful and just! ... Thy task is done; the bond are free; We bear thee to an honored grave Whose proudest monument shall be The broken fetters of the slave. -"The Death of Lincoln," Aprill865 As THE CORPSE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN, murdered five days before by John Wilkes Booth, lay on a shrouded bier in the White House on Aprill9, 1865, Bryant was composing an elegy to the President to whom his editorials had given stout support, despite his occasional personal doubts, throughout four war years. After the cortege bearing the coffin had paused, on its passage toward an Illinois burial, for the homage of a great crowd at New York's City Hall, it followed a solemn procession through Union Square on its way to the Hudson River Railroad Depot. Bryant's "The Death of Lincoln" was read by Rev. Samuel Osgood to another vast gathering in the square. Later Osgood recalled Bryant's standing, "as [it] seemed to me," below Henry Kirke Brown's equestrian statue of Washington, "as the 19th Century itself thinking over the nation & the age in that presence." From the day Bryant's cadences sounded across the casket, he received in rapid succession so many entreaties to write Lincoln's life that he was loath to decline. "In the unimpassioned calmness of your own evening," wrote his pastor Henry Bellows, director of the United States Sanitary Commission throughout the war, "you can do a justice nobody else will, to the tender beauty of Mr. Lincoln's character." Theodore Tilton urged that such a work would please Americans more than one by any other; George Bancroft would read it "as I read everything you write with delight & instruction." John Greenleaf Whittier assured him, "It would give great satisfaction to all loyal men, to know that the work was in thy hands." And Oliver Wendell Holmes wrote, "No man combines the qualities for his biographer so completely as yourself and the finished task would be a noble crown to a noble literary life." Bryant's reply reflected both diffidence and reluctance to engage in partisanship outside his journalistic writing. "It is not only his life," he replied to Holmes, "but the life of the nation for four of the most important, critical,

6

LETTERS OF WILLIAM CuLLEN BRYANT

and interesting years of [its] existence, that is to be written. Who that has taken part like myself in the controversies of the time can flatter himself that he shall execute the task worthily and impartially?" His correspondents might have wondered whether such a reservation was not disingenuous in one who had memorialized public figures so controversial as William Leggett and James Fenimore Cooper, and proved so just a eulogist of Thomas Cole and Washington Irving. Yet Bryant's careful and at times caustic scrutiny of the late Administration's conduct of the war would almost surely have hobbled an even-handed assessment of its course. It may be that a "letter" of congratulation Bryant addressed to the "Soldiers of the Union Army" in the Evening Post on New Year's Day, 1865, had convinced these petitioners that he was the one to recount the war's history as well as that of its leader, for here he had caught the tone of high drama in the turn of events which was bringing triumph to the North. "Soldiers!" he exulted, "This is your work! These are your heroic achievements; for these a grateful country gives you its thanks .... The history of the present war will be the history of your courage, your constancy, and the cheerful sacrifices you have made to the cause of your country." He urged the troops to look to a "crowning triumph," when the nation should have erased the "dark stain" of slavery to become a "noble commonwealth ... founded on universal freedom." Bryant's resolve to forward this aim was evident the next day in a petition to Congress which he urged Edward Everett to sign, calling for a law abolishing slavery. Though Everett cautioned him that there was no Constitutional warrant for such a law, that the act would probably cause a "new revolution," Bryant persisted. In May he wrote John Bigelow at Paris that, with the assassination of Lincoln, "Never before has the post of President seemed an unsafe one .... We have now seen that to make it secure against the dagger of the assassin, slavery must be abolished." An unhappy by-product of Booth's crime was its depressing effect on his brother, the popular tragedian Edwin Booth, a loyal Union man, who was so "crushed" by this act, wrote Harvard mathematician Benjamin Peirce to Bryant, that he feared "our common friend" would never again appear before an American audience. Peirce implored the editor to publish proofs of Edwin Booth's loyalty, hatred of rebellion, and admiration for Lincoln, which Bryant did at once. Although Bryant told a friend toward the end of the year, "I am now comparatively little occupied with the Evening Post, passing the greater part of my time in the country," he continued to take as his editorial province several crucial issues. Among these were Reconstruction of the Union, the punishment of rebel leaders, and the tariff. He saw, in the problem of restoring the unity of the nation, he told Dana, a matter on which it was "easy to go wrong." He proposed a fundamental doctrine: "Do nothing for revenge, nothing in the mere spirit of proscription." He wrote a British friend that, though the problem of readmitting the defeated states was a perplexing one, "For my part, I hope the thing will be

Thy Task Is Done

7

done with as little exercise of arbitrary power by the federal government as possible." He thought that if no punishment were inflicted on rebel leaders, the people might be so indignant as to "execute justice upon them in their rude way." Yet, as he said in an editorial, "What Shall Be Done With Jefferson Davis," to implicate the fugitive Confederate President in Lincoln's murder without clear proof would be widely considered unjust; to try him for treason would be a precedent for retribution on European rebels against tyranny. He thought the only charge that could be clearly supported against Davis was that he had sanctioned the murder by starvation of Union prisoners. Bryant continued as president of the American Free Trade League, and its tenets were the basis of his editorial policy. For twenty years he had known the British parliamentary champion of free trade, Richard Cobden, who died in 1865, and on the masthead of his association'sjournal, "The League," were Cobden's words "FREE-TRADE: THE INTERNATIONAL COMMON LAW OF THE ALMIGHTY." Now, a few months after Cobden's death, the London editor of his political writings asked Bryant, "as a free trader no less than a distinguished man of letters," to introduce its American edition. Bryant complied, in a tribute which was later added to British editions as well. Bryant's verse composition in 1865 was slight-though James T. Fields pressed him repeatedly for contributions to the Atlantic Monthly, writing in February, "No poet is more welcome to our army of readers, and 'when is Mr. Bryant to appear in your columns again?' is one of the most frequent inquiries in this quarter," and, in October, "The 'Atlantic' holds its head higher every time you thus enrich it." The second comment referred to a fantasy, "Castles in the Air," written three years earlier. Bryant sent Fields a poem marking Dante's six-hundredth birthday, and jotted down other verses which he did not publish. Aside from "The Death of Lincoln," his only notable poetic effort was a start on translating Homer's Iliad-a task which would preoccupy him on and off for five years. If poetry and journalism occupied him but lightly this year, it was in part because he had set about repossessing the homestead of several hundred acres at Cummington, Massachusetts, which had been sold thirty years earlier when most of the Bryants moved to Illinois, and renovating the house to provide a summer rendezvous for his Illinois relatives, and a retreat in cool mountain air where his wife might find better health. He bought the property in May, and soon a contractor and a dozen workmen were busy raising the main part of the old farmhouse, chimneys and all, and building under it a parlor floor with ten-foot ceilings, as well as adding a study, a smaller replica of his father's medical office, which had been detached and carted by oxen down into the Westfield River valley to serve as a tenement for the only black family in Cummington. Bryant's eminence in various respects was recognized not only in pleas to write Lincoln's life, but also in tributes from other quarters. Soon after Robert Waterston had won from him a letter stressing the need to teach natural history in public schools, which was read before a Boston conference attended by prominent scientists, Harvard professor of natural history Louis Agassiz

8

LETTERS OF WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT

begged him to acknowledge "handsomely" in his newspaper the benefactors of Agassiz' coming expedition to Brazil, "knowing what deep interest you take in anything that may promote the interest of science in this country." Soon after, Henry Bellows sought Bryant's aid for a Yale arctic scholar who "evidently regards you as a sort of pole-star, & naturally follows you on his way to the pole itself." A California admirer of his verses, recalling the first line in "A Forest Hymn," "The groves were God's first temples," wrote that she had given to a giant Sequoia grove a marble tablet in his name, to be placed on a very old tree "that has not only braved the storms of centuries, but which felt the scourge of the savage-fire. It is a splendid specimen of a green old age, still strong, still fresh, with birds singing in its lofty top, a fitting emblem of the poet of the forest, 'Bryant.'" "A Forest Hymn" reminded the novelist and reformer Lydia Child of one of Mendelssohn's "Songs without Words"; she thanked Bryant for what he had done for her soul, and "for all you have done to advance free principles." The Cambridge anthologist and ballad-collector Francis James Child asked leave to reprint several of Bryant's poems. James Russell Lowell was "particularly pleased" with the course of the Evening Post on Reconstruction. Playwright George Boker, noting that Bryant had been a founder of the Union League, planned to do 'justice to your pure patriotism and private worth." Speaker of the House of Representatives Schuyler Colfax thanked him for suggestions on foreign affairs. And a Baltimore schoolteacher who was promoting a memorial to Edgar Allan Poe asked Bryant to write verses for a fund-raising benefit, drawing a regretful refusal because of his personal knowledge of that unhappy writer's aberrations in New York twenty years before. Early in 1865 several mishaps in his Illinois family distressed Bryant. The death of one of Austin Bryant's sons was soon followed by that of Cullen's next younger brother, Cyrus. Later Austin himself suffered broken ribs when kicked by a horse, bringing on, it was thought, the heart disease from which he died the following year. Their loss was especially poignant for Cullen, who had hoped to gather them at the Cummington homestead in the summer of 1866. A source of relief, however, was the acquittal in May of his business partner Isaac Henderson, charged with fraud the previous year against the Navy Department. And in November his early friend William Gilmore Simms, whose South Carolina plantation home had been burned by marauding Federal troops, wrote from a New York hotel that Bryant's books and letters had been lost with his library. Self-respect, Simms said, prevented him from seeking out his "conquerors" even among old friends, but he wondered whether Bryant might replace the lost titles, and assured him of his everlasting friendship. When, in December, the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, outlawing slavery, was ratified, Bryant wrote Catharine Sedgwick that it was so "magnificent an act of justice" that it was "worth living for even were this life to be followed by no hereafter."

Thy Task Is Done

1510. To the Soldiers of the Union Army

9

[New York] January 1, 1865.

SOLDIERS OF THE UNION ARMY: I have been desired by the conductor of the "Soldiers' Friend" 1 to address a few words to you at the opening of a new year. I take the occasion to offer you my warmest congratulations on what you have accomplished in the past year, and what you may expect to accomplish in the year before you. At the beginning of the year 1864 the rebel generals presented a formidable front to our armies. Lee, at the head of a powerful force, occupied the banks of the Rapidan and the Rappahannock, threatening Washington and Pennsylvania. Early2 and his rebel cavalry held the wide valley of the Shenandoah. Johnston, 3 with a formidable army, had posted himself at Atlanta, deemed an impregnable position, in which the rebels had stored the munitions of war in vast magazines, and collected the machinery by which they were fabricated. A glance at the history of the past year will show you how all this state of things has been rapidly changed. It will show General Grant transferred from the West, and invested with the command of our armies, pressing Lee by a series of splendid and hotly contested victories southward to Richmond, where Grant now holds the first general of the rebel army and its choicest troops unwilling prisoners. It will show General Sheridan4 sweeping down the valley of the Shenandoah, and, by a series of brilliant successes, driving Early from the field. It will show General Sherman leaving his position in Tennessee, and, by a series of able movements, reaching Atlanta, flanking and defeating Hood, 5 capturing Atlanta, giving that stronghold of rebellion to the flames, and then making a triumphant march of three hundred miles through the heart of Georgia to Savannah, which yields at the first summons, while the troops which held it save themselves from capture by flight. It will show General Thomas, left in Tennessee by Sherman to deal with Hood, luring that commander from his advantageous position, and then falling upon his troops with an impetuosity which they cannot resist, till, by defeat after defeat, his broken and diminished army has become a mere band of fugitives. It will show Mobile Bay entered by our navy, under the gallant Farragut, 6 and held by him until the Federal troops shall be ready to occupy the town from the land side. It will show Wilmington, that principal mart of the blockade-runners, menaced both by sea and

10

LETTERS OF WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT

land, and Charleston trembling lest her fate may be like that of Savannah. The year closes in these events, which, important as they are in themselves, are no less important in the consequences to which they lead, and which, as the ports of the enemy fall into our hands, as their resources one by one are cut off, their communications broken, and their armies lessened by defeat and desertion, promise the early disorganization of the rebellion, a speedy end of all formidable resistance to the authority of the Government, and the abandonment of the schemes formed by the rebel leaders, in utter despair of their ability to execute them. Soldiers! This is your work! These are your heroic achievements; for these a grateful country gives you its thanks. Millions of hearts beat with love and pride when you are named. Millions of tongues speak your praise and offer up prayers for your welfare. Millions of hands are doing and giving all they can for your comfort, and that of the dear ones whom you have left at your homes. The history of the present war will be the history of your courage, your constancy, and the cheerful sacrifices you have made to the cause of your country. I feel that you need no exhortation to persevere as you have begun. If I did, I would say to the men at the front: Be strong; be hopeful! your crowning triumph cannot be far distant. When it arrives, our nation will have wiped out a dark stain, which we feared it might yet wear for ages, and will stand in the sight of the world a noble commonwealth of freemen, bound together by ties which will last as long as the common sympathies of our race. To those who suffer in our hospitals, the wounded and maimed in the war, I would say: The whole nation suffers with you; the whole nation implores Heaven for your relief and solace. A grateful nation will not, cannot, forget you. The nation has voted to stand by you who have fought or are fighting its battles. This great Christian nation has signified to the Government its will that the cause, in which you have so generously suffered and bled, shall never be abandoned, but shall be resolutely maintained until the hour of its complete triumph. Meantime, the salutation of the new year, which I offer you, comes from millions of hearts as well as from mine, mingled in many of them with prayers for your protection in future conflicts, and thanksgiving for your success in those which are past. May you soon witness the glorious advent of that happy new year, when our beloved land, having seen the end of this cruel strife, shall present to the world a union of States with homogeneous institutions, founded on universal freedom, dwelling together in peace and unbroken amity, and when you who have fought

Thy Task Is Done

11

so well, and triumphed so gloriously, shall return to your homes, amid the acclamations of your countrymen, wiser and more enlightened, and not less virtuous than when you took up arms for your country, with not one vice of the camp to cause regret to your friends. WILLIAM C. BRYANT. MANUSCRIPT:

Unrecovered TEXT: Life, II, 221-223, fromEP, January 1, 1865.

1. The Soldier's Friend, and Grand Anny of the Republic, a monthly periodical published in six volumes, from 1864 to 1870. 2. Jubal Anderson Early (1816-1894, United States Military Academy 1837), a Virginia lawyer and Confederate Lieutenant-General, whose independent forces threatened to cut communications between Washington and the West after June 1864. 3. Joseph Eggleston Johnston (1807-1891, United States Military Academy 1829), Confederate general who was relieved of his command after failing to halt Sherman's advance on Atlanta in July 1864. 4. Philip Henry Sheridan (1831-1888, United States Military Academy 1853), Union general in command of the Army of the Shenandoah, who defeated Early at the Battle of Cedar Creek on October 9, 1864, after making his famous twenty-mile ride from Winchester, Virginia, to rally his faltering troops. 5. John Bell Hood (1831-1879, United States Military Academy 1853), Confederate Lieutenant-General, who succeeded Johnston before Atlanta in 1864. 6. David Glasgow Farragut (1801-1870, Union Rear-Admiral, led his fleet through minefields at the entrance to Mobile Bay, Alabama, on August 5, 1864, and captured its defenses.

1511. To Edward Everett

My dear sir,

New York, January 2d 1865 Office of the Evening Post

The enclosed paper has been placed in my hands with the request that I should forward it to you, in order that if you approve of it, you might give it your signature, and in that case return it to my address in this city. 1 I am, sir, very truly yours, Wm C. Bryant. P.S. An immediate return, I am informed, is desirable. W.C.B. MANUSCRIPT:

MHS ADDRESS: Hon. Edward Everett.

1. This paper (unrecovered) was a petition to pass a law abolishing slavery throughout the Union. Everett's reply, written only eleven days before his death, was a cautious doubt that Congress had the constitutional right to take such action. Everett to Bryant, Boston, January 4 [1865], Life, II, 224.

LETTERS

12

1512.

OF

WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT

To John Howard Bryant

New York

Dear Brother.

Jan

lOth

1865.

I received duly the two drafts. That intended to pay a part of Mr. Wiggins's 1 note has been duly endorsed on it. With this I send a statement of the payments and the balance due. I think I authorized you in my last to sell the smaller house in Princeton. If not I do it now. We are all as well as usual, though the remarkably inconstant weather, or something else has given some of us severe colds. Yours truly W. C. BRYANT. MANUSCRIPT: NYPL-BFP ADDRESs: Jn"

H

Bryant Esq.

l. See Letter 1391.

1513.

To Louis Lang

My dear sir

[New York, cJanuary 20, 1865]

The Album of sketches, presented to me by the Artists of the Century Club reached my hands safely along with your letter. 1 I have looked it over with a satisfaction in which it is hard to say whether admiration for its contents or pleasure at receiving such a testimonial of good will from my friends the artists predominated. It has called forth the praises of all who have seen it. Allow me again through you to present my thanks to the Artists of the Century for so superb a gift. I am dear sir truly yours W C BRYANT. MANUSCRIPT: NYPL-GR (draft) ADDRESS: Louis Lang Esq. 1. Lang (561.14) was a member of the "Committee of the Century for the Bryant Festival" on November 5, 1864, and one of the forty-six artists who contributed to the portfolio of sketches given Bryant on that occasion. See 1480.1. Lang's letter of January 18, 1865, accompanying the sketches, is in NYPL-GR.

1514.

To Alexander Williamson

Dear Sir,

New York, January 21st, 1865.

I thank the Burns Club of Washington for the honor its members have done me, by including me among the poets. It is a compliment of no common value to be kindly remembered by the admirers of

Thy Task Is Done

13

Burns. At the commemoration of his birth-day by the Club, will you do me the favor to present the following. The Scottish Dialect, Embalmed and made imperishable by the genius of one of the great poets of the world. 1 I am, sir, respectfully and truly yours, W. C. BRYANT. MANUSCRIPT:

QPL ADDRESS: Alexdr. Williamson Esq I Seery. of the B. C. W.

1. Bryant often addressed the Burns Club of New York at its annual celebrations of the Scottish poet's birthday on January 25. See Prose Writings of William Cullen Bryant, ed. Parke Godwin (New York: D. Appleton, 1884), II, 314-323, passim. In 1845, in company with Charles Leupp, Bryant had visited Burns's birthplace and monument at Ayr. See Letter 550.

1515. To Abraham Lincoln

My dear sir,

New York January 24th, 1865.

I hear that some change is to be made in your Cabinet 1 and use the privilege of a constituent of yours, respectfully to address you on the subject, in behalf not only of myself but a large class of citizens. We hope that Governor Andrew of Massachusetts will be appointed to an important place in your Cabinet. He possesses the important requisites of an integrity beyond suspicion, good sense and just political views. These would not suffice for the Head of a Department without decided executive talent and that he possesses in a very eminent degree. His conduct as Governor of Massachusetts has given ample proof [of] this. No Executive of any state has taken more prompt, wise and effectual measures to aid the federal administration in suppressing the rebellion. He has done the right thing at the right moment, showing himself ready for any emergency. Moreover, he seems to have the virtue of disinterestedness beyond most of our public men. He avoids no labor and declines no sacrifice when the public good is concerned. These are high qualifications, not often found united in one man. For the good of the nation and the honor of the administration it is hoped that your choice may fall on him. 2 I am, sir, very respectfully & truly yours, W. C. BRYANT. LC (final); NYPL-GR (draft) the United States.

MANUSCRIPT:

ADDREss:

To Mr. Lincoln I President of

1. Late in 1864 radical Republican opposition in Congress to the Administration's policies on war department patronage and the impending reconstruction of the

14

LETTERS OF WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT

Southern states led to rumors that Secretary of State Seward and Secretary of War Stanton might be replaced. These rumors soon proved unfounded. Glyndon G. Van Deusen, William Henry Seward (New York: Oxford University Press, 1967), pp. 399400; Carl Sandburg, Abraham Lincoln ([New York: Dell, 1959]), Ill, 728-729. 2. Several years earlier Bryant had expressed a favorable opinion of the abilities of John A. Andrew (1239.2) to John M. Forbes. See Letter 1239. Andrew, who took no Federal office, retired with honor from the governorship of Massachusetts in 1866.

1516. To an Unidentified Correspondent

Dear sir,

New York Jany. 30, 1865.

I thank you for the copy of the Proceedings of your Genealogical Society in their commemoration of the three hundredth anniversary of Shakespeare's birthday. They are quite interesting, and the Address of Mr. James Freeman Clarke is one of the ablest and most entertaining things of the kind that I ever read. 1 I am sir, very truly yours W. C. BRYANT. MANUSCRIPT: HCL.

1. James Freeman Clarke (1810-1888, Harvard 1829, Harvard Divinity School 1833), reformer, Transcendentalist, and friend of Emerson's, was the Unitarian pastor from 1854 until his death of the Church of the Disciples in Boston. His "Address" on Shakespeare was published in the New England Historic Genealogical Society, Tercentenary Celebration of the Birth of Shakespeare ... (Boston, 1864), pp. 11-52.

1517. To Austin Bryant

Dear Brother.

[New York? cFebruary 1, 1865]

I have heard the sad news of the death of your son William, the first of your children whom you have lost by death. 1 The lingering nature of his disease must have prepared you for the blow but it is always a severe calamity to lose a child, and especially one who in his early years before the infirmity of his constitution developed itself was so promising. To your wife the severity of the visitation must have been greatly mitigated by the reflection that by her skilful nursing and prescriptions his life was probably prolonged greatly beyond what it could have been under the care of others. Please express to her and to the rest of your family how much my wife and I sympathize with you and them in their bereavement! am exceedingly grieved to hear so bad an account of Cyrus's health-2 Yours affectionately W C BRYANT.

Thy Task Is Done MANUSCRIPT:

15

NYPL-GR (draft).

1. William Austin Bryant, Austin's third child, was born on December 21, 1826. 2. Cullen's next younger brother Cyrus died about two months after this letter was written, in his sixty-seventh year. See Letter 1529.

1518.

To William F. Phillips 1

Dear sir.

New York

February 11th

1865

I cannot comply with the request which you and your friends have done me the honor to make me, for several reasons. One of these is, that I do not deliver public lectures, and another that I never read my poems in public, not having the necessary confidence in my own elocution, even if I saw no other objection. On these grounds I venture to hope that I shall be readily excused. I am, sir, very respectfully yours, Wm C. MANUSCRIPT:

BRYANT.

Cincinnati Historical Society ADDREss: William F. Phillips Esq.

1. Unidentified.

1519.

To Thomas Wentworth Higginson 1

Dear sir.

New York

March 13, 1865.

I thank you for your graceful and spirited lines which are much better than the subject deserves. I hope that, inasmuch as they were originally intended for publication, I do not take an improper liberty in giving them to the public through the Evening Post. 2 I am, sir, truly yours, W. C. BRYANT. MANUSCRIPT:

Island

YCAL

Thos. Wentworth Higginson Esq. I Newport I Rhode NEW YORK I MAR I 13 DOCKETED: W. C. Bryant.

ADDREss:

POSTMARK:

1. Thomas Wentworth Higginson (1823-1911, Harvard 1841), a Unitarian minister and reformer, had commanded the first Negro regiment in the Union army, 1862-1864, and was later a frequent contributor to the Atlantic Monthly. He was chiefly instrumental in the discovery of the poet Emily Dickinson. 2. These lines have not been located in the EP.

1520.

To Dom Pedro II de Alcantara, Emperor of BraziP

Your Majesty:

New York, March 27, 1865.

I have received, through the Rev. Mr. Fletcher, 2 the photographic card bearing your Majesty's likeness, which you did me the honor to

LETTERS oF WILLIAM CuLLEN BRYANT

16

send me, and take this method of expressing my thanks. I am most happy to possess the likeness of one who to the highest power in the state unites a generous regard for the liberties of his people and a philanthropic desire for the greatest good of the greatest number. 3 I have the honor to be Your Majesty's most obedient and obliged servant,

w. C. BRYANT. MANUSCRIPT: Unrecovered TEXT: Life, II, 200n. ADDRESS: To H. I. M. the Emperor of Brazil. 1. Emperor Dom Pedro II of Brazil (1825-1891) reigned from 1837 to 1889. Under his rule, the slave trade was outlawed in 1850, and in 1871 a law adopted providing for the gradual emancipation of slaves. 2. James Cooley Fletcher (1823-1901), a Presbyterian minister of Indianapolis, Indiana, served as a missionary in South America, Portugal, and Italy. He was a coauthor of Brazil and the Brazilians, published in 1857. 3. On October 22, 1863, Fletcher had written Bryant from Rio de Janeiro (NYPLBG): The two volumes of your poems, which I received from you last summer, I had the pleasure of putting into the hands of the Emperor of Brazil this morning. Your name and some of your works were already familiar to him, and for a long time he has had your likeness, and for some ten years the picture of your residence. He desires me to thank you for those volumes, and wishes you to know that he is ready to do all that is in his power for the advancement of human rights. He desires to see the day when Brazil (whose laws in regard to human rights, so far as the black man is concerned, have always been far in advance of yours) shall not have a single slave. He takes a deep interest in our struggle, and believes that the whole sentiment of Brazil, of planters as well as non-slaveholders, is against an institution which Portuguese cruelty and short-sightedness left as a heritage to Brazil, and which institution will perish in the mild process of law in a very few years, and, if the North is successful, in a much shorter period. On the back of the photographic carte de visite to which Bryant refers is his endorsement, "Sent from the Emperor of Brazil to W. C. Bryant by the hand of the Revd. J. C. Fletcher-Methodist Missionary. Sept. 1864.-" See illustration.

1521.

To Robert C. Waterston

My dear sir.

New York

March 27th. 1865.

I am very glad to hear of the plan, mentioned in your letter, 1 of bringing together the teachers of the public schools in Boston, to hear eminent naturalists speak of their branch of knowledge and to inspect the collections of natural history in your principal museum. The interest in these studies so awakened, will of course have its influence

17

Thy Task Is Done

on the instructions of the teachers, and through them will be communicated to a vast number of pupils. Man is necessar[il]y a naturalist. It is a remarkable passage in sacred history which relates that all the beasts of the field and the fowls of the air were made to pass before the father of the human race who distinguished them from each other, and gave to each species the name it was afterwards to bear. We learn, almost unconsciously, to separate into classes the animals which share with us the breath of life, the plants of earth's surface, and minerals of her bosom. But the knowledge of nature gained in this manner, is unavoidably imperfect, defective and sometimes delusive. The educated naturalist comes and supplies deficiencies and rectifies mistakes, showing the innumerable degrees of relation which the works of creation bear to each other, and revealing to the inquirer, a new world of beauty and order, a mighty and magnificent system of parts, in which the most perfect harmony is united with boundless variety, from the largest objects of vision, even to the minutest forms of existence, which the sight, with the aid of the microscope, is able to detect. I cannot but wish the greatest success to a plan so well calculated as yours, to exercise and strengthen the faculties of the mind, and to fill it with reverence and gratitude to the great First Cause of all things. I am, dear sir, most truly yours, Wm

MANUSCRIPT:

NYHS

ADDREss:

C

BRYANT

Revd. R. C. Waterston PUBLISHED (in part): Life, II, 226.

1. Waterston had written on March 24 (NYPL-BG) that he planned a meeting on April I with six hundred public school teachers, at which prominent speakers would urge the teaching of nature, and wished Bryant to send him a line or a letter on this subject.

1522. To Rebecca B. Spring 1

[Roslyn? cApril 5, 1865]

. . . Your letter is as inspiriting as a spring morning. It is Spring throughout, it treats of the spring, it is like the springtime full of cheerfulness and hope and it [several words illegible] the signature of Rebecca Spring. The spring time of peace is now at hand in the bud and we shall soon have the perfect blossom-"the bright consummate flower" [now?] I hope [that?] the stormy winter of Civil War [ ?] since the great cause of our strife-the tempest breeder, is removed. 2 -There are some countries where the climate is that of perpetual spring-that of Caraccas for example- May there [be also?] a corre-

LETTERS

18

OF

WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT

sponding state of political [custom?] the [institutions] of which are so happily constituted that there is always the prospect of something better some improvement of [character?] and condition towards which the people who [enjoy?] it are constantly [leading?], and in which there is [consequently?] the danger of [dissolution?] by [ ?] of [natural causes?] [These are?] speculations for you and your husband better fitted to deal with the new questions now arising, .... MANUSCRIPT: NYPL-GR (draft). 1. See 583.2. Her letter of April 2 is in NYPL-BG. 2. On February 1 a Congressional Resolution submitted to the states the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, prohibiting slavery within the United States. On April9 General Lee surrendered his Army of Northern Virginia to General Grant at Appomattox Court House, Virginia.

1523.

To Benjamin Peirce 1

My dear sir.

Roslyn Long Island April2lst 1865.

Poets, I know are said to be forgetful, the warm beams of imagination melting down the figures impressed by memory; but a small poet who has not much imagination to brag of may remember very well. I certainly recollect the dinner you speak of, very well, and retain a vivid image of your looks, having never seen you before. 2 So you will not think that I am very deep in what old Donne calls "the sinne of Poetry."3 I have attended to your request respecting Edwin Booth. The public feeling toward him is very kind and full of sympathy, and after a little time we shall have him on the stage again. 4 I am, dear sir truly yours W. C. BRYANT. MANUSCRIPT: American Antiquarian Society ADDREss: Prof. Benj. Peirce, I Cambridge. 1. Benjamin Peirce (1809-1880, Harvard 1829) was a Harvard professor of mathematics and astronomy from 1833 until his death. He was generally thought to be the most outstanding mathematician in the United States. 2. In a letter to Bryant from Cambridge of cApril 17, 1865 (NYPL-GR), Peirce recalled meeting Bryant in New York some years earlier. He remembered, too, that he had taught with Cyrus Bryant at the Round Hill School in Northampton after leaving college, and had once visited the Bryant Homestead in Cummington. 3. Cf. John Donne, Hymn to God the Father.

Thy Task Is Done

19

Poetry indeed be such a sinne As I think brings death, and Spaniards in. John Donne, Satire II, 5. 4. On March 22 the tragedian Edwin Thomas Booth (1833-1893) had completed a triumphant run of one hundred performances as Hamlet in New York, and on Aprill4 was in Boston portraying the same role when his brother John Wilkes Booth (1838-1865) was reported to have shot President Lincoln. Edwin, a loyal Union man, was so overcome with shame and horror that he immediately retired from the stage. In his letter of cApril 17, Peirce wrote that the blow to "our common friend" had "crushed him so" that many people thought he would never feel able to appear again before an American audience, and asked Bryant to publish extracts from Booth's letters, with Peirce's attendant remarks. Bryant had already, on April 18, published several extracts from Boston papers in praise of Booth. Now, on April 21, he quoted a letter from the artist Jervis McEntee (1828-1891) of New York affirming Booth's loyalty to the Union cause and declaring that the actor had voted for the entire Union ticket in 1864. Quoting from several letters written by Booth between 1861 and 1865 (apparently those sent by Peirce), in which he had reiterated his hatred of rebellion, Bryant added, "We can ourselves bear witness to the almost boyish exultation with which Mr. Edwin Booth boasted to his friends that he had voted for the first time in his life, and that he had been permitted to vote for Mr. Lincoln whose private and public character he so earnestly admired." Odell, Annals, VII, 639-641; EP, April18, 21, 1865.

1524. To Anna Parsons 1

Dear Madam.

New York, April25, 1865 Office of The Evening Post

If you will let me know, when you come to New York with your friends, where I may find you, I will do myself the pleasure of calling to thank you in person for your attention in sending me an early copy of your husband's charming translation of Dante. 2 I like his substitution of the quatrain for the terza rima, which puzzles ears accustomed to our familiar forms of versification. I am, Madam, very truly yours, W. C. BRYANT. MANUSCRIPT:

HCL ADDREss: Mrs. Anna Parsons.

1. Mrs. Thomas William Parsons. 2. In 1843 Thomas William Parsons (1819-1892), a Massachusetts dentist and poet, had published a translation of the first ten cantos of Dante's Inferno.

1525. To John Bigelow

Dear Mr. Bigelow

Roslyn, Long Island May 1st 1865.

Excuse this dainty paper on which I write. It is quite too fine for a plain man like me, but I did not buy it; it is a present, and it might be affectation to decline using it.

20

LETTERS OF WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT

I have never written to you to congratulate you on your appointment as Minister, but the Evening Post, you saw, both advised it, and applauded it when it was made. 1 The Tribune and the Times you might possibly have observed, had nothing to say, except to mention it in the barest terms; perhaps through inadvertence; perhaps for the reason that the least said is soonest mended. I hope you find the post of Minister less laborious than that of Consul. I have often thought of writing to you since your appointment was announced, but the immediate cause of my writing at present is a request made by a neighbor of mine in the country, that I should ask a question in which he has a personal interest. He, as well as myself has seen no notice of the appointment of a Secretary of Legation for you, and wishes to know if there is a vacancy and if there is what is the chance for him. I will tell you who and what he is. His name is John Ordronaux; 2 he is over thirty years of age; he was born in this country of French parents, so that the earliest language he learned was French; he uses both languages with equal facility, and I believe equal purity. He is an excellent Latinist, and quite at home among the Latin authors of ancient and modern times, particularly modern writers on law and medicine. He has had a college education, and after completing it, studied first medicine and then law, and was admitted to practice in both professions. He is connected with Columbia College as a Professor of Medical Jurisprudence, on which he has delivered several courses of lectures. He is the author of several pamphlets and tracts, one of which on the "Health of Armies," published immediately on the breaking out of the war, was a very seasonable and useful one. In politics, he is warmly loyal; in general politics a little too "conservative," as it is called for me. He is of a religious turn, an Episcopalian, and perfectly moral. His manners are quiet and his demeanor modest. You will perceive that for a Secretary of Legation in France, he unites qualifications not often found in the same individual. If you want such a man you can have him, provided the appointing power will consent. What do you say? 3 I have never known this people so much excited as by the murder of the President. If Booth had not been slain in the attempt to take him, 4 I am not certain that any prison would have been strong enough to hold him against the popular fury till the time of his trial. Never before has the post of President seemed an unsafe one for him who held it, except in the way of being worried and teazed to death. We have now seen that to make it secure against the dagger of the assas[s]in, slavery must be abolished. You enter upon your office at a rather fortunate time for yourself,

Thy Task Is Done

21

a time when the American Republic has shown itself powerful beyond what many of its friends in other countries ventured to hope. The representative of a powerful nation obtains his share of the respect which men every where show to power. But do not let that set you up, as the militia captain said to his wife, when he advised her to treat her neighbors just as she did before he was elected. I thank you for the supplemental volume of Taine. 5 It is hardly as entertaining as the others-probably for the reason that he extends his discussions of the literary character of two or three authors to such great length. I am here at Roslyn-alone--except for my friends the birds, and the opening flowers, and the leaves just beginning to cast a thin shade, and the grass just high enough to lean in the wind-an early season. My kind regards to Mrs. Bigelow, who I hope bears her honor meekly. I am dear sir truly yours W. C. BRYANT. MANUSCRIPT:

NYPL-Bigelow ADDRESS: Hon. J. Bigelow.

1. Upon the death in December 1864 of the American Minister to France, William Lewis Dayton (1807-1864, Princeton 1825), John Bigelow was appointed to his office, after having served with distinction as American Consul-General at Paris since 1861. 2. John Ordronaux (1830-1908, Dartmouth 1850, Harvard Law School 1852, M.D. Columbian-later George Washington University-1859), although not appointed to the post Bryant sought for him, was already embarked on a remarkable teaching and scholarly career, holding faculty positions simultaneously at the Columbia and Boston University law schools and the medical schools of Dartmouth and the University of Vermont. In addition to his many published writings on public health and medical jurisprudence, he was an accomplished classical scholar. A bachelor, he had been adopted as a young boy by Bryant's Roslyn neighbor, Joseph W. Moulton. 3. On May 16 Bigelow replied that the first secretaryship had been filled by John Hay (1838-1905), later, 1898-1905, United States Secretary of State, and the second by one G. W. Pomeroy. Bigelow, Retrospections, II, 556. 4. On April 26 Abraham Lincoln's assassin John Wilkes Booth had died in a fire which consumed the Virginia barn in which he had taken refuge from pursuing Federal troops. 5. In 1864 the French critic and historian Hippolyte Adolphe Taine (1828-1893) published a supplementary volume to his Histoire de la litterature anglaise (1856-1859).

1526. To Oliver W. Holmes

Roslyn, May 1 [1865]

... Your letter is so persuasive that, if persuasion could have changed my purpose, I will not say that it might not have prevailed with me.' There are various reasons, however, some of which are personal to myself, and others inherent in the subject, which discourage me from

22

LETTERS

OF

WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT

undertaking the task of writing Mr. Lincoln's life. It is not only his life, but the life of the nation for four of the most important, critical, and interesting years of existence, that is to be written. Who that has taken part like myself in the controversies of the time can flatter himself that he shall execute the task worthily and impartially? ... 2 MANUSCRIPT: Unrecovered TEXT (partial): Life, II, 231. 1. On April 27, 1865, Holmes had written Bryant (NYPL-GR) urging him to write a life of Lincoln. "The whole country would be grateful to you," he went on; "It would be a double monument enshrining your own memory as imperishably as that of your subject. No man combines the qualities for his biographer so completely as yourself and the finished task would be a noble crown to a noble literary life." 2. Holmes's letter was only one of several Bryant received from prominent writers making the same suggestion. Their receipt within a fortnight of Lincoln's death seems to reflect widespread, spontaneous recognition of the unique qualifications of one who had, at once, been an acute observer of Lincoln's conduct throughout the war, and an eloquent and skillful chronicler of the lives of such national figures as Thomas Cole, Fenimore Cooper, and Washington Irving. Theodore Tilton, editor of the widely circulated weekly the Irulependent, wrote on April 25 (NYPL-GR) that a biography of Lincoln by Bryant would please the American people more than such a book by any other, and "could not fail to be an American classic, and perhaps prove the crowning achievement of your life." The next day historian George Bancroft wrote him, "If you should undertake the life of Lincoln, I am sure you would treat it with truth & dignity, & I should read it as I read everything you write with delight & instruction" (NYPL-GR). John G. Whittier wrote on April 30 (NYPL-GR), "It would give great satisfaction to all loyal men to know that the work was in thy hands."

1527. To Bella Z. Spencer'

[Roslyn, May 1, 1865]

... General Sherman's case is a hard one, considering how well he has done till his late false step; but I do not see what can be done for him. What can be done for a man who sends a bullet through his own head? I can imagine nothing more insane than his proceedings towards Johnston, when he had him in his power and had nothing to do but require his surrender .... 2 MANUSCRIPT: Unrecovered TEXT (partial): Paul C. Richards, autograph dealer, catalogue, March 1968, No. 117. 1. See Letter 1496. 2. Eight days after General Lee surrendered to General Grant at Appomattox, General Sherman negotiated the capitulation of Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston's army in North Carolina on such liberal terms, and with such broad political implications going beyond his powers as a military commander, that his agreement with Johnston was repudiated by the new administration of Andrew Johnson, and Sherman was widely criticized for overstepping his authority. See Allan Nevins, The

Thy Task Is Done

23

War for the Union. IV. The Organized War to Victory, 1864-1865 (New York: Scribner's [1971]), pp. 347-352; Benjamin P. Thomas and Harold M. Hyman, Stanton: The Life and Times of Lincoln's Secretary of War (New York: Knopf, 1962), pp. 405-418, passim.

1528. To Frances F. Bryant

Dear Frances.

New York, Wednesday May 3d. 1865.

I believe Julia has written to you not to hurry in coming down to Roslyn. I write to say that I wish you would come very soon. The place is in all its beauty, and the house very comfortable. Sarah has had the kitchen as clean as water and brooms could make it and kept house admirably. The new servants washed yesterday. Fanny expects to go to Roslyn today-her children are in high glee at getting into the country again. Yours ever W. C. BRYANT. 1529. To Richard H. Dana

Dear Dana.

Roslyn, Long Island May 4th. 1865.-

I am truly sorry to hear so unfavorable an account of the health of your family. That of your son Edmund, at his time of life, and with his fine talents and capacities of usefulness, is particularly distressing. 1 I feel acutely for those who suffer great bodily pain. I shrink from it, I believe, with greater dread than most people. I hope I am not wrong when I include it in the petition, "deliver us from evil," and I am thankful that at seventy years, so little of it falls to my share. May you all get as little of it as is best for you. A few weeks since I lost a brother some years younger than myself, 2 who suffered most severely, a long time, from stone in the bladder. They operated for its extraction, when it had nearly killed him, and the operation finished the work of the disease. I did not see the number of the Daily Advertiser to which you refer, and it was not to be found about the office of the Evening Post-so I sent to Boston for it, and have just got it. I agree with it very fully. That is a strong and a very striking point which he makes that the legislatures of the southern states should not be suffered to repeal their ordinances of secession. To repeal an ordinance implies that until its repeal it is in force. The governments of the states in revolt are mere revolutionary organizations which the federal government

24

LETTERS OF WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT

can no more recognize than it can the government of which Jefferson Davis is the head. They have all, I believe altered their constitutions, so as to conform them to their state of separation from the federal government, and they must all be reorganized under new constitutions. I see that the point made in the speech on the assassination of Lincoln is more fully set forth in the speech made the next day after the surrender of Lee, published in the Boston Transcript, which he or you were so kind as to send me. 3 This matter of restoring the Union is one in regard to which it is, I think easy to go wrong. There are two parties in regard to it-those who are concerned in the rebellion,-those who are for punishing almost every body, and those who are for punishing nobody. If no examples should be made, and the men who took the lead in the rebellion-and they are not very few in number-should be allowed to go at large, I could by no means feel sure that the people would not be moved to take them in hand, and execute justice upon them in their rude way-which we ought, if possible, to prevent. It is a comfort, as you say, to be able to think so well of Everett's conduct in his later years, and to get a better opinion of his public character. 4 I shall be very glad to get the pamphlet you speak of. Bigelow, I think was appointed at Seward's suggestion. It is one of Bigelow's infirmities to think well of Seward. He is I think well fitted for the place and for that reason, I had little hope of his getting it. I have no doubt that Lincoln dictated the terms which Grant made with Lee in his surrender. They tell a worse thing of Lincoln-that when Weitzel offered a safe conduct to the rebel legislature of East Virginia to assemble in Richmond, Stanton, in great anger-sent this message to Weitzel- "What the devil are you about?" and that Weitzel answered, "Ask Mr. Lincoln."5 The Vice President, I know was astonished and indignant at the proceeding, and hurried off to remonstrate against it. I have not read the article on "Grit"6-but am looking it up and shall read it-since you speak so well of it. Say every kind thing for me to all those of your householdVery truly yours W. C. BRYANT. MANUSCRIPT: NYPL-GR ADDREss: R. H. Dana Esq.

1. Edmund T. Dana, long a chronic invalid, died four years later. Boston Evening Gazette, May 29, 1869. 2. Cyrus Bryant; see Letter 1517.

Thy Task Is Done

25

3. Dana's letter is unrecovered. Richard H. Dana, Jr.'s speech on the assassination of President Lincoln, delivered on Aprill8, was printed in the Boston Daily Advertiser and the Boston]ournal on Aprill7, 1865. That on Lee's surrender, made on April10, has not been found in the Boston Evening Transcript. See Speeches in Stirring Times and Letters to a Son, ed. Richard Henry Dana 3d (Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1910), p. 509. 4. Edward Everett, whose tendency to compromise on issues of national importance, and his opposition to Lincoln's candidacy in 1860, had somewhat vitiated his reputation as a statesman, had nevertheless throughout the Civil War and until his death in 1865 strongly supported the President and the Union cause in his public addresses. For Dana, Jr.'s speech on Everett, see 1537.1. 5. A few days before Lee's surrender to Grant on April 9, Lincoln had authorized General Godfrey Weitzel (1835-1884, United States Military Academy 1855), then in command of the captured Virginia capital, to permit the state's legislature to assemble at Richmond, with the expectation that it would withdraw Virginia's soldiers from the Confederate armies. On April 12, after the unanimous dissent from this order by his cabinet, the President rescinded it. Allan Nevins, The War for the Union. IV. The Organized War to Victory, 1864-1865 (New York: Scribner's [1971]), pp. 303-305. 6. "Grit," by the Boston literary critic Edwin Percy Whipple (1819-1886), in the Atlantic Monthly, XV (April1865), 407-419. MANUSCRIPT:

1530.

NYPL-GR.

To Francis Howland Dawes 1

My dear sir.

New York, May 12th 1865 Office of The Evening Post

Could I, by and by, trespass on your hospitality for a couple of nights in a visit to Cummington-or is there any body at the old house that would lodge me? I want to see it, and suppose there is no hotel in your neighborhood. I have written to Mr. Clark at Easthampton asking when the stage leaves Hinsdale for Cummington. My brother John has written to me asking whether when the lower story of the old house is lifted the floor of it could not be let down so as to make the ceiling higher and the rooms more airy. 2 Please mention this to him when you see him, if he is at Cummington. If he is not, or if he has frequent communication with Easthampton you need not take that trouble as I have written to him about it at Easthampton. John seems to think that this change might be made without great expense, but Mr. Clark is the bestjudge. 3 I have received-sometime since-your letter about Mr. Lawrence Smith4 and the trees-for which I am much obliged. Yrs truly W. C. BRYANT

26

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WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT

MANUSCRIPT: Andrew B. Myers ADDREss: F. H. Dawes Esq. l. Frances Howland Dawes (1819-1893) of Cummington was a town assessor and magistrate. He was a younger brother of Henry Laurens Dawes (1816--1903), then a leading member of the United States House of Representatives, who in 1875 succeeded Charles Sumner as United States Senator from Massachusetts. BDAC. 2. Early in 1865 Bryant bought from a Cummington farmer, Welcome Tillson, through the agency of Francis Dawes, the family homestead which his brother Austin had sold to Tillson in 1835. His plan for the renovation and enlargement of the house in which he had passed his childhood contemplated raising the main part of the building one story, greatly increasing its living space. Here he planned to spend the warmer summer months with his family, and to entertain those of his brothers and their families who might come on from Illinois. 3. A Mr. Clark, of Easthampton, Massachusetts, was the builder Bryant had engaged to alter the dwelling. 4. A Cummington farmer, b. c.1825. Vital Records of Cummington, p. 316.

1531. To The Board of Trustees of Columbia College

Gentlemen.

[Roslyn] May 20, 1865

The friends of the Reverend Samuel R Ely 1 of this place having laid before your board an expression of their desire that he should receive the degree of Doctor of Divinity, I take pleasure in seconding the application. Mr. Ely has long been a faithful minister of the Presbyterian Church, and is moreover greatly beloved for his social qualities, the benevolence of his heart and his activity in all works of charity and mercy. For a considerable time he has given his services gratuitously to a small church in Roslyn, which by his aid has been enabled to clear itself of debt and to acquire some property. His standing in the denomination to which he belongs, his time of life and his long professional labors seem to me to render the Degree of Doctor of Divinity a suitable acknowledgement to his merits .... 2 MANUSCRIPT: NYPL-GR (draft) ADDRESS: To the Board of Trustees of Columbia College. l. See 1165.3. 2. In 1865 Columbia University (then Columbia College) awarded the honorary degree of Doctor of Divinity to the Rev. Samuel Rose Ely. Information from the Curator of the Columbiana Collection, Columbia University.

1532. To Charles F. Sedgwick

[My dear sir.

Roslyn, May 22, 1865

I thank you for the information you give me concerning our old classmates of Williams College. I have, I think, all along known less of

Thy Task Is Done

27

them than you. Of my room-mate Avery with whom of course I was more intimate than with any other of our class, it happened that I could never hear much except that he became an Episcopal minister and was settled somewhere, I think in Maryland. 1 I used to find his name in the catalogue of ministers of the Episcopal denomination, and after a time I found it no more-so I infer he had been dismissed to his rest-for I could not suppose that so good a man could be unfrocked. 2 It is not my intention to deliver a poem at Williams College, or anywhere else. 3 I once delivered a Phi Beta Kappa poem at Cambridge, and that was forty-four years ago\ but since that time I have uniformly declined all requests to do the like, and I get several every year. It is an undertaking for young men. If I could be put back to twenty-six years of age, and my wife with me, I might do it again; youth is the season for such imprudences. I should never be able to satisfy myself in the composition of a poem on such an occasion; and then it should be an exceedingly clever thing; not a work for the closet, though, and admirably read-read as you would read it, and as few can-not to bore the audience. You have observed that such poems, with few, very few, exceptions, are unspeakably tiresome .... MANUSCRIPT:

NYPL-GR (draft)

TEXT

(partial): Life, II, 232.

1. John Avery (1786--1837, Yale 1813). See 4.1. 2. The matter between square brackets is taken from the draft manuscript. 3. Sedgwick had written Bryant on May 12 (NYPL-GR) that he wondered about their other Williams College classmates, and had heard that Bryant would read a Phi Beta Kappa poem at the next commencement. 4. In 1821, at Harvard College; see Vol. I, 63; 72.6.

1533.

To John H. Gourlie

Roslyn

Dear Gourlie

May 24

1865

Come out on Friday after noon and stay till Monday. The country is in all its glory. You can take the steamer Arrow Smith at Peck Slip at 4 o'clock P.M. or the train from James Slip either at 3 or 4 P.M. all for Roslyn. We have a branch railroad you know. Yours very truly w. C. BRYANT. MANUSCRIPT:

1534.

HCL

ADDRESS:

To Preston King 1

J.

H. Gourlie Esq.

[New York?] May 31, 1865

... I believe you are a personal friend of Mr. Anthony J. Bleecker, 2 who has been a very active and efficient politician in the free soil

28

LETTERS

OF

WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT

cause, and who has not been as you know very manfully remembered. It has been suggested that there might be a change in the appointments to some of the principal offices here in New York. If this be so and the Surveyorship of the Port or the post of Naval Officer or that of Marshal of this District should in consequence become vacant, Mr. Bleecker is a candidate for either of them-and would fill either of them well. You know that he is a man of integrity intelligence and great despatch in business-and for my part I cannot but hope that something more worthy of his acceptance than what he has now will be offered him. I write to you because both Mr. Bleecker and myself know that your advice and opinion have great weight with the President, and in the hope that you may be inclined to give it in this instance if the occasion should arise .... 3 MANUSCRIPT: NYPL-GR (draft) ADDRESS: Hon

Preston King.

1. Although King had been succeeded as a United States Senator from New York by Edwin D. Morgan in 1863, he remained an influential Republican leader. On August 15, 1865 he was appointed by President Johnson collector of the port of New York, and as such was the principal purveyor of Federal patronage. Glyndon G. Van Deusen, William Henry Seward (New York: Oxford University Press, 1967), p. 454. 2. See 1222.1. 3. Bleecker was appointed an assistant inspector of internal revenue; see 1222.1.

1535. To James T. Fields

My dear Mr. Fields.

New York, June 19th. 1865. Office of the Evening Post

I have a translation in blank verse of the Parting of Hector and Andromache from the Sixth Book of Homer's Iliad. 1 I doubted, at first, whether it would be the thing for your Monthly, and if it be not, please to have no scruple or hesitation in telling me so flatly. If you would like it, I will make a fair copy and send it. 2 Yours very truly W. C. BRYANT MANUSCRIPT: Gettsyburg College Library ADDRESS: Jas T. Fields Esq. 1. Lines 505-640 of Bryant's The Iliad of Homer (Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin [1870]), I, 162-164. 2. These verses were published in the Atlantic Monthly, V (December 1865), 657659.

Thy Task Is Done

1536. To John Bigelow

29

New York June 20, 1865.-

My dear sir.

At the desire of our friend John A. Graham Esq. I give this letter of introduction to Henry Megem Esq. a native of France, a resident of this country for thirty years, who is spoken of as a gentleman of high character, intelligent and well informed. He has been engaged in the manufacture of woollens in this country and to him we are indebted for the introduction of new processes, machinery &c in that branch of industry. 1 He desires, I am informed, this letter that if necessary he may be able to show his character and standing in his adopted country. I am dear sir truly yours W. C. BRYANT. MANUSCRIPT:

NYPL-Bigelow ADDRESS: to the Hon John Bigelow.

1. Megem has not been further identified.

1537. To Richard H. Dana

Dear Dana,

Roslyn, Long Island June 22d

1865.

I have read with even more pleasure than I expected, your son's Address on the Life and Character of Edward Everett. 1 Without absolutely overlooking the deficiencies of Mr. Everett's character, it deals with them in a kindly temper and brings out his virtues in their best aspect without any extravagance of eulogy. With regard to those qualities which were wanting I was pleased with the ingenious manner in which their absence is intimated. I like the political philosophy of the Address very much, and it seems to me that nothing could be more just and considerate. The composition too is admirable, and such as it is a relief to read after what we generally get on such occasiOns. I have for sometime past been intending to write this to you, but for some reason, laziness, I suppose, I have neglected doing it till now; and now that it is no longer on my mind I am more comfortable. I have read the article in the Atlantic Monthly entitled "Grit," at your instance, and find it quite clever. 2 Your son was not able to enumerate that quality among Mr. Everetts virtues. I wish you could be here for a day or two at this beautiful season. Long Island is in its greatest flush of verdure. They say it never gets too much rain, and the showery skies have made the meadows heavy with grass and the trees with leaves.

30

LETTERS OF WILLIAM CuLLEN BRYANT

Kind regards to all those of your household. My wife and Julia desire theirs to all of you. W. C. BRYANT who is, as ever, yours. MANUSCRIPT: NYPL-GR ADDRESS: R. H. Dana Esq. 1. Richard H. Dana, Jr., An Address Upon the Life and Services of Edward Everett; Delivered Before the Municipal Authorities and Citizens of Cambridge, February 22, 1865 (Cambridge, 1865). 2. See 1529.6.

1538.

To Marvin Henry Bovee 1

My dear sir,

Office of The Evening Post 41 Nassau Street, Cor. Liberty, New York, June 26th. 1865

I got your letter in the country some days after it was written. 2 I do not think that I can contribute any thing of what you call material aid which I suppose means money to the Michigan Fair. I have had calls to the extent of what I can afford, which I have already answered. The free trade question I perfectly understand is to come up as one of the great political issues of the coming time in our country. We have the worst tariff, almost, that I can conceive of, and if you know anything of the recent course of the Evening Post, you know that it has never lost a good opportunity of discussing that question. I am glad to see that you have not forgotten the gallows. 3 I am, sir, very truly yours w. C. BRYANT. MANUSCRIPT: UVa ADDREss: M. H. Bovee Esq. DOCKETED: W. C. Bryant I June 26,

1865.

1. Marvin Henry Bovee (1827-1888) was a member of the Wisconsin state senate.

2. This letter is unrecovered.

3. See Letter 1734.

1539.

To Catharine Sedgwick

My dear Miss Sedgwick

[Roslyn?] June [26?] 1865

I have for some time past thought of writing to congratulate you on an event in which you of course take a keen interest-the suppres-

Thy Task Is Done

31

sion of the rebellion and the close of our bloody civil war. And yet I have nothing to say on the subject which is not absolutely common place. All that can be said of the terrible grandeur of the struggle that we have just gone through, of the vastness of the conspiracy against the life of our republic, of the atrocious courses of the conspirators, of the valour and self-sacrifice and constancy of the North, and of the magnificent result which Providence has brought out of so much wickedness and so much suffering has been said over and over. When I think of this great conflict and its great issues my mind reverts to the grand visions of the Apocalypse, in which the messengers of God come down to do his bidding among the nations and the earth is reaped and the spoils of its vineyards are gathered and the wine press is trodden and flows with blood, and the vials of Gods judgments are poured out and the rivers are turned into blood, and finally the dragon is cast into the bottomless pit. 1 Neither you nor I thought that slavery would disappear from our country till more than one generation had passed away-yet that great inconsistency of our institutions becomes extinct even in our life time. It is a great blessing to have lived long enough to see this mighty evil wrenched up from our soil by the roots and cast into the place prepared for the dragon and his angels. 2 I hear that you are most welcome again in Berkshire, having arrived there without inconvenience. If I come that way this summer I hope to see you. My wife and daughter send their love. Please to remember me kindly to those of your kindred among whom you sojourn. I am dear Miss S. yours very truly W C BRYANT. MANUSCRIPT:

NYPL-GR (draft)

PUBLISHED

(in part): Life, II, 227-228.

1. See Rev. 14-20, passim. 2. Cf Bryant's "The Death of Slavery," Poems (1876), pp. 447-449; first published in the Atlantic Monthly for July 1866.

1540.

To Andrew Johnson'

New York, June 27th, 1865.

The undersigned, citizens of New York, respectfully recommend the appointment of Charles W. Horner Esqr, of New Orleans, to the vacancy on the Bench of the Supreme Court of the United States, 2 occasioned by the death of Judge Catron. 3 Mr. Horner is well known to possess that thorough familiarity

32

LETTERS

OF

WILLIAM CuLLEN BRYANT

with the civil law desirable in that important station; and while he has commended himself to the bar of Louisiana by his legal knowledge, irreproachable honesty, and urbanity in his association with the profession, he has, in our opinion, earned from the Country at large this recognition of his unfaltering loyalty to the Nation, during the trying period of rebel supremacy in his State. He was one of the very small number of citizens of New Orleans, whose fidelity to the Union was proof against either the blandishments, or the threats of the rebel leaders. A democrat from his earliest political associations, he discerned at once the attempt to fasten a government of caste upon the soil of the Union. We believe that, when sound political principles are found united with rare legal acquirements in the person of a citizen of the South, it commends him especially to the position above indicated. Which considerations we respectfully submit. W. C. BRYANT and Others. 4 MANUSCRIPT: UVa ADDRESS: Andrew Johnson: President of the United States. l. Johnson (1449.2) had succeeded to the presidency on the death of Lincoln on April 15, 1865. 2. Evidently Horner, not further identified, was not given such an appointment. 3. John Catron (cl786--1865) of Tennessee served as an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court from 1837 to 1865. 4. In addition to Bryant, this letter, in an unidentified holograph, was signed by thirteen others, including Francis Lieber, George P. Putnam, Robert Dale Owen, and Parke Godwin.

1541.

To George Michael Daniel Arnold 1

My dear sir.

[Roslyn?] July 5th

1865-

I thank you for the Nuremburg Album which you have been so kind as to send me, and in a particular manner I desire to acknowledge your kindness in allowing me to see the translation which you have done me the honor to make of my poem of Sella and one or two shorter ones. You have given the poem a better title to favor than it had before by rendering it into your noble language and giving it the advantage of your own flowing versification. I am glad that you think so well of it-but shall be led to suspect, if it should be kindly received by your literary circle at Nurnberg, that this may be mostly owing to the skill of the translator rather than the merit of the original. Allow me to point out one little inaccuracy in regard to the sense. The line When all the glistening fields lay white with frost 2

Thy Task Is Done

33

does not mean that they were covered with snow but that they were whitened with what we call hoar frost-the work of a frosty night covering the fields with rime which disappears in the morning, as the day advances .... MANUSCRIPT:

NYPL-GR (draft)

ADDREss:

To George Arnold of Nuremberg.

I. Arnold (1811-1893), who directed the firm of G. G. Fendler & Company of Nuremberg, was a founder there of the Literarische Verein in Nurnberg in 1840. Longfellow, Letters, IV, 243. 2. From "Sella" (1862). See Poems (1876), p. 387. No communication from Arnold to Bryant at this time has been recovered, nor have his translations of Bryant's verses been located.

1542. To Frances F. Bryant

Dear Frances.

Roslyn, Saturday morning. July 8th 1865.

Julia came home last night with a head ache from the heat. When I heard you went by rail, I feared that you would have an uncomfortable time of it. The air, however, is now cooler, and while I am writing this, at half past six in the morning you, I suppose, are still in the midst of your morning nap. I hope you will have a cooler day than yesterday to get to Barrington. Julia brought news that Laura will not return to Roslyn, her sister being [about] to sail next week for Europe. 1 I have a letter from Gourlie, saying that the business which he expected would bring him to New York being otherwise accomplished he should not come this summer. I send you a letter from Miss Christiana Gibson. Last night there came wedding cards from Miss Mitchell and a Mr. Crane. 2-All well. Yours ever W. C. BRYANT. MANUSCRIPT:

NYPL-GR ADDREss: Mrs. F. F. Bryant.

I. Laura Leupp was one of three daughters of the late Charles M. Leupp (487.1).

It is uncertain which of her sisters, Margaret or Isabella, was the European traveler. See James T. Callow, "American Art in the Collection of Charles M. Leupp." The Magazine Antiques (November 1980), p. 1008, Pl. X. In 1866--1867 Laura traveled through Europe with Bryant and his daughter Julia. See Letter 1664. 2. Bryant inadvertently misstated the groom's name. In 1865 Julia Clark Mitchell (b. 1844), eldest daughter of Ellen T. S. Mitchell and Clark Ward Mitchell (738.1) of Dalton, Massachusetts, was married to Byron Curtis Weston (1832-1898, M.A. Williams), who had founded the Byron Weston Paper Company at Dalton in 1863. He served for three terms from 1879 as Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts, and

34

LETTERS

OF

WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT

published The History of Paper Making in Berkshire County. Vital Records of Cummington, p. 47; Weston Genealogy (Pittsfield, Massachusetts: Sun Printing Company, 1951), p. 27.

1543.

To Frances F. Bryant

Dear Frances

Roslyn Sunday Evening July 9th 1865.

I was much relieved of my concern for you, yesterday morning, when I found that the weather had become cooler during the night. In the afternoon Miss Dewey got a letter from Miss Russell, describing your journey to Bridgeport as not by any means uncomfortable. Charles Miller came out by the boat, and is to return tomorrow morning. At the same time, I got a letter from Miss Rose for you which I enclose. Last evening Miss Pollitz and a young friend of hers, Miss Lee, called, coming up from the foot of the garden, where they had landed in a boat. I learned from Miss Pollitz that it is reported that Mrs. Ellen Stuart was married to Elijah Ward before she sailed, and that I had the credit of being the author of the report. 1 Today has been a very agreeable day, though the sun is rather powerful-the sky being exceedingly clear. I went to church in the morning and Julia and her guest in the afternoon. This evening, again, is cooler than ever, and we have been sitting with closed doors and windows. On Saturday your furs were attended to and the woollen garments in my closet. Monday morning, July lOth. A comfortable night and a cool morning. We begin to miss you. I have been thinking of coming up for you on Saturday, when the afternoon train goes through. What do you say? Miss Dewey has some plan about going to the Pool.2 Kind regards to all. Yours ever. W. C. BRYANT MANUSCRIPT: NYPL-GR ADDRESS: Mrs. F. F. Bryant. I. Those persons mentioned in the two preceding paragraphs who can be identified are Orville Dewey's sister Jerusha who lived on Bryant's Roslyn property (see 718.3); Charles Miller (Letter 1486); Emma Pollitz (Letter 1441); and Ellen Eliza Cairns Stuart (951.2). She apparently did not, however, marry Elijah Ward of Roslyn until the following year. See Goddard, Roslyn Harbor, p. 34; Cairns Family Genealogical Chart, prepared by Helen Marlatt, Bryant Library, Roslyn. 2. The "Pool" has not been certainly identified, but see Letter 1549. It was, perhaps, at Bash-Bish Falls, a popular picnic area where the boundaries of Massachu-

Thy Task Is Done

35

setts, Connecticut, and New York meet, a few miles west of the Dewey home in Sheffield, Massachusetts.

1544. To Lemuel Maynard Wiles'

My dear sir.

New York, July 11th 1865 Office of the Evening Post

I have looked over your illustrations of two of my poems with great pleasure. They seem to me to have great merit and I cheerfully give my consent to their publication in connection with the poems to which they relate. I only hope that they will lose nothing of their beauty in being engraved. I am sir, respectfully yours, W. C. BRYANT. P.S. I hear that you are about to visit Messrs. Ticknor and Fields of Boston. It is a highly respectable house, and I readily give my consent that they should publish the illustrated edition of which you have spoken to me-or that if you fail to make a satisfactory arrangement with them that you should have recourse to any other respectable bookseller. W. C. BRYANT. 2d P.S. The two poems intended to be published in this edition are those entitled Thanatopsis and the Rivulet. I add this postscript because I perceive that I have not named them in the foregoing letter. 2 W. C. BRYANT. MANUSCRIPT:

HCL ADDREss: L. M. Wiles Esq.

1. Wiles (1826-1905) was a landscape painter who, after teaching art in Washington, and in Albany and Utica, New York, had opened a New York City studio in 1864.

DAA.

2. The National Union Catalogue does not list such an illustrated edition as that described.

1545.

To Frances F. Bryant

My dear Frances.

Roslyn Wednesday afternoon July 12th 1865.-

I went to town yesterday and wrote an article for the paper about what should be done with Jefferson Davis, which is to appear today.' I was so beset with all sorts of people while writing it, that I was glad to get away. While there I received a letter from Judge Willard Phillips, inviting us to come to Cambridge. I have answered that I feared it

36

LETTERS

OF

WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT

impossible. When I got home, I found your letter of Monday, for which I am obliged to you. Miss Dewey has not been much better since you went, but this morning she has set out for the North, and Julia went to town with her, intending to pass the night and return tomorrow. It was rainy yesterday morning, and today we have light showers. The last of the hay is now falling under the scythes of three mowers, and we are in hopes of a fair day tomorrow to dry it. Your letter of yesterday morning, addressed to Julia came today at noon, and I have taken the liberty of opening it. I am glad to learn that you are so well and so comfortable. I ordered the daily Evening Post to be sent to you when I was in town, and will see that the semiweekly of July 7th is sent as you desire. I shall probably go to town on Saturday morning and as the afternoon train on that day comes through to Barrington, I shall take it and come to Massachusetts. I received yesterday a letter from Miss Sedgwick in answer to the one I wrote some time since. She has not been so well of late-but said that she should hope to see us when you and I came up. I found also at the office some illustrations of my poems, Thanatopsis and the Rivulet by an artist, Mr. Wiles, who desires to publish them, with four other poems of mine also illustrated, and I have given him leave. Some of the illustrations seem to me very fine. Thursday morning- July 13th. We have a promise of a fine morning to dry the hay which was cut yesterday. Nothing has happened of much consequence in the neighborhood, except that they are talking of giving a "reception["] to the returned soldiers of this neighborhood-an entertainment to which they and their families are to be invited. Mr. Ely-Dr. Ely-is busy with it.I think now that you may look for me on Saturday evening. Kind regards to allYours ever W. C. BRYANT. MANUSCRIPT: NYPL-GR ADDRESS: Mrs. F F Bryant. I. On May 10, 1865, the fugitive President of the Southern Confederacy, Jefferson Davis, had been captured in Georgia and subsequently imprisoned in Fortress Monroe, Virginia-at first manacled in irons. In an editorial leader in the EP on July 12, "What Shall Be Done with Jefferson Davis," Bryant discussed the various charges on which he might be tried. That of complicity in the murder of Lincoln, without clear proof, he thought, would be a mistake, for many would think him unjustly condemned. A judgment of treason might harm the cause of patriots struggling against tyranny abroad, by allowing their oppressors to cite it as a precedent for harsh measures. But, he argued, one clear crime could be proved-Davis's authorization of

Thy Task Is Done

37

the deliberate murder by starvation of Union prisoners in such stockades as Libby Prison and Andersonville.

1546. To Lemuel M. Wiles

My dear sir,

Roslyn Long Island July 12th 1865.

I believe that in my note to you written yesterday in some haste, I did not answer your request to be allowed to publish with your illustrations, the "Inscription &c" the "Winter Piece" "June" and "The Hurricane." I certainly give the permission with great pleasure and shall esteem these poems of mine honored by your selection of them as well as recommended by your pencil to the special favor of the public. I am, sir, truly yours, W. C. BRYANT. MANUSCRIPT:

N.Y.

HCL

ADDRESS:

L. M. Wiles Esq. I Morrisania I Westchester County I

1547. To [Theodore Dwight, Jr.?]I

My dear sir

New York, July 15th 1865. Office of The Evening Post

I am glad that the Mexican meeting is called. 2 My name is at the service of those who act in getting it up, but my bodily presence I cannot give since I am engaged to be in Massachusetts today, with the intention of passing the greater part of next week there. I am, sir truly yours, W. C. BRYANT. MANUSCRIPT:

NYHS.

I. Theodore Dwight (1796-1866, Yale 1814) was a reformer and zealous supporter of many causes. 2. Though Dwight's invitation is unrecovered, this meeting in support of Mexican exiles in New York was held at the Cooper Institute on July 20, 1865, and presided over by Joshua Leavitt (1794-1873, Yale 1814), Dwight's college classmate, and a Congregational minister and reformer, managing editor from 1848 to 1873 of the Independent, a Congregational newspaper founded by Henry Ward Beecher. New York Times, July 20, 1865.

LETTERS

38

1548.

OF

To Evert A. Duyckinck

My dear sir.

WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT

Great Barrington, Massachusetts July 17th 1865.

I had not time to answer your letter on Saturday, 1 as I was about to set out for this place. Enclosed is a letter to Mr. Van Dyck. 2 Please spell his name right when you address it to him. I am not quite sure of his Christian name-so I have not used it. Yours truly W. C. BRYANT MANUSCRIPT: NYPL-Duyckinck Collection ADDRESS: E. A. Duyckinck Esq. 1. On July 14 Duyckinck (471.2) had written Bryant (NYPL-BG) asking help in securing an appointment as clerk in the United States Sub-Treasury office in New York for his wife's brother, Henry Panton (665.1), in the form of a letter to its director. 2. This letter is unrecovered.

1549.

To Julia S. Bryant

Dear Julia.

Great Barrington July 19th Wednesday morning.

1865

I suppose you would like, by this time to know how we are getting on. I reached, on Saturday, this place about ten o'clock in the evening. On the train I found Mr. D. D. Field, 1 with whom I made an appointment to come to Stockbridge on Tuesday. We had a rainy Sunday, but I went to church and along with your mother dined at Mr. Mackie's-2 His family were all well, and Mrs. Ives seems perfectly recovered. Monday afternoon after the morning's rain was very beautiful and I took a long walk with Mr. Mackie between the mountains east of the village. Yesterday morning we took the train for Stockbridge at half past six in the morning and reached Mr. Field's in less than an hour, where breakfast was nearly ready. After breakfast a small party of us-Mr. Field and his daughter a Miss Harrington of Delaware, a Mr. Newbold and myself, went over the Housatonic and up the mountain immediately south of Mr. Fields, where he has put up a skeleton tower, which commands a very extensive prospect-both north south and west-old Greylock to the north and the region between-the dim blue Catskill mountains to the west and Monument Mountain to the south; with Taconic Mountain beyond and a broad, beautiful green valley region inclosed by these mountains. We dined at Mr. Fields and then drove about the neighborhood returning to

Thy Task Is Done

39

this place by the six o'clock train, having first seen Mrs. Henry Field and the Gourlies. A beautiful day and a very pleasant visit. We had Mr. Goudie and Mr. Harry Sedgwick3 to dine with us. Tomorrow we think of going to the Pool, and shall pass the night. On Saturday we go to Dr. Dewey's, where we shall remain over Sunday and return on Monday to Bridgeport, reaching New York on Tuesday morning so as to get to Roslyn on Tuesday evening. Your mother this morning is among the dress-makers and the shoemakers. All are well. Helen has gone to Nantucket. Yours affectionately W. C. BRYANT MANUSCRIPT:

NYPL-GR ADDRESS: Miss J. Bryant.

1. See 492.4. 2. John Milton Mackie; see 1101.1. 3. Henry Dwight Sedgwick, Jr. (1289.1).

1550. To Jane P. Bigelow 1

My dear Mrs. Bigelow,

Office of The Evening Post, 41 Nassau Street, cor. Liberty, New York, July 25th 1865.

A letter from Fanny which my wife received two days since in Massachusetts informed her that you thought of paying us a visit about the first of August and that you wished to know whether we could take you over to Mrs. Winkle's from our place at Roslyn. Most certainly we can send you to Mrs. Winkle's or any other place in the neighborhood and the pleasure we shall receive from your visit will be enhanced by the opportunity to do you that little service. I am, dear Madam, very truly yours, W. C. BRYANT. MANUSCRIPT:

NYPL-Bigelow Family Papers ADDRESS: Mrs.

J. P. Bigelow.

1. Mrs. John Bigelow; see 730.1.

1551. To George William Childs 1

My dear sir.

Roslyn, Long Island, July 29, 1865

I do not see that I can engage to furnish any thing "in my line" for the "Home Weekly," although it is published under auspices which make it an honor to be numbered among its contributors. 2 I do not

40

LETTERS

OF

WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT

write verses often, and never except from a spontaneous impulse. Writing thus rarely, I feel under some obligation, when I have any thing in verse which I am willing to see in print, to send it to Mr. Fields of the Atlantic Monthly. While therefore I do not exactly decline the request you so obligingly make, I am not able to say that I agree to it. I am, sir, very truly yours, W. C. BRYANT MANUSCRIPT: HSPa ADDRESS: Geo W. Childs Esq. 1. George William Childs (1829-1894) was the proprietor and publisher of the Philadelphia Public Ledger, a leading daily journal, from 1864 to 1894. 2. Childs's request for a contribution to his weekly paper, presumably made in a letter to Bryant, has not been recovered.

1552. ToT. B. C. Berrian 1

My dear sir,

Roslyn

Long Island

August 1st. 1865.

I thank you very much for the trouble you have taken on my wife's account and mine, and for the arrangements you have so kindly made. On Thursday we shall set out for Easthampton to avail ourselves ofthem. 2 I hope the voyage you are about to make will be a very pleasant one and that you will find in Europe the health which eludes your search here. You visit the old world at a time when an American need not be ashamed of his country. My wife and daughter desire their kind regards. I am, dear sir, truly yours, W. C. BRYANT. MANUSCRIPT: CU ADDRESS: T. B. C. Berrian Esq. 1. Berrian, probably a member of the family of the Rev. William Berrian (1033.4), has not been further identified. 2. Although no further correspondence on the matter has been located, it is evident that Berrian had arranged holiday accommodations for Frances and Julia Bryant and Minna Godwin at Easthampton, Long Island, where they spent several weeks in August. See Letters 1553-1560, passim.

1553. To Frances F. Bryant

My dear Frances,

[Roslyn] Tuesday morning August 8th 1865.

I had rather a pleasantjourney home, except that I had to wait at Greenport an hour and a half. Some of the passengers went to an

Thy Task Is Done

41

hotel in the village for a dinner and came back complaining of the bad manners of the waiters and impossibility of making them attend to the calls of the guests. At Mineola I waited about twenty minutes and a few minutes past six I was at the station in Roslyn. I find that every thing has gone on well during our absence. The weather they say has been very hot and debilitating, but this morning the air is very cool and bracing and every thing fresh with the late abundant rains. In the thunder storm of Thursday Captain Kirby had the mast of one of his sloops struck with lightning and shattered to pieces, but nobody was on board. 2 Yesterday Mr. Cline went with his wife and Mrs. Bigelow to visit one of the Bigelow family at Flushing. They found that Mrs. John Bigelow had not been to visit Mrs. Laurence nor Mrs. Winkle, who were very much disappointed in consequence and would have made it a serious ground of offense had they not learned of a domestic sorrow that had befallen Mrs. Bigelow. On Friday she received two letters from her husband-the first informing her that her little boy was seriously ill, and the second that he probably would not live till her return. Mrs. Bigelow's failure to visit her friends was caused by her trip to Buffalo and Saratoga. Mrs. Cline will attend to making up your bundle, and I shall put in a few pears. Fanny's people are well. Love to Julia and Minna. Yours ever W C BRYANT P.S. I send a letter from Elijah's wife. 3 MANUSCRIPT:

NYPL--GR.

1. As indicated in Letter 1552, Bryant had escorted his wife, daughter, and granddaughter to Easthampton on August 3, returning to Roslyn on the 7th. 2. For Captain J. M. Kirby of Roslyn, see 513.1; Letter 1334. 3. Laura Smith Bryant (1846--1913?), wife of John Howard Bryant's son Elijah Wiswall Bryant (1836--1892).

1554. To Frances F. Bryant

My dear Frances.

Roslyn, August 9th 1865 Wednesday morning.

I did not mention yesterday that soon after I got home on Monday I was summoned from the garden to the house. I found Mrs. Pollitz and Emma and Mrs. Vandeventer who had called to see you. Mrs. Vandeventer desired me to tell you and Julia how sorry she was to go away without seeing you. She would have called the evening she promised but it was rather late and she feared to disturb you. The

42

LETTERS

OF

WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT

next morning Emma brought Mrs. Peabody Mrs. Pollitz's sister, and Mrs. Van to look at the pictures in the dining room, and they went away each with a bouquet from the garden. Last evening Mrs. E. Bigelow showed me a letter from Mr. J. Bigelow to her husband. The little boy, Ernest, born in New York in 1860 is dead. 1 The letter is written in great affliction and expresses a hope that the mother will have sailed before she hears of the sad news. Mrs. Bigelow's failure to reach Long Island was caused in this wise. She went to Saratoga with General Grant's party; 2 from Saratoga, she went with that old rascal Thurlow Weed's party to Niagara, and at Buffalo the child of one of the party was taken ill, by which they were all detained. I got my letters from town last evening, but there were none either for you or Julia, except some wedding cards, from Dr. & Mrs. William Eddy and Miss Welles-nothing else on them. I send with your bundle some pears. The large are Bartlett; the longish green ones are [Rostrezer?]; the egg-shaped yellow ones are Dearborn's Seedling; the roundish red-cheeked ones are Manning's Elizabeth. Keep them till they get ripe, which you will know partly by their color and partly by feeling them. Your house is in fine order-all the varnishing and painting done and every thing looking bright and fresh. Yesterday afternoon Mrs. Leggett called bringing with her Signor Brully, as she called Mr. Barili the singer, 3 and her daughter Julia and a Miss Young, a fellow boarder. She cheated me of a good hour or more during which she chattered incessantly and Mr. Brully was condemned to silence. Fanny has no servants yet and is occupied with so many matters that she cannot think of Easthampton. Love to Julia and Minna. Yours ever W. C. BRYANT. MANUSCRIPT: NYPL-GR ADDRESS: Mrs. F. F. Bryant. 1. See Letter 1561. 2. In the summer and autumn of 1865 General Grant toured New England, lower Canada, and the Middle West. In early June he had made a short, triumphal visit to New York, West Point, and then, apparently by way of Saratoga, to Chicago for a Sanitary Commission fair. Hamlin Garland, Ulysses S. Grant; His Life and Character (New York, 1898), pp. 334-335. 3. Mrs. Augustus W. Leggett (790.1); Ettore Barili, a music teacher who was also then singing leading roles in Italian opera in New York. See Odell, Annals, VII, 512ff. and passim.

Thy Task Is Done

1555. To Frances F. Bryant

My dear Frances.

43

Roslyn, Wednesday evening, Aug. 9 1865.

I am going to town tomorrow morning and therefore begin my letter here this evening intending to send it off from town. Bond the mason is hammering in the old fruit room putting on the laths-we could not get him earlier. I send a letter from Great Barrington for Julia. This afternoon Mrs. Leggett called again and brought a manuscript book giving an account of the persecutions she has endured, for your eye and mine only. She is a female Job, and made me think of what old Moll a Scotch attorney said after hearing a sermon on Job and his patience. 1 "JobJob- I think I have read something aboot him before; he seems to have been a very ill-used mon." Fanny went yesterday to town and brought home two girls-and Harold says a great pile of bundles including a pair of red slippers. Yrs ever W C. B. MANUSCRIPT:

NYPL-GR ADDRESS: Mrs. F. F. Bryant.

I. See Job 30:1-31.

1556. To Frances F. Bryant

My dear Frances.

Roslyn Long Island August 12th 1865. Saturday morning.

Julia's letter of Tuesday morning reached me in town on Thursday. Her letter of Thursday was brought me by the steamer last night. 1 I am glad to hear that you are so well and that you are all so pleasantly amused. I hope you will store up health for the coming autumn. Henderson is wholly averse to giving Mr. Terry any part of the shore, as I thought he probably would be. I have written to Mr. Terry that as I had offered the place to Mr. Henderson and as the offer was still open I must be governed by Mr. Henderson's wish. Henderson is decidedly of opinion that Terry is not more honest than he should be. 2 I have read Mrs. Leggett's history of the last year or two of her life. 3 It is a strange affair, nothing but trouble, as was formerly the case--only a great deal more of it. Fanny's two servants are good for nothing neither knowing their

44

LETTERS oF WILLIAM CuLLEN BRYANT

business nor willing to do it, and she must try again. Mr. Cline's is willing, but knows nothing, and I saw her going off this morning. Mr. Cline has had two letters from the Miss Deweys. Leila is to come the beginning of next week or thereabouts to set the house in order, and they will probably follow towards the close of the week. This is a cool pale morning, with a fresh wind-a little to the northwest above and a little to the northeast below-sweeping through a gray atmosphere. I think it may be rather chilly with you. Every thing goes on well except the apple dumplings, which are failures, and not "the jockeys for me." Love to Julia and Minna. Yours ever W

C

BRYANT

MANUSCRIPT: NYPL-GR ADDREss: Mrs. F. F. Bryant. I. Julia's letters are unrecovered. 2. Soon after this time, Isaac Henderson apparently acquired a house and land south of Cedarmere, between what is now Bryant Avenue and Hempstead Harbor. One N. M. Terry owned property on the East side of the highway, opposite this property, but without access to the water. See Goddard, Roslyn Harbor, p. [104], map, "Roslyn Village in 1873"; Bigelow, Bryant, p. [343]. 3. Portions of the diary of Mrs. Eliza Seaman Leggett, which reveals much information about early Roslyn, were printed in the Nassau County Historical journal, V, No.1 (March 1942). See Goddard, Roslyn Harbor, pp. 19-20, 126.

1557.

To Frances F. Bryant

My dear Frances.

New York, August 14th 1865 Office of the Evening Post

I came to town this morning, and shall be here again tomorrow intending to go to West Point for a day with Mr. [Alfred] Pell. On Thursday Cullen Bryant the young Lieutenant 1 called on me. He has much improved in looks, and is really a nice looking young man. He is ordered to Governor's Island, which will be his quarters for the present. On Saturday Mrs. Losee brought to our house a young clergyman a Mr. Merrill, who she said might perhaps yet be the minister at the Presbyterian church in Roslyn. 2 He is a little man, hard of hearing, with a not very pleasant voice and a slip-shod articulation. He preached yesterday, and his sermon was not ill written. We have had a week of beautiful weather. Love to Julia and Minna. I have Julia's second letter3 for which I am much obliged to her. Yours ever, W. C. BRYANT. P.S. The Hendersons are at Sugar Loaf. W C B.

Thy Task Is Done MANUSCRIPT:

45

NYPL-GR ADDRESS: Mrs. F. F. Bryant.

1. Cyrus Bryant's third son; see 1078.1. 2. Rev. Samuel R. Ely remained the pastor of the Roslyn Presbyterian Church until 1870, when he was succeeded in turn by W. W. Kirby and Charles R. Strong. Goddard, Roslyn Harbor, p. 106. 3. Unrecovered.

1558. To Frances F. Bryant

My dear Frances,

New York, August 15, 1865.

I came again to town this morning and expect to pass the night at West Point. The weather has been delightful for the past week or more. Yesterday Miss Lilla Sawin 1 came down and took up her quarters at Mr. Cline's. Miss Jerusha Dewey is expected on Thursday and the two other sisters a few days later. I hear that they are all pretty well. A terrible affair has occurred in Wall Street which makes a great commotion. The firm of Morris Ketchum and Son has failed-but mere failure to pay is not the worst of it. The son Edward, Mr. Ketchum's favorite son, is charged with having forged certain certificates purporting to be issued by the banks, to the amount of more than two millions of dollars, which he is said to have made use of in the purchase of stocks-a species of transactions from which his father abstained. Gambling in the stocks, in this manner he is supposed to have involved himself in great losses, and this led to new forgeries. The firm paid those certificates till they amounted to considerably over two hundred thousand dollars and then stopped-finding no end of them. It is a frightful case. The young man enjoyed the best reputation. 2 Godwin has just told me that the man who hired his house now wants to give it up, and that probably he should take it back to be let agam. Yours ever W. C. BRYANT. MANUSCRIPT:

NYPL-GR ADDREss: Mrs. F. F. Bryant.

1. Unidentified. 2. On August 27, 1865, Edward B. Ketchum, a son of Morris Ketchum (17961880), a highly respected New York banker, confidant of Treasury Secretary Salmon P. Chase, and a financial backer of Frederick Law Olmsted, was arrested and imprisoned on a charge of forgery. On September 9 he pleaded guilty to twelve separate indictments, and on December 31 was sentenced to serve four and one-half years in Sing Sing Prison. New York Times Index for 1865, passim; Roper, FLO, pp. 234, 289, and passim. For Bryant's persistent efforts in behalf of young Ketchum and his

LETTERS

46

OF

WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT

family during his imprisonment-which he thought excessive and contrary to lawsee Letters 1648, 1771, and 1866, and EP, March 9, 17, April3, 8, 13, 16, 1868.

1559.

To Frances F. Bryant

My dear Frances,

New York August 17th. 1865. Thursday-

I have just returned from West Point, where I have passed two nights-going up on Tuesday afternoon. Mrs. Pell had written you a note which you shall have when you get back inviting you to her house, but had not yet sent it. The country there is parched by drought, and an unheard of thing has happened-there are some cases of fever and ague. I have seen Mr. Ely this morning. He says he brought letters from you and left them at Roslyn-and that he thought you would come by the beginning of next week-that you were quite strong and cheerful and so were the rest of the party. If you think you will enjoy yourself better there than at Roslyn I would have you stay of course, though I shall be glad to have you all back. The old place is quite solitary and were it not that I have a little literary task on my hands, the days would be very tedious. 1 I hear from Cummington that the carpenters are going on very well-a dozen or more hands being at work on the house. I shall write you again tomorrow. Love to Julia and Minna. Yours ever w. C. BRYANT MANUSCRIPT: NYPL-GR ADDRESS: Mrs. F. F. Bryant. 1. It is uncertain what "literary task" Bryant may have had in mind just then. Possibly he had received a letter from London written him ten days earlier telling him that the widow of Parliamentary free trade leader Richard Cobden, who had died in April 1865, wished to publish a volume of her husband's writings in both Great Britain and the United States, and wished Bryant, "as a free trader no less than as a distinguished man of letters," to write an introduction to the American edition. F. W. Chesson to Bryant, August 7, 1865, NYPL-BG. Bryant was asked to procure an American publisher for the volume, which he apparently did, for it appeared as The Political Writings of Richard Cobden in two volumes (London and New York, 1867), with a nine-paragraph introduction by Bryant. The only purely literary composition Bryant seems to have undertaken in the latter part of 1865 was the poem "A Legend of St. Martin," uncollected until it appeared posthumously in his Poetical Works (1883), II, 333-335.

47

Thy Task Is Done

1560.

To Frances F. Bryant

New York, August 18th 1865 Friday morning. Office of the Evening Post

Dear Frances,

I write from Roslyn-though the date says New York. Miss Dewey came last night with me in the boat-although she had written to Miss Sawin to say that she should not come at that time. So there was nobody ready for her, and she had to stay at your house. Miss Mary who does not recover so fast as she, is to come down with Mrs. Ensign by and by when she is better. Miss Dewey brought with her a servant-a young girl the daughter of a respectable Irish family in the country. I find every thing going on well here, though the earth is dry and the roads very dusty and every body waiting for rain. The affairs at the office I think are in a fair way of arrangement, but the story is rather a long one-too long for a letter. I think we shall satisfy Nordhoff and the others by giving them a certain proportion of the profits without making them partners. 1 Meantime I am glad that you are all enjoying yourselves so well, and shall be delighted to see you back. Yours ever W C BRYANT MANUSCRIPT:

NYPL-GR

ADDRESS:

Mrs

F F. Bryant.

1. Charles Nordhoff (1451.2) was the managing editor of the EP.

1561.

To John Bigelow

My dear Mr. Bigelow.

Roslyn, Long Island

Aug. 28th

1865

I write to express the deep sympathy with which Frances and myself have heard of the calamity which has befallen you and Mrs. Bigelow in the loss of a beloved and promising child. Upon her the blow must have fallen with a peculiar severity, inasmuch as she left him in full health, and with what must have seemed to her the certainty of meeting him, after a brief absence, on her return. I have never had the misfortune of losing a child, but I can easily conceive of the bitterness of the cup which has been put to your lips. In such a sorrow the only consolation is to be found in the firm belief of a continued existence beyond the grave. Do you remember that beautiful paper of Charles Lamb entitled the "Child Angel"[?]I The

48

LETTERS OF WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT

immature mind and moral nature, early, and as it might seem, prematurely withdrawn from this stage of being, find nourishment and growth under a gentler discipline, and are reared to the angelic stature without the interposition of those sorrows and dangers from which we delight to believe that the abodes of the good in the next world are free. We were exceedingly sorry not to see Mrs. Bigelow during her visit to this country. Passing the greater part of my time in the country, it happened that when she was in town I was not, and we were disappointed of the pleasure which we had promised ourselves and which she gave us leave to expect, of seeing her at our home in the country. Mrs. Bryant and Julia desire their love to you both. I am, dear sir, truly yours, W

MANUSCRIPT: NYPL-Bigelow ADDREss: Hon Jno

C

BRYANT.

Bigelow.

1. Charles Lamb, "The Child Angel, a Dream," in The Last Essays of Elia (1833).

1562.

To M. R. Moore

My dear Madam.

Roslyn

Long Island

Aug. 30, 1865.

I thank you for the great honor you have done me in giving my name to one of the venerable trees in the Mammoth Grove of California.1 I hope that the tree which you find vigorous and flourishing will be none the worse for it. The portion of the bark which you were so kind as to send me, as well as the cone and seeds reached me safely through the kindness of Mr. Brown. 2 The seeds shall be committed to the ground in the hope that they will sprout in due season; the cone and the bark are placed among my curiosities. I do not much wonder that in naming these trees, political and military celebrities should be first thought of. The events of the last four years have kept the public attention fixed upon the actors on our political stage, and the gallant deeds of our commanders in the war have, for the moment at least thrown all other kinds of fame into the shade. That I should be the first of our poets whose name is inscribed on one of these giants of the forest is an honor which, I fear, if it had been left to the arbitration of public opinion, instead of the partiality of an individual, would not have been awarded to me. Perhaps, however, the length of time, during which I have been before the

49

Thy Task Is Done

public as an author-more than half a century-had its weight with you in connecting my name with one of the most remarkable productions of your magnificent country. And really it is a most magnificent region that you inhabit,-with a genial and charming climate, scenery amazingly beautiful and a vegetation of wonderful richness and vigor. In certain respects your climate resembles, in others surpasses that of the same latitude in the old world. May you find in that region when your social relations shall have taken a permanent form, a nobler Europe-freer, more virtuous and more happy. Thanking you for the kind wishes expressed at the close of your very obliging letter, I am madam very truly and faithfully yours W. C. BRYANT. MANUSCRIPT:

NYPL-GR (draft) ADDRESS: To Mrs. M. R. Moore of San Francisco Life, II, 233-234.

PUBLISHED:

1. Mrs. Moore had written Bryant from San Francisco on July 17, 1865 (Life, II, 232-233) that, visiting the "Mammoth Grove" (now Sequoia National Park, in eastern California) recently, she had been involuntarily reminded of the first line of Bryant's "A Forest Hymn": "The groves were God's first temples." Seeing many trees named for statesmen and generals, but none for a poet, she had learned that she need only provide a marble tablet appropriately lettered, and a tree might be so named. She selected, near the entrance of the grove, "a very old tree, one of the largest, and one that has not only braved the storms of centuries, but which has felt the scourge of the savage-fire." It was, she continued, "a splendid specimen of a green old age, still strong, still fresh, the birds singing in its lofty top, a fitting emblem of the poet of the forest, Bryant." Mrs. Moore has not been further identified. 2. Unidentified.

1563. To F. W. Chesson

Dear sir.

Roslyn

Aug

31

1865

I am glad that Mr. Cobden's able pamphlets are to be collected and published. I will undertake to write an introduction to them, though Mr. Cobden's reputation here is such that the publication would derive but small advantage from any thing that I could say in its honor. 1 I would suggest the firm of D. Appleton & Co. of New York as suitable publishers. The head of the firm is a friend of freedom of trade. If the work should not be put in his hands there are the Brothers Harper, who are booksellers on a very large scale. As you say nothing of the size of the publication, I could not well say what should be the maximum price-nor could the number likely

50

LETTERS

OF

WILLIAM CuLLEN BRYANT

to be sold be estimated without seeing the collection so as to judge whether the subjects treated in the majority of the pamphlets will be likely to interest an American public. ... MANUSCRIPT: NYPL-GR (draft) ADDRESS: F. W

Chesson Esq I Morning Star [copy?].

l. See 1559.1.

1564.

To Laura G. Pugh 1

Dear Madam.

New York, August 31, 1865 Office of the Evening Post

I very cheerfully consent to the use you desire to make of the two poems mentioned in your note. 2 In most cases those who desire to make selections from what I have written for any compilation which they have in hand do so without asking me, and in fact it is a compliment they pay me, rather than an injury. I shall regard your copying the poems into your collection, simply as a flattering proof of your good opinion, and only hope that their appearance in your volume will detract nothing from its reputation. I regret to learn from you that you have been so great a sufferer by the events of the late war and shall be happy to hear of the success of your book. I am, madam, very respectfully yours W. C. BRYANT. MANUSCRIPT: UVa ADDREss: Mrs. Laura G. Pugh I Frankfurt, Kentucky. l. Unidentified.

2. No publication by Mrs. Pugh has been identified.

1565. To Charles F. Adams 1

My dear sir.

New York, September 14, 1865 Office of The Evening Post

At the request of my friend Wilson G. Hunt Esq. of this city, 2 I give this letter to George H. Mumford Esq. of Rochester 3 in this state, who, with his family, is about to travel in the old world. He is a lawyer of distinction in the western part of our state, and greatly esteemed for his personal character by those who have the pleasure of his acquaintance. I am, sir, with great regard truly yours, W. C. BRYANT.

Thy Task Is Done MANUSCRIPT:

51

Adams Papers, MHS ADDRESS: Mr. Adams I Minister &c &c.

1. Adams (634.6), an earlier political associate of Bryant's, had been Minister to Great Britain since 1861. 2. See 944.1. 3. Not further identified.

1566.

To Frances F. Bryant

Dear Frances.

[New York?] Sept. 21, 1865.

I send you a hundred dollars and your umbrella repaired. I hope you and Miss Burghardt will have a good journey and a pleasant visit. 1 Yours ever W.C.B. MANUSCRIPT:

NYPL-GR.

1. It is uncertain whom Frances was going to visit. Miss Burghardt is unidentified.

1567. To William Dennison 1

[Roslyn] October 3, 1865.

The Undersigned, inhabitants of Roslyn and its neighborhood in Queens County Long Island respectfully represent That the mail accommodations for this village and its vicinity are very imperfect and inadequate in comparison with those of the places around them. The mail by the present arrangement leaves Roslyn at half past eight o'clock in the morning. It is conveyed to Mineola only five miles off on the Long Island Rail road. It remains there until nearly half past five in the afternoon when it is conveyed to New York by an afternoon train. It reaches New York too late for the northern eastern and western mails; they have all cleared before its arrival. This is perhaps the worst arrangement which could be made for this neighborhood. It compels us to get our letters to the post office at an inconvenient hour. When it gets possession of them it does not take them to New York in season either for the business hours of the day or if they go farther than New York, for the principal mails leaving the city. The consequence is that we are obliged in all matters which require despatch to get our letters to New York by private conveyance or go to town ourselves. The mails are but a slight accommodation to us. If there were no government post office we could accommodate ourselves infinitely better by an express. The mail arrives at Roslyn between ten and eleven o'clock in the

52

LETTERS

OF

WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT

morning from New York. We cannot send an answer to the letters which we receive on the same day, but are obliged to wait till the next morning and then answer them by a mail which does not arrive in New York till late the next day or the evening so that we are sometimes obliged either to send them by private conveyance or go ourselves to answer m person. Formerly the mail left Roslyn in the afternoon at one or two o'clock, or thereabouts, so that the letters received were answered the same day and the answer reached New York in the hours devoted to business and if their destination was out of New York, in time for all the afternoon mails, or at all events in time for the next morning's mails. This arrangement was satisfactory and suited the general convenience. We do not for our part understand why it was changed, nor do we see any objection to restoring it. We therefore respectfully request your attention to these great defects in the present arrangement for conveying the Roslyn mail, and ask that such changes may be made as will accommodate those for whose benefit the government post office was instituted .... 2 MANUSCRIPT: BLR (draft) ADDRESS: To the Postmaster General. 1. William Dennison (1815-1882), Republican Governor of Ohio, 1859-1861, served as Postmaster General of the United States from 1864 to 1866. 2. There are no signatures attached to this draft letter in Bryant's holograph. No reply has been recovered.

1568. To Francis James Child 1

Dear Mr. Child,

New York, October 11th

1865.

I shall be proud of the honor you propose to do my verses and if you had done it without referring the matter to me, I should only have taken it as a compliment. 2 Only, when you copy "The Cloud on the Way," 3 which a French translator has entitled "Le Nuage qui Passe," please to correct one line, in which the typesetter has omitted a word and spoiled the metre. It is on the 76th page of my "Thirty Poems," in the sixth line from the top. For When thou hast passed &c. read

When thou once hast passed &c.

Meantime I am very glad that you are contemplating a second edition of your collection, inasmuch as it implies that the public has had the good taste to buy up the first.

Thy Task Is Done

53

I infer, from the way in which you mention Mrs. Child, that she is well. Please thank her, for me and my wife, for her kind remembrance ofus. 4 I am, dear sir, faithfully yours, W. C. BRYANT. MANUSCRIPT:

HCL ADDRESS: Prof. F. J. Child.

1. Francis James Child (1825-1896, Harvard 1846), a philologist and editor of Chaucer and Spenser, had succeeded Edward Tyrell Channing (54.1), Bryant's early friend and counselor, as Boylston Professor of Rhetoric at his alma mater. From 1876 until his death he was a widely influential professor of English and the collector in five volumes of English and Scottish Popular Ballads (1883-1898). 2. Child had written on October 7 (NYPL-BG) asking Bryant's permission to print several of his poems in a second edition of Child's Poems of Religious Sorrow, Comfort, Counsel, and Aspiration (Boston and New York, 1866, 1886), confessing at the same time that he had used three Bryant poems in the first edition without asking Bryant's leave to do so. 3. See Poems (1876), 363-365. 4. In 1860 Child had married Elizabeth Ellery Sedgwick, daughter of Bryant's early friends Robert and Elizabeth Sedgwick.

1569. To George Harvey 1

My dear Mr. Harvey.

Roslyn, Long Island Oct 20th 1865.

I return you my best thanks for the beautiful landscape in water colors, which you have had the kindness to send me. It seems to me to be executed with great vigor and effect and I prize it highly. It arrived in good order and is now at the frame makers whence it will be transferred to the walls of the room in which I am sitting. 2 I was sure that you would rejoice greatly at the fortunate termination of our war, the suppression of the rebellion and the downfal[l] of slavery. You have always been a true friend of our country without losing your attachment to the land of your birth, and accordingly have earnestly desired the two countries should live in amity with each other. There is no reason why they should not if both took care to avoid occasions of offence, but this I think you admit that the governing class in Great Britain failed to do during the late civil war. This has left a feeling of injury in the minds of Americans which will last for some time-though I suppose it will, if no new occasion of difference arises, pass away as every thing of the kind does with our people. We are puzzled what to make of your Fenians. The organization does not seem to us strong enough either in men or means to entertain

LETTERS

54

OF

WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT

serious thoughts of an Irish revolution, yet so far as they are disclosed their designs appear to be revolutionary. 3 Here in America we are earnestly occupied with the problem of restoring the revolted states to their place in the Union. There is more perplexity in settling the new questions to which this gives birth, than there was in dealing with these states while in rebellion, and there is a considerable difference of opinion as to the best mode of accomplishing the object. For my part, I hope the thing will be done with as little exercise of arbitrary power by the federal government as possible. I am, dear sir, very truly yours. W. C. BRYANT. MANUSCRIPT: Minneapolis Public Library and Information Center ADDRESS: Geo. Harvey Esq. l. English landscape painter and monetary theorist who had lived and worked in the United States. See 553.2. 2. This picture has not been identified. 3. For a further discussion between Bryant and Harvey of this Irish revolutionary movement, see Letter 1600.

1570.

To Austin Bryant

Dear Brother.

Roslyn

October 22d

1865.-

The other day when Mr. Freeman and his wife Arthur's daughter 1 were here, I was informed by her that since your accident by which some of your ribs were broken you had experienced certain symptoms resembling those of the heart disease and that the physician whom you consulted told you that you had an organic disease of the heart and that your spirits were considerably depressed in consequence. 2 There is scarce any disease in regard to the existence of which physicians are so much in the dark as this. When I was in Naples in the year 1858 I made the acquaintance of an old and eminent physician of Boston, since dead, Dr. Hayward, 3 who had been so long in practice that he remembered my father. Talking of the heart disease, he said that physicians were often mistaken in affirming this disease to exist in their patients. All the "rational symptoms" of it, he said, may be present when there is no organic disease of the heart, and the way we know that is so, is that· the patient gets well and the physician finds himself mistaken. I thought you might like to know this. Dr. Hayward was a physician of great experience and one who kept pace with the improvements made in his art.

Thy Task Is Done

55

We are all in our usual health except my wife, who just now is shut up in the house with a very severe cold. Fanny is not yet quite recovered from the effects of the injury she received on the railroad last Spring. The fall season has been rather pleasant though dry. We have had no frost severe enough to hurt in the least the tenderest plants in our garden. Kind regards to all your household. My wife desires to add hers. Yours affectionately W.C.B. MANUSCRIPT:

NYPL-GR

ADDREss:

To Austin Bryant Esq. of Princeton Illinois.

1. In 1861 Arthur Bryant's eldest daughter Ellen Aurelia (b. 1839) had married Clement Freeman (1827-1898). 2. Cullen's elder brother Austin had been chronically ill for at least eight years; see Letter 970. Early in 1865 his condition was aggravated when he was kicked by a horse. He died three months after this letter was written, his death being attributed to dropsy. The Bryant Record for 1895-96-97-98, Being the Proceedings of the Bryant Association, at Its First Four Annual Reunions, Held at Princeton, Illinois (Princeton, Illinois: Published by the Association, 1898), p. 45. 3. Probably George Hayward (1791-1863, Harvard 1809, M.D. Pennsylvania 1812), professor of surgery at Harvard Medical School, 1835-1849. He was the first to employ ether during a major operation.

1571. To S. Sarah Folsom 1

[Roslyn?] Nov. 6, 1865

My dear friend,

I was in great danger of being made vain by your letter and the accompanying verses 2-commending so warmly what I have done as an author. I am glad that you did not send me the verses last year, and that you have sent them now when I can enjoy them by themselves. They are written with a graceful simplicity which is quite charming, and which deserves a better subject. My wife desires me to present to you her very kind remembrances. With many thanks for your letter and for the verses which have only been kept back to make them the more welcome, I am, dear Madam, very truly and cordially yours w. C. BRYANT MANUSCRIPT:

Mass.

NYPL-GR (draft)

ADDRESS:

To Mrs.

S. Sarah Folsom I Cambridge

1. Mrs. Folsom was the wife of Charles Folsom, Bryant's co-editor on the United States Review in 1826-1827. See Volume I, 16. 2. On November 3 Mrs. Folsom had written Bryant (NYPL-GR) enclosing verses

56

LETTERS

OF

WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT

celebrating his seventieth birthday. The verses were not, of course, included in The Bryant Festival at "The Century," (1865), which had been published earlier, and the manuscript is unrecovered.

1572. To Sarah Sigourney Rice 1

Dear Madam:

New York, November 6, 1865 Office of The Evening Post

I am very unwilling to do anything which may seem disobliging, yet I cannot comply with the request in your note. 2 A poem I could not furnish, for I never write verses for particular occasions except when spontaneously prompted to it, nor do I see how I can co-operate in your design in any other manner. My difficulty arises from the personal character of Edgar A. Poe, of which I have in my time heard too much to be able to join in paying especial honor to his memory. 3 Persons younger than myself who have heard less of the conduct to which I refer may take a different view of the matter, and certainly, I do not intend to censure them for doing so. I think, however, that there should be some decided element of goodness in the character of those to whom a public monument directs the attention of the world. I am sure that you will take that expression of my views in as good part as it is intended. I am, madam, very respectfully yours. W. C. BRYANT. MANUSCRIPT: Unrecovered TEXT: Baltimore Sun, January 17, 1909. 1. Miss Rice, a teacher of elocution in the Baltimore public schools, led an effort by members of the School Teachers Association of that city to raise a monument on the grave of Edgar Allen Poe, in the burial ground of the First Presbyterian Church, at Fayette and Greene Streets, Baltimore. 2. Unrecovered. 3. For evidence of Bryant's personal acquaintance with Poe, see Letter 595; Life, II, 22n. Despite Bryant's reluctance, expressed here, to honor Poe's memory in verse, a decade later he did accede to a request from Miss Rice to compose an epitaph for the monument finally erected over Poe's grave. See Letter 2273.

1573. To Julia M. Sands

My dear Miss Sands.

New York

Nov. 11th. 1865

The chair of which you speak I bought of Stephen W. Smith, maker of hobby horses, at 90 William Street. The price I have forgot-

Thy Task Is Done

57

ten and have no bill of it yet-but it was enough, I think, and Mr. Johnson promises to get Mr. Smith's Circular with his prices and send it to you. Very truly yours W. C BRYANT. MANUSCRIPT:

1574.

PUL

ADDRESS:

Miss

J. M Sands.

To Frances F. Bryant

Dear Frances.

New York, Nov. 17th. 1865.

I got here at a quarter before 3 in the afternoon-having been detained by the fog-principally in Flushing Bay. The boat does not go out until half past three-but Mr. Johnston is not here to attend to the lamp. Yours ever W.C.B. MANUSCRIPT:

1575.

NYPL-GR

ADDREss:

To William G. Simms

My dear Mr. Simms.

Mrs. F. F. Bryant.

Office of The Evening Post 41 Nassau Street, Cor. Liberty, New York, Nov. 20th 1865

I was glad to hear again from you the other day, and would have answered your note earlier, 1 but I live in the country and could not consequently be here to get copies of my books till now. I write this to inquire if you are still at the St. Nicholas Hotel, and if you are, I shall send such of the books as are yet in print to your address. I was much concerned to hear of the burning of your house and the loss of your library. 2 I am sir, very truly yours w. C. BRYANT. MANUSCRIPT:

NYPL-GR

ADDRESS:

Wm Gilmore Simms.

I. On November 10 Simms had written Bryant from the St. Nicholas Hotel in New York (NYPL-BG) that he had not changed as a person or friend (they had first met in 1832; see 326.13), but "self-respect forbids that we should put ourselves in any equivocal attitude, and I must await, and cannot seek my conquerors, albeit the friends of ancient days." 2. In 1865 Union troops had burned Simms's South Carolina home, "Wood-

LETTERS OF WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT

58

lands," containing his library; he had, he wrote, lost Bryant's books with the poet's autographs, and asked whether Bryant might provide any new ones.

1576. To Edwin D. Morgan

My dear sir.

New York, December 4th Office of The Evening Post

1865

The bearer of this note is 0. W. Pollitz Esq. a most respectable merchant of this city and an American citizen, 1 who wishes to confer with you concerning the Consulship at Hamburg, which his friends are soliciting for him and for which in my judgment he is particularly well qualified. 2 I am, sir, very truly yours, W. C. BRYANT. MANUSCRIPT: NYSL ADDREss: To the Hon. E. D. Morgan. ENDORSED: Office of the Eve Post I Dec. 4th 1865 I Bryant W!!! C - I Introduces 0. W. Pollitz I who desires consulship I at Hamburg I -. 1. See 1302.6. 2. Pollitz failed of this appointment, according to information received from the Office of the Historian, United States Department of State.

1577.

To S. Bryant 1

Dear sir.

Roslyn

Dec

7th

1865

I cannot do what you request of me for several reasons. 2 I am too old to occupy myself with such matters, which if I were to comply with every request made to me, would seriously encroach upon my time.If this were not the case, I have long made it a rule not to write verses for particular occasions except when I find myself strongly moved to do so. You see therefore that in declining to comply with your request I only do what I am obliged to do in other cases. I am glad to infer from your letter that your domestic life has been a happy one. I hope it will continue to be as little clouded by calamity as Providence shall see to be wholesome for you. As to the relationship of which you speak it is not unlikely that there may be a distant one between us. My family were from Bridgewater not distant from Plympton. Hoping that you and your wife may see the fiftieth anniversary of your wedding day I am sir W C B.

59

Thy Task Is Done MANUSCRIPT:

NYPL-GR (draft) ADDRESS: To the Rev. S. Bryant of [Janesburg?] Ohio.

1. Identified only as in descriptive note below. 2. No letter or other form of request from Rev. Bryant has been recovered.

1578. To Reginald A. Parker 1

My dear Mr. Parker

Roslyn, Long Island December 7th. 1865

We were all very glad to hear from you again, directly, by your pleasant letter of the 9th of November, and particularly to be told of your prosperity. 2 That you are employed as the Agent of our Government implies a professional reputation above the common- I infer too that you have quite as many things in charge as you can well attend to- It is remarked here that a lawyer has generally either too much business or too little- From what I have seen in Mr. Edwin Field's office, I should judge that it might be so in London, and that one who is successful in the profession might, as a general rule be overworkedFor my part, I am taking life easy-though I believe you will bear me witness that I never allowed it to sit very heavily upon me. I am now comparatively little occupied with the Evening Post, passing the greater part of my time in the Country- The neighborhood is charming, so far at least as nature is concerned. Here I plant trees and shrubs and improve my grounds in various ways and now and then put up a new building or remodel an old one. Do you never think of revisiting your old haunts on this side of the Atlantic? Shall the places which knew you know you no more? Take a Summer's vacation and cross the great deep, & see what we have been doing since you left us- I shall be most happy to be your host as long as you can content yourself at this place. Your old ramble on New York island-what is left of it-has become the Central Park, one of the most beautiful spots of its kind that the sun ever looked upon, and the City has crept up to it and now flanks it on the east and the west. The dwellinghouses built since your time here are much more lofty and spacious than those which the New Yorkers then inhabited, and New York may now be called a very well built city. I am glad to hear that your health is so good; perhaps it is all the better for pretty laborious occupation. My own is excellent although I have reached the age when infirmities thicken upon one. My wife is as she was in England, a little better, but still quite delicate, and Julia is not quite so well as I could wish. Fanny has a house here beside mine, and another in town upon what you may remember as Murray Hill,

60

LETTERS

OF

WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT

now built up with stately mansions. Her eldest children a boy and a girl are grown up & the boy has just entered College at our Cambridge. This is the day appointed by the President & the Governor of New York as a day of general thanksgiving. We are all rejoicing at the suppression of the rebellion, and the return of peace, & the extinction of slavery- The great opprobrium of our Country is effaced for ever-the amendment of our Constitution just now adopted by the requisite number of states, putting it out of the power of any state to restore it. As to the dispute which we have with your Country it does not seem to me to be in a state which promises an early settlement. Your government flatly rejects our claim; our government insists upon it. Mr. Cushing will effect nothing, nor Mr. Adams either-but there will be no war. Only, if the opportunity occurs, our Government will put Earl Russell's doctrine in force against British Commerce. 3 My wife and I were very glad to learn the particulars you give concerning your family. My wife and Julia desire their very kind regards. I am dear Sir faithfully yours W. C. BRYANT P.S. Excuse the dainty paper on which this letter is written. It was a present from the Appletons, my publishers. W.C.B. MANUSCRIPT: NYPL-GR (draft, and fair copy in unidentified holograph) ADDRESS: R A Parker Esqre I 41 Bedford Row I London.

1. Reginald A. Parker (384.3), an early friend of Bryant's, was a London lawyer. 2. Parker had written Bryant from London on November 9 (NYPL-BG), reporting on his seven children and the death of his wife in 1858, and stating that he was now engaged as an agent for the American government in claims against "warlike stores" once held by the Confederate government. 3. The steamship Alabama was one of several cruisers, built in British shipyards and manned by British crews under Confederate officers, which ravaged American merchant shipping during the Civil War. When, at the war's end, the United States demanded monetary damages from Great Britain and suggested arbitration proceedings, the British Prime Minister, Lord John Russell (548.1) refused the proposal. Although the American negotiators Caleb Cushing (156.4), legal consultant to Secretary of State Seward, and Charles Francis Adams (634.6), American minister to Great Britain, pressed these claims, they were not settled satisfactorily until 1872. Van Deusen, Seward, 497-500, 510.

1579. ToM. N. Gaubart 1

Dear sir.

N.Y. Dec

12th

1865

The number of persons within the sphere of my acquaintance who are competent to translate from the French is large, and the

Thy Task Is Done

61

chance of employment for any of them is small. All that I could do for any person desiring to be employed in that way would be, after looking at such testimonials as he might lay before me, to give him a letter to some publisher. I will do that for you if you choose, but I must tell you that my recommendations avail little with the booksellers. They do not bite at any bait which I throw out to them; they are a wary race, and require somebody to judge for them who adopts a severe standard and can give his opinion privately without fear of offense. I am sir respectfully yours W.C.B. MANUSCRIPT:

NYPL--GR (draft) ADDRESS: M. N

Gaubart I Morristown

New Jersey.

1. Unidentified. The NUC lists no titles under his name; no letter from him to Bryant has been recovered.

1580. To Ellis Ames 1

[Roslyn?] December [13]

1865

For the monument of William Baylies of West Bridgewater, Massachusetts - Born at Dighton Sept 17 1776 - Died Taunton Sept 27 1865.This Stone commemorates The Virtues of One Pure alike in private and in public life, And honored and beloved in both: An upright statesman, a persuasive orator An able and learned lawyer And a prudent and faithful counsellor Sincere in word and purpose, Calm and kind in temper, Equitable injudgment, wise in action: Who never lent his great talents To aid injustice And abhorred the gain which is acquired By making the worse appear the better cause. He lived a long, useful and spotless life, And left a noble example To the generation that comes after him W.C.B.-2 Dec. 1865

LETTERS

62

OF

WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT

MANUSCRIPTS: NYPL-GR (fair copy and two drafts).

1. On December 9, 1865, Ellis Ames (Letters 13, 28), with whom Bryant had lived while studying law in 1815 under William Baylies (Volume I, 14), had written Bryant from Canton, Massachusetts, enclosing a copy of his obituary of Baylies, and asking for an inscription of eighteen or twenty lines for his gravestone. On December 19 Ames wrote again, thanking Bryant for his "beautiful inscription." Ames' letters are in NYPL-GR and NYPL-BG. 2. In an obituary notice in the EP soon after Baylies' death Bryant had given a more intimate account of his teacher's personality, writing that "he was a man of imposing presence, kindly manners, and a close observer of character. His memory was stored with anecdotes of remarkable persons, the relation of which at times made him very entertaining. His tastes and habits of life were exceedingly simple, though his fortune was liberal, and his disposition of his income generous. He had a supreme contempt for the tricks of his profession, and for all indirect practices, and few lawyers ever exercised their profession so exempt from complaint and criticism." Quoted in Life, I, 120n.

1581.

To William Leete Stone,

My dear Sir.

Jr.'

[Roslyn?] December 15, 1865

I had hoped that the affair to which you refer had been utterly forgotten to be spoken of no more. I allowed myself to be betrayed into an absurd personal quarrel which had no special object and a most disagreeable termination-but that was long ago and I have been wiser ever since. The filial piety which induces you to exonerate your father from the share which I supposed he took in it, does you honor but I am exceedingly pained to learn that it is to be ascribed to Sands, from whom, considering the friendly and intimate footing on which we stood I could not have expected it. 2 I must, however, accept your account of the matter which although I hoped I had got rid of any rancor left on my mind by the affair, makes me think more kindly of your father .... MANUSCRIPT: NYPL-GR (draft).

1. Stone (1835-1908, Brown 1858), a journalist, and editor and compiler of American Revolutionary history, was the son of Bryant's early journalistic adversary William Leete Stone (80.3). Writing Bryant on December 9, he had urged him to dismiss "the least hard feeling [you have] toward Mr. Stone" on account of"the attack you once made on my father for the article which you, at the time, supposed he wrote." "I am now preparing a sketch of my father's life and writings," he continued, "and in the course of my examination of his private MSS & papers, I find that the article which induced you to take that course was written, not by him, but by [Robert] Sands." NYPL-GR. 2. For an account of the horsewhipping which Bryant had administered to the senior Stone in April1831, see Letter 222.

Thy Task Is Done

1582.

To John Howard Bryant

Dear Brother

63

New York, Dec. 19, 1865 Office of The Evening Post

I send you the two notes of which you speak. 1 I have no other of yours. Compute the interest for yourself and pay me as you proposeonly letting me know what part is interest and what is principal that I may put down the interest as income. Do not forget this if you please. Yours affectionately, W. C. BRYANT BCHS TEXT: Keith Huntress and Fred W. Lorch, "Bryant and Illinois: Further Letters of the Poet's Family," New England Quarterly, 16 (December 1943), 646.

MANUSCRIPT:

1. No letter from John Bryant touching on this matter has been found.

1583. To John Howard Bryant

Dear Brother.

[Roslyn?] Dec

29th. 1865

I have just received the funds and draft to pay for the notes I sent you. I do not care to compute the interest- If you are satisfied I am. I heard from our friends at Gilsum the other day by a letter from Eunice Fish. They all are pretty well, except Abigail who is in the Lunatic Asylum, as comfortable as she could be any where-a hopeless case, and Emma Hayward who is passing away with a consumption. The letter brought me a photograph of our aunt Fish. 1 The carpenters at the house in Cummington are at work yet and I hope will have it done by spring. It ought to be a pretty grand house for it will cost enough. I have bought another spring of Ellis who owns the Snell place and have agreed to straighten the north half of the line between the farms. 2 At the southeast corner of the farm going towards Mr. Dawes's is a school house which I have given a little money to have improved-or rather replaced by a new one .... 3 MANUSCRIPT:

NYPL-GR (draft).

1. For Bryant's cousins, the Fish family of Gilsum, New Hampshire, see Letters 465,472. 2. From 1858 to 1870 Samuel Ellis (1802-1875), a farmer, owned the homestead of Bryant's grandfather Ebenezer Snell (Volume I, [9]), adjoining the Bryant homestead to the west. Only One Cummington, p. 355; Vital Records of Cummington, p. 191. In 1870 Bryant bought the Snell property from Ellis; it was known thereafter as the "Upper Bryant Place."

64

LETTERS

OF

WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT

3. The Bryant Schoolhouse (see illustration), built in 1867 to replace an earlier building of School District Number Ten at the corner of Route 112 and Trow Road, was in use at that location until 1921, when it was moved across the Westfield River and became a dormitory at the girls' Belgian Village Camp. Only One Cummington, pp. 45,351.

1584. To Catharine M. Sedgwick

Dear Miss Sedgwick.

[Roslyn?] Dec

29

1865

I have just received your letter 1-and as you may imagine with exceeding pleasure, for I supposed, from what I had heard, that you were just now too ill to write. I had been talking with my wife only a day or two since about writing to you-and here I find that you are beforehand with me. When I read in your letter that you had a bad cold, I was on the point of saying that I was glad of it-for when my wife was recovering from the fever she had in Naples, one of the accompaniments to a return to a natural state of health was the liability to be affected that way. When she had her first cold I was delighted. Since I last wrote to you we have had another great event to be thankful for-the adoption of the amendment of our constitution which blots out that opprobrium of our land forever. 2 It is a great thing to have lived at a time when so magnificent an act of justice has been done-it were worth living for even were there no hereafter. How different it is to live now and behold these signs of progress, from what it was to live in those ages when civilization was giving out in the decline of the Roman empire when the shadows of barbarism seemed closing over the world. I have been reading the Life and Letters of the Revrl. F. W. Robertson-one of the liberal divines of the English Church-a Catholic Christian of the true sort and have been much ... 3 MANUSCRIPT: NYPL-GR (incomplete draft) PUBLISHED (in part): Life, II,

23~237.

1. Miss Sedgwick had written Bryant on December 27 (NYPL-BG) that she still found reading the EPa "daily enjoyment." 2. Amendment XIII to the Federal Constitution, proposed by Congress on January 31, 1865, had been ratified by the required three-quarters of the states by December 18. Its unequivocal principal clause states simply: "Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States or any place subject to their jurisdiction." Commenting in the EP the day after its ratification, Bryant pointed out, "It is now more than thirty years since the Evening Post began to demand that the Federal Government should clear itself of all responsibility for the existence of slavery in the States." A few months later he composed a poem of exultation, "The Death of Slavery," published in the Atlantic Monthly for July 1866. See Poems (1876), pp. 447449. 3. Frederick William Robertson (181~1853, M.A. Oxford 1844), Life and Letters (1865).

XXVI The Morn Hath Not the Glory 1866 (LETTERS 1585 TO 1673)

The morn hath not the glory that it wore, Nor doth the day so beautifully die, Since I can call thee to my side no more, To gaze upon the sky. -"A Memory" (1866?) ON JuLY 27, 1866, FRANCES BRYANT, who, her husband wrote Dana, had not for some time past kept a "strong hold on life," died in their Roslyn home in her seventieth year. During her final illness she suffered great pain, begging Cullen to "let her go," but at the end her passing, he said later, was "comparatively easy." Recalling that during their forty-five years of marriage all his plans, "even to the least important, were laid with reference to her judgment or her pleasure," he told Dana he felt "like one shut out of Paradise." Condolences followed. Longfellow wrote of Frances' "sweetness and truthfulness and nobleness of character"; Dana, of her "beautiful spirit" and her thoughtfulness for others. Bellows assured Bryant that, because his poetry had "elevated and soothed so many thousands," he would find in his own soul "the best consolation your bereavement admits of." He remembered Bryant's once saying that no doubts of immortality had ever troubled his heart. Yet a silence in Cullen's recovered correspondence of nearly a month following Frances' death suggests that in his anguish he may at times have felt again such doubts as he had voiced almost thirty years before in "The Future Life": How shall I know thee in the sphere which keeps The disembodied spirits of the dead, When all of thee that time could wither sleeps And perishes among the dust we tread?

Early in 1866, before his loss, Bryant seemed to contradict his comment the previous fall to Reginald Parker that he was "little occupied with the Evening Post," and thus with politics. In January he chaired a meeting protesting Spain's war against Chile and Peru as a violation of the Monroe Doctrine. In February he reminded one friend that he had "pleaded" for Negro suffrage "in our state, in Connecticut, in the District of Columbia." He told another that this was sure to come as soon as the blacks were educated

66

LETTERS OF WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT

up to it. In a long and detailed defense of his position on Reconstruction to Anna Waterston in March, he maintained, "I am strongly in favor of negro suffrage." In verses he sent Fields in May for the Atlantic Monthly, "The Death of Slavery," he exulted, "Thy cruel reign is o'er I The bondmen crouch no more I In terror at the menace of thine eye." And that the Evening Post's position on the issues raised by Reconstruction was Bryant's own is made clear in a letter from his managing editor Charles Nordhoff to Parke Godwin in Europe late that fall. Then living at Roslyn, Nordhoff reported, "I see him every night, so that he manages the Evng Post very thoroughly, with I hope satisfaction with my cooperation." Bryant took comfort in reminding friends of his wife's concern for others. "You knew her as a person of uncommonly tender sympathies, and always most ready in doing good," he wrote his brother Arthur, "but perhaps you did not know at the same time how strong and unerring was her sense of right and justice." Mindful perhaps of her example, Bryant's compassion, of which Bigelow once said, "He treated every neighbor as if he were an angel in disguise sent to test his loyalty to the golden rule," seems to have quickened. During the first part of the year, through Senator Morgan, he kept at President Johnson until his brother John was reinstated in the Internal Revenue post from which he had been ousted by the animosity of his Illinois congressman. In letters, and in his newspaper, Bryant pursued a relentless campaign to win clemency for the son of a friend whom he thought wrongly convicted of embezzlement, during which he exposed inequities in Governor Reuben Fenton's granting of pardons. He took two ailing Roslyn neighbors into his Cummington home to help them regain health-just as he had hoped to do for his wife. He sent the son of his Roslyn steward to Massachusetts for medical care. In his journal he defended Richard Dana, Jr., who had been accused of plagiarism in an edition of legal papers. He was untiring, as always, in asking governmental posts for those he thought qualified, and in referring travelers to friends abroad--once addressing three such letters to John Bigelow at Paris in three days. Early in June 1866 John Bryant brought his family east to Cummington, and he and Cullen exchanged thoughts about desirable additions to the Homestead: a pond, an ice house, the relocation of walls and drives, ditching and draining, the installation in the house of carpets and oilcloth sent from New York by Hudson River barge-even the marking of linen with Frances' name, so that, Cullen said, "not only the proprietorship but the original purpose will be known." After her death Bryant doubted that he and Julia would get to Cummington that year, feeling the need for change. But he did go up for most of September, entertaining his early sponsor Willard Phillips, and urging Dana to join him on "pleasant drives" through a "country of wide prospects, fine old woods, narrow valleys, broad green hills, dashing brooks and rocks." He started to build a district schoolhouse on land he gave the town, added rooms to the Homestead for farmhands, and pushed forward work on the main section of the house. And he began to develop orchards to complement those at Cedarmere, ordering pear, plum, and cherry trees of a dozen varieties.

The Morn Hath Not the Glory

67

The horticultural expertise which Bryant had been gammg since his youth, and which had drawn praise from Andrew Jackson Downing twenty years before, had centered gradually on fruit culture, to which he gave much space in the Evening Post, and for which he became widely reputed. When in October the young writer Thomas Bailey Aldrich sent him a story, "Pere Antoine's Date Palm," Bryant, "speaking as a naturalist," corrected him in his description of that tree, which Bryant had observed when traveling in the Middle East in 1853. An artist and writer who sent articles on pomology to the Evening Post thought that journal's weekly edition for the country should be recognized as the leading agricultural paper, rather than the Tribune of that "humbug" Horace Greeley, popular, he said, only because of Greeley's affected "white coat." Bryant, never an admirer of the mercurial journalist, thought that, while "good articles on tillage and husbandry commend a country paper to subscribers," the Tribune's large country circulation was due rather to costly publicity and the support of manufacturers, to whose interests it was devoted. Bryant's wish for a change of scene for himself and Julia, "quite overcome" by her mother's death, led them in November to travel abroad. Taking Laura Leupp, a daughter of Bryant's late friend and traveling companion Charles Leupp, on the seventeenth they boarded the French steamship Pereire for France. Among their fellow passengers were John Durand, members of the Delano family, and Rev. William McClosky, Catholic rector of the American College at Rome. It was a "remarkably smooth and prosperous voyage," at the end of which Bryant drafted a testimonial to the ship and its captain; yet, as often before, Bryant was "a little qualmish and uncomfortable" with the ship's rolling, and Julia felt its effect for several weeks. They landed at Brest and went on by train to Paris, stopping at Rennes and Chartres, and reaching the Hotel Wagram on the Rue de Rivoli on November 28. The Bryants found many friends in the city. The Godwins were there. John Bigelow, about to retire as American minister to Paris, wrote Evert Duyckinck, "The Evening Post is now here in force." Other acquaintances were N. M. Beckwith and Samuel F. B. Morse, American commissioners for the International Exposition of 1867, who talked of their troubles. At the Bigelows' Bryant met the Duke of Seville, brother of the Spanish king, and the British novelist and statesman Bulwer Lytton. He called on the historian Hippolyte Taine, who spoke of French and American criticism, conceding that the French often talked for effect, while not revealing their real sentiments. Bigelow asked Bryant's advice on whether France might form a provisional government with the consent of President Juarez as an honorable pretext for evacuating Mexico. Bryant replied that the United States simply wanted France out, and did not care "how the French saved face." He saw artist friends, patiently guided his girls through the Louvre, and attended the opera, disappointed that Adelina Patti did not sing. On December 8 he joined 137 "members of the American colony" in arranging a testimonial dinner to Bigelow, at which Bryant was chosen to preside. He declined, since he was to leave Paris before the day, impelling Bigelow to declare that the substitute,

68

LETTERS OF WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT

Charles King, was, only "after Mr. Bryant, the most accomplished man connected with the press in New York." On December 13, having dreamed the night before "with great joy" of meeting his late wife, Bryant escorted his young companions through Blois on the Loire, Bordeaux, and Perpignon, to Amelie les Bains in the Pyrenees, where they settled for ten days at a thermal inn before going on to Barcelona on Christmas day.

The Morn Hath Not the Glory

1585. To [George W.?] Porter 1

My dear sir,

69

[Roslyn?] Jan. 9

1866.

I had a note from the author of Grondalla2 respecting her work before I received yours. It determined me to read the book myselfparticularly as I saw its defects immediately and feared lest it might be harshly treated by the person who commonly notices books for the paper. Its principal fault is its unskilful versification, and in this I would include the style. Numerous passages have no rhythm at all and are blank verse only to the eye. In still more numerous passages the lines are made to possess the proper length and metre by the insertion of words that have no business there, or by repetitions of words or phrases. I cannot conceive how one who had any familiarity with the works of our poets could have written thus. The writer's talent in constructing a story is certainly considerable, and there are situations in the narrative admirably imagined and exceedingly affecting. I have noticed the book as kindly as I could saying as little of its faults as I conscientiously might.-3 W C B. MANUSCRIPT:

NYPL-GR (draft)

ADDRESS:

To the Revd. Dr. Porter.

1. See 1129.1. 2. The book was Grondalla: A Romance in Verse, by "Idamore" (New York, 1866). Its author was Mary Cutts (1801-1882). Neither her letter nor Porter's to Bryant has been recovered. 3. In a brief notice in the EP for January 9, 1866 of "Grondalla: a Romance in Verse, by Idamore," published by Sheldon & Company of New York, the reviewer (Bryant) found it repetitious and deficient in versification, but written with "much sensibility."

1586. To Henry W. Bellows 1

Wednesday morning, January 10, 1866.-

Mr. Bryant accepts with pleasure Dr. Bellows's invitation for Monday Evening. MANUSCRIPT:

HCL.

1. Bellows (734.3) was the minister of the Unitarian Church of All Souls, of which Bryant was a communicant.

LETTERS OF WILLIAM CuLLEN BRYANT

70

1587.

To Lyman Trumbull 1

Office of The Evening Post, 41 Nassau Street, cor. Liberty, New York, January 12th 1866.

My dear sir.

My brother John H Bryant has desired that I should write a letter somewhat like the enclosed to the President, and suggested that I should request you to be so obliging [as?] to put it into his hands with as little delay as you conveniently could. Will you do me the favor therefore to look at it, and sealing it up, take as early an opportunity to deliver it to the President, as may conven[ien]tly present itself.2 I would not give you this trouble did I know anybody in Congress who would be more willing to oblige my brother and myself I am sir very truly yours, w. C. BRYANT. MANUSCRIPT: DuU ADDRESS: Hon jany 12- 1866.

Lyman Trumbull. ENDORSED: Wm C. I Bryant.

I. Lyman Trumbull (1813-1896) was a Republican United States Senator from Illinois from 1855 to 1873. See 1188.1, 1191.3, Vol IV, p. 193. 2. Bryant's letter to President Andrew johnson is unrecovered. However, its subject may be surmised, for John Bryant had recently been removed by the President, at the instance of the congressman for his district, from the office of Collector of Internal Revenue for the Fifth District of Illinois, to which he had been appointed by President Lincoln in 1862. See Letters 1604, 1629, 1633; The Life and Poems of john Howard Bryant, ed. E. R. Brown (Elmwood, Illinois, [1894]), p. 33.

1588.

To Daniel Bogart 1

Dear sir.

Office of The Evening Post, 41 Nassau Street, cor. Liberty, New York, January 15th 1866

I enclose to you a check for $165.7 5 the amount of the bill sent with your letter, which was brought me from Roslyn by my daughter. Yours truly W. C. BRYANT. MANUSCRIPT: BLR ADDREss: D. Bogart Esq. I. Daniel Bogart was the Roslyn tax collector.

The Morn Hath Not the Glory

1589. To Francis J. Child

71

New York, January, 1866

... I am quite charmed with your little book .... 1 I have been shut up ... with a severe and obstinate influenza and your volume, enhanced in value by the manuscript additions ... has been often in my hands. It is a selection of prime excellence, without the fault so difficult to avoid, that of frequently giving the reader what he finds everywhere else .... In the next edition may I ask of you the favor to make me say ... "print with blood the rugged land" instead of "paint." ... 2 MANUSCRIPT:

1975.

Unrecovered TEXT (partial): K. W. Rendell, Catalogue Number 107, July

I. See Letter 1568. 2. From Bryant's poem "The Cloud on the Way" (1860): "Haply, from the o'erhanging shadow, thou mayst stretch an unseen hand, To support the wavering steps that print with blood the rugged land." See Poems (1876), p. 365.

1590. To G[eorge?] W. Porter

My dear sir.

New York

Feb. 1st. 1866.

I thank you for the copy of Shakespeare's Epitaph in its original form. I saw it in the Church at Stratford, but have no other fac-simile ofit. 1 With regard to the books of which you speak, I am sorry to say that I know little of them from looking them over. That of Froude has awakened my curiosity very strongly, and I have no doubt that it throws much light on the period of English History treated of by him; 2 so much, indeed, that nobody who had not read it ought to pretend to be properly acquainted with that part of history. Froude had rummaged for his materials among the collections of the State Papers Office, and unless he has made a fraudulent use of his materials, which is not charged upon him, must [have] accomplished some valuable results. The original papers must certainly be a better guide than any thing else. As to Lecky's work on the "History of Rationalism" 3 I have only seen some extracts from it which impress me favorably as to his talent as a writer. Remember me kindly to Mrs. Porter and believe me Truly yours W. C. BRYANT.

LETTERS

72

OF

WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT

MANUSCRIPT: UVa ADDRESS: RevdDr. G. W. Porter. 1. This inscription, which Bryant had first seen on Shakespeare's grave and monument in the Parish Church of Holy Trinity at Stratford-upon-Avon in 1845, reads: Good friend for Jesvs sake forbeare, To digg the dvst encloased heare; Bleste be ye man yt spares thes stones And cvrst be he yt moves my bones. 2. Bryant probably refers to one or more of the earlier volumes of James Anthony Froude's The History of England from the Fall of Cardinal Wolsey to the Spanish Armada, published in twelve volumes between 1856 and 1870. 3. William Edward Hartpole Lecky, History of the Rise and Influence of the Spirit of Rationalism in Europe (1865).

1591.

To Bradford R. Wood 1

My dear sir

[New York?] Feb. [1?] 1866.

Perhaps if I can make my views of the great question before the nation understood you will find that we are not so far apart as you seem to suppose. If there is any party whose principles I detest it is that which denies equal rights to the blacks on account of race.- The right of suffrage is the due of the negro as well as the white man. I have pleaded for it in our state, in Connecticut, in the District of Columbia. But because it is right to give it to the black man it does not follow that the way of doing this proposed by Mr. Sumner is the proper one. The end however desirable does notjustify the means. I would reach the same end by pacific and persuasive methods, which he would reach by violent ones. The methods supported by such men as Trumbull and Fessenden seem to me more certain to effect their object than those proposed by Mr. Sumner. 2 The brutal scorn of the rights of the black man engendered by slavery is now at its height, and if we attempt to coerce equal suffrage immediately at the South I am fully convinced that one of two consequences must follow. Either the ... 3 MANUSCRIPT: NYPL-GR (incomplete draft) ADDRESS: Hon

Bradford R. Wood.

1. See 1207.1. 2. Charles Sumner's extreme position on Reconstruction in the South, and Negro suffrage-that "The whole broad Rebel region is tabula rasa, or 'a clean slate,' where Congress ... may write the laws," was set forth in an article, "Our Domestic Relations: Power of Congress over the Rebel States," in the Atlantic Monthly, XII (October 1863), 507-529. 3. Apparently Bryant did not complete this draft letter, and the final copy is unrecovered. But see Letter 1602 to Mrs. Waterston the following month for a

The Morn Hath Not the Glory

73

detailed development of his position on Negro rights in relation to those held by Sumner and Senator Lyman Trumbull.

1592. To Isaac Henderson

My dear sir.

[New York?] Saturday morning February 3d 1866.

Last evening Mrs. Bancrofts maid called on me [on] behalf of her brother, who she said had been the bearer of a letter to me from Mr. Bancroft, the day before. She seemed an uncommonly nice and intelligent person, and remarked that she had been induced to call on me by the very strong interest she felt on her brother's behalf, who she said was quick to learn and exceedingly desirous to learn the printers trade. Being lame the number of occupations open to him is of course small. If you can do any thing for the young man I wish you would-for it is a pity that if he has taken a fancy to any suitable trade, that he should not have an opportunity to acquire it. 1 They are from the North of Ireland, a country that sends us many worthy peopleYrs truly W

MANUSCRIPT:

p. 6.

UTex

ADDRESS:

I

Henderson Esq.

PUBLISHED:

C

BRYANT.

Bryant and Henderson,

1. Since the young man is not named, it is uncertain whether he was employed by theEP.

1593. To Arthur Bryant

Dear Brother.

[New York? cFebruary 5, 1866]

I received in due time your letter informing me of Austin's death.' I was prepared for the event by letters from John and from Austin's son Charles. 2 When Austin first became alarmed about his complaint I wrote a letter to encourage him, 3 on account of the difficulty which I knew existed in pronouncing decisively on the existence of heart disease in most cases. It appears however, that the worst apprehensions were the truest- I had hoped to see Austin this summer at the old place in Cummington, which I am fitting up- But thus are our expectations disappointed- Perhaps you may be able to comeI hope John's cold is nothing worse than the influenza which we have here and which is bad enough. It took a very severe hold on me and upon Frances. I am now well, and she better....

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LETTERS oF WILLIAM CuLLEN BRYANT

MANUSCRIPT: NYPL-GR (incomplete draft). 1. Austin Bryant died on February I, 1866, in his seventy-third year. 2. Charles Howard Bryant (1832-1879) was the third son of Austin and Adeline (Plummer) Bryant. These letters are unrecovered. 3. Letter 1570.

1594.

To John Howard Bryant

Dear Brother-

[New York? cFebruary 5, 1866]

! received your letter of the 1st respecting Austin's death-an event for which I was prepared-though at first I hoped it was only an effect of his heart which might pass away, and for which a short sojourn at the old place in Cummington might prove a cure. I shall look to see you there with Harriet. You are better I hope of your cold which I hear prevented you from attending the funeral. I hope you will recover as perfectly at least as I have done from one of the worst I ever had, and which has just left me. Frances is now suffering in her turnKind regards to allYours affectionately W C BRYANT. MANUSCRIPT: NYPL-GR (draft).

1595.

To Christiana Gibson

My dear Miss Christiana Gibson.

New York, February 15 [1866]

I was glad that in your last letter to Julia you said that it was long since you had a letter from me. It showed that you remembered me kindly. I think my last letter to you was written before the close of our war, so suddenly and most happily ended, at all events before the glorious amendment of our Constitution which prohibits slavery in all the States. That frightful inconsistency in our institutions can no longer be cast in our teeth by you of the Old World. We are now debating the principles on which the Union shall be reconstructed. Some are for compelling the States to grant the colored race the immediate right of suffrage; others fear tumults and disturbances, and the necessity of keeping a military force at every place where the polls are held. They prefer to make the proportion of representation in Congress and the electoral colleges, which choose the President, depend upon the admission of the African race to the right of voting.

The Morn Hath Not the Glory

75

This, and homesteads on the public lands, and an extension of the powers of the Freedmen's Bureau, they think will eventually secure the right of suffrage to the negro, as soon as he becomes intelligent enough to vote. 1 This seems to me the only safe course. Mr. Sumner is the great champion of the other, but his genius is not practical. Fanny and her family will sail for Europe on the 17th of March. A short stay in Paris will be followed by a summer residence in Switzerland. I hope you will see them. In the summer we expect to make a visit to the old place at Cummington where I have cause[d] the house to be enlarged into a spacious dwelling, and where I hope the highland air will prove invigorating to [Frances] and Julia. I think of going thither in May to put some summer furniture into the barns. How convenient it is for you in Great Britain to be so near the Continent, with its variety of nations and languages and climate, and places remarkable for striking aspects of nature, or haunted by venerable traditions and historical associations! You just step out of your little island and find yourselves in another world. Go as far as from New York to Bridgeport, and you are in Paris; as far as from New York to Albany, and you are in Germany; as far as from New York to Washington, and you are in Italy. I may not be quite exact, but am not far from it. Journeys such as we here make every week-some of us, I mean-carry you to the ends of the Continent. We, on the other hand, to reach Europe must toss for weeks on "the black deep," as Homer calls it, 2 and perform an eighth part of the circumnavigation of the globe. That is one of the advantages of living where you do, and if I were there I should often cross the Channel. But, if you were here, perhaps the necessity which takes you to the Continent would not exist. May you find the health you are in search of among the soft airs of the Italian valleys .... MANUSCRIPT:

NYPL-GR (draft)

PUBLISHED

(in part): Life, II, 239-240.

1. The Freedman's Bureau was established as a Federal agency on March 3, 1865, with General Oliver Otis Howard (1830-1909, United States Military Academy 1854) as its commissioner. Its objective was to care for the physical needs and education of liberated Negroes; it had wide powers, backed by military force. 2. For example (in Bryant's translation): ... Then in tears Achilles, from his friends withdrawing, sat Beside the hoary ocean-marge, and gazed On the black deep beyond, and stretched his hands, And prayed to his dear mother [Thetis], earnestly .... The Iliad of Homer. Translated into English Blank Verse by William Cullen Bryant; Two Volumes in One (Boston and New York 1870), I, 11.437--440.

76

LETTERS OF WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT

1596.

To Julia W. Howe

New York Feb. 16, 1866.

My dear Mrs. Howe.

I thank you with all my heart for the volume of your "Later Lyrics," in which your magnificent Battle Hymn is associated with so many beautiful poems.' This later harvest is richer and riper than its predecessor. The impression is more perfect, and the versification more flowing, without any loss of that originality which marks every thing you write. I am, dear madam, very truly yours W. C. BRYANT. MANUSCRIPT: Brown University Library ADDRESS: Mrs.

J. W.

Howe.

1. Later Lyrics (Boston, 1866).

1597. To Samuel Osgood'

New York, February 19th [1866]

... I recollect a member of Congress from Virginia named Archer, 2 a prosy speaker, whom I have heard making a long harangue in the House, while nobody listened. Once he made three speeches on the same question, whereupon some wag applied these lines of Young: "Insatiate Archer, could not one suffice? Thy shaft flew thrice, and thrice my peace was slain." 3 I have written an occasional poem, at your suggestion, which is more than I have done for any man for long years. "Insatiate Osgood, could not one suffice?" You must really excuse me"Why wilt thou break the Sabbath of my days?" 4 In the winter of life the fountain of Hippocrene crystallizes into ice; 5 and if I were ever so young, occasional verses would be a dangerous experiment. I have more requests to write them than perhaps you would imagine, and am forced to give them all the same answer .... 6 MANUSCRIPT: Unrecovered TEXT (partial): Life, II, 240.

1. See 1258.1. 2. Probably William Segar Archer (1789-1855), a Whig Congressman from Virginia, 1820-1835, and United States Senator, 1841-1847.

The Morn Hath Not the Glory

77

3. Edward Young, The Complaint or, Night Thoughts on Life, Death, and Immortality (1742-1745), Night I. 4. Alexander Pope, Horace, Epis. 1.1.18. Bryant made the same appeal to James T. Fields in 1476.2. 5. A fountain on Mount Helicon in Boeotia, Greece, traditionally sacred to the Muses. 6. Replying to this letter the next day (NYPL-BG), Osgood, who had read Bryant's elegy "The Death of Lincoln" in Union Square the previous April, remarked that, in the shadow of Washington's statue, "You seemed to me standing there as the 19th Century itself thinking over the nation and the age in that presence .... "

1598. To Samuel Gray Ward 1

My dear sir.

[New York] Monday Evening Feb. 19th 1866.

On the condition mentioned in your letter, 2 I shall be very happy to avail myself of your invitation for Wednesday evening. faithfully yours, W C BRYANT MANUSCRIPT:

HCL ADDRESS: S. G. Ward Esq.

1. Samuel Gray Ward (1817-1907), a friend of Longfellow's and a founder of the Saturday Club, was an American agent of the bankers Baring Brothers, of London. 2. Unrecovered.

1599. To Samuel G. Ward

My dear Mr. Ward,

New York

Feb

21, 1866.

A severe cold forces me to conclude that it will not be prudent for me to leave the house this evening. I must, therefore, however reluctantly, forego the pleasure of being with you and your friends. I am, dear sir, faithfully yours W. C. BRYANT. MANUSCRIPT:

HCL ADDREss: S. G. Ward Esq.

1600. To George Harvey 1

My dear Sir,

Office of The Evening Post, 41 Nassau Street, cor. Liberty, New York, Feb. 27th, 1866

I have just received your letter in regard to the Fenian Project for insurrection, for which I thank you. 2 It does not seem to me that even

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OF

WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT

if the Irish were as greatly oppressed as they say they are that they are going the right way to work. O'Connell's 3 remedy was "peaceable agitation," and where the Press is free that sort of agitation is pretty sure to effect its object at last provided that object be a good and just one. The Irish have redressed in that manner many of their political wrongs. The English Church established in Ireland is still a grievance, and that I suppose they will get rid of in time. The support of religion in Ireland probably will in the end be voluntary. In this country the people look upon the Fenian organization with scarce any other feeling than a certain curiosity, which, however is not very strong. 4 I have looked at your two pictures and called attention to them in the Evening Post, as you will see by the enclosed. 5 I am, sir, faithfully yours, W. C. BRYANT. MANUSCRIPT: HSPa ADDRESS: Geo

Harvey Esq.

l. See Letter 1569. 2. Letter unrecovered, but see Harvey's endorsement on Bryant's letter in Note 5 below. 3. Daniel O'Connell, the Irish "Liberator." See 551.3. 4. The Fenians were a secret revolutionary society organized in Ireland and the United States in 1858 to promote a forceful separation of Ireland from England. In June 1866 about eight hundred Fenians, many of them former Union soldiers, made an abortive attempt to invade Canada across the Niagara River from New York State. 5. A paragraph in the EP for February 27 called attention to two pictures sent from England by Harvey for exhibition at the gallery of Alfred T. Baxter, 15 Beekman Street. It praised a marine view and an inland scene for their "fidelity to nature." Harvey's endorsement on this letter summarizes the contents of his missing letter: Mr. Bryant in a previous letter wished me to give him my opinion of the Fenian movement, he being disposed to think it more right than wrong. My reply may be summarily thus stated I That the movement was got up by a class of most unscrupulous men, who under the mask of patriotism, benevolence and right wished [so?] to arrange things for the good of the poor, but the real foundation of their acts was that plunder power and privilage [sic] should belong to them, which if they once obtained, the rule of the nether kingdom would become absolute, and Ireland, instead of being regenerated by the slow, but sure laws regulating the progressive development of Moral principals [sic] would be hurled back into the condition of her early history, when wars and violence were supreme. N. B. When B- was first introduced to me he was an intense Anglophobist. I think he is not so now. How, with the difference between us in our national sentiments, we still are friends, is a marvel, for we have been acquainted with each other for more than thirty years, and during that time have had many controversies.

1601.

To an Unidentified Correspondent

New York, February 27, 1866. Office of The Evening Post

I have been more or less an observer of the conduct of Post

The Morn Hath Not the Glory

79

Surgeon Henry Root of the Fifty Fourth Regiment of New York Volunteers 1 from the beginning of the late civil war to the present time, and have formed a high opinion of his zealous devotion to the cause of his country and of the Union. He has written various letters for the Evening Post, some of which have been of signal service to that cause. 2 I take pleasure in bearing this attestation to his merits and usefulness. Wm C. MANUSCRIPT:

BRYANT.

UVa.

I. Not further identified.

2. The articles have not been identified in the EP.

1602. To Anna Q. Waterston

My dear Mrs. Waterston,

New York

March 3d

1866.

From something in your late letter to my wife, I infer that you do not think with me in regard to the proper method of reconstructing the Union. Such is my desire not to be misunderstood by those whose good opinion I so much value as that of yourself and your excellent husband, that I am tempted to write this letter by way-as members of Congress say-of explanation. As for President Johnson, I am not responsible for what he says or does. I leave him to you, to deal as you please with him. I am strongly in favor of negro suffrage. Our government ought to confer it upon the colored people in the District of Columbia, as an example to the whole of the Union, and as an act of simple justice. Equally just is it that the colored race should be allowed the right of suffrage in every State, and I wish to see our government take measures which will ultimately secure it to them, without danger to the public peace, or violence to the structure of our governmentmeasures of which negro suffrage will be the natural consequence, or which will persuade the late rebel states to concede it. The Freedmen's Bureau should be continued in existence, for a time, to protect the negroes in the helplessness arising from their present poverty and ignorance, and to reconcile the two races. The wise provision in Mr. Trumbull's bill renting them homesteads on the public lands in the South, and giving them the right to purchase these homesteads, should become a law. 1 Then, I think, Mr. Conklings proposed amendment should be adopted, which directs, in substance, that until the colored race receive

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LETTERS OF WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT

the right of suffrage, it shall not be counted to any state as a basis of representation. 2 With these measures, if the blacks are ill treated in any part of the United States, they will settle on the public land in communities, and then suffrage will be a necessity, for they must elect their local officers. Consider, also, the natural effect of a state of freedom. The negroes are laborious, orderly, temperate; the Southern whites are indolent, proud, disorderly, with constitutions tainted by an hereditary thirst for whiskey. The blacks are eager to be educated; the poor whites, which are the majority, indifferent to the advantages of education. The blacks have already their schools, and are advancing rapidly in intelligence; they will soon have their schools everywhere, and in a very few years their educated men, their professional men, even their politicians and public orators, and journals asserting their rights. The wealth of the South-that great source of power and influence-unless a great change shall take place in the character of the whites of the South, not to be looked for in this generation-must inevitably pass into the hands of the blacks, since they have the qualities by which wealth is acquired. The South has always been greedy of political power. Adopt the Conkling amendment, which Mr. Sumner, unfortunately, I think, opposes, and which the Democrats also seek to decry-and South Carolina loses half her political importance, half her representation in Congress, half her vote in the choice of President. This amendment makes it the interest of the South to concede suffrage to the blacks. These are peaceful methods. To me they seem sure to bring about the desired result quite as soon as the negroes will be able to exercise the right of suffrage intelligently. It will be conceded to them cheerfully and then it will be exercised without molestation. Mr. Sumner's plan is to force negro suffrage upon the whites of the South, and to keep the late insurgent states under the arbitrary rule of the federal government until they submit to this change. I apprehend the worst consequences from this-a bitterer hatred of the North, a fiercer and more brutal contempt of the rights of the negro, the necessity of a large standing army, disturbances, tumults, and perhaps bloodshed, a vast and corrupting executive patronage, twelve millions of people under the direct rule of the central government without a voice in its legislation, and the republic converted into an empire. This is what may be expected if the party of which Mr. Sumner is the principal leader prevails and retains the power. 3 But the tide may turn, and the Democratic party, the meanest and narrowest of all the parties at the North, whose main principle is contempt for the equal rights of the negro, and which opposes the

The Morn Hath Not the Glory

81

plan I have sketched as vehemently as it does that of Mr. Sumner, may in consequence of the division in the Republican party, obtain, sooner than we could imagine, the ascendency. Then the moderate, pacific measures of which I have spoken, will be wrecked, and nothing will be done by the government to aid the negro in the acquisition of political rights. Even then, I should not despair of his acquiring them in time, such faith have I in liberty and the progress of civilization, though I should deeply lament what had happened. You see we differ, not as to the end, but as to the means. I have long foreseen that this difference would arise among the friends of the Union-the effect of a difference in political training. May God overrule it in the interest of universal liberty. My wife thanks you for your pleasant letter. Excuse her if she does not make haste to answer it. She is getting Fanny ready to go with all her brood, just a fortnight from today. 4 I use this expression, because she interests herself in the preparations as much as Fanny herself. We are all in our usual health at present. You speak of Robertson's Life and Letters. 5 I was reading the work to Frances when your letter came. What a comprehensive system of theology was his and how wise he was in many respects, yet was there something morbid in his mental constitution. He suffered greatly, yet were some of his sufferings caused by his own habits of life and study. He overtasked his brain, took little exercise, and was an ascetic in regard to recreation, and seems to have had no other idea of amusement than killing birds. He seems to have had no domestic life, and I infer that his marriage was not a happy one. A great deal of the gloom which hung over his mind was the effect of mental exhaustion and physical weakness. It is curious to see how he contrived to keep within the pale of the church of England, with all his strong tendencies to liberalism, and I am not satisfied that he did not sometimes resort to a little sophistry to reconcile this tendency with orthodoxy. Ask Mr. Waterston to keep me ever in his kind remembrance. My wife and Julia send much love to you both. I am, dear Madam, very truly yours, W. C. BRYANT MANUSCRIPT:

240-243.

NYHS

ADDREss;

Mrs. A. C. L. Waterston

PUBLISHED

(in part): Life, II,

1. Senator Trumbull had introduced into Congress on January 5 two bills to strengthen the efforts to improve the condition and rights of freed slaves: a "Freedmen's Bureau Bill," and a "Civil Rights Bill." Eric L. McKitrick, Andrew johnson and

LETTERS

82

OF

WILLIAM CuLLEN BRYANT

Reconstruction (Chicago and London: Phoenix Books, University of Chicago Press [1960]), p. 277. 2. Roscoe Conkling (1829-1888), a congressman from upstate New York, was later (1867-1881) a United States senator. 3. The "general notion of the [Southern] states' abdication, by self-destruction, of their constitutional rights was argued by [Senator Charles] Sumner in the Senate on various ... occasions .... By September, 1865, Sumner's views on both Negro suffrage and the constitutional relations of the seceded states were well known." McKitrick, jackson and Reconstruction, p. 111, note. 4. On March 17 Fanny Godwin and her husband sailed for Europe with their children, to be gone for nearly three years. 5. See 1584.3.

1603.

To M. G. Atwood 1

Dear sir.

New York, March 7th. 1866

If you are sure that the novel of which you speak is finished, I should think it would be advisable to offer it to some bookseller for publication. I remember very well that Mr. Legget[t)2 was occupied in writing a novel to which he gave the name of Paul Hardy, but my impression is that it was never completed. 3 Part of it was printed by the Harpers, at least put in type and proof sheets drawn, but I always thought that Mr. Leggett, despairing of bringing the plot to a satisfactory conclusion abandoned his task when it was about half done. He read portions of it to me and I had the printed part once at least in my hands. It was very cleverly written-better, perhaps, than anything else he had done. If the novel is unfinished, I should think it would not be worth while to take any steps towards its publication. I am, sir, respectfully yours, w. C. BRYANT. MANUSCRIPT: WCL ADDREss: M. G. Atwood Esq. 1. Beyond the fact that he apparently wrote to Bryant from Alton, Illinois, an unrecovered letter, Atwood is unidentified. 2. William Leggett (209.9), Bryant's early partner on the EP. 3. This unfinished novel apparently did not come to the attention of Leggett's bibliographer. See PageS. Procter, Jr., "William Leggett (1801-1839): Journalist and Literator," The Papers of the Bibliographical Society of America, 44 (Third Quarter, 1950), 243-244.

The Morn Hath Not the Glory

1604. To Edwin D. Morgan

My dear sir.

83

Office of The Evening Post, 41 Nassau Street, cor. Liberty, New York, March 7th 1866

I have just seen Mr. Briggs' who has advised me to write to you in regard to my brother John H. Bryant of Princeton Illinois, an old personal friend of Mr. Lincoln who received from him the appointment of Collector of the Internal Revenue. At the solicitation of Mr. Ingersoll-Member of Congress in the district where my brother lives, another person has been appointed in his place, but the appointment has I believe not yet been confirmed by the Senate. When my brother was informed of what was going on he requested that he might remain in office until the first day of July next, the end of the fiscal year, when he would resign. 2 This has not been granted, although I interceded for it. My brother has been dismissed, as if he had been guilty of misconduct, when there is not an honester man in the whole country which acknowledges Andrew Johnson as President. I make this statement, as due to my brother, so that when the appointment comes before the Senate you will understand the circumstances under which it had been made, nor will I presume to make it the basis of any suggestion. 3 I am, sir, very truly yours, W. C BRYANT. NYSL ADDRESS: Hon. E. D. Morgan ENDORSED: New York I Mch 7'* 1866. I - I Bryant, Wm C. I - I Writes in behalf of his I brother John H. Bryant, I who received an appoint- I ment as Collector from I Mr. Lincoln, It seems that another I person is to be appointed I in his brothers place. I - I.

MANUSCRIPT:

1. Possibly James A. Briggs; see 1131.3. 2. See 1587.2. 3. Writing Bryant from Washington on April 2 (NYPL-BG), Morgan said that the President had removed John Bryant at the request of Congressman Ingersoll; that when Senator Trumbull objected, Ingersoll said he was wrongfully interfering. He added that the President now regretted he had yielded, and would gladly give John any other appointment acceptable to him. Morgan promised a further effort to help.

1605. To Alexander C. Evangelides 1

My dear sir.

[New York?] March 8

1866.

I thank you for your letter giving me an account of yourself and of my old friend your excellent father, 2 who has done so much for the

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LETTERS oF WILLIAM CuLLEN BRYANT

cause of education in Greece. I rejoice that he has [trained?] you in such good principles and taught you to regard the United States as your second country. I pray that the good fortune which seems to have attended him thus far through the great part of life may continue to its close, and that it may be inherited, along with his virtues by his children. I thank you for the photographs of yourself and your father, and as you request, send two of mine. Please present to your father when you see him or write to him my kindest remembrances. With every wish for your prosperity and your usefulness in life I am&c W C B. MANUSCRIPT: NYPL-GR (draft) ADDRESS: To Alex'. C Egypt.

Evangelides, Alexandria-

1. Son of Cristos Evangelides. See 832.4; illustration, Vol. III.

2. Letter unrecovered.

1606.

To Richard Upton Piper 1

My dear sir.

New York

March 9, 1866.

I have talked over your suggestion 2 with the other proprietors of the Evening Post. At first they hesitated about paying you twelve dollars a column for the matter you furnish, it being so much above our customary rate. At my desire however, they assented provided it be understood between us that at any time when we find the arrangement unprofitable it may be terminated, you being also at liberty to discontinue your contributions when you see occasion, and that in either event no unfriendly feeling shall be the consequence. 3 But there is another matter. You say you will send us sample illustrations of your articles drawn on wood. I wish to know if they are to be cut on the wood after being sent us-since that will cause both delay and expense. That good articles on tillage and husbandry commend a country paper to subscribers I believe. The country circulation of the Tribune is owing however mainly to other causes than its agricultural articles.to advertising its country paper at a great extent and great expense, and to the manufacturers who have taken great pains to introduce it any where as the [cheaper?] of [illegible] and [probably?] [illegible] W C B MANUSCRIPT: NYPL-GR (draft) ADDRESS: Dr. Piper. 1. Richard Upton Piper (1816-1897), a horticulturalist of West Groton, Massachusetts, was the author of an unfinished work, The Trees of America (1855-1857, in four numbers).

The Morn Hath Not the Glory

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2. On March 3 Piper had written Bryant (NYPL-GR) that he would like to contribute articles on fruit culture to the EP, at a fee of twelve dollars a column. The money, he added, was unimportant-he would spend it all traveling to visit successful fruit growers throughout Massachusetts-but he would like to make the EP's weekly and semi-weekly editions the most authoritative agricultural papers, instead of the New York Tribune, which, he said, taught poor agricultural and political doctrines, and was popular only because of "humbug" Horace Greeley's "white coat." 3. That Piper subsequently contributed such articles is evident from Letter 1680.

1607. To William L. Stone, Jr.

My dear sir.

New York, March 20, 1866 Office of the Evening Post

I am sorry that I have not a scrap of any thing to guide your inquiries as the period when your father was in the Evening Post. There is no journal nor any other memorandum of Mr. Coleman's in the office of the Evening Post. 1 I am, sir, truly yours W. C. BRYANT. MANUSCRIPT:

William Cullen Bryant II ADDRESS: Wm L. Stone Esq.

1. See Letter 1581. No evidence has been found that William L. Stone, Senior, was ever employed by the EP.

1608. To Francis H. Dawes

My dear sir.

Office of The Evening Post, 41 Nassau Street, cor. Liberty, New York, March 24 1866.

I have written to Mr. C. W. Mitchell of Dalton, 1 to ask him to get the India Matting which is to carpet the principal rooms in the house at Cummington. Will you do me the favor to send him the dimensions of the dining room and two other rooms in the lower story-namely the west room and that in the south wing-and of the chambers in the main part of the building except one of the smaller ones, that he may know how much matting to provide. For the southeast room there is to be a woollen carpet, and my wife has another which she intends for one of the smaller chambers in the main part of the building. I suppose the building begins to put on something like a habitable appearance. I have written to Mr. Mitchell to have the things which I have commissioned him to get for me at Cummington by the middle

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of May. Will this be soon enough? If it will not, do me the favor to inform him when you write to him at what time they should be there. 2 I am, sir, truly yours W. C. BRYANT. MANUSCRIPT: Sleepy Hollow Restorations, Tarrytown, New York ADDRESS: F. H. Dawes Esq. I Cummington I Massachusetts. I. Clark Ward Mitchell (b. 1818), a Cummington merchant until about 1852, when he removed to Dalton, Massachusetts, was the husband of Bryant's niece Ellen Shaw Mitchell (738.1). 2. Dawes (1530.1) was then apparently acting informally as the custodian of the Cummington homestead Bryant had bought the previous year. On September 17, 1866, their relationship was formalized in an "Agreement with Mr. Dawes" (MS in NYPL-GR).

1609. To John Bigelow

My dear sir.

Office of The Evening Post, 41 Nassau Street, cor. Liberty, New York, April 3d 1866.

At the desire of James Herring Esq. of this city, well known as an artist, and formerly editor and publisher of the National Gallery, 1 I give him this letter of introduction. In his visit to France, he wishes, very naturally, to be made known to our Minister at the French court, and I cheerfully commend him to that kindness of which your countrymen visiting France speak so highly. I am, dear sir, truly yours, W. C. BRYANT. MANUSCRIPT: NYPL-Bigelow ADDRESS: Mr. Bigelow. I. James Herring (1794-1867) was a British-born American portrait painter who had published The National Portrait Gallery during the years 1834-1839, after which he founded the Apollo Gallery, forerunner of the American Art-Union. DAA.

1610. To Daniel Bogart

My dear sir.

Office of The Evening Post 41 Nassau Street, cor. Liberty, New York, April 7th. 1866.

Enclosed you have a check for seventy three dollars and sixty four cents [$73.64] in full for the account you have sent me. Yours truly W. C. BRYANT. MANUSCRIPT: BLR ADDRESS: D. Bogart Esq.

The Morn Hath Not the Glory

1611. To Richard H. Dana

Dear Dana.

87

New York, April 9th. 1866.

The pleasure with which, the other day, I opened a letter in your familiar handwriting 1 was turned to sadness by the news it contained of the death of your younger sister. I had not heard of it before; I do not recollect even to have heard of her illness. It is thus, as we grow old, the circle of our friends grows thin, till we find ourselves almost among strangers in the world we have lived in so long. Within little more than a twelvemonth I have lost two of my brothers-one a year and a half older than myself, the playmate of my childhood, and another the next to me in years. I am like a soldier in battle, who sees the two comrades nearest to him fall, one on each side of him. Our house here in town is as you suppose, a kind of solitude now that seven children, with their mother, have migrated from it to another continent. It seemed the other night as if this loss was, in part, to be made up to us, for the crying of a child was heard in the street, and a servant, on going to the door, found lying on the mat a baby, apparently three weeks old, quite pretty and bright looking, decently and warmly clad. It was brought into the house and fed, taking food readily from a spoon, as if used to it, and became very quiet. My wife and Julia and I are planning in what manner this little creature, whom providence has cast upon our care, shall be provided for. We are yet, as you will have inferred, in New York, in the house which my daughter has left, and which, in about a fortnight, we must give up to a family which has taken it for the next two years. Probably Fanny and her children will. be gone as long. We have been in no hurry to get to our place in the country, the [Section cut from manuscript.] [pass?]ing of the Civil Rights bill, for I look upon it as good as passed. I do not always know what to make of the President. It seemed to me that the Freedmen's Bureau bill, though it had some good provisions was, in some respects, quite objectionable, and I was not sorry to see it returned by him to Congress, but his message objecting to the Civil Rights bill, seems to me a very weak piece of work. We have insisted that the negroes shall be freemen and we must have some system of remedies, if their rights as freemen are violated-which the message, as I understand it, denies. I hope that the improvement in Edmund's health will be permanent, and the [Section cut from manuscript.]

LETTERS OF WILLIAM CuLLEN BRYANT

88

Greet all those of your household most kindly from me. My wife and Julia, who are in their usual health, desire their love to you all. I am, dear sir, faithfully yours, W. C. BRYANT. MANUSCRIPT: NYPL-GR ADDRESS: R. H. Dana Esq. DOCKETED:

w~

c. Bryant, Ap 9/66.

1. Unrecovered.

1612. To John Bigelow

My dear Mr. Bigelow

Office of The Evening Post, 41 Nassau Street, cor. Liberty, New York, April 11th. 1866.-

The Revd. Dr. Joseph P. Thompson, a Congregational clergyman of this city 1 and one of our most eloquent divines, will hand you this letter. You must already know him so favorably by reputation, that I need say no more by way of introduction. I am, sir, very truly yours. W. C. BRYANT. MANUSCRIPT: NYPL-Bigelow ADDRESS: Hon Jn". Bigelow. 1. joseph Parrish Thompson (1819--1879), until1862 an editor of the Congregational weekly, the Independent, was the principal pastor, 1845-1871, of the Broadway Tabernacle, in whose huge auditorium the annual lottery of the American Art-Union had been held for several years in the 1840s. See Mary Bartlett Cowdrey, American Academy of Fine Arts and American Art-Union (New York: New-York Historical Society, 1953), pp. [218], 220.

1613. To George B. Cline'

Dear sir.

Office of The Evening Post 41 Nassau Street, cor. Liberty, New York, April 11th. 1866.-

I left my little green cotton umbrella at Roslyn. Please put it in some place where it will not be taken. I have ordered the little hemlock and arbor vitae trees for hedging, and wish you to look out for them. You will leave, in planting the hemlocks, a passage way into the lot from the side which shall appear to be the most convenient. The arbor vitae trees are for the cemetery on the side next the railroad. Yours truly W. C. BRYANT

The Morn Hath Not the Glory MANUSCRIPT:

89

Dartmouth College Library ADDREss: Geo. B. Cline Esqre.

1. Cline (1005.1) was Bryant's Roslyn superintendant.

1614. To Fanny Bryant Godwin

Dear Fanny.

New York April 17th

1866.

This is Tuesday. Your letter 1 came on Saturday and we were all of us very glad that you had so pleasant a passage across the great sea. Such a passage as you had is a peculiar piece of good fortune. I shall henceforth set down the month of March as one of those that promise an agreeable voyage to Europe. Here things go on much as usual. Mr. and Mrs. Mackie came and staid a week with us. After they went, Julia invited Cordelia Kirkland to make her home here and we have had the benefit of her ready and fluent conversation. Julia has not been as well as usual, and by Dr. Gray's advice makes frequent visits to Mrs. Lozier in Tenth Street, a homoeopathic doctress. She has written to you I believe about the baby three weeks old, which was found at our door one evening. It is now at Randall's Island. Mrs. Dunham has been absent at New Haven so that we could not consult her about the arrangements for her coming into the house till now. She returned on Saturday and was to have been here yesterday, but did not come, so Julia went after her in the rain. We shall now make rapid preparations for going home to Roslyn. Mrs. Dunham expects to move into the house about the middle of next week. Susan is here busy in putting things to rights, and your mother is perplexed to know where to put all the things with which we are surrounded and for which a place must be found. Your mother bids me say that Mrs. Miller has let her house for three hundred dollars a month, and in this she is quite lucky, for furnished houses to let have become more numerous than the people who want them, and there is a great decline in rents. The Millers go to Sing Sing, 2 where they will remain till they sail about the last of May. The Rowlands go to the same place for the summer. Mr. Johnson has lost ground by his veto of the Civil Rights bill. The general feeling in favor of that bill is exceedingly strong, and the President probably did not know what he was doing when he returned it to Congress. He has been very silent since, as if the check of passing the bill notwithstanding his objections has stunned him. 3 Mr. Bancroft says that he must have got some small lawyer to write his veto message, and General Dix thinks that the "trouble" at Washington lies in the eligibility of the President for a second term of office. So you see that

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those who supported Mr. Johnson's first veto fall off now. Poor Raymond seems in great perplexity to know which way to steer. He supported the veto, but his paper, commended it but faintly and admitted that something ought to be done for the assertion of the rights of American citizenship when denied in the states. 4 At present there is a sort of lull after the storm, and the majority in Congress having carried their point seem disposed for a pause. Your mother finds that you have left "Cook's Tours," which she supposed you intended to take with you. We shall be on the look out for the trunk you send back. We have heard of Mrs. Cairns's death. 5 Poor creature, she probably longed for her old home and had taken passage in the hope of seeing it again. The Mudge farm is offered for sale. I can think of no other news. Love to all. Your mother and Julia send theirs. Yours very afectionately w. C. BRYANT. MANUSCRIPT: NYPL-GR ADDRESS: Mrs. F. B. Godwin. I. Unrecovered. 2. Earlier name of Ossining, New York, whose inhabitants insisted in 1901 on changing its name because of the common association of their village with the notorious state prison located there. 3. This bill, giving citizenship and full legal rights to all Negroes and others (except untaxed Indians) born in the United States, which was passed by Congress and vetoed on March 27 by President Johnson, was subsequently repassed over his veto on April 6. 4. Henry J. Raymond (726.2; 805.1), editor of the New York Times, had been elected to Congress from New York in 1864, and was the indecisive and ineffectual Johnson Administration leader in the House of Representatives. 5. The Bryants' neighbor Ann Eliza Cairns (565.2), born in 1800, had died in Paris on March 18, 1866.

1615.

Sir.

To Henry A. Smythe 1

Office of The Evening Post, 41 Nassau Street, cor. Liberty, New York, April 20th 1866.

George W. McPherson Esq. of this city having applied for the place of Inspector in the Custom House, I take pleasure in giving him my recommendation. He is a man of excellent character and steady habits, perfectly well acquainted with the duties of the post he desires to fill, and I hope will succeed in his application. I have known him for many years and am confident that he would make a faithful and intelligent officer of the Customs. 2 I am, sir, very respectfully yours, W. C. BRYANT.

91

The Morn Hath Not the Glory MANUSCRIPT:

DuU

ADDRESS:

To Henry A

Smythe Esq.

l. Henry A. Smythe, a New York banker, had just been appointed by President Johnson Collector of the Port of New York. VanDeusen, Seward, pp. 455-456. 2. McPherson has not been further identified.

1616.

To George Harvey

New York, April 24th. 1866.

My dear sir

I certainly read your pamphlet on the subject of money, as I promised you, and tried very hard to understand it. 1 The subject is not uninteresting to me, and in imagining it to be so, you do not quite do me justice. I saw the point at which you aimed, but the difficulty which occurred to my mind was to make a practical application of your theory. Money, to be used as a measure of value and a medium of exchange must exist in some visible and tangible form, and I could not understand what form the money contemplated in your pamphlet was to take. Until I could be informed on this head, it did not seem to me that I had found any practical basis for your system. I do not say that there is not, I only [say?] that I could not find it, and therefore to me it was the same as if it did not exist. I concluded, however, that there must be in your plan some features which were not revealed in the pamphlet. If so, it seems to me that in order to secure assent to your scheme it should be disclosed. Many who are not convinced by any abstract reasoning, however forcible are easily won over by an illustration. They cannot understand an argument without an exemplification. They must see a subject in the concrete-else it is all a shadow to them and a bewilderment. Meantime, I admit that the subject is one of great importance, and think that you do the public a service in discussing it. We are all occupied in cleaning our dirty city and making ready for the cholera-like a woman putting her house in order for some visitor of whom she stands in dread. 2 Yours truly W C BRYANT. MANUSCRIPT:

Saint John's Seminary Library

ADDREss:

Geo

Harvey Esq.

l. This pamphlet has not been identified. But see Letter 1080, in which Bryant responds to Harvey's evident airing of similar views on money. 2. Happily, the "dreaded" epidemic, anticipated because of the great numbers of foreign immigrants then pouring into the Port of New York, did not materialize.

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WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT

1617. To Charles F. Adams

New York April 25th 1866.

My dear sir.

I take the liberty of giving this note to Mrs. Sarah B. Miller of this city, who with her son-in-law Mr. Williams, and two of her daughters, is about to visit Europe. Mrs. Miller is the widow of an eminent lawyer of this city, and Mr. and Mrs. Williams are last from California and the Sandwich Islands, having resided in California for several years. They are all among the most esteemed and valued members of our New York Society. 1 I am, sir, very truly yours, W. C. BRYANT. MANUSCRIPT: MHS ADDRESS: Mr. Adams. 1. Neither the Millers nor the Williamses have been further identified.

1618. To Francis Javier Amy 1

My dear sir.

Office of The Evening Post 41 Nassau Street, cor. Liberty, New York, April 25th 1866.

I have not printed your translation of Percival's Graves of the Patriots2 for the reason that it is pretty long and being in a language which not more than one in perhaps a thousand of the readers of the Evening Post would understand, our readers might complain of such an appropriation of our space. Your translation seems to me spirited and flowing-two important qualities. I would have you consider, however, whether the half-lines which you have introduced are not a blemish. With a little more trouble thet might have been made to conform to the pattern of the rest. 3 Yours very truly W. C. BRYANT. MANUSCRIPT: NYPL-GR ADDREss: F. J. Amy Esq.-. 1. Francis Javier Amy (1837-1912) was much later the editor of Musa Bilingii.e: Being a Collection of Translations, Principally from the Standard Anglo-American Poets, into Spanish (San Juan, Puerto Rico, 1903). 2. American poet James Gates Percival (1795-1856), "The Graves of the Poets." 3. No communication from Amy to Bryant during this year has been recovered.

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93

But, on October 29, 1865, he had submitted a translation of Bryant's "To a Waterfowl" for publication in the EP. Ms letter in NYPL-GR.

1619. To John Bigelow

My dear sir.

Office of The Evening Post, 41 Nassau Street, cor. Liberty, New York, April 25th 1866

This note will be handed you by Dr. Lewis T. Warner a homoeopathic physician of this city and a man of eminence in his profession, as well as much esteemed in private life. 1 I venture to ask for 2 him a kind reception on your part, of which I assure you he is most worthy. I am, dear sir, truly yours, W. C. BRYANT. MANUSCRIPT: NYPL-Bigelow ADDREss: Hon

J. Bigelow.

l. This was perhaps the Dr. Warner who had been associated with Bryant in the New York Homoeopathic Society in the 1840s. See Wershub, 100 Years of Medical Practice, p. 16. 2. Bryant mistakenly wrote "from."

1620. To John Bigelow

New York April25, 1866

My dear sir.

This letter will be handed to you by T. B. Coddington Esq. one of our oldest and most eminent merchants. 1 It gives me pleasure to introduce to your acquaintance a gentleman the excellences of whose character are so universally acknowledged. I am, dear sir very truly yours WC. BRYANT. MANUSCRIPT: NYPL-Bigelow ADDRESS: Hon John Bigelow. 1. Not further identified.

1621.

To John Bigelow

My dear sir.

Office of The Evening Post, 41 Nassau Street, cor. Liberty, New York, April 28th 1866

The bearer of this note is Col. William Heine 1 late of the Hundred and Third Regiment of New York Volunteers-who after doing his

LETTERS

94

OF

WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT

country good service as an artist in the Japanese expedition, and later as a soldier in the civil war, is now commissioned as our vice consul at Paris. I need say no more to recommend him to your good will 2 I am sir truly yours W C BRYANT. MANUSCRIPT: NYPL-Bigelow ADDRESS: Hon

J.

Bigelow.

l. Peter Bernard William Heine (1827-1885) came to New York City from his native Germany at the age of twenty-two. Here he exhibited landscape paintings at the American Art-Union, and at the National Academy of Design both before and after serving from 1852 to 1854 as an artist with the Perry expedition to Japan. In 1859 he returned to Europe, according to the DAA. 2. Heine had been appointed Consular Clerk at the United States embassy in Paris on April 11, 1866, and served until August 30, 1871. Information from the Office of the Historian, United States Department of State.

1622.

To James T. Fields

My dear Mr. Fields.

Roslyn, Long Island, April 30th 1866-

I did think that I might send you a poem for the July number of the Atlantic, but now I fear that I shall not. I had the idea of a poem in my head, but I am so much occupied with other matters, and the love of ease and dislike of excitement, natural I suppose to my time of life, are so predominant with me, that I do not make any satisfactory progress. 1 I am sir. truly yours, w. C. BRYANT. MANUSCRIPT: UVa ADDRESS: Jas. T. Fields Esq. l. Bryant did, nevertheless, contribute to the Atlantic Monthly for July 1866, XVIII, 120-121, the poem "The Death of Slavery," composed at Roslyn in May.

1623. To Francis H. Dawes

My dear sir.

New York, May 7th. 1866-

I think of coming to Cummington about the middle of next week. I shall get to Dalton, as I now think by Tuesday, and thence go to Pittsfield on Wednesday, and will try to be at Cummington on Thursday-

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95

Can you let me know-so that I shall have your letter this week what the things you have ordered for me will amount to? -a rough estimate will answer. 1 Yours truly W C BRYANT. NYPL-Gilbert Montague Collection ADDREss: F. H. Dawes Esq. I Cummington. I Massachusetts POSTMARK: NEW YORK I MAY I 7.

MANUSCRIPT:

1. No reply to this letter has been found.

1624. To James William Beekman 1

My dear Mr. Beekman.

New York May 12th

1866.

I have so many applications of the nature of that with which you have complemented me, that I have long since been obliged to make a rule of declining them all. Occasional poetry, as a general thing is good for nothing, and that is one reason why I do not write for particular occasions-being then sure of what in other cases I might be conceited enough to doubt, that what I should produce would be worthless. Besides, my dear sir, you have not considered that I am past my seventy first year. All these considerations, I am sure, will move you to let me stand excused. 2 I am, sir, very truly and respectfully yours. W. C. BRYANT. MANUSCRIPT:

NYHS

ADDRESS:

Hon

J. W. Beekman.

1. James William Beekman (1815-1877), an art patron as well as a New York State Senator, 1850-1853, was subsequently (1873) elected a Vice-President of the New-York Historical Society at the same time Bryant assumed a similar office.

Catalogue of American Portraits in The New-York Historical Society; Oil Portraits Miniatures Sculptures (New York: The New-York Historical Society, 1941), p. 21.

2. The specific nature of Beekman's request has not been determined.

1625. To Frances F. Bryant

My dear Frances.

Office of The Evening Post 41 Nassau Street, cor. Liberty, New York, May 14th 1866

I send you enclosed Dr. Grays prescription-or rather, to speak by the card, the medicine prescribed. There are also a set of wedding cards-and a bill for Julia's

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LETTERS OF WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT

bedstead which I wish she would look at and send back to Mr. Johnston to be paid if it is right. I shall set off for Massachusetts 1 by the train that departs at three quarters past three. Yours ever W. C. BRYANT. P.S. Mr. Cline has promised to write me about your health on Tuesday and Wednesday-! hope to get out of town before I am stripped quite bare by beggars. W.C.B. MANUSCRIPT: NYPL-GR. 1. To Cummington; see Letter 1623.

1626.

To James P. Walker 1

Dear sir.

Roslyn, Long Island. May 19th 1866.-

For yourself and the Committee of which you are Chairman, be pleased to accept my sincere thanks for the honor done me in the invitation to attend the Annual Festival at Music Hall on Tuesday of Anniversary Week. 2 The occasion, I am sure, will be a most delightful one, yet, for various reasons, I am obliged to forego the pleasure of being present. I am, sir, very respectfully and truly yours. W. C. BRYANT. MANUSCRIPT: PUL ADDREss: jas. P. Walker Esq. 1. Walker was apparently the same "clever writer" who was one of several who had once wished to become a Boston correspondent for the EP. See Letter 1109. 2. This festival has not been identified.

1627.

To John Bigelow

My dear Mr. Bigelow.

Roslyn, Long Island, May 22d 1866.

Among those who leave our city for a visit to the old world, is the gentleman who brings you this note Edwin A. Smith Esq. one of our

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97

opulent Leather Merchants. 1 He bears a high reputation in the community both as a merchant and on account of his personal merits. I am, dear sir, very truly yours, W. C. BRYANT. MANUSCRIPT:

NYPL-Bigelow ADDRESS: Hon

J. Bigelow.

1. Not further identified.

1628. To William Conant Church 1

Dear sir.

Roslyn Long Island May 26th. 1866.

I should have answered your note earlier, had I known precisely what to say. I have carried it about in my pocket, that I might answer it at any time, but to little purpose. 2 At present, I have nothing written in verse which I can send for the Galaxy, nor do I find myself prompted to write any thing. I have a sort of engagement, of some standing, to contribute something of the kind to the Atlantic Monthly. I have nothing for that periodical. At my time of life I fear that facility of literary execution, at least, in verse, deserts one along with the faculty of invention. You see, I have written only a letter of excuses, but it is the best I can do. I am, sir, very truly yours. W. C. BRYANT. MANUSCRIPT:

NYPL-William Conant Church Manuscripts W. C Bryant.

ADDRESS:

W. C. Church

DOCKETED:

1. William Conant Church (1836-1917), formerly the editor of the Army and Navy journal, became editor in 1866 of the newly established Galaxy magazine, intended to be a New York rival of the Atlantic Monthly, with which it was eventually merged a dozen years later. 2. Church's note is unrecovered.

1629. To Edwin D. Morgan

My dear sir.

Roslyn, Long Island, May 30, 1866-

I ought to have thanked you before this for the interest you have taken in the case of my brother. 1 I had heard nothing of what you communicated to me till I received your letter, 2 which I should have

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LETTERS OF WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT

answered immediately but for my wife's dangerous illness, which has occupied my time and attention till now, when I hope she is mending. His appointment is what I could not myself have asked for, but it is only just, inasmuch as he was not displaced for any misconduct, and only begged that he might not be turned out before the end of the fiscal year. Whether he has made any arrangements which will now render it inconvenient for him to accept the appointment, I do not know, nor will it make any difference in the obligation I owe you for the friendly manner in which you have acted in the affair. 3 I am, sir, very truly yours. W. C. BRYANT. MANUSCRIPT: NYSL ADDRESS: Hon. E. D. Morgan ENDORSED: Roslyn. L. I. I May 30th 1866 I - I Bryant. W. C. I - I Thanks the Senator I for his kindness towards I his brother &c. I -. 1. See 1587.2; Letter 1604. 2. Unrecovered. 3. Apparently through Senator Morgan's intercession, John Bryant was reappointed by President Johnson to the office of Collector of Internal Revenue for the 5th district of Illinois, to which John's friend President Lincoln had appointed him in 1862. The Life and Poems ofjohn Howard Bryant, ed. E. R. Brown (n.p., 1894), p. 33.

1630. To Catharine M. Sedgwick

Roslyn, June 1st. [1866]

... My last letters to you were letters of congratulation on the aspect of public affairs. I do not know that there is at present much matter for congratulation as concerns the proceedings at Washington. To say the truth, I am a little disgusted with the conduct on both sides; but my comfort is that while the wisdom of man expends itself in quarrelling and counterplotting, the wisdom of God is arranging the new condition of things by an inevitable law, and bringing order out of confusion. The great change which has taken place in the extinction of slavery will produce its blessed consequences in time without much help from politicians. It is now the holiday ofthe year, and the country around me is beautiful; the trees, most of them, full-leaved, and noisy with birds. Yet we have had a sour spring and sullen, with the exception of a few paradisiacal days .... MANUSCRIPT: Unrecovered TEXT (partial) Life, II, 243.

1631. To Richard H. Dana

Dear Dana.

Roslyn 1866.

Long Island, June 6th.

I have read your kind letter 1 to my wife, who was much moved by its expressions of sympathy, and who thanks you for them. I did not

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99

however read that part of it which refers to her illness being mentioned in the newspapers, for I was sure that it would affect her disagreeably. I did not know, till I went to town on Monday that the newspapers had said any thing about it, nor was I well pleased to learn that they had. My poor wife has been alarmingly ill. She suffers less, just now, than she has done, and there are some favorable indications, but I cannot conceal from myself that there is great cause for anxiety still. The disorder was an obstruction of the bile, so the doctor says, with water on the heart. Her breathing has been difficult and painful and she has not been able to lie down for more than a fortnight. She suffers also from pain in the back and side and in the ankles and feet which are much swollen, but she bears her sufferings with great patience, and her thoughts are employed on the comfort and convenience of others almost as much as when she is well. One of the distressing symptoms of her case has been sleeplessness, but that is passing off-another is a racking exhausting cough but that is mitigated. Yet the disease is one the event of which is greatly to be dreaded, especially at her time of life, and in the case of one who like her, has not seemed for some time past to have a very strong hold on life. We thank you for your prayers. If the prayers of those who remember some kind act of my wife could save her life, she would speedily recover. Remember me kindly to all those of your household. I am, dear Dana, affectionately yours W. C. BRYANT MANUSCRIPT:

NYPL--GR

ADDRESS:

66 I Ans. July 4•h/1866.

R. H. Dana Esq.

ENDORSED:

W!!!. C. Bryant, June 6/

1. Unrecovered.

1632. To John Bigelow

My dear Mr. Bigelow.

Office of The Evening Post 41 Nassau Street, cor. Liberty, New York, June 8th 1866.

The bearer of this note is John A. Parker Esq. a well known and eminent merchant of this city.' I take pleasure in introducing him, as not only a man of high standing in the mercantile world, but also as a man of education and intelligence and of the highest respectability. I am, sir, truly yours. W. C. BRYANT.

100

LETTERS OF WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT

MANUSCRIPT: NYPL-Bigelow ADDRESS: Hon

J. Bigelow.

1. In 1871 Parker was president of the Great Western Insurance Company. See Letter 1973.

1633.

To John Howard Bryant

Dear Brother.

Roslyn

June 11th. 1866.

I have no doubt that you have received ere this Mr. Henderson's letter about the money. It has been concluded that I should lend the first instalment, and Mr. Henderson the next. 1 Frances still continues very ill and our apprehensions have by no means abated. She cannot lie down on account of a feeling of oppression in the chest and a troublesome cough and her andes and feet are much swollen. Her symptoms give us intense anxiety. It is pretty certain that we shall not be at Cummington when you and your party arrive and probably not while the greater part of you are there, if indeed we get there at all this season. But there are two other persons whom, I suppose, you will find on the ground. You remember our neighbor, Miss Jenny Hopkins. 2 She has suffered for some time from a severe disease of the throat, which our physician Dr. Gray says is not likely to be cured except by a change of air and mode of living. I have told her that she might, along with her sister occupy a room at my house in Cummington. I suppose they will leave Roslyn next Monday, and be at Hinsdale next Tuesday, ready to take the stage to Cummington on Wednesday. That vehicle goes to West and East Cummington only on Mondays Wednesdays and Saturdays-a fact which if you [go?)3 by way of Hinsdale it may be well to remember. I wish you had told me of how many your party is to consist and who they are to be. Have you written to Mr. Dawes that he may expect you? I shall write to him in a day or two and tell him to be ready for you. So far as I am concerned, you are all welcome, and I hope will find the house furnished and comfortable. There will be room enough I am sure. I do not know whether I told you that I was there in May, and that I then bought wooden furniture for the house, which I suppose is there by this time. The house is a very beautiful one and exceedingly convenient. I congratulate your family on the little lady who has come to live with you. 4 She will, I am sure, be an object of great interest to Harriet. You speak of your cool weather; it is cool here too, and a little wet, and the strawberries are ripening very slowly. The foliage on the trees, however, is uncommonly full, and the grass abundant. We have a great promise of fruit, except of peaches, the blossom buds of which

The Morn Hath Not the Glory

101

were snipped by the severe winter. Wheat and rye look well; Indian corn makes a poor figure. I think you are indebted for your nomination to Senator Morgan. At the suggestion of Mr. Briggs, I wrote to him to see if the confirmation of the other man's appointment could be stopped. He found that it was already confirmed, and then wrote to me that he had talked with the President on the subject, who said that he had yielded to the pressing instances of your member of Congress, but regretted having done so. This was all that I did. I made no reply to Mr. Morgan's letter, and knew nothing more of the matter until Mr. Morgan wrote to me of your second nomination. Kind regards to all, with my wifes and Julia's. Yours affectionately, W. C. BRYANT P.S. Frances bids me say that she is glad Adeline is coming-and that she thinks the visit will do her good. She is glad also of the baby's arrival. W. C. B. MANUSCRIPT:

NYPL-BFP ADDRESS: John H. Bryant Esq.

l. Nothing has been learned of this transaction. 2. See Letter 842. 3. Word omitted. 4. Probably Laura Smith Bryant (b. 1846), whom John's son Elijah had married the previous year.

1634. To John Howard Bryant

Dear Brother,

Roslyn June 18th

1866

I have this moment got your letter of the 15th. 1 The Misses Hopkins, I suppose will reach Cummington on the same day that you do. There will be room enough in the house for you all and I hope beds enough. You will find the place improved in some respects-but in some respects unfinished. I hope you will all make yourselves comfortable there. My wife is still in a condition of great danger. Poor Julia is so [worried?] about her that she gets but little sleep. My wife's age is against her-and she suffers greatly. She sends her love to you all. Do not look to see me at Cummington. Yours affectionately, W. C. BRYANT Mrs. Mildred Bryant Kussmaul, Brockton, Massachusetts ADDREss: John H. Bryant Esq.

MANUSCRIPT:

l. Unrecovered.

102

1635.

LETTERS OF WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT

To Isaac Henderson

My dear sir.

Roslyn, July 3d

1866

As I do not like to go to town while Mrs. Bryant is in her present critical condition, Mrs. Henderson has suggested that you might be willing to take the trouble of making some purchases for me at Stewart's Carpet Store in Brooklyn. I want sixteen yards of Venetian stair carpeting, twenty four inches wide, of such pattern as you may choose, with round old fashioned stair-rods, say two dozen and a half of them. I also want some old oil cloth for the entrance halls, according to the following diagrams. 4 ft. 3 in.

CJQ

r'

...... ~

s·

(Jl

r'

Nl

14 feet 7 inches

~

~----------------------------------~

;:r

4ft. 5 in.

4ft. 7 in.

That there may be no mistake I send the diagram made under the direction of the builder, which I wish you would preserve for me. I am told that good old oil cloth can be had reasonably at Stewart's if one is not particular about the pattern, which I am not. I also want three door-mats, suitable for a country place. These things I wish made in a parcel and sent on board the Hudson barge and addressed thus. W. C. Bryant care of C. W Mitchell Dalton Massachusetts.

The Morn Hath Not the Glory

103

They are intended for the house at Cummington, and I want them substantial and good without caring about their being fine. [Signature clipped] P.S. Mrs. Bryant continues free from pain and comfortable although very weak. W C B Thursday morning-July 5th. MANUSCRIPT:

pp. 7-8.

UTex

ADDRESS:

I

Henderson Esq.

1636. To John Howard Bryant

Dear Brother.

PUBLISHED:

Bryant and Henderson,

Roslyn, July 4th. 1866.

I got your letter 1 yesterday and shall send this to town tomorrow to be mailed as that will save a day in its journey to Cummington. I am glad that you and the rest of the company at the old place find the means of passing the time pleasantly. If there is yet any particular desire to be useful and more leisure than you know what to do with I have a suggestion to make, which I wish you would communicate to the rest. The bed and table linen is not marked. If you and the other guests would do me the favor to mark it, I would have it done thus, "F. F. Bryant, Cummington." Let all that will bear marking be marked in this manner and then not only the proprietorship but the original purpose will be known. 2 As I do not now go to town, on account of the illness of Frances, I have written to Mr. Henderson to purchase oil cloth, stair carpets and door mats and send them to Dalton, to the care of C. W. Mitchell. Frances remains the same, comfortable, but very weak. She is still much interested about Cummington and all the friends there. If you go to Washington do not fail to come to Roslyn. The train leaves James Slip and the ferry at Thirty fourth Street at 8 in the morning and half past 4. in the afternoon, and the steamer Arrowsmith leaves Peck Slip, at four in the afternoon for Roslyn. I suppose you know that we have a branch railway from Mineola or Hempstead Branch to our village. This has been a quiet fourth of July here. All the animation comes from a violent south wind now blowing at four o'clock in the afternoon and the sky is darkening with a menace of rain. Kind regards to all those that form your household. Say to Mr. Clark that he may as well go through with his contemplated improvements and make a clean job of it. 3 Yours affectionately W. C. BRYANT.

104

LETTERS

OF

WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT

P.S. Thursday morning July 5, 1866 Half past 5, o'clock. Frances continues still comfortable. She is free from pain and quite calm and quiet, although very weak. W C B. The fourth of July yesterday closed with a rain storm, beginning about five o'clock in the afternoon, which must have disappointed those who expected to be entertained with fireworks. It is now cloudy. W C B MANUSCRIPT: UVa ADDRESs: John H. Bryant Esq. 1. Unrecovered.

2. Bryant's purchase and enlargement of his boyhood home at Cummington had

been primarily in the hope that its cool, dry, highland location might benefit his wife's ailing health. See Life, II, 243; Letter 1644. 3. A Mr. Clark, of Easthampton, Massachusetts, was the builder who renovated the Cummington homestead.

1637. To John Howard Bryant

Dear Brother.

Roslyn, July 5th

1866.

Your letter of the 3d. 1 has just come to hand. In regard to the road I think that the proposed change will be a very great improvement. When I was at Cummington last I expressed myself dissatisfied with the nearness of the stone fence to the house and suggested some alteration near the butternut trees. As to the stone fence west of the wood-I did not at first understand what you intended-for I thought of the wood north of the orchard-but when I got at your meaning I thought you right. The pens in that quarter are very unsightly, and if there was only one fence it would be a great improvement. There should also be a convenient road in that quarter to the wood-a dry road, which might be made by underdraining. In this way a great many of the loose stones lying about or composing the ugly walls might be disposed-digging a deep ditch for the drain filling it with the stones and then covering the stones with shavings and chips which in turn are to be covered with earth. I had some talk with Mr. Dawes about such a road when I was last at Cummington, and I think it is very important. It should be I think a little way up on the side hill and not at the foot of the declivity as the road has been till now. I will put the matter into your hands, if you direct it-as I cannot come to Cummington, and the recovery of Frances, if that should be, which

The Morn Hath Not the Glory

105

the doctor does not forbid us to hope, must be a slow one, and I dare not leave her. I hardly know what to say about the little sheet of water which you propose to make in front of the house. If that is made an icehouse must be built also, and that will occasion as much more expense. I should like to know what that would cost. Will you ascertain and let me know? It should be above ground, of course. I should like to hear about your picnic-who got it up, who was there and how you were entertained &c. You speak of going to church at the East Village but do not say any thing about the preaching or the congregation or any thing else. 2 I would like to know about such things, particularly as I cannot be in Cummington myself. You say something about a fountain on the lawn. That I think must be postponed. We are in the midst of warm weather again. Last week the thermometer here marked eighty one degrees in the shade; today at half past two it is seventy eight-but the air is so damp that it seems as hot as it did then. The cherries on the large trees about our house are now in their perfection. I wish you had one of these trees with all their abundant load at Cummington. We could easily spare one of them. The choicer kinds and larger were not so plentiful as usual-the violent winds of May and early June bruised them so that they began to decay as soon as they ripened. Kind remembrances to all Yours affectionately W. C. BRYANT. P.S. Thursday Morning. July 6th-Mrs. Bryant has had a bad nightand the distressing symptoms returned. MANUSCRIPT:

Bryant Homestead, Cummington

ADDRESS:

John H. Bryant Esq.

1. Unrecovered. 2. The first Congregational church in the town was built on Cummington Hill near the present Bryant Homestead soon after the first settlement there in 1765. In 1839, with the considerable growth of the two settlements about three miles apart in the Westfield River valley, new churches were organized in what have since been called the East and West villages. In 1891 these churches were yoked, continuing to hold separate services conducted by the same pastor. The third and last meetinghouse on Cummington Hill was disbanded in 1869. Only One Cummington, pp. 399-400.

1638.

To Richard H. Dana

Dear Dana.

Roslyn, Long Island, July 6th. 1866.

I wish that I were certain that the inference you draw from my not writing to you again, is true. Since I wrote she has suffered greatly

106

LETTERS OF WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT

from pain and an undefinable distress-but for several days past she has been comparatively easy, and at times perfectly so. This is a great mercy, and she feels it to be so. Nobody could have endured physical suffering with a gentler resignation, and now that the pain is past, if I could say that the danger also is over, this would be to me a day of rejoicing. The doctor does not forbid us to hope, but there is something in his manner that is not very assuring. I do not now go to town, not venturing to leave my wife for even half a day. I have no doubt of the merit of your son's edition of Wheaton. 1 An able lawyer like him, accustomed to do thoroughly whatever he does, would as a matter of course make a good book of it. I suppose that Mr. Beach Lawrence will not be so well satisfied with it as the public will, and would be glad to fasten a controversy upon the new editor, the occasions of which that new editor does well to avoid. Lawrence is a dull man but industrious and persevering and glad of any opportunity which brings him before the public. He abused the opportunity which he had as the editor of Wheaton's book by making his notes a vehicle of the doctrine of state sovereignty. 2 I am glad to hear so good an account as you give of Wheaton's children. I knew him very well before he went abroad, and was acquainted with his family but his children were then very young. 3 But for my wife's illness I should by this time, have taken her to my pleasant old home in Cummington, which is now again mine and which has been fitted up commodiously. Eight of the Bryant family from the west are now there, and I had hoped to be permitted to try what effect the air of that highland region would have upon my wife's health. My two brothers, whom I lately lost, took great interest in my purchase of the place, and both, before their deaths, looked forward to passing some time in their native air, confident that it would do them good. I have now tried to do the next best thing I could, by sending up a young woman [friend?] from this neighborhood for whom the doctor has prescribed a change of air, and who has no other means of obtaining it. ... 4 MANUSCRIPT: NYPL-GR.

1. In 1866 Richard Henry Dana, Jr., published an annotated edition of The History of the Law of Nations in Europe and America by the jurist and diplomat Henry Wheaton (1785-1848, Brown 1802), which was first published at Leipzig in 1841 and at New York in 1845. This brought him into a controversy with a New York Lawyer, William Beach Lawrence (381.1 ), who had edited an earlier edition of Wheaton's History, and who accused Dana of using some of his notes. See 1652.3. 2. See Letter 1647. 3. See Letter 145. 4. Conclusion and signature missing.

The Morn Hath Not the Glory

1639. To Richard H. Dana

Dear Dana.

Roslyn, Long Island, July 9th

107

1866.

I did not quite answer your letter 1 when I wrote the other day. My wife's illness was so much before my mind that I neglected other topics. You ask about Fanny and her family. They are now at Lausanne where they are detained by the illness of their little boy Walter, 2 who has the hooping cough-a pretty severe case and no homoeopathic physician in the place none nearer than Geneva. To Geneva, therefore, they may go, if they think the little fellow, the youngest of the family can bear the journey. His mother at nearly the same age was almost killed with the hooping cough. In crossing to Havre from New York the family had a most pleasant passage, with a smooth sea, favorable winds, well-behaved fellow passengers and not too many of them, an excellent ship and a civil attentive and intelligent Captainso that nothing was wanting to make the voyage agreeable. At Paris they staid a month. The hotels were crowded, but after a little time they found commodious lodgings and met next with the usual experiences of visitors to Paris. Every thing appears to have gone well with them except the illness of their youngest boy. They put the others except the eldest daughter into schools where ever they go, or else employ teachers to come to the house. What you say of the strangeness of the news that we are old people when we first hear it is true enough. I remember once in Church Street many years ago a woman calling her child to her as I was passing by, hastened its steps by telling it that that old man would catch it if it did not come. That was nearly the first time that my eyes were opened to the somewhat unpleasant truth that I was counted among the class of old folks. I am now so used to the title of venerable which in compliment to my very white hair and beard, people seem fond of giving me, that I do not mind it much, only I do not like being helped out of a waggon or into it, as if I were decrepit and not as well able to get out and in as ever a youngster of them all. Yours very truly W. C. BRYANT P.S. My wife remains in much the same state as when I wrote last. She often passes the day pretty comfortably but in the night the symptoms are greatly aggravated and accompanied by very great distress. W. C. B. [over] 2d Postscript. Tuesday morning July lOth. 1866.

108

LETTERS OF WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT

We have had a comfortable night after the great heat, and Frances has passed the time almost free from the usual nightly distress. A letter which came last evening from Switzerland gives a better account of the little boys health. W.C.B. MANUSCRIPT: NYPL-GR ADDREss: R. H. Dana Esq. ENDORSED: Wm C. Bryant, July 9 I 66. Wrote him Aug. l, after I death of dear M" Bryant.

l. Unrecovered.

2. Bryant's youngest grandson, Walter Godwin, then in his fifth year.

1640.

To Edwin D. Morgan

My dear sir.

Office of The Evening Post, 41 Nassau Street, cor. Liberty, New York, July lOth 1866.

This note will be handed to you by my Brother John H. Bryant of Illinois, in whose appointment as Collector of the Internal Revenue in the Fifth District of Illinois you have been so kind as to take some interest. I can only say for him that, as a public officer in an important trust, he is very worthy of what you have done for him. I am, sir, very truly yours W. C. BRYANT. MANUSCRIPT: NYSL ADDREss: Hon. E. D. Morgan. ENDORSED: N York I July 10166 I - I Bryant. W. C. I - Introducing Mr I John Bryant &c. I -.

1641.

To Willard Phillips 1

Dear Phillips.

Roslyn, Long Island, July 19, 1866.

I remember that you once told me, that, in looking back on your life, you were able to see that every event and situation had been ordered in a manner the most for your advantage. I was reminded of this, the other day, by meeting an Epigram of Martial, the twenty third of the Tenth Book, addressed to one of his friends, who had just completed his sixtieth year. I translate it thus. ["]Oh fortunate Antonius, oer whose head Calm days have flown and closed his sixtieth year. Back on their flight he looks, and feels no dread To think that Death's dim river flows so near. There is no day of all the train that gives

The Morn Hath Not the Glory

109

A pang, no moment that he would forget. The good man's span is doubled; twice he lives Who, viewing his past life, enjoys it yet." 2 You, my dear sir, have this advantage over Marcus Antonius Primus, to whom the Epigram is addressed, that you have nearly twenty more of these calm years to look back upon than he, and should therefore regard them with more satisfaction. I am kept here at Roslyn by the dangerous illness of my poor wife. I do not go to town any more, and have not been there but once for more than two months. She suffers a great deal, and I cannot see that she grows any better. Please give my regards to your son and your daughter in law, whom, although I have never been acquainted with, I must esteem on your account. Yours very truly, W C BRYANT. HCL ADDRESS: Hon 23166 I Answered july 30th.

MANUSCRIPT:

Willard Phillips.

ENDORSED:

Wm C. Bryant I July

1. See Volume I, 13-14. 2. The Latin text follows: lam numerat placida felix Antonius aevo quindecies aetas Primus Olympiadas praeteritosque dies et totos respicit annos nee metuit Lethes iam propioris aquas. Nulla recordanti lux est ingrata gravisque; nulla fuit cuius non meminisse velit. Ampliat aetatis spatium sibi vir bonus: hoc est vivere bis, vita posse priore frui. A friend and contemporary of the Roman poet Martial (Marcus Valerius Martialis) (A.D. c40-c 104), Marcus Antonius Primus, a native of Gaul, was a Roman warrior who played a leading part in the civil war which made Vespasian Roman Emperor in A.D. 69. Insofar as has been determined, Bryant's translation of Martial's epigram has not previously been published.

1642. To John Howard Bryant

Dear Brother.

Roslyn, Monday

July 23, 1866.

Yours of the 19th, postmarked the 20th has just reached me.' I shall send this to town tomorrow morning to be mailed there. As to the pond, which you hesitate to decide about, it may as well be made, and the ice house too, with a room for fruit &c, after the plan that I spoke of in my last. Only let Mr. Dawes understand that I do not wish it to be made a goose-pond. Ducks might be kept, but the

110

LETTERS oF WILLIAM CuLLEN BRYANT

goose is a nasty bird. The pond should also be so constructed that the water can be let off, leaving the bottom entirely dry. The ponds on that little brook fill up with muck or dark soil, which it will be well to dig out from time to time for the garden. You do not tell me when Louisa and her daughter are to go. With respect to the house-keeping at Cummington suppose that you and Harriet and Louisa consult about it and let me know hereafter, whether it would be advisable to endeavor to get somebody else into the house and who. The return of the Miss Hopkinses astonished and puzzled us all. Frances said that I ought to send them back immediately. They are very sensitive people and scrupulous to a fault. I was quite disappointed at their return. The largest kind of pear that I showed you is the Clairgeau. It is of good quality. I also showed you the Doyenne Boussouok, the next largest, and the Beurre d'Anjou, nearly as large, both excellent in quality and the latter keeping late. The heat here has been excessive and long continued-a whole week of hot weather, the thermometer for two or three days at ninety three in the day time and above eighty at night. The Miss Hopkinses came home quite overcome by the heat-but in excellent health obtained by breathing your highland air. My poor wife suffered considerably from the sultry weather. It is now cooler and the temperature quite agreeable. Frances, however, does not mend and remains much as when you saw her. I wish I had known that you would not go to Washington and I would have kept you a day or two longer. Kind remembrances to Harriet and all the others. Yrs. affectionately W. C. BRYANT. MANUSCRIPT: WCL ADDRESS: John H. Bryant Esq.

1. Letter unrecovered.

1643.

To Arthur Bryant

Roslyn, July 28th [1866]

... You could not have expected, when you sent off your letter of the 26th, 1 such an answer as I must now write. Frances died yesterday morning at eleven o'clock. Though she had suffered great anguish of body during the greater part of her illness, her death seemed comparatively easy. She often desired it as a relief from the intensity of her sufferings, although she earnestly wished to recover and remain a little while longer on earth with me and her children, and her other friends to whom her attachment was always warm. You knew her as a

The Morn Hath Not the Glory

Ill

person of uncommonly tender sympathies, and always most ready in doing good, but perhaps you did not know at the same time how strong and unerring was her sense of right and justice. It is not often, I think, that the two co-exist in such perfection together. We have been married more than forty-five years, and all my plans, even to the least important, were laid with some reference to her judgment or her pleasure. 2 I always knew that it would be the greatest calamity of my life to lose her, but not till the blow came did I know how heavy it would be, and what a solitude the earth would seem without her. As for her, she is in a better state of being. Julia, between whom and her there was considerable resemblance of character, is quite overcome with the calamity, though not so as to lose her self-possession, or to unfit her for the duties now cast upon her. It will be sad news for Fanny and for her children, who were very fondly attached to Mamma By, as they called her, and who are never to see her again. Whether Julia and myself will be at Cummington this summer I cannot tell. The sorrow that has fallen upon us may lead us to desire a change of scene for a short time .... MANUSCRIPT:

Unrecovered

TEXT

(partial): Life, II, 244.

I. Unrecovered. 2. Soon after Frances' death, her husband wrote in a tribute intended only for his descendants, "I never wrote a poem that I did not repeat to her, and take her judgment upon it. I found its success with the public to be precisely in proportion to the impression it made upon her. She loved my verses, and judged them kindly, but did not like them all equally well." Life, II, 246.

1644.

To John Howard Bryant

Roslyn, July 28th [1866]

I thank you for the expressions of sympathy in your letter. 1 As respects myself and Julia there is now a sadder occasion for them than when you wrote. Yesterday morning at eleven o'clock Frances left this world for a better. During her illness, which has lasted somewhat more than ten weeks, she has endured great pain and distress, but at last the one symptom was inexpressible weariness, and she seemed to pass, without much suffering, to her rest. Her life seemed to me to close prematurely, so useful was she and so much occupied in doing good, and yet she was in her seventieth year, having been born on the 27th of March, 1797. It is now more than forty-five years since we were married-a long time, as the world goes, for husband and wife to live together. Bitter as the separation is, I give thanks that she has been spared to me so long, and that for nearly half a century I have had the benefit of her counsel and her example. To large and quick sympa-

LETTERS

112

OF

WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT

thies, which were always impelling her to some kindly action or other, she joined an instinctive rectitude, which caused her spirit to rise against every form of injustice committed on others. But you knew her quite well. I did not begin this letter to write her eulogy. I am only endeavoring to explain how difficult I find it to admit that she did not die before her time .... I had planned many things in remodelling the house for her comfort and convenience. How little we know when we form our projects of what is before us. Her illness and death have greatly diminished my interest in the place, yet I am glad that so many of the family have passed a part of the summer at the place, and are, I hope, the better in health and spirits for the sojourn. It was partly on their account that I bought and fitted it up. I only wish that I had bought it earlier, and that Austin and Cyrus might have passed a summer there .... MANUSCRIPT: Unrecovered TEXT (partial): Life, II, 245. 1. Unrecovered.

1645.

To Richard Edwards 1

Dear Sir.

Roslyn, Long Island, August 1st 1866.

I have no objection to the use you propose to make of my verses; on the contrary shall esteem myself honored by it. 2 I am, sir, respectfully yours W. C. BRYANT. MANUSCRIPT: Library of Illinois State University at Normal ADDRESS: R. Edwards Esq. 1. Richard Edwards (1822-1908), principal of the State Normal University at Bloomington, Illinois, was the author of numerous language and spelling textbooks. 2. Although no such proposal has been recovered, it seems probable that Edwards wished to incorporate some of Bryant's poetry in an Analytical First ... Reader (Chicago and New York, 1866), of which he was the joint author with J. Russell Webb, or in a later edition of that work.

1646.

To Julia S. Bryant

Dear Julia,

Office of The Evening Post, 41 Nassau Street, cor. Liberty, New York, August 30. 1866.

I reached New York on Tuesday evening at seven o'clock, after a very comfortable journey. I was not obliged to wait more than three

The Morn Hath Not the Glory

113

quarters of an hour at Chatham. I left my bag at Mr. Thompson's, 1 and went with him to call on Miss Sands, who is quite well and very cheerful, although the cat Tommy is sick again. I slept but little at Mr. Thompson's-there was a mosquito in the room. Next morning I was summoned to breakfast at seven o'clock and going down found Mrs. Thompson and her husband in the anteroom ready to read a chapter in the Bible and say a prayer. Mr. Thompson read the psalm-"The Lord is my Shepherd" &c and then, both of them kneeling on one knee, he repeated the Lord's prayer. We had a nice breakfast and at eleven o'clock I was at home at Roslyn. Every thing is going on well there, the island is as green all over as Ireland, and the flowers in our garden are as fresh and large in the moist weather as they can well be. There is an utter surfeit of plums and pears and melons on the place and I came near making myself ill by eating them, but luckily did not. I heard here that Mrs. Ellen Stuart was married yesterday morning to Elijah Ward and that they immediately set out for Europe. 2 I left with Losee a plan for a new bath-house, which he will soon execute. The fence on the highway is made, the gate changed and the carriage road changed on our lawn-all much to the advantage of the place. I hope to see you as soon as Saturday. Regards to Mr. and Mrs. Mackie. 3 Yours affectionately W C BRYANT P.S. I get no letter from you. W.C.B. MANUSCRIPT:

NYPL-GR ADDRESS: Miss Julia Bryant.

1. Probably Rev. Joseph P Thompson, Congregational pastor of the Broadway Tabernacle. See Letter 1890. 2. On August 28, 1866, Ellen E. C. Stuart (951.2), widowed since 1863, married Elijah Ward (1816-1882), former judge advocate general of New York State, and a member of Congress. 3. Julia was apparently visiting her cousin Estelle I ves Mackie ( 1101.1) and her husband in Great Barrington.

1647. To Richard H. Dana

Dear Dana,

Office of The Evening Post, 41 Nassau Street, cor. Liberty, New York, Aug. 30, 1866.

I am in New York for a few hours today and shall set out again for Cummington tonight. From that place I will write to you again. Your letter 1 has just been put into my hands. Most certainly any answer made to Mr. Lawrence's letter will be published in the Evening

114

LETTERS

OF

WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT

Post. We could not refuse to publish that letter, but it was published in the expectation that it would be answered. Dr. Leavitt who wrote the notice of your son's edition of Wheaton is in the office and says that he has made some comparison of it with Lawrence's edition and finds no ground for Lawrence's charges. 2 I certainly hope that the answer will be written and sent on and the sooner it is done the more attention it is likely to attract. 3 Yours very cordially W. C. BRYANT. MANUSCRIPT: LH ADDRESS: R. H. Dana Esq. 1. Unrecovered, except for a short excerpt dated August 29 [1866] in Life, II, 248-249. 2. See Letter 1638. Joshua Leavitt (1794-1873, Yale 1814), a Congregational clergyman, and a journalistic reformer, was office editor of the Independent from 1848 to 1873. An unsigned article in the EP for August 11, presumably the notice written by Leavitt, praised "Dana's Wheaton," particularly its annotation, and remarked that Wheaton's family, the copyright owners, had "wisely engaged" Richard H. Dana, Jr., to edit the new edition of Wheaton's "Commentaries" (History of the Law of Nations). On August 22 the EP printed a "Letter from Mr. William Beach Lawrence" in which that earlier editor of the work accused Dana of stealing his notes and translations without acknowledgment, and demanded that the Post retract its claim of originality for Dana's editing. On the 27th, in a letter of nominal thanks to the editors for publishing his earlier letter, Lawrence renewed his charge of plagiarism against Dana. 3. Although, on August 30, the EP predicted that Dana would make a "vigorous defence" against Lawrence's charges upon his return from Europe, no such rely has been located in the EP between that date and October 1. See Letter 1649.

1648. To Reuben Eaton Fenton 1

Sir.

[cAugust 1866?]

The case of Edward B Ketchum, is I learn to be again presented to you for consideration. 2 It seems to me a case eminently worthy of clemency. The offense for which he was imprisoned was it is believed by persons best acquainted with him, and by men whose judgment of character is as much to be depended upon as that of any others in the community to have been committed under some unhappy delusion scarcely short of alienation of mind. The demands of justice in such a case have been amply satisfied by an incarceration of a year with all its ignominy. The testimony of the best men in the community is to the effect that such is their knowledge of his character, and of his previous dispositions that they would confide their interests to his care as readily now as at [the?] time the offense was committed [and when the utmost reliance was placed on his integrity?].3 The ends of the law therefore seem to me to be fully answered. Enough has been done to deter

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others from being misled by his example and enough to insure the future good conduct of [those ?] More than this a continuance of his imprisonment cannot do and I therefore think that public opinion will justify you in listening to the dictates of a wide humanity and granting a pardon .... MANUSCRIPT:

NYPL-GR (draft).

l. Reuben Eaton Fenton (1819-1885), a former Congressman, was the Republican Governor of New York, 1864-1868. 2. See Letter 1558. 3. This draft letter is in part illegible.

1649. To Richard H. Dana

Dear Dana.

Cummington

Sept. 1st. 1866.

I was hardly calm enough to answer immediately the very kind letter you wrote me about the time of my wife's death. I thank you for your ready sympathy, which was no less than what I expected from you. 1 You knew my wife pretty well, but you did not [know?] 2 how much one peculiarity of her character-her concern for the welfare of others, always strong in her-had grown of late years. The last time that she went out-then not quite well, was for the purpose of providing a poor worthy man in the village with a garden near his house. He had for years been unable to hire a piece of land under his window. My [wife)2 got the owner and the poor man face to face, struck a bargain paid the rent in advance and put the man, eighty years of age in possession, greatly to his delight. She has bequeathed several of her poor people to my care. One of her great anxieties was lest by the decay of illness and years she might become useless to those among whom she lived. I know my dear friend that she is happier where she is now than even her generous sympathies made her here, yet when I think of the suffering which attended her illness of eleven weeks, of the patience with which she compelled herself to endure it, and of her strong desire to remain a little longer with me and her children, though she subdued that desire to God's will, I cannot help feeling a sharp pang at the heart-notwithstanding that I am able to think of her as now beyond the reach of death pain and decay with the Divine Person whose example of love and beneficence she sought to copy, with the humblest estimate of her success. In this point of view my grief may be without cause, but there is yet another way to look at it. I lived with my wife forty five years, and now that great blessing of my life is withdrawn,

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and I am like one cast out of Paradise and wandering in a strange world. I hope yet to see all this in the light of which you speak-the light in which "Death duplicates those who are taken from us." Meantime I perceive this, that the example set me by her whom I have lost-of absolute sincerity, of active benevolence and of instant and resolute condemnation of whatever is unrighteous and inhuman-is more thought of and cherished by me than during her lifetime, and seems invested with a new sacredness. You will excuse whatever egotism there is in this, inasmuch as you seem to desire it-and I am sure there is scarce any person to whom I would write on this subject as I am doing to you. Mr. Phillips told you I suppose all about this place. He seemed well pleased with his visit, and I need not say how glad I should be to see you here, if you could but persuade yourself that you are able to come. I shall remain here, and Julia also, till the middle of this month, that is to say two weeks longer, and if you come I will show you some pleasant drives and a country quite different in its aspect from the eastern part of the state-a country of wide prospects, fine old woods, narrow valleys, broad green hills, dashing brooks and rocks. I did not tell you to whom your son should address his communications to the Evening Post. It is no matter-say "To the Editors of the Evening Post," and accompany what he writes with a little note saying that it is what I prc'llised to publish. 3 Ask your sister and son and daughter to bear me in their kind remembrance. Julia would join me in this but she is just now in Berkshire. Yours affectionately W. C. BRYANT. MANUSCRIPTS: NYPL-GR (draft and final) ADDRESS: R. H. Dana Esq. l. On August 1 Dana had written Bryant (NYPL-BG), "What beautiful spirit was hers through life! so affectionately thoughtful of others, so tranquilly cheerful, so soothing when the bitter asperities of life brought trouble, & spreading kindly influences over the household." 2. Word omitted. 3. See Letter 1652.

1650. To Richard Edwards

Dear sir

Roslyn, September 26,1866.

Mr. Alfred B. Street has his home at Albany in this state. 1 I am, sir, respectfully yours W. C. BRYANT.

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117

Library of Illinois State University at Normal ADDREss: Prof. R. Edwards.

1. See Letter 955.

1651. To John Howard Bryant

Dear Brother.

New York Sept. 28, 1866.

Enclosed I send you the deed to Mr. Morgan, in a complete form. Please let me know of its coming to hand. You will not deliver it I suppose until you get the first instalment of the money-and then with the understanding that the present tenant remains on the premises till next spring, which should I suppose be in writing. 1 Affectionately yours W. C. BRYANT. MANUSCRIPT:

WCL ADDRESS: John H. Bryant.

1. On the date of this letter Bryant conveyed to one William Morgan about 168 acres of land in Bureau County, Illinois, for $5,600.00, with a down payment of $2,400.00, plus $800.00 a year at seven percent for four years. David J. Baxter, "William Cullen Bryant: Illinois Landowner," Western Illinois Regional Studies I (Spring 1978), 13.

1652. To Edmund T. Dana 1

Dear Sir.

Roslyn, Long Island Saturday Evening Sept. 29th 1866.

I have this moment received yours of the 27th sent to me from town. Your letter desiring that a communication to the Nation should be republished in the Evening Post, was forwarded to me at Cummington and I immediately wrote to New York directing that your request should be complied with. 2 On coming from Massachusetts on the 20th of this month, one of the first inquiries I made was whether the directive had been attended to. I was shown your letter, reprinted from the Nation, a day or two before, in the E. P. 3 I am sorry that before writing your last note you did not take the pains to be certain that your letter to the Nation had not been republished and I venture to say that you will be no less so, on learning the truth of the matter. I am, sir, very respectfully yours, Wm C.

BRYANT.

LETTERS OF WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT

118

MANUSCRIPT: LH ADDRESS: Edmund T. Dana Esq. I No. 37 Chestnut Street I Boston I Massachusetts POSTMARK: NEW YORK I OCT I 1 DOCKETED: Bryant. l. Richard H. Dana's younger son; see 417 .2. 2. Neither of the letters mentioned has been recovered. 3. Under the caption "The Dana Edition of Wheaton," in The Nation for September 6, 1866, p. 196, there appeared a letter from Edmund T. Dana dated Boston, August 30, in which he defended his brother Richard H. Dana, Jr., against a charge of plagiarism brought by William B. Lawrence (see 1638.1). In this he took issue with a paragraph appearing in The Nation on August 30 in which the writer had said that, while Dana's work seemed largely new, "a cursory examination shows an apparent justice in Mr. Lawrence's statements."

1653.

To Messrs. Ticknor & Fields 1

Gentlemen.

Roslyn, Long Island October 5th. 1866.

I have before me the engraved likeness of the late President Lincoln, by Mr. Marshall, and cheerfully bear my testimony to the truth of the likeness and the fortunate manner in which the artist has rendered the expression of the original. Mr. Marshall has, in this work, well sustained his eminent reputation as an engraver, and I am glad that the many admirers of Mr. Lincoln's character have the opportunity of possessing a portrait in which the features of that wise and good man are so faithfully and vividly portrayed. 2 I am, gentlemen, truly yours. w. C. BRYANT. MANUSCRIPT: Chicago Historical Society ADDREss: To Messrs Ticknor & Fields. l. The Boston publishing firm of which James T. Fields was a partner. See 973.1. 2. After studying portraiture in Paris for two years under Thomas Couture (1815-1879), the New York painter and engraver William Edgar Marshall (18371906) returned to this country in 1865 to paint and then engrave a portrait of the late President, which was widely circulated. DAA. There are two oil portraits of Lincoln by Marshall in the collections of the New-York Historical Society, from one or both of which this engraving was perhaps taken. See Catalogue of American Portraits in The NewYork Historical Society; Oil Portraits Miniatures Sculptures (New York: The New-York Historical Society, 1941), pp. 185-186.

1654.

To D. E. Pierce 1

[Roslyn?] Oct

9th. 1866 .

. . I know very well the reputation of the Watchman and Reflector and that it is a credit to be numbered among its contributors. My engagements however are such that they occupy my whole time-and

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perhaps the love of ease incident to the age at which I have arrived has its influence upon me. For reasons of this kind I have for some time past declined to enter into any new literary engagements as I must now. 2 I am sir very respectfully &c W C BRYANT. MANUSCRIPT:

NYPL-GR (draft).

1. Unidentified. 2. The leading Baptist periodical, the Watchman and Recorder, of Boston, was founded in 1819 as the Chrutian Watchman.

1655. To John Howard Bryant

Dear Brother.

Roslyn, Long Island October 11th. I866.

I can tell you in part what Mr. Clark has neglected to inform you of. When I left Cummington towards the end of September, the dam for the pond was nearly completed. It was laid under Mr. Clark's direction with the large stones piled in a row near it, and others as large dug from the field north of it. There had been made a beginning of the ice-house. The barn with the stables was finished so far as the carpenter's work went and a tank was excavated under the stables, but not walled and cemented. The barn and its dependencies had been painted a sort of warm reddish brown tempered and softened with zinc white. Steps of wood had been put along the east side of the piazza. The bit of rock sticking out of the ground northeast of the wood house had been broken off and taken out and the ground west of the house sloped and smoothed. Arrangements had been made for removing the track of the road south of the house to a greater distance. The farm road, through the wood to the new orchard had been begun by cutting away the trees in its course. The workmen were laying a wall on the west side of the south half of that wood beginning at the road which leads to the burial ground. The school house at the corner of the new orchard had two or three men at work upon it and was in a fair way of being finished. In the wood house north of the kitchen at the homestead I had directed two chambers to be made under the roof where Mr. Dawes might put his men and for this purpose a dormer window must be opened. Julia had sent back some of the furniture which did not seem quite suitable, and had added other pieces, both to the sitting rooms and the bed rooms, among which was a rather magnificent set of bedroom furniture with black walnut

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trimmings for the large room in the attic. She had also ordered some other furniture which had not arrived. A travelling agent of a Rochester nursery man named I think Covey [the nursery man's namethe agents name is Foot] came along and I ordered some plum trees of him for next spring, besides four pear trees of the Doyenne d'Ete variety, two on quince and two on the pear stocks. 1 I think I have now told you all I know and a great deal more than Mr. Clark would tell you if he were to write twenty letters. I should however add, that I learn from Mr. Clark that he is getting on slowly, having but one workman. -I suppose he means but one carpenter. Moreover, the very morning after I arrived, I had the lower branches sawn off from the maples in front of the house so as to open the noble view east of them to those who were on the piazza. 2 Mrs. Emerson and her daughter Tirza came and passed some ten days at the place as our guests and we left them there. 3 They seem to be very nice people, and I found the young lady quite intelligent. Before them we had Judge Phillips-Willard-for three or four days, to look at the places familiar to him in his youth and hunt up two or three very old people whom he had known before he went to college. 4 I took back, as I may have told you, Miss Jenny Hopkins to remain with us until we returned. She had relapsed into her former state of health almost immediately on her return. I am sorry to hear that the maize crop in Illinois has suffered so much from the frost. Here at Roslyn, there has not been frost enough to injure the tenderest plant-though higher up, on the plain the plants of the gourd kind have been nipped. Kind regards to allYrs affectionately W. C. BRYANT MANUSCRIPT: NYPL-BFP ADDRESS: John H. Bryant Esq. 1. A memorandum of this order, in Bryant's holograph, is in the Bryant Homestead Collection at Cummington. It reads: Fruit trees ordered by me of Lucius Foot of Lee, agent of Alcock Covey of Penfield near Rochester- September 1866. Plum Trees

3 Monroe 1 Domine Dull 1 Peach Plum 1 Columbus 1 Large Egg.

Cherry Trees

1 Reine Hortense 1 Early Richmond 1 Carnation 1 Belle Magnifique 1 Belle de Choisy 1 Black Begarreau

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Pear Trees 2 Doyenne d'Ete on Pear Stock 2 do. on Quince2. Several of these sugar maples, planted by Bryant and his brothers under their mother's direction in their early youth, are still standing. See Volume I, 11. 3. Unidentified. 4. See Volume I, 13-14.

1656. To Thomas Bailey Aldrich 1

My dear sir.

Roslyn, Long Island, Oct. 18th. 1866.

I thank you for the touching and graceful story of Pere Antoine's Date Palm. 2 It is soon read through, but it leaves an impression such as many longer narratives fail to make. Will you forgive me, if I refer to what seems to me an inaccuracy, speaking as a naturalist, in the description of the young date palm. I have seen the tree in all the stages of its growth. It is never a delicate plant, except perhaps when it first sprouts from the seed, and it never has a slender or flexible stem. When a very young tree the diameter of the stem, is as great as when at its loftiest growth. It grows upward, but never expands its circumference. 3 I am sir truly yours, W. C. BRYANT. MANUSCRIPT:

HCL (final copy); NYPL-FR (draft)

ADDRESs:

T. B. Aldrich Esq.

1. Thomas Bailey Aldrich (1836-1907), a poet and writer of prose fiction, had worked as a journalist for several years in New York before moving to Boston in 1865 as editor of Every Saturday. 2. Pere Antoine's Date Palm, a short tale published at Cambridge, England, in 1866. 3. Although he seems to have made no specific comments on the date palm in his travel letters and diaries during his visit to the Middle East in 1853, Bryant had ample opportunity to observe the trees intimately. See Letters 817-829, passim.

1657. To James T. Fields

Roslyn, October 18th [1866]

... It is very kind of you to pay me the compliment of asking me for more verses for the "Atlantic Monthly." It is almost enough to make an old man think himself a poet again. I can, however, send you nothing at present. I have nothing on hand, and nothing occurs to me; and, as I do not care to write verses "mit Gewalt," [by force] as the

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Germans say, or "whether or no," as we say in old-fashioned English, I pray you, for this time, to hold me excused .... 1 MANUSCRIPT: Unrecovered TEXT (partial): Life, II, 250. 1. But see Letters 1659, 1660.

1658.

To Daniel C. Gilman 1

Roslyn Long Island October 18th. 1866.

Dear sir

Enclosed you have five dollars, my assessment to the Oriental Society for 1866--7. Please receipt and return the bill. I am, sir, very respectfully yours. w. C. BRYANT. MANUSCRIPT: JHUL ADDRESS: D. C. Gilman. 1. See 840.1.

1659.

To James T. Fields

[Roslyn] October 31st

Dear Mr. Fields.

1866.

I could send you the Contention between Agamemnon and Achilles-that is to say, half the first Book of the Iliad-but would not that be too much? I should be sorry to overwhelm you with verse. Please say. It will want a little revision yet. 1 Yours truly W. C. BRYANT. MANUSCRIPT: HCL ADDRESS: Jas. T. Fields. 1. Although Bryant had previously tried his hand at translating Homer, including his blank verse version of the Fifth Book of the Odyssey in his Thirty Poems (1864, pp. 150-183), and experimenting, as we have seen, with a few hexameter lines from the Iliad (Letter 1331 ), after his wife's death he turned for distraction to a sustained effort to render the great Greek epics into English verse. In similar circumstances Longfellow had sought solace by undertaking a translation of Dante's Divine Comedy, published in 1865-1867. See Letter 1660.

1660.

To James T. Fields

[Roslyn, New York, November 6, 1866]

... I send you the first half of the First Book of the Iliad translated by me, relating to the contention between Achilles and Agememnon. 1 If

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it be desirable that I should see the proof, it should be sent to me immediately as I may possibly not be in these parts in about ten days from [this?] time .... Unrecovered 17, 1944), item 29.

MANUSCRIPT:

TEXT

(partial): Parke-Bernet Catalogue No. 588 (October

I. Lines 1-381, in The Iliad of Homer Translated into English Blank Verse by William Cullen Bryant. Two Volumes in .One (Boston and New York, 1870). This passage was published in the Atlantic Monthly for January 1867, pp. 90-99.

1661. To George Bancroft

Roslyn, Nov. 12th

Dear Mr. Bancroft.

1866.

I thank you for your new volume, which, though I have not had time to read it in course, I have read parts of with great interest. The battle of Trenton you have described as an eye witness might have done, with wonderful spirit and an admirable selection of circumstances. No man after reading that should say that Washington's battles were not as ably conducted as his campaigns. 1 I must thank you also for a very kind letter written some weeks since. 2 I am just on the point of going to Europe in the Pereire. 3 I leave you in God's hand with my best wishes. Kind regards and farewells to Mrs. Bancroft. I am, dear sir, faithfully yours, W. C. BRYANT. MANUSCRIPT:

MHS

ADDRESS:

Hon

Geo

Bancroft.

1. This was Volume IX in Bancroft's History of the United States from the Discovery of the American Continent, the first volume of which had appeared in 1834.

2. On September 16 Bancroft had written Bryant a letter of sympathy on the death of his wife. NYPL-BG. 3. On November 17 Bryant, Julia, and Laura Leupp, a daughter of Bryant's late friend Charles M. Leupp (421.1; 487.1), sailed for France on the French steamer Pereire. They were accompanied as far as Paris by John Durand (812.1), Bryant's and Leupp's companion on their visit to the Holy Land in 1852-1853.

1662.

To Ignaz Anton Pilat 1

My dear sir.

Roslyn, Nov. 12th. 1866.

I am about to sail for Havre with a design to pass the winter in Europe. If I am not back in the spring I shall nevertheless depend

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upon you to come out to Mr. Cline's and plan and put in order my lot in the Roslyn Cemetery. I wish to employ you professionally in this matter, and Mr. Cline will see that you are compensated according to your usual custom. 2 I am, dear sir, very truly yours. W. C. BRYANT. MANUSCRIPT: BLR ADDRESS: Ignatz' Pilat. l. Austrian-born Ignaz Anton Pilat (1820-1870) had emigrated to the United States in 1848, after a successful early career as a landscape gardener in his native country, where he had been connected with the Imperial Botanical Gardens at Schonbrunn Palace in Vienna, and had designed a park for Prince Metternich. Engaged for several years in laying out the grounds of several estates in Georgia, he had returned briefly to Vienna to direct its botanical garden before accepting an invitation to make a botanical survey of New York's new Central Park, the results of which he published in 1857. The following year, upon the adoption of Olmsted and Vaux's Greensward Plan for the park, Pilat was appointed chief landscape gardener, and was consequently responsible until his death in 1870 for implementing their conception. See Elizabeth Barlow, The Central Park Book [New York], Central Park Task Force [1977], pp. [26]-28. 2. Bryant had no doubt become acquainted with Pilat at or shortly after the time his EP printing office published the Greensward Plan. This letter seems to imply that Pilat had offered to design the landscaping and monument for the Bryant plot in the Roslyn Cemetery. See Letter 1773. 3. In subsequent correspondence Bryant corrected his spelling of Pilat's first name. See Letter 1862.

1663. To George B. Cline

Paris [December 1, 1866)1

In regard to the trees on the hill and those near the boat-house which did not put forth leaves this spring, I should be glad if you could ascertain by any marks upon them to what varieties of fruit they belonged, that you could replace them. If they were pears, the best way would be to plant others in their place this fall as soon as the leaves begin to drop. If they were cherry or plum trees, the best time, according to my experience, is to plant them early in the spring, and to mulch the ground about their roots, that they may not suffer by the hot dry weather of the ensuing summer .... In addition to what I have already said concerning the things I wish to have done on the farm, I have at present only to say that I should like a small crop of wheat put in this fall, that I may have something to eat when I return ....

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Unrecovered TEXT (partial): Bigelow, Bryant, p. 267.

1. The date is supplied from Bryant's "Diary,

1664. To Isaac Henderson

My dear sir.

186~1867,"

Paris, Saturday

December 1, 1866.

Dec

1st

1866.

Today is just a fortnight since I left the United States, and I have been in France ever since Monday night. We had a remarkably smooth and prosperous passage, with mild weather; the female passengers of whom there were many, keeping on deck the greater part of the time. We landed at Brest, an old picturesque town of Brittany where we found a comfortless hotel and damp beds. This was in the evening and there was a good deal of delay in our landing-very different from the despatch used in our country. Julia and Miss Leupp bore the voyage very well, but they as well as myself were kept a little qualmish and uncomfortable all the way owing to the constant roll of the vessel from side to side. I think I have never seen on any voyage so many passengers who could not come to the table and to whom the steward had to carry their meals. About half the passengers landed at Brest but the rest who went on to Havre had rather a hard time, met contrary winds and a rough sea, and had wet decks and were detained at Havre by the fall of the tide and did not get to Paris until after we did, although we took two days and a half to get here, stopping at Rennes to see its beautiful promenades, and at Chartres to see its grand old cathedral, the finest in France. Paris is a very fine place and much embellished since I saw it lastbut it is a very chilly place in winter and living here seems to ones sensations very much like being in a barn. The climate in the region where we landed seemed much softer than here. Brittany is a kind of peninsula stretching out into the sea which affects the temperature of the air. I have seen Mr. Godwin and Mr. Bigelow. Mr. Bigelow tells me that our troops have occupied Matamoros. 1 I hope we are not going to exhibit ourselves to the eyes of the world as a military power, interfering with the affairs of its neighbors, regulating them according to our caprice, and helping ourselves occasionally to a slice of their territory. We stand very well before the world now, having compelled Napoleon to leave Mexico, but I hope we are not about to do the same thing that we condemned in him. As for Lower California and Sonora, they will drop into our hands soon enough if we want them. The overflow of our population will make them ours.

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Please show this letter to Mr. Nordhoff, 2 who I think will see this subject in the same light that I do. I fear that our Executive is bent, through Mr. Seward's advice, on getting up some new subject of discussion in which it hopes, by appealing to the national vanity, to get the advantage of the opposition. We expect to stay here not more than a fortnight. Whether we shall then go to the south of France or to Spain is not quite determined. In Spain the conveniences of travel, have been greatly multiplied since I was there last. Railroads have been made to places which I then desired to visit but could not conveniently. Mr. Bigelow tells me that the Emperor 3 is quite unpopular with the people. Ill health, the loss of his reputation for sagacity, the results of the war between Prussia and Austria, the failure of the Mexican expedition, a project which was always exceedingly unacceptable to the French-these have made his relations with his subjects by no means pleasant. Mr. Bigelow adds that if our government should, however, now that the Emperor has fully decided to renounce the Mexican expedition, take a bullying course, or any thing like it, it may give him an advantage that he wishes and unite the French against us. Kind regards to Mrs. Henderson and all your family in which as well as to yourself Julia and Miss Leupp join Yours very truly W. C. BRYANT. P.S. Please send me the semi-weekly-if I have not ordered it. W C B P.S. We liked our steamer. The table was excellent and the attendance also. Please send twenty five dollars to Alfred Pell jr. or Robert Pell to make me a Life Member of the Free Trade Club. 4 Please put the letter to Mr. Cline in an envelope and send it W C B MANUSCRIPT: UTex ADDRESS: I. Henderson Esq I Office of the Evening Post. I New York I United States of America POSTMARK: 6E I DEC I 66 ENDORSED: JOHN MUNROE & CO? PARIS I 7 RUE SCHRIBE I Par Steamer I P' les Etats Unis. PUBLISHED: Bryant and Henderson, pp. 9-11. 1. In November 1866 the American commander at Brownsville, Texas, Col. Thomas D. Sedgwick, entered Mexico with troops and occupied the town of Matamoros. He withdrew on orders on November 30, and was relieved of his command. J. E. Cadenhead, Jr., jesus Gonzalez Ortega and Mexican National Politics (Forth Worth: Texas Christian University Press, 1972), p. 116. 2. Charles Nordhoff (1451.2), then managing editor of the EP. 3. Napoleon III (1120.8). 4. The American Free-Trade League, with offices at 205 Broadway, New York, of which Bryant was one of the organizers, and which gave him a testimonial banquet

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as its president on January 30, 1868, at Delmonico's Restaurant at Fifth Avenue and Fourteenth Street. The League, No. 10 (March 1868), pp. [105]-114.

1665. To Horatio J. Perry 1

Paris

My dear Mr. Perry.

Dec. 11th

1866.

I am about to leave Paris for Amelie les Bains in the Department of the Pyrenees Orientales-a little south of Perpignan. My daughter Julia and a friend of hers are with me. Will you do me the favor to inform me by a letter addressed to me at Amelie les Bains, whether Spain is in so quiet a state at present that travellers are not likely to meet with molestation or discomfort. I make the enquiry because there are some rumors here of popular disturbances &c. If every thing is quiet I hope to proceed as far in Spain as Valencia at least perhaps further. Might I ask of you a letter to some person in Valencia, whose acquaintance might be useful to a perfect stranger like me? 2 Be pleased to make my best regards to Mrs. Perry and those of my daughter also, who desires to be kindly remembered by you. I am dear sir very truly yours W C B MANUSCRIPT:

NYPL-GR (draft) ADDRESS: Hon

H.

J. Perry

I

Secy of Legation.

I. See Volume III, 410; 993.1. 2. Attached to this letter is an itinerary in French, in an unknown hand, outlining a route by railroad or diligence through seven or eight Spanish cities.

1666. To Christiana Gibson

My dear Miss Gibson,

Amelie les Bains, Pyrenees Orientales. December 18th, 1866.

It was a very kind letter that you wrote to me 1 before I left

America, and so true and just was all that you said of her whom I have lost, that I have preserved it among my precious things. We were rejoiced to hear again from you at Paris, but our pleasure would have been infinitely greater if we could have met with you somewhere upon the continent. If you were now here with us at this winter-wateringplace, for example, in the Eastern Pyrenees, I am sure you would be entertained for a little time at least- Here they say the cold of the winter months never comes, there is never frost enough to "Mould the round hail or flake the fleecy snow" 2

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I saw two or three banana plants today in the garden of the Pujade house, where we are staying. The orange here perfects its fruit, and various plants of the tropics are planted in the walks. There is a lower chain of the Pyrenees which defends the place from the mistral, which, coming down from the Alps in the winter months, benumbs all the South of France with cold, except a few sheltered situations like this. Here, at the foot of a tall grim precipice, cloven to a vast depth to let through a noisy stream, hot springs break forth, some of them sulphurous and medicinal, and frequented in the time of the Romans. These and the benign climate bring to Amelie les Bains great numbers of persons, mostly French with a very few English, and more Germans, some of them invalids and some not. It is called a dull place, however, by the French, un triste sejour, and indeed it is so, to those who have no resources in themselves, for there are no entertainments that I can hear of, and no excursions, or almost none to be made. Yet the walks are pretty among the precipices and up the crags tufted with heath and broom and lavender and rosemary; and through the vineyards on the hillsides, with here and there an olive tree, an evergreen oak, or a cork tree in full foliage. One or two of the paths conduct you to cascades in the stream that comes tumbling through the deep and narrow chasm of which I have spoken. The people of this region, as far as Perpignan, speak the Catalan language, and are I suppose a branch of the Catalonian race. Their physiognomy is somewhat peculiar, but intelligent, and sometimes they are handsome. We shall stay here, I do not know how long, and then decide whether we shall go to Spain or immediately to Italy. I found Paris a melancholy place. I had been there often, but never save in company with some one now in the grave. I could not bring myself to care for any thing it had to show me. Short days, a lowering, weeping sky a perpetual twilight, a chilly atmosphere and not very pleasant rooms, made the place seem still more dreary, and I was glad after a fortnight to make my escape. At Perpignan I rejoiced to see the sun again, and to walk in a dry street for the first time since I had been in France. Julia, though a fastidious traveller, and somewhat overanxious in precautions and preparation, seems pleased with this visit to Europe, and is the better for it. If she were here at hand, as I write, she would send her warmest love to you all. Miss Laura Leupp, who is with us, is a pleasant fellow traveller, and at times quite witty. 3 Ask your excellent mother and sisters to bear me in their kindest remembrance, and believe me ever cordially yours, W. C. BRYANT

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NYPL-BPMP ADDRESS: Miss Christiana Gibson DOCKETED: Mr. Bryant, Dec. 18 I 1866. PUBLISHED (in part, with changes): Life, II, 253.

MANUSCRIPT:

1. Letter unrecovered. 2. Quotation unidentified. 3. One of three daughters of the late Charles M. Leupp.

1667. To Fanny Bryant Godwin

Dear Fanny.

Amelie les Bains, Pyrenees Orientales December 18th 1866.

Julia's head has been so much affected by sea sickness that it gives her a violent headache to write-and she desires me to complete her letter. We have come here because we were quite sick of Paris-its short days, lowering skies, mists, wet streets and chilly rooms. Here is sunshine and mild weather, and orange and pleasant walks, and little cascades, and hot springs impregnated with brimstone. If we go to Spain we thought that this might be a pleasant stopping place, and we are not disappointed. It is a winter watering place shielded by mountains from the mistral, and the resort of invalids and others who wish to escape from the winter which is felt every where to the North of this and in most places of the same latitude. Yet the place is a dull one so far as entertainments and excursions are concerned-nor though picturesque is it so in the high degree that the Baths of Luchon are and some other places of like resort. I am glad to learn that you are so comfortably situated in Florence. If we go to Spain we shall probably not overtake you till some time in February. I think I must set Julia to drinking the waters of this place to see if they will not correct the state of her stomach. My own is not quite right yet although it is three weeks and a half since we landed. I hear from New York that every thing is going on well at the office. Miss Sands wrote on the 30th of November that the month had been delightful after we came away. Bierstadt is married and bought a house. 1 Love to the children. Yours affectionately W C BRYANT MANUSCRIPT:

NYPL-GR ADDRESS: Mrs. F. B. Godwin.

1. The landscape painter Albert Bierstadt (558.2; see also 1270.1; Letter 1279).

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1668. To Richard H. Dana

Dear Dana,

Amelie les Bains, Pyrenees Orientales, December 19, 1866.

I got your very kind letter of farewelP at Paris some days since, and cannot resist the temptation to answer it. I had a quick passage across the ocean, and a smooth one-nine days and a few hours-but though the sea was not rough, the screw steamer Pereire, in which we were, rolled so from side to side, that most of the passengers were sick, I among the rest, and it has taken me much longer to get over the sickness than it ever did before. We landed at Brest-where the French coast sends a long neck of land far into the Atlantic and finds an island temperature. It is a fine picturesque old Breton town, with houses of a quaint architecture, on a bold shore, with high ramparts, and all around were green fields, long grass as fresh as in May, and winding hedge rows of various shrubs with more than half their leaves on the branches. We went to Paris, stopping at Rennes, to see its fine promenades and views, and at Chartres to look at its noble old cathedral, one of the finest I had seen. At Paris we remained but a fortnight, and that an unpleasant one. It was so dark and rainy and chilly and wet that I took no comfort, and I found that I had too many acquaintances there. 2 Besides, you can imagine how sad the place must seem to me when I tell you that I had never visited it before but in company with some friend now no longer living. So, as soon as Julia was ready, we came away to this place, only stopping for a day at Blois, to see the grand old castle, a former residence of the kings of Francethe good Louis XII the cruel Charles IX, Francis the First and two or three of the Henrys. 3 The [bui]lding has been restored in the old manner so as to make it look precisely as it did in the time of these monarchs, with the same coloring of the walls, the same gilding, and all the architectural embellishments, and is certainly a striking reproduction of the somewhat barbaric magnificence of the time of Catherine de Medicis who died in the castle. 4 As we approached this place we came out of the mist into sunshine, and here we can see the evening star again. This is a place of hot springs open all the year but most resorted to in winter, on account of the uniformity of the climate; for, lying in a little valley of the Eastern Pyrenees it never feels the piercing winds that sweep down from the Alps and chill the whole region north of these mountains, reaching sometimes even to Nice. Here flourish the orange and cork tree and the evergreen oak, and I clamber by zigzag paths, up precipices, in the crevices of which grow the broom, lavender, rose-

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mary, and other little shrubs that keep green all the year. The hot springs gush out at the foot of these precipices, in little brooks. They have an impregnation of sulphur, and are a place of considerable resort for invalids, hundreds of whom are now here. They were known to the Romans and I have just been looking at a Roman pavementpart of an ancient bath, upon which M. Pereire, the Parisian financier, is erecting a building constructed in the old Roman manner, with vaulted cells on the sides and a plunging bath-a piscine they call it here-in the middle.- I have written I fear a dull letter-perhaps you can read it. We may visit from this place a part of Spain-or go on to Italy. Best regards to all your household, and Julias love to all Yours ever, W. C. BRYANT. MANUSCRIPT:

NYPL-GR ADDREss: R. H. Dana Esq.

1. Unrecovered. 2. On December 8 Bryant had been one of 138 members of the American colony in Paris to sign an invitation to Bigelow to a dinner in his honor at the Grand Hotel on December 19. But since the Bryant party had already engaged to leave for the south of France and Spain on the 13th, Charles King (196.3) presided at the banquet in Bryant's stead. Bigelow, Retrospections, II, 649-652; Bryant, "Diary, 1866-1867," December 8, 13. 3. Louis XII (1462-1515), King of France, 1498-1515; Charles IX (1550-1574), King of France, 1560-1574; Francis I (1494-1547), King of France, 1515-1547. 4. Catherine de Medicis (1519-1589) was the wife of Henry II (1519-1559), King of France, 1547-1559, and the mother of Charles IX.

1669.

To Catharine M. Sedgwick

Amelie-les-Bains, December 20th [1866] .

. . . I got your kind farewell letter 1 in Paris, and thanked you in my heart for such an evidence of your friendship. I was very glad to hear that your ill-health is not attended with much suffering, and pray that it may never be. I did not leave home for my own delectation, nor to get rid of the associations of the place; indeed, I felt some unwillingness to come away; but Julia, whose health is quite delicate, desired to come abroad, and her physician thought it might do her much good. So we came, taking the resolution rather suddenly. I was in Paris a fortnight, and wondered to find it so dreary a place .... Here is one of the most equable winter climates in Europe, with a sky almost continually serene. In this valley grow the orange and the cork-tree, and the evergreen oak, and various plants of the tropics find no degree of cold which they cannot survive. A little palm-tree is springing up under my

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window. I climb the crags back of the house where I lodge, and the air is fragrant with lavender and rosemary, and other aromatic herbs, growing in the crevices of the rocks, and bruised under my steps. At the foot of these tall precipices gush out copious hot springs, some of them containing sulphur, and these supply large numbers of bathingrooms, to which invalids resort from all parts of France. Hundreds of this class, many of whom will not go away any better, are here, and other hundreds who come for the sake of the climate. Among them are perhaps half a dozen English, and one American besides myself, who cannot speak a word of any language but his own, and is in a hotel where nobody speaks English, so that he has society with some of the advantages of solitude .... 2 MANUSCRIPT: Unrecovered TEXT (partial): Life, II, 254-255. 1. Unrecovered.

2. This was evidently a Mr. Reed from New Orleans, with whom Bryant walked

and climbed. Bryant, "Diary, 1866-1867," December 19.

1670.

To L'Abbe Gaspard de Leusse

My dear sir,

Amelie les Bains, Dec

24, 1866.

About to leave this place for Spain I cannot resist the temptation to take leave of you in this manner. After what I saw of the fatigue which conversation occasioned you I could not venture to seek another interview. Yet I cannot but greatly regret that I could not see more of one whose conversation and manners had made so agreeable an impression upon me. Allow me on departing to express my earnest wish that you may find in the equable climate and serene skies of this little valley the health you have come to seek. 1 I am sir, very truly yours W C BRYANT MANUSCRIPT: NYPL-GR (draft) ADDREss: M. !'Abbe de Leusse. 1. At Paris the wife of Bryant's New York friend John A. C. Gray (Letter 1269) had given the traveler a letter of introduction to the Abbe Gaspard de Leusse, visiting Amelie les Bains for his health. Bryant found him agreeable and quite fluent in English, but very ill. Bryant, "Diary, 1866-1867," December 12, 18.

1671.

To the

EvENING

PosT

Amelie les Bains, Pyrenees Orientales, December 24, 1866.

Perhaps the readers of the Evening Post might like to read a little account of this winter watering-place. Amelie les Bains lies in a little

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valley, on the river Tech, in the Eastern Pyrenees, where hot springs, some of them impregnated with sulphur, gush out of a steep, tall crag, in copious brooks, and at this season smoke down its sides till they reach the Mondony, a tributary of the Tech. The great rock which supplies these springs is cloven by a narrow and deep chasm through which the Mondony tumbles noisily in a series of cascades. Close to the springs, and in the shadow of the rock, are built the hotels; just now they get about two hours of sunshine daily, and no more. They are crowded, however, mostly with invalids, chiefly French, who vie with each other for the possession of the rooms where, for that short space, the rays of the sun come in at the windows. The Country and the People. This absence of sunshine in winter is, however, compensated for by the serenity of the sky, its brightness at morning and evening, and the uniformity of the temperature, which is such that many plants of the tropics flourish here as in their native latitudes. I had become quite weary of Paris, it ever-lowering skies, its wet streets, slippery with a thin layer of mud, and its damp and chilly air. I had been there a fortnight, and it seemed to me that a perpetual twilight brooded over the place. I left it by rail with the rest of my party on one of its rainy mornings, and stopping at Blois to look at the castle once inhabited by the kings of France, which has lately been magnificently restored, so that the huge old chimney-pieces, where roared the winter fires before the woods were cut down all over France, blaze with gilding as they did in the time of Catherine de Medicis-we ran out of the mist, on the evening of the third rainy day at Narbonne, and were delighted with a sight of the evening star and the crescent moon in a transparent sky. From Narbonne to Perpignan the railway passes, for a great part of the distance, close to the Mediterranean, and is constructed in the rocky shallows which separate its craggy promontories and inlets. The next day-it was now the middle of December-was like a day in early June with us. We set out in the diligence, in sight of the peaks of the Pyrenees, gleaming with snow in the middle heaven, and passing through a fertile plain, planted in part with vines which yield the wine of Roussillon, and hedged along the way, sometimes with the aloe, sometimes with the soft almond, and sometimes with a row of tall reeds, we entered at length the narrow valley of the Tech, where that river winds among the lower spurs of the Eastern Pyrenees. At a village called Ceret, in this valley, our diligence stopped for half an hour, and we had an opportunity to observe the people who thronged the streets in their holiday dresses. Many of the men wore scarlet woolen caps, and nearly all the women a dose-fitting cap of white

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muslin. They all spoke an accented language which was strange to us. It was the Catalan-the same dialect which is spoken in Barcelona, and which is the household speech in a district of France almost as large as Catalonia itself, and although its harshness of pronunciation is somewhat softened within the limits of France, the people of Perpignan and Barcelona understand each other. The young women, I observed, with olive complexions, dark eyes and hair, and regular noses, had a pleasing expression of countenance, not unintelligent, with a strong family likeness, looking as if they were so many sisters, and some of them were handsome. As we left Ceret I observed that the gardens, enclosed with walls of stone, were full of orange trees, heavily loaded with their golden fruit. A few miles further, the smoothest and hardest of macadamized roads, beside the meanderings of the Tech, and deep within the folds of the Pyrenees, brought us to the village of Amelie les Bains, about half a mile from the springs, where we descended from the diligence in the midst of a crowd of porters and gazers chattering Catalan. A servant of Dr. Pujade offered to conduct us to the Thermal Establishment of the doctor, which is the name of one of the hotels. We accepted his guidance and in a short time were established in the sunniest rooms which were vacant, looking upon the great rock which is the birthplace of the springs. The cruel wind called the mistral, which in the winter season sweeps down from the Alps, and makes all the south of France miserable with cold, is scarcely felt in this region, shielded from its breath by the mountains among which it lies. On this account thousands for whom a mild and uniform winter climate is prescribed by their physicians annually resort to it. There are orange trees growing under my window full of fruit, notwithstanding the little sun they get at this season, and a young date-palm looks as promising and thrifty as any that I saw a few years ago at Memphis. In Dr. Pujade's garden grow several banana plants-not the most vigorous specimens, to be sure, but they are still banana plants, and are growing. The Japanese loquat, which I have only seen in Malta, flourishes in thickets. The Visitors. Among the walks embowered by the evergreens of more southern climates, are seen slowly moving about the persons who resort hither for health-emaciated men and women with mufflers around their necks and up to their nostrils, pale women drawn about in Bath chairs, paralytics shuffling along, and people supported on crutches. When the sun leaves the hotels, which at this season may be soon after one o'clock, they cross the Tech on a little foot-bridge where the stream,

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pent among rocks, roars down a white waterfall, and bask in the midday rays at the foot of the mountains on the northern side of the valley. Here you see them sitting or strolling about, quietly taking the sun, till his nearness to the mountain tops on the southwest side admonishes them to return to their lodgings. In the evening many of them assemble in the saloon or common parlor of the hotel, where there is a piano, and listen to music, if there be anybody present who can play. Sometimes, I hear, they get up a dance, but whether any of the representatives of Bunyan's Mr. Ready-to-halt, who with his crutch "footed it well," take part in this amusement, I have not learned. 1 Plants. The great crag which yields the hot springs is in its lower part laid out in terraces, forming a garden immediately back of the "Thermal Establishment" of Dr. Pujade. Above the garden a zig-zag path ascends the rocks, with stations and seats from which fine views are obtained of the valley with its green fields, and the mountain sides above it planted with vines. As you climb upwards you set your steps upon lavender and rosemary growing in the clefts of the rocks, and their fragrance reminds you that you have bruised their leaves. Beside them spring the box and the broom, a species of dwarf laburnum that keeps its foliage all winter, and other evergreen plants. Among these are planted various exotica, and the declivities on all sides are full of holes dug in the ground to receive others. From my window I often see an old gentleman, of a stooping figure, in a great coat and muffler, directing workmen where to plant shrubs and trees. It is Doctor Pujade himself, now eighty years old, preserved to that age, perhaps, by using his own baths, or by not using them, for that is a point which I have not investigated. He is an object of much interest to me, when I see him thus diligently adorning the breast of the general mother in which he is so soon to sleep. Roman Baths. Besides the hotel, if he will allow me to call it so, of Dr. Pujade, there is another principal lodging house, the Hotel Pereire, named after its owner, the well-known French financier. Here are baths constructed after the old Roman manner, a low building with a skylight in the centre of the roof, a plunging bath in the middle of the floor, and vaulted cells on the sides for single bathers. Close to this another and larger building is going up and is nearly finished, in which the plunging bath has for its floor the pavement of an old Roman bath laid in narrow brick. Over the cells on each side are galleries for those who are to take the vapor baths.

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The Hot Springs. I have mentioned that only a part of the hot springs are impregnated with sulphur. Those are employed for the cure of complaints of the chest, rheumatisms and the like. The sulphurous odor is not very powerful, and the water glitters in a tumbler, when freshly drawn, with a silvery lustre. The other hot springs serve a great variety of domestic uses. In the Hotel Pereire the water is conducted by pipes through the building to warm the chambers in the chilly, sunless mornings and afternoons. The warm liquid is also gathered into reservoirs of masonry, at which the washer-women of the place are busy from morning to night. A fountain in the middle of the village is constantly flowing, to which people resort at all hours and get their hot water without the trouble of kindling a fire. A pretty bridge crosses the Tech near the hotels, bestriding a deep glen, and carries a rivulet of hot water to the Military Hospital on the other side. Such is Amelie les Bains-a still and rather sad place; yet, after all, no unattractive sojourn for one who is in search of health from the influences of climate. Of the efficacy of its mineral waters I do not pretend to speak. Its great advantages are the singular uniformity and serenity of its climate, and the charming walks which are led along its mountain sides and beside its noisy river. I have been here eight days, and during that time there has been scarce any perceptible difference between one day and another. The sky has been constantly clear. One of the guests at the Hotel Pereire tells me that he has been here more than six weeks, and in all that time it had rained but once. The disadvantages are the chilly situation of the hotels in the shadow of the great crag by which they are built, the dirt of the village, the uncomfortableness of the hotels, and the multitude of fleas, which probably came in with the Romans. My fellow-travellers complain bitterly of these tormentors. 2 The crinoline is a sort of drag-net for fleas, rousing them from their lurking places, gathering them up and concentrating them about the person. I have exhausted all the walks about the place, and it has nothing more to show me. We have made our arrangements for proceeding this very day to Barcelona in Spain, having received intelligence that travelling is perfectly safe there, notwithstanding the rumors we hear. W.C.B. MANUSCRIPT: NYPL-GR (draft) TEXT: EP, January [22?] 1867. 1. In John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress (1678-1679), Mr. Ready-to-Halt, upon reaching Beulah in sight of the Celestial City, and seeing that chariots are waiting to carry him there, bequeaths his crutches to his son. 2. The "fellow-travellers" were Julia and Laura; see Bryant's "Diary, 1866-1867," December 22.

The Morn Hath Not the Glory

1672. To John Durand

My dear sir.

Barcelona, Dec

137

27th

1866.

Here we are, in the chief city of Catalonia, at the Fonda de las Cuatros Naci6nes, on the Rambla, the only beautiful street in the town, and a very fine street it is, with two rows of the Oriental plane tree in the middle between which people in great numbers walk up and down while the side streets are left to the carriages. We had rainy weather till we got to Narbonne and we have had fine weather ever since. We were eight days at Amelie les Bains in the Eastern Pyrenees, a winter watering place about twenty two miles south of Perpignan-where we found a remarkably mild and uniform temperature, and very beautiful walks. The place is in a narrow valley of the Tech, sheltered by mountains from the mistral, and hot springs break out from a high crag, in smoking rivulets. Some of the springs are sulphurous and medicinal. But our accommodations were not very good, the hotels are so much in the shadow of the great precipice that yields the springs that we hardly got at this season more than two hours sunshine in the day. The place, moreover, was full of sorry looking invalids. On the morning but one before I left the place I received a letter from Mr. Perry, Secretary of Legation at Madrid informing me that there never was a time when Spain could be more pleasantly and safely visited. 1 So the next day but one, Monday we came by diligence to Gerona, and there took the railway train which brought us hither on Christmas mormng. What our plans will be I cannot yet say with any precision, but after a little stay here we shall certainly go to Valencia, God willing; and I will ere long write to you again either from this place or that. Meantime, if you write to me within the next ten days after getting this address your letters to me at Valencia. The ladies desire their regards. Yours very truly W. C. BRYANT. NYPL-Berg ADDRESs: Monsieur I Mons. John Durand I aux soins de M. Germer Belliere I No. 17 Place de !'Ecole de Medicine I Paris I France. POSTMARK: BARCELONA ? 27 I DIC ? 66 I 5.

MANUSCRIPT:

1. See Letter 1665.

1673. To Charles Nordhoff

[1866]

[Asserting "most positively"] the rights of all persons, whatever their race or color, to be equally regarded by the Constitution and law,

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LETTERS OF WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT

... though we cannot consent to break up our political system and to level the safeguards which our ancestors devised for the protection of our liberties, merely that we may hasten by a very few years, if that be possible, which it probably is not, the acknowledgment of the political rights of the black race in the Southern States ... MANUSCRIPT: Unrecovered TEXT (partial): Charles Nordhoff, Reminiscences of Some

Editors I have Known: Fletcher Harper, William Cullen Bryant, Parke Godwin, james Gordon Bennett (Privately Printed, c1900), paging uncertain.

XXVII Wandering Home to Manhattan 1867 (LETTERS 1674 TO 1750)

ON THE EVE OF THE NEw YEAR, 1867, Bryant and his compamons left Barcelona for Valencia. Their further itinerary follows: January 1-2: Tarragona; 3-12: Valencia; 13: Cordoba; 14-18: Seville (excursion to Italica); 19-21: Cadiz; 22: Seville; 23-26: Madrid; 27: Saragossa; 28-30: Barcelona; 31: Perpignon. February 1: Nimes; 2-3: Hyeres; 4-10: Nice; 11: Bordighera; 12: Alassio; 13: Savona; 14: Genoa; 15: Sestri Levante; 16: La Spezia; 17: Pisa; 18: Lucca; 19-March 8: Florence. March 9-April 3: Rome (excursions to Frascati, Ostia). April4: Ancona; 5: Venice; 6-8: Trieste; 9-12: Vienna; 13-14: Salzburg; 15-16: Munich; 17: Nuremberg; 18-24: Dresden; 25: Heidelberg; 26-28: Baden-Baden; 29-30: Strasbourg. May 1-20: Paris; 21: Tours; 22: Nantes; 23-25: Napoleon Vendee (excursion to Ste Hermine); 26: Nantes; 27: Auray; 28: Le Mains; 29: Caen; 30-June 4: Paris. June 5-7: London; 8-9: Malvern; 10-11: Taunton; 12: Cheltenham; 13: York; 14-17: Edinburgh (excursions to Hawthorndon, Roslin); 18-23: Crieff (excursion to Perth); 24: Callender; 25: Trossachs; 26-July 7: Crieff. July 8-15: Patterdale; 16-17: Ambleside; 18-19: Portisdale; 20-21: Chester; 22-25: Conway; 26: Betws y Coed; 27-31: Bangor. August 1-6: excursion through Wales; 7-16: Taunton; 17-21: Learn; 22-24: Liverpool; arrive New York September 1. Bryant's earlier visit to Spain had been made in the autumn. Now, in mid-winter-though on the mild Mediterranean coast-he was uncomfortable on the chilly nights, and wished he might have come in the spring. Suffering from colds, he and the girls intended at first to avoid Madrid and more northerly regions. At Cordoba he was impressed mainly by the great mosque, where he felt a "sense of sublimity" before its "immense forest of columns," which reminded him of palm groves in the East. His reaction to the incongruous cathedral thrust into its center after the Christian expulsion of the Moors was like that of Emperor Charles V, who had rebuked its builders: "You have destroyed something unique to build something commonplace." Bryant thought Seville enlivening. Here one might pass a pleasant winter. He went out to nearby Italica to see the Roman ruins, commemorated

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in verses of Francisco de Rioja which he had translated in 1857. But, he wrote Leonice Moulton, he had never before traveled with so little interest, for he could not put aside sad memories of Roslyn. After detouring to Cadiz, the travelers went, after all, northward to Madrid before turning back toward France, and Italy, where the girls were eager to visit the Venice carnival. In Madrid Bryant met American minister John P. Hale (later recalled for "moral delinquencies involving the Queen"), and renewed his friendship with Horatio Perry and his poetess wife Carolina Coronado, who, grieving for a child just lost, parted from Bryant "with great emotion." When Julia and Laura set off to visit Philip the Second's palace and pantheon, the Escorial, their companion, in uncharacteristic lassitude, stayed in Madrid, thinking that great monument probably not worth the trip. Perry entertained his visitor with an unlikely anecdote of a recent visit to the Basque country. Hearing the familiar notes of"Yankee Doodle," he had been startled when told it was an old Basque tune. Skeptical, he was shown an ancient score, its notation identical with what he had just claimed as "our national air." As he passed through Spain Bryant contrasted its present condition with what he had seen a decade earlier. Rapid railway construction had brought the country within easy reach of its neighbors. Its growing population was evident in Madrid's palatial new homes and extended parks. Yet slipshod management and high rail fares still hampered commerce among provinces. The people seemed idle and imperfectly civilized, and were the "raggedest" he had ever observed. They chafed under a regime whose control had been seized "with a high hand" by a clergy which had doubled taxes and brought a majority of the army to disaffection. Bryant's liberal Spanish friends feared a revolution-a pre-vision of the revolt little more than a year later which brought defeat to royal forces, the flight and deposition of the Queen, the abolishment of religious orders, and the introduction of universal suffrage, a free press, and the right to habeas corpus. Still, Bryant was impressed by the universal goodwill shown him and his party-although it seems that Julia and Laura were tormented on the streets by the stares and rude noises of young men who indulged an age-old Iberian custom! Leaving Madrid ahead of snow and bitter cold, the travelers paused at Saragossa and Barcelona before a rapid journey to Nice. At Hyeres they took rooms just vacated by General George McClellan and his party. At Nice the beguiling climate and the beauty of the new town lured them into passing a week, during which Bryant heard the Episcopal bishop of Pennsylvania, William Bacon Stevens, preach aboard the United States frigate Colorado. He was warmly entertained by the American consul, Asa Aldis, who also found for him a driver, from whose voiture the companions saw striking vistas along the Riviera to Genoa and beyond. At Florence, where Bryant found his granddaughter Annie Godwin, then nineteen, with her father, he settled for a longer stay. He saw friends among the artists then in residence, and made others, such as Episcopal bishop Gregory Thurston Bedell of Ohio and his wife, guests of the John A. C. Grays. Although long a Unitarian, Bryant became a generous supporter

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of the Ohio college, Kenyon, dear to Bedell's heart, as is clear from their later correspondence. Here, too, he renewed his acquaintance with an Italian revolutionary with whose cause he had sympathized since he had given editorial support thirty years before to opponents of Austrian tyranny, Frederico Confalonieri, Felice Foresti, and Silvio Pellico. While Giuseppe Garibaldi had lived briefly on Staten Island in 1851, Bryant had met him. Now he saw the veteran rebel leader at his rooms on the Via du Bardi, finding him in the costume of red shirt and blue cloak which had been worn by the troop of foreign exiles and adventurers who had formed the "Garibaldi Guards" in New York City at the outset of the Civil War. Garibaldi talked of his long exile in the Americas, courteously, and in a voice and manner "soft and gentle." Passing as always much time with American artists, Bryant found odd moments in which to begin translating Homer's Iliad, a task to which he returned from time to time during the rest of his journey. But there were other distractions. He talked with London Times correspondent Frederick Hardiman at the home of American minister George Marsh, and with a visitor from Montreal who assured him that the prospect of union with the United States was popular in Canada and "must come." He visited the grave of Elizabeth Barrett Browning, who had been attentive to him on his last visit to Florence three years before her death in 1861. And he took his young ladies sightseeing, though he did not join them on a visit to the carnival at Venice. Early in March the Bryants and Laura Leupp went to stay with Fanny Godwin in her apartments at Rome. There they saw much of a fellow communicant at Henry Bellows' Church of All Souls, young Louisa Schuyler, then regaining her health after arduous service with Bellows' United States Sanitary Commission during the war. This descendant of General Philip Schuyler and Alexander Hamilton would later found the New York State Charities Aid Society and the nurses' training school at Bellevue Hospital. Among other friends in Rome were the Flower family of Stratford-UponAvon, who had entertained Cullen and Frances there in 1858. Although Bryant wrote Jerusha Dewey from Rome, "I have been so little interested in what I have seen ... that I have often wished that somebody were in my place whose curiosity had a sharper edge than mine," he was much impressed with a visit his party made with artist John Chapman to the old Roman port of Ostia, where the group picnicked by the fifteenth-century castle of Pope Julius. Here Bryant identified a profusion of blooming shrubs and flowers, along a "most cheering walk, ending in a sandhill, at the foot of which dash[ed] and roar[ed] the Mediterranean." He did not, however, remark on what appear in photographs taken that day, to be armed guards protecting the tourists against brigands (see illustration.) Although sightseeing palled, Bryant commented on political conditions in Rome, and at some length on the prevalence of disease, which he attributed to poisonous exhalations arising from stagnant water trapped between volcanic strata in the Campagna. Contrasting their structure with that he had

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observed on western prairies and in Florida, he outlined his recommendations for a corrective. He concerned himself as well with the affairs of his newspaper, with suggestions for the development of the Cummington Homestead, and with the purchase of a town house in New York City, then being made for him by Isaac Henderson. In April, after a "merry" dinner given him by Rufus King, the American minister to Rome, and a dozen artists, Bryant began a rapid sweep through Venice, Trieste, and Austrian and German cities and resorts, to Paris. Lame and suffering from colds much of the time, he was grieved at Dresden by a wire from Fanny in Geneva that his six-year-old grandson Walter Godwin-a great family favorite-had died there of influenza. By the time his party reached Paris on May 1 Fanny was there with Godwin and her two eldest children, and they saw much of each other. Bryant thought the newly opened exposition "tedious" and its American paintings poorly hung and dimly lit. He enjoyed the "splendor" of the Theatre Chatelet, "bare women" and all. He talked with Marshall Wilder, president of the Massachusetts Historical Society; with Sir Joseph Whitworth, inventor of a gun soon to be adopted by the British War Office, whom he had known in New York; with General John A. Dix and Senator John Sherman; and with William Lloyd Garrison, with whom Bryant had been asked by the American Freedman's Union Commission to serve as a delegate in August to an anti-slavery conference in Paris. In an interesting letter of advice to his managing editor Nordhoff on editorial tone and approach, Bryant declared that the Republican Party depended for its cohesion on but one binding issue, Negro rights, and that as soon as this was settled, "the cards will be shuffled again," and "a new deal made"-surely the first clearly political use of a phrase which would find notable currency in the next century. On May 21 the travelers left Paris with John Durand for a tour of the Loire Valley and Brittany. At Ste Hermine they passed two pleasant days with the family of Georges Clemen~_;eau, while that young French doctor/journalist was in the United States teaching and sending articles on American Reconstruction to the Paris newspaper Le Temps. Returning to Paris in early June for a few days, the travelers then crossed the Channel. In London Bryant saw old friends, including artist/economist George Harvey, and lawyer/painter Edwin Field, who gave him introductions to friends in Wales, which Bryant planned to visit after Scotland and the English Lake Country. Dining at Field's home, Bryant could only have been pleased to hear that the writer and publisher Charles Knight, unable to attend, had volunteered that he had long known of Bryant as "one of the best of the American poets," and was sure that "our men of letters, although most of them belong to a later generation, would have joined in any public recognition of Mr. Bryant's great merits." A visit to the underground railway, opened a few years earlier, provided a novel diversion before Bryant left London for the west counties. Visiting Ferdinand Field at Taunton, Bryant was touched by Field's remembrance of Frances Bryant's unfailing kindness during Ferdinand's early days in New York, and was surprised to learn that his late-marrying

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bachelor friend now had five children. From Taunton the party traveled through York and Ripon to Edinburgh. Here in the Scottish capital he was entertained by several prominent jurists, and visited the grave of Francis Lord Jeffrey, who had died soon after they had lunched together at Craig Crook in 1849. After a tour of the Trossachs, Bryant sent Julia and Laura back to Edinburgh for a visit with his daughter's New York schoolmate Victoria Gibson Campbell, while he went on to her family home in Crieff. Here for ten days he walked and rode out with Jessie and Christiana Gibson, working a little on Homer. The second week in July he set out with Christiana for the English Lake Country and Wales, expecting Julia and Laura to join them at Carstairs. But Laura came on alone, having left Julia under the care of the distinguished gynecologist Sir James Simpson, who had entertained Bryant in Edinburgh. The party settled for a week in Patterdale, at the head of Ullswater, exploring the lakes and fells, until Julia joined them for further sightseeing. Then they went by way of Chester, where Bryant walked the circuit of its medieval walls, to north Wales. At Conway and at Betws y Coed they visited friends of Edwin Field, who showed them the rugged grandeur of Snowdonia. After a stop at Bangor, they returned to Ferdinand Field's in Taunton, paid a visit to the Alfred Fields at Learn, and on August 23 sailed from Liverpool on the Persia, reaching New York on September 5. At Cedarmere Bryant carried out renovations he had planned while abroad-a new greenhouse, an icehouse, and enlarged dining and bed rooms. Soon he went to Cummington, where improvements on the Homestead were underway. On the way home he called on Orville Dewey at Sheffield, delighted that his old collegemate seemed scarcely to have aged in a decade. In New York he found Julia busy with "elegant" furnishings for the fourstory brick house with brownstone front at Twenty-four West Sixteenth Street, between Fifth and Sixth Avenues, which Isaac Henderson had bought for him at a bargain price of thirty thousand dollars, after getting the approval of John Bigelow, Samuel Tilden, and Julia Sands-the last of whom would make her home with the Bryants when they moved to town in December. There were pressing invitations to banquets. An urgent one came from James T. Fields for a celebration of Longfellow's translation of Dante's Divine Comedy, which Bryant declined with the generous compliment, "Mr. Longfellow has translated Dante as a great poet should be translated. After this version, no other will be attempted until the present form of the English language shall have become obsolete." Nearer home, he agreed to preside at a farewell dinner at Delmonico's for the departing Mexican minister, Matias Romero. Here he toasted this envoy of the liberal Juarez government who had become Bryant's warm admirer when the Evening Post supported Mexico's struggles against the French invaders who had put the puppet Maximilian on a contrived throne. Bryant told Dana that he did not now often write for his newspaper because of his distaste for controversy, and the unseemliness in an old man of seventy-three to "go on wrangling till he drops into the grave, and his

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mouth stopped by the mould shovelled upon him." Yet, as Allan Nevins has pointed out, he did write a sustained series of editorials on reciprocity in trade, as well as "occasional leaders on questions of the day." The demands made on him by magazine editors were as insistent as ever. Noting in a Boston paper Bryant's return from abroad, James T. Fields asked whether he had any verse for the Atlantic, adding, "I don't care how many poems you send me, the more the better." Bryant gave him some lines from the Iliad, the first fruit of his engagement with Homer. Robert Bonner, acknowledging verses foreseeing "A Brighter Day" in Spain which Bryant had sent to the New York Ledger, enclosed a check for an additional twenty-five hundred dollars as an inducement to translate Carolina Coronado's romantic novel jarilla, of which Bryant had told him. Bryant declined George Henry Boker's request for a contribution to the new Lippincott's Magazine "on your own terms." He regretted his inability to write verses for a Williams College alumni festival, or to lecture at the founding of a homoeopathic hospital in Cleveland. He was, he said, "fairly loaded with literary engagements" at a time of life "when the desire of ease predominates largely over the desire of fame." And he grieved over the loss of old friends: Catharine Sedgwick in July, FitzGreene Halleck in October, and his sister Charity Olds in December. An awkward misunderstanding in December kept Bryant from renewing an early literary acquaintance. Charles Dickens, returning to this country to give readings from his novels, twenty-five years after his first visit, declined all social engagements, John Bigelow recalled, except to leave his card at Bryant's door asking to see him. When Bryant returned the call he was turned away by Dickens' valet, who had orders, he insisted, to admit no one. Although they did meet amicably at dinner later, Bryant, who had characterized Dickens' behavior on that unhappy occasion as "uncivil," did not, in Bigelow's opinion, change his view that "what ever else Dickens was, he was not a thoroughbred." On a pleasanter occasion, Bryant entertained Georges Clemen~eau at Roslyn, when he must have recalled to the future French premier the hospitality shown the Bryant party by the Clemen~eau family in France earlier that year. Writing in December from Berlin, where he was now the American minister, George Bancroft urged Bryant to succeed him as president of the Century Association. "The choice," he insisted, "should fall on you alone." And so it did, the following month, when Bryant was elected to an office he would grace for the rest of his life.

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1674.

To John Durand

Dear Mr. Durand.

Valencia, Spain, Jan

8th

1867.

We have been four days here in the rather pleasant city of Valencia, and have nearly exhausted it. Our travels thus far, however, have been rather comfortless, on account of the chilliness of the mornings and evenings, both in the South of France and since we have been in Spain. We are absolutely afraid to go to Madrid Burgos or any of those places in which the cold is greater than here, and have concluded that we must restrict the rest of our travels here to seeing Cordova Seville and Cadiz, which are reached from this place by railway. This will take us but a little time, and then we must make our way to Italy. Barcelona is a thriving city, spreading itself over the neighboring region somewhat like an American town. It is not so peculiarly Spanish as this place-there are fifteen thousand Frenchmen in it, and a considerable number of Germans. It exhibits the most activity of any of the Spanish towns and doubtless is by far the most prosperous of them all. Valencia I suppose is next to it. In the spring the place must be beautiful, with its immense Alameda planted with trees, its orange and lemon orchards in bloom and many of its fruit trees beginning to yield. We are among palm trees and various other trees of tropical origin, and we have fresh dates every morning with our breakfast. It does not rain here much oftener than it does in Egypt, and frost is only known, I am told, but two or three times in a century. Yet the evenings and the mornings sometimes almost benumb me with cold. The fertile country for miles around the city is watered and made productive by rivulets derived from the Turia or Guadalaviar-a system of irrigation planned by the Moors. The political condition of the country is bad enough at present. The clergy have seized the reins of government and rule with a high hand. There is no habeas corpus; it was abolished by O'DonnelP; there is no liberty of the press; there is no security for life or any other personal right against the government. As the people are disarmed, the only hope of a change is that it will come from the army, but professed liberals have so often cheated the people, that there is little confidence left that the change will be for the better. I am sorry to give up the expectation of seeing you in Spain, but I do not see how I can arrange the matter so as to combine it satisfactorily with the plans and wishes of our party. They wish to see the carnival in Italy, and that must make the rest of our stay in Spain

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short. Julia and Miss Leupp desire to be kindly remembered. Julia desires me to add that she is sorry not to have you of our party. I am, sir, very truly yours W. C. BRYANT. MANUSCRIPT: NYPL-Berg ADDREss: Monsieur I Monsieur John Durand I aux soins de M. Germer Belliere I No 17 Place de !'Ecole de Medicine I Paris. I France. 1. General Leopolda O'Donnell ( 1809-186 7) served several terms as Spanish premier before being dismissed for repression in 1866.

1675.

To the EvENING PosT

Valencia, Spain, January 12, 1867.

In my last I promised to say something about Valencia, but I fear that I have not much to write which will interest those who read. The city, with its white and rather well-built houses and its clean streets, sometimes too narrow for carriages to pass, strikes the stranger agreeably at first. Let him not, however, trust himself to that maze of narrow, winding streets in the hope of finding his way without a guide back to the starting point. In that hope he will be disappointed, but he will always find willing and cheerful guides. However his exotic costume or the unaccustomed cut of his beard may be stared at, he cannot ask his way without being struck by the pains which are taken to put him into it, and a shopkeeper will leave his counter and come out into the street to put him on the right track. I was a little surprised, after some experience of this good nature on the part of the people, to hear a gentleman who holds the post of public prosecutor in the tribunals of Valencia' say of them: "They are a bad race, in some important respects-these inhabitants of the province of Valencia. They are treacherous, faithless, and given to secret revenge. They will nourish a concealed grudge till they find an opportunity of gratifying it by some act of mischief. They inherit a peculiar character from their Numidian ancestry. The Arab type prevails in the Andalusian provinces, but here in Valencia the African. " The Berbers. Of course, by the term African he did not mean to refer to the negro race, but to the dwellers of the mountain range which lies back of Algiers, the Berbers, who have made it their abode from time immemorial. When I was in Algiers, nine years since, there were pointed out to me, in the market-place, groups of men, with slender

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forms and European features, who had brought from the mountains skins filled with olive oil for sale. "These," said the American Consul, who was with me, "are the Berbers who have submitted to the French rule." They were so manifestly a branch of the Caucasian race, that if they had been habited in the costume of Western Europe they might have passed anywhere for people of the southern parts of this continent. I find that in the year 712 the Berbers, coming from Africa, seized upon Valencia and planted themselves in the province, where, according to the authority to which I have referred, their descendants have remained ever since. Character of the Valencians. Another person, a native of Andalusia, 2 said to me: "Although Valencia, like Andalusia, remained long under the Moslem dominion, there are no provinces of Spain the character of whose population differs more widely from each other than the character of the Valencian from that of the Andalusian. The Andalusian is social, he delights in music, he loves the popular songs of his country, he is fond of his national dances; he is quickly offended, but when offended he finishes his quarrel on the spot. The Valencian is not of a social turn, you do not hear him singing, you see no extempore dances here, if he has any popular ballads, I have never known what they are, and if you offend him he remembers the affront and revenges himself when you least expect it. An Andalusian draws his knife and fights out his quarrel on the spot. A Valencian shoots at you a month afterwards from behind a wall." Such is the character which I have heard ascribed to the Valencians; but it was not given by natives of the province. A Valencian might perhaps soften the harsher features of the portrait, and show how some of the peculiarities of the character belonging to his race are often modified into virtues. That the customs of the place are unsocial I suppose cannot be doubted. "I have lived here eleven years," said a Spaniard from another province, "and my family has formed no intimacy with any other which puts us on such a footing that we exchange visits. An evening party is a rare thing here. There has not been a single one in the city this season. All my acquaintances here are street acquaintances." Social Intercourse. I must admit, however, that there are some means of social intercourse among the gentry of Valencia. They have boxes at the theatres, in which they call upon each other in the evening, and chat while the performance is going on. There is a fine Alameda, a mile

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long, I should think, on the bank of the Guadalaviar, opposite to the city, a broad, well-trodden promenade, between rows of trees, where people meet each other towards the evening, and walk slowly backward and forward. Those who prefer a drive in carriages-and these are many-take another part of the Alameda, and are driven up and down with equal slowness; but in this case every family is shut up in its own tartana, and their only conversation is that of its members with each other. I brought to Valencia a letter specially commending me to the civilities of a gentleman of some distinction, whom I found exceedingly intelligent and agreeable. He was very kind, and took our party over several of the public buildings, which had their interest as monuments of an earlier time, or as containing objects worthy of curiosity. He called upon us twice, and once his wife called also to see the American ladies. There the acquaintance dropped, for the time at least, to be continued only on the Alameda, or in some other public place, if our party had remained in Valencia. I could not go to his house, for neither he nor the lady had used the common form of Spanish courtesy, "Our house is yours," "Our house is at your disposal," and even if this had been said, it means so little that we should have hesitated to return the call which had been made on us. Art. The Valencians are an ingenious race, and some of their manufactures, such as of silks and gloves, are of great excellence. The Valencian school of painting produced some eminent masters, such as Espinosa, Ribera, Ribalta and others, some of whose finest works, now beginning to be defaced by time, are to be seen in the long chilly and somewhat gloomy galleries of the Museo. 3 These artists have a successor at the present day, but in another walk, a landscape-painter, Montesinos, in whose studio I saw several views of remarkably picturesque spots in the province of Valencia, possessing no little merit, both in the choice and the treatment of the subjects. "But I have a pupil," said Montesinos, "who paints better than I," and immediately produced a landscape by a young man named Morales, marked by great vigor and freedom of handling, which he was himself engaged in copying, so much had its bold manner of treatment won his admiration.4 Scenery. I went out, while at Valencia, to the little village of Miliana, to see a manufactory of tiles. An English inventor of the name of Minton, in Lancashire, 5 has discovered a method of making tiles without wetting

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the clay, which is merely reduced to a fine powder, then pressed into a mould and afterwards baked in a strong heat. The invention has lately been introduced into Spain by Senor Nolla. 6 In company with a Spanish friend I took a tartana, as the public vehicles here are called, and going out at one of the eastern gates of the city, crossed the river Guadalaviar, or, as it is most commonly called, the Turia. It was a day of brilliant sunshine, such as had been almost every day since we reached the south of France. As we entered the unpaved highway we perceived that a row of locust trees by which it was bordered-for this tree of our forests has been naturalized under the name of acacia over all Southern Europe-were so loaded with the fine white dust from the road, that they looked very much like the leafless trees in our country when every branch is covered and every twig is drooping with snow which has just fallen through a perfectly still atmosphere. This effect was owing to the extreme dryness of the season. Scarcely more rain falls in a season at Valencia than in Egypt. For more than two months there had not fallen even a shower. But dry as the season had been, the extensive region surrounding the city, a perfect garden, with the soil colored like the brightest red brick dust, named the Huerta de Valencia, was as fresh as in spring, with the exception of the leafless mulberry and fig-trees, and a few other fruit trees. The long stripes of cultivated land were green with lupines, Windsor beans, the Spanish clover, barley, wheat and other crops in various stages of growth. Here and there were little orchards of oranges, with the bright fruit glowing among the green leaves, clusters of palm trees, from which we had fresh dates every morning, olive groves, and great lentisks, with light green shoots among the dark foliage, preparing for the season of blossoms in early spring. Here the liberal Earth is taxed to her utmost productiveness, and never suffered to rest. As fast as one crop, hastened in ripening by the almost perpetual sunshine, is taken off, another is put in, and thus the region becomes one of the most fertile of the globe. The secret of this productiveness lies in the careful irrigation which is given to the soil, and which the Mauritanian colonists, when they took possession of the country, reduced to a system now as carefully observed as in their time. Thousands of canals, diverted from the Guadalaviar, moisten the ground over the whole of this extensive plain: the larger currents branch into an infinity of smaller ones; every field has its rill of water running beside it, which is stopped and sent in another direction the moment the soil is sufficiently saturated. The larger currents, where the descent is considerable, are made to turn mills and grind to flour the grain which is raised on their banks. In this way the volume of water which passes to the sea through the Guadalaviar at this season is

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so diminished, that only a moderate-sized brook is left, along the winding course of which, as it passes under its massive bridges, the washerwomen of the city are seen at all hours rubbing their linen and slapping it on the broad stones that line the slender current. A Tile Factory. We reached Miliana after a journey of somewhat more than one hour through this rich region. The manufactory was a long building, surrounding a parallelogram planted with orange trees, under which lizards were slipping about in the sunshine. In this building a great number of persons are employed, mostly women, who come from the cottages and hamlets in the neighborhood. The clay of which the tiles are made is first reduced to an impalpable powder in the mills turned by the little streams diverted from the river. It is then, in a perfectly dry state, put into small moulds, and by a screw, such as is used to stamp seals on official documents, is subjected to a moderate pressure. When taken from the mould its surface has all the polish and smoothness of glass. A boy or girl receives it from the mould and brushes off the powdered clay adhering to it, and it is then placed in a warm room to dry. After remaining awhile it is transferred to a furnace or oven, where it is baked for two or three days, and the process is complete. It is then so hard that it will scratch glass. In one part of the enclosure stood the dwelling of the proprietor, glittering with tiles, both within and without. The younger Mr. Nolla, who had been educated in Switzerland, showed us over it. Its rooms were floored with tiles, the walls were faced with tiles, the stair-cases were laid in tiles, the roof was covered with tiles. "We have the best material in the world for making them," said Mr. Nolla, "and we can make them cheaper than they can be made in England." They are certainly of as fine a quality and of as great strength as I could well conceive them to be. From the roof of the dwelling we had a fine view of the garden of Valencia, the city itself and the Mediterranean to the east. Looking a little to the southeast, we saw where the water diverted from the river, after serving the purpose of irrigation, stagnates into the lake Abulfera, the resort of innumerable wild-fowl of a vast variety of species, and no less noted for the clouds of mosquitos which rise from it in summer. In some parts of the huerta, particularly near the lake, intermittent fevers prevail, and the sickly aspect of many of the women whom I saw at work in the manufactory seemed to attest the unhealthiness of the neighborhood. The Valencian Cabinet of Natural History is enriched with hundreds of specimens from the shores of the broad sheet of water which we saw glimmering in the distance.

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BullFighting and Gambling. Among the characteristics of the Valencian population I must not forget to mention their fondness for bull fights. One Sunday I was in the principal street of the city, the Calle de San Vicente, when I suddenly found myself in the midst of a vast crowd of all ages and both sexes in their holiday dresses, choking the main street and passing off into all its branches. It seemed to me that the city had suddenly poured all its inhabitants into the public ways. "Can they be returning from vespers?" said I to myself, and I began to have a high idea of the devotion of the Valencians; but I soon learned that they had been attending a bull fight; that is, they had been to see a few blind horses disembowelled and expiring in torture, and a few bulls teased, maddened and tormented, and finally butchered. Another very common vice of the Valencians is the love of gambling in its various forms, which the government and the priesthood encourage by lotteries. Climate. The Valencians boast with reason of the benignity and uniformity of their winter climate. "We have frost here not oftener than two or three times in a century," said one of them to me. But soft as this climate is, and enjoying an almost perpetual sunshine, our whole party have been attacked with severe colds, and I leave Valencia today with a hoarseness which makes my speech almost inaudible. When the sun is so far up as to make his rays felt, the temperature of the day at this season is most delightful, but to us Americans the mornings and evenings without a fire seem miserably chilly, and the natives themselves sometimes acknowledge that at those times they are uncomfortable. W.C.B. MANUSCRIPT:

1867.

UVa (final);

NYPL-GR

(draft fragment)

PUBLISHED:

EP, February 13,

1. This was one Alexandro Croissant, introduced to Bryant by the American consul at Valencia, James B. Andrews. Croissant was a brother-in-law of Horatio J. Perry, of Madrid. Bryant, "Diary, 1866-1867," January 5, 1867. 2. Andrews also brought to Bryant's hotel to meet the visitor a university professor and political liberal, Antonio Corzenaga, who later contributed letters to the EP. Bryant, "Diary, 1866-1867," January 4, 1867; Letter 1680; Corzenaga to Bryant, January 21, April11, June 12, 1867, NYPL-BG. 3. The artists mentioned were Jacinto Geronimo De Espinosa (1600-1680), Jose Ribera (993.8), and Francisco Ribalta (1565-1628). 4. Rafael Montesinos (1811-1877), who worked at Valencia between 1843 and 1872, was among those artists who decorated the Royal Palace at Madrid. Morales has not been identified.

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5. Probably Herbert Minton (1793-1858), head of the famous pottery firm at Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, England. 6. Nolla is unidentified.

1676.

To George Cline

Cadiz [cjanuary 20, 1867]

... I wish you to write Mr. Dawes that in getting blackberry bushes for you in the spring, I wish him to take them from the edge of the wood west of the new orchard, beginning at the northwest corner, and proceeding about a third of the way. The berries for that distance are all of the best kind; beyond and nearer the school-house they are inferior. There is a shrub of the white azalea at the corner of the road leading from my place in Cummington to Mr. Norton's, 1 which I wish dug up and transferred this spring to the garden or some other suitable place. I wish also rows of trees to be planted on each side of the road leading up to Mr. Ellis's 2 place. It might be well that some of them should be evergreens. Mr. Dawes showed me in Worthington where a man who has many evergreens on his place had successfully planted large ones to the north of his house, screening it from view. I suggested that he should be employed to plant some large ones near my house, to be paid liberally for those that live, and those only. Will you see if anything of this can be done? Please press this matter. You know I cannot wait for trees to grow. 3 Madrid [cJanuary 25, 1867] 4 I should like the business of the farm to be so planned that there would be some leisure left for certain jobs, such as keeping the fences in neat repair, ditching, draining a little, patching up a thousand things that always want looking to, and working in the garden .... For the next year, beginning with April, I wish you to make such arrangements in regard to the workmen employed on the place as you think most judicious, and in regard to the cows kept on it, to do just as you would if the farm belonged to you .... MANUSCRIPT: Unrecovered TEXT: Bigelow, Bryant, pp. 267-268. I. From 1826 to 1875 John Warner Norton (1796--1875) owned the house which still stands on the road from Cummington Hill to West Cummington at the northeast boundary of the Bryant Homestead property. Only One Cummington, p. 352; Vital Records of Cummington, pp. 49, 212. 2. From 1858 to 1870 Samuel Ellis (1802-1875), a farmer, was the owner of Bryant's grandfather Snell's homestead; in 1870 Bryant bought the property from him and built the large two-family house on what was known for a long time thereafter

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as the "Upper Bryant Place." Only One Cummington, p. 355; Vital Records of Cummington, p. 191. 3. The stand of pine trees planted that year or the next to the north and west of Bryant's house at Cummington as a screen against storm winds extends for nearly five hundred feet, now reaching a height of perhaps one hundred feet. 4. The two excerpts here printed were apparently portions of a long letter written periodically and mailed from Nice, France, on February 6. See Bryant, "Diary, 1866-1867," January 30, February 6, 1867.

1677. To

the EvENING

PosT

Seville, Andalusia, January 22, 1867.

When I left Valencia the other day no rain had fallen there for more than two months, but after we had crossed the rich plains encircling the city and entered the passes among the hills that divide it from the province of La Mancha, the train carried us among the mists. As we emerged upon the open country the rain was pattering upon the roofs of the cars, and looking about us we perceived broad plashes of water in the fields. It was two o'clock in the afternoon when the train left Valencia; the night, therefore, was soon upon us. I have already mentioned that the Spaniards have a strange fancy for travelling in the night, and generally contrive to begin their journeys at an hour which will allow them to see as little as possible of the country through which they pass. At Alcazar San Juan, where at midnight we left the Madrid train to take that for Cordova, we learned that it had rained for fifteen days successively. Such is the difference in the climate of different parts of Spain. A Remarkable Chasm. At Alcazar our party separated, my two fellow travellers entering a compartment of the train destined for ladies only, where they could escape the inconvenience of tobacco smoke. I went into a compartment in which, according to the custom, there was a most assiduous smoking and spitting all night. As the day dawned we found ourselves slowly winding among the declivities of the Sierra Morena, the mountain range which forms the northern boundary of Andalusia-a barren waste, with the bare rock protruding through a thin soil covered with dead herbage interspersed with low shrubs, mostly a dwarf evergreen oak. After we went deeper among the passes of the mountain its aspect became more and more grim and savage, until at length one of the passengers, starting up and letting down a window, said: Ahi esta-aqui empieza; "Here it is-here it begins." I looked, and saw that we were passing through the most remarkable chasm among rocks that I ever beheld. Huge peaks of rock, long and pointed, which in the south of

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Europe are called "teeth," towered to a great height above us, shagged here and there with projecting masses that seemed as if they might fall at any moment and crush our train to fragments. These enormous pinnacles of rock bore a strange resemblance to the tusks of some wild animal, and I held my breath till, after winding among them for some distance, we entered a tunnel and passed beyond them into a region of a milder aspect, and we began to descend into the fertile valleys of Andalusia. Spanish Railways. When I was in Spain, nine years since, there were but two good macadamized highways in the kingdom, of any considerable length, and these traversed it from north to south, connecting some of the principal cities. There were a few other carriage roads, scandalously neglected, and passable with difficulty, like that from Madrid to Alicante, or that between Alicante and Cartagena; but in general the realm was only intersected by bridle paths, along which the products of the country were conveyed to market on the backs of donkeys and mules. Nine years since there was only a bridle path to connect the two capitals of Spain and Portugal, and travellers went from Madrid to Lisbon on horseback-a curious illustration of the little intercourse between the two nations. Now you step into a railway carriage at Madrid, in the centre of the Peninsula, and in a few hours are at Lisbon, on the Atlantic. Railway lines now connect Spain with France, and form channels of communication between each province and the capital, and between each of them and the rest. The great line which takes the traveller southward from Madrid to Cordova is one of the grandest enterprises of its kind. Ascending the Sierra Morena by a track winding along its northern slopes, it threads the grim defiles of that mountain range, between lofty precipices, crosses fearful chasms, pierces the ridges with frequent tunnels, spans torrent after torrent with iron bridges, runs in galleries hewn in the living rock or between walls of masonry built to uphold the sliding soil, passes along high and solid causeways, and descends into Andalusia by extensive sweeps on the mountain sides, overlooking the fertile valleys below. At every step it gives tokens of the vast expense at which it was constructed. Railway Management. But those who build railways expect to derive a profit from them, and those of Spain, with an inconsiderable exception or two, are a constant loss to the proprietors. How could it well be otherwise? Here is a country which has so little commerce between its different districts that it has not found it expedient to connect them by highways-and

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how can it be expected that its internal commerce will support an expensive system of railroads? I heard two Spanish gentlemen discussing this subject the other day. One of them was saying that there was not trade enough to make the railways profitable, although the number of passengers was considerable. "Yes," said the other, "but trade will choose the cheapest methods of conveyance. The donkey's back is the old Spanish way of sending goods from place to place, and will continue to be used till we get something cheaper. The railway must underbid the donkey before it will be accepted as a substitute." He then went on to complain that goods sent by rail did not always reach their destination. One man had sent a number of skins of oil, and only a part of them came to land. Another had put a different commodity on board of the train, with the same bad luck. The truth is, that the whole management of the Spanish railways is miserably slipshod and deficient in order and punctuality. Long delays occur at the stopping places; petty accidents are always taking place; a train which should connect with another arrives too late, and the traveller finds himself obliged to wait twenty-four hours before he can proceed. It would not be at all strange if goods entrusted to such negligent hands should sometimes miss their way. When, however, caution occasions delay, the Spanish railways are managed cautiously enough. The trains proceed slowly over bridges and along hill-sides; they begin to slacken the speed of the engines for two or three miles before the train stops, so as to come to a pause in the most gradual manner possible. In passing the Sierra Morena we came to where a torrent had carried away one of the bridges, and a temporary support of the rails had been substituted. The train stopped, and we were detained an hour while this support was further strengthened. A French engineer connected with the road was on the train, and went out to see what was going on. When he returned he told us that there would not have been the least danger in passing the stream without a moment's delay, but that the conductor had refused to take the responsibility. The fares paid by passengers are high, and so, I hear, are the rates of freight; but that does not help the matter. There are interruptions in some of the railway lines, which, in consequence of their unproductiveness, will probably remain as they are for some time to come. One of these we meet in crossing the Pyrenees between Perpignan and Gerona; another is between Tarragona and Valencia. A railway has been completed leading from one of the main routes to Grenada, but there is no train running upon it, and nobody knows when there will be. Spain, in short, is earlier with her railways than

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with her commerce, and the donkey still maintains a successful rivalry with the locomotive. Her railways are much like her rivers-channels for a current to flow in, but the current bears no proportion to the spaciousness of the channel. Cordova and Seville. It was by this loitering method of conveyance that I was carried from Valencia to Cordova, and from Cordova to Seville, and from Seville to Cadiz, and back to this place, without any accident or any detention, except those delays which everybody else submits to. I am not about to tire your readers with a description of the architectural wonders of Cordova and Seville. I leave that to the guide-books. The great sight of Cordova is its mosque, which made a strong impression upon me, although by interpolating a discordant piece of architecture in the middle, in order to convert it into a cathedral, the effect of the whole has been injured. Its immense forest of columns, more than eight hundred in number, upholding a double row of arches, affects the gazer with a sense of sublimity. I looked along their far-reaching rows and up to the arches they supported, and could not help thinking that these Moslem architects might have derived the idea of such structures from the palm groves of the East, with their multitude of stems, and their drooping branches, meeting overhead. Cordova, though pleasantly seated among rich valleys and mountains, which, being covered with cork trees and oaks, have a less savage look than most of those which we see in Spain, is in a state of decay, but Seville has a more cheerful aspect, and I think might be a pleasant winter residence. Its Moorish buildings are wonderful things of their kind; it has rich treasures of art in the paintings of the Spanish school; and the humors of the Gypsies who inhabit a part of the town in considerable numbers are said to be a source of entertainment to the stranger. The American artist George H. Hall, who is now here, finds among them some striking subjects for his pencil, and will return to America, I think, with some finer works than he has ever before painted.' Cadiz. I have a word to say of Cadiz. The stranger is pleased with the look of its clean streets, its handsome buildings with balconies to every window, and the handsome women whom he sometimes sees looking down from the balconies. But Cadiz is a sort of prison; the houses fill the whole space of its little island-for it is scarcely anything but an island-except what is left on the border for a public promenade, and

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all around it the sea dashes with an eternal roar against its strong walls rising from the brink. It has no country, nor gardens. Living there is like living in a lighthouse. To-night at twelve o'clock we leave Seville for Madrid. W.C.B. MANUSCRIPT:

Unrecovered TEXT: EP, cFebruary 19, 1867.

I. George Henry Hall (1825-1913), a genre and landscape painter with a New York studio who exhibited often at the National Academy, was attentive to the Bryant party during their four days in Seville. DAA; Bryant, "Diary, 186~1867," January 14-18, 1867,passim.

1678. To Leonice M. S. Moulton

Seville, Andalusia, Spain, January 22, 1867 I did not expect, in visiting Europe this time, to be so much interested by what should come under observation as I had been at previous times, and I must own that I never travelled with so little curiosity to see what is peculiar or admirable in foreign countries. Perhaps this may be in part the effect of age, but that is not all; I cannot keep the thought of Roslyn out of my mind; and, the sadder its memories are, the more I cling to them. They are constantly diverting my attention from what is before my eyes. You see the Evening Post, and will therefore read some account of our wanderings. Julia and myself are visiting those parts of Spain which I did not see before. We do not find winter travelling here very pleasant, nor would I recommend it to any person. The days are too short; the mornings and evenings, even in those parts which have the softest climate, with the exception of Malaga and Cadiz, are too chilly. You are benumbed with the cold till ten o'clock, and the chill returns upon the atmosphere between three and four o'clock in the afternoon. Besides this, there is the disadvantage of seeing the country in its undress, when it has the least vegetation. The spring is the time to see Spain, the season when the days are long and the earth in its holiday attire-the time of the singing of birds-early spring for Catalonia and Valencia and the south of Spain, and later spring for Madrid and the northern and mountainous parts. So, when you visit Spain, do it, I pray you, if you value your own comfort, in spring. The impression which Spain, as a nation, has made upon me in this visit is that of a country the people of which are somewhat imperfectly civilized. Bull-fighting, gambling, sitting or standing in the sun-that is to say, idleness-and smoking, are their vices. I cannot call them hospitable as a nation; on the contrary, with all their formal

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courtesy, they deserve to be regarded as inhospitable; but they have other ways of showing kindness to strangers, nor are they by any means deficient in these. They are not-the young men in particularso well bred as they ought to be, and do not scruple to stare rudely at foreign ladies, to make uncivil noises, and sometimes, I am told, even to accost them. With all this there is a good deal of kindness in the Spanish character, and they have their way of doing very obliging things. It is very dangerous to condemn the people of any nation by any sweeping charge. I have seen Cadiz, but Cadiz had nothing to show, save clean, straight streets, handsome-balconied houses, and the ever-restless sea roaring all around it. Cordova has pleasant outlooks over a rich valley toward mountains green with oak- and cork-trees; but Cordova wears an aspect of decay. Seville is cheerful to the eye, and abounds with works of art. In Seville one might, I think, manage to pass a winter not unpleasantly, but for my part I would rather be at home .... MANUSCRIPT:

1679.

Unrecovered TEXT (partial): Life, II, 255-257.

To the

EvENING PosT

Saragossa, Spain, January 29, 1867.

I did not think to write another letter from Spain, but some things which I have observed since the date of my last are perhaps worth laying before your readers. In returning, the other day, from Cadiz to Seville, the track of the railway lay for a great distance through a broad extent of drowned lands. As far as the eye could reach, in every direction, lay a plain thinly covered with water, through which sprouted the coarse herbage of the soil. Wherever the ground was a little higher than the rest, great herds of horses and kine were feeding, and sometimes flocks of sheep were seen. I wrote the other day concerning the system of distributing water over the rich but thirsty region around Valencia, introduced by the Moors, and kept up to this day. The Moors had also their methods of carrying off the water from the marshy region I have described, and covering the soil with harvests-methods which the indolent Andalusians no longer practice. Under the water are still found the traces of old highways; under the water are yet to be seen the marks of thousands of little channels by which the streams that now overspread the surface and make it barren, were conveyed into the Guadalquivir. It is said that these methods might now be easily applied with the same success.

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By the side of this dreary region rise the gentle declivities on which the vines of Xeres bask in the warm sun of the south of Spain. Here the soil is of a deep red color, streaked with rows of vines whose short black stems are closely pruned, and between which, even at this showery season, no weed is allowed to grow. We saw the vine-dressers at their work; but the Spanish vine-dressers do not sing as I have heard them in Italy. On the borders of the little town of Xeres stand many long, low buildings, with broad roofs and whitewashed walls. These are the magazines to which the wines of the country are brought to be perfected in their fermentation, tempered with each other, and prepared for exportation to foreign countries. Let no man innocently suppose that all the wine produced by the vineyards of Xeres is sherry. The visitor to the wine cellars there is made to taste variety after variety until his head aches, and understands at length that the same process is pursued here as at Tarragona, of mingling the wines of the region so as to make them resemble the kinds produced elsewhere. Hence, long after the vines of Madeira, becoming sickly, have been supplanted by the sugar cane, you may still have from Spain Madeira wines, both old and new. As we drew near to Seville, we saw that the Guadalquivir had overflowed his banks and spread his waters far into the country. A great lake lay to the southwest of the city, and in the suburbs we saw where the water had risen nearly to the sills of the lower windows, and people were looking out at the windows above. The great storm which had obstructed the roads of Great Britain with deep snows and stopped the railway trains and delayed the mails, had, as we learned, extended to Spain; the fields around Madrid had been whitened with snow; the peasants of Valencia had been astonished at flurries of snow among their palm trees, and gathered their dates with chilled fingers. On the mountains of the south of Spain, however, except those that rise to a great height, this storm had descended in deluges of rain, and this was what had swollen the Guadalquivir to such a degree that scarcely any person remembered so extensive a flood. Before leaving Seville I went with the rest of our party to the building in which cigars are made. "You should go," said an American friend, "if it were only to see the beauty of the women and children." The building is long and vast, and solidly constructed, looking like some immense hospital or almshouse. In the lower story the leaves of the tobacco plant are prepared and made flexible, in the upper they are rolled into cigars. We walked through the long galleries of this upper story, vaulted overhead, and filled with women sitting at tables and dexterously shaping into cigars the moist leaves before them, while their children played and prattled around them. They were

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mostly, I was told, from the surrounding country, and some of them were quite handsome, with fine eyes and regular features. "How many are there of these workpeople?" I asked of a stout, solemn-looking woman who accompanied us. "More than three thousand," was her answer; "and when these go away for the day another set takes their place, so that the work goes on day and night." As the Spaniard smokes day and night there seems to be a good reason for allowing no interruption in the task of supplying him with the means. I often see Spaniards at the public tables in the hotels, stopping in the midst of a dinner or breakfast, lighting a match, smoking a cigarillo with a few rapid whiffs, and then proceeding with the repast. The ruins of the ancient Italica, founded by Scipio, 1 lie not far from Seville, where the hills to the west of the Guadalquivir meet the meadows of the river. I was induced to visit the spot by what I remembered of the noble poem of Rioja on the Ruins of Italica. I did not find the prostrate columns and overthrown statues of which he speaks; for these have been gathered up and transferred to the museum at Seville and the palace of the Duke of Montpensier; but here were some remains of the palace of Caesar, and here was the amphitheatre, with its rows of seats, crumbling and green with herbage, and its subterranean passages in a state of some preservation. Huge craggy, rock-like fragments of ancient masonry ten or twelve feet high stand in front of the amphitheatre, and among these an old weather-beaten sergeant, as grim as they, has made his lair, half cavern and half hut. Here he cultivates a few marigolds and stock gillyftowers, and shows strangers over the amphitheatre, and takes a pistareen for his trouble. In the centre of the arena a small marble column, probably found on the place, has been set upright, and on it are inscribed half a dozen lines from Rioja's poem, which have been translated thus: "This broken circus, where the rock-weeds climb, Flaunting with yellow blossoms, and defy The gods to whom its walls were reared so high, Is now a tragic theatre where Time Acts his great fable, spreads a stage which shows Past Grandeur's story and its dreary close." 2 The rock-weeds overrun the arena still, and flaunt with a profusion of yellow blossoms, but in other respects the aspect of the ruins of Italica must have changed very much since Rioja's time, which was, I believe, two hundred years since, and many of their most striking features must have disappeared. There are probably buried in the soil many objects of ancient art which would be much prized if there were

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enterprise enough to search for them, but I think that nobody digs for antiquities in Spain, neither here nor at Tarragona, nor at Merida, where I suppose may be the richest store of all concealed under the surface, since that city presents the most remarkable of all above ground. We set out from Seville for Madrid at midnight, according to the usual Spanish custom, and the next day, the twenty-third of January, found us on the railway track winding among the chasms between the grim precipices of the Sierra Morena, in a sunshine as sweet and airs as soft as those of our balmiest autumn days. Just at midnight we reached Madrid. I find some changes in Madrid since I visited it nine years since. A long peace has made Spain considerably more populous, and the capital shares in the general growth. On the eastern side of the city the buildings are extending beyond its ancient bounds, and many of the new houses look like palaces. The pleasure-ground called the Prado has been greatly enlarged to the north, and what were formerly gardens have been taken into it, with their trees and thickets of shrubbery, so that the public promenade is not only much more extensive, but very much more beautiful than before. Preparations have been made for erecting another museum of the fine arts in this quarter, for rich as the present one is in works of art there are at the disposal of the government a sufficient number to fill the galleries of another building of equal size. The waters of the river Lozoya have been brought by an aqueduct into the city, and new fountains pour forth their liberal streams in the public squares. One of these, and I believe the most copious, is at the Puerta del Sol, the place where the idlers of Madrid at this season stand and gossip in the sunshine. The old buildings in this quarter have been pulled down, and large, lofty and handsome ones erected in their place. While the capital city of Spain is receiving this accession of splendor, I hear sad accounts of the misery of the inhabitants. The increase of the population has only increased the number of ill-fed mouths. I think the population of Spain, as a whole, the raggedest that I ever saw in any part of the world. A deep discontent, if I may trust what I have heard and seen, pervades all classes of the inhabitants, save the priesthood and the small minority which adheres to them. The regulations of the government obstruct in a thousand ways enterprise and the exchange of commodities, and now, as if to try the patience of the people to the utmost, the government has collected in this present year the taxes of the next, doubling the public burdens at once. In case the army, three-fourths of which, according to the estimate of some, is already disaffected, should demand a change of

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administration, it is apprehended by many that the people, seizing the opportunity, may inflict a bloody vengeance on their oppressors. It is, however, altogether as likely that the change will take place quietly, when the Queen and her immediate advisers shall see that resistance to change is utterly hopeless. Meantime it is curious to see how, amidst this popular distress and discontent, the fine arts have revived in Spain. Nine years ago I could hear nothing of art in the kingdom, except what related to the past. Now Madrid has its annual exhibitions of the fine arts, like London, Paris and New York. I was present at one of these on the 26th of January, in a commodious building, just erected for the purpose, which Queen Isabel was expected to open in person. She did not appear, however, and the whisper went round that there had been "a row at the palace"-that is to say, a quarrel between her and her husband, such as not unfrequently happens, leaving her in no mood to present herself in public. 3 The exhibition consisted of five hundred works, principally of painting and statuary, with a few architectural designs, and three or four indifferent engravings. A large space was left on the walls for paintings expected from Rome, where the government maintains several artists, who are pursuing their studies at its expense. I was very much impressed by the evidence of talent given by the works in this exhibition. The aptitude of the Spaniards for the fine arts is amply attested by the noble architecture of their earlier cathedrals, and by the multitude of fine paintings left by the Valencian school and by Murillo 4 and his contemporaries and disciples. The works of two hundred and thirty-five artists, including the architects, formed the exhibition. In many of them I recognised a skill in design and execution which made them not unworthy successors of Espinosa and Velasquez, 5 though I cannot say that I found the same noble simplicity of treatment, the same surrender of the artist's powers to the natural impulses of his subject, and the effort to obtain effect was often quite too apparent. A large proportion of the pictures represented persons in violent actions, or were of a tragic nature-battles, executions, assassinations. Among the works of sculpture was Virginius putting his daughter to death, 6 and several of the single figures brandished swords and daggers. Altogether the exhibition assured me that we should soon hear of eminent artists among the natives of Spain. I should mention that nine years ago I found nobody studying or copying the pictures in the museum at Madrid; but now the galleries abound with easels set up and artists at work making copies of the most remarkable works. It has occurred to me that among the results of causes now beginning to act there is one which will lead to a considerable change

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in the character of the Spanish nation. I mean the blending of the different and very distinct races composing the population, which it seems to me will yet follow the late opening of easy communications between the provinces. Spain has her Catalans, identical with the people of Southeastern France; 7 her Valencians, the descendants of the Numidians; her Andalusians, with a strong infusion of Arab blood; her Castilians, of the lineage of her Gothic conquerors; her Basques, the untamable aborigines of the country; her Gallegos, Portuguese in affinity and speech, all of them distinguished from each other by language as well as by origin, and kept separate by the difficulty of intercourse between the different parts of a country which had, till lately, little more than bridle-roads leading from one district to another. The railways here begin to exchange not merely the commodities, but the inhabitants of the different provinces; the picturesque local costumes are already disappearing, and in time the different races which I have mentioned must inevitably be fused togetherbecoming a mixed population with a character of its own. Mixed races are proverbially more active, energetic and enterprising than others. The infusion of new blood gives new youth to a nation. Who shall venture to say that this course may not bring back to Spain somewhat of her ancient greatness? I have mentioned the Basques, and I have an incident to relate which connects them, curiously enough, with our own country. Some time since, when Mr. Perry, Secretary of the American Legation at Madrid, was in one of the Basque provinces, he heard a band playing their old national airs. The Basques have preserved whatever is peculiar to them, their language, their customs, and many of their political rights, from the earliest period in which they are known to history; their national music is claimed to be of the same antiquity. After the band had played several others airs it struck up Yankee Doodle, the very tune, in every note, which is so familiar to American ears. Mr. Perry immediately claimed it as our national air. "It is one of our old tunes," said a gentleman to whom he spoke, "and I can convince you of the fact. For hundreds of years it has been a popular air among us." The gentleman afterwards made good his assertion by showing Mr. Perry a manuscript of great antiquity which contained the identical musical notes of "Yankee Doodle." MANUSCRIPT:

Unrecovered

TEXT:

EP, February 27, 1867.

1. In 218 B.c. Cneius Cornelius Scipio Calvus (d. 211 B.c.), a Roman consul, invaded Spain. Here at Italica the emperors Trajan and Hadrian were born, respectively, in A.D. c53 and A.D. 76. 2. This is Bryant's translation, a portion of his "The Ruins of Italica," from the

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verses of the Spanish poet Francisco de Rioja y Rodriguez (cl580-1659). Bryant's version, made at the suggestion of his friend Frances Calderon de Ia Barca when they renewed an earlier acquaintance at Madrid in 1857, was first published in Thirty Poems (1864). See Life, II, 102; Volume III, 410; Poems (1876), p. 372. 3. Isabella II (1830-1904), Queen of Spain, 1833-1868, was married to her cousin, Francisco de Asis. 4. Bartolome Esteban Murillo (993.5). 5. Diego Rodriguez de Silva y Velasquez (993.7). 6. See Titus Andronicus, V.iii.37-42. 7. Bryant must have written, or intended to write, "Southwestern France."

1680.

To Isaac Henderson

My dear Mr. Henderson.

Barcelona January 30, 1867.

Please mail the enclosed letter to Miss Fish, and in it put a certificate of deposite for one hundred dollars endorsed to the order of Elisha S. Fish. 1 Mr. Antonio Corzenaga of Valencia writes me that he has sent his first letter for the Evening Post addressed to you. He is Professor of English at the University there but I think his English will want correction. He is able to give a good account however of the present political condition of Spain. Please send him the semiweekly E. P. addressed to Mr.john Sinclair, care of Senor Don Antonio Corzenaga. 2 We have visited Valencia, Cordova, Seville, Cadiz, Madrid, and Saragassa, and though travelling in Spain at this season, is by no means comfortable, our visit has been by no means an uninteresting one, and I find that I know much more of the country and the people than I did after my first visit. The parcel or parcels concerning which John, I believe, has written to you, and which Mr. Andrews our Consul at Valencia had the charge of have been put on board the American bark Speedwell, Captain Frank B. Ames, bound to Leghorn and thence to New York. It is thought that they will reach New York by next April. Will you please to satisfy any charge there may be upon them? You remember I sent out a copy of my Thirty Poems to Mr. Horatio J. Perry, the Secretary of Legation at Madrid, through the person at New York whose business it was to transmit letters and parcels for the Secretary of State and who offered to do this for me. At the same time I sent some photographs. None of these things have come to Mr. Perrys hands. Will you please to enquire what has been the reason of this, and whether the book and letters were really forwarded or whether by some accident they do not remain at the office in New York. Nice Feb. 5th 1867. I have just arrived here-that is to say last

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evening and find your letters of the 20th. of December and the 5th of January. As to Dr. Piper, his contributions are really valuable to those who are desirous to improve their knowledge of agriculture and horticultural processes-but perhaps they are too minute and too scientific to be popular. You and Mr. Nordhoff must do as you think best in regard to them. He thought that they would add very much to the circulation of our country editions-the weekly and semi weekly and if it be thought best to discontinue them, he ought to be told how the fact is. I wish him dealt with in a delicate manner. 3 We have made an interesting visit to Spain, and although it has not been a comfortable one, the stories which I hear of the cold weather and dreadful storms to the north of where we were, make me believe that we escaped a good deal of discomfort by [not] 4 going thither. In the part of Spain which we left behind us the cold was very great and we escaped the snows that fell in Madrid and elsewhere. Please send the enclosed to Mr. Cline in an envelope to Roslyn, and the enclosed to Miss Cordelia Kirkland to the care of her uncle Mr. E. Stansbury. Kind regards to Mrs. Henderson, whose attentions to my poor wife I shall never forget, and to all your family. I am, dear sir very truly yours, W C BRYANT UTex (final); NYPL-GR (partial draft) Bryant and Henderson, pp. 13-14.

MANUSCRIPT: LISHED:

ADDREss:

I

Henderson

PUB-

1. See Letter 1355. This is an instance of the many quiet benefactions Bryant made to relatives and friends which prompted John Bigelow to write, "He treated every neighbor as if he were an angel in disguise sent to test his loyalty to the golden rule." Bigelow, Bryant, pp. 286-287. 2. See Corzenaga to Bryant, January 21, 1867, NYPL-BG. Bryant mistakenly wrote "Corzanego." 3. See Letter 1606. 4. Word omitted.

1681.

To John Durand

My dear Mr. Durand.

Nice, February 6th. 1867

I did not get your letter in answer to mine from Barcelona, and I have just now got yours of the 12th. of January. 1 I am sorry that I did not receive the other, as if I had, I should have written to you to come on immediately, if in your power, and your society would have added much to the pleasure of the remainder of our journey. Perhaps, however you might have found our tour rather a hurried one. We went from Valencia to Seville by a rather fatiguing journey-

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to my fellow travellers at least-stopping a day at Cordova to look at its fine old mosque of vast dimensions and a forest of columns. Seville we found the pleasantest place that we saw in Spain-its Moorish remains, the Alcazar especially, are wonderfully fine and the surrounding country pretty though not so beautiful as that about Cordova. From Seville we went to Cadiz, the ladies meaning to visit Gibralter, but the weather was so stormy and the steamers staid in port so long and the time of return was so uncertain that this was given up and coming back to Seville we threaded the grim passes of the Sierra Morena again and coming through the plains of La Mancha, all in a bright bland summer like day, reached Madrid at midnight. We saw its noble museum again, and the Madraza Collection which is at the country seat of the Marquis of Salamanca, and an annual exhibition of the works of art at which I missed you very much. The fine arts are reviving in Spain and their progress within a few years has been surprising. The ladies went to visit the Escorial, but I did not, doubting whether it [were?] 2 worth seeing. The three days that we passed at Madrid were of a very agreeable temperature. We escaped the cold that was so severe all along the Mediterranean coast of France and in all the North of Spain, by going to the South of Spain at the very time we did. At Seville I should mention that we saw the painter George H. Hall, who was very civil to us. He is painting some good pictureswith more of incident than formerly. We came from Madrid to Saragossa by night-Saragossa, has beautiful promenades just out of town- Within are some neglected and crumbling antiquities, but scarce worthy of a days stay. Coming back to Barcelona we returned to Perpignan; from Perpignan we went to Nismes, and from Nismes to Hyeres on the sea shore among orange and palm trees, and sheltered from the wind of the Alps by craggy mountains-a beautiful spot with nice hotels, where we passed a pleasant Sunday. The next day brought us hither. I am much obliged to you and so is Julia, for the trouble you are taking on our account. Do you not want more money? I shall write to you soon again, and think I may as well enclose a draft, for five hundred franks, on Munroe and Co. I wish you could obtain for me a copy of "Voyages en Zigzag," the character of which you know very well and Julia thinks I ought to have a copy of Dore's Illustrations of Don Quixote. 3 But whether you find that or not I should like a good copy of Cervantes' work in the original Spanish. I am glad you found Boethius which is a very remarkable work. 4 We shall stay here a few days and then proceed to Florence. Julia and Laura desire their regards. Very truly yours W. C. BRYANT.

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NYPL-Berg ADDREss: A Monsieur I Monsieur John John Durand I aux soins de Mr. Germer Bailliere. I No. 17 Place de l'Ecole de Medicine. I Paris I France. POSTMARK: 6 I FEB I 67.

MANUSCRIPT:

1. Neither letter has been recovered. 2. Word omitted? 3. Gustave Dore (1832-1883) published his famous illustrations for Cervantes' Don Quixote in 1862. 4. Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius (d. A.D. 525) wrote De Consolatione Philosophiae in prison in the year of his execution.

1682. To John Durand

My dear sir.

Nice, Feb. 9th

1867

I enclose you a draft upon Munroe & Co. to be laid out in books, and which will be necessary if you get the illustrations of Don Quixote as Julia desires. Please write and let me know that you have received it. If you can find a copy of Monti's Italian translation of the Iliad 1 I wish you would get it for me. If you find a good copy of Cicero de Senectute 2 and one of Seneca De Beneficiis 3 with French translations, I wish you would get them for me. We find Nice agreeable in climate and beautiful in scenery. There are a good many English here, but the Americans are perhaps as numerous in the hotels-the English occupying the villas in the Environs. There are none of either just now but ourselves in the hotel where we are-the Hotel Paradis, a place of French resort. Nice is now apparently a French town; the signs have all been changed from Italian to French, as if the police had required it, which for aught I know may be the case. The old part of the town which was all that I saw of it in 1834, being all that then existed, is a maze of narrow streets between high houses, but the new part, mostly on the other side of the river is open and cheerful and splendidly built, in a show style of architecture which has a very attractive appearance. Beyond on the hillsides, among olive trees and evergreen oaks, are scattered the villas, many of which have a pleasant outlook upon the valley, the city and the sea. An American family here have taken one furnished at the rate of 250 francs a month, which is a good way below New York prices. On Monday we go on to Florence by way of Genoa. All well. The ladies desire their regards. Truly yours W. C. BRYANT.

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MANUSCRIPT: NYPL-Berg ADDREss: John Durand Esq. 1. The Italian poet and dramatist Vincenzo Monti (1754-1828) translated Homer's Iliad in 1810. 2. For Bryant's earlier comments on Cicero's De Senectute ("On Old Age''), see Letter 14 79. 3. Lucius Anneus Seneca (c3 B.C.-A.D. 65), Roman philosopher, dramatist, and statesman, De Beneficiis ("On the Award and Reception of Favors").

1683. To Isaac Henderson My dear sir.

Florence

February 21, 1867

I find your two letters of January 18th. and February 2d. waiting for me here. I am glad to learn that things are going on so well at the office. I enclose a little note to Mr. Nordhoff which you will please to hand him. There is also one for Mr. Cline which I wish you would put into an envelope and forward to him. 1 We have passed a pleasant week at Nice where the American Consul Judge Aldis, 2 was exceedingly kind to us-and a very pleasant day at Hyeres, where they put us into rooms just vacated by General McClellan. 3 The hotel keeper seemed very proud of such a guest. We had a very interesting journey by the national road from Nice to Spezzia, and after giving a day to Pisa, and another to Lucca, both interesting places, we got to Florence on the afternoon of the 19th. and were installed in rooms, which a young American artist, Mr. Newton Perkins, 4 at the request of Judge Aldis, procured for us. Mr. J. A. C. Gray is here, keeping house in very pleasant apartments, close to the house and studio of the sculptor Powers. 5 We had very pleasant weather in coming hither from Lucca and ever since. The weather is mild and sunny and like our fine autumn days. Julia and Laura talk of going to Venice to see the carnival with Mr. Gray and Mrs. Gray. I prefer to stay here. I believe I did not tell you that my visit to Madrid was chronicled in the papers. Will it be egotism if I send you a translation of what was said? The Correspondencia de Espana said: "At the Exhibition of the Fine Arts has been seen lately William Cullen Bryant the first lyric poet of the United States. It is nine years since this indefatigable traveller was in Spain, and his second visit proves that he has not forgotten the tokens of esteem with which he was received by our most distinguished men of letters. "Bryant has completed his seventy second year, notwithstanding which, under his long white beard, his features reveal great vitality and his firm and active step the elasticity and energy of youth. Bryant, like Quintana, 6 appears destined to the singular good fortune of seeing

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his brow wreathed with the crown which only posterity bestows upon true genius. He has left this place for Rome whence he will return to his country in the beginning of summer. May he yet for a third time be seen in Spain by those who admire him for his beautiful verses and love him for his patriarchal virtues." -Two other journals had something like this.My best regards to Mrs. Henderson and all your household and to the gentlemen employed so satisfactorily upon the Evening Post. Yours very truly W. C. BRYANT. UTex ADDREss: Monsieur I Monsieur I. Henderson I Office of the Evening Post, I New York, I Etats Unis d'Amerique. POSTMARK: FIRENZE I 21 I FEB I 67 PUBLISHED: Bryant and Henderson, pp. 16--17.

MANUSCRIPT:

1. These letters are unrecovered. 2. Asa Owen Aldis (1811-1891), a Vermont lawyer, was American consul at Nice from 1865 to 1870, and later a federal judge. 3. After his defeat as the Democratic candidate for the Presidency in 1864, General George B. McClellan spent three years traveling abroad. 4. Not further identified. 5. Hiram Powers (542.3). 6. The Spanish poet Manuel Jose Quintana (1772-1857), who wrote in the classical manner.

1684.

To John Durand

My dear Mr. Durand.

Florence, Italy, February 22d

1867

I reached this city on the afternoon of the 19th. instant and found waiting for me your letter of the 11th. I am sorry you get on so slowly with the publication of your book. 1 As it has turned out, it seems to be well that my not receiving your letter prevented your coming to Spain, though I was somewhat chagrined when I found that it missed me and that if it had not I might have had you with me. I sincerely hope that the success of your work will be such as not to make you regret the trouble you have had. With regard to the draft for five hundred francs, if you are perfectly willing to take the trouble, I should like you to expend it for books as well as the sum which I originally placed in your hands. But in regard to that matter I would have you act precisely as your convenience shall dictate and not take upon yourself a particle of trouble beyond what you contemplated when you first offered to look up the books for me and not even as much as that, if it should prove more a burden than you expected. I am glad that you like the translation of Homer. It was an

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experiment on my part, and I have been curious to know how it appears to those who read it. 2 It differs from all others in English by its greater simplicity. Cowper injured his by Latinisms, pompous phrases and harsh inversions. 3 Lord Derby's is generally a fair reading of the sense, but as Halleck says "he has made a good translation of the Iliad with the poetry left out."4 My own rendering is considerably closer to the original than either that of Cowper or Derby. We are rather pleasantly settled here for a few weeks, though I think Julia and Miss Leupp may leave for a week or so to go and see the Carnival at Venice. I have for my part no curiosity to see [it]. I once saw one and a very gay one at Pisa, when the Court of the Grand Duke of Tuscany was there for the winter. There was a constant masquerade under my window on the Lung' Arno for several days, until I became quite tired of it. 5 We passed a very pleasant week at Nice, owing much of the pleasure of our sojourn to the civilities of the American Consul Judge Aldis, who is a most obliging man. We had then a most interesting journey of six days along the Cornice Road-the military road from Nice to Spezzia, which surrounds the shore country of the Mediterranean as a frame surrounds a picture and offers a series of grand and beautiful views. We took the railway at Spezzia and after giving a day each to Pisa and Lucca reach[ed] Florence where rooms had been engaged for us in a boarding house by a young artist Mr. Newton Perkins as the request of our Consul at Nice. I quite agree with you that American politics have a very bad look at present and that people seem to be forgetting the real interests of the country in the violence of the party feud which has sprung up. I never despair, however, of the final triumph of wise and healing counsels, and feel pretty sure that this violence will expend itself ere long and that wiser counsels will prevail. The ladies desire their regards. They are as well as usually or better perhaps. I am, sir, very truly yours W. C. BRYANT. MANUSCRIPT: NYPL-Berg ADDRESS: Monsieur I Monsieur john Durand I aux soins de M. Germer Bailliere I No. 17 Place de l'Ecole de Medicine I Paris I France. POSTMARK: FIRENZE I 22 I FEB. 1. It is uncertain to which book Bryant refers. In 1882 Durand published Prehistoric Notes of the Century Club, and in 1894 The Life and Times of A. B. Durand, a biography of his father. Durand's letter is unrecovered. 2. See 1660.1 3. William Cowper's translation of Homer appeared in 1791.

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4. The British statesman Edward George Geoffrey Smith Stanley, fourteenth Earl of Derby ( 1799-1869) published an English version of the Iliad in 1864. 5. This was in February 1835; see Letter 298.

1685. To the EvENING PosT

Florence, February 25, 1867.

The artists here are much alarmed at the prospect of a heavy duty to be laid by Congress on works of art not by American artists, imported into the United States. I enclose a letter from the eminent sculptor Powers, in which he shows the consequences of such a proceeding on the part of our government. That it will provoke retaliation there is no doubt entertained here; and the effect will be to embarrass and distress very much the artists who are pursuing their studies in this and other foreign countries. Discriminating duties imposed by one government always occasion discriminating duties by other governments. An export duty on works of art sent home by American artists will assuredly be laid by the governments of those countries where the fine arts are most cultivated, and which will, therefore, be most prejudiced by a heavy duty on their works of art imported into America. Another effect of the duty will be to make works of art exorbitantly dear in the United States. Only the very rich will be able to have pictures on their walls. Your millionaire will not mind the duty; he will have the picture, or the statue, or the bust which pleases his fancy, in spite of the import duty laid by our government, or the export duty laid on the works of American artists by foreign governments; the man of moderate means will button up his pockets. The duty will be, therefore, a duty laid for the discouragement of art. I hope that the protest of Mr. Powers against the proposed duty will receive the attention it deserves. The artists who asked for the measure could not certainly have foreseen the consequences which are certain to flow from it. Letter from Mr. Powers. My Dear Sir: There is a statement in the New York Evening Post that Congress is about to lay a very heavy duty on foreign works of art; so high, indeed, as to shut out-for the most part-foreigners from competition with native artists at home.' But however this may be, its effect would be disastrous to American artists in Florence, for it is already threatened here to lay an export duty on our works, in retaliation for the duty already imposed on Italian art. I have talked with one of the representatives in the Italian Parliament on this subject, who says that while mere copies of paintings or sculptures may

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properly be taxed, he thinks that original works by living artists ought to go free of duty into America, as they do in France and England; and the government here would not complain of such a law. Of course we American artists here feel much anxiety on this matter. There is no hope for us if Congress increases the duty. We shall all have to leave here; for an export duty would tax our works for America not only, but everywhere else, and we could not live here. It is possible that the government might be induced to retaliate by an import duty on American produce-petroleum, for instance-which would be more just than an export duty on the works of a few Americans in Florence. There are no other of our artists in Italy, if I except in Rome and not under this government. Thus you will perceive that an act which may be sport to those artists at home who have petitioned Congress, if passed by Congress would prove death to all our hopes here. And surely it is an advantage to art in America that some of us should come abroad and study here. The intention cannot be to provoke hostility towards us on the part of foreign artists and foreign governments. I have no doubt that the Roman government will follow suit if the Italian government sets the example of retaliation. And does our revenue require a high duty on original works of great masters abroad? or is it that the petitioners desire to compel our people to buy their pictures, or have no pictures at all? I do not know if we Americans are not also included in the high duty proposed; and if so, then our case will be desperate indeed. We shall have to run the gauntlet getting out of Italy with our works; and also in getting into America with them-paying some fifty per cent at head and tail of our voyage. It seems to me that the present plan is not a wise one. It is highly calculated to provoke retaliation. We want to sell our produce abroad, and a law might be made here to-morrow excluding the vast quantities of petroleum entering the ports of Italy from America. And who shall say that this would be unfair? I wish you to publish this if you think it would do any good. With kindest regards, I am sincerely yours, Florence, February 24, 1867.

HIRAM PowERS.

MANUSCRIPT: Unrecovered TEXT: EP, March 14, 1867. l. Although the EP article Powers referred to has not been identified, on January 26, 1867, the New York Times reported, under the caption "A Prohibitory Tariff as Bearing on our Educational System," that the Senate had agreed to exempt from a pending bill books, charts, maps, and other items imported for use in schools, colleges, public libraries, and literary and philosophical societies.

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1686. To Isaac Henderson

173

[Florence, February 25, 1867]

I believe Julia wrote to you about the house-leaving it to your discretion as to the rent. 1 I want the house taken by Miss Sands-and wl pay a fair proportion of the rent-perhaps more than that. -Please send the enclosed to Mr. Cline. 2 All well-charming weather. Yrs truly W. C. BRYANT. MANUSCRIPT:

(partial): UTex

PUBLISHED:

Bryant and Henderson, p. 19.

1. In an unrecovered letter Julia Bryant had apparently expressed to Henderson Bryant's wish to engage a town house in New York which he and Julia might share with their unmarried friend of long standing, Julia Sands (203.10). Henderson, finding it "next to impossible to hire a house at any thing like a reasonable rent," took the liberty of buying a house in Bryant's name at 24 West Sixteenth Street, Manhattan. Henderson to Bryant, April6, 1867, Homestead Collection. See Letter 1698. 2. Bryant's enclosure to Cline is unrecovered.

1687. To John Howard Bryant

Florence, Italy, February 27th [1867]

... It is true that I saw Lord Lytton, though I do not know how you heard of it. I dined with Mr. Bigelow, and he was of the party, as well as the Duke of Seville, brother of the king of Spain, a little man of a villainous aspect. 1 I signed the letter to Mr. Bigelow, but was not at the public dinner given him. 2 • • • From Perpignan, to which we returned from Barcelona, we went to Nismes, and, after looking a little at its ancient remains and gardens, we took the railway to Hyeres, on the Mediterranean, where we passed one day in a beautiful country with a charming climate, made so in winter by the shelter of a circle of hills to the north. Here our host put us into rooms just vacated by General McClellan, and seemed quite proud of his late guest. The drive at Hyeres, along the sea-shore, is exceedingly beautiful. Hyeres is full of palm-trees and orange-orchards. Another day's journey, and a short one, by rail, brought us to Nice, where we passed a pleasant week, and then hired a man, a Roman and a political exile, to take us in a carriage, with all our big trunks, through Genoa to Spezzia, where the railway, interrupted at Nice, begins again. We stopped, in coming to this place, a day at Pisa, to look at its buildings, and another at Lucca, and here we have beenjust a week in Florence, and a rather comfortable one. On Sunday I went to the Independent Evangelical Church, an assembly of Catholics who have separated themselves from the papal

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WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT

hierarchy, and worship in their own way without a clergyman. 3 They seemed solemn and earnest, and in the pauses between the exercises, which were rather long, read diligently in the New Testament, a copy of which was in almost every hand. The exercises consisted of singing hymns, extempore prayers, readings from the Bible, and expositions of the passages read. The communion was administered. A small loaf of bread entire, as it came from the baker's, was carried about, and every one pinched off a piece. This was followed by a large tumbler of red wine, of which every one tasted; and all this without any preliminary or subsequent words. The room was full, and the attendants quite well dressed. I am told that those who belong to this new persuasion number about three thousand in Italy. The political state of the country is not satisfactory. The public debt is great, the taxes are exceedingly heavy, and the cost of living much dearer than it was. The people also are discontented with the burden of military service. The relations between church and state are unsettled, and the ministry is inclined, it is thought, to concede too much to the priests .... I do not like the aspect of our politics in America. It is impossible to imagine public men behaving worse than the President and Seward are doing; the Republican party is so strong that it is lunging into grievous follies, and may yet wake up to find the other party strong enough to dispute its ascendency .... 4 MANUSCRIPT: Unrecovered TEXT (partial): Life, II, 257-258. 1. Edward George Earle Lytton Bulwer-Lytton, first Baron Lytton (1803-1873), British novelist and statesman; the consort of Isabella II, Queen of Spain from 1833 to 1868, was her cousin, Francisco de Asis. According to Bryant's, "Diary, 1866-1867," this dinner party was held on December 9, 1866. 2. On December 8, 1866, Bryant was one of 138 signers among the American colony at Paris of a letter inviting John Bigelow to a farewell dinner on December 19 at the Grand Hotel, after Bigelow had been replaced by John A. Dix (388.8) as minister to France. Bryant, who had been asked to preside at the banquet, stipulated that he would leave Paris for the south before December 19. Indeed, during their two-week stay in the French capital, the Bryant party found themselves "quite sick of Paris-its short days, lowering skies, mists, wet streets and chilly rooms" (see Letter 1667), and Bryant found he had "too many acquaintances there" (Letter 1668). Bryant, "Diary, 1866-1867," December 8, 1866; Bigelow, Retrospections, II, 649. 3. This sect seems to be unrecorded in standard religious encyclopedias and dictionaries. 4. President Johnson's vetoes of the Freedmen's Bureau bill and the Civil Rights bill in 1866, his truculence in dealing with Congress, and his intemperate and irrascible speeches on the campaign trail before the congressional election of November 1866, bitterly antagonized the radical Republican leaders in both Senate and House, as well as most of the liberal newspaper editors of the North. Secretary of State Seward,

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always a compromiser, found himself heir to most of the opprobrium cast on his leader. VanDeusen, Seward, pp. 442-465, passim.

1688. To Isaac Henderson

My dear sir.

Florence

Italy

March 8th

1867.

I got your letter of the 16th of February yesterday. 1 You mention but three letters received for the Evening Post. I wrote more. I sent off one from Valencia on the 11th of January relating to Barcelona and Tarragona, and giving some account of the political condition of Spain. 2 It was accompanied by a note to you and by several other letters, and should come in between the letter from Amelie les Bains and that published in the E. P. on the 13th of February. 3 I hope that they have not missed their way. -The letter concerning Amelie les Bains was mailed on the 29th of December at Barcelona. 4 The letter about Barcelona Tarragona and the politics of Spain was put in the mail at Valencia on the 11th of January. Then came the letter about Valencia which was mailed at Cadiz on the 20th of January. After that was a letter sent from Madrid on the 24th of January, 5 and finally one sent off from Nice on the 6th of February the date of which I think was Saragossa, January 28th. 6 These make five letters for the Evening Post. You will perceive that the very first sentence in the letter you have published concerning Valencia refers to something in a previous letter which is not found in that from Amelie les Bains. I am very well satisfied with the manner in which the Evening Post has been conducted and can only hope that it will continue to do as well as it has hitherto. It seems to me that it might be well to seize the occasion given by the late destructive fires in New York to repeat the exhortations which the Evening Post has so often given concerning the importance of building houses with iron beams and joists. At one time when we began to erect those vast structures which are now so common I pointed out in the Evening Post, again and again, the danger of conflagrations from that cause, which could not be extinguished till they had done immense damage. All I wonder at is that more lives have not been lost. 7 Mr. Godwin has been here and talks of going home in June. Fanny is at Rome whither we shall go tomorrow, God willing, but she is soon to proceed north. With regard to Miss Sand's house, I leave it wholly to you to make such an arrangement as you may think most for our convenience. I know nothing of prices and rents at present in New York, but am willing to make an arrangement [which] shall be liberal towards herplease remember this. As to the proportion of the rent which I am to

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pay-let it be what she pleases- If the rent be large, she will not be able to pay so large a share as if the rent were moderate. I do not wish to drive a parsimonious bargain in this matter-and would have you arrange the matter as you would for yourself in a case in which you desired as much to oblige the person with whom you were dealing as to accommodate yourself. I think I now have received the Evening Post regular[ly] up to the 15th of February. I should like to have a copy of those numbers which contain my letters put by for me. You ask about my annual dues to the League8-please pay them as also to the Century, 9 and my pew rent 10-and bills for the Christian Inquirer and Examiner. We are all pretty well. Julia and Laura came back from a cold journey to Venice-night before last. The weather has become quite disagreeable here-cold and damp together-and every body has colds. -My best regards to Mrs. Henderson and all your household and the gentlemen of the office Yours very truly W. C. BRYANT MANUSCRIPT: UT~x ADDRESS: Monsieur I Monsieur I. Henderson I Evening Post I New York I Etats Unis d'Amerique. POSTMARKS: FIRENZE I 8 I MAR I 67. I N.Y. MAR I 25. PUBLISHED: Bryant and Henderson, pp. 20-21. I. Letter unrecovered. 2. This letter was apparently never recovered. 3. Letter 1675. 4. Letter 1671. 5. Letter 1677. 6. Letter 1679. 7. For an extended discussion of the EP's long advocacy of improved civic sanitation, street improvement, building safety, and related matters, see Nevins, Evening Post, Chapters Eight, "New York Becomes a Metropolis: Central Park," and Sixteen, "Apartment Houses Rise and Tweed Falls." 8. It is uncertain whether Bryant refers to the Anti-Tariff League, of which he was then president, or the Union League of New York, of which he had been a founder during the Civil War. 9. The Century Association, of which Bryant had been a founder in 1847, and would become president in 1868. 10. Bryant held a pew in the Unitarian Church of All Souls at Twentieth Street and Fourth Avenue, New York, of which his friend Henry W. Bellows (734.3) was the pastor, paying for it a rental of $1,000. Walter D. Kring and Jonathan S. Carey, "Two Discoveries Concerning Herman Melville," Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society, 87 (1975), 138.

1689.

To Jerusha Dewey

Rome, March 25th [1867]

... Our little party expect to be in Paris the beginning of May, and we have engaged lodgings there for the whole of that month, after which

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we shall go, God willing, to Scotland .... For my own part, I have been so little interested in what I have seen during this visit to Europe that I have often wished that somebody were in my place whose curiosity had a sharper edge than mine, and that I were back at Roslyn. Yet the country about Rome is now quite beautiful. The Villa Borghese, just outside of the walls, is full of flowers, and the general mother, whose breast contains the dust of so many old Romans, from Romulus and Remus down to the modern invaders, is every moment turning that dust into luxuriant herbage and blossoms. The deciduous trees alone are slow in feeling the breath of spring, but there are many shrubs in their new leaves; and the grass is high, and spotted with crimson and purple anemones, besides which are various evergreens, shrubs, and trees, some of them in bloom. The temperature since we have been here is most agreeable, sometimes inducing a feeling of languor, but never oppressively warm. There does not appear to be any great apprehension entertained of any disturbances for political reasons at present, and everybody says that if any should take place it will not be until after Easter, when strangers leave the city, and the Romans expect to get no more of their money. We have in the mean time a ship of war at Civita Vecchia, commanded by Captain Hopkins, 1 whose business it is to protect the American citizens at this place in case they should need a place of refuge. It seems, however, to be fully understood that the government of Victor Emmanuel will not encourage any rising of the Roman people while the present pope lives. I went the other day to Ostia not far from the mouth of the Tiber, where a large space is covered with hillocks and mounds, the indications of the site of a considerable city, and here within a few years excavations have been made uncovering the lower part of walls which were once parts of dwellings and temples. In the neighborhood Pliny had a villa. We went to Castel Fusino, which must have been near that villa; it stands among lofty pines, a habitation deserted by its proprietors. A road, paved by the old Romans with flat, broad stones leads directly from it to the sea, whose murmur blends with the sighing of the pines. The road is embowered with evergreen oaks, the arbutus and the tree-heath, now in bloom, and the daphne and rosemary, also in flower, border it, and beneath them spring the cyclamen and other flowers-a most cheering walk, ending in a sandhill, at the foot of which dashes and roars the Mediterranean .... 2 MANUSCRIPT:

Unrecovered TEXT (partial): Life, II, 259-260.

I. Probably Edward Augustus Hopkins (1822-1891), an American naval officer and journalist distinguished for promoting trade with and rail and steamboat transportation in Latin America. 2. See illustration.

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1690.

LETTERS

To George Cline

OF

WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT

[Rome, cMarch 26, 1867]

... There is [at Cummington] a patch of low land or lamb kill, a little to the north of the brook running through it, which I wish Mr. Dawes would extirpate. The Bates's lost a sheep last summer, and I think from eating it. 1 There is also a shrub of white azalea in the middle of the road at the corner between my farm and the new purchase, 2 which I wish to have dug up and transplanted to the garden. You know that it is among the most fragrant of flowers. . . . I would like a row of evergreens-hemlocks, I think the best,-planted north of the new school-house in Cummington so as to shelter it from the winter wind. 3 . . . In sending trees and shrubs to Cummington you will not forget Kohlenterias, which flourish so well about our place, and of which so many have appeared under the large tree. The monthly honeysuckle also would, I am pretty sure, do well there, and the trumpet honeysuckle also, and it would be well to add some of the hardier roses .... MANUSCRIPT: Unrecovered TEXT (partial): Bigelow, Bryant, p. 270. I. The farm of Marshall Bates (b. 1819?) adjoined Bryant's property at its northwest boundary. Only One Cummington, p. 245; Vital Records of Cummington, p. 280. 2. The identity of this "new purchase" is problematical. The next instance of Bryant's adding to his Cummington property, after he bought the Homestead in 1865, seems to have been his acquisition of his grandfather Snell's farm in 1870. See Only One Cummington, p. 355. 3. This was the new building, erected in 1867 on land he had given the town at the southern edge of his property, for which Bryant had contributed five hundred dollars. See Letter 1583; Only One Cummington, p. 351.

1691. To Isaac Henderson

My dear sir.

Rome, Italy, March 26. 1867

Your letter of the 2d has just come to hand, with one from Mr. Cline of the 8th. 1 I am glad to know that the Evening Post is doing so well. It is certainly ably managed, and all the criticisms that I should make in regard to it relate to but small matters and are not worth the carriage from Rome to New York. The recovery of the weekly and semi-weekly subscriptions is a good sign. I wonder how the readers of the Tribune bore the letter of Greeley, asking for them [the southern states?] conditions even more favorable than the President dared to claim. 2 The letter detained in Spain is probably one which I sent to Munroe & Co. for I sent them all in that way from Spain-which, by

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some means, had been divested of the thin outer envelope in which I put it, and which had the proper stamps. I shall write to Mr. Perry sending the notification which you received and ask him to put on the stamps and have it forwarded. It probably contains the missing letter for the Evening Post, and Julia's to you. As to my school-tax in Cummington, it is true that the District have not dealt very generously with me, but I am not sure that the inhabitants are very well able to do so. It was a great deal for them to do, to build so expensive a house for their school; it must have taxed them much more heavily than they are accustomed to be taxed for such purposes, and I am not unwilling to bear my share of the burden. I am only surprised that they did not call upon me for my last years tax when I was in Cummington last summer, instead of postponing it to this winter. I am very glad that we have got rid of Craig, who is one of the most brutal blackguards I ever knew and a rogue besides. Some rogues are civil and smooth tongued-indeed the majority of them, I think, owe what success they have to that-but Craig owed his to his extraordinary ill-manners. I am glad to hear that he is at last kicked out, as the phrase is, from any association with any part of the newspaper press. I suppose that every body at last got tired of his insolence. 3 We found Fanny here with Minna, a maid-servant and Walter. She was in comfortable lodgings which she had hired for the winter, and we went immediately to her rooms, although they were a hundred and more steps high in the air. But when she came to settle with her landlady, she found her demands so extortionate and her behavior so grossly dishonest, that we were afraid to stay any longer in the rooms, after her departure, as we had at first intended, and immediately went to an hotel, where we are now, and Fanny left this city last night for Florence, where she will remain perhaps a fortnight and then return to the North-to Geneva first and then to Paris. They are all pretty well. I am exceedingly sorry to hear of Mr. Weir's continued and severe illness. 4 Kind regards to ali-in your household, and at the Office. Yours very truly W. C. BRYANT. I. Henderson Esq. P.S. Please send the accompanying letter in an envelope to Mr. Cline. 5 W.C.B. Dr. Charles King is here very ill and not expected to live. 6 W.C.B. UTex ADDRESS: I. Henderson Esq I Office of the Evening Post I New York I United States of America POSTMARK: ROMA I 26 I MAR I 67; I N.Y.AM PKT I 27 I APR I 36 I OR U.S. NOT. PUBLISHED: Bryant and Henderson, pp. 23-24.

MANUSCRIPT:

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1. Neither letter has been recovered. 2. According to Bryant and Henderson, pp. 24-25, a Greeley editorial in the New York Tribune on November 27, 1866, had urged on the President a policy of "Universal Amnesty and Impartial Suffrage" toward the defeated Confederacy. The EP called this another of his "cowardly surrenders." Bryant seems here to have omitted an intended reference to the southern states. 3. Craig has not been further identified. 4. The artist Robert Weir had apparently been chronically ill for some time; on May 18, 1866, he had written Bryant (NYPL--GR) of his "partial recovery" from an illness. 5. This letter is unrecovered. 6. King ( 196.3) died that year at Frascati, a suburb of Rome.

1692.

To Horatio J. Perry

My dear sir.

Rome

March [30] 1 1867.

We received the promised photographs of your family in due time, and next to the living originals are glad to have near us the pictured resemblance of friends whom we value so much and who have shown us so much kindness. We have had our own taken here at Rome, and send them enclosed. 2 We regret that in sending us the photographs you said nothing of the health of your family, concerning which we felt anxious when we saw you last. Please write to me-care of Messrs John Munroe & Co. P[aris], and let me know of this letter coming to hand and be [careful to?] inform us how you all are. There is another matter concerning which I venture to ask you to take a little trouble for me. While I was in Spain several letters were written to Mr. I. Henderson of the Evening Post and sent to Munroe & Co to forward to America. One of these missed going, and Mr. Henderson has received the enclosed notification. 3 I have no doubt that it became divested by accident of the envelope which contained it-addressed to Munroe & Co and was found in that state in the mail bags. May I ask you to see to this for me, as the letter is of some importance-containing some private letters-and put on the requisite stamps to take it over the frontier. I enclose &c .... MANUSCRIPT: NYPL--GR (draft) ADDREss: AI Senor I Don Horatio N. Perry I Seceretario de Ia Legaci6n De los Estados Unidos I Madrid. 1. Although the recovered draft of this letter bears the date March 27, Bryant's diary indicates it was written on the 30th. 2. None of these photographs has been recovered. 3. Unrecovered.

1693.

To the EvENING PosT

Vienna, Austria, April 12, 1867.

I take a moment of leisure in this splendid capital to say a word

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or two respecting Rome, which I lately left in the flush and bloom of a glorious spring, to come to this region, where the chill of winter yet lingers in the air, and the trees are leafless. I have scarce ever returned to any considerable city of Europe without perceiving some important change. The old world, as well as the new, changes with the years that pass over it, as clouds are continually taking new shapes when blown along by the wind. I perceive some essential differences between Rome as it is to-day and as it was nine years since, but they are not of the kind which I then remarked and thought so striking, relating principally to the accommodation and embellishment of the modern city. It is true that Nature in this genial climate has rapidly performed the work which was expected of her, in the public gardens. The groves of the Borghese Villa and the Pincian Garden, mostly composed of trees that keep in leaf throughout the year, have thriven as they would have done in scarcely any other region. The busts of distinguished men, which stand in rows in the Pincian Garden, are already overshadowed and half-veiled in the tufts of laurel planted at the base of their pedestals. A few years ago a stranger might have visited Rome without being aware that its climate was particularly favorable to the growth of the date-palm. Two or three specimens of this noble tree stood in some of the gardens, but the traveller did not always see them. Now it has become a favorite, and is seen in its various stages of growth in all the public and many of the private gardens. They are springing up in the Villa Borghese, and several, of an already stately size, rustle heavily in the winds that sweep the Pincian declivity. It is not of these things, however, that I was about to speak. It is of the new Gothic swarm which has overflowed Rome, the Great Western Invasion which began last year, and this year has almost made Rome a Yankee city. When I was first there, in 1835, there was not, so far as I knew, a single artist from the United States residing there. The European nations, England among the rest, had many young men studying the arts of design in its rich museums and galleries, and there were a few of wide renown, like Thorwaldsen, 1 who made it their residence. At present I am sure that the number of American artists who have settled themselves at Rome exceeds that from any other country. In the rooms of the bankers Maquay, Packenham & Hooker hang lists of American and British artists residing at Rome. I did not count either of them, but I saw that the American list was twice as long as the other. The American visitors at Rome this winter are counted by thousands; and, if I were to judge by what I saw and heard passing around me, I should almost say that they had expelled the English. They have

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been certainly as two to one compared with those who come from the British Isles. You hear English spoken in the streets and shops, but your ear tells you that it is with an American intonation. Americans swarm at the hotels, and outbid their insular cousins for the pleasantest and sunniest suites of rooms. The consequence is, of course, that Rome has grown dearer than ever. The English complain, and not without some reason, that it is the Americans who have made it so, although the burdens of the government now resting upon a small population, and a paper money system almost as bad as our own-but, perhaps, more excusable-are certainly in part the cause. The hotels are very dear; the price of lodgings has very greatly risen, and in the more cheerful-looking parts of the city-which, consequently, are given up to strangers-the necessaries of life cost nearly twice as much as they do in those remoter and obscurer streets to which the Romans themselves resort for their purchases. A system of high prices, framed and graduated for foreigners only, prevails in those parts of Rome which they most frequent-a fact of which the oldest residents are fully aware, and, consequently, leave the shops which deal on this principle to customers who are less experienced, and who are generally content with the residence of a single winter. It sometimes happens that those who let their apartments behave with gross bad faith towards their lodgers, swelling their accounts with pretended damages to the furniture, and repetitions of charges already paid, and the like, and becoming clamorous and insolent if their demands are resisted. These cases, I think, are exceptions, yet not wholly unfrequent ones; and, as the Roman householders are generally poor, the temptation to cheat in many instances gets the better of their conscience. In this sudden influx of a people from a prosperous country far beyond the deep, among whom the union of the temporal with the spiritual power is looked upon not merely as an error in government, but as a crime against the natural rights of man, a superstitious mind might see an omen of the fate that hangs over the temporal power of the papacy. I do not suppose that the ecclesiastics who bear rule within what is now the little pontifical territory so regard it; they have doubtless other and more certain indications to occupy their attention. It may have been fancy, but it seemed to me that I saw in the faces of the more thoughtful-looking ecclesiastics something different from the confident and assured tone which I had beheld there in other years-a look of discouragement, as if some sad anticipation darkened the future. I saw the Pope and several of his clergy of the highest rank at the close of a ceremonial in which they officiated at St. Peter's. In passing out of a side chapel, across the nave of that great building,

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they came near us. The Pope did not certainly look in bad health; he had an erect attitude-you may know, perhaps, that he is a short and rather stout man-and he walked with a firm step between the multitude of gazers, with his attendant priests on his right and left. He may last several years yet, but his warmest partisans cannot fail to see that the revolution which has deprived the Primate of the Latin Church of the far larger part of his temporal possessions is yet to be completed by taking away the rest, and that with the death of Pius IX. the pontifical authority in civil matters must come to an end. 2 I infer, from what I heard at Rome, that the greater number of American residents there would be glad if a diplomatic representative of our country were on the spot, to whose protection they could apply in case any disturbances should arise to make it necessary. "Our country," they say, "maintains its ambassadors in capitals where no such danger exists, and where, if it did exist, there would not be so many to need protection! With two thousand Americans of all ages and sexes in Rome, if a revolutionary government should attempt to seize the authority, the alarm among them would be indescribable, and the presence of a representative of the power and name of our great republic would do much to quiet their fears. Our government has already sent a ship of war, the Shamrock, to take its station at Civita Vecchia, and to offer a place of refuge, in case of need, to the American residents; but if there is good reason for this procedure, there is a better reason for appointing some agent of our government who can open a place of refuge nearer at hand." I believe that the supposed slight put upon the Americans in regard to Protestant worship has been fully explained. The Papal government, among the other vices which belong to its nature, has that of religious intolerance, and this will inhere in its very constitution till the Papacy as a civil power is overthrown. We cannot expect it to change its nature on account of regard to the American government or people, but in the meantime there is every reason to believe that those by whom it is administered wish to stand well with the United States; and as long as they are no more rigid in enforcing their rules against us than against others, we have all that we can fairly expect, and if we want anything better we must wait till Rome forms a part of the great Italian kingdom. I should mention, among the recent improvements in the condition of Rome, that its sewers have lately been examined, repaired, and put in proper order. In a city like Rome, where one set of buildings has been erected on the heaps of rubbish formed by the ruins of another, and again another set on the ruins of these, and so on, from age to age, it is easy to imagine that these subterranean channels may

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become displaced from their proper level by sinkings of the earth, or choked by masses falling from above, or may lose their way in unsuspected rifts and stagnate in pools. This I learn was found to be in some degree the case, and the sewers were all restored to their proper inclination and carefully cemented, so that no obstructions any longer exist. The effect on the health of the city is decidedly favorable, and some of the Americans artists who formerly thought it necessary to resort in summer to the mountains, now remain safely with their families in Rome through the hot weather. I have my own way of explaining the present unhealthiness of the Campagna of Rome, as compared with what it must have been when the region had its cities and villages, and was covered with the country seats of the opulent Romans. One of the conjectures which formerly seemed to me among the most probable was that of Simond, an intelligent French traveller, who lived for some years in the United States and wrote a book about our country in English, and previous to that a book concerning Italy in French. 3 Observing the soil of the Campagna to be of volcanic origin, he supposed that in process of years the different constituents of which it is composed, operating chemically upon each other, had arrived at that stage of decomposition in which they began to give out exhalations injurious to the health of man. My explanation is different, and has this advantage, that it derives some support from experience. It is well known that stagnant water in a heated soil, and allowed no opportunity of passing off through the veins of the earth, sends up exhalations quite as fatal to health as stagnant water on the surface. Table lands, where a basis of rock is hollowed into basins having no outlet, and these are filled with soil, are for that reason proverbially unhealthy, especially in warm climates. The water is confined in these hollows, and can only pass by gradual evaporation through the soil, and the exhalations thus caused are dangerous to health. I apply this fact to solve the much vexed question of the Campagna of Rome. You look over the region and wonder that it should be reputed unhealthy. You remember the upland prairies of the west, and ask yourself what should make it more so than they. There are no more marshy spots; the ground rises here as there into airy headlands and sinks into broad hollows, with everywhere a passage for the water of the rains in its way to the rivers. There is no vegetation left to decay where it grew; the herbage of the pasture grounds is bitten close by herds of kine and buffaloes, and flocks of sheep, and the meadows are mown for the stables of Rome. Yet unhealthy the region is, and fearfully so; and where cities once stood, and where the opulent

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Romans had their favorite villas, no man will now venture to sleep. If, however, you look along the sides of the road as you pass, wherever it runs below the level of the fields, you will see that in some places a horizontal stratum of volcanic rock lies upon a bed of loam, and in others that the loam of the fields lies upon a stratum of volcanic rock. In other places you perceive where the basis of the soil is a bed of the friable stone called tufa, the upper surface of which presents an uneven waving line, showing that it is full of depressions and hollows, and this surface seems a sort of firm crust, not porous like the crust of the rock. At other times you perceive like waving lines formed by one layer of soil above another, each separated from the one above by what seems a compactly encrusted surface. I infer that the rains which are absorbed into the upper layer of soil cannot pass off, as in other regions, through the veins of the earth--cannot pass into the tufa and percolate through it--cannot penetrate the crusts which have gradually formed on the lower layers of soil, but are imprisoned in the basins formed by their waving surface, and there, heated by the sun of a long summer, pass gradually into the air, and are the cause of disease. I admit that there should be further investigation before this theory is accepted. One who is accustomed to the inspection of strata in the earth could easily verify the positions I have assumed, and ascertain whether there is any cause which now prevents the descent of water from the upper side. It is certain that there are very few springs in the Campagna. If the water passed off in the usual manner we might expect them to be frequent. There is no difficulty in supposing that when the volcanic soil was comparatively new the water absorbed into it would percolate it freely. The tufa was then a heap of volcanic cinders, and the soil must have been full of openings and fissures, which we may suppose to have since been closed by the substances which the water originally carried down with it. Those who have watched the operation of mineral manures in agriculture know that a top-dressing of lime given to land immediately begins to sink into the ground, and after a few years is found in a thin white layer considerably below the surface. All over the Campagna of Rome the mason has been busy at some period or other with his cement of lime and sand, which everywhere now forms part of the soil, and how much of the closing of the lower beds of soil against the descent of water may be owing to this cause I will not venture to say. The reader may have observed that fissures in limestone rock have been sometimes filled in this way, and may remember.that the little shells which form the rock called in Florida coquina, appear to have been cemented into

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a mass by the lime carried down by rain water from those which lie uppermost to those below. If I have rightly divined the cause it suggests the remedy. The remedy is to restore, so to speak, the circulation of water in the veins of the earth, by breaking a passage through the compact crusts that impede its descent from one stratum to another. This might be done by boring deeply through the different beds, by means now in frequent use, wherever it might be suspected that the water was confined in basins or hollows near the surface. Enough, however, of a theory which, however plausible, needs to be confirmed by patient personal examination. If I have written a dull letter, the blame must be laid in part to the unwholesomeness of the air which forms my principal subject. A few days before I left Rome I went to Frascati and thence to Albano on a rainy day, which I was persuaded to believe would prove a fine one. The rain was accompanied by a change of temperature from quite warm to very cold, and I was insufficiently protected against this change. I have had a little of the Roman fever in my veins ever since, though in a mild form, and it is gradually leaving me. MANUSCRIPT: NYPL-GR (draft fragment) TEXT: EP, March 4, 1867. 1. The Danish sculptor Albert Berte! Thorwaldsen (1770-1844). 2. Although Pius IX lived untill878, after the collapse of Napoleon III of France in 1870 and consequent withdrawal of French support for the Papacy's temporal power, the Italian kingdom invaded and annexed Rome, and the Pope retired to the Vatican. 3. Louis Simond (1767-1831) published his Voyage en Italie et en Sicile at Paris in 1828. Though he published other travel books on Great Britain and Switzerland, none concerning the United States has been located.

1694.

To George Cline

[Dresden, cApril 20, 1867]

.. I do not know whether I suggested that you should plant in my plot of ground in the cemetery [at Roslyn] some of those white violets that grow about the little waterfall that comes out of the pond south of the mill. I think they will do well there. They seem to like a spot partially shaded where the grass is not so thick and the earth a little broken .... MANUSCRIPT: Unrecovered TEXT (partial): Bigelow, Bryant, pp. 270-271.

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1695. To Fanny Bryant Godwin

Dear Fanny.

187

Dresden, Saxony, Hotel Bellevue April21st 1867.-

It distressed us greatly to learn yesterday by telegram the death of poor little Walter. 1 I returned from a walk yesterday in the early part of the evening and found Julia in tears with the paper communicating the sad news in her hands. There is nothing that we can say to break the force of such a blow as this must be to you and your husband and to all of you. It is but a slight consolation to reflect that for the short period it lasted his life was an innocent and a happy one. It would be a still greater if we could hope that our own lives would be so passed as to make us the fit companions of a soul so guileless in the world beyond the grave. We are to stay here a very few days longer, and then go to Paris. Dresden is a pleasant city, not much the resort of strangers-yet, and therefore not spoiled for a quiet residence. Julia calls herself pretty well but is easily fatigued. I, for my part, left Rome, feeling very miserable with a cold, as I called it, contracted by going to Frascati and Albano in the rain, but which had the characteristics of a fever rather than of a cold. It only left me after about a fortnight. We found the climate very harsh on getting to Germany and at Munich were in a snow storm. Here for two days past the weather has been quite mild. Till now the people here complain of its uncommon severity. I enclose a letter for Minna which came to me yesterday. I need not tell you [howF much Julia shares in your sorrow, nor how much she mourns that so sweet a life should be so allowed so short a date. Praying that God may temper this calamity to you all and make it in its results a source of blessing, I am dear daughter, affectionately yours W. C. BRYANT. P.S. We hope soon to hear the particulars of what has happenedW C B NYPL-GR Life, II, 260.

MANUSCRIPT:

ADDRESS:

Mrs. Fanny Bryant Godwin

PUBLISHED

(in part):

1. Fanny Godwin's fourth son, Walter, had died at Geneva early in April, in his sixth year. 2. Word omitted.

1696.

To John Durand

My dear sir.

Baden-Baden, April 27th

1867

I write this without knowing whether you are yet in Paris or not. If you are I shall want to see you, of course when I arrive, in a day or

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two from this time, and, as I do not know easily where to find you, I will let you know where you can find me and my little party. We expect to leave Strasburg on Wednesday morning the 1st of May and arriving at Paris shall go immediately to Mrs. Luscombe's No 9, Rue-du Centre, where we shall be after that time. We have had a prosperous series of journeys so far, saddened, however, by the news which we received the other day at Dresden, of the death of little Walter Godwin my grand child a very bright and promising boy of four or five years of age. We are here for a day or two, in this beautiful nook among the mountains. We expect to leave it on Monday-today is Saturday, and a very chilly morning-for Strasburg. At Rome we found three Americans at least to one Englishman, and the resident artists there compared with the British are two to one. Almost every where on the continent the Americans swarm this year, and are not always the cream of our countrymen. The girls desire to be kindly remembered. Yours very truly W. C. BRYANT. MANUSCRIPT: NYPL-Berg ADDRESS: A Monsieur I Monsieur John Durand I aux soins de M. Germer Bailliere I No 17 Place de l'Ecole Medicine I Paris I France. POSTMARK: BADEN I 27 I APR.

1697.

To Orville Dewey

My dear Doctor.

Baden-Baden, Gasthof zum Badischen Hof April 29th. 1867.

Julia insists that I shall inflict a letter on you by way of provoking you to retaliate-being sure that I shall never get one from you till you get one from me, which I am afraid is true-so I write what I am afraid you will say when you get to the end of it, is not worth reading. I have been wandering about Europe for the last five months, till I am quite tired, and wish myself back to Roslyn among my books in the old library. I have seen some interesting things, but with less interest than I expected, though Julia, bless her, makes amends for my apathy by an eager curiosity to look at every thing worth seeing. Her friend Miss Leupp, with much less curiosity, is quick witted and sharp enough for half a dozen ordinary travellers, so that it is no matter whether I see any thing or care for any thing I see not-We swept through Spain to Cadiz, and coming back by way of Madrid and old mouldy Saragossa, coasted the Mediterranean by Nimes, Hyeres, Nice, Genoa and Lucca to Florence. After three weeks at Florence and a month at Rome, we ran up to Venice by way of Ancona, and from

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Venice found our way along the coast to Trieste, and from Trieste through the picturesque valleys of Styria to Vienna. A few days rest in Vienna prepared us for a journey to Salzburg, one of the most beautiful spots in Europe, among the white mountain peaks and nearer summits black with fir trees, and lovely winding valleys, and clear swift streams, and fresh meadows, and noble woods, and winding carriage ways, and enticing foot paths, and beautiful parks open to the public. We passed there one of the finest April days I ever [saw?]! and gathered all manner of wild flowers in the parks and fields. Munich and Dresden were our next stopping places-in Munich we had a snow storm, and Dresden, a beautiful and pleasant city, we found with scarce any more vegetation than in winter. Heidelberg with its orchards in bloom made us amends, and now, in this place, all the birds of the air seem straining their throats in chorus, and the cuckoo is skirting the woods on every side, although never seen. It is a charming place, this Baden-Baden, with an infinity of pleasant walks among the fine groves of its hill sides and by its rapid clear river. But all over Europe hangs the fear of another great war-a war between her two most potent powers, France and Prussia. France has set her heart on having Luxembourg, and to this Prussia will never consent-so that if France insists on having it, she must go to war for it. 2 Immense armies are therefore on foot, the cost of living is greatly increased in consequence of the enormous weight of the public burdens, and there is great popular discontent and a gloomy looking to the future. Poor Switzerland, with four millions of people, is obliged to have half a million of men ready to be called into the field. In Italy, with all the satisfaction expressed at the union of her territories under one government and the liberty of conscience and freedom of discipline, there is a great deal of complaint concerning heavy taxes, and the compulsion of military service. In many of the countries-as in Italy in Rome and in Austria, they have, like us, resorted to paper money-and in Rome the depreciation is almost as great as in our own country. One of the most interesting things which I saw while in Italy was a meeting of independent Christians at Florence. 3 In a long room on the ground floor, full of the plainest flag-bottomed chairs, placed in rows, a pretty large company of Italians were assembled for worship, with only laymen to take the lead. It was, in every respect but one, like the prayer meetings or conferences-as they used to be called-held in our country. Prayers were made extempore, portions of scripture read, hymns sung, all in the Italian language, and the scriptures read were commented on and expounded. Near the close, the Lord's Supper was administered. A small loaf of bread was carried about, altogether

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uncut, from which every person pinched a little piece, with his thumb and forefinger. Then a pretty large tumbler of red wine followed, which once had to be replenished from a decanter standing on a little table. It was impossible to imagine any worship more simple and probably primitive. I have not seen any American newspapers for a considerable time-but expect by the first of May to be at Paris, where I hope to be able to read up the contemporary history of my country for the last five weeks. With all our troubles in the United States, the way out of them is clearer than the way out of those in which the Old World now finds herself. My love and that of Julia to all your household and here ends a dull letter, which if it begets an answer will be certain to provoke a lively one. Yours ever W. C. BRYANT. MANUSCRIPT: NYPL-GR (final?) ADDRESS: Dr. 0. Dewey.

1. Word omitted.

2. An acute crisis arising from rival French and German maneuvers to control

Luxembourg, in April 1867, was averted the following month at an international conference in London. 3. See, for instance, Letter 1687.

1698.

To Isaac Henderson

My dear sir.

Paris, May 4th. 1867.

We got here on the evening of the first of this month at nine o'clock and here I found two letters from you 1 and a large bundle of newspapers waiting for me. I had heard at Dresden, through Mrs. Griffin, who corresponds with Miss Sands that you had bought a house for us and where it was situated, but was naturally curious to know more of the particulars, which your letters to me and Julia very fully communicated. I am glad that you bought the house and resolved also to purchase such part of the furniture as might be advisable to take along with it. I have no doubt that you have made a good bargain for me, and have done better for me, a good deal, than I can possibly do for myself.2 Julia and myself will now have a place ready for us in town when we arrive, and will be sure of a shelter when we come into town for a night. As to what Miss Sands should do, it is probable that the arrangement she suggests of furnishing the meals will be as convenient both for her and for us as any that could be thought of. That, I

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suppose, could, however, be arranged at any time. In the mean time I see at present no objection to the manner in which she proposes to appropriate the rooms, but this is a matter which I prefer to let Julia and her agree about. The Evening Post has exceeded my expectations in its productiveness the present six months. 3 It is managed very well yet-and with that appearance of impartiality and sincere conviction which always commands the attention and respect of the public. I wish you would say to Mr. Nordhoff that I hope he will keep in mind that what is now called the Republican party has no bond of cohesion except the question of the rights of the negro in the late slave states and that just as soon as that question is settled and put aside, the cards will be shuffled again, a new deal made and there will be a change of partners. 4 My brother John, who is as decided an abolitionist as any body, or as they are now called, a thorough radical, writes me that there is dissatisfaction to a great extent and intensity at the west with the tariff and the party which enacted it. The moment the negro question ceases to occupy mens minds that discontent will break into a flame, and present party ties will be consumed like tow, leaving nothing but ashes. There is yet another remark which I should be tempted to make to Mr. Nordhoff if I were writing to him, and if you will please to show him this letter, this part of it may be considered as addressed to him. There are two emotions raised by wrong-doing in those who are not active or sufferers-one is indignation, the other sorrow-the latter implies, I think, a more properly disciplined state of the feelings, though I would by no means, in such cases withhold ajust resentment from doing its part. It seems to me that the Evening Post never expresses anything but indignation, when perhaps redress could be more readily obtained, and the wrongdoer brought to see his fault more certainly, by dwelling upon the other state of feeling. We remain here till the end of this month, after which we think of going to Scotland. How long we shall be in the British isles we have not yet decided, nor precisely when we shall return. We are at present as well as usual, and the fine weather which we seem to have brought with us, after a stormy month here, makes Paris much more pleasant than it was when we left it last. Remember me most kindly to Mrs. Henderson and to all your household, and to the gentlemen engaged in the Evening Post belowstairs and above and believe me truly yours W. C. BRYANT. P.S. Please send the enclosed to Mr. Cline 5-W. C. B.

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MANUSCRIPT: UTex ADDRESS: I. Henderson I Office of the [Evening Post] I New York I United States of America POSTMARK: PARIS I 3 1.' I 4 I MAl I 67 PUBLISHED: Bryant and Henderson, pp. 26-27. 1. These letters, in the Homestead Collection, are dated April6 and 18, 1867. 2. Henderson wrote on April 6, "I have bought for you at 24 West 16th Street quite near the 5th Avenue, and a few doors below the residence of Col. Thorne which you may remember. The house is in good order, Brown stone front, Independent walls-25 ft front, & 60 feet in Depth with an extension of 20 feet for Dining room. 4 stories high-Basement Counter cellar &c. The price asked was $40,000 at which it was held for a long while. I bought it for $30,000 which includes 2 large Pier and 2 large Mantle Mirrors worth about $1000 .... I am to take title on the 1st of May & pay Cash $21,000 the balance $9000 must remain on Mortgage for a short time .... " 3. On the 18th of April Henderson reported the EP still prospering; its profits the past month had been $26,043, and in the last five months $88,975. And, he added, "This I know will please you as it will tend to make the winter of your life more agreeable." 4. This is certainly one of the first, if not the first, instances of the use of the term "new deal" in its specific political sense, antedating by nearly a decade the first citation of this application in A Dictionary of Americanisms on Historical Principles (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press [ 1951 ]), p. 1124. 5. Possibly the letter from which the portion quoted in Letter 1694 was taken.

1699.

To Christiana Gibson

My dear Miss Gibson.

Paris, May 8th

1867.

I have claimed from Julia the privilege of answering your letter to her. Of course we go to Scotland. It would not be fair to Julia, in making a visit to the Old World which may not soon be repeated, to let her go home without seeing one of its most beautiful cities and one of its most remarkable countries, and as to our going home without seeing the Gibsons, it would be much like your coming to America and going home without seeing the Bryants. We had not thought, however, of taxing your hospitality, knowing that this might be inconvenient for you. I do not know what Julia may do in regard to accepting Mrs. Campbell's very cordial invitation to take up her quarters at her house while in Edinburgh, 1 nor am I quite certain that Miss Leupp will not, as soon as we arrive in England, leave us and take passage for New York-though I think she will not. But if Julia should go to her friend in Edinburgh, I, who do not like to be in town during the summer, would prefer to go out to your retreat in the country, and if you could engage a place for me in your neighborhood,2 to which I could go while Julia is finishing her visit, I should be much obliged. But there will be time to make this arrangement by and by.

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We think of remaining here to the end of this month, when I hope to leave Paris, although Julia, who is apt to be a little late, may possibly not be ready to go then. She intends, before going to Scotland, to pass a couple of days at Cheltenham with her friends the Gillilans. 3 I shall not go there with her as my acquaintance with the family is very slight. After that we shall go to Scotland, God willing. While there we shall do our best to persuade you to accept our invitation to accompany us in a little visit to some of the finest parts of Wales which Julia has a desire to see, and which, as it would not take you long from your mother, you might perhaps be willing to see again. We have had a prosperousjourney from Italy through Germany to this place, going from Rome to Ancona and thence to Venice, and stopping awhile at Trieste, at Vienna, at Salzburg, at Munich, at Nuremberg, at Dresden at Heidelberg at Baden-Baden and at Strasburg. The season, however, after we left Italy, where it was soft, sunny and genial, we found rather cold and rainy, and at Munich we had a snow storm. Salzburg enchanted us, Dresden we found a pleasant city, and Heidelberg and Baden-Baden in the bloom of their orchards were delightful. Yet wherever I go, I cannot help thinking of a place several thousand miles off, now more than ever dear to me, and at the same time, saying to myself how glad I shall be when I get back to it again. We hope at some time or other to see you there again and to show you how much more beautiful it has become since you left it. We have also just acquired a place in town to which we could welcome you on your landing. The stormy weather has since the first of May been succeeded in this region by serene skies and uncommonly warm days. Paris seems very gay, and the concourse of strangers is considerable, though less than was expected. I have twice been wearied to death in wandering through the Great Fair. 4 Julia and Laura send their love to all. Remember me most cordially to your mother and sisters. I am, dear Miss Gibson most truly yours, W. C. BRYANT. NYPL-BPMP ADDREss: Miss Christiana Gibson DOCKETED: Mr. Bryant, I May 8, I 1[8]67. PUBLISHED: (in part, with changes): Life, II, 260-261.

MANUSCRIPT:

I. On November 15, 1849, at the Church of the Ascension in New York, Julia Bryant had served as a bridesmaid at the wedding of one of Christiana Gibson's sisters, Victoria, to a young Scotsman of Edinburgh named Campbell. 2. The Gibson home, "Bridge End House," was at Crieff, about thirty-five miles northwest of Edinburgh. 3. Apparently the same family Julia had visited at Newport, Rhode Island, in 1860; see Letter 1170.

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194

4. The first Great Paris Exposition; others were held in 1889 (when the Eiffel Tower was opened) and 1900.

1700.

To Eva Hepp Mercier 1

[Paris] May 11th

1867

... Shortly before my wife's last illness she began, as if by a presentment of her approaching death, to leave what she called legacies in her life time, presents of money to those who she thought might be willing to accept them now instead of waiting for her departure. Besides what she did in this way she left an incomplete list of other bequests which she intended to make and which I have since paid. If the list did not contain your name it was because it was yet imperfect, and perhaps because of the distance at which you lived from her, and I am persuaded that if she had lived to come out with me and Julia it would have been there, such was her affection for you and her estimation of the kindnesses you had done her.Will you then be pleased to accept the enclosed as from her, as a slight testimonial of the regard which I know she felt and which if she should communicate with me I know she would desire me to express for her in this manner. W C B MANUSCRIPT: NYPL-GR (draft) ADDRESS: To Mrs. E. Mercier.

1. See Letters 410, 540.

1701.

To Francis H. Dawes

My dear sir.

Paris

May 18th. 1867

As Julia and myself cannot be at our place in Cummington this season except for a very short time towards the end of it, we beg you and Mrs. Dawes to receive in our stead Mrs. Henderson the wife of my partner in the Evening Post and her daughters. They are persons for whom we have a great esteem, and whom you will find agreeable inmates. We rely upon your kindness and that of Mrs. Dawes to do for them what you would do for us. You will of course have already taken care that the garden shall be sufficiently stocked with vegetables for the table. I hope also that you will, inasmuch as Mrs. Henderson will bring her servants, follow the arrangement made last year with Julia. -that is to say, have separate kitchens, inasmuch as that may be necessary in order to prevent the servants from being dissatisfied and leaving her. We shall remain in Europe rather longer than I intended when

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we left America. We have seen a good deal of the Old World this time, having traversed Spain from north to south and back, coasted the Mediterranean to Florence, visited Rome, and then going northward by way of Ancona Venice and Trieste to Vienna, have visited half a dozen German cities, including Dresden where we passed several days, and finally by way of Strasburg have brought up in this city. This is a cold morning and I am sitting by a fire. In the beginning of this month we had a full week of summer heat. -I have written to Mr. Cline what I wished to be done, on the place you have, and I suppose he has duly communicated with you. Kind regards to Mrs. Dawes and Miss Bartlett 1-not forgetting little Mary. Yours very truly W. C. BRYANT. [Postscript by Julia Bryant: "Dear Mrs. Dawes, I Please make our friend Mrs. Henderson & anyone she may bring with her, as comfortable as possible, and treat them with the same consideration that you would ourselves. I expect to see Cummington before many months. In the meantime I wish you all a very pleasant summer - Yours very truly -Julia S. Bryant."] UTex pp. 29-30.

MANUSCRIPT:

ADDRESS:

F. H. Dawes Esq.

PUBLISHED:

Bryant and Henderson,

l. It is uncertain which of the many Cummington Bartletts this may have been.

1702. To Isaac Henderson

My dear sir.

Paris, June 1st. 1867.-

I got your letter yesterday and am glad to hear that the Evening Post has got on so well during the past six months. 1 I have received no letter yet from Mr. Cline written since Mr. Clark's arrival, who was, it seems to me, long in coming. If however, he is only two months at work on the house, it will be finished before we return. Julia I suppose has informed you when that will be God willing. My friend Mr. Perry the Secretary of Legation at Madrid is much exercised in consequence of a scurrilous attack upon him in the Herald and his wife a Spanish lady and a very sensitive person has taken to her bed in consequence of her excitement. I have written to say that nobody minds the Herald in New York, that its anonymous slanders are not adopted by other journals, and that what they are worrying about, has probably been forgotten by every body else except the rascal who wrote it and that moreover I have answered it in an article for the Evening Post which they shall see.

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LETTERS OF WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT

I send you the article herewith, to be published editorially, but not exactly as a leader. 2 Please send the Evening Post containing it to Horatio J. Perry, Secretary of Legation for the United States, Madrid Spain.I wish you would write to Mr. Antonio Corzenaga at Valencia in Spain and send him the notification which you received, of the letter to you destitute of the proper stamps. I have already written to him about it. It is possible that it may be the missing batch of letters addressed by me to you, and I am quite desirous to recover it, if possible. It may be that he must have the notification to get at the letter. Mr. Corzenaga has sent me the accompanying letter for the Evening Post. 3 It is not exactly what I expected and I leave to you and Mr. Nordhoff to say how long you will continue to employ him. if you choose to pay him up and let him discontinue, there is a reason for it in the irregularity and uncertainty of the arrival of the letters he writes. At Julia's request I paid one thousand and eight hundred francs for an India shawl for Mrs. Henderson-Please give me credit accordingly [1800 fr.] Best regards to all Yours very truly W. C. BRYANT. MANUSCRIPT: UTex ADDREss: Monsieur I Monsieur I. Henderson I Office de !'Evening Post I New York I Etats Unis d'Amerique POSTMARKS: PARIS I 3 I JUIN I 67; N.Y. I JUN I 15 PUBLISHED: Bryant and Henderson, pp. 31-32. 1. In a letter to Bryant dated May 3, Henderson reported that the next EP dividend "bids fair to exceed the last." Homestead Collection. 2. On May 4, 1867, the New York Herald printed an anonymous letter from Madrid charging that Horatio Perry, while in the United States diplomatic service, had taken advantage of his official position improperly to secure a grant for the installation of a telegraphic cable to the Canary Islands. Under the caption of "A Slander Exposed," the EP carried, on June 18, Bryant's disclaimer of any wrongdoing. Perry had obtained the grant in 1859, he wrote, while holding no official position, when his business was the construction of ocean telegraph cables to the Balearic Islands. His very reputable associates in the project included Samuel F. B. Morse, inventor of the telegraph, and John Watkins Brett ( 1805-1863), a British telegraphic engineer who had originated the scheme of submarine telegraphy. But at the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861 Perry had given up the Canary Islands project with the purpose of enlisting in the Union army when Lincoln appointed him secretary of legation and charge d'affaires at Madrid. Since State Department rules prohibited Perry from defending himself in the newspapers, Bryant undertook to do so. See Letter 1703. 3. Corzenaga's Letter to Bryant, dated at Valencia on June 12, 1867, is in NYPLBG; the accompanying article for the EP has not been identified therein.

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1703. To Horatio J. Perry

197

[Paris] June 1, 1867

My dear Mr. Perry.

Please to say immediately to Mrs. Perry that she attaches-and so I think do you also-altogether too much importance to the anonymous calumnies which have appeared in the Herald. But a very small part of the population comparatively can have seen them and of these nearly all will have forgotten them. You may depend upon it that the mischief you apprehend has not been done in any considerable degree. Lies affecting character when put in print require to be reiterated, and referred to, and copied from journal to journal in order to produce much effect. A single utterance of the calumny falls dead-it must be caught up and disseminated to affect ones character. You may depend upon it that has not been done. The Herald is no authority for a fact with any body-and its anonymous slanders are not adopted and retailed. Tell Mrs. Perry. [Illegible nine-word quotation.] Nevertheless I have answered the slander in an article for the Evening Post, which I have directed to be sent to you when it appears.- ... MANUSCRIPT:

NYPL-GR (draft)

ADDRESS:

1704. To Fanny Bryant Godwin

Dear Fanny

To H.

J. Perry, Madrid. Paris, June 4th. 1867.

I have just now-at one o'clock got your letter of the 3d instant. 1 Two days ago the Clerk at Munroe's post office asked me Mr. Godwin's address and I could not give it. It is my custom when I get to a place to write to Munroe & Co, or write just before I get there, and they have always attended to my letters, and sent my letters and so forth regularly. I am going down town and shall leave a written memorandum of your address-directing them to send to you at Homburg les Bains till the 8th instant and then to Heidelberg but you must notify them in season when you wish them to send to Heidelberg no longer-or perhaps just before you go to Heidelberg-write to them again. We are in the midst of getting ready for England-Julia in great confusion and hurry. We go early tomorrow morning, and there is great trouble in getting every thing hence that was promised. I had rather an interesting journey in the west of France and came back on Thursday night. 2 Julia sends love Yours affectionately W. C. BRYANT

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LETTERS OF WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT

P.S. The Brooch is found-Mr. Tucker3 has not got the key of your trunk and will put the brooch in the Safe. Julia will look to the bill you mention W.C.B. MANUSCRIPT: NYPL-GR ADDRESS: Mrs. F. B. Godwin.

1. Unrecovered. 2. See itinerary. 3. Unidentified.

1705.

To George Cline

[London, cJune 6, 1867]

... You say that Mrs. Cline has been sewing some sheets together to catch curculios under the plumtrees. I was in hopes that the mixture of sawdust and petroleum under the trees would save this trouble, if spread copiously and wide enough around them. I cannot see how a curculio could well live to get back into the tree after falling among it. At all events, I wish a certain number of trees to be left to that remedy alone, that we may see how it works .... MANUSCRIPT: Unrecovered TEXT (partial): Bigelow, Bryant, p. 271.

1706.

To John Durand

My dear sir.

Great Malvern

June 10. 1867.

I write this at a snug little hotel in a flourishing village-a kind of quiet watering place, at the foot, or rather on the side of Malvern Hills, in Worcestershire. The broad valley of the Severn, to our immense content, is seen from our windows, and in it lies in sight the town of Worcester with its fine cathedral rising above the dwellings. From the top of the ridge of hills back of us you look down upon Worcestershire on one side and Herefordshire with its hills valleys and woods on the other. Yesterday I walked with Miss Leupp to one of the summits where are the remains of an old British Glmp--breastworks of earth and circumvallations and hollow roads [lea]ding along the hill side and reaching from the top to the foot of the hill. I was much interested in looking at it. We had a rainy time in getting from Paris to London and were all of us made sick in crossing the Channel, in the little steamer which carries over the passengers from Calais-a wretched affair of which the two great nations on the two sides of the Channel should be ashamed. I am about to leave Julia and Laura at

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Cheltenham and visit a friend at Taunton, 1 after which we are to go to Edinburg[h]. All of us are well.I enclose you a memorandum of something from Laura- May I ask you to do another thing for me? Julia forgot to hand Madame Max, Mrs. Luscombe's housekeeper two francs for something done by a locksmith. Will you oblige me by doing it? My fellow travellers send their regards. Yours very truly W. C BRYANT. NYPL-Berg ADDRESS: Monsieur I Monsieur John Durand I aux Soins de M. Germer Bailliere I No 17 Place de !'Ecole de Medicine I Paris I France.

MANUSCRIPT:

1. Ferdinand Field, who had moved to Taunton from Evesham, where the Bryants had visited him in 1858. See Letters 1708, 1054.

1707. To George Cline

[Crieff, Perthshire, Scotland cJune 21, 1867]

. Do not forget the Canada thistles in the field south of Captain Post's .... If you were here you would miss many things you have in Roslyn. Garden vegetables are dear and scarce, and some are not to be had. The tomato can be raised only under glass. Yet the winter climate is such that the Portugal laurel flourishes and many other evergreens too tender to bear the cold on Long Island. The cinnamon rose is just coming into bloom. I see no apple nor pear trees, which abound in the southern countries of the island; indeed, a fruit tree of any sort is an unwonted sight here. Yesterday in going through the grounds of a large landed proprietor I found a walk of an eighth of a mile between plantations of rhododendrons in full flower. Thejonquil grows wild here, and is just passing out of bloom .... MANUSCRIPT:

Unrecovered TEXT (partial): Bigelow, Bryant, p. 271.

1708. To Edwin W. Field 1

My dear sir

Crieff June 21. 1867.

You were so kind as to say that if we went to Wales, you would oblige us with some directions as to our journey and the things most worthy to be looked at. We are about to set out for Wales-that is to say after a visit to the Trosachs-and we expect to take the English Lakes in our way. We shall probably be in Wales about the middle of July.

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LETTERS oF WILLIAM CuLLEN BRYANT

I had a very pleasant visit at your brother's at Taunton, and wrote to your brother at Leamington that I expected to be in his neighborhood after the return of your brother Alfred from America. 2 I shall be in this neighborhood for several days yet, making my head quarters here, and returning to them after seeing the Scottish Lakes. If therefore you will be so kind as to write me within a week from this date I shall get the letter before I start for the South. I ought to carry back to America a most pleasant recollection of my visit to Great Britain, having principally through your kindness been so hospitably received in England. In Scotland-in Edinburgh I mean-I have been made the object of attentions which almost overpowered me. In this quiet place just on the borders of the Highlands, amidst scenery of exquisite beauty, and a wonderfully invigorating air I indulge for a little time the love of ease natural to an old man .... MANUSCRIPT: NYPL-GR (draft) ADDREss: E. W. Field Esq. l. See 540.7. 2. The brother at Leamington was Algernon S. Field (545.20). For Alfred Field, see 354.4; 406.5.

1709.

To Isaac Henderson

My dear sir

Crieff. Perthshire. Scotland. June 21st. 1867.

I got your letters of the 21st of May and the 4th of June, 1 both together, yesterday. Your letter of May 21st was sent in an envelope to Mr. Godwin, and a letter of the same date addressed to him was put in the envelope addressed to me. I sent him his letter and asked for mine which reached me here last night. I am very glad that the Evening Post made so liberal a dividend for the last six months-the result I am sure of good management. In the present state of business in the United States I do not expect the same prosperity for the next six months, and shall be content with a considerable falling off. If you go to Cummington it would add much to the satisfaction of your visit if you had the means of enjoying the fine drives of the neighborhood. Mr. Dawes has no horses-he had not last summerwhich any body could drive but himself. The country is exceedingly hilly but it is full of fine prospects from the summits and sides of the hills, and pleasant woods. I enclose a letter to Mr. Cline, principally about Mr. Clark and the house on which he is occupied. 2 I expect to go to Cummington sometime this fall, but for no long time, and I shall wish to be in my

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own place at Roslyn for some time immediately after my return, that I may see how things are going on there, and look to my fruit trees. Here on the border of the Highlands, I cannot learn that they have any fruit till late in the season, and then only the small fruitsstrawberries which come in July and after that gooseberries and raspberries. The air is invigorating, but very cool. I wonder how any thing ripens. I have just returned from a drive, in which I wore a thick great coat and came back quite chilled. Next week we visit the Scottish Lakes and a few days after we go to the English Lakes and Wales. Kind regards to Mrs. Henderson and all your family and the gentlemen at the office. very truly yours W. C. BRYANT P.S. Please send the enclosed to Mr. Cline UTex ADDRESS: I. Henderson Esq. I Office of the Evening Post I New York I United States of America POSTMARKS: B I CRIEFF I JU 22 I 67; N.Y. I JUL I 3 PUBLISHED: Bryant and Henderson, pp. 37-38.

MANUSCRIPT:

1. Unrecovered. 2. This may have been the subject of an unrecovered portion of Letter 1707.

1710. To Robert Horn 1

[Crieff?] June 22 [1867]

My dear sir.

I thank you for the copy of your address to the students of the Edinburgh School of Design, 2 which interested me all the more on account of my own pleasant relations with the artists of my own city. It is not often that such good advice is so pleasantly given-and the anecdotes with which it is skilfully [adorned?] must have fixed the attention of the hearers. You have asked for my photograph. It is enclosed .... MANUSCRIPT:

NYPL-GR (draft)

ADDRESS:

To Mr. Robert Horn of Edinburgh.

1. See Note 2. 2. On June 24 Horn, not further identified, wrote Bryant (NYPL-BG) thanking him for this letter, and, regretting he would not see Bryant again, suggested some places the visitors should see in Scotland and Wales. Horn's address to the students is unrecovered.

1711.

To John Durand

My dear Mr. Durand.

Crieff, Perthshire, Scotland. Bridge End House-June 23d

1867.

I have your letter of the 18th 1 and am much obliged to you for your attention to my affairs. The receipts enclosed came safe.

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LETTERS oF WILLIAM CuLLEN BRYANT

I am staying here for a few days with some old friends, the Gibson family, who lived in New York thirty years. Julia is with me, and Laura is left in Edinburgh. Tomorrow we make,-Julia and I, an excursion of three or four days to the Scottish Lakes, to be joined by Laura on our way. Julia will then return with Miss Leupp to Edinburgh, and I expect to come back to this place. They will remain in Edinburgh till the 6th or 8th of July, I am not now certain which, and then we all go, with the addition of Miss Christiana Gibson to our company, first to the English Lakes, and then to Wales, extending our journey to Somersetshire. You will find Julia and Laura, if you come to Edinburgh, at No.6 Clarendon Crescent, at Mrs. Campbells, a school-mate of Julias, and one of the Gibson family. I shall remain here, till we start for the English lakes. You will do well to see Edinburgh; it is one of the most picturesque cities in the world; indeed I do not know of any, the appearance of which is quite so striking, and we shall all be glad to see you. This is a chilly region, and if its summers are all like this, I am puzzled to understand how it is that any product of the earth ripens. I am glad you are about to put the 150 francs to their proper purpose. Julia desires her regards. Yours very truly, W. C. BRYANT. MANUSCRIPT: NYPL-Berg ADDRESS: Monsieur I Monsieur John Durand I aux soins de M. Germer Bailliere I No. 17 Place de ['Ecole de Medicine I Paris I France- POSTMARKS: C I Crieff I JU I 23 I 67; ANGL I 25 I JUIN I 67 I CALAIS.

I. Unrecovered.

1712. To Edwin W. Field

My dear sir.

Bridge End House, Crieff, Perthshire, June 28th 1867

I thank you for the information you have kindly given concerning the tour we propose to make in Wales. We think of setting out on the 6th. and till then I remain here. As to the English Lakes, we have already mapped out our journey and its excursions. We may perhaps give a week to them, and shall then go on to Wales where we think of passing about twenty days. It is not our intention to go to Manchester. We shall be much obliged by the additional suggestions which you offer to make when informed of the length of time we propose to give to our tour. Best regards to Mrs. Field and your children. I am dear sir very truly yours, w. C. BRYANT. MANUSCRIPT: UTex ADDRESS: E. W. Field Esq.

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1713.

To John Cunningham 1

My dear sir

203

Crieff, July 6

1867.

I send back Mrs. Cunningham's copy of your Church History of Scotland 2 and am much obliged both to you and her for the instruction and pleasure I have [derived?] from it. The church history of Scotland forms no uninteresting chapter in the history of religious opinionboth in what it ... [balance illegible] MANUSCRIPT:

NYPL-GR (incomplete draft).

1. John Cummingham (1819-1893; D.D. Edinburgh 1860; honorary LL.D. Dublin 1887), an historian, was minister of Crieff from 1845 to 1886. 2. Church History of Scotland (1859).

1714.

To the

EvENING

PosT

Crieff, Perthshire, Scotland, July 8, 1867.

Very few of your readers, probably, remember to have heard of Crieff, a little town on the slope of one of the hills in Perthshire, just at the entrance of the Scottish Highlands. Yet this is one of the most beautiful regions in Scotland, and its winding roads and the footpaths which cross its fields conduct you to eminences from which you have exquisitely rich and varied views of the surrounding country. Through it runs brawling the Earn, whose waters are gathered from many mountain brooks, clear and as yet untainted with the pollutions which spoil so many of the rivers of England, and whose course is fringed with noble trees and bordered with fertile meadows, which the somewhat showery skies of Scotland maintain in the freshest green. The roads, too, are shaded with stately trees; and the broad forests around you might almost persuade you that you are yet in America. The Turleum, said to be the only mountain in Scotland which is wooded to the summit, overlooks from the west the valley of the Earn-Strathearn they call it here-and looking in other directions you see one rocky mountain summit behind another, till the view is closed by the dark Abruehills, part of the lofty Grampian ridge. Short excursions to the north take you out of this smiling region into one of a grander and more savage aspect. A drive of an hour and a half brings you to the Sma' Glen, as it is called, a narrow pass between the lofty mountain ridges of the Highlands, clothed with gorse and heath, and furrowed by landslides. In this narrow glen flows the Almond, a mere brook, with pure, transparent waters, murmuring between banks bare of trees, and with not a human habitation in sight

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for miles. On his western bank is a huge stone, marking the reputed grave of Ossian-a spot well chosen for the last resting-place of such a poet, and in perfect conformity with the wild imagery of the poems attributed to him. 1 One of the tributaries of the Earn is the noisy little river called the Turret. You pass up the narrow vale through which it flows, called Glen-turret, and soon find yourself amidst the Grampians, on the edge of a long, still lake, which forms the bottom of a valley enclosed by them. Its borders are without trees, and the mountain declivities, whose image darkens the waters, are covered to the summits with heath interspersed with grassy spots, the pasturage of sheep. The heath, in which a sooty shade predominates over the green, gives to these mountains a rich depth of color which increases the solemnity of their aspect and is the delight of the landscape painter. You go on beside this dark, sullen tarn, till you are near to where a steep mountain wall closes the glen to the north, and suddenly you have before you a pretty hunting-lodge, surrounded by trees, their leaves glittering in the sunshine-at least they did when I saw them, although the sun does not always deign to shine in this cloudy climate-and grass-plots, smoothly shaven, of a vivid green, and flowering shrubs, such as the rhododendron and the laburnum, in bloom, form a striking contrast to the grim aspect of the surrounding region. In this solitude some lover of angling and shooting, hiring it of the proprietor, fixes his summer abode. If you pass up the valley of the Earn, you also soon reach its parent lake, broader and longer than that of the Turret, as is meet in giving birth to a larger river. Here the mountains which recede to form the basin of the lake leave room on its border for grassy slopes and a fringe of trees, ash and alder, elm and oak, pleasantly embowering the road, while above rise the steep declivities and grim summits where flocks of sheep find pasturage in the grass which springs among the heath. The heath furnishes a covert for great numbers of grouse and other game birds and holds in the black, spongy soil formed by its roots the water of the rains and mists, parting with it slowly and gradually to the springs and rivulets. These mountain solitudes are becoming more and more solitary from year to year, as the old Highland estates are turned into sheep farms and hunting grounds, and the Highland race, as a peculiar and distinct class of the Scottish population, will probably soon exist no longer, either emigrating to Australia or America, or else becoming merged in the Saxon race which possesses the Lowlands. The ruins of deserted cabins are frequent among the mountains in places where there [is] now no inhabitant, and as you pass through the Lowland

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villages you will often hear the women speaking to each other in Gaelic, an indication that they have been expelled by the new order of things from the mountain regions. It is thought that this result is very unfavorable to the interests of the poorer classes, by increasing the number of candidates for employment in places where employment was already scarce. Not only has the Lowland laborer a rival in the Highlander, but Irish laborers are becoming numerous here, for the Irish laborer follows the railways in Scotland as he does in our own country. I cannot learn that the condition of the working classes has at all improved of late years in this country. It was but a month since that I was in France, where a different state of things existed. In every part of it which I visited, I was told that the peasantry were never in such comfortable circumstances as now. "We are not obliged to deny ourselves anything," said one of them, living in the neighborhood of Paris, to a friend of mine. I heard the same account in La Vendee where I passed several days; I was told the same thing in Britanny and in Normandy, and I see that Dr. Tomes's book gives a like representation of the agricultural class in what was the ancient province of Champagne.2 One reason of this prosperity is doubtless the opening of a free trade with England, which has given France a market for the products of its soil, and enhanced their price; but another reason is that the soil from which these products are obtained belongs to him who cultivates it with his hands. The peasant of France is a freeholder, the land is minutely subdivided among an immense class of owners. It may ere long, perhaps, in consequence of the policy of the French laws, become too minutely partitioned, but it has not reached that point yet, and the soil is tilled all the more carefully, and thriftily, because both the soil and its fruits are the property of the tiller. Here, on the contrary, the ownership of the land is in few hands, and these are becoming fewer every year. You stand upon some eminence and look down upon these beautiful valleys-the straths as they are called-in which the rivers of Scotland flow seaward, and you see vast domains extending from mountain to mountain, the property, perhaps, of a single family. "If we go on at the rate at which we are going now," said an intelligent Scotchman to me, "all Scotland will ere long be owned by a single man, and that man may be the Duke of Buccleuch. 3 By the operation of the law of primogeniture, aided by the laws relating to entails, estate is added to estate, and when an estate gets into a family it never goes out of it; the law of entails keeps it there. In this manner the number of landowners in our country is gradually diminishing, and nothing but an alteration of the present laws will arrest this tendency."

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One of the effects of this diminution of the number of landowners is the evil so much complained of in Ireland, that the proprietors do not live on their estates, and take no interest in the concerns of the neighborhood in which they are situated. From a hill back of the town of Crieff, whence you have one of the noblest views in Great Britain, you look down upon the beautiful estate of Monzie, with its ancient trees and varied grounds. "Its mansion," said the person who pointed it out to me, "is uninhabited, it is already becoming ruinous; the place is neglected, and everything is falling into disrepair." I went the other day to Perth and thence to the Lyndoch estate, famous for the traditional story of Bessy Bell and Mary Gray, 4 a place now owned by the Earl of Mansfield, who has several other estates. We were courteously received by the intelligent gamekeeper, who showed us the remains of the mansion inhabited twenty-four years since by Lord Lyndoch. 5 It was a perfect ruin, the roof fallen in, the windows out, the walls giving way. Estates belonging to the large proprietors are let from year to year to persons who come for a transitory sojourn in the neighborhood, and do not identify themselves with its permanent population. So great is the accumulation of estates in certain single hands, that it is proverbially said that the Duke of Buccleuch can travel seventy miles on his own land in a direct line to the English frontier. At some time or other the British Parliament will find itself required to interfere for the purpose of remedying these evils, and that time will be hastened by the reform of the Parliamentary representation. Meantime, it should be no matter of surprise if we find this height of opulence in a few counterbalanced by as great a depth of poverty in many. It may not be fair to judge of the poverty of Scotland by that of Edinburgh, but certainly there is no part of the world in which poverty takes a more revolting form than in that most picturesque and beautiful of cities full of noble-minded and philanthropic men and women. The lofty buildings which overshadow the wynds issuing into the lower part of High street are tenanted by a class, the most wretched and filthy, I think, that I ever heard of. I was told that the passages to the upper stories are literally choked with heaps of filth, except when the city authorities interfere and cause them to be cleansed; that pigs are kept in the upper stories; that frequently, when a death occurs, the corpse is laid out and made to do duty for one family after another, in order to obtain money from alms-givers for the funeral expenses, and that it is a common practice among this class for the same person to obtain money from charitable committees of different religious denominations, making the circuit with great regularity, soliciting each in turn, and living in idleness. An American gentleman

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residing in Edinburgh, Mr. Miner, has been occupied for some time past in looking into these abuses, and endeavoring to persuade the benevolent, who now act by separate agencies which have no concert or understanding with each other, and thus thwart each other's efforts, to unite in some general system of charity, which shall dispense its aid only to the deserving. I hear that in this he is likely to succeed. From him I learn that the class of vicious poor in Edinburgh is constantly recruited from the country. Young persons, of both sexes come to town from places where they can obtain no employment, and, being compelled to lodge in the cheapest quarters, are drawn into dens of vice and intemperance, corrupted and added for life to the miserable population among whom they have thus been thrown. 6 Enough of this. I have alluded to the different religious denominations of Scotland in the preceding paragraph. It is remarkable that with so many Presbyterian sects as exist here-four of them in allthey should so perfectly agree in matters of doctrine. They quarrel only concerning questions of ecclesiastical organization. The Presbyterians of the Established Church not only claim that public worship should be supported by the government, but allow the government to interfere in certain ecclesiastical matters, and permit the pastoral charge of parishes to be given by laymen to their friends. The Presbyterians of the Free Church insist that the Church ought to be supported by the government, but deny its right to interfere in ecclesiastical concerns. The United Presbyterians insist that the government should have nothing to do with the Church either in supporting its ministers or in any other manner. Presbyterians of the Reformed Church not only agree with the United Presbyterians in these respects, but insist that until the temporal sovereign of the country becomes pledged to the covenant there is no obligation on the part of the subject to obey. This sect is very small and notwithstanding the apparently disloyal tenet I have mentioned, is composed of persons as obedient to the laws and the civil authority, and as orderly in their conduct as either of the others. I believe that I have stated the differences of these denominations rightly. They are all Calvinists; all hold to their ancient creed. There have lately been some attempts to unite the Free Church and the United Presbyterians-which, if brought to stand on one platform with one organization would become a formidable rival to the Established Church, yet the denial by one of these sects of the duty of the government to support public worship has hitherto stood in the way. It may not perhaps long obstruct the union, for the Free Church has no prospect of ever being supported by the government. I said the other day to a Scottish clergyman: 7 "Your churches have

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all remained faithful to the doctrines of Calvin; but is there no change in the mode in which those doctrines are taught?" "Most certainly there is," he answered. "We dwell more on duties and less on the abstruser parts of our belief; more on those aspects of our faith which present motives of action and less upon those which but remotely influence human conduct. In this way the teachings of Calvinists and Arminians sensibly approach each other." But though there is this perfect agreement in essentials, the spirit of contradiction manifests itself with great activity, even among members of the same sect, in minor matters. There is a rooted dislike of forms of prayer in the Presbyterian Church generally. Dr. Lee, of Edinburgh, a minister of the Established Church of Scotland, 8 not long ago composed a liturgy which was read from the desk, the people making responses. He was remonstrated with; he persisted; he could plead the practice of the Presbyterian Church up to the time of the Assembly of Divines at Westminster, who framed the famous Westminster Catechism. A little while since his case was about to be brought before the General Assembly of the Established Church for its decision when a paralytic stroke, which disabled Dr. Lee from officiating as a minister, saved a long discussion, and relieved the Assembly from the responsibility of deciding what they might, perhaps, have found a perplexing question. There is also a prejudice in the same Church against instrumental music as a part of religious worship. Dr. Cunningham, of this place, author of an excellent Church history of Scotland, ventured to introduce an organ into his church. Some of his people objected; the matter was brought before the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, and the organ was voted not to be exactly orthodox, or, at least, its use was declared to be inexpedient. It remains in Dr. Cunningham's church, however, and it is by no means unlikely-such is the instability of human opinion-that its pipes will yet give forth their harmonies with the entire consent of the Assembly. And now that I have got back to Crieff in this long letter, let me say a few words more of the place. If there are any who desire to pass the entire summer without the uncomfortable sensation of being too warm, I can conscientiously recommend to them a sojourn in this beautiful region. The air is never made sultry by the dog-star; it is invigorating and healthful, and even in the proverbially moist atmosphere of this island, there is no complaint of dampness here, for less rain is said to fall in Crieff than in almost any other part of Scotland. The showers, however, are frequent enough, with the aid of the dews, to keep the verdure fresh till the season of frosts. Every flowering shrub and plant remains long in bloom. I came hither about three weeks since; the rhododendrons were then in bloom, and are in bloom

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still. I sometimes wonder how anything ripens in a climate so constantly cool. Yet the people here look forward with confidence to the strawberry season, which always comes. The gooseberries are allowed to be the finest of their kind. August regularly brings the raspberry, and though fruit trees are few, the sickle is always in due time put into the fields of grain, which are now, on the 8th of July, as green as the lawns and meadow grounds. So Crieff, besides the uncommon beauty of its scenery, comes in for its share of the gifts which are bestowed upon regions of a tamer aspect. Looking around upon the glorious views which are beheld from its eminences, a Scotsman may well adopt the words put by Walter Scott into the mouth of one of the personages of his poems, and exclaim, "Where's the coward that would not dare To fight for such a land?"9 MANUSCRIPT:

NYPL-GR (partial draft)

TEXT:

EP, July 22, 1867.

1. In 1763 the Scottish writer James MacPherson (1736-1796) published Temora, a collection of verses purportedly translated from the work of the legendary Gaelic warrior and bard Ossian. 2. Possibly N. Thome, Memoire sur le culture du Murier blanc (Lyon, 1763). 3. Walter Francis Scott (1806-1884, M.A. Cambridge 1827), fifth Duke of Buccleuch, and seventh Duke of Queensberry, a statesman who became chancellor of Glasgow University in 1877. 4. See 691.1. 5. Thomas Graham, Baron Lynedoch (1748-1843), member of parliament and soldier. 6. Miner has not been further identified. 7. Probably John Cunningham; see Letter 1713. 8. Robert Lee (1804-1868), professor at Edinburgh University, and pastor of old Greyfriars Church, 1843-1868, was often censured by the Edinburgh presbytery for his innovations. 9. Marmion, iv, 30.

1715. To Isaac Henderson

My dear sir.

Low Wood Hotel Ambleside, England July 16th 1867.

The enclosed letter appeared in the Scotsman a daily journal published in Edinburgh- It appeared on the 8th of this month. The writer is Miss Jessie Gibson, formerly one of the heads of the excellent school for Young Ladies in Union Square. I send it because I am sure that you and Mr. Nordhoff will like to see it. Whether it should be copied into the Evening Post or not I leave to you and him to say. If it

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should be, I am sure that it will be best to change the heading, and not allow it to be introduced by any allusion to Mr. Greeley. 1 We have just arrived at this place on the Lake Windermere in Westmoreland, and I take advantage of a rainy day, which does not allow me to go out, to write this letter. Our visit to these Lakes has been delayed somewhat by Julia's indisposition which kept her a few days at Edinburgh while we were waiting for her at Patterdale, 2 but she has now joined us and is considerably and I am glad to say, hopefully better. She seems to have had a pleasant time at the Scottish metropolis and to have made many friends there. During the week that we were at Patterdale we had an opportunity of comparing the summer in Westmoreland with that in our own climate. There was little rain in that time, until yesterday, but the weather was what we should call chilly. I slept every night under a good thick blanket. The cherries are yet green and about as large as curr[a]nts. There were no strawberries yet-though I have found some here today just coming in. The moist skies and the cool climate keep the country fresh and green, but every thing ripens tardily and every sort of vegetable is slow in coming forward. There are many fine trees planted for ornament, but it is clear that they are not wanted, as with us, for shade. Tomorrow if the weather permit we shall look at the country about lake Windermere and its neighborhood, so celebrated by Wordsworth and other eminent poets, and the next day make wider excursions. I am a little impatient to get into Wales after seeing which we expect to extend our journey to Somersetshire. We have met with a great deal of hospitality and attention since we came to this island. Please give my regards to Mrs. Henderson and Miss Crawford 3 and the younger members of your family Yours very truly W. C. BRYANT. [Please send the enclosed letter to Mr. Cline] 4 MANUSCRIPT: UTex ADDRESS: I. Henderson Esq. I Evening Post I New York I United States of America POSTMARKS: WINDERMERE I D I JY 17 I 67; N YORK A [CI] PKT 24 I AUG I 1 I 33 I HOTES. PUBLISHED: Bryant and Henderson, pp. 39-40. 1. This letter to the Edinburgh Scotsman from Christiana Gibson's sister Jessie (502.3), signed "JUSTITIA," noting that at a breakfast to the American anti-slavery leader William Lloyd Garrison the British parliamentarian John Bright had called Horace Greeley the "most prominent" American journalist in the anti-slavery cause, asserted that Bryant and the Evening Post had been outspoken opponents of slavery since before Greeley was known to the public, and had been largely responsible for a

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climate of opinion that had brought Abraham Lincoln to the White House. Her letter was reprinted in the EP on August 3, 1867, under the heading, "A Pleasant Word from Abroad." 2. A village at the head of Ullswater in the English Lake District, Cumbria; the usual starting point for climbers of Mount Helvellyn. 3. Possibly Mrs. Henderson's sister or niece. 4. Letter unrecovered.

1716.

To James Young Simpson 1

Ambleside, July 17

My dear sir.

1867.

Please to receive my [best?] thanks for your skilful attention to the case of my daughter. She will return to America with a heart full of gratitude for what you have done for her, and if your favorable expectations of the result should be fulfilled will ever esteem herself most fortunate in having applied to you for advice. Allow me at the same time to thank you for your obliging note describing her case. 2 I am, dear sir faithfully yours W. C. BRYANT MANUSCRIPT:

NYPL-GR (draft)

ADDREss:

To Sir Jas

Simpson.

1. The Edinburgh obstetrician Sir James Young Simpson, first baronet (18111870, M.D. Edinburgh 1833, D.C.L. Oxford 1866) made important contributions to his special field of medicine, including the introduction of chloroform in 1847, which resulted in the erection of a bust to him in Westminster Abbey. 2. Unrecovered.

1717. To Fanny Bryant Godwin

Dear Fanny.

Crag Lledoer, Betwys-y-Coed July 26 1867

We have just got your letter to Julia and are very glad to hear from you at last. You must have had a very interesting tour through Germany and Switzerland, and you do well to make the most of your time. We are here in the midst of North Wales, a country of mountains and valleys and mountain streams, at the house of Miss Elizabeth Knight, a hospitable lady, an artist-an amateur-and a Unitarian-a friend of the Fields. 1 She took us yesterday through a wild mountain region to the slate quarries of Lord Palmerstone, near Festiniog. -They are deep caverns and pits in the rock from which the slate is taken after being blasted-echoing with frequent explosions. The sight

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was quite interesting, as was the process of splitting and dressing the slate. We have Miss Christiana Gibson with us-she and Laura are perfect opposites, and do not harmonize so well as might be though they do not quarrel. We shall look over Wales during some ten days to come, and then go to Ferdinand Field's in Taunton, from which we shall make our way to Leamington and thence to Liverpool, to embark on the 24th of August for America. We hope to hear from you often-Love to all Affectionately &c w. C. BRYANT MANUSCRIPT: NYPL-GR ADDRESS: Mrs. F. Bryant Godwin.

1. Miss Knight has not been further identified, but see Letter 1721.

1718.

To Julia M. Sands

Bangor, North Wales, July 29th [1867]

... I got your letter the day before yesterday,' and am much obliged to you for it, as well as for the abstract from Mr. Verplanck's address on laying the corner-stone of the new Tammany Hall, which reads as if it might have been furnished by the orator himself, and is neatly penned .... I am very glad to see in the speech evidence of the vigor of my old friend's faculties at his advanced age. I hope the Century Club will not think of me as its next president. It is irksome to me to preside at any public meeting, and it would be a very becoming thing if the members would offer the post to their old president, Mr. Verplanck. 2 We have been looking at the English lakes, and are now making the tour of North Wales, the most picturesque part of Wales, with Miss Christiana Gibson in our party. It is a very beautiful and varied region, but those who can see the White Mountains and the Adirondacks and the Alleghanies have no need to come to Wales for striking mountain scenery. We have seen Conway, mentioned in Gray's 'Bard' 3 ; and Llandudno and Penmaen-Mawr, and climbed it, at least I did; and Bettws of Coed, and Crag Lledoer, and Festiniog, with its cavernous slate quarries; and Capel Curig, and the Swallow Spout, and Naut Frangon, and various other Nauts and Moels and Pens, and heard Welsh songs sung by Welsh maidens, and have been run after and shouted at by Welsh beggar boys. But we have still several other places to see, expecting to be out of Wales some time in the first week of next month. We found it cold in Scotland, but it is quite as cold here. I have slept under three blankets for nearly a week past, but I am told that

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the season is colder than usual. We are at a famous hotel here, The

George, but we can get no fruit, not even a gooseberry, though it is the

time both of strawberries and gooseberries. To do the climate justice, I have been several times in Great Britain during the summer months, and never found it so chilly before. There are a great many shadetrees in the country, but I do not see the use of them. I write this with the Straits of Menai under my window, the tide flowing into that very narrow arm of the sea, the island of Anglesey opposite, but a little more than a stone's throw distant, apparently, and an elegant suspension bridge and the great Tubular Bridge in full sight from our hotel. ... MANUSCRIPT:

Unrecovered

TEXT

(partial): Life, II, 262-263.

1. Letter unrecovered. 2. In 1864 Gulian Verplanck, who had been elected the first president of the Century Club upon its incorporation in 1857, was removed from office by a vote of its members because of what were considered his imperfect sympathies with the Union cause during the Civil War. He was succeeded by George Bancroft, and in 1868 Bryant assumed the office, which he held for the last decade of his life. 3. Thomas Gray, The Bard, a Pindaric ode (1757).

1719. To The British and North American Mail Steamship Company

Leamington

Aug. 17, 1867.

I hold receipts for ten packages deposited in Paris with Messrs. Burns & Me Ives to be deposited in Baggage Warehouse at Liverpool until claimed, namely-5th June five packages, B. B. 620/624, and 17 June five packages B. 737/741-all intended for the Steamer Persia in which I have taken passage for myself and two ladies on Saturday the 24th instant. I wish to have them placed on board the Steamer Persia, being a part of my luggage, and that of the ladies, one of them a travelling bag, and another a small square trunk, a hat-box to go in the State Room 129, 130, and rest to go below. Respectfully yours, W. C. BRYANT. NYPL-GR (draft) ADDRESs: To the British and North American Mail Steamship Company, Liverpool.

MANUSCRIPT:

1720. To Christiana Gibson

Learn, Near Leamington, August 20th [1867]

... I have to thank you for a letter and two journals containing my brief letter, which I found here waiting my arrival, and since that

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others have come to hand, which I also owe to your kindness. Your countrymen do me too much honor. I had no idea that what I wrote for the Evening Post would have had such a run in Scotland, and even now I suspect that I owe its republication in several of the journals to the kind intervention of your sister, who is always engaged in doing something for her friends. I have no doubt that the republication of my letter will convey my name to multitudes of readers who never heard of it before .... 1 We are passing a pleasant time here in a great house-at least a roomy one. Mr. and Mrs. [Alfred] Field have both lived in America, Mrs. Field almost as long as you, and their two children were born there. They have now just returned from the United States, in which they made a very extensive tour, extending their journeys to Charleston southward, and to St. Louis and Chicago westward. They took their children with them, and returned with favorable impressions of my native country. Mr. Field, who seems to be the leading man in the Birmingham Chamber of Commerce, went out on the errand of seeing what could be done to carry into effect an object which commercial men here have much at heart, but to which the government of Great Britain and Mr. Mill2 object-that of respecting and sparing all private property on the high seas in time of war, although belonging to the citizens of an enemy's country,just as it is respected on land. He found the principal men almost everywhere well inclined toward such a change in international law. You may remember that the American Government, through Mr. Marcy, 3 once proposed it to the ministry of this country, but that it was rejected. There is great disappointment on the part of the liberal merchants at Mr. Mill's opposition to the proposed change. I am counting, as I have done for some time past, the days that separate me from Roslyn, and shall soon begin to count the hours. It is, I suppose, the habit of the mind, in old age, to concentrate its attachments upon some particular spot-a sort of presentiment of the narrow space which all that is mortal of us must soon occupy among the inanimate and motionless things of the earth .... MANUSCRIPT: Unrecovered TEXT: Life, II, 261-262. 1. Miss Gibson's letter is unrecovered. Bryant's letter of July 8, 1867, to the EP (Letter 1714) was reprinted in the principal Perth newspaper on August 15. The other journal he received is unidentified. 2. John Stewart Mill (1806-1873), British political philosopher and member of parliament from 1865 to 1868, exerted through his writings a great influence on educated opinion. Despite his stand on the matter at issue here, Mill had been a strong supporter of the Union cause during the Civil War. 3. William L. Marcy (873.1), United States Secretary of State, 1853-1857.

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1721. To Elizabeth Knight 1 My dear Miss Knight.

Learn, near Leamington

215

Aug. 22d

1867.

I cannot allow myself to depart for New York without thanking you again for the days passed at Crag Lledoer, of which I shall carry back to my native country so pleasant a memory. The remainder of our journey through Wales was prosperous and pleasant. We are now passing a few days-or rather we have passed a few days-with some friends, the Fields at this place. They have just returned from America and can talk with us of topics with which we are familiar &c .... MANUSCRIPT:

NYPL-GR (draft).

1. See Letter 1717.

1722. To Ferdinand E. Field

Liverpool, August 23d [1867]

... To-morrow at one o'clock we take our leave of England, where I have met with much kindness, and from which I shall carry away the most agreeable recollections. You remember that we often talked of the impending church reform-the remodeling or dissolution of the national Church of England. At Learn I met a zealous partisan of the reconstruction of the Church, to use a phrase borrowed from the present state of American politics. It was the Rev. Mr. Lake, the Unitarian minister at Warwick,' who, although a Unitarian, has never separated from the Church of England, and who desires to preserve it as the national Church, with its basis so widened as to admit men of all diversities of religious belief, with its dignities retained, but the parishes left to appoint their own ministers, and choose their own mode of worship, without any restraint of creeds, all of which are, according to his plan, to be abolished. It seems to me that a long time must elapse before any such change will be made. I read, however, not long since, in the "Edinburgh Review" for April, an article on Ritualism, in which the importance of making the Anglican Church essentially a national one was very earnestly dwelt upon, and some such change as Mr. Lake hoped to see effected was more than hinted at as likely to be adopted. It is, of course, in the power of Parliament to make the change, in spite of the clergy .... MANUSCRIPT:

Unrecovered TEXT (partial): Life, II, 263-264.

1. Lake has not been further identified.

216

1723.

LETTERS oF WILLIAM CuLLEN BRYANT

To Hiram Barney 1

My dear Mr. Barney.

Roslyn, Long Island

Sept

9, 1867

I will cheerfully take part in the demonstration of respect for Senor Romero. 2 It will be most agreeable to me, as I hope you know, that some other person should preside at the dinner. Besides, it may happen that I cannot be present, as I am now about to start on a visit of some ten days to the place of my birth in Massachusetts. Meantime, I will authorize you to put my name to any well drawn note of invitation to Mr. Romero. I am, dear sir very truly yours. W. C. BRYANT. MANUSCRIPT: HEHL ADDRESS: Hiram Barney Esq. 1. See 1057.1. 2. This was a farewell tribute to the retiring Mexican minister to the United States, Matias Romero (1442.3), who was returning to his country. There, as minister of finance in 1872, he would be Bryant's host during a visit to Mexico City. See Bryant to EP, March 11, 1872. On October 2, 1867, at Delmonico's Restaurant, Bryant, who had been one of a score of prominent New Yorkers signing an invitation on September 15 to Romero for this dinner, offered the principal toasts. EP, October 3, 1867.

1724.

To Hiram Barney

[New York] Sept. 23d. 1867

Dear Mr. Barney

I came to town yesterday, expecting that the dinner to Romero would take place today. I am told that this is not so. I should like to know as soon as possible-for if this be not the day I must go to Roslyn. Yrs truly W. C. BRYANT. MANUSCRIPT: HEHL ADDREss: H. Barney Esq. ENDORSED: Mem of Sept 23 I W. C. Bryant I at Delmonico's 14th I Street corner of I 5th Avenue I I. N. Tift I John W. Corliss I Jno. Russell Young I Theodore Tilton I George Wm Curtis.

1725.

To Andrew Boyd 1

Dear sir.

Roslyn

Long Island, Sept. 27th, 1867-

I have a printed slip of my verses on the Death of Mr. Lincoln, which I send you. The other poem read on the occasion was a hymn, of which I can only send you, if your collection embraces such things,

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a manuscript copy. 2 I will do this if desired. Enclosed are the lines on Mr. Lincoln's death. Yours respectfully W. C. BRYANT MANUSCRIPT:

Indiana University Library ADDRESS: Andrew Boyd Esq.

1. Unidentified. 2. Bryant's poem, "The Death of Lincoln," first published in the EP for April 20, 1865, was read four days later at a great public memorial meeting in Union Square, New York (see illustration). The hymn to which he refers was that printed in his Hymm (1864), pp. [39]-40, as "Thou Hast Put All Things Under His Feet." Bryant copied this on a separate sheet, marking it "Copied Oct 11th. 1867 ," and apparently sending it to Boyd on that date.

1726. To Hiram Barney

My dear Mr. Barney,

Office of The Evening Post 41 Nassau Street, cor. Liberty, New York, Oct. lOth 1867

To whom shall I apply to settle for my share of the expense of the banquet to Senor Romero? Truly yours, W. C. BRYANT. MANUSCRIPT:

HEHL ADDRESS: H. Barney Esq.

1727. To Theseus A. Cheney 1

Dear sir.

Office of The Evening Post 41 Nassau Street, cor. Liberty, New York, October 12th. 1867

I thank you for the articles you have sent me, entitled "Antiquarian Researches" and "Historical Sketches of the Chemung Valley." I am glad that you occupy yourself,-and so creditably-with studies of that nature. With regard to the poems which you have also sent me, 2 asking my "frank opinion" of the expediency of publishing them, [I] must say as a conscientious man that I cannot advise you to lay them before the public in a volume. I should not if I had written them myself. I can easily see in their perusal that their author possesses poetic sensibility, and its natural accompaniment, a desire to express his thoughts and emotions in poetic forms, but I do not find in them the qualities which

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attract and fix the attention of mankind upon compositions in verse. Their publication I think would result in disappointment. You must consider that my vocation is not that of a critic, that I am only an author, and do not set myself up as a judge of other men's verses. I have given my opinion because you desired it-but I must be allowed to say that it is a great mistake to apply to a poet--certainly it is to apply to me-as so many are doing,-for an opinion of the merits of a poem. In the greater number of cases it is an embarrassing task to give an answer-which shall at the same time be kind and true, and I suspect that in most instances the person applying for an opinion is not much enlightened. I am, sir respectfully yours, W. C. BRYANT. MANUSCRIPT: YCAL (final); NYPL-GR (partial draft) ADDRESS: Dr. T. Apoleon Cheney.

1. See 1439.1. 2. Neither Cheney's letter nor the articles and poems mentioned have been

recovered.

1728.

To Jerusha Dewey

Roslyn, October 14th [1867]

... We had a rather pleasant time in England. I passed but two days in Edinburgh. I went to Crieff, just on the border of the Highlands, and passed my time with the Gibsons, in company with whom I made various excursions into the region of the Gael. 1 Crieff is a charming place, with very varied and beautiful scenery-mountains, valleys, clear rushing streams, little water-falls, noble woods, and old parks. It has a drier climate than the rest of Scotland, with one or two exceptions; but the season I found chilly in July, and fires were necessary. If the people of Edinburgh were not hospitable to me it was my own fault, for they were disposed to be very much so. We made the tour of Wales, Miss Christiana Gibson accompanying us. From one picturesque region to another we held on our journey until I, at least, became quite satiated with the picturesque, and began to wonder when the time should arrive in which there would be nothing more to see. Some parts of Wales reminded me of Berkshire, but there are grim, rocky passes--chasms between precipitous and bare mountains-such as Berkshire cannot show you. We had a few letters to persons in Wales, and were most kindly and hospitably received. You will find-! should say, rather, an American will findlittle hospitality on the Continent, but it is not so in Great Britain. We

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found the country full of sketchers by the road-side, amateurs and professional artists, busy under their umbrellas. The accomplishment of drawing is much more common, and more perfectly acquired, in Great Britain than among us. The Welsh are behind their English neighbors in civilization, as is always the case with races speaking a peculiar language and enclosed in another and more numerous population .... I confess that all this while my heart turned toward Roslyn, and that I was glad to get back to it, after a not very favorable passage of eleven days across the Atlantic. I find the place very beautiful; the changes please me, but there is a sadness in all this beauty, since the eye for which these changes were originally designed can look on them no more. It is now a most beautiful October day; the maples, at the end of our little lakelet, are glowing with the hues of autumn, and over all lies the sweetest golden sunshine. I look out upon the landscape from the bay-window while I write, but in a different mood from that in which I should have beheld it formerly. We went to Cummington soon after coming home. On our return I passed a night at Mr. Mackie's beautiful place on the Green River, and four nights at your brother's in Sheffield-a pleasant visit, where they all seemed glad to see me. I cannot see that your brother has grown older for these last ten years. At my time of life it is a great comfort to meet any person in whom the mental and physical faculties do not seem to decline with advancing years .... MANUSCRIPT:

Unrecovered TEXT (partial): Life, II, 264-265.

1. That is, the Scottish Highlands.

1729. To John Durand

Dear Mr. Durand.

Office of The Evening Post 41 Nassau Street, cor. Liberty New York, Oct. 18th 1867.

When will you and Dr. Clemenceau do us the favor to pass a day at Roslyn? 1 We have now servants in the house and have returned to housekeeping. The steamer Arrowsmith leaves Peck Slip for Roslyn every afternoon at half past three, and the Long Island train for Roslyn at four- I am going down this afternoon and shall be there till the middle of next week. Julia I am afraid will not be able to go down until Tuesday. But the sooner you come the better chance of

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fine weather. Direct your answer to me at this office, and if it gets here before two o'clock it will be sent down to me the same day. I am, dear sir, very truly yours, W. C. BRYANT. MANUSCRIPT: Rare Book Department, The Free Library of Philadelphia ADDRESS: Jno Durand Esq. 1. The French statesman Georges Clemenceau (1841-1929), who had been trained as a physician before coming to the United States in 1865, first served as a war correspondent with General Grant's army and later as a teacher here before returning to France in 1869. He served twice afterward as Premier of France, from 1906 to 1909, and again from 1917 to 1920. The articles Clemenceau wrote from America for the Paris newspaper Temps were collected in his American Reconstruction 1865-1870 (New York, 1928), and republished in New York by Da Capo Press in 1929. Though he refers to Bryant therein as a "poet and newspaper man, well known for his radical opinions, ... the president of the League for Free Trade in New York," and reports Bryant as presiding over the farewell banquet given the retiring Mexican ambassador Matias Romero in October 1867 (pp. 97, 122), he makes no specific reference to meeting this American friend of Romero. Nor is there a mention in Bryant's Cedarmere guest book, now among the Bryant collections in the New York Public Library, of a visit by Clemenceau to Roslyn. But we may suppose that if the two journalists did meet on this occasion, Bryant reported the cordial reception given him by Clemenceau's family at Ste Hermine, as described in Bryant's Journal for May 24-26, 1867.

1730. To James T. Fields

Dear Mr. Fields.

Roslyn, Long Island. October 18th. 1867.

The check for the fragment of my translation of the Iliad came safely to hand. 1 There is little chance of my finishing the translation as early as next spring-but you have been so kind to it, that when it is completed I shall be very glad to talk with you about its publication. I am, dear sir, truly yours W. C. BRYANT. MANUSCRIPT: UVa ADDRESS: Jas. T. Fields Esq. 1. This fragment was published in the Atlantic Monthly, XXI (January 1868), 4749, under the heading "The Combat of Diomid and Mars. From Homer's Iliad, Book V." It comprises lines 996-1138 in Bryant's Iliad, Book V.

1731. To Fanny Bryant Godwin

Dear Fanny.

Roslyn, October 26, 1867.

I thank you for the photographs which you were so good as to send me. I like them much, with the exception perhaps of your own

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which is not so good. Indeed, your face is never well represented in a photograph-as is the case with some people-the lines which are delicate in the original are exaggerated in the shadow cast by the sun. 1 Your house in Roslyn stands where it did, but it has a melancholy and deserted look. The grapes have done their duty on its outside wall, and are now dead ripe, but the walks are neglected and the trees make the place too shady. Mr. Clark, who has changed the appearance of my house so that on coming to it on my return I hardly knew it, has at my request made a plan of some changes in yours, on a magnificent scale. He has designed the kitchen on the north side, and put a sort of tower in front which is to contain the library. There is a French roof both to that and to the rest of the dwelling. It would give you ample room, but the change would be expensive. 2 Mr. Cline has had a little conservatory added to his house, and some enlargement of the bedrooms on which the workmen are now employed. The cottage I have put up for the Mudge family is finished and they are on the point of moving in. 3 My man Patrick lives in their house-a part of it. We have had the most glorious, sunny, weather imaginable ever since I landed on the 5th of September, but there is little autumnal fruit save grapes. A severe storm early in the season destroyed the pears and apples. Dr. Osgood's church in Park Avenue, near your house, is not very far from finished. It is to be a very beautiful one-he says the handsomest belonging to his denomination. 4 Julia is very busy getting our rooms ready in Sixteenth Street, and is disposed to be a little superfine in the furniture. Love to all the childrenvery affectionately yours W. C. BRYANT. MANUSCRIPT:

NYPL-GR

ADDRESS:

Mrs. F Bryant Godwin.

1. These photographs, presumably of Fanny and her family, are unrecovered. 2. Although Mr. Clark's proposed changes in Fanny Godwin's house, "Montrose," were apparently not carried out, it is recorded in Goddard, Roslyn Harbor, pp. 85, 89, that in 1869 the house was considerably enlarged in accordance with plans provided by Calvert Vaux (1824-1895), distinguished landscape architect and partner of Frederick Law Olmsted. See photograph, ibid., p. 85. 3. The cottage Bryant built for the Mudge sisters (700.5) is pictured in ibid., p. [72]. 4. After serving for nearly twenty years as pastor of the Unitarian Church of the Messiah in New York, the Reverend Samuel Osgood (1258.1) took orders in the Episcopal church.

222

1732.

LETTERS

OF

WILLIAM CuLLEN BRYANT

To James T. Fields

Roslyn, October 31st [1867]

... It would give me great pleasure to be a guest at your dinner next week, and to testify my admiration of the writings of Mr. Longfellow, in particular of his translation of Dante, but for the occupations in which I am now engaged, and I must say, also, the habit of seclusion incident to my time of life, and gaining strength as I grow older. Allow me to plead these as my excuse for not coming to the dinner to which you have so kindly invited me. Meantime, I take this opportunity to express in words what my presence could not express more emphatically. Mr. Longfellow has translated Dante as a great poet should be translated. After this version, no other will be attempted until the present form of the English language shall have become obsolete, for, whether we regard fidelity to the sense, aptness in the form of expression, or the skilful transfusion of the poetic spirit of the original into the phrases of another language, we can look for nothing more perfect. It is fitting that Mr. Longfellow's friends should congratulate him, as I heartily do, on the successful completion of his great task .... 1 MANUSCRIPT: Unrecovered TEXT (partial): Life, II, 265. 1. On November 6, 1867, at the Union Club in Boston, the firm of Ticknor and Fields honored Longfellow at a dinner celebrating his translation of the Divine Comedy. Richard H. Dana, Senior, was among the guests. Fields's letter of invitation is unrecovered.

1733.

To Jennie Hoagland and Others 1

Dear Young Ladies.

Roslyn Long Island November 4. 1867.-

In writing the lines to which you refer, I intended that before "breathless darkness and the narrow house" the particle of should be understood, which would make the sense this- "images of breathless darkness and of the narrow house." This would make them objects, like "agony" which precedes them. On looking again at your letter, I see that you include in your inquiry the words "shroud and pall." They are to be disposed of in the same manner. 2 Yet if any of you would prefer to consider the words in question as subjects instead of objects, I have not the least objection, and should only feel myself honored in learning that the lines are thought worthy to be made the subject of discussion. I am most respectfully Your obt. Servt. w. C. BRYANT.

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Kent State University Library ADDREss: Miss[es] Jennie Hoagland I Mira Love I Euphie Reynolds I Emma Bennet.

MANUSCRIPT:

1. On November 1 four students studying grammar in the Port Jervis, New York, public school had written Bryant (NYPL-BG) asking whether certain substantives in his "Thanatopsis" should be considered as subjects or objects. 2. The references are to lines 8-13 of "Thanatopsis": ... When thoughts Of the last bitter hour come like a blight Over thy spirit, and sad images Of the stern agony, and shroud, and pall, And breathless darkness, and the narrow house, Make thee to shudder, and grow sick at heart;-.... See Poems (1876), p. 20.

1734. To Marvin H. Bovee 1

My dear sir.

Roslyn, Long Island, N.Y. November 5th 1867.-

I have no matter for a fresh letter on Capital Punishment, in what I learned-or did not learn-while in Europe. You have my consent to change the date of my letter. 2 I am glad that you think of publishing a work on the subject, which I hope will revive the discussion in this part of the United States. As soon as the Reconstruction Question can be got out of the way there will be room made for other matters of controversy which are now defrauded of their due attention. Although I have not much to do with the conduct of the Evening Post at present I can promise that it will aid the circulation of your volume. 3 Yours truly W. C. BRYANT. MANUSCRIPT:

1867.

HEHL ADDRESS: Hon. M. H. Bovee.

DOCKETED:

W. C. Bryant I Nov. 5.

1. See Letter 1538. 2. In 1844 and 1845 Bryant had been president of the New York Society for the Abolition of the Punishment of Death. EP, April13, 1844; February 6, 1845. It is not certain to which letter he refers here. 3. As a state senator in Wisconsin, Bovee had been chiefly instrumental in the passage of a law abolishing capital punishment for murder, and substituting life imprisonment. The book to which Bryant refers was Christ and the Gallows: Or, Reasons for the Abolition of Capital Punishment (New York, 1869). No notice of this has been located in the EP.

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LETTERS

1735.

OF

WILLIAM CuLLEN BRYANT

To E. French 1

My dear sir.

Office of The Evening Post New York, Nov. 14th. 1867

In looking over the volumes of Chaucer, purchased of you the other day I find that there are two copies of the Second Volume and that the Eighth, which contains the glossary is wanting- I infer of course, by some mistake in putting them up. Will you please exchange the second volume, which I send you, for the eighth, and let me have it by the bearer. Yours truly W. C. BRYANT. MANUSCRIPT: CU ADDRESS: E. French Esq. l. Presumably a New York bookseller.

1736.

To A. E. Sloan 1

My dear sir.

Cedarmere, Roslyn, Long Island November 15th. 1867

Your note of the 13th. was duly received. 2 I am glad to learn that your readings in the western part of our state were so successful, and I shall readily take any opportunity to add my testimony such as it is, to that of the journals, in favor of your accomplishments as an elocutionist. When you were here the other day, and read to me my "Forest Hymn," and one or two of my other poems, I felt that although you might have gone elsewhere for compositions better suited to the display of the talent which you so happily possess, they could not have been read in a manner better adapted to commend them to the hearer. I think of putting a paragraph relating to your readings into the Evening Post and will send it to you when it appears. My daughter desires her regards. Yours very truly, W. C. BRYANT. MANUSCRIPT: Union College Library ADDREss: A. E. Sloan Esq. l. Sloan (b. cl820), the New York-born principal of the Somerville (Tennessee) Female Institute, was the author of A Hymn Book for School and College (1860?). Longfellow, Letters, IV, 173n. 2. Note unrecovered.

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1737. To Ida M. Mitchell!

Roslyn, Long Island November 25, 1867

Dear Madam.

I am sorry not to be able to oblige you. I never had much correspondence with Mr. Lincoln, and the few notes which I received from him have been disposed of. Yours respectfully, W. C. BRYANT. MANUSCRIPT:

NYUL

ADDREss:

Miss Ida M. Mitchell.

1. Unidentified. No letter from her has been found.

1738.

To Richard H. Dana

Dear Dana.

Roslyn Long Island November 30, 1867.

The letter of introduction has not been delivered by Lord Amberly, nor have I ever seen him or his lady. 1 As to giving letters of introduction to me, I would always have you use your own judgment. If there is any case in which you do not like to give such letters, I give you leave to say that I am shy, and not apt to take much to strangers, which is the simple fact, but if there be any person to whom you feel any disposition to give such a letter do it freely. I am glad that you were at the Dante dinner to Longfellow. 2 The circumstance confirms what I heard from your eldest son the other day, who told me that you were getting to be a well-man, after a somewhat invalid life. I infer that you must have been pretty well to go to such a dinner. The close of life is often preceded by a train of infirmities. Do you remember what Milton says- "for the air of youth Hopeful and cheerful, in thy blood will reign A melancholy damp of cold and dry To weigh thy spirits down, and last consume The balm of life." 3 and Dr. Johnson"Unnumbered maladies the joints invade Lay seige to life and press the dire blockade." 4 It is a great blessing to be exempted in old age from what embitters the last years of so many.

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LETTERS OF WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT

I was glad to see your son looking so well and so sturdy. He must be much absorbed in his profession. A lawyer in New York, it is commonly said, either has too much or too little business, and I suppose it must be so with you. Your son is now, so far, at least, as concerns his reputation without the limits of his state, the most eminent advocate in Massachusetts. 5-I regret to hear the account you give of your younger son's health. 6 A mind so finely endowed and cultivated, forced to abstain from taking part in the general interests of society, must have ample occasion for the exercise of that patience and resignation which you say he practises in so exemplary an extent. You say nothing of Miss Charlotte. I infer that she is well. You speak of Halleck's age. The telegram which came from Guilford announcing his death said that he was eighty, but it was corrected to correspond to the printed biographies of him and made seventy two-but I am by no means certain that this is right. There was always a suspicion that Halleck's age was never rightly stated. 7 Mr. Verplanck tells me that only a few days before the news of his death Halleck had written him, saying that he desired to come to town and dine with him and a few other old friends at some old fashioned place, and that Frederick Cozzens, author of the Sparrowgrass Papers 8 was when the news of the death arrived making arrangements for this dinner. I am glad that you can speak so well of my little poem "The Tides." It was written in the mood in which I produce what seem to me my best verses-and I therefore was once quite disappointed when a friend told me, that a person in whose judgment he seemed to have much reliance had told him that there was not much in it. 9 I do not think that you ought to look back as you say you do upon your life as a melancholy waste. You have impressed the stamp of your mind upon American literature, and have helped to make it what it is and what it will yet be. You ask me to tell you something of myself. I have little to say that will interest you. I pass my time principally here, going to town sometimes not more than once in a week. I am in the main cheerful, but with some sad hours, and life to me has lost much of its flavor. I piddle a little with Homer, whose poem, I must confess, does not seem to me the perfect work that critics have made it, notwithstanding its many undeniable beauties. Greet all your household most cordially from me. Julia desires her love to you all. I am, dear sir, very truly yours, W. C. BRYANT.

Wandering Home to Manhattan MANUSCRIPT:

227

NYPL--GR ADDREss: R. H. Dana Esq.

I. Dana had written Bryant on November 17 (NYPL-BG) introducing John Russell, Viscount Amberly (1842-1876), son of Lord John Russell (1792-1878), recently the British prime minister. Although it is uncertain whether the young man presented this letter to Bryant, it is interesting to note that, after his early death in 1876, his mother wrote Dana's grandson that she would be gratified to have Bryant know that her son had "drawn great comfort from the moral teachings" of his verse; that "In a beautiful farewell letter to me from my son, written in the prospect of death, ... the following passage occurs: 'I look forward to death calmly and umovedly, like ' "One who wraps the drapery of his couch About him, and lies down to pleasant dreams." ' " See Life, II, 372-373; "Thanatopsis," concluding lines. 2. See Letter 1732. 3. Paradise Lost, XI, 542-545. 4. Samuel Johnson, The Vanity of Human Wishes (1749). 5. Richard H. Dana, Jr. 6. Edmund T. Dana. 7. Modern biographers tend to agree that, at the time of his death on November 19, 1867, the poet Fitz-Greene Halleck was in his seventy-eighth year. See Adkins, Halleck, pp. 14, 366; Kendall B. Taft, Minor Knickerbockers; Representative Selections, With Introduction, Bibliography, and Notes (New York: American Book Company [ 194 7]), pp. 91, 93. 8. See Letter 1056. 9. Writing Bryant on November 10 (Life, II, 265-267), Dana had said of "The Tides" (1860), "It is poetry in its highest mystical spirit." See Poems (1876), pp. 365366.

1739.

To Richard H. Dana

Dear Dana.

Roslyn

Long Island

December 3d

1867.

In my letter written two or three days since I spoke of Mr. Halleck's death. Since I wrote, I have learned his real age from General J. G. Wilson 1 who attended his funeral and talked with his sister. Halleck was born on the 8th of July 1790-so that at the time of his death he was seventy seven years old. General Wilson had before visited him at Guilford [Connecticut] and knew his sister well-a lady of eighty years old, remarkably well preserved, intelligent and extremely fond of reading. Halleck has lived with her for several years past, on small means. He had the interest of ten thousand dollars, which were given him by W. B. Astor, in place of two hundred a year left him by John Jacob Astor, and this, with the rent of a small piece of land, in Guilford I think, constituted, as I was told by Wilson, their entire revenue. They hired half a wooden house, and lived in that, the aged sister doing the housework, as their means did not allow them to

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LETTERS OF WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT

keep a servant, and she was fortunately in good health and still quite active. I learned from Wilson that Halleck's health had been undermined lately by a urinary complaint, from which he suffered severely at times. His death, however, occurred rather suddenly. He had complained the night before of not being as well as usual and had gone early to bed. I cannot tell whether it was that night or in the morning, that some occasion brought her to his room. He was sitting on his bed, not quite dressed, and asked her to hand him some garment. She went for it but on looking round saw that he had fallen back upon the bed, and on going up to him found that the life had left him. Halleck used to talk as if he were a Catholic, but I never was quite sure that he was so in perfect seriousness. He was buried according to the forms of the Episcopal Church, which makes it somewhat unlikely. 2 Wilson was going about to obtain subscriptions for putting up a monument to his memory. He desired to obtain a thousand dollars and already had subscriptions to half that amount. He thought that he should himself write a memoir of Halleck. I thought that you might like to know these particulars, inasmuch as you knew Halleck. They interested me very much. I did not know before, that he was in such narrow circumstances. He was, at one time, a clerk in Jacob Barker's office, when Barker was a banker, and afterwards, for many years, a clerk of our very richest man in his day, John Jacob Astor. Every body thought that John Jacob had done a shabby thing, when in his will he gave "his friend Halleck as a mark of his esteem" two hundred dollars a year. The son, Wm B. Astor, was so much ashamed of this paltry bequest, that he exchanged it for the round sum of ten thousand dollars.- 3 I wish you were here for a few days, at this season. This house at Roslyn is a very comfortable one, and the season here is generally quite mild until the twentieth of December or thereabout. I have yet a few clusters of grapes on the vines in my cold grapery, and a few roses yet in my garden, and the grass, on which you look out from my window, is still green, though it is russet colored almost every where else in the neighborhood. I have been amusing myself with making some improvements about my place, and the occupation relieves somewhat the flatness of life. I do not write much for the Evening Post now. I have no love for controversy-and, besides, I do not think that the sensible men have the upper hand in either party-and there is another besides-! am seventy three years old, and it is not very seemly for an old man to go on wrangling till he drops into the grave, and has his mouth stopped by the mould shovelled upon him.

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Kind greetings to all your household. Julia is in town, or she would send hers. She is an affectionate, kind-hearted girl, and begins to be awake to the duty of doing good in her sphere, as her mother was. I am, dear Dana, very truly yours W. C. BRYANT. NYPL-GR (draft and final) Jan 3-21/68.

MANUSCRIPTS:

ADDRESS:

R. H. Dana Esq.

ENDORSED:

Ans.

1. James G. Wilson (Letter 1142) was the first biographer of the poet Fitz-Greene Halleck, who had died at his Guilford, Connecticut, home on November 19, 1867, publishing The Life and Letters of Fitz-Greene Halleck at New York in 1869. 2. Although confirmed and buried an Episcopalian, as Halleck grew older he had "leaned more and more toward the Roman Church, although he never formally joined himself to that communion." Adkins, Halleck, pp. 15, 290, 365-366. 3. For a discussion of Halleck's sixteen years' service as private secretary to the millionaire fur trader and capitalist John Jacob Astor (1763-1848), and the matter of his eventual reward by Astor's son William Backhouse Astor (1792-1875), see ibid., pp. 253-254ff., 310-312. For Jacob Barker, see Letter 155. Although Bryant can scarcely have expected so early to do so, he delivered the principal public eulogy of his old friend Halleck fifteen months later, subsequently printing it as Some Notices of the Life and Writings of Fitz-Greene Halleck, Read before the New-York Historical Society, on the 3d of February, 1869 (New York: Evening Post Steam Presses, 1869). This was reprinted in his Orations and Addresses, pp. 155-194. See Letter 1840.

1740. To an Unidentified Correspondent

Madam.

[Roslyn] Dec 9, 1867.

Your note is before me and I am sorry that I must disappoint you · by the answer I shall give. There is no talent of a literary nature, more common in this country than that of writing verses. Persons of a certain degree of reading and of a certain susceptibility to the emotions awakened by reading poetry are naturally led to express themselves in the forms which give them so much pleasure in the compositions of others. This causes the supply of verse to exceed by far the demand for it in the periodicals of all classes in our country. I do not know any of them which pay any thing for poetry, except it be written by some person who has already acquired a reputation and whose name can be paraded as a contributor, with a view of calling the public attention to the vehicle in which it appears. The lines you sent me, with some faults of poetic construction are not without some degree of literary merit, yet are not of a character

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that would open the purse of the proprietor of any periodical or literary newspaper that I know. I have often been desired to perform the same office for others which you expect of me, and have never been successful. I regret that it is so-l certainly am sorry for the circumstances which you so feelingly state in your letter, 1 but it is not in my power to obtain for you what you desire W C B. MANUSCRIPT: NYPL-GR

(draft).

I. Unrecovered.

1741.

To John Howard Bryant

Dear Brother.

Roslyn, December lOth. 1867

Your letter was sent down to me here this evening, and I answer it without delay. I have no objection to your keeping the money paid for the Clark farm and sending me your note for it at seven per cent interest. 1 The Evening Post can afford to be my creditor when it has been my debtor, I think, for the last twenty years. I hope there is no danger that your bank will be mismanaged, as a good many of these National Banks have been. Whenever I hear of a new bank except in some part of the country where shrewd and experienced bankers are not rare, the first thing that suggests itself to my mind is the uncertainty of the undertaking. However, you are good for more than you offer to borrow of me, and you know your own business, which I do not. I have been building an ice house between my house and Mr. Clines with a milk room in front, and a fruit room on one side. The old ice house, which my wife caused to be built when I was in Europe, I think in 1845, I converted into a cellar, turning an arch of brick over it and covering it with earth. It was not quite the thing for an ice house, but I did not want to lose it, since my wife built it and a little more cellar room would be convenient that under the house being rather too warm when we have a fire in the furnace. I hope you have not the premature cold with you that has overtaken us here. December has come in with uncommon severity, and several snow storms. We are, however, quite comfortable in this old house which is much pleasanter for me since we put in the bay windows. My old eyes like a good deal of light. Kind regards to all Yours affectionately W C. BRYANT.

Wandering Home to Manhattan MANUSCRIPT:

NYPL-BFP ADDRESS: John H

231

Bryant Esq.

1. No record of a "Clark farm" among Bryant's Illinois properties has been found. However, on December 6, 1867, he sold 265 acres of Bureau County land for six thousand dollars to one Robert Kitterman. "Bryant: Illinois Landholder," p. 13. John's letter is unrecovered.

1742. To Charles Sumner

Roslyn, Long Island Deer. lOth 1867.

My dear sir.

My friend Mr. H. T. Tuckerman, desires me to say a word or two for his brother, who will deliver you this note. I do it very cheerfully, having known him for several years past. The Mr. Tuckerman who will hand you this, visits Washington on account of some claim which he has against the government. 1 I know nothing of its nature, but am confident that he would not bring forward any claim which was not deserving of consideration. He is a man of unquestioned integrity, of approved and zealous loyalty, and, if that has any thing to do with his claim, of great executive ability. I take pleasure, therefore, in saying for him that if I had any thing to do with the approval or rejection of any claim presented by him, I should feel it due to such a man to give it my careful attention. Looking back on the last paragraph, I think it necessary to say, that it was written, not as a piece of advice, as you might perhaps infer from its phraseology, but simply as an expression of my respect for Mr. Tuckerman's character.I am, sir, very truly yours. W. C. BRYANT. MANUSCRIPT:

HCL ADDRESS: Hon

Ch. Sumner.

1. In 1867 Henry T. Tuckerman (944.1), biographer of Horatio Greenough, published a comprehensive study of American art, with biographical and critical essays on the artists of America down to that time, Book of the Artists. His brother, Charles Keating Tuckerman (1827-1896), a writer and diplomat, was the American minister to Greece, 1868-1871. The nature of his claim against the government has not been determined.

1743. To

Dear sir.

J. K. Furlong'

Office of The Evening Post, 41 Nassau Street, cor. Liberty, New York, December 17th 1867.

Neither of the suppositions mentioned in your letter2 is correct. The poem entitled Thanatopsis appeared in the North American

232

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OF

WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT

Review while it was yet a monthly periodical, I think in the year 181 7. The poem was then a fragment, beginning with the words-"Yet a few days and thee" and ending with the words"And make their bed with thee."It was written several years before. 3

MANUSCRIPT: UVa ADDRESS: Mr

J

K

I am, sir, respectfully yours. W. C. BRYANT.

Furlong.

I. Unidentified, but see Letter 856. 2. Unrecovered. 3. See 44.3, 46.2; Poems (1876), pp. 21-23.

1744.

To Sarah S. Olds

Dear Niece.

Roslyn, Long IslandDecember 18th. 1867.-

As you suppose, I was not quite unprepared for the sad news communicated in your letter of the 13th of this month. What I had previously learned from my brother John's letter was, however, altogether unexpected. I had never been informed of any decline in your mother's health, and infer that there was no premonition of the attack which ended her life. 1 I had thought her in the enjoyment of quite firm health and blest with a constitution which promised a late old age. She resembled in appearance the old Bryant stock, as I saw it in my grandfather Dr. Philip Bryant, of North Bridgewater, who died at the age of eighty seven, in the full possession of his faculties. It must be a great consolation to you all that your mother's life was so usefully and blamelessly passed in the faithful and cheerful discharge of her duties as one of the heads of a family, and as a member of society. A life so passed is the surest proof that we can have of preparation for the entrance of the soul upon a higher and happier stage of being-a life passed in the fear and love of God and the love of our fellow creatures. Such a life cannot be said to have ended when the spirit is called away from earth. It [will be?F continued in a higher and nobler stage of existence where the opportunities of new advances in goodness are continually opening before it.- I know that such topics are no perfect antidote to sorrow like that which you

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are called to experience for they fix our attention on the extent of our loss, but they have this healing influence, that they assure us of the happiness of those who have been removed from us. You have reason to be thankful that the death of your mother was not preceded as that of your poor aunt Frances was by a period of intense suffering amounting at times to agony. For eleven weeks, life sustained this conflict with disease; and [she?p often said that she "could not stay." Your mother died like one who goes to sleep. Her eyes have opened in a better world. My sympathy to your father &c. &c. W C B. MANUSCRIPT:

NYPL-GR (draft)

ENDORSED

(by Bryant): To Miss Sarah S. Olds-on the

death of my sister Louisa Charity Louisa Bryant. My letter.

1. The younger of Bryant's two sisters, Mrs. Justin H. Olds, died on December 13, 1867, at Princeton, Illinois, of a second attack of apoplexy, at the age of sixty-two. See Letter 1798. 2. Words, or word, obliterated in MS. 3. Word omitted.

1745. To George Henry Boker 1

My dear sir

[Roslyn?] Dec. 20

1867

If any thing could persuade me to enlist as a contributor to Lippincotts Magazine it would be your letter. 2 I know the respectability and eminence of that publishing house and am sure that with such aid as you will give to the magazine and will be able to procure for it, it will win the public favor. I am, however, at present fairly loaded with literary engagements-some of them of little consequence perhaps, and some of which I do not speak, but, altogether, quite a burden for one who has reached my time of life when the desire of ease predominates largely over the desire of fame. While therefore I will not absolutely refuse to contribute to the magazine I cannot promise to do so. 3 In the meantime I thank you for the kind wishes you so obligingly express in your letter and am with great regard and esteem truly yours W C BRYANT. MANUSCRIPT

Esq

(draft?): Sleepy Hollow Restorations. Phil.

ADDREss:

Geo

H

Boker-

1. George Henry Boker (1823-1890, Princeton 1842), a Philadelphia poet, playwright, and diplomat, was best known as a writer for his Francesca da Rimini, a romantic drama first produced in New York in 1855.

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2. Boker, a regular contributor to, though not an editor of, Lippincott's Magazine, first published in January I868, had written Bryant on December I8 asking contributions to the new periodical "on your own terms." NYPL-BG. 3. Bryant apparently wrote nothing for Lippincott's. See Frank Luther Mott, A History of American Magazines, 1865-1885 (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, I938), pp. [396]-40 I.

1746. To Clement Hugh Hill

Dear sir,

[New York, December 20th. 1867)1

I thank the Committee of your Association for the polite invitation communicated in your letter. 2 It would give me pleasure to be present at the Annual Festival held in honor of the Institution of learning to whose instructions we owe a common debt of gratitude, but my engagements and various other reasons will prevent me. Meantime I see with satisfaction the honorable rank held by Williams College among her sister institutions throughout the country, and am glad to hear of Associations like yours formed in different parts of the country in acknowledgment of her usefulness .... MANUSCRIPT: NYPL-GR (draft). I. The date is taken from a partial draft of this letter on the MS of Letter I749.

2. Bryant responds here to a printed invitation to attend the Annual Festival of

the Boston Association of the Alumni of Williams College on January I, I868, addressed by Emory Washburn and Clement Hugh Hill "For the Committee." See Letter I749.

1747. To an Unidentified Correspondent

Dear Sir.

New York, December 20th. 1867.

I thank your association for the honor done me by including my name among those who are requested to deliver lectures for the benefit of the Homoeopathic Hospital about to be erected at Cleveland. The object, a most laudable one, has my best wishes and would have my services in the way you mention, if I ever gave public lectures- My time of life however and my other engagements together with the rule which I have long followed of declining all such requests must be my apology for declining in the present instance .... 1 MANUSCRIPT (draft): Sleepy Hollow Restorations. I. A founder in I84I of the New York Homoeopathic Society, and its first president, Bryant had been since I862 president of the council of the New York Homoeopathic Medical College. See Volume II, I; Wershub, 100 Years of Medical Progress, p. 45.

Wandering Home to Manhattan

1748.

To Christiana Gibson

My dear Miss Gibson,

235

New York, December 25, 1867.

I was about to wish you a merry Christmas-you and all the Gibson family-but when you get this, Christmas will have been shoved a fortnight back into the past, and even while I write, it is nearly four o'clock of Christmas afternoon with you. But let us be glad that we are permitted to see another Christmas. There is a beauty in the tradition which fixes the birth of our Saviour on the day when the days first begin to grow long, and the light gradually to prevail, day by day, over the hours of darkness, and the Sun, the father of green leaves and flowers and fruits, begins his return towards our zone, with Spring and Summer and Autumn following him. We were very glad-Julia and I-to hear from you again. Julia had just sent off a letter to you the morning that yours arrived. What you told us of the welfare of your family we were happy to learnonly we missed what we so often fail to find in your letters-any information in regard to your own health. You are always thinking of others, and I am sure think too little of yourself. Your health being somewhat uncertain and variable, we, who cannot rid ourselves of an interest in your welfare, feel that we have some right to a distinct statement of its condition every time you write. It is pleasant to hear that your excellent mother bears her infirmities so meekly and serenely. It is no less pleasant to know that she is surrounded by those whose gentle assiduities lighten, so far as can be done, the sense of those infirmities, and that your sister, who watches over her so tenderly and faithfully, is rewarded with improved health. There are some people with whom care seems to agree, making them not only happier but healthier. Letters like yours, from old and long tried friends, bring back, for the moment, somewhat of the old flavor to the banquet of Life, which, without my being in any haste to rise from it, has grown somewhat insipid of late. I think Julia may have told you how I have been amusing myself-if amusing be the word-in the country. I have given Mr. Cline what he very much desired, a little conservatory, on the south side of his house against the wall, where he can see his flowers in bloom all winter without going out of doors. Besides this, I have added something to the house, enlarging two of the bedrooms and the dining room. Back of my own house, I have built an ice-house with a milk room and a fruit room. The old ice house, which my wife had built when I was in Europe long since, I did not like to raze, for I wished to preserve whatever she had done, and it was a great relief to

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me when I hit upon the plan of taking off the roof, turning a brick arch over its stone wall, so as to convert it into a cellar for vegetables, under a green bank covered with turf. But this I fear is tedious to you. We came into town a few days since. Winter had set in prematurely. December began with snow storms and unusual cold. We have had ten days of sleighing, but it is now gone again. We find our house in town-Julia's house it seemed to me that both her mental and bodily faculties were remarkably well preserved and I thought of her as one whom Providence would spare for many years as a pattern of that character which is found in the model of Jesus, and could not help uttering a [mental?] thanksgiving that one so admirably endowed both mentally and morally was likely to be [continued?] for long upon the earth. When I saw her, however, these hopes were at an end. I called upon her with my wife, at the old family homestead in Stockbridge. It was a beautiful summer day, and we found her sitting under a large tree back of the house [four words illegible] while her companion read to her. On that day she seemed to me but little changed save in the decline of her strength. There was the same beaming smile that I had seen for more than forty years; there was the same kind concern for any body whom she knew; there was the same interest in the topics of the day and the same hopeful trust in Providence. I left her however, knowing from what I had heard of her malady that she could not long continue with us, but I knew also that when she should pass the gates of the Life to come she would have less of the dross of our nature to lay down at the threshhold than almost any one whom I had [recorded?] among my acquaintance .... MANUSCRIPT:

wick.

NYPL-GR (draft)

ADDREss:

Letter to Dr. Dewey concerning Miss Sedg-

l. This was Life and Letters of Catharine M. Sedgwick, ed. Mary E. Dewey (New York, 1871 ). Bryant's "Reminiscences of Miss Sedgwick" appeared on pp. [438]-446.

1888.

To James Bradley Thayer 1

My dear sir.

Roslyn, Long Island, November 2d 1869.

I thank you for the friendly interest you take in my translation of the Iliad. Your observation on the famous simile at the end of the eighth book is worthy of particular attention. 2 Pope's translation is certainly a jumble-but I have also been sensible of a certain confusion in the original description. The manuscript of my translation is now at the printer but when I get the proof sheet, I shall consider the point you raise more fully. I have thought of two difficulties in the way of omitting the lines to which you refer. One that they have been so long recognized as parts of a well known and familiar pas[ sage] that readers will expect to see them preserved-the other that the line which immediately

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OF

WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT

precedes and that which immediately follows the two which you would omit do not unite neatly. In the line before them "the stars appear brightly" or "conspicuously," and in the line which comes after them "all the stars are seen." 3 This tautology is rendered less apparent by the intervention of the questionable lines. I had written thus far when it occurred to me to look at different translations of the Iliad. Voss retains the two lines in his remarkable German version. Hermosilla preserves them in Spanish. The English translations into which I have looked retain them with the exception of that of Professor Blackie. He omits them, and has a note on the passage, in which he gives several early authorities for supposing that they were foisted into the text from another part of the Iliad, and one later authority, Heyne for supposing the two lines in this place "insititiones."4 Blackie, however, does not translate the repetition to which I have referred nor does he give any reason for omitting it. I refer to the phrase "all the stars are seen." I believe I am indebted to you for some observations in the Daily Advertiser on my version of the Interview of Hector and Andromache, by which I shall endeavor to profit. 5 I am, sir, very truly yours. W. C. BRYANT. MANUSCRIPTS: HCL (final); NYPL-GR (draft) ADDREss: (in part): Life, II, 280-281.

J.

B. Thayer Esq. PUBLISHED

I. James Bradley Thayer (1831-1902, Harvard 1852; Harvard Law School1856), a law editor, was a professor of law at Harvard post-1874. He made perceptive, constructive comments on Bryant's translations of both the Iliad and the Odyssey. 2. Thayer's letter containing this observation is unrecovered. 3. The passage in question, lines 682-686 in Bryant's translation of the Iliad, Bk. VIII, follows: ... As when in heaven the stars look brightly forth Round the dear-shining moon, while not a breeze Stirs in the depth of air, and all the stars Are seen, and gladness fills the shepherd's heart, So many fires in sight of Ilium blazed, .... 4. Johann Heinrich Voss (1751-1826) published his translation of the Iliad into German in 1793. The other translators Bryant names were Jose Hermosilla (1831), John Stuart Blackie (1866), and Christian Heyne (1862). 5. This meeting is recounted in Bryant's Iliad in Bk. VI, lines 510-640. Thayer's criticism in the Boston Daily Advertiser has not been located.

1889.

To Eliza Maria Judkins

My dear Madam-

Roslyn

Nov

8th

1869.

Your beautiful gift, the autumn leaf reached me here on the evening of my birth day at the close of my seventy fifth year-a mild

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and genial day. 1 You have drawn and colored it with a skill really marvelous. I had to pass my fingers over it to be certain that it was not a real leaf fastened to the paper. I value it much and shall dispose of it as you suggest. Please accept, with my thanks, the wish that when the autumn of life shall come to you, it may appear as beautiful in your eyes and those of others as your autumn leaf now appears in mme. I am Madam very truly yours W

MANUSCRIPT:

NYPL-GR (draft)

part): Life, II, 281-282.

ADDRESS:

C

To Miss Eliza Maria Jenkins

BRYANT.

PUBLISHED

(in

1. The Boston artist Eliza Maria Judkins (1809-1887) was primarily a crayon portraitist. DAA. Neither her sketch nor a covering letter has been recovered.

1890. To Joseph Parish Thompson'

Roslyn, Long Island Nov. 10, 1869.-

Dear sir.

Your obliging invitation to meet Father Hyacinthe at your table on Saturday2 has been put into my hands this evening, and I accept it with much pleasure. I am, sir, very truly yours. W. C. BRYANT. MANUSCRIPT:

YCAL ADDRESS: ReV'! Joseph P Thompson.

1. Joseph Parrish Thompson (1819-1879) was principal pastor of the Congregational Broadway Tabernacle in New York City, 1845-1871. From 1848 to 1862 he had been an associate editor of the Independent. 2. Charles Loyson (1827-1912), known as "Pere Hyacinthe," was a religious writer and one of the leading preachers in France when, in 1869, he opposed the calling of the Vatican Council and enunciation of the doctrine of the infallibility of the Pope. He was excommunicated from the Catholic church as a result, but continued preaching in his own Paris church, maintaining that he remained a Catholic. See Letter 1897.

1891. To Joseph P. Thompson

My dear Sir.

New York

November 12, 1869.

I sent you a note from Roslyn yesterday accepting your kind invitation to meet Father Hyacinthe at dinner on Saturday. Lest it

344

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WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT

should not have reached your hands, I write again to thank you and to say that I accept the invitation. I am, sir, very truly yours W. C. BRYANT. MANUSCRIPT: YCAL ADDRESS: Revd Dr. jos. P. Thompson.

1892. To Fanny Bryant Godwin

Dear Fanny.

Roslyn, November 16, 1869

I think you had better reconsider the direction you gave to stop the workmen who are now busy on your house, and ask them to begin work again next March. If it were my case I should let them go on. I have never stopped them on account of the winter when at work for me. You may not be able to get them back in March. They will be disappointed at being sent away, and will not come back at the time you want them if they can be as well employed elsewhere. They already receive less wages than are given at other places in the neighborhood. When you want to go into the house next spring you will not find it rea[dy if they are not?] 1 continually at work. If [ ? ] your credit be not enough [ ? ] that came from. Please to re[flect on these?] things and see whether your directions ought not to be countermanded.Affectionately W C BRYANT. MANUSCRIPT: NYPL-GR ADDREss: Mrs. Fanny Bryant Godwin.

1. A corner of the second page of this manuscript letter has been torn off, as indicated here and below.

1893. To George P. Putnam

My dear sir.

New York

Nov. 16. 1869.

I thank the Committee of which you are the Chairman for the honor they have done me in requesting me to preside at the meeting of the 23d instant, and address the persons present. 1 I will attend and preside as well as I am able and will say a few words by way of introducing the subject of discussion. I am, sir, very truly yours. W. C. BRYANT.

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MANUSCRIPT: Metropolitan Museum of Art ADDRESS: Geo. P. Putnam Esq. 1. This meeting, at which Bryant had been asked to preside by the Art Committee of the Union League Club, was held on November 23 at the Club's theater on East Twentieth-Sixth Street. His speech on that occasion (see his Orations and Addresses, pp. [333]-341), was largely instrumental in raising a subscription fund resulting in the establishment two months later of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, with Bryant one of its two vice presidents. Leo Lerman, The Museum: One Hundred Years and the Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York: Viking [1969]), pp. 13-16. Bryant himself contributed one thousand dollars to the fund. See Letter 1938.

1894. To F. Seeger and Others 1

Gentlemen.

New York, Nov. 16, 1869.

I thank you for the honor you do me in requesting me to deliver an address or read a poem at the Inaugural Festival of the friends of the Hahnemann Hospital on the 2d of December. I am obliged however, respectfully to decline a compliance with your invitation. 2 Poems for public occasions I no longer compose. For preparing an address I have no leisure-being wholly occupied with a certain literary task which is to be finished within a given time. 3 I have promised to take part in a public demonstration in favor of founding a Museum of Art in New York, at a meeting called on the 23d of November, and that I consented to somewhat unwillingly, but I am admonished by the inroad it will make on my time, that I must not make any other engagement of the kind until my task is completed. I am gentlemen With high respect &c W. C. BRYANT. MANUSCRIPT: NYPL-BG ADDREss: Messrs. F. Seeger I G. C Barrett I H. C. Brown. Committee. 1. Doctor Seeger, New York Supreme Court Justice Barrett, and Mr. Brown (not further identified) were incorporators in October 1869 of the Hahnemann Hospital in New York City. Wershub, 100 Years of Medical Progress, p. 131. 2. This invitation is unrecovered. Although it is stated in ibid. that Bryant spoke on that occasion (dated December 4 therein), Wershub's reference is, rather, to an address at the laying of the hospital's cornerstone seven years later. See note 77, p. 228. 3. His translation of Homer's Iliad, completed the following month. See Letters 1884, 1899.

1895. To John William French 1

My dear Sir.

Roslyn, Long Island November 30. 1869.

I thank you for the observations you have been so kind as to send me on my translation of the Iliad. "File" for "rank," in my translation,

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WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT

is a sad blunder. I am afraid it is too late to correct it for the first edition, which must be already printed off-that part I mean which contains the faulty passage, but I shall attend to the correction in the next edition, should there be any. Your other suggestions also deserve consideration, and I only wish I had had them earlier. 2 I am obliged to you also for the kind words at the close of your letter. 3 Please present my regards to Mrs. French and believe me Yours truly W. C. BRYANT. MANUSCRIPT: UVa ADDRESS: To J. W. French, D. D.

1. The Reverend John William French (1810-1871) was chaplain and professor of geology, history, and ethics at the United States Military Academy at West Point from 1856 to 1871. Information from Robert E. Schnare, Chief, Special Collections Division, United States Military Academy Library. 2. French had written Bryant from West Point on November 20, 1869 (NYPLBG), giving high praise to his translation of the Iliad, some or all of which French seems to have seen in manuscript, and making some specific suggestions for emendation. 3. In conclusion, French had remarked on the late Frances Bryant's fine nature, and Bryant's ability to write with a consciousness of her abiding presence, inferred perhaps from Bryant's comment in the opening paragraph of his preface to the Iliad, "To this task of translation, which I began in 1865, I afterwards gave myself the more willingly because it helped in some measure to divert my mind from a great domestic sorrow." French had probably become acquainted with Frances Bryant during her residence in Highland Falls during the summer of 1863. See Letters 1350-1371,

passim.

1896.

To Edward Everett Hale 1

My dear Mr. Hale,

The Evening Post 41 Nassau Street, cor. Liberty, New York, Dec~ 3d 1869.

I certainly do not ask you to strike my name from the list of your contributors. I only meant, in my last, to let you know how difficult it is, at present, for me to send any thing to be printed in the "Old and New." Your plan is an excellent one; you could have no contributors more acceptable to the public, and your periodical must succeed. 2 I am dear sir Truly yours W. C. BRYANT. MANUSCRIPT: ex-William Cullen Bryant II ADDRESs: Rev. E. E. Hale.

1. The Unitarian clergyman Edward Everett Hale (1822-1909, Harvard 1839), best remembered for his tale "The Man Without a Country" (1863), was the founder

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347

and principal contributor from 1869 to 1875 of the Boston literary and critical monthly magazine The Old and New. 2. In a letter dated November 30, 1869 (NYPL-GR), Hale had described his plan for the new magazine, and expressed the hope that Bryant would contribute to it. As far as has been determined, Bryant made no verse contribution to this periodical, but see 1904.3.

1897. To Leonice M.S. Moulton

New York December 10, 1869 .

. . . Your letter came to my hands in due season and I am glad to learn from it that you are pleasantly situated in Switzerland and surrounded with objects of interest. One so observing as you are cannot fail to lay up from what is daily presented to your mind, much that you will afterwards review with pleasure. The present visit to Europe, in company with those whom you love, will make you amends for the annoyances and discomfort of the earlier visit. I came to town yesterday for the purpose of hearing a lecture in the Academy of Music from Father Hyacinthe,' who is passing here a few weeks of respite from his controversies with the Church of Rome, which he quarrels with but does not abandon, hoping yet to aid in its reformation. The lecture was for the benefit of the French Benevolent Society, and was heard by a crowded audience in which were many clergymen of the Protestant denominations and a few of the Roman Catholic persuasion. The audience, although the lecture was in French and the Father speaks no other, was enthusiastic and clapped vehemently when any liberal sentiment was uttered or any thing said which seemed to have reference to the abuses of the Latin church, or its denial of freedom of thought. Father Hyacinthe is quite short and plump; he speaks with great fluency and animation becoming warmed with his subject as he proceeds, and pouring forth what seems to be the inspiration of the moment, although he never speaks without previous careful and earnest preparation. I dined in his company the other day. He is exceedingly liberal-he denied that the Church of Christ is confined to the Romish communion and said that a Quaker, though never baptized yet holding to Christ as the founder and teacher of his faith, and imitating him in his life was as much a member of the church universal as a Roman Catholic. He returns to his work at the end of this month, and will be in Europe about the time when the fermentation which the proceedings of the Oecumenical Council2 are expected to cause, will occupy the attention not only of the religious but the secular public. Apropos of religious matters, have you heard of the revival of religion in Roslyn. It is external merely, but I hope the washing of the

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WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT

outside of the cup and platter will be symbolic of the inner cleansing of which there is need enough. The Roslyn chapel, through the exertions of Mrs. Clapham has been erected into a Church separate from the one at Manhasset, and is provided with a separate minister, Mr McNulty, from Ireland. 3 The Methodist church through the agency of Mr. Wilson principally has been transformed into a comfortable and pretty building with convenient seats carpets and cushions. The Presbyterian church has been painted and is to have a new carpet. The church at Manhasset has undergone a complete renovation, is quite pretty without, and glows within with brilliant colours and gilding, after the mediaeval pattern, like the Sainte Chapelle in Paris. So if we are not good Christians in our neighborhood and the contiguous parts of Long Island it will not be for want of attractive places of worship. I do not hear, however, that the number of the worshippers has increased quite in proportion to the improvement in their accomodations, though Mr. Wilson boasts that of a Sunday evening the congregation in the Methodist church amounts to a hundred and fifty. The country for three or four days has been buried in snow, and the sleigh bells are jangling merrily. We have had a chilly autumn, no Indian summer and a premature winter. I have been busy with my translation of Homer's Iliad, the end of which is now not far. One volume will appear soon the other in the Spring, or earlier.... MANUSCRIPT: Ridgeley Family Collection TEXT (partial): Hoyt, "Bryant Correspondence" (II), pp. 197-198. 1. See 1890.2. 2. The Twentieth Ecumenical Council of the Roman Catholic Church was convened at the Vatican in 1869. 3. This Roman Catholic chapel was built by means of a subscription, organized by Mrs. Thomas Clapham, wife of a wealthy Roslyn boat builder, and contributed to by Bryant and other non-Catholics. Goddard, Roslyn Harbor, p. 105.

1898.

To George H. Bryant 1

My dear sir.

New York

Dec~

16. 1869.

Your friend Mr. William C. Bryant, has more reason to complain than I have. It was a clever production, his Agricultural Talk to the Indians, and it would be a great wrong to him, were it ascribed to me, as it is very possible it may be. I think he will make his mark yet, and if he means to have credit for all that he does, he must be careful to distinguish W C Bryant of Buffalo from W. C. Bryant of New York. 2

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You speak of the book entitled "The Bryant Homestead" 3 as if it was mine. It is the work of a lady of this neighborhood. It is splendidly got up with beautiful wood engravings. The text is in places clever and lively, and in others very peculiar and eccentric. It is not such a thing as I should have written,-but why should I say that, when I am not likely ever to make a parade before the public of my own affairs. I am, sir, very truly yours, W. C. BRYANT. MANUSCRIPT:

YCAL ADDRESS: Geo

H. Bryant Esq.

I. Unidentified. 2. William Clement Bryant of Buffalo, New York, president of that city's common council in 1867, and at one time president of the Buffalo Historical Society, wrote books and articles on the American Indians, including a life of the Mohawk chief Joseph Brant (1742-1807), Captain Brant and the Old King (Buffalo, 1889). His name has occasionally been confused by scholars with that of William Cullen Bryant. 3. Julia Hatfield, TheBryantHomesteadBook (New York, 1870). See 1808.1.

1899. To Messrs. Fields, Osgood & Co.

New York, December 16th [1869]

... A friend of mine, and a very clever man, has asked me to obtain for him, as soon as they can be had, the sheets of the first volume of my translation of the Iliad, that he may make a careful review of them for some literary periodical. There was no prompting of mine in the matter, for I never in my life even hinted to any friend that I should like to see a notice of anything I had written; but, if you will send me the sheets, I will put them into the hands of the gentleman who makes the request.... 1 MANUSCRIPT:

Unrecovered TEXT (partial): Life, II, 283.

I. Bryant's "clever" friend was undoubtedly Charlton Thomas Lewis (18341904), a Methodist clergyman and classicist, who succeeded Charles Nordhoff in 1871 as managing editor of the EP. See Letter 1914; Nevins, Evening Post, pp. 397, 422423. For excerpts from Lewis's highly favorable notice of Bryant's translation of the Iliad, written for the North American Review of April1871, see Life, II, 285-286.

1900. To Samuel Gridley Howe 1

[New York, December 18, 1869 Office of The Evening Post]

... A Monk of Mt. Athos, bearing the name of Christophorus is here asking money to be expended by his monastery in the support of

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orphan asylums, schools and other benevolent institutions. 2 I am told that a note from you has appeared in the Boston papers cautioning people against him. May I ask of you a copy of it for publication here? ... 3 MANUSCRIPT: Unrecovered TEXT (partial): The Collector, No. 851 (1977), p. 15. 1. Samuel Gridley Howe (1801-1876, Brown 1821, M.D. Harvard 1824), a Boston reformer and pioneer in the education of the blind, was the husband of julia Ward Howe (1494.1). As a young man he had participated in the Greek revolution of 1827-1829, and had recently revisited Greece. 2. A community of about twenty Eastern Orthodox monasteries in Macedonia, northeast Greece. Christophorus has not been further identified. 3. No reply from Howe has been recovered.

1901.

To Christiana Gibson

My dear Miss Gibson,

New York, Christmas Eve, 1869.

I wish you with all my heart a merry Christmas and a cheerful New Year's day, the beginning of a year of serene and sober happiness, but as Christmas and the first day of the coming year will be past long before you get this, the wish is rather a prayer, than a compliment. I got your letter of the 9th, 1 for which I thank you, yesterday, and was sorry to learn from it that my excellent friend, your mother, had been so much a sufferer. I hope she was fully recovered before your letter reached me, and that the holidays will find her able to be as merry as the rest of the world. I hear, with a sort of selfish distress, of the sufferings of people in the decline of life; they seem like a menace of what I must expect. I shrink from the thought of passing to the new life along a path in which Pain is to be my principal companion, and there is nothing which makes such rigorous demands upon our exclusive attention as pain. I therefore ask for myself and for my aged friends that, when our time comes we may -- "be with ease Gathered, not harshly plucked."-2 You speak of the inclement season. Here also we have had a premature winter and an autumn less quiet and beautiful than usual, but today has been like one of the finest days of an Italian winter-a sky of spotless blue, a flood of golden sunshine, a bland temperature, and all the winds laid except a gentle breathing from the west. I thought I might finish my translation of Homer today, but the old Greek is refractory, and not to be managed so easily as I supposed, and just twenty-six lines of the text of the Iliad lie over. But my work will not be ended when those are translated. There will be the proofs

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of the second volume to be corrected-I have corrected those of the first, and then I must carefully revise the whole for a second and cheaper edition .... 3 MANUSCRIPT:

NYPL-BPMP

DOCKETED:

(with chnnges): Life, II, 282-283.

Mr. Bryant I Xmas I Eve. I 169.

PUBLISHED

1. Unrecovered. 2. Quotation unidentified. 3. In Life, II, 282-283, Godwin added here the third paragraph of Bryant's letter to Christiana Gibson dated July 11, 1870, the rest of which he did not print. The conclusion of the present letter is missing from the manuscript.

1902. To Robert Bonner

My dear sir.

The Evening Post, 41 Nassau Street, cor. Liberty, New York, Dec. 30 1869

Mr. Horatio J. Perry our late Secretary of Legation at Madrid, and now in that city, has written to me desiring that I would ask you to send him at that place the New York Ledger for a year and send him the bill which he will immediately remit through Baring Brothers & Co. or you or your business agent may draw at once for the amount on Baring Brothers & Co specifying on the face of the draft that it is for one years subscription to the Ledger and he has written to Barings to honor the draft and charge to his account. But he desires that the numbers sent shall commence with the first chapter of Jarilla, or else, that the back numbers be sent and added to the yearly charge. The story of Jarilla in the original Spanish is the work of Mrs. Perry a Spanish lady.' I am, sir, truly yours W C BRYANT MANUSCRIPT:

QPL ADDRESS: Robert Bonner Esq.

1. See Perry to Bryant, December 15, 1869, NYPL-BG; 1779.1.

XXX Literature for a People 1870 (LETTERS 1903

TO

1969)

To me it seems that one of the most important requisites for a great poet is a luminous style. -A Library of Poetry and Song, 1870 I have endeavored to preserve the simplicity of style which distinguishes the old Greek poet, who wrote for the popular ear. -Preface to The Iliad, 1870

NoT SINCE BRYANT's EARLY VERSES drew the attention of American and British readers in the early decades of the nineteenth century had his writing been given such critical praise as was devoted to his translation of Homer. The aim he stated in his preface to The Iliad was confirmed by the comments of his friends: John Bigelow liked the "fidelity, grace, and Saxon vigor" of his version; Dewey, its "smooth, easy, simple style"; Simms, its "strong, manly English heroic blank verse." Others echoed Dana's dictum, "Yours must take the place of all other translations." Professor Taylor Lewis of Union College told Bryant he found it a "delightful exercise" to use the book in his lectures on Homer, and to "point out to a class its surpassing excellence." Bryant must have been pleased as well by the welcome given his work in Great Britain, where Lord Derby's version of The Iliad had appeared only five years earlier. Edward Bulwer Lytton, thanking Bigelow for a copy of Bryant's book, spoke of him as "so genuine and eminent a poet that he can afford to be exact as a translator and leave Homer to speak for himself," and praised the "masculine and vigorous flow of his verse." The British Quarterly called him "The poet of America." Devoting most of a page to its notice, The Saturday Review of London said, "Very seldom has the aim of faithfulness been so well sustained, or ... simplicity so sedulously sought after to grace the translation with a charm inseparable from the original." It preferred Bryant's work to Derby's, concluding, "We congratulate our American kinsfolk on having a poet among them who in his green old age has produced a translation of the Iliad worthy to live amongst the best experiments of the kind in our common language." Despite Bryant's disclaimers of much direct concern with his newspaper, a letter of June 6 to his managing editor, and Charles Nordhoffs own testimony to Bryant's involvement, made it apparent that editorial policies continued to be shaped by the senior editor. Concerning President Grant's hostility to tariff reform, he instructed Nordhoff that the President must be

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"admonished" that "the country expects better things of him than to join the confederacy of the millionaires because Mr. [Secretary of the Treasury] Boutwell has done so." As Grant entered office, Bryant had expressed the hope that he would destroy plunder by lobbyists, speculators, gold sharks, "and the whole train of useless and costly hangers-on," a task "scarcely second to that of destroying Lee's army itself." His faith in the President, and his cabinet, was first shaken by their inability in September 1869 to confront manipulation of the gold market by the speculators Jay Gould and Jim Fiske, on what became known as "Black Friday." By October 1870 the Evening Post had broken with its party's president. Secretary of the Interior Jacob Cox, former Ohio governor and respected soldier, a supporter of civil service reform and defender of public lands against hostile exploitation, was forced from office by pressures upon Grant. A few days later the historian John Lothrop Motley was abruptly recalled from his post as minister to Great Britain because he backed Senator Charles Sumner in a feud with the President over foreign affairs. These affronts to men of integrity angered Bryant, and the Evening Post declared war on Grant. "No president except Andrew Johnson," it declared, "has ever so openly tried, by wholesale removals from office and by the appointment of his favorites, to impose his 'policy' upon the party." It was "a record of which General Grant will not be proud in those days of retirement from public life which await him." A second political concern for Bryant in 1870 was corruption in New York City's administration, which was controlled by Tammany boss William Marcy Tweed. When Tweed proposed a charter which, Samuel Tilden urged Bryant, would surrender the city government to men who would "plunder it without stint," the Evening Post began a series of editorials exposing the hidden perils of this document. Unhappily, these were of no immediate avail, since the charter passed the Tweed-controlled state legislature that spring. Early in the year Bryant's trust in his business associate Isaac Henderson was sharply challenged by their former partner, Bryant's son-in-law Parke Godwin, who had sold them his shares in the newspaper two years before. Godwin's distrust of Henderson, which had not been lessened by the business manager's acquittal of federal offenses in 1865, was expressed in a letter to Bryant charging that this "most subtle, adroit, and thorough rascal" was systematically cheating Bryant. The old editor was clearly troubled, yet unshaken in his loyalty to Henderson, but the controversy would persist into the final months of Bryant's life eight years later. Having put the second volume of The Iliad to press early in the year, Bryant turned to other writings. After Gulian Verplanck died in March, Bryant read a tribute in May before the New-York Historical Society to this old friend who had praised in a New York newspaper his first small volume of verses nearly half a century earlier. He agreed to edit and write an introduction to a verse anthology, A Library of Poetry and Song, which would go into many editions and was still in print more than a century later. In July he began to translate Homer's Odyssey. His speeches during this year--on the birthday of Robert Burns, translators of Homer, the liberation of Rome, the

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fiftieth anniversary of the Mercantile Library, a "Women's Peace Crusade"reftected the variety of his commitments, and perhaps gave impetus to the regents of the state university, who honored him with a doctorate of humane letters. As had now become his annual custom, Bryant passed the late summer and early fall at Cummington, where again he had his brother John as a walking companion, and where, among others, he entertained Charles Sumner. His slight, spry frame, topped by bald cranium and spreading whiskers, was becoming a familiar feature in this craggy landscape of his birth, where his neighbors were mostly the children or grandchildren of those Dr. Peter Bryant had introduced to the world. Of such was a beekeeper in the nearby town of Windsor, to whom Bryant went for honey, and who, learning the name of his customer, remarked that some of his friends "would give as much to see Cullen Bryant as to see a bear." Bryant enjoyed such a homely impertinence. But under the control in which he kept a youthful temper lay a resentment of indignity. This appears in his letter at the year's end to a stranger who doubted the sincerity of his free trade convictions and accused him of being uncharitable with his supposed riches. Earlier, Bryant had explained patiently to a questioner that newspaper reports exaggerated his wealth. To this later challenge he replied with an asperity reminiscent of tilts with rival editors early in his journalistic career. "You intimate that I ought to be a second Zaccheus," he wrote. "How do you know that I am not? You have no knowledge of how much of my income, such as it is, goes to public objects and to the poor, nor is it my business to inform you .... You inform me that your age is near my own and that you are a preacher of the gospel. Persons who have reached our age sometimes become soured in desperation and weak in judgment. I hope that in both respects you were formerly more worthy of commendation than your letter shows you to be now, else I fear your mode of preaching the gospel can have done little good. Excuse this plainness of speech, since you seem to be in need of it." Bryant's ire is the more understandable as we read John Bigelow's later comments. "Bryant shrank from ostentation of any kind," he wrote after his former partner's death. "He treated every neighbor as if he were an angel in disguise sent to test his loyalty to the golden rule. For sixteen years, and until his death, he was the principal contributor to a Christmas treat for the inmates of the North Hempstead poor-house. [His steward] was instructed by him to distribute the surplus of his garden among his neighbors, and he informs me that he has sometimes given as many as eighty chickens to the poor of the village on Thanksgiving Day under Mr. Bryant's directions." Bigelow goes on to enumerate more of Bryant's silent generosities.

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1903.

To George Sewall BoutwelP

Sir.

355

The Evening Post, 41 Nassau Street, cor. Liberty, New York, January 20, 1870.

Mr. GeorgeS. [McWattere/McWalters?F has been, for many years, an active efficient and useful member of the New York police. He has not only distinguished himself by the upright and faithful discharge of his duties as a police officer, but in other ways, as a public spirited citizen. He did good service in quelling the alarming riot in our city during the late rebellion. He now desires a place in the New York Custom House, in which I am confident that he will do his duty faithfully, and to the satisfaction of the public. I therefore cheerfully unite with his friends in asking that his application may be granted. I am, sir very truly and respectfully W. C. BRYANT. UVa ADDREss: To the Hon. George S. Boutwell, I Secretary of the Treasury. ENDORSED: I most cheerfully concur I with above I Thos. C. Acton.

MANUSCRIPT:

l. George Sewall Boutwell (1818-1895), former governor of Massachusetts, and a radical Republican member of Congress, 1863-1869, was United States Secretary of the Treasury from 1869 to 1873, and from 1873 to 1877 a United States senator from Massachusetts. 2. Because of uncertainty over Bryant's spelling of this name, the subject of the letter is unidentified.

1904.

To Edward E. Hale

New York, January 21st [1870]

... I am glad to have the poems of Lowell and Tennyson, but besides that I have no leisure for the task. I am not sure that I am the man to pass a critical judgment upon them. 1 Looking over Crabb Robinson's book, I find that Coleridge, in one of his letters, spoke contemptuously of Moore's "Lallah Rookh," 2 and that Wordsworth, at a later day, declared himself unable to relish the poetry of his time. I doubt whether poets, if I may have the ambition to call myself one, are the proper judges of other men's poetry. I find, moreover, that, as I grow old, I do not take up a new book of poetry by a man of acknowledged genius with the eager curiosity that I once did, and run over its pages with a delighted enthusiasm. I am less sensible to beauties, and more easily offended by petty blemishes, less catholic in my tastes, and more

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inclined to reserve for old favorites that admiration which surrenders the whole soul to the mastery of the poet. You see my difficulties, therefore, but my want of time for the work you suggest is a sufficient reason for declining it. I looked over, some three or four years since, some of the poets now little read, and it struck me that I could say things of them which might possibly answer for a magazine. When I am a little less busy I may set down a few thoughts respecting one or two of them, and see whether you like them well enough to print them .... 3 MANUSCRIPT: Unrecovered TEXT (partial): Life, II, 293.

1. Hale had asked Bryant to write notices for The Old and New of a new volume of verse by james Russell Lowell, Under the Willows and Other Poems, and Alfred Tennyson's The Holy Grail, each published in 1869. Life, II, 293n. 2. Lalla Rookh (1817), by the Irish poet Thomas Moore (1779-1852). 3. Bryant seems to have had in mind here an essay on the verses of john Oldham (1653-1683), British satirist and translator, which he contributed to The Old and New for September 1872, and perhaps one on the poetry of Abraham Cowley (16181667), published in the North American Review of May 1877. See Life, II, 293n., and Prose Writings ofWilliam Cullen Bryant, ed. Parke Godwin (New York, 1884), II, 115146.

1905. To Mrs. [Robert Howe?] Gould 1

New York, January 22, 1870 .

. . . The very secrecy and mystery of some of [the] proceedings [of the] great Council of the Latin Church now sitting in Rome sharpens the public curiosity. Here in America, the greater number, if not all the Latin priesthood already accept the dogma of the Pope's infallibility and act upon it, so that it is not so important for him to procure the declaration of his infallibility so far as the United States are concerned. But the effect of that declaration upon European politics we shall all watch with great interest .... 2 MANUSCRIPT: Unrecovered TEXT (partial): Paul C. Richards, Catalogue No. 66, June 1971. I. Probably the wife of Robert Howe Gould (600.1). 2. In an unprinted portion of this letter Bryant apparently asked Mrs. Gould to report on the proceedings of the Ecumenical Conference (see 1897.2) in Rome, at which the doctrine of papal infallibility was proclaimed.

1906.

To The Mexican Claims Commission 1

City of New York, United States of America, January 1870.

I, William Cullen Bryant, named as Umpire, by the Commissioners of the United States & the Republic of Mexico, by virtue of a

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Convention between those Countries, Signed July 4u. 1868, for the adjudication of Claims; Solemnly declare that I will impartially and carefully examine and decide, to the best of my judgment, and according to public law, justice & equity; without fear, or favor or affection to my own Country, or either Country, upon all claims that may be referred to me as Umpire under said Convention, by the aforesaid Commissioners. Witness my hand the date above written. [unsigned] MANUSCRIPT:

NYPL-BG.

1. This unsigned draft document, written in an unidentified hand, was found among Bryant's papers. It is explained as follows: "A treaty between Mexico and the United States in 1868 had established a commission to settle claims arising from the Mexican War. The American and Mexican commissioners had difficulty in selecting an umpire to settle the cases in dispute between them. Finally they nominated the prominent Republican editor, William Cullen Bryant, but he declined. Then Secretary of State [Hamilton] Fish, who had previously urged [Francis] Lieber's name, succeeded in convincing the commissioners of his suitability. Ambitious as always, Lieber disliked relinquishing his dream of retiring to Europe as a diplomat and was piqued at being offered an umpireship Bryant had already refused. At first he declined the position, then reconsidered, and after much prodding accepted." Frank Freidel, Francis Lieber, Nineteenth Century Liberal (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1947), p. 404. For Lieber, see 217.2.

1907. To C. L. Thompson 1

Dear sir.

New York

Feb

1, 1870.

The manuscript of my translation of the Iliad is with the publishers, and I have no copy of it with me. I have written to them-Messrs. Fields Osgood & Co. at Boston, mentioning your request, and leaving it to them to say whether they would send you an extract from the published work. 2 If they should I do not ask any compensation. I have left the selection of the passage to them, in case they think fit to send it. Yours respectfully W C BRYANT. MANUSCRIPT:

NYPL-Berg ADDRESS: Rev! C. L. Thompson.

1. Unidentified. 2. No such request has been located.

1908. To Messrs. Welch, Bigelow & Co. 1

Dear Sir.

New York

Feb. 7th

1870

I corrected the last proof which I received, at the Office of the Evening Post, not having the Greek text before me, and made two mistakes-

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OF

WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT

The name spelt "Spkellus" should be Spkelus. Four lines below that name, a line which I have improperly altered should read thus. And Pases, when Dei:ochus had turned. In the proof you sent it was Deiochos, and I altered the line to make the metre conform to that spelling-Please correct as above. Yours truly W C BRYANT. MANUSCRIPT: Redwood Library and Athenaeum ADDREss: To the Proof Reader. 1. Welch, Bigelow & Co. of Cambridge, who controlled the Harvard University Press, were printers for Fields, Osgood & Co. of Bryant's Iliad. See Letters 1916, 1919; Lehmann-Haupt, Book in America, p. 185.

1909.

To John Bigelow

Dear Mr. Bigelow

[New York] Feb

9th

1870

I unfortunately have the book in the country, but will send for it immediately. I should like the article very much. 1 Yours very truly W C BRYANT MANUSCRIPT: NYPL-Bigelow Papers ADDREss: Hon.

J

Bigelow.

1. Book and article are unidentified.

1910.

To Parke Godwin

My dear sir.

The Evening Post, 41 Nassau Street, cor. Liberty New York, Feb. 9. 1870.

I returned the letters to you the other day, without handing them over to Mr. Henderson-thinking that you intended to send them to him afterwards. It was a blunder of mine-to think that they were intended for my eye only-and that they might possibly have some addition before sent to Mr. Henderson- But if you will send them again I will confer with Mr. Henderson about them. Indeed, I shall immediately state to hi[m] their purport. I do not want to defraud you in the purchase-and I am perfectly willing to make any amends-so far as I am concerned-for any advantage that I may have inequitably gained. 1 Yours truly w. C. BRYANT.

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359

NYPL-GR ADDREss: Parke Godwin Esq.

I. Early in 1870 Parke Godwin's long simmering animosity toward Isaac Henderson, and his conviction of the business manager's dishonesty in his dealings with the Bryant family's interest in the EP, resulted in a charge that Henderson had defrauded both Bryant and him. In 1868 Godwin had sold to the other two partners, Bryant and Henderson, for two-hundred thousand dollars, the one-third share which he had bought in 1861 from John Bigelow for scarcely more than half that sum, to be taken from his future profits in the paper. Now he charged that he had been underpaid in the sale, and presented documents purporting to support this charge. Bryant's letter of February 9 replied to one from Godwin of the same date (NYPL-GR) complaining he had waited two weeks for a reply to his earlier charges (unrecovered). On February 25 he wrote Bryant, "I had no desire to annoy you, or to get out of a bad bargain once made. My whole object was to open your eyes to two things, first, the systematic undervaluation of your property, made by Henderson, to which undervaluation, so greatly against your own interest, you consent .... Secondly, the character of the man, who I regard to be a most subtle, adroit, and thorough rascal, & who in less than ten years will, in ways that you will hardly suspect, defraud you of the better part of your interest in the Evening Post." NYPL-GR (draft?). For an extended discussion of the Godwin-Henderson differences, see Nevins, Evening Post, pp. 426-441, passim.

1911. To George H. Bryant 1

Dear Sir.

The Evening Post, 41 Nassau Street, cor. Liberty, NewYork,Febry.21. 1870

I thank you for the record of a good life which you were so kind as to send me in your last. 2 It is much pleasanter to hear that one of the Bryants has closed a long life in honor and general esteem than to hear that one of them has been hanged. The newspapers are wide of the mark in what they say of my possessions. Is there no way of compelling them to make good their words[?] If there were I should be tempted to adopt it at once, and come out worth half a million. I hope that your mother's recovery will be of such permanence that we may hear of a Bryant who has lived a century. Yours very truly W. C. BRYANT. MANUSCRIPT:

Andrew B. Myers ADDRESS: Geo. H. Bryant Esq.

I. See Letter 1898. 2. Letter unrecovered.

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1912.

To George Harvey

New York March 9th

My dear sir.

1870.

I write principally to acknowledge your kindness in sending me occasional numbers of the Cosmopolitan containing communications from your pen which have engaged my particular attention. 1 I have been exceedingly busy for some time past and shall be so for some time to come, but I should be sorry to have you imagine that I treat your letters with neglect. I was much amused by the manner in which you dealt with those who wished to get at the secret of invention by which if your ideas respecting money should be adopted you propose to secure the evidences-the visible and tangible tokens of value from fraudulent imitation. You have taken the right course; if they will not adopt your main idea, they are not entitled to the accessories. You give them the most important part of your system gratuitously, and if they choose to reduce it to practice you are ready to assist them in the details. This is perfectly fair and no man has a right to complain. The world is going on here much as usual, that is to say, luxury is increasing; the cities are growing larger, overlaying the country round them like a rising tide; the houses are growing taller and taller, the hotels more spacious, the churches more ostentatious, the taxes heavier &c &c. You would hardly find here the New York you once knew. We have had a mild and genial winter out of doors and a rather gay one within doors-but now Lent has come and thrown a wet blanket on the gayeties of the season. I am, dear sir, Yours very truly. W. C. BRYANT. MANUSCRIPT: Minneapolis Public Library and Information Center ADDRESS: George Harvey Esq.

1. Harvey's articles have not been located.

1913. To Edwin Booth 1

Dear Sir.

New York

March 10. 1870

The bearer of this note is Miss Lucy A. Mills, a most respectable lady, and for some time past a correspondent of the Evening Post-a circumstance from which I hope you will infer her literary capacity. 2

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She has written a drama, which she desires to submit to your examination- May I be allowed to bespeak for her a kind reception. I am, sir, truly yours, W. C BRYANT. MANUSCRIPT:

Walter Hampden Memorial Library ADDRESS: To Edwin Booth Esq.

1. The American tragedian; see 1523.4; illustration. 2. The only publication by Lucy A. Mills listed in the NUC is jack Masters, or, The Berry-Pickers (New York [cl872]). No play by this author seems to have been produced. No reply to Bryant's letter to Booth has been recovered.

1914. To James R. Osgood

My dear sir.

New York March 18th 1870. Office of the Evening Post.

Mr. Charlton T. Lewis who wrote the notice of the first volume of my Homer for Putnam's Magazine would be glad to have proof sheets of the second volume so far as it has been put in type with the object of writing a more elaborate review of the work and having it ready about the time the second volume shall appear. If you think well of this, will you be so kind as to have the proof sheets sent either to him or to me at this office-for he is employed on the paper. He will make no improper use of the sheets. 1 There is another matter which has occasioned me some perplexity and mortification. In revising the first volume, and some proof sheets-second proofs of the second volume-I find that in the transcription for the press, or by some other blunder,-for I never was too exact to commit blunders-! have omitted lines here and there. In another edition they ought to be inserted, or the translation will not be perfectly faithful. As the fault is mine I ought to pay the penaltySo you may charge the expense of making the alterations to my account. I am sir very truly yours W. C. BRYANT. MANUSCRIPT:

PUL.

1. See 1899.1; Life, II, 285-286.

1915. To [Henry Laurens Dawes?]I

My dear sir.

New York

March 21. 1870.

A widow lady whom I have never seen but who I hear is a very respectable person, Mrs. P. T. Vining of Cummington, has written to

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me from Reading Pennsylvania in relation to her son Alden Vining, a youth of fourteen years of age whom she desires to see placed as a pupil in the Military Academy at West Point. 2 She has forwarded to me attestations to his character capacity and progress in learning, which are quite favorable-one from Mr. H. W. Mitchell a teacher who testifies to his excellent scholarship and general correctness of deportment and another from Mr. E. A. Hubbard Superintendent of Schools at Springfield Massachusetts, who speaks of him as a faithful earnest student at the High School in that place, unexceptionable in his deportment; of fair attainments for one of his age and perfectly correct as far as he knows in his habits, and as of good presence, manly bearing and in these respects adapted to an education at West Point. I have promised the lady to write to you and the Secretary of War in favor of the youth. I enclose to you the letter to the Secretary of War 3 which I pray you to do me the favor of putting into his hands. I have written to Mrs. Vining4 not to be too much disappointed if the application should be unsuccessful. But if you can do any thing for her son, it seems to me that he promises well. He is of the sort of which good officers for our military service are made. Will you kindly write to me and let me know what chance there is of the application being answered favorably. I have not known of any cadet appointed from Cummington for forty years past-and should like to see a promising lad enter the Academy from [the?] old place. yrs [unsigned] MANUSCRIPT: NYPL-GR (draft). 1. Although this letter is unaddressed in draft, it was almost certainly intended for Henry L. Dawes (1530.1), Congressman from the western Massachusetts district which embraced Cummington from 1857 to 1875, and the influential chairman of the Appropriations Committee of the United States House of Representatives. From 1875 to 1892 he was a United States Senator from Massachusetts. 2. Young Vining was apparently a son of Philomena T. Reed Vining and the late Alden B. Vining, married at Cummington on April9, 1844. Vital Records of Cummington, p. 165. The records of the United States Military Academy indicate that Vining did not enter West Point as a cadet. 3. Bryant's letter to William Worth Belknap (1829-1890), Secretary of War from 1869 to 1876, is unrecovered. 4. Letter unrecovered.

1916. To Messrs. Welch Bigelow & Co.

Gentlemen,

New York

March 22, 1870

I return to you by this days mail, the last of the sheets of the second proof of the second volume of my translation in which I have made

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corrections. There [are]I in them, and in those I have sent before, some additional lines. If they come too late, please send them in my name to Mr. J. R. Osgood of the firm of Fields Osgood & Co. Yours respectfully W

MANUSCRIPT:

&Co.

Redwood Library and Athenaeum

ADDRESS:

C

BRYANT

To Messrs. Welch Bigelow

1. Word omitted.

1917. To Orville Dewey

New York, March [c24, 1870)1

. I congratulate you with all my heart, not on the penance which you have inflicted on yourself in reading my book through, but on having done it, and not having it to do hereafter. I can imagine that on laying down the volume you drew a long breath of relief-one of those grateful sighs significant alike of the trouble that has been taken and of the satisfaction we feel that it is over. Do you remember Pope's line? "And Congreve loved, and Swift endured my lays" It is not every poet that has a friend capable of enduring four hundred pages of his verse. 2 I am really glad that you can speak so kindly of my translation. It is well received so far, and sells well, I'm told, for so costly a publication. I am almost ashamed to see it got up in so expensive a manner. Democrat as I am, I would, if the matter had been left to my discretion, have published it in as cheap a form as is consistent with neatness, and a good, fair, legible type. I like very well to see it in a large volume, in that large type, but I should have made it a book for persons of small means-that is to say, if they choose to buy it. 3 You have seen the announcement of Mr. Verplanck's death. He was one of our best public men-a politician without a politician's vices-sturdily independent, though sometimes wrong; much in public life, yet never stooping to any act or any compromise of any sort to gain the public favor. They-that is to say, the members of the Historical Society-have already applied to me to say something of his life and character; and as he was an old, and at one time a very intimate, friend of mine, I could not excuse myself, although I have already too many things on my hands. 4 I have read Lowell's "Fireside Travels" on your recommendation-speaking of it as the wittiest book ever written by an American. 5 It is running over with wit certainly, and not only running over, but

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"shaken and pressed down." 6 The seat of American wit now seems to be at Cambridge and its neighborhood. Holmes's "Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table" always seemed to me a masterpiece in its way, the wit and humor as delicate and spontaneous as those of Addison-wit and humor of the highest class. 7 Hood's fun is rich and inexhaustible, but a good deal of it is of an inferior quality, and sometimes betrays effort. 8 Do you not think there is a great deal of humor in Aldrich's "Story of a Bad Boy"? 9 The other day we had here a little book for children called the "Trotty Book," by Miss Phelps, author of "Gates Ajar," which almost made us split our sides .... 10 MANUSCRIPT: Unrecovered TEXT (partial): Life, II, 289-290. 1. Incorrectly dated March 12 in printed text; see Note 4 below. 2. Bryant had sent Dewey a copy of the first volume of his translation of The Iliad, of which Dewey had written him on March 13 (NYPL-BG), "Well, Master, I have read it .... I am even more pleased with the translation than I expected to be." He praised the "bare attraction of the language. For the smooth, easy, simple style's sake," he added, "one is led to read on. It is charming-not only because it is Homer, but because it is Bryant." The quotation is from Alexander Pope's "An Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot" (1735), 1. 138. 3. Bryant's Iliad was soon published as well in an inexpensive one-volume cloth edition. 4. Gulian C. Verplanck died in New York City on March 18, 1870. Bryant's eulogy of his long-time friend and literary collaborator, A Discourse on the Life, Character

and Writings of Gulian Crommelan Verplanck, Delivered Before the New-York Historical Society, May 17th, 1870 (New York: Evening Post Press, 1870), was reprinted in his Orations and Addresses, pp. [ 197]-258. 5. James Russell Lowell's volume of sketches, Fireside Travels, appeared in 1864. 6. Cf Luke 6.38: "Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed

down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom." 7. Oliver Wendell Holmes, The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table (1858). 8. The British poet and comic writer, Thomas Hood (1799-1845). 9. Thomas Bailey Aldrich (1836-1907), The Story of a Bad Boy (1869). 10. Elizabeth Stuart Phelps Ward (1844-1911), popular New England writer. Her The Gates Ajar (1869) was "phenomenally successful," it has been said.

1918. To Robert C. Waterston

New York, March 24th [1870]

I thank you for your letter 1 and the kind words you say of my translation of the Iliad. The suggestion you make concerning an appendix is a good one, but, unfortunately, I have no time to get it ready before the second volume is to come out. I am engaged in a revision of the translation, and find, to my dismay, that, in transcribing for the press, or in some other way, I have omitted lines here and there, although not in places where the reader would observe any

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break. This has put me to a close and somewhat laborious comparison of my lines with those of the original. Besides this, I am to get ready a paper on Miss Sedgwick's literary life while she resided in New York, to form part of a memoir which is to appear in the summer, 2 and an old friend of mine, Mr. Verplanck, has just died, and I am to deliver a discourse or read a paper on his life, character, and writings before the Historical Society here; so you see I am overoccupiedjust now .... The death of Mr. Verplanck makes, notwithstanding his great ageeighty-four years-a material vacancy in the social and public life of New York. He was the Chairman of our Board of Commissioners of Emigration, and was placed in other public trusts, to which he faithfully attended up to the last day of his life. His faculties seemed unimpaired, and his mind, one of the most well-stored which has ever come under my observation, seemed to retain all the activity it had forty-five years since, when I first knew him. His death was sudden, and his life and his usefulness came to an end at the same moment. ... MANUSCRIPT:

Unrecovered

TEXT

(partial): Life, II, 290-291.

1. March 18, 1870, NYPL-BG. 2. Bryant's "Reminiscences of Miss Sedgwick" was printed on pp. [437]-446 of Life and Letters of Catharine M. Sedgwick, ed. Mary E. Dewey (New York, 1871).

1919. To James R. Osgood & Co.

My dear sir.

New York

March 25, 1870.

I have sent back this morning some final proofs to Welch, Bigelow & Co. containing an omitted line to be supplied. This will be the last of these mistakes in the second volume, as all the other pages have been watched or will be in the first proofs. Some proofs came to meduplicates-which I had sent to you as they were marked in pencil "Mr. Osgood." Yours truly W C BRYANT P.S. The omtsstons to which I refer do not, except in one or two instances, affect the sense-that is their absence would not be perceived by the reader as an interruption to the narrative. They, however, make the translation less faithful. W.C.B. MANUSCRIPT:

DuU

ADDREss:

J. R. Osgood & Co.

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1920. To Epes Sargent 1

My dear Mr. Sargent.

New York, March 29th

1870.

I thank you for the good opinion you have been so kind as to express concerning my translation of the Iliad, and for the extract from your brothers letter giving his favorable judgment of the work. 2 It was undertaken because I was not quite satisfied with any of the English translations of the Iliad; it would be distressing to be told by competentjudges that I had failed; it is gratifying and consoling to be told by them that I have succeeded. Your brothers commendation is the more valuable for the reason that it was given with no expectation that it would come to my knowledge, and it is highly valuable also as given by one whose faculties, naturally vigorous and acute, have been specially exercised in discriminating the degrees of literary merit. You judged well when you thought I would be glad to see what he had written, and charitably sent it to encourage me after the completion of so laborious a task. I am sorry to hear that your health is such as to require a residence in [a] milder climate than ours, and hope that you are deriving essential benefit from a residence at Cannes which must be what I heard a Frenchman once call un bel exil [a beautiful exile]. We have had an uncommonly benign winter here-if that phrase can ever be applied to a winter in our climate, but you have made me envy you at Cannes, with your description of your genial June temperature. If when you return to this country you should again find a change of climate necessary, I would suggest that you should try the midland air of our continent which sometimes works wonders in affections of the breathing apparatus. Last winter I sent a relative who was suffering in that way to Minnesota, and he came back well and is well yet. The central regions of our continent are now traversed by railways and they are building cities and planting orchards and groves on what were lately arid plains. In the hope that the June temperature of the South of France will restore you fully I am Truly yours W. C. BRYANT. MANUSCRIPT: MHS ADDRESS: Epes Sargent Esq. 1. The playwright, poet, and journalist Epes Sargent (1813-1880) had removed from Boston to New York in 1837. 2. On March 12, 1870, Sargent had written Bryant from Cannes, France, praising his translation of the Iliad, and reporting that his brother John Osborne Sargent (1811-1891), a lawyer, journalist, and classical scholar, thought it perhaps the best

367

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translation of an author ever made. NYPL-BG. The extract Bryant mentions from John Sargent's letter is unrecovered.

1921.

To S. P. Rosenthal'

Dear sir.

The Evening Post, 41 Nassau Street, cor. Liberty New York, April 1st. 1870.

The translation of the Iliad was my principal literary employment for about five years. Yours respectfully W. C. BRYANT. MANUSCRIPT:

Edwin H. Miller ADDRESS: S. P. Rosenthal Esq.

1. Unidentified. No communication from him has been recovered.

1922. To Leonice M.S. Moulton

Roslyn, Long Island

April 16, 1870

... I have left Julia in New York and am come to this place for the purpose of telling Mr. Cline where to plant two European Alders and a few pear trees. You know how much finer as a tree the European Alder is than our variety which is but a sprawling shrub. I find the season of flowers with blue and white violets, and the daffodils are wagging their yellow heads at my door. Miss Dewey is already returned and is in her house again. The only piece of news relating to Roslyn that I can give you is, that the Revd. Dr. Ely has announced to his people that they must find some younger and so far as health is concerned abler man than himself to fill his pulpit. The Methodists and Episcopalians seem to be gaining somewhat on the Presbyterian church here. Of course, I should have expected you to appear on the skating ground, with the gentry of Geneva, but I am somewhat surprized to learn from you that you did not skate.' You learn every thing so easily that you undertake that I should suppose a few lessons would make you as expert a skater as any Friesland maiden, and then on your return you could have astonished the people of Roslyn by cutting your name on the ice, with your feet. Mr. Ordronaux has executed his translation of the Schola Salernitana quite creditably, and remarkably so if we consider that till lately, he was unused to the rhyming mood. The book is a curious one, and I hope the translator will find that it is not neglected. 2 You may have heard that I have been figuring in translation also. The first volume

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of my translation of the Iliad has been brought out in a rather expensive manner by Fields, Osgood & Company of Boston, and the second is to appear in May, it being nearly through the press. The publishers have promised that there shall be a cheap edition. If I were to have my way I would always begin with the cheap editions. The death of my old friend Mr. Verplanck in his eighty fourth year has called forth a general expression of sorrow for his departure and respect for his memory. He retained his faculties to the last and was active in public employments up to within a day or two of his death. I am to read a paper on his Life &c before the Historical Society. There has been a good deal of attention to things ecclesiastical in New York. Every body talks of the Oecumenical Council sitting at Rome. The Roman Catholics want a part of the School money assigned to them for the purpose of supporting schools under the control of their priests. This has made a great noise. The Romish priests have given public lectures on the subject, and the Protestants have held public meetings to protest energetically against it. The Roman Catholics not only demand a share of the money but they had it last year, and the law which gives it to them annually has not been repealed. Then there are agitation[s] going on relating to a charitable institution called the Sheltering Arms, which takes charge of the friendless babies of very poor and rather bad people, and which has been called the Sisters of St. Mary. The institution was growing popular, and receiving a good deal of money, when the Sisters were confidently charged with being ritualists, and another similar institution was founded, on a low church basis, called the Shepherd's Fold. The sisters of St. Mary, were indignant, scorned to defend themselves, and gave up the care of the babies. So we have plenty to talk about in New York .... 3 MANUSCRIPT: Ridgeley Family Collection TEXT (partial): Hoyt, "Bryant Correspondence" (II), pp. 199-200. I. No letter from Mrs. Moulton to Bryant at this time has been recovered. 2. John Ordronaux (1033.5), Regimen Sanitatis Salernitanum: Code of Health of the School ofSalernum (1870). 3. For an account of this controversy between the "Low Church" and "High Church" parties within the Episcopal diocese of New York, see the New York Times forApril17,1870.

1923. To William Samuel Johnson 1

Dear Sir.

Office of the Evening Post New York April19, 1870.-

Mr. Eigenbrodt2 having suggested that you might not be unwilling to communicate to me your recollections of the early days of the late

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Gulian C. Verplanck, for a memoir which by a vote of the Historical Society I am to read before its members, I venture to address you this note on the subject. I am aware of the liberty I take, but as I find it difficult to obtain information respecting Mr. Verplanck's personal history in early youth, I hope that circumstance will be received as excuse for what I am doing. You will greatly oblige me by giving me any particulars respecting his family his childhood his early studies &c. &c. I should be glad to know by whom he was taught and what were the qualifications of his teachers, what were his youthful habits and any other characteristic particulars. 3 I am sir respectfully yours, W

MANUSCRIPT:

C

BRYANT

YCAL ADDRESs: Hon. W'!' Sam1 Johnson.

1. William Samuel Johnson, a New York lumber merchant and formerly a state senator, was a cousin of Gulian C. Verplanck's. Both were grandsons of William Samuel Johnson (1727-1819), president of Columbia College from 1787 to 1800. 2. Probably Rev. William Ernest Eigenbrogt (1813-1894, Columbia 1831), pastor of several Episcopal churches in New York City, who was secretary of the New York Protestant Episcopal diocesan conventions from 1854 to 1883. 3. No reply to this letter has been found.

1924.

To George P. Putnam

Dear Sir.

The Evening Post, 41 Nassau Street, cor. Liberty, New York, April 29th 1870

I have no objection to the reprinting and stereotyping Mr. Fields Greenhouse Book by you. 1 It cost me a hundred dollars to print it, and I do not see that I shall get back as much as I paid. Mr. Boggs asks why you do not let him put the work in type. 2 Yours truly W. C. BRYANT MANUSCRIPT:

NYPL-BG ADDREss: Geo

P. Putnam Esq.

1. In 1869 Bryant had persuaded Putnam to publish for his English friend Ferdinand E. Field a small book, The Green-House as a Winter Garden, A Manual for the Amateur, With a List of Suitable Plants and Their Mode of Culture (New York, 1869), for which Bryant had written a preface. 2. William G. Boggs (341.2, 708.1), a former partner in the EP, had returned to the newspaper as its advertising manager about 1870. Nevins, Evening Post, p. 431.

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LETI'ERS

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1925. To Edward Robinson, Jr.'

My dear sir

[Roslyn?] May 4, 1870.

I am truly and deeply grieved and I must say shocked also to hear of the death of my excellent friend your mother. 2 I had thought of her as one who would yet have many years of a serene old age, in the land of her birth to which she had returned, amid the affectionate cares of her children. She had however already arrived at that period of life when the diseases that take us off lie in thicker ambush than at an earlier period, and she had contributed her share, and a large one, to the instruction and innocent entertainment of the age in which she lived. I heard of her death the day before I received your letter and had already inserted in the Evening Post the article which I send you. Julia desires the expression of her deep sympathy to you and your sister .... MANUSCRIPT: NYPL-GR (incomplete draft) ADDRESS: To EdW'! Robinson. 1. A son of Bryant's early friends, philologists Edward and Therese A. L. Robinson (399.2). 2. After the death of her husband at New York in 1863, Mrs. Robinson had returned to her native Germany, where she died at Hamburg in 1870. Reporting her death a few days earlier in a letter to Bryant dated April 4 (NYPL-BG), her son said his mother would be buried with her husband in Greenwood Cemetery, Brooklyn, and asked for a few words about her in the EP.

1926. To George Washington Morgan'

My dear sir.

The Evening Post, 41 Nassau Street, cor. Liberty, New York, May 5th 1870

Mr. Jn'.' Somers Smith late our Consul at St. Domingo2 negociated a Commercial Treaty with that Republic after a long series of interviews notes and despatches, such as other men are paid ten and twenty thousand dollars for-a negociation continued from year to year. 3 There is now a bill before Congress the effect of which is to pay him somewhat over two thousand dollars, which considering the labor and expense of time is but a pittance. Allow me to express the hope that this gentleman whom you know to be one of our best consuls and who is in great need will receive something more than this and that you will see that the bill is amended to an extent that will make the compensation reasonable. Indeed I do not see why he should not be

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as well paid as Mr. Townsend Harris, who had ten thousand dollars for negociating a commercial treaty with Japan. 4 I am, sir, very truly yours W. C BRYANT MANUSCRIPT: Western Reserve Historical Society ADDREss: Genl ENDORSED: Answered I May 12, 1870.

Geo. W. Morgan.

1. George Washington Morgan (1820-1893), a veteran officer in the Mexican and Civil Wars, served as a Democratic Congressman from Ohio in 1867-1868 and 1869-1873. 2. Bryant had met Smith when he was the United States consul at Malaga, Spain, in 1857. See 1001.3. 3. Long American efforts to annex the Dominican Republic to the United States resulted in the formulation of a treaty for that purpose negotiated by the Grant administration in 1869; this failed to pass the Senate in June 1870. See Nevins, Fish, I, 249-257, 309-334, 363-371, passim; Thomas A. Bailey, A Diplomatic History of the American People (New York: Appleton-Centry-Crofts [1958]), pp. 382-383. 4. A "path-breaking" commercial treaty with Japan was negotiated in 1858 by Townsend Harris (1804-1878), United States consul-general and subsequently minister-resident to that country, 1855-1860. Ibid., 312-313.

1927. To Messrs. John B. Ford & Co.'

New York, May 7th [1870]

... I have looked over the second set of proofs sent me by you. I do not exactly like the poem "To a Girl on her Thirteenth Year," on account of the bad rhymes, nor am I quite pleased with Praed's "I remember, I remember," printed just after Hood's; it seems to me a little flippant, which is Praed's fault .... 2 MANUSCRIPT: Unrecovered TEXT (partial): Life, II, 294. 1. At some time early in 1870 Bryant contracted to edit and write an introduction for an anthology, The Family Library of Poetry and Song. Being Choice Selections from the

Best Poets, English, Scottish, Irish, and American; Including Translations from the German, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Persian, Latin, Greek, &c . ... (New York: J. B. Ford, 1870).

This collection, which went into a number of editions, and is still in print, was perhaps the most widely read of all Bryant's book publications. See Letter 1935, et. seq. 2. The publishers followed Bryant's recommendation, printing, of the verses mentioned, only Thomas Hood's "I Remember, I Remember I The House Where I Was Born."

1928. To Joseph P. Thompson

Dear Doctor.

Roslyn L. I. May 12, 1870.

I am sorry that I cannot accept your kind invitation, and meet your two guests one of whom I have never seen. I came out here to

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OF

WILLIAM CuLLEN BRYANT

finish a memoir of Verplanck 1 in quiet, and when I go to town on Saturday I have an engagement at the very hour you mention Yours faithfully W. C. BRYANT. MANUSCRIPT: YCAL ADDRESS: ReV'! Dr. Jos. P. Thompson. 1. "Gulian Crommelin Verplanck. A Discourse on His Life, Character and Writings, Delivered before the New York Historical Society, May 17, 1870," in Bryant, Orations and Addresses, pp. [ 197]-258.

1929.

To Daniel C. Gilman

My dear sir.

The Evening Post, 41 Nassau Street, cor. Liberty, New York, May 16 1870

I enclose a cheque for five dollars my dues to the Oriental Society Yours very truly W. C. BRYANT. MANUSCRIPT: )HUL ADDRESS: Prof. D. C. Gilman.

1930.

To Orville Dewey

[New York?] May 20, 1870 .

. . . I went last week with my brother John to Plymouth, where I was admitted to the practice of law fifty-nine years ago. 1 ••• On our return, we stopped at North Bridgewater, where my father and mother were born and there stumbled upon a Bryant, 'a solid' man of North Bridgewater, 2 now called Brockton, who took us to the house where my grandfather, Dr. Philip Bryant, lived, and to the graveyard where he and his wife Silence, lie buried beside my great grand parents. The whole place resounds, rather rattles, with the machinery of shoeshops, which turn out millions of shoes, not one of which, I am told, is sold in the place .... 3 MANUSCRIPT: Unrecovered TEXT (partial): Brockton and Its Centennial; Chief Events as Town and City 1821-1921; The Organization and Story of its One Hundredth Anniversary june 12-18, 1921, ed. Warren P. Landers (Brockton: City of Brockton, Massachusetts, 1921), p. 43. 1. See 33.2. 2. This was apparently Henry L. Bryant, a Brockton business man. Brockton and Its Centennial, loc. cit. 3. This letter, here inadvertently misdated, is printed more fully in Volume VI as Letter 2220.

Literature for a People

1931. To David Creamer 1

My dear sir.

373

The Evening Post, 41 Nassau Street, cor. Liberty, New York, May 27th 1870

I send you today by mail six copies of my little collection of hymns, 2 which I hope will duly reach you. I am glad that you find them not unworthy of the perusal of your friends I am, sir, Yours truly W. C. BRYANT. MANUSCRIPT:

WCL ADDRESS: David Creamer Esq.

l. David Creamer (1812-1887) of Baltimore was a hymnologist whose best known

work was Methodist Hymnology ( 1848), a study of the verses of John and Charles Wesley. 2. See 1437.2.

1932. To Epes Sargent

Dear Mr. Sargent.

New York

May 27, 1870.

The person to whom I referred in my letter to you, 1 as having been benefitted by a winter residence in Minnesota is a man about fifty years of age, who had several attacks of haemoptysis which for the time made him very weak. Immediately after one of them he was obliged to keep his bed. He thought of going to Florida; but I strongly advised him against it for this reason, that he would find there an atmosphere in which were the same irritating constituents as here, and the only advantage he would gain would be a milder temperature which was not the most important. So I sent him to Minnesota, where he would find an air free from any impregnation of a marine quality. He was at St. Paul and for some weeks at another place, the name of which I forget, and returned quite stout, florid and entirely free from any apparent tendency to his old complaint. I have been expecting a relapse, but a whole year has gone by and I heard from him the other day that he was in good health. But your difficulty is not the same as his. I have another case which is in point. Some years ago I met in New York an old acquaintance-a Dr. Spalding2 who told me in a very hoarse voice, that he was settled at Sag Harbor on Long Island where he had a good practice, but that he was about to leave it and go into the interior. He added that the moment he got beyond the Highlands the bronchitis, to which he was subject on the coast, left him, and that he expected to be free

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WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT

from it permanently as soon as he got beyond the influence of the sea

atr.

The Minnesota climate is dry and steady in winter. There is little snow and less rain than here. I do not think it necessary for delicate persons to keep within doors. Faithfully yours. W. C. BRYANT. MANUSCRIPT: UVa ADDRESS: Epes Sargent Esq. 1. Letter 1920. On May 12 Sargent had written again, asking further information about the man Bryant had sent to Minnesota for his health. NYPL-BG. 2. Not further identified.

1933.

To John Ferguson Weir 1

My dear sir.

Roslyn, Long Island May 27th 1870

It is not possible for me to comply with the request with which you have honored me. 2 I am now closely occupied with one or two literary tasks which are to be completed within a certain time and I have no leisure for any thing else. I will not conceal from you, however, the fact, that if I were not so occupied, it would be with great unwillingness that I should go out of town to appear before an audience of entire strangers. I must therefore rely upon your indulgence to excuse me. I am, sir, very truly yours. w. C. BRYANT. MANUSCRIPT: Archives of American Art ADDRESS: Prof. John F. Weir. 1. The artist John Ferguson Weir (1841-1926), a son of Robert W. Weir (279.2, 318.1), taught at Yale University, where, in 1869, he became the first director of the School of Fine Arts. 2. Weir had presumably invited Bryant to address the members of the School of Fine Arts. No letter from him at this time has been recovered.

1934.

To Robert C. Waterston

My dear Mr. Waterston.

The Evening Post, 41 Nassau Street, cor. Liberty, New York, May 31st 1870

I thank you for your farewell letter. 1 It was very kind of you to think of me just as you were setting out for the other side of the world,

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amidst the cares that were on your hands. Your address on the Life and Character of Thomas Sherwin admirably treats a noble subject. 2 How much more worthy of eulogy is one who has passed his life in self denying labors for the good of his race, than one who has employed himself only in heaping up wealth, with a miserly indifference to the thousand calls daily made on his benevolence, in order that he may bestow it, in ostentatious donations, upon showy charities, towards the end of his life, and secure a grand public funeral. You know to what I allude. 3 Again let me say that I am delighted with your address. I mailed two or three days since to you at the Cosmopolitan Hotel a copy of my Address on the Life Character and Writings of Verplanck. Remember me with many expressions of warm regard to Mrs. Waterston and believe me Ever yours, W. C. BRYANT. MANUSCRIPT:

MHS

ADDRESS:

Revd R. C. Waterson.

1. Unrecovered. 2. Robert Waterston, Address on the Life of Thomas Sherwin (1870). Sherwin (17991869, Harvard 1825), principal (1837-1869) of the English High School in Boston, which he made the leading public high school in the country, was also a founder of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 3. It is uncertain to whose "ostentatious" philanthropy Bryant here refers.

1935. To Messrs. John B. Ford & Co.

Roslyn, June 2d [1870]

.. I send back the proofs with a suggestion that the poem of Mrs. Browning over which I have passed my pencil be omitted. It is one of her crudest, in expression and versification; the ideas seem to me inadequately expressed, on account of the difficulty presented by the rhyme. 1 I would suggest that more of the poems of Jones Very be inserted.2 I think them quite remarkable. There is also an American poet of whom no notice is taken, and who is one of our best, Richard H. Dana. His poems, "The Husband and Wife's Grave," "The Pleasure Boat," and the concluding lines of "Thoughts on the Soul," deserve insertion in any compilation. 3 P.S.-Do not, I pray you, forget Thomson's "Castle of Indolence," the first canto of which is one of the most magnificent things in the language, and altogether free from the faults of style which deform Thomson's blank verse. 4 Second Postscript.-In the department of religion is a cluster of

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hymns addressed to Jesus Christ as Supreme God, some of which are not remarkable as poems, yet I hesitated to strike out any save, I think, one. Please look at them, and see if any of them might be omitted. I send a copy of my Hymns, and would suggest the insertion of those which I have marked-two of them .... 5 MANUSCRIPT: Unrecovered TEXT (partial): Life, II, 294. I. The Browning poem is unidentified. 2. The publishers printed three sonnets by Jones Very (I8I3-I880, Harvard I836) in A Library of Poetry and Song. Bryant had included six by this American mystic poet in his Selections from the American Poets ( I840). See 390.1. 3. These poems of Dana's were printed. 4. This work by James Thomson (I700-I748) was published in the year of his death. It was not included in the anthology. 5. These were "Blessed Are They That Mourn," and "Thou Hast Put All Things under His Feet," numbers V and XIX, respectively, in Bryant's Hymns (I864).

1936.

To Messrs. John B. Ford & Co.

Roslyn, June 6th [1870]

I send you the poems relating to war, looked over. I have put among them a poem of mine entitled "My Autumn Walk," and I would suggest that a part of the last canto of Southey's "Roderick, the last of the Goths," be added, beginning with the line"With that he fell upon the old man's neck," and ending with the line"Scattering where'er they turned the affrighted ranks." I send also some extracts from Dana's poems. That entitled "The Soul" might go under the head of "Religion"; "The Husband and Wife's Grave" under that of "Death"; and "The Pleasure Boat" somewhere else .... 1 MANUSCRIPT: Unrecovered TEXT (partial): Life, II, 295.

I. Each of the poems listed was inserted.

1937. To Charles Nordhoff

My dear sir.

Roslyn, June 6th

1870.

By all means General Grant should be admonished, with all plainness, that the country expects better things of him than to join the confederacy of the millionaires because Mr. Boutwell has done so.

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He owes it not only to the country but to the Republican party which elected him not to make that party responsible for what the protectionists are plotting to do. 1 I think you may be as severe in this case as personal respect will allow Yours truly W. C. BRYANT. MANUSCRIPT:

LC ADDREss: Ch. Nordhoff Esq.

1. "The hostility which Grant and Boutwell [see 1903.1] manifested toward tariff reform cost the Administration ... much popularity among thoughtful people .... A bill, carefully constructed to lessen public complaint and yet to maintain and even enhance tariff rates wherever important special interests demanded them, emerged in the winter of 1869-70 with Administration backing .... It was fought ... 'inch by inch, step by step, line by line,' ... while such organs as Harper's Weekly, the Springfield Republican, the Nation, and Bryant's Post were filled with low-tariff editorials. Nevertheless, early in 1870 the bill passed." Nevins, Fish, I, 288-289.

1938. To Theodore Weston 1

My dear sir.

The Evening Post, 41 Nassau Street, cor. Liberty, New York, June 7th 1870

I quite agree with you that the public would be more apt to contribute to the building intended for the Museum of Art if the Officers and Trustees were to set the example. 2 Will you put me down as a subscriber to the amount of one thousand dollars? I am, sir, truly yours W. C. BRYANT. MANUSCRIPT:

Metropolitan Museum of Art ADDRESS: Theodore Weston Esq.

1. Theodore Weston was the first recording secretary of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Leo Lerman, The Museum; One Hundred Years and the Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York: Viking [1969]), pp. 16 [27]. 2. See 1893.1.

1939. To James T. Fields

Dear Mr. Fields.

New York June 10, 1870.

It is very kind of you to write to me with your own hand when you find the task of writing so difficult, and when your only object is to encourage me in my literary labors. 1 I have already begun on the Odyssey, but I fear it will be a longer task than the translation of the

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Iliad, and perhaps will never be finished. Indeed, I have laid it aside for the time in order to attend to some other matters which I have in hand. I heard, yesterday, that Mr. Longfellow, who has spoken most kindly of my translation, had said that he wished I had chosen the hexameter in stead of blank verse. 2 I should like, for my part, to read the Iliad in such lines as those of his Evangeline, but I do not think that English readers in general would have liked my hexameters so well as my blank verse. I am, dear sir, very truly yours, W. C. BRYANT. MANUSCRIPT: MHS ADDRESS: James T. Fields Esq. 1. Fields' letter is unrecovered. 2. The occasion for Longfellow's remark has not been determined. Parke Godwin commented (Life, II, 287), "Mr. Longfellow was especially kind, but his note has been mislaid." The first volume of the Iliad was published in February 1870, the second in June. Life, II [284].

1940.

To John Howard Raymond 1

Dear Sir.

The Evening Post, 41 Nassau Street, cor. Liberty, New York, June lOth. 1870

This note will be presented to you by Miss Emily S. Richards, daughter of James B. Richards Esq. of this city, 2 who is well known as having been a successful teacher of Idiots. She is desirous of entering your college, and her father wishes so far as may be to avail himself of the pecuniary aids which are provided for pupils whose circumstances do not permit them to sustain the whole expense of education in your institution. The young lady is a person of good promise, addicted to study, and a proficient in all the branches of education to which she has applied herself. Allow me to express the hope that it will not be found difficult to make the arrangement which she and her father desire. I am, sir, very respectfully yours, W. C. BRYANT. MANUSCRIPT: Vassar College Library ADDREss: To the Hon. John H. Raymond I President of Vassar College. 1. John Howard Raymond (1814-1878, Union 1832, Madison [later Colgate] University Seminary 1838), the first president of Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute from 1855 to 1864, was thereafter the first president of Vassar College.

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2. Emily Symmes Richards (b. 1853), daughter of James Bandwell Richards and Mary W. Symmes Richards, was admitted to Vassar in 1870 and graduated in 1876. She was afterwards a teacher in Pennsylvania and the head of a girls' school in California. It is uncertain to what extent Bryant was acquainted with her family. Information from Alumnae House, Vassar College.

1941.

To Messrs. John B. Ford & Co.

New York, June 13th [1870].

... Under the head of "Personal" in the book, I think it would be well to insert the "Epistle of Pope"-one of his very finest things-"to [Robert] Earl of Oxford," with a copy of [Parnell's] poems. 1 ••• MANUSCRIPT:

Unrecovered

TEXT

(partial): Life, II, 295.

1. The printed text mistakenly has"' ... to Harley, Earl of Oxford,' with a copy of Powell's poems .... "Alexander Pope wrote this "Epistle to Robert Earl of Oxford and Mortimer" in 1721, prefixed to the volume of poems by his friend Thomas Parnell (1679-1718), an Irish graduate of Trinity College, Dublin, which he had published after Parnell's death. Robert Harley, first Earl of Oxford (1661-1724), a statesman, was a friend of both Pope and Jonathan Swift. This poem, as Bryant suggested, was printed in A Library of Poetry and Song.

1942. To Messrs. John B. Ford & Co.

Roslyn, June 17th [1870]

I have made more suggestions for the omission of poems in the humorous department than in any other, several of them being deficient in the requisite literary merit. As to the convivial poems, the more I think of it the more I am inclined to advise their total omission. I think they will prejudice the success of the work. I send them all back .... 1 MANUSCRIPT:

Unrecovered

TEXT

(partial): Life, II, 295.

1. Although A Library of Poetry and Song contains a section of verses titled "Temperance and Labor," which includes several verses condemning "The Intoxicating Cup," there are no detectable drinking songs.

1943. To Richard H. Dana

Dear Dana.

Roslyn, Long Island. June 20th. 1870.-

I thank you for your very welcome letter, 1 and am only sorry that you should have thought it necessary to write it before your hand was entirely healed. If you had found fault with my translation of Homer

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generally, I should have concluded that I ought never to have meddled with him. I hoped you might at some time or other write to me about my translation but I was in no hurry. I know that you had your cares and sorrows and did not expect you to take up my book till you could do it as a matter of choice and out of some curiosity to see how your old friend had performed his task. I am glad that having taken it up you found yourself able to go on with it, and you can hardly think how pleased I am that you have found occasion to speak so well of it. Meantime the work I find takes very well with the public. It is commended in quarters where my original poems are, I suspect, not much thought of-and I sometimes fancy that possibly it is thought that I am more successful as a translator than in any thing else, which you know is not the highest praise. I did not, however, find the work of rendering Homer into our blank verse very fatiguing, and perhaps it was the most suitable literary occupation for an old man like me, who feels the necessity of being busy about something and yet does not like hard work. I do not wonder that after the late distress in your household you should be long in recovering your usual composure of mind, nor that it should have affected your health. 2 For the rest of your life I hope you will be spared all such trials. Please to bring me to the kind remembrance of your daughter and sister .... 3 MANUSCRIPT: NYPL-GR ADDRESS: R. H. Dana Esq. PUBLISHED (in part): Life, II, 287. 1. Unrecovered.

2. The nature of this "late distress" is uncertain; it seems unlikely that Bryant

referred to the death of Dana's son Edmund more than a year earlier. See 1861.1. 3. The complimentary close and signature have been cut from this letter.

1944.

To Messrs. John B. Ford & Co.

Roslyn, June 23d [1870).

.. I think "Alectryon" a very beautiful poem. It is rather long, but that would not prevent me from advising its insertion in the collection, if I was quite sure that it was suitable for a book with the title of the one you are getting out, but I am not. 1 "The Old Admiral" should go in under the head of "Patriotism," I think, or better under that of "Personal." "The Cavalry Song" will do well under "Peace and War," or "Patriotism," as you please, or as is convenient. The "Door Step" is a poem of "Love," but it is pretty enough for anywhere. "Pan in Wall Street" would shine among the humorous poems. In the "Blameless Prince" is a fine poem entitled "What the Winds Bring," which would

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answer for the department of "Childhood," but could go under that of "Nature," as "Betrothed Anew," which properly belongs to the head of "Marriage," but would do for "Nature" also. 2 As for Simms, I would suggest "The Grape-Vine Swing," "The Mother and Child," "Come when the Evening Closes," and "The Shaded Water. " 3 P.S.-Retain the poem of Emerson, if there is any particular reason in your mind for it. I marked it to be omitted, because I thought the idea imperfectly expressed, and would rather have had it in Emerson's prose. 4 There is a poem of Holmes's about Rip Van Winkle, Jr., in the "Boston Medical Gazette," which would do for the humorous department .... 5 MANUSCRIPT:

Unrecovered TEXT (partial): Life, II, 295-296.

1. This poem, by the Greek poet Lucian (cA.D. 120) was not printed in A Library

of Poetry and Song.

2. Of these six poems by the New York stockbroker, critic, and poet Edmund Clarence Stedman (1833-1908), all except "Pan in Wall Street" (1867) were printed. The Blameless Prince (1869) was a collection of Stedman's verses. 3. Of these poems by William Gilmore Simms, the first, second, and fourth were printed; the third was not. 4. Godwin (Life, II, 296n.) suggests that this poem of Ralph Waldo Emerson's was "Brahma" (1856), "which Mr. Bryant once travestied in his journal." It was, however, printed in A Library of Poetry and Song. 5. Oliver Wendell Holmes delivered this jeu d'esprit, titled "Rip Van Winkle, M.D." at a dinner of the Massachusetts Medical Society on May 25, 1870. It apparently did not appeal to the publishers of Bryant's anthology, where it did not appear.

1945. To John H. Goudie

Dear Mr. Goudie,

Roslyn, Long Island, June 27th, 1870.-

I thank you for what you are so kind as to say of my translation of the Iliad. It is a comfort to be told after such a long labor that I have not failed in what I intended. I intended, if I had the power, to make a translation which it would not be a labor to read. I did not make it for those who are familiar with the original; for they have no occasion for it, being already in possession of something better, but I undertook it for the sake of English readers and if I had not thought that I could give them a more satisfactory version than any of the previous ones I never would have engaged in it. As for Voss's translation,1 I admit that it is closer to the original than mine. It is made by an author who was not without reputation in his time as a poet, who was much more learned than I can pretend to be, and who took

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infinitely more pains, I am sure, with the translation than I have done. This you might naturally infer from his being a German. But I have heard some of his countrymen complain of his version as stiff and constrained in the expression. I must say that I do not see that-but it may be so notwithstanding. It requires a very familiar and thorough knowledge of a language to judge of the merit of its poetry. As for the Odyssey, I have made a small beginning, but whether I ever shall finish it, who knows? I do not mean to work very hard at it, at all events. At my time of life one should be careful not to overwork himself. Your Ode to the Ocean read very wel}.2 I did not tamper with it much-and only made one or two slight changes, which I was quite sure you would have made if the reasons for them had been suggested to you. I am glad you find your sojourn at Stockbridge so pleasant this summer. I may possibly pass through the place on my way to Cummington, but do not think of stopping there. At present, however we have not fixed the time of going to Massachusetts nor settled how long we are to stay. We expect the two younger daughters of Mr. Leupp 3 to pass a little time with us here before we migrate. I am glad that you get rain enough at Stockbridge to keep the fields in verdure; here we are suffering from drought. I am glad while writing to hear the thunder rolling in the distance with the promise of a shower. Please recall me to the kind remembrance of your sisters and believe me truly yours W. C. BRYANT. MANUSCRIPT: Collection of Edith C. Gourlie ADDREss: John H. Gourlie Esq. PUBLISHED (in part): Life, II, 292. 1. The German scholar Johann Heinrich Voss (1751-1826) translated Homer (1793), as well as Vergil and other Latin writers, and Shakespeare (1818-1829), into the German language. 2. This poem, if printed in the EP, has not been located therein. 3. It is uncertain which of the three daughters of Charles M. Leupp (421.1, 487.1)-Margaret, Isabella, and Laura-these were, since their birth dates are uncertain. See James T. Callow, "American Art in the Collection of Charles M. Leupp, The Magazine Antiques (November 1980), pp. 1004, 1008-1009.

1946. To John Howard Bryant

[New York?] July 1 [1870]

... I have begun the translation of the Odyssey, but I do not intend to hurry the task, nor even to translate with as much diligence as I

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translated the Iliad; so I may never finish it. But it will give me an occupation which will not be an irksome one, and will furnish me with a reason for declining other literary tasks, and a hundred engagements which I want some excuse besides old age for declining .... 1 MANUSCRIPT:

Unrecovered

TEXT

(partial): Life, II, 296.

I. Bryant's The Odyssey of Homer. Translated into English Blank Verse was completed in August 1871, and published that year by James R. Osgood.

1947. To Andrew Dickson White 1

Dear Sir.

The Evening Post, 41 Nassau Street, cor. Liberty, New York, July 1st. 1870.

Mr. Francis Muench now the principal of the German-American Public School at Binghamton, being as he informs me a candidate for the professorship of the German language in the Cornell University has desired me to say something of the merit of his literary productions. What I know of them is this. Some years since he sent me some translations of my poems made by him, which seemed to me very good-that is to say both faithful and not [without?)2 that appearance of freedom which is requisite to make poetical translations agreeable. I know that it is not easy to judge of the merit of verses written in a foreign language, and I submitted the manuscript to a German literary friend, who spoke very favorably if them. This is all that I can say, and need not add the expression of a hope that such testimonials as shall be presented by Mr. Muench to the Trustees of the University will receive due attention. 3 I am, sir, very respectfully yours, w. C. BRYANT. MANUSCRIPT:

Cornell University Library.

I. Andrew Dickson White (1832-1918, Yale 1853), an historian and New York State legislator, was a founder and the first president of Cornell University, 18681885. 2. Word omitted. 3. The records of the Cornell University Archives indicate that Muench was not given this appointment.

1948.

To Christiana Gibson

My dear Miss Gibson.

Roslyn, Long Island July 11th, 1870.

I believe that I owe you for several letters, and partly to pay off the debt, and partly to show that here in Roslyn we do not forget

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"Auld Land Syne," I answer your last, 1 although I have little to tell you. I am sorry that the air of Scotland which has always been so kind to me, when I breathe it, should be so unfriendly to you, and that you should be obliged, from time to time, to run away from your grand mountains and glorious valleys. Ah, if you could but try for a little while the breath of our climate! The winter before last, I sent a friend and his wife, who is a niece of mine, to Minnesota-for their healthfor his more than hers, and they came back in robust health-he quite cured of a spitting of blood which had recurred occasionally for two or three years, and had brought him very low. They passed but one winter at the west, and this last winter he had no return of the old symptoms though I was almost sure that he would have, and the apparent perfect recovery, from one sojourn of six months, is more than I expected. The midland air of our continent is wonderfully healing in all distempers of the breathing apparatus. I am glad to hear so good an account of your mother's health, and hope her native air will prolong her days through many a genial summer and cheerful winter to come. Before this time you will have had Miss Leclerc with you, from whom we had a most charming visit at Roslyn just before she sailed. I hope she will lay in, while on your side of the water, a good stock of old world health. Certainly, I read Crabb Robinson's Diary; 2 I could not help reading it when I had once begun it-though I was always wishing that he had given us more particular notes of what his eminent friends said at the calls he was always making at their houses, and the dinners he was always eating at their tables. I knew him. In 1845 I passed a day with him and Edwin Field at a village on the Thames-Wanley, I think, or some such name, and dined at Medmenham Abbey, an hotel on the other side of the river. I do not wonder that he was invited every where, for he was one of the best talkers I ever heard speak. He related one or two of the anecdotes which I find in his book, and more interestingly than he has written them down. 3 Julia and myself sympathize with you and your family in your sorrow for the death of your young relatives. Perhaps, when the flower is taken up so early, it reaches sooner its perfection in the more genial soil to which it is transplanted. Fanny has got her two youngest children home from Switzerland. Fanny the youngest daughter, is a tall girl, taller then Minna, with quiet and gentler manners. Harold is also quite well-behaved. Bryant, the elder boy, has just finished his scientific course at Cambridge [Massachusetts], and will set up for a civil engineer. The house which Mrs. Godwin has been so busy in remodelling here at Roslyn, is now nearly finished and is the most picturesque building in these parts.

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The family are already in one part of it, while the workmen are hammering in another. 4 For ourselves, we shall leave this place on the twentieth of the month, God willing, for Cummington. I am almost unwilling to go, on account of my pear trees and some other fruit trees, which promise an abundant supply of fruit and I should be glad to observe the ripening of the many varieties on my grounds. I am glad you can speak kindly of my discourse on Verplanck. I found it a more interesting subject than I thought it could possibly be, when, somewhat unwillingly-yet urged to it by an old friendship, I complied with the request of the Historical Society to undertake it. 5 Please thank your sister in my name for her endeavor to procure the insertion of a notice of my translation of Homer in the Scotsman; I am proud to know that she thought it worth the trouble. I have seen no notice of it, beyond one mere mention, in any periodical on your side of the water. I could not wish a more cordial reception than it has met with here. Best regards to Mrs. Gibson and your sisters and all the kindred and believe me as ever cordially yours, W. C. BRYANT. P.S. Julia desires her best love to you all. While I am writing, she is taking a salt water bath at the bottom of the garden with Isabella Leupp. W. C. B. NYPL-BPMP ADDRESS: Miss Christiana Gibson July 11. I 1870.

MANUSCRIPT:

ant -

DOCKETED:

Mr. Bry-

1. Letter unrecovered. 2. Henry Crabb Robinson, Diary, Reminiscences and Correspondence (1869). 3. See Letter 545. Bryant here mistakenly wrote "Mendelham Abbey." 4. For a description of this remodeling of the Godwin home, Montrose, see Goddard, Roslyn Harbor, p. 89. 5. See 1928.1.

1949. To Charles Henry Hart 1

Dear Sir,

Roslyn, Long Island July 12th 1870.

When I received your biographical sketch of Mr. Lincoln I was quite too busy to read it-but I have since had more leisure and am glad to learn many facts from you respecting his origin and early fortunes which I was before ignorant of. In answer to your inquiry what I "think of it as a plain historical narrative," I would say that while I am not sufficiently versed in the events of Mr. Lincoln's life to

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criticize the accuracy of your sketch I find it minute beyond any thing which I have before seen, and interesting throughout. I am sir yours truly w. C. BRYANT. MANUSCRIPTS: HEHL (final); CU (draft) ADDRESS: Ch. H. Hart Esq. 1. Charles Henry Hart of Philadelphia (1847-1918, University of Pennsylvania 1869) was a precocious art historian and bibliophile. His A Biog;raphical Sketch of His Excellency Abraham Lincoln, Late President of the United States was published at Albany in 1870.

1950.

To John Howard Bryant

Dear Brother,

The Evening Post, 41 Nassau Street, cor. Liberty, New York, July 15, 1870

You have not written to let us know whether we may expect you at Cummington and at what time. I got a letter from you the other day, 1 but it was written before you received my invitation. So at least I infer. Please let me know what time we shall probably see you. I set out on the 20th. Yours affectionately, w. C. BRYANT MANUSCRIPT: Mildred Bryant Kussmaul ADDRESS: John H. Bryant Esq. 1. Letter unrecovered.

1951.

To Paul Hamilton Hayne 1

Dear Sir.

The Evening Post, 41 Nassau Street, cor. Liberty, New York, July 20 1870

When I was in town last I wrote you a very hasty note concerning Mr. Simms. 2 I neglected to answer your inquiry concerning Mr. Thompson. He is here yet and is a valuable associate in the paper. 3 I neglected also to say that I was glad that you were to bear testimony to Mr. Simms's merits as an author and a man .... 4 MANUSCRIPT: (incomplete): DuU. 1. Paul Hamilton Hayne (1830-1886), a poet, was a member of the Charleston, South Carolina, literary group which included William G. Simms and Henry Timrod (1828-1867).

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2. Simms had died on June 11, 1870, probably of cancer, only a few months after reopening an earlier correspondence with Bryant. See Simms to Bryant, March 2, and April 9, 1870, NYPL-BG. Bryant's "hasty note" to Hayne is unrecovered. 3. In 1867, or early in 1868, Simms had recommended to Bryant John Reuben Thompson (1823-1873), editor for many years before the Civil War of the Southern Literary Messenger, and from May 1868 until his death Thompson served as literary editor of the EP. Nevins, Evening Post, p. 407. 4. The balance of this letter is missing.

1952. To Charles Sumner

Dear Mr. Sumner.

Cummington August 1, 1870.

Mr. Briggs' writes me from New York that you had some thoughts of coming to see me at this place. You could not do a kinder thing. Take the train at Boston, at half past eight in the morning, for Hinsdale, by way of Springfield. You will reach Hinsdale at six minutes past two in the afternoon, and at Goodrich's Livery Stable, a conveyance may be obtained to bring you to my place on Cummington Hill. Or, by taking the train at Springfield for Northampton, you may, after the delay of an hour, proceed by rail to Williamsburg, where you will find, at Williams's Livery Stable, the means of getting to this place. Both Hinsdale and Williamsburg are at the distance of twelve miles from Cummington Hill. Yours very truly. W. C. BRYANT. P.S. I shall be at this place pretty certainly for the next fortnight. I may then possibly take a trip to New York of a few days, but that is not fixed. If you would write to me and let me know when I may expect you, you will oblige me, and I will be certain to be here. 2 W.C.B. MANUSCRIPT:

HCL ADDREss: Hon. Chas. Sumner.

I. Probably Charles Frederick Briggs (1804-1877), a New York journalist and writer of tales. His letter is unrecovered. 2. Sumner replied from Boston on August 8 that he expected to leave for Hinsdale and Cummington on Wednesday [August 10], returning on Friday [August 12]. NYPL-BG. That he visited Bryant at this time is confirmed in a letter Sumner wrote to Timothy Howe on August 28, 1870. Information from Beverly Wilson Palmer, editor of Sumner's letters.

1953.

To Richard Grant White'

My dear sir.

Cummington Massachusetts. August 5th. 1870.

I am sorry that the circumstances to which you refer should have caused you any embarrassment. I should have been proud of the

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WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT

dedication of your book, 2 but a more deserving person receives the honor in my stead. When I fail to get a good seat at a lecture, or oration, or place of public amusement, I always console myself with the reflection that a better man than myself probably has it. Your reasons for dedicating the book to Mr. Lowell are peremptory, 3 and it is enough for me that you at one time paid me the compliment of thinking of me. I am, dear sir, truly yours. W. C. BRYANT. MANUSCRIPT: NYHS ADDREss: R. G. White Esq. 1. Richard Grant White (1821-1885, New York University 1839), an author and music critic who also edited The Works of William Shakespeare (1857-1866). 2. Probably Words and Their Uses Past and Present; A Study of the English Language (Boston, cl870). 3. It is uncertain whether Words and Their Uses was dedicated to James Russell Lowell; White's "peremptory reasons" for such a dedication are unknown, since no letter from him on the subject has been recovered.

1954.

To Richard H. Dana

Dear Dana.

Cummington Massachusetts. August 11, 1870.

You are quite right in regard to the alteration of the word "pierce" to the word "traverse" in my poem of Thanatopsis. I must have the original word restored. But in regard to the change made in the "Waterfowl" in which the line now stands "As darkly seen against the crimson sky," instead of ["]As darkly painted on the crimson sky["] please read what I have to say in excuse. 1 I was never satisfied with the word "painted" because the next line is "Thy figure floats along.["] Now from a very early period-! am not sure that it was not from the very time that I wrote the poem there seemed to me an incongruity between the idea of a figure painted on the sky and a figure moving "floating" across its face. If the figure were painted then it would be fixed. The incongruity distracted me, and I could not be easy until I

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had made the change. I preferred a plain prosaic expression to a picturesque one which seemed to me false. "Painted" expresses well the depth and strength of color which fixed my attention when I saw the bird-for the poem was founded on a real incident-but it contradicted the motion of the winds and the progress of the bird through the air. So you have my defense. You are quite right in regard to the state of mind in which the author should put himself when he corrects his verses. I have given, in a little poem of mine called "The Poet" the same precept which you give me. 2 I am obliged to you for the trouble you have taken in going through my translation. I have amended for a second edition a fault or two pointed out in one of your previous letters. Your son has done well to give himself a vacation and a sea voyage. He is an example of the truth of the saying that a lawyer has either too little business or too much. There is a wonderful efficacy in a sea voyage to repair constitutions that have suffered from either over work of the brain or from habits of any kind that have impaired the digestion. He will come back another man. I have made half a dozen voyages to Europe, and never without finding my health improved.3 It is true that two or three years since I did translate a Spanish story written by Mrs. Carolina Coronado de Perry, the wife of Mr. Perry formerly our Charge at Madrid. The story was entitled Jarilla and I made the translation for Mr. Bonner of the New York Ledger who paid me for it liberally and published it in his paper. I have been here just three weeks running away from the hot and damp air of the neighborhood of New York. Here it is comparatively cool, and I am making leisurely progress with the Odyssey. Julia sends her love to you all. Remember me kindly to your daughter and sister and believe me Yours ever W. C. BRYANT. MANUSCRIPT:

289.

NYPL-GR

ADDRESS:

R. H. Dana Esq.

PUBLISHED

(in part): Life, II, 288-

1. Dana had written Bryant on August 3 (Life, II, 287-288), "I must scold a little, that, notwithstanding the warning Wordsworth should have been to you, you have in cold blood turned critic upon your printed works, the control of which was gone when you handed them over to the public." He had heard of changes Bryant had made in the wording of "Thanatopsis" and "To a Waterfowl" in the latest (1871) edition of his poems, which he thought weakened their imagery. In the final edition which passed under his review, Poems (1876), Bryant restored the earlier reading in lines 50--51 of the first poem," ... Take the wings I Of morning, pierce the Barcan wilderness," but

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in the second, in lines 7-8, he maintained his revision, "As, darkly seen against the crimson sky I Thy figure floats along." !tal. supplied; see Poems (1876), pp. 22, 29. 2. In "The Poet" (1863), lines 25-28: ... should thy verse appear, Halting and harsh, and all unaptly wrought, Touch the crude line with fear, Save in the moment of impassioned thought. ... Poems (1876), p. 435. 3. It does not appear that Richard Dana, Jr., visited Europe between 1866 and 1878.

1955.

To Josiah Gilbert Holland 1

My dear sir.

Cummington, Massachusetts. September 4th. 1870.

I regret that I cannot comply with the request which you have made in such kind terms-that I should send you a poem for your magazine. 2 I am quite busy, translating the Odyssey, and if I were not, I am somewhat dependent upon the mood of the moment for the ability to compose any thing in verse with which I am at all satisfiedand I have nothing already written. I reciprocate the hope that we may sometime or other meet. I shall be delighted to take by the hand one whose genius I have always admired. I am sir very truly yours. W. C. BRYANT. MANUSCRIPT: UVa ADDRESS: Dr.

J. G.

Holland.

I. Josiah Gilbert Holland (1819-1881) gave up the practice of medicine to become associate editor in 1850 of the Springfield, Massachusetts, Republican, an old and distinguished daily journal edited and principally owned by Samuel Bowles (1826-1878). 2. On September I Holland had asked Bryant to contribute a poem to the first number of a new magazine, Scribner's Monthly, for which he said it would be a "good omen." NYPL-BG. Holland edited this periodical from 1870 until just before his death. Bryant's single contribution to Scribner's seems to have been the best known poem of his later life, "The Flood of Years," in July 1876.

1956.

To Stephen C. Massett 1

My dear Mr. Massett.

Cummington, Massachusetts, September 19th. 1870.

I thank you for your note and the extract it contains from the Chicago Times, which is not over-accurate. 2 Mr. Cooper used to say,

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that nine newspaper paragraphs out of ten are more or less lies. I have, it is true, a place at Cummington, and in Cummington I was born. I came to this region, a highland country, for the sake of coolness, and linger here still, engaged in putting the Odyssey into English blank verse. My grandfather built the house I am in, and I have enlarged and improved it somewhat. How much the improvements cost, the writer of the paragraph could not know, for I do not. It is more than an hour's ride from Northampton, for it is twenty miles distant, and all the way up-hill. I doubt whether you could get an audience in this thinly inhabited region. Sidney Smith once dated a letter "ten miles from a lemon." I might date this "twenty miles from a lemon"-for we are obliged to send all the way to Northampton for every thing of that nature. Your verses do you credit, and I will post 'em as soon as I get to town again, 3 which will be ere long. Mean time, in answer to your kind inquiry, I have to say that I am in excellent health. Yours very truly W. C. BRYANT. MANUSCRIPT:

NYHS

ADDRESS:

Stephen Massett Esq.

1. See 1420.1. 2. Neither note nor extract has been recovered. 3. These verses have not been located.

1957. To Julia S. Bryant

Dear Julia.

Roslyn L. I. October 7th. 1870

I had a rather pleasantjourney to New York yesterday, and found every thing right at the house in Sixteenth Street. Miss Leclerc 1 called in the Evening. She was looking quite well and said she had laid up a stock of health in France for the coming winter. She was greatly distressed for the country people and came to speak about a fair for the French wounded and famished which you will see in todays Evening Post. 2 Miss Sands goes next Thursday wind and weather permitting. Today I have found every thing right at the Office of the Evening Post. My brother came to town to look at the Chicago papers. 3 Coming out to Roslyn I find every thing right here also, and Sprite4 very glad to see me. Fanny and her husband and Annie and the younger Fanny came over to see us. Mrs. Voorhies5 has been with them on a visit and left them this morning. There is nothing of any consequence to relate in regard to this neighborhood except that there

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is a rumor which may or may not be true that Charles Nostrand has bought out Simonson and will keep shop at Candee's old place. 6 Next Tuesday the Presbytery will meet at Roslyn. Mr. Cline is to furnish quarters for the minister from Huntington and I am in terror lest Dr. Ely may come and ask me to lodge some other one of the cloth. Kind regards to all. Yours affectionately W. C. BRYANT. MANUSCRIPT: NYPL-GR ADDREss: Miss Julia Bryant. 1. A French teacher; see 798.2. 2. "Relief for the Famishing in France," EP, October 7, 1870. Miss Leclerc, of 10 Grammercy Park, appealed, with other French ladies, for contributions to a bazaar to be held at the end of the month for the benefit of French wounded and needy. 3. Probably John. 4. Bryant's dog. 5. Probably Margaret Sinclair Voorhies, sister of the former Mrs. Edwin Forrest; see 665.6. 6. For Candee, see Letter 505. Locations for the properties of C. P. Nostrand are shown on Roslyn maps in Goddard, Roslyn Harbor, pp. [21, 104].

1958. To Messrs. Fields Osgood & Co.

Gentlemen.

The Evening Post, 41 Nassau Street, cor. Liberty, New York, Oct 26. 1870

Will you oblige me by sending me by Express as soon as you receive this eight copies of my translation of the Iliad-the first volume of which I suppose is out by this time. If not please send only one copy. I want it immediately for the French fair. Yours very truly W. C. BRYANT. MANUSCRIPT: Edwin H. Miller ADDRESS: Messrs. Fields Osgood & Co.

1959. To D. P. Secor 1

Roslyn, November 1, 1870 .

. . . The best edition of my poems is the duodecimo edition in three volumes, published by D. Appleton & Co. of New York. There is also a small edition by the same publisher in a single 18mo volume .... There is besides my Translation of the Iliad in two large volumes, an

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expensive edition, published by Fields, Osgood & Co. of Boston. There is to be a smaller and cheaper edition as soon [as] I can persuade the publisher to put it in press .... MANUSCRIPT:

Unrecovered TEXT (partial): Robert F. Batchelder Catalogue 34 [1981?].

1. Unidentified.

1960. To Alice Dudley 1

Dear Madam.

Roslyn, Long Island November 10. 1870.

I answer your note 2 by saying that, at present, the number of correspondents who write for the Evening Post, is considerable, and the journal has but little spare room. Still, when an interesting letter comes, we make room for it, but it must be of a kind that suits our purpose-that is, it must contain what is new, for the Evening Post is a news paper, and in this it differs from the weekly literary journals and from the monthlies. What we want of a correspondent is not reflections nor poetry, which are very proper for periodicals of another class, but information-information concerning places and events-in short something which will inform people of what they did not know or did not know so fully before. If you have any thing of this kind to communicate in a letter, it will be received, if it be well done, and if it be not rendered superfluous by other letters or accounts which we have already published. All the letters which are received at the office of the Evening Post, intended for publication, go into the hands of Mr. Charles Nordhoff, who reads them and decides whether they are wanted or not. I cannot read them-I am an old man, and the state of my eyes does not allow it. If the letters are received and printed they are paid for; if Mr. Nordhoff declines them they are not paid for. If you choose to try your fortune in writing letters to the Evening Post, keeping in mind the conditions of which I have spoken, and will send them to the Evening Post at New York Mr. Nordhoff will look them over and see whether they answer our purpose. Very respectfully yours, W. C. BRYANT. MANUSCRIPT:

Chicago Historical Society ADDRESS: Miss Alice Dudley.

1. Unidentified. 2. Unrecovered.

394

1961.

LETTERS

OF

WILLIAM CuLLEN BRYANT

To Frederick Augustus Porter Barnard 1

Dear Sir.

Roslyn, Long Island November 19, 1870.

I was like you called on by the book agent for the publication of the work entitled "Men of Progress." 2 He wanted a great many things of me, but finally limited them to subscription for a few copies, which I gave him, principally on account of the respectable literary names which he gave as those of the Editors. The moment he left me, I suspected that I had been fooled, and have been vexed with myself ever since. I have reason to believe that the accounts of the "Men of Progress" in the book, will not be well done-and that the persons mentioned as editors, have, in fact nothing to do with the work, except perhaps in the way that I was caught. I cannot therefore, quite clear myself from being mixed up with this disagreeable affair-though I have not given in to the swindle as deeply as the article in the Tribune seems to imply. 3 I declined to furnish either portrait or biography, or do any thing whatever except to pay for the copies I took. I am, sir, very truly yours W C BRYANT. MANUSCRIPT: CU ADDRESS: Dr. F. A. P. Barnard. I. Frederick Augustus Porter Barnard (1809-1889, Yale 1828) was the president of Columbia University from 1864 to 1889. Barnard College, founded in 1889, was named for him. 2. No such work seems to have been published during Bryant's lifetime, nor has a letter from Barnard on this matter been recovered. 3. No other account of this "swindle" has been found.

1962.

To Arthur Bryant

Dear Brother.

The Evening Post, 41 Nassau Street, cor. Liberty, New York, November 21, 1870

The allowance made to authors by booksellers is generally ten per cent on the sales. Sometimes more is paid but this is obtained by negociation, when the publisher desires very much to publish the work. I suppose that if you get ten per cent you will do as well as authors generally do. I am glad that you have undertaken the work and proceeded so far with it that you have only to make a fair draught of it. 1 That it

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should have given you a good deal of trouble is a matter of course. I always have that with whatever I write. No book that is worth reading was ever written without much thought and care and the vigorous exercise of the faculties. I think you had better keep the copy right. Mr. Bragden2 might be instructed to get as much as he could on the sales, with the proviso that he is not to take less than ten per cent. We are all pretty well here, and are getting ready to come in from Roslyn next month. Kind regards to all your family. Yours affectionately W. C. BRYANT MANUSCRIPT:

NYPL-BFP ADDRESS: Arthur Bryant Esq.

1. In 1871 Arthur Bryant, a nursery gardener in Princeton, Illinois, published in New York-presumably with Cullen's help-Forest Trees for Shelter, Ornament and Profit. 2. Unidentified.

1963. To Frederick A. P. Barnard

My dear sir.

The Evening Post 41 Nassau Street, cor. Liberty New York, December 6 1870.

You conducted your dispute with the principal of the agent who imposed upon you in the matter of the "Men of Progress["] to a fortunate conclusion. 1 Will you oblige me by giving me the name and address of the petson or persons with whom you dealt so satisfactorily.2 Yours very truly W. C. BRYANT. MANUSCRIPT:

CU

ADDRESS:

Dr

F. A. P. Barnard.

1. See Letter 1961. 2. No reply to this letter has been recovered.

1964. To Julia W. Howe

My dear Mrs. Howe.

New York

Dec~

6, 1870

I have no skill in arrangements for public meetings and cannot advise you with any confidence. But in the outset I must positively decline presiding at either of the meetings you mention. The task is always an irksome one to me, and I am besides closely occupied with a literary labor which gives me no leisure, and which if I am not diligent I may never finish. I consented to preside at the last meeting, because

396

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OF

WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT

I knew that other people were averse to do it, and you might find some difficulty in persuading any distinguished person to take the place which you assigned to me. 1 But you are no[w] started, and your brilliant address on that occasion has smoothed the way for your project. With regard to the clergymen whose names have been mentioned to you, I would certainly secure if I could the attendance of Dr. Hall, who is one of the most popular preachers whom we have in the country. 2 Dr. Chapin has also a magnetic eloquence. 3 The more orthodox clergymen you have as speakers, the more will your cause commend itself to the majority, yet if Dr. Bellows will consent to address the meeting I would engage him by all means-for he is almost always heard with great favor. 4 I would not arrange to have persons of peculiar and extreme opinions speak-particularly in the early meetings that may be called in favor of your project, lest that should prejudice the movement. As to getting some barrister to speak it would no doubt be very well-but I cannot now mention any one who interests himself much in the question of putting an end to warbut this may be because I have so little acquaintance with men of that profession. I am, dear Madam, truly yours, W. C. BRYANT MANUSCRIPT: WCL ADDRESS: Mrs. J. W. Howe. 1. In 1870, spurred by the Franco-Prussian War that year, Julia Ward Howe undertook an international "Women's Peace Crusade." Of two meetings held in New York to gain support for this movement, she persuaded Bryant to preside over and address the first. See Mrs. Howe to Bryant, December 2, 1870 (NYPL-GR); Reminiscences 1819-1899 by julia Ward Howe (Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1900), pp. 327-329. 2. Probably John Hall (1829-1898), Irish-born pastor of the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church, New York. 3. Probably Edwin Hubbell Chapin (1814-1880), writer and eloquent preacher, pastor of the Church of the Divine Paternity, New York. 4. Henry W. Bellows, Bryant's pastor.

1965.

To Parke Godwin

My dear sir.

New York Dec. 13th. 1870

Yesterday evening I was informed that my school tax and yours had been made out, and that a notice had been put up in three public places and that the time for paying it without cost had elapsed and that now the Collectors fee was to be paid. Your tax is $74.00, and the

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Collectors fee is $3.7Q-..-making $77.70 in the whole. The addition is made in consequence of the notice of the Collector having been put up earlier than usual so that most of the tax payers have been caught and will have like us to pay the fee. Yours truly W. C. BRYANT P.S. I found your copy of the Atlantic at the post office and sent it herewith. W.C.B. MANUSCRIPT:

NYPL-GR ADDRESS: P. Godwin Esq.

1966. To Vincenzo Botta 1

My dear Sir.

The Evening Post, 41 Nassau Street, cor. Liberty New York, Dec~ 14th 1870

It has occurred to me that Senator Roscoe Conkling2 might perhaps accept an invitation to speak at the Meeting for Italian Unity. I think he would speak well. I would suggest also the name of Judge Pierrepont3-if he could be induced to attend. Judge Woodruff4 of course-if he could be had. 5 Yours truly W. C. BRYANT. MANUSCRIPT:

YCAL ADDRESS: Prof. V. Botta.

1. Vincenzo Botta (1818-1894), an Italian scholar, taught at New York University after coming to this country from Italy in 1853. He was the husband of Anne C. L. Botta (665.4). 2. Roscoe Conkling (1829-1888), United States Senator from New York, 18671881. 3. Edwards Pierrepont (1817-1892), a New York lawyer who was later, 18751876, United States Attorney General. 4. Lewis Bartholomew Woodruff (1809-1875; A.B. Yale 1839, LL.D. Columbia 1860), was a judge of the Circuit Court of Appeals of the United States Second Circuit, 1869-1875. 5. Bryant addressed this meeting on January 12, 1871; see 1972.1.

1967. To Rufus Peet 1

Sir.

[New York?] Dec. 14th

1870

I have your letter of the 4th instant. 2 The request to aid in extending the circulation of the Evening Post which you say was

398

LETTERS

OF

WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT

addressed to you was not written by me or with my knowledge, but I suppose by one of our clerks under the direction of my partner Mr. Henderson who manages the business of the office. As, however, you have addressed your letter to me personally and have assumed an air of moral superiority, I answer it. I am as much for free trade as yourself. The Evening Post has been all along known as an advocate for absolute free trade between nations, and for the support of government by direct taxation. But as the state of public opinion leaves no hope of this, the Evening Post for the present cooperates with those who seek a reduction of the duties to a simple revenue standard, with no view whatever to protection. That is as much as we can now get and the Evening Post is for taking it. As we cannot go by a single jump from the bottom of the stairs to the top, we take the first step. Your estimate of the property I possess is greatly exaggerated. You intimate that I ought to be a second Zaccheus. 3 How do you know that I am not? You have no knowledge of how much of my income, such as it is, goes to public objects and to the poor, nor is it my business to inform you. I have for the greater part of my life been in narrow circumstances, yet never repined on that account, and although I have been prosperous of late, it is not my fault, for I never made haste to be rich. You see, therefore that you have administered reproof without knowing, nor perhaps caring, whether there was any occasion for it, or not. 4 You inform me that your age is near my own and that you are a preacher of the gospel. Persons who have reached our age sometimes become soured in desperation and weak in judgement. I hope that in both respects you were formerly more worthy of commendation than your letter shows you to be now, else I fear your mode of preaching the gospel can have done little good. Excuse this plainness of speech, since you seem to be in need of it. Wishing you success in all your undertakings that deserve it, I am yours W. C. BRYANT. MANUSCRIPT: NYPL-GR (draft) ADDRESs: Revd Rufus Peet. 1. The recipient of this letter was apparently a clergyman in the village of Castile, on the Genesee River in western New York State. See Note 2. 2. Bryant's draft reply was written on the back of Peet's letter of December 4 (NYPL-GR). In this Peet complained of the EP's support of a moderate tariff on imports, and declared that, though he had once admired Bryant as a poet, "when informed that you were possessed of $500,000 dollars 'the poetry' of your character vanished! 'A camel can as easily pass a needle's eye, as a rich man can enter the kingdom of God.' " Remarking that he had been a preacher of the gospel for forty

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years, Peet concluded, "Before I can sympathize with you, you must become a second Zaccheus!" 3. A tax collector of jericho, Zacchaeus, who had become rich improperly, gave half his possessions to charity after repenting under the friendliness of jesus. Luke 19:1-10. 4. Those who knew Bryant intimately were impressed with his quiet, selfless generosity. Although he "shrank from ostentation of any kind," said john Bigelow, "as he prospered ... , his heart seemed proportionately to swell with sensibility for the well-being of others, which he testified in a thousand ways, of which no account has ever been made except in the book of life. He learned to regard his worldly possessions as a trust to be consecrated to holy uses." Bryant, pp. 286, 288.

1968.

To Asahel Clark Kendrick 1

Dear Sir.

New York

Dec

17, 1870

It was hardly worth while to make the formal apology for taking two or three of my poems, which I have just read in your letter of the 13th. 2 The same liberty is often taken with what I have written, and it is a compliment rather than an injury. I have not looked over your compilation but a literary friend who is a goodjudge has done so, and informs me that it is an excellent one. I am, sir, respectfully yours, W. C BRYANT. MANUSCRIPT:

University of Rochester Library

ADDREss:

A. C. Kendrick Esq.

1. Asahel Clark Kendrick (1809-1895, Hamilton 1831) taught the Greek language and literature at the present Colgate University, 1831-1850, and at the University of Rochester, 1850-1888. 2. Kendrick's letter is unrecovered. His anthology, containing several of Bryant's poems, was Our Poetical Favorites; a Selection from the Best Minor Poems of the English Language (New York, 1871).

1969.

To John Howard Bryant

New York, Dec. 24, 1870 .

. . . I see that Ingersoll 1 has attempted to revenge himself for his defeat by slandering you on the floor of Congress. You have doubtless read what he said and what was said in answer by other members of Congress, but you are not likely to see the enclosed from the Boston Daily Advertiser ... part of a special despatch from the Washington correspondent of that paper ... evidence of the manner in which Ingersoll's abuse affected those who heard it. ... 2

400

LETTERS or WILLIAM CuLLEN BRYANT

MANUSCRIPT: Unrecovered TEXT (partial): Mary Benjamin, The Collector No. 875 (1981 ), Item 875. 1. Eben Clark Ingersoll (1831-1879), a brother of the popular agnostic lecturer Robert Green Ingersoll (1833-1899), was a United States Senator from Illinois, 18641871. BDAC. 2. See Letters 1587, 1604, 1629. In 1866 John Bryant had been removed by President Andrew Johnson from his position as collector of internal revenue for the fifth congressional district in Illinois at the behest of Ingersoll; soon afterward Johnson had retaliated for Ingersoll's attacks on himself by reinstating Bryant at the expense of Ingersoll's proposed appointee. Cullen Bryant had been instrumental in securing this reversal by enlisting Senators Lyman Trumbull of Illinois and Edwin Morgan of New York in his brother's behalf. See Letter 1629; Morgan to Bryant, April 2, 1866 (NYPL-BG); Eric L. McKitrick, Andrew johnson and Reconstruction (New York and London: University of Chicago Press [1960]), pp. 383-384. The despatch referred to has not been identified.

XXXI Homer Completed 1871 (LETTERS 1970 TO 2033)

BRYANT WORKED THROUGHOUT THE YEAR translating The Odyssey, as occasional selections from his version were published in periodicals to whet the interest of readers. In December, a few days before Christmas, the task he had sometimes feared he might not live to finish was ready for the press. Meanwhile, he was encouraged by notices and the praise of scholars. Professor James B. Thayer of Harvard, offering detailed comments and corrections, called the work a permanent addition to our literature of which one might be proud. The Evening Post's literary editor, John R. Thompson, reviewed it carefully and enthusiastically. And Annie Fields told Bryant that Homer's "singing was unheard by me until you wrote." Bryant's introduction to the Library of Poetry and Song drew praise from Harvard philologist Francis J. Child. Professor John S. Sewall of Bowdoin was impressed by Bryant's emphasis therein on the importance of a "luminous style" in poetry, and his evident delight on "meeting in recent verse new images in their untarnished lustre, like coins fresh from the mint." Pressed as always for occasional speeches and writings, Bryant laid aside his Homeric task only on those occasions toward which he felt a particular commitment, such as talks he gave in celebration of Italian unity at a rally in the Academy of Music in January, and at the dedication in June of a statue of Samuel F. B. Morse-the first such in Central Park to honor a living person. The same month also saw publication of his first collection of poetry in fifteen years, adding the contents of his Thirty Poems of 1864. In March he described for a magazine the regimen of diet, exercise, and work habits which had kept him in hearty health well into his eighth decade, in a letter which was reprinted widely and which led John Bigelow to urge on his sons "without qualification the sanitary habits of Mr. Bryant," who, he judged, "had written little if anything destined to exert a more extensive and salutary influence upon mankind." In May Bryant made what would be his last visit to his Illinois relatives. On the way, he surrendered his stateroom to two Boston ladies who had been put in his care by a fellow journalist, and took instead their cramped space at the rear of the last Pullman car. Here he passed a miserable night "hopping up and down" over the wheels in a car which "flapped from side to side like the tail of a kite." After a week during which he addressed Princeton high school graduates and shook hands with half a hundred admirers who called one evening, he ensured himself of comfort on the return journey by hiring a drawing room in one of "Pullman's palace cars."

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LETTERS OF WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT

As was now his custom, Bryant spent spring and early summer at Roslyn, where he entertained, among others, James and Annie Fields of Boston, and Samuel Tilden. And he saw something of the Swedish soprano Christine Nillson when she visited the Godwins. He delighted in his garden, while he missed its fragrance, for, as he wrote Christiana Gibson wistfully, the aroma of flowers in a sense of smell once "almost morbidly acute," was no "little more than a memory." To Fields, who asked the dimensions of a huge tree which had established itself on his grounds more than one hundred sixty years before, he reported its girth as twenty-four feet and its height as one hundred. On his birthday in a "kindly autumn" in the first, forlorn season of the Civil War ten years earlier, he had watched the "heavy fruit" drop from this "tall black walnut tree," and mused, Dreary are the years when the eye can look no longer with delight on Nature, or hope on human kind; Oh, may those that whiten my temples, as they pass me, Leave the heart unfrozen, and spare the cheerful mind!

Yet, even among his "luxuriant gardens" and "greenest meadows" in a "most charming month of June," Bryant confessed to Christiana Gibson, "I find that the banquet of life has lost much of its flavor." In July he went to Cummington, where he enlarged his homestead considerably by "committing the folly," as he put it, of buying his grandfather Snell's former property farther up the hillside and enlarging the old house which still stood. During a visit from Boston Robert Waterston preached to many of Bryant's neighbors from an improvised pulpit amidst lumber and shavings in the unfinished addition, while his listeners sat on boxes and sawhorses. Later, when Bryant told the village minister he had hesitated to ask for the loan of his pulpit to a Unitarian, the usually dour Calvinist replied that he was "not easily scared." Bryant's companions on his frequent rambles were again his surviving brothers, John and Arthur. He told his Amherst College professor cousin Ebenezer Snell, who visited the Bryants with his family, of the amusing spectacle Julia and her guests made on an outing in his carriage behind matched chestnut horses driven by his black coachman, who "delight[ed] in fresh white gloves and big silver-plated buttons." Back in town, Bryant walked down each morning to his office, and when at Roslyn he came to the city twice a week. When Charles Nordhoff left the Evening Post, in the spring of 1871, Bryant hired as managing editor Charlton Lewis, a lawyer, writer, and former professor of classics at Union College who was also a Methodist minister. Their attack on the city's corrupt administration got new impetus on July 12 when parading Irish Protestants celebrating the Battle of the Boyne were attacked by Irish Catholics. Tammany police, instead of combatting the mob, turned on the marchers. Militia sent by the governor to protect the Orangemen were in turn attacked, and their firing in self-defense caused many casualties. These "Orange Riots" impelled Bryant the next day to call the Tammany Ring the "Head of the Mob," and

Homer Completed

403

to charge that it "rules by, and through, and for the Mob; and unless it is struck down New York has not yet seen the worst part of its History." A few months later the efforts of the Evening Post and other journals had so effectively exposed the frauds of the Tammany politicians that a good government ticket under the leadership of Samuel Tilden swept the corrupt administration from office. While Bryant was in Cummington in September he had learned of the deaths of two friends-through coincidence, each by drowning. The London lawyer and art patron Edwin Field, often Bryant's host in England, sank in the Thames while trying to rescue a nonswimming companion. West Point engineering professor, Colonel Dennis Mahan, who had been one of Bryant's intimate correspondents during the Civil War, threw himself from a Hudson River steamboat in a fit of depression. More happily, Bryant added to the many acts of aid he had extended to practitioners of the performing arts since he had proposed to New York audiences the dancers Paul Taglioni and his wife in 1838. In 1868 he had enlisted fellow journalists in the interest of the German actress Auguste von Barndorff. In 1870 he had brought to the attention of Edwin Booth a play by a woman who had written items for the Evening Post. Now he helped establish in the New York concert world a German immigrant, Leopold Damrosch, whose sons would carry on their father's name in American musical history.

404

LETTERS OF WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT

1970.

To Robert Bonner

My dear sir.

The Evening Post, 41 Nassau Street, cor. Liberty, New York, January 5, 1871.

If the manuscript poem of which Mr. Parks speaks be a genuine production I have not the slightest objection whatever to any disposition which the possessor chooses to make of it-indeed if he be in want of money as he says, I shall be glad to know that he has turned it to account pecuniarily.' As to the story which he has to tell, I can say nothing about it at present, having no idea of what it may be, nor whether it is true or false. I should be willing to leave the matter to your discretion. Yours truly w. C. BRYANT. P.S. I ought to say that I have no recollection of having given my verses to any person at any time in "compensation for a plagiarism." W.C.B. MANUSCRIPT: QPL.

I. This unidentified Bryant poem, evidently an early one, had apparently been offered for sale in manuscript to the editor of the New York Ledger, by a person who is unidentified, except as in Letter 1971.

1971. To Robert Bonner

My dear Sir.

The Evening, Post, 41 Nassau Street, cor. Liberty New York, Jan. 6th 1871

I return you the envelope of Mr. Park's letter and thank you for your attention in sending it. 1 I remember a Mr. Parks from Sandy Hill who, when I was practising law after a sort in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, came and married a young lady of the place. Yours truly. w. C. BRYANT. MANUSCRIPT: QPL ADDRESS: R. Bonner Esq. DOCKETED: Bryant.

Jany 6, 1870 I Wm Cullen

1. See Letter 1970. Park's letter is unrecovered.

1972.

To Parke Godwin

My dear sir

[New York?] January 10, 1871.]

Can you not give us your speech of Thursday night, much as you will deliver it that we may set it up on Thursday for the paper on

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405

Friday. If we had it tomorrow or early on Thursday it would save us some trouble, as we wish to get as much of the proceedings into the Evening Post as we can. 1 Yours truly W

MANUSCRIPT:

C

BRYANT

NYPL-GR ADDRESS: P. Godwin.

1. This occasion, at which Bryant spoke (see 1966.5) was described at length in the EP for January 13, "Emancipated Italy." It was held on the evening of January 12 in the Academy of Music. Bryant's speech, as well as those given by John A. Dix, Parke Godwin, Henry Ward Beecher, Henry W. Bellows, Horace Greeley, and others, was printed in full.

1973. To James Abram Garfield 1

The Evening Post, 41 Nassau Street, cor. Liberty, New York, Jany 15th 1871

Dear Sir.

I take the liberty of giving this note to John A. Parker Esq. a most esteemed and intelligent gentleman and President of one of our most important Insurance Companies, the Great Western. 2 Th[is?] Company has a pretty large interest in the Alabama Claims and the disposition proposed to be made of them by President Grant in his annual message, 3 is the reason of his going to Washington. I am sir truly yours, W. C. BRYANT. MANUSCRIPT:

LC ADDRESS: Hon. Jas. A Garfield.

1. James Abram Garfield (1831-1881, Williams 1856), distinguished as a Union officer in the Civil War, served as a Republican United States Congressman from Ohio from 1863 to 1880. In that year he was elected President on the Republican ticket, but within four months after his inauguration in March 1881 he was assasinated. 2. See Letter 1632. 3. In his annual message to the Congress in December 1870 President Grant urged its members to appoint a commission to buy up and press the Alabama claims against Great Britain (see Letter 1858). Nevins, Fish, p. 427.

1974. To Christiana Gibson

My dear Miss Gibson.

New York, January 16th. 1871.

I was greatly grieved, and so was Julia, to hear of the death of your sister, Mrs. Cunningham Smith, who has been taken from a

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406

family circle, to whose happiness she must have been essential, in the maturity of womanhood, when the judgment is fully ripe and one's example and counsels have most influence. I wonder not that your mother is sad to think that a child of whom she has always thought as one who would long survive her, has passed away before her. I remember her very well as I first saw her, in the prime of her youthful beauty, as fair as a lily, full of cheerfulness and vivacity, and an enthusiast in the art of music, in which your family so much delight. She has now, I trust, found her youth again-nay, a fairer and happier youth, on the further shore of the River of Death, where she awaits the coming of those whom she most loved here. The departure of our friends, I think, tends to strengthen our confidence in the doctrine of the soul's immortality, since it gives us an additional motive for desiring that it may be true. I have little to tell you of what is happening here, and you probably take less interest in it, as the years carry your memories of this country further and further into the past. Last week we had a monster meeting at the Academy of Music to celebrate the Unity of Italy and the overthrow of the Pope's temporal power. There were three times as many people assembled at the doors, as could find entrance. The temper of the assembly was enthusiastic. 1 We have been in New York for a month past. Miss Sands has left us, and Julia is keeping house on her own account. My Iliad meets with so much favor that I am going on with the other epic, the Odyssey. I am glad to hear that your excellent mother is so well-but you say nothing about your own health, which I fear is not what we wish it were. Please give my kind regards to your mother and sisters and believe me, as ever, very cordially yours, W. C. BRYANT. MANUSCRIPT: NYPL-BPMP ADDRESS: Miss Christiana Gibson DOCKETED: Mr. Bryant. Jan. 16./71. 1. Bryant's address to this meeting hailed the liberation of the Italian people from an "iron despotism" which had denied them "every one of the liberties which are the pride and glory of our own country-liberty of the press, liberty of speech, liberty of worship, liberty of assembling." See "Italian Unity. An Address Delivered before a Meeting in New York, January, 1871," in Bryant, Orations and Addresses, pp. [353]-358.

1975.

To Asher B. Durand 1

Dear Mr. Durand.

New York, Jany

23d

1871.

On Tuesday the 7th of February the Hon. Gouverneur Kemble 2 will dine with a number of his friends at the Century Rooms in New

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407

York-the hour six o'clock P.M. In behalf of a Committee of Arrangements I write to ask you to do us all the favor of being a guest on that occasion. May we expect you[?] Yours very truly W. C. BRYANT MANUSCRIPT: ADDRESS:

Unrecovered TEXT (typescript): NYPL-Asher Brown Durand Papers A. B. Durand Esq.

1. See 214.1; 487.1. 2. Gouverneur Kemble (1786-1875), president of the West Point Foundry at Cold Spring, New York, was a patron of American artists, and a frequent visitor at meetings of the Sketch Club. He had commissioned one of Durand's best known paintings, "Early Morning at Cold Spring" (1850; see illustration, Volume III), inspired by Bryant's poem, "A Scene on the Banks of the Hudson" (1827).

1976. To Edwin D. Morgan

My dear sir.

The Evening Post, 41 Nassau Street, cor. Liberty, New York, Jany 24th 1871

The bearer is John Somers Smith Esq. 1 not long since United States Consul at Malaga and afterwards at San Domingo, one of the most intelligent and efficient Consuls that we have ever had abroad, and foolishly I must say and wantonly removed. He has just lost his son on whom he depended by a shocking accident, and needs employment. His attention is turned to the Custom House. Is it possible for you to do any thing for him in that quarter? 2 Yours very truly W. C. BRYANT MANUSCRIPT:

NYSL ADDREss: Hon. E. D. Morgan.

1. See 1001.3. 2. It is not certain whether Morgan secured such an appointment for Smith.

1977. To Jerusha Dewey

New York, February 5th [1871]

. . . I was at the Century Club last night, and saw some very fine pictures, which are hung temporarily in its gallery, and to-day and tomorrow will be open to visitors who bring a card from any of the members. Among them is a beautiful scene on Lake George, by Kensett; 1 another, of the plains of Colorado, with steep, splintered precipices overhanging them, and snowy mountains in sight, by Whit-

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tredge; 2 and a spirited children's frolic, by Eastman Johnson, 3 very characteristic and yet exceedingly graceful, as all his pictures are not. I wish you were here to look at them. Mr. David Dudley Field was there; he said he had been engaged in drawing up suggestions for an improved international code, in which, among other things, the practices of war, now so frightfully murderous, should be humanized, and the barbarity of bombardments should be renounced by the common consent of the civilized world. 4 What a pity it is that Paris should ever have been fortified! Mr. Field told me that not many years since the people of Vienna petitioned the government to leave Vienna an open city, without fortifications. You often ask what books I have been reading. I have been occupied somewhat with James Freeman Clarke's "Steps of Belief," 5 which is a good summary, stated in a popular manner, of the arguments for believing in a God, for being a Christian instead of a Deist, and a Protestant instead of a Catholic. These arguments are given with the greatest clearness, and considerable beauty, and the book ought to be well received by the public, especially the liberal part of the religious world. I have been looking over, also, the "Life of St. Anselm," the Abbot of Bee, in Normandy, who was a great thinker in his day-the eleventh century-and who made the idea of God an argument for his existence. 6 The argument is referred to by Mr. Clarke. Besides these, I have begun to read Dr. Southwood Smith's book on the "Divine Government," which contains the arguments in favor of the universal restoration of all mankind to virtue and happiness-arguments which, I suppose, have influenced the belief of even the most orthodox in Germany, and led Dr. Bushnell to the compromise he puts forth 8--of a gradual diminution of sensibility to suffering, in the case of the wicked after death, attendant on a gradual weakening of the intellectual principle contained through endless ages .... MANUSCRIPT: Unrecovered TEXT (partial): Life, II, 299-300. I. This oil landscape, by John Frederick Kensett (1816-1872), painted in 1869, is owned by the Metropolitan Museum of Art. 2. Thomas Worthington Whittredge (1820-1910), lately president of the National Academy of Design, had visited the Rocky mountains in 1865-1866, in company with Kensett and another landscapist, Sanford Robinson Gifford (1823-1880). 3. The genre and portrait painter Jonathan Eastman Johnson (1824-1906), who rarely used his first name, is now best remembered for such homely scenes as Old Kentucky Home (1859), in the New-York Historical Society. 4. The New York lawyer David D. Field (492.4), whose distinguished legal career as a law reformer and codifier of statutes led in 1872 to his Draft Outline of an International Code, and his participation in founding the Association for the Reform and Codification of the Law of Nations.

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5. James Freeman Clarke (833.3), Steps of Belief; or, Rational Christianity Maintained Against Atheism, Free Religion, and Romanism (Boston, 1870).

6. Saint Anselm (1033-1109), Italian theologian and abbot of the monastery at Bee, Normandy, who became Archbishop of Canterbury in 1093. In his Prosologion (post-1070) he deduced the existence of God from the human notion of a perfect being. 7. Southwood Smith (1788-1861), Illustrations of the Divine Government (Glasgow, 1816). There were many subsequent American editions of this work. 8. Probably Horace Bushnell (1802-1876, Yale 1827, Yale Divinity School cl833). His The Character of jesus, Forbidding His Possible Classification with Men (New York, 1860), was often reprinted.

1978. To Joseph P. Thompson

My dear Doctor

New York, Feb. 6th 1871 No. 24 West 16th Street.

Will you do me the favor to dine with me and a few friends on Friday at six o'clock. Yours very truly W. C. BRYANT. MANUSCRIPT:

YCAL ADDRESS: Revd Jr. Jos. P. Thompson.

1979. To Messrs. James R. Osgood & Co.

Gentlemen.

The Evening Post 41 Nassau Street, cor. Liberty, New York, Feb 20th 1871

Last winter I desired you to send to the Revd. Rob'. C. Waterston of Boston a copy of the first volume of my translation of the Iliad and charge it to me. The volume was sent, but when the second volume appeared Mr. and Mrs. Waterston were on a visit to the Pacific Coast. Will you now do me the favor to send him the second volume also, on my account. Yours truly Wm. C.

MANUSCRIPT:

Marietta College Library ADDRESS: Jas. R Osgood & Co.

1980. ToT. Usher 1

Dear Sir.

BRYANT.

The Evening Post, 41 Nassau Street, cor. Liberty, New York, March 10. 1871

I have caused the printed letter which you sent me to be published in the Evening Post, with a few words recommending it to the attention

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of Americans who think of visiting Europe next summer. It will not be possible for me to comply with the invitation which you so courteously repeat in your note, but I doubt not that many of my countrymen will make a point of being present at the interesting ceremonies of the Scott Celebration. 2 The works of Sir Walter Scott find in no country more readers than here, and his memory is not more fondly cherished, even in the land of his birth. I am sir, very truly yours. w. C. BRYANT. MANUSCRIPT: UV ADDRESS: T. Usher Esq. I. See Note 2. 2. A letter printed in the EP on March 3, 1871, from Edinburgh, dated January 17, 1871, and signed by "T. Usher, Hon. Secretary," announced a forthcoming celebration at Edinburgh on August 9, 1871, centenary of the birth of Sir Walter Scott, and invited Americans, "through your influential columns," to attend. Usher's note to Bryant is unrecovered.

1981.

To S. Piper 1

Dear Madam.

New York

March 13, 1871.

I send you what you have paid me the compliment of asking fora copy of my poems. 2 I have committed it to the mails and hope that it will reach you in good condition. The edition now sent, contains all my poems which have been collected, although there are a few others which, since it was published, have appeared in some of the literary periodicals. I am, madam, respectfully yours. W. C. BRYANT. MANUSCRIPT: NYPL-GR (draft) ADDREss: To Mrs. S. Piper. I. Probably the wife of the horticulturalist Richard U. Piper of West Groton, Massachusetts. See 959.2; 1606.1. 2. Her request is unrecovered.

1982.

To The Trustees of the Corcoran Gallery of Art

Gentlemen.

New York

March 20. 1871.

I take this method of adding my testimony to that of others in favor of appointing Mr. Charles Lanman to the Superintendence of the Corcoran Gallery. 1 Mr. Lanman has various qualifications for this

411

Homer Completed

charge. He has for the last thirty years occupied a portion of his time with the study of art, in which he has always taken a special interest. He has written of artists in various publications and criticized their works and in different ways has acquired the knowledge and taste which would make his services valuable in the direction of a public gallery of the fine arts. Respectfully &c. W. C. BRYANT. UVa ADDRESS: To the Trustees of the Corcoran Gallery of Art DOCKETED: W. C. Bryant I Mch 20. 1871.

MANUSCRIPT:

1. Lanman (590.1; Letter 1869), who had held several Washington positions, such as secretary to Senator Daniel Webster and librarian of the House of Representatives, apparently failed of the appointment Bryant suggested, for in 1871 he was made American Secretary to the Japanese Legation, a post he held until 1882. The Corcoran Gallery of Art, founded by a grant from the Washington banker William Wilson Corcoran (1798-1888), was chartered by the United States Congress in 1871.

1983.

To Messrs. James R. Osgood & Co.

New York

Gentlemen

March 20, 1871.

I think you ought not to make so great a difference in what you pay me for the Odyssey and the Iliad. One reason for this is, that there are fewer translations of the Odyssey in our language than of the other epic. Another is, that one successful book sells another by the same author. It seems to me therefore that you should pay me two thousand dollars instead of one as was proposed by Mr. Clarke the other day. 1 I send some corrections for the first volume of the Iliad to be made by the printers in the new cheaper edition. I will send the rest soon. Yours truly W. C. BRYANT. MANUSCRIPT:

HEHL

ADDREss:

J.

R Osgood & Co.

DOCKETED:

Ansd I Mch. 22.

1. See Letter 1984 for further discussion of this matter.

1984. To Messrs. James R. Osgood & Co.

Gentlemen.

New York

March 27th

1871

I send you with this all the corrections I wish to make in the first volume of my translation of the Iliad. Those for the other volume will

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WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT

be sent very soon. There will be no need of sending me the proof sheets. As to the question of compensation for the Odyssey, I cannot look upon it in any other light than the one in which it appeared to me when I wrote you the other day. In addition to what I then said there are these considerations- You take less risk than when you published the Iliad-inasmuch as the success of that work opens the way for the success of this. Again-it is very likely that those who purchase my version of the Odyssey will be apt to do it soon after it is publishedmost of them at least-and that after the two years which will belong to you, the sales will be comparatively quite small. You will not therefore, I think, regard me as unreasonable if I adhere to the sum named, $2,000-for the copyright during the two first years. 1 Yours truly W. C. BRYANT. MANUSCRIPT: HEHL ADDREss: To Messrs.

J. R. Osgood & Co.

1. Bryant's argument apparently prevailed.

1985.

To Daniel Bogart

Dear Sir.

The Evening Post, 41 Nassau Street, cor. Liberty, New York, March 30 1871

Mr. Pleasanton I perceive does not require returns to be made in detail but allows them to be made in gross, as appears by his letter published in the Evening Post. 1 The Protest is a form adopted by many persons as a matter of safety in case the tax should be decided to be unconstitutional. Yours truly W C BRYANT MANUSCRIPT: BLR ADDREss: Daniel Bogart Esq. 1. This letter has not been located in the EP. It may, however, have had some bearing on a meeting reported in the newspaper on the date of Bryant's letter, of an "Anti-Income Tax Association" the day before, urging repeal of the income tax law, imposed as a wartime measure in 1864, which had been due to expire in 1870, but had been extended by Congress in July 1870. Bryant was one of a number of vicepresidents of the association elected at this meeting. In fact, the tax was discontinued in 1872.

1986.

To Joseph H. Richards

Dear Sir:

New York, March 30th, 1871.

I promised, some time since, to give you some account of my habits of life, so far, at least, as regards diet, exercise and occupation.

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I am not sure that it will be of any use to you, although the system which I have for many years observed seems to answer my purpose very well. I have reached a pretty advanced period of life, without the usual infirmities of old age, and with my strength, activity and bodily faculties generally in pretty good preservation. How far this may be the effect of my way of life, adopted long ago, and steadily adhered to, is perhaps uncertain. I rise early, at this time of the year about 5:30; in Summer, half an hour, or even an hour earlier. Immediately, with very little incumbrance of clothing, I begin a series of exercises, for the most part designed to expand the chest, and at the same time call into action all the muscles and articulations of the body. These are performed with dumb bells, the very lightest, covered with flannel; with a pole, a horizontal bar, and a light chair swung around my head. After a full hour, and sometimes more, passed in this manner, I bathe from head to foot. When at my place in the country, I sometimes shorten my exercise in the chamber, and, going out, occupy myself for half an hour or more in some work which requires brisk exercise. After my bath, if breakfast be not ready, I sit down to my studies until I am called. My breakfast is a simple one-hominy and milk, or, in place of hominy, brown bread, or oat meal, or wheaten grits, and, in the season, baked sweet apples. Buckwheat cakes I do not decline, nor any other article of vegetable food, but animal food I never take at breakfast. Tea and coffee I never touch at any time. Sometimes I take a cup of chocolate, which has no narcotic effect and agrees with me very well. At breakfast I often take fruit, either in its natural state or freshly stewed. After breakfast I occupy myself for awhile with my studies, and then, when in town, I walk down to the office of the Evening Post, nearly three miles distant, and after about three hours return, always walking, whatever be the weather or the state of the streets. In the country I am engaged in my literary tasks till a feeling of weariness drives me out into the open air, and I go upon my farm or into the garden and prune the trees, or perform some other work about them which they need and then go back to my books. I do not often drive out, preferring to walk. In the country I dine early, and it is only at that meal that I take either meat or fish, and of these but a moderate quantity, making my dinner mostly of vegetables. At the meal which is called tea, I take only a little bread and butter, with fruit, if it be on the table. In town, where I dine later, I take but two meals a day. Fruit makes a considerable part of my diet, and I eat it at almost any hour of the day without

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414

inconvenience. My drink is water, yet I sometimes, though rarely, take a glass of wine. I never meddle with tobacco, except to quarrel with its use. That I may rise early, I, of course, go to bed early; in town, as early as ten; in the country, somewhat earlier. For many years I have avoided in the evening every kind of literary occupation which tasks the faculties, such as composition, even to the writing of letters, for the reason that it excites the nervous system and prevents sound sleep. My brother told me, not long since, that he had seen in a Chicago newspaper, and several other Westernjournals, a paragraph in which it was said that I am in the habit of taking quinine as a stimulant; that I have depended upon the excitement it produced in writing my verses, and that, in consequence of using it in that way, I had become as deaf as a post. As to my deafness, you know that to be false, and the rest of the story is equally so. I abominate all drugs and narcotics, and have always carefully avoided everything which spurs nature to exertions which it would not otherwise make. Even with my food I do not take the usual condiments, such as pepper, and the like. I am sir, truly yours. W. C. BRYANT MANUSCRIPT: Unrecovered ADDRESS: To Joseph H. Richards TExT: Sacramento Daily Union (date?) from The Health Habits of William Cullen Bryant and William Howitt as Given by Themselves (New York, 1871), in Miniature Herald of Health Tracts-No. 2, pp. [5-10]. 1. Joseph H. Richards, previously on the staff of The Independent, and from 1865 to 1866 publisher of The Nation, was apparently one of the proprietors of the Herald of Health, published from 1867 to 1892.

1987.

To Messrs. James R. Osgood & Co.

Gentlemen.

The Evening Post, 41 Nassau Street, cor. Liberty, New York, March [3?]1 1871.

I send you today by Express four books of my translation of the Odyssey, which, I hope, will reach you safely. Please let me know of their coming to hand. I could have sent you more but there was one book to be copied. Yours truly W. C BRYANT. MANUSCRIPT: University of California at Los Angeles Library ADDREss: Co.

J.

R. Osgood &

Homer Completed

1988.

To John Durand

Dear sir

415

New York

March

1871.

The first of your quotations-one from Book VIII is "Nay I would that it were so, Oh archer-king, Apollo, I could bear Chains thrice as many and of infinite strength, And all the gods and all the goddesses Might come to look upon me; I would keep My place with golden Venus at my side." 1 Another from Book VIII is "But thou art one of those who dwell in ships With many benches, rulers oer a crew Of sailors, a mere trader looking out For freight and watching o'er the wares that form The cargo." 2 I believe this includes more than the passage you have given me. -The passage from the Vth Book is, "He had reached the mouth Of a soft-flowing river* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * He felt The current's flow and thus devoutly prayed, "Hear me oh sovereign power, whoe'er thou art. To thee, the long desired, I come. I seek Escape from Neptune's threatenings on the sea. * * * * * * * * to thy stream I come, And to thy knees, from many a hardship past. Oh thou that here a[r]t ruler, I declare Myself thy suppliant. Be thou merciful. He ceased; the river stayed his current, checked The billows, smoothed them to a calm, and gave The swimmer a safe landing at his mouth." 3 The passage which is quoted from the Iliad you will find in the twenty first book, beginning at line 403. After five lines, there is in the prose version you have sent me a break and then it begins again at the 433d line with the words-"Then the god" 4 As to the second of your quotations which is from the XI Book here is my version. Noble Ulysses, speak not thus of death,

LETTERS

416

OF

WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT

As if thou couldst console me. I would be A laborer on earth, and serve for hire Some man of mean estate who makes scant cheer, Rather than reign oer all who have gone down To death. Speak rather of my noble son; Whether or not he joined the war, to take A place among the foremost in the fight.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

I spake; the soul of swift .tEacides Over the meadows thick with asphodel Departed with long strides, well-pleased to hear From me the story of his son's renown." 5 The appellation of .tEacides was given to Achilles, as he was a descendant of .tEacies. This is the name given Achilles in the original of the passage I have translated. I hope you will be able to make out what I have written though a little disfigured by alterations. Yours truly W C BRYANT MANUSCRIPT: Redwood Library and Athenaeum ADDRESS: John Durand Esq. I. Bryant, Odyssey, VIII, 416--421. 2. Bryant, Odyssey, VIII, 199--203. 3. Bryant, Odyssey, V, 527-528, 531-534,537-543. 4. This passage, from Bryant, Iliad, XXI, 403-407, 433-434, is as follows: He [the River Scamander god] spake, and wrathfully he rose against Achilles,-rose with turbid waves, and noise, And foam, and blood and bodies of the dead. One purple billow of the Jove-born stream Swelled high and whelmed Achilles ....

. . . Then the god Seized on the river with his glittering fires. 5. Bryant, Odyssey, XI, 601-608, 668-671. The published version of lines 607608 varies somewhat: Whether or not he yet has joined the wars To fight among the foremost of the host. Durand's quotations are unrecovered.

1989.

To Francis H. Dawes

My dear sir.

The Evening Post, 41 Nassau Street, cor. Liberty, New York, April 4th 1871.

I have just received from the house of Parsons & Co. of Long Island 1 notice that they have packed up and sent to Cummington 1250

Homer Completed

417

European Larch trees. I write that you may look out for them. I find that all the trees of this kind are imported, so that it is better to get them here than at Rochester as they would probably be taken more directly to Cummington. Please not forget to let me know when the ground and season ,will answer for transplanting.... 2 MANUSCRIPT

(incomplete): NYPL-GR.

1. See 942.3.

2. The balance of this letter is missing from the manuscript.

1990. To James T. Fields

New York, April 7th [1871]

. It grieves me to say to you, as I must, that I cannot do for you what you ask, and that I am not to fill the honorable place in your volume that you designed for me. 1 But I can no more get up the necessary excitement for writing a poem at the present time than I can go back to the days of my youth. I have the Odyssey on hand, which takes up most of my leisure; then there is the "Evening Post," which I cannot neglect, and other matters, small in themselves, but numerous, the effect of which is to load me with so many petty tasks, and keep me fussing so, that I sometimes feel what used to be called, when people had no scruple about using a Latin word now and then, tedium vitm. So you see that you ask what is as impossible as if you were to wait a few years and ask it of my tombstone. P.S.-I have a poem, written a few years since, which seemed to me a little languid. My daughter tells me that it will do, and I am about to add it, with some others, to the rest of my poems published by Appleton, to appear by and by in that collection. At her desire I have concluded to send it to you, which shall be done as soon as it is copied; not so much for publication as for your judgment. I shall be gratified if you prefer not to publish it, as I shall then be satisfied that my own judgment was right .... 2 MANUSCRIPT:

Unrecovered

TEXT

(partial): Life, II, 301-302.

1. Since no letter from Fields at this time has been recovered, it is not certain to which publication Bryant refers. 2. This may have been the verses titled "October, 1866," which, Godwin says, concluded an intimate memoir Bryant wrote after his wife's death for his daughters. This was not, as were most of his poems in late years, given periodical publication, but was included in his 1871 and 1876 collections. See Bryant, Poetical Works, II, 265; Poems (1876), pp. 260-262.

LETTERS oF WILLIAM CuLLEN BRYANT

418

1991.

To Messrs. James R. Osgood & Co.

Gentlemen.

The Evening Post, 41 Nassau Street, cor. Liberty, New York, April18 1871.

The two copies of the first volume of my version of the Iliad have come to hand. You say nothing of the copy of the entire work-the two volumes-in some neat half binding, which I also asked for, or meant to ask for. 1 If you have any thing of the sort, will you oblige me by forwarding a copy. Yours very truly W. C. BRYANT. MANUSCRIPT: NYPL-Berg ADDREss: To

J. R. Osgood & Co.

l. According to the publisher's advertisement in the one-volume edition of Bryant's Iliad (1870), there were three editions of the work: ( l) two vols. royal 8vo, gilt top, cloth; (2) two vols. crown 8vo. gilt top; (3) one vol. crown 8vo, gilt top, cloth. Each of these was also offered in half calf or levant.

1992.

To George Hannah 1

Dear Sir.

New York

April22d

1871.

I am sensible of the honor done me by yourself and those for whom you speak, in giving me an invitation to address the Brooklyn Historical Society at its next Annual Meeting. 2 I am obliged to decline the invitation for several reasons. One is, that I have hitherto made it a rule not to go out of town to make addresses of any kind, having more occasions of that nature here in town than I can attend to. But a more imperative reason is the want of leisure. As a public speaker my vein is not fertile, and requires a good deal of working to produce any thing. If I were to make an address of the kind you require I should have to meditate it carefully, and for that I have no spare time. I am engaged at present in a literary task of considerable magnitude which is to be completed in a certain time. I[t] occupies me very closely and obliges me to be frugal of my hours. Indeed I am haunted with the fear that, considering my advanced age, I may never finish it. I have promised to make an address at the unveiling of Mr. Morse's statue, 3 but that was a debt due to an old and valued friendship. You will see, therefore, that if I excuse myself from complying with the invitation which has been given me and which you have urged in such obliging terms, I am not acting capriciously, but from reasons which you will admit are not without force.

Homer Completed

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Meantime I am very glad to hear of the prosperity of your society and hope that its growth will correspond to that of your beautiful city. I am, sir, very respectfully yours. W. C. BRYANT. Long Island Historical Society ian & Seery. &c &c.

MANUSCRIPT:

ADDRESS:

George Hannah Esq I Librar-

1. Although George Hannah was librarian of the Long Island Historical Society (not the "Brooklyn" Historical Society) at this time, the society's records yield little further information about him. Letter from Clara Lamers, Acting Head Librarian, dated May 28, 1985. 2. This invitation is unrecovered. 3. Bryant's was the principal address at the unveiling of a statue of Samuel F. B. Morse (1791-1872), on June 10, 1871, on The Mall in Central Park. This was the first statue placed there, and apparently the only one commemorating a living person. Soon after a proposal which started as a newspaper hoax resulted early in 1871 in a subscription to place in Central Park an heroic statue of William Marcy Tweed, "Boss Tweed" (1823-1878), the notoriously corrupt leader of Tammany Hall, the park commissioners adopted a rule that "no monuments of the living should be erected in the public parks." See Bryant, Orations and Addresses, pp. [361]-368; Elizabeth Barlow and Others, The Central Park Book ([New York] Central Park Task Force [1977]), p. 39; M. R. Werner, Tammany Hall (Garden City and New York: Doubleday, Doran, 1928), pp. 198-203; John Bigelow, in The Century Association's Memorial Statue of William Cullen Bryant; Report of the Memorial Committee ([New York] Century Association Building, 1911), p. [5].

1993. To James T. Fields

New York, April 25th [1871]

. There was no need that you should exhort me to be diligent in putting the Odyssey into English blank verse. 1 I have been as industrious as was reasonable. I understand very well that, at my time of life, such enterprises are apt to be brought to a conclusion before they are finished, and I have therefore wrought harder upon my task than some of my friends thought was well for me. I have already sent forward the manuscript for the first volume. You may remember that I finished my translation of the Iliad within the time that I undertook, and this would have been done without any urging. In the case of the Odyssey I have finished the first volume two months sooner than I promised. I do not think the Odyssey the better part of Homer, except morally. The gods set a better example, and take more care to see that wrong and injustice are discouraged among mankind. But there is not the same spirit and fire, nor the same vividness of description, and this the translator must feel as strongly as the reader. Let me correct what I have already said by adding that there is yet in the Odyssey one

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more advantage over the Iliad. It is better as a story. In the Iliad the plot is, to me, unsatisfactory; and there is, besides, a monotony of carnage-you get a surfeit of slaughter. The big sun-portrait of me which you saw at the French fair is from Sarony's, at No. 680 Broadway .... 2 MANUSCRIPT: Unrecovered TEXT (partial): Life, II, 302.

I. Fields's admonition has not been recovered. 2. Several of the finest photographs of Bryant in his later years were taken by Napoleon Sarony (1821-1896), Canadian-born lithographer and photographer who established a New York studio in 1846. DAA. One of his best-known portrait studies of Bryant was engraved for the frontispiece of Life, II, where it is dated 1873. The one to which Bryant here refers is perhaps that now in the Bryant Library at Roslyn, reproduced in William Cullen Bryant and the Hudson River School of Landscape Painting May 19-]uly 19,1981 (Nassau County Museum of Fine Art [1981]), p. 8.

1994. To Julia S. Bryant

Dear Julia

Princeton [Illinois] May 27, 1871.

I arrived here yesterday about three o'clock and found the streets swimming in jet black mud-as black as this ink-for they had just had copious showers. I had no very pleasant time in coming, for just as I was starting Major Bundy 1 came and asked to put two ladies under my care-Mrs. and Miss Earle of Boston. 2 I went to them and found them in a stateroom at the end of the Pullman carriage in which I was-the room was quite too small for these two rather large ladies, and Mrs. Earle had a sick head ache. So I gave up to them my comfortable place in the middle of the carriage and took their stateroom. The car was at the end of a train of nine and flapped from side to side like the tail of a kite, and my little stateroom was over the wheels and kept hopping up and down. In the night I was sea sick a little, and had an unpleasant time of it. The next day was very hot and quite dusty, and the second night hot also. Mrs. Earle kept her bed all that day, but the next day was up and bright again when we arrived at Chicago. She declared that she believed it would have killed her had she kept her state room. I find all well here- Adeline3 has been ill but is much better. I met her and her son Charles 4 at a station not far from this; they were going to [Laneville?] where he lives. The country at this place is now very beautiful-every thing fresh and luxuriant, and the season, if any thing a little more advanced than in the neighborhood of New York. The yellow roses are in full bloom and one or two other kinds. We get abundance of strawberries here from the south. A nights good sleep has made me all right again. I expect to return on Monday of week

Homer Completed

421

after next-so as to be in New York on Monday morning and may come out in the morning-or later in the day.- Kind regards to ally ours affectionately W

MANUSCRIPT:

NYPL-GR

ADDREss:

C

BRYANT

Miss Julia Bryant.

I. Probably Jonas Mills Bundy (1835-1891), founder and editor of the New York Evening Mail, and campaign biographer of President James A. Garfield, 1880. 2. The Earles have not been further identified. 3. Adeline Plummer Bryant, widow of Austin Bryant; see Volume I, 11. 4. Charles Howard Bryant (1832-1879).

1995.

To Julia S. Bryant

Dear Julia.

Princeton Illinois Wednesday May 31, 1871.

I shall be in New York, as I hope early Wednesday morning of next week, but whether early enough to take the morning train for Roslyn I do not know. So I would have you send up to the station for me that morning, and not be surprized if I am not there. The weather continues very hot, the mercury at eighty degrees of Farenheit or thereabouts at the middle of the day, and very warm nights-particularly for this region where the nights are ordinarily cool. Last evening, some fifty or sixty persons, some of them ladies, called to see me, and there was great handshaking. On Friday, the commencement of the high school here will take place. John [Bryant] presides, and they say that I must make a little address to the graduates. I hope to be more comfortable on my journey home that I was in coming hither as I have sent to Chicago for a drawing room in one of Pullman's palace cars. The best places there, to my thinking are not too commodious. Yours affectionately w. C. BRYANT. MANUSCRIPT:

NYPL-GR.

1996. To Mary B. C. [Slade?]!

Dear Madam.

[Roslyn? ante-June 10 1871.2

It is a great honor that you do me in asking me to deliver a public lecture before the young ladies of your excellent institute. But for

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OF

WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT

various reasons I have made it a rule to decline all invitations to give public lectures. At present it is more important than ever that I should adhere to this rule. I am engaged in a literary task of great magnitude, and have arrived at so advanced an age that I must be frugal of my time if I mean to finish it. I sometimes speak in public, but only on occasions which require me to make very short addresses-such as require comparatively little time for preparation, and even those I avoid as much as I well can. I am to speak at the unveiling of the Morse statue-but I have stipulated for a very brief addressYou see how it is. My answer to all applications like yours is that I have no time to prepare public lectures. It is a sincere excuse, and I must not lose the chance of making it, by making exceptions- I have never made any and cannot safely make one now- ... MANUSCRIPT: NYPL-GR (draft). 1. Unidentified. Name of recipient from Carnegie Bookshop Catalogue No. 374 (1980) offering final copy of this letter for sale. 2. Dated through Bryant's reference to his Morse address, delivered on June 10.

1997.

To Richard H. Dana

Dear Dana,

Roslyn, Long Island, June 9th. 1871.-

I thank you for thinking so much of me. I am not so far on with the second volume of the Odyssey as Mr. Fields seems to suppose. My translation is only finished to near the middle of the fourteenth book. I do not feel quite so easy in this work as I did in translating the Iliad for the thought that I am so old that I may be interrupted in my task before it is done, rises in my mind now and then and I work a little the more dilgently for it, which perhaps is not well. As to my taking part in public matters you, who know me well will readily believe that I never seek occasions to appear before the public-they are all put upon me. I would gladly have made over to somebody else the chance of saying something at the unveiling of Morse's statue, but it was impossible for me to do so-as I thought, without its being supposed that I was not willing to say a good word for an old friend. What you tell me of Phillips is remarkable but does not much surprize me. The spiritualists do not perceive the ridiculous side of their beliefs, and with the greatest gravity say things which strike those who are not initiated as the drollest things imaginable. 1 But the most noteworthy thing is their readiness to believe-! mean the readiness of those who have been the most sceptical in regard to the Christian faith. Robert Owen was a remarkable example of this. 2 After he

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became a spiritualist he believed every alleged revelation coming from that quarter, no matter on whose authority. I regard all this as a testimony to the natural, instinctive desire of man to believe, on some evidence or other, in a life beyond the grave. If they will not believe it on the authority of the New Testament, they will snatch at any thing else which satisfies this desire, however poor the substitute. 3 I wish you were here at this glorious season. We have had some of the finest weather I ever knew and the country is in its highest luxuriance. We are in the midst of an abundance of strawberries and roses. I went in the latter part of May and beginning of June to Illinois and was fairly stewed in my own perspiration for about a fortnightall hot days and nights nearly as hot-so that I was very glad to get back again. I suppose that it will be of no use to ask you to come to Cummington where I expect to be in the latter part of July, and yet I escaped the fiery heat of last summer there and felt absolutely no inconvenience from a high temperature. With kind regards to those of your household in which Julia joins me I am, dear Dana, very truly yours WC. BRYANT. MANUSCRIPT:

NYPL-GR

ADDREss:

R. H. Dana Esq.

1. Dana's comments are unrecovered, but for Bryant's earlier report of Willard Phillips' fascination with spiritualism, see Letter 1796. 2. The father of Bryant's friend Robert Dale Owen (1009.6), Robert Owen ( 1771-1858) was a prosperous British socialist and philanthropist who visited the United States on several occasions, on his first visit establishing at New Harmony, Indiana, a cooperative agricultural-industrial colony (1825-1828). Turning to spiritualism in the eighteen-fifties, he held "millenia!" meetings in London. 3. In view of the fact that Bryant's name has occasionally been coupled with that of Horace Greeley and others as lending credence to spiritualism, his remarks here seem to dispel that misconception.

1998.

To an Unidentified Correspondent 1

Roslyn

Dear sir.

Long Island

June 19. 1871

The manuscript of my address at the Unveiling of the Morse statue is not in such a state that you can put it to the purpose you desire. If you will give me a little time I will make a copy of it-for I am just now too busy-which you can use. Yours truly W. C. BRYANT. MANUSCRIPT:

HEHL ADDREss: Illegible.

1. The greater portion of the addressee's name seems to have been cut from the bottom of this letter, making it unreadable.

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LETTERS

1999.

OF

WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT

To Robert Dodge 1

My dear sir.

Roslyn, June 20. 1871.

I will try to look up your article written for the E. P. 2 As to the work you are engaged upon I have little time to look at any thing which requires deliberation. I am on a literary task which occupies all my times and I have none left even for my friends. The subscription of which you speak I remember nothing of-a sign doubtless of a decaying memory. I do not remember either the object or the sum I gave-nor any thing else concerning it-but I enclose you ten dollars. Thanking you for your good opinion of what I said of Mr. Morse 3 I am, dear sir, truly yours W. C BRYANT. MANUSCRIPT: Lehigh University Library ADDREss: Rob•. Dodge Esq. I No. 12 Wall St. I. See 1383.1. 2. This article has not been identified. 3. No letter from Dodge at this time has been recovered.

2000.

To Ferdinand E. Field

Roslyn, July 3d [1871]

... What a fearful experience poor France has had of late! 1 Will her people be sure of a good government hereafter, under any form which it may take, till a generation shall arise which has been educated to the usages which in your country and mine reconcile political liberty with order and peace? I congratulate you on the settlement of the differences between the United States and your country. The treaty is popular here. 2 Our domestic politics are not on so good a footing as we expected when we elected General Grant, but in one respect we shall improve them without being able to thank him for it-I mean in respect to freedom of trade, toward which public opinion is making rapid advances .... MANUSCRIPT: Unrecovered TEXT (partial): Life, II, 303. l. Civil strife and mass executions which followed the surrender of Paris to a German army in January 1871. 2. The Treaty of Washington between the United States and Great Britain, signed on May 8, 1871, submitted to arbitration several disputes between the two countries: over the Northwest boundary of the United States and Canada; fishing rights; and the Alabama Claims.

Homer Completed

2001.

To Christiana Gibson

Dear Miss Gibson,

425

Roslyn, Long Island, July 4, 1871.

Your pleasant letter of the 22d. of May 1 has been lying on the table before me for several weeks, suggesting to me more and more strongly the propriety of returning an answer. I am glad that you have at last accomplished the removal of your family to a part of Edinburgh, where you are sheltered from the harsher airs that sweep through Forres Street. You have made the change on your mother's account, but I hope it will do your health as much good as hers. I congratulate you on having what you have long desired, a garden. The homely occupation of "hoeing peas and thinning turnips" of which you speak, will be relieved by occasionally looking at your flower-beds, breathing their perfumes and gathering occasional bouquets. I wish we had some other word instead of the French interloper bouquet. Pope says nosegay, but the word nose, which forms one half of this latter word, seems to me to vulgarize it somewhat, and it is owing to this, I think that bouquet has come to be substituted for it. To me, however, nosegays are nosegays no longer. The great delight which I once took in the fragrance of flowers, is with me little more than a memory, since my sense of smell, which was once acute-almost morbidly so-is now become very much deadened. 2 I have little to tell you in return for the news you give me of what you have been doing. This [is] a very quiet fourth of July in these parts-people in their holiday dresses-men, women and children are silently passing in the streets; the temperature is most agreeable; the sun is shaded by floating clouds; quails-the American quail-are whistling in the fields calling out the familiar name "Bob White." We have Dr. Dickson and his lady of Philadelphia, 3 most agreeable people staying with us-he, brimfull of knowledge and literature, with a very delightful way of communicating his knowledge-and last night Mr. Tilden, 4 whom you know, and Mr. George H. Hall, the clever painter of Spanish subjects, 5 came from town to pass the fourth of July with us. The Godwins have had the Swedish singer, Miss Nilsson, 6 with them for some days-but that musical star is to suffer eclipse. She is to be married ere long to a Frenchman, Mons. Rouzaud,7 after which she will sing in public no more. We have had a most charming month of June, temperate and bright up to the present moment, with seasonable showers-with the greenest meadows, the richest foliage on the trees and the most luxuriant gardens. If the rest of the season continues as beautiful it will be something marvellous.

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426

We shall probably go to Cummington sometime after the middle of July, when I hope to make some progress in translating the Odyssey, the first volume of which is already passing through the press. While here I cannot help going to town twice a week, to look to the Evening Post, which takes two days of the six from Homer. What you say of the present years compared with the past, touches me nearly. Without being unhappy, I find that the banquet oflife has lost much of its flavor. Please give my kindest regards to your mother and sister. Julia sends love to you all. I am, dear Miss Gibson, very truly yours, w. C. BRYANT. MANUSCRIPT: NYPL-BPMP ADDRESS: Miss Christiana Gibson DOCKETED: Mr. Bryant. July 4. I 71. PUBLISHED (in part): Life, II, 303-304. 1. Letter unrecovered. 2. Bryant had indicated eight years earlier that his sense of smell had already been impaired. See Letter 1341. 3. Dr. and Mrs. Samuel H. Dickson. 4. Samuel J. Tilden (389.3). 5. George Henry Hall (1825-1913), New York genre and portrait painter, a member of the National Academy of Design, and an exhibiter between 1848 and 1852 at the American Art-Union. 6. Christine Nilsson (1843-1921), concert and operatic soprano, and violinist. Bryant mistakenly wrote "Nilsen." 7. Auguste Rouzaud (d. 1882). Bryant mistakenly wrote "Rouseaud."

2002.

To A. Austin 1

My dear sir

Roslyn L. I. N.Y. July lOth 1871.

If I had read your brother's book-[Seven? June?] Days at Mount Pleasant2- I would cheerfully state any favorable impression it made upon me as respects the author's views on the subject of education. But I have not even seen the book. It was I think sent to the office of the Evening Post when I was absent at Cummington where it was read by Mr. [John R.] Thompson and favorably noticed in the paper. I will read it as soon as I can get hold of it, and will then be ready to speak of it in the way suggested-in case I should, as I do not say I shall, see occasion to do so. Regretting that I cannot do it now, I am dear sir truly yours w. C. BRYANT.

Homer Completed MANUSCRIPT:

427

Carl H. Pforzheimer Library ADDREss: A. Austin.

1. Unidentified. 2. No book with either conjectural title has been identified.

2003. To James T. Fields

Roslyn, L. I. July 13, 1871.

Dear Mr. Fields.

According to Dr. Piper who made in 1856 a drawing of the old walnut-black-walnut tree on my place the Circumference at four feet from the ground is-or was at that time twenty four feet, the height one hundred feet, and the circle made by the branches one hundred and thirty feet across. The tree made its first appearance above ground in a corner of a garden in the year 1713, so that it is now nearly one hundred and fifty seven years old. 1 I duly received Mr. [Warner's] book, and thank you for it. It is very droll and amused me greatly. 2 It is a pity though that his English is here and there so bad. A little overlooking of his work by some literary friend would have made all right. Kind regards to Mrs. Fields, whose visit to this neighborhood we shall long remember with pleasure. 3 Julia desires hers to you both. Yours very truly W. C. BRYANT. MANUSCRIPT:

Mills College Library ADDRESs: James T. Fields Esq.

1. There is a photograph of this tree in Goddard, Roslyn Harbor, p. [ 11]. On July II Fields had written Bryant from Manchester, Massachusetts (NYPL-BG) that he had been accused of exaggeration when describing it, and asked for its actual dimensions. 2. Although the author's name has been scratched out, it is clear from a letter from Fields to Bryant dated July II (NYPL-BG) that it was Charles Dudley Warner (l829-I900), the title My Summer in a Garden (Boston: J. R. Osgood, I870). 3. Fields and his wife Annie had recently paid a visit to the Bryants at Roslyn, to which they looked back "as we do to the thought of summer fields in winter." Annie Fields to Bryant, November 2, I871. NYPL-BG.

2004.

To Francis

Dear sir.

J. Child

Roslyn Long Island July 13 1871.

I thank you for the information contained in the note 1 in regard to the authorship of the poems you have mentioned. I have sent your letter to a gentleman in the publishing office of J. B. Ford & Company

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LETTERS OF WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT

who has the charge of the book in which they appeared that the necessary corrections may be made in the next edition if there should be any. The compilation, strictly speaking is not mine. It was submitted to me by the publishers and I struck out many things and added a considerable number and wrote a preface but it did not occur to me to verify the authorship of the poems you mention. I am glad that you can speak favorably of the "Library" 2 &c. as you must be a good judge of such matters. I have always spoken of your Folk Songs as the best collection of its kind that I had ever met with. 3 Yours very truly W. C. BRYANT. MANUSCRIPT: UVa.

1. Unrecovered. 2. Family Library. See 1927.1. 3. Child's English and Scottish Ballads (Boston [1857-1858]) was a forerunner to his monumental English and Scottish Popular Ballads of 1883-1898. Although Bryant's

letter is unaddressed, its recipient is identified by this reference.

2005.

To James R. Osgood

New York, July 15th [1871]

... As I have finished another book of the Odyssey, I forward it today. But do not let your printers tread on my heels. It is disagreeable to be dunned for copy, and I cannot write as well when I have any vexation of that sort on my mind. In a day or two I will send a short preface for the first volume of the Odyssey. You are right in saying that no new one is wanted for the Iliad .... MANUSCRIPT: Unrecovered TEXT (partial): Life, II, 304.

2006. To Willard Phillips

Dear Phillips.

Cummington July 29, 1871.

Coming to this place about ten days since, I found your card and that of Mrs. Langdon on my library table. It made me sorry that you had not made your visit a little later in the season, but I was somewhat comforted by the reflection that you must have been in good health, and not disinclined to move about, or you would not have made the journey from Boston at all. I hope therefore at some time or other to see you here again and if Mrs. Langdon comes with you all the better. Here is my friend Dr. Dewey, whose letter is lying before me, and who

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429

is ten years younger than you, 1 stoutly refusing to pay me a visit here, on account of the fatigue and discomfort of a journey from Sheffield where he lives-only forty-six miles from this place. I am very busy at present and likely to be so for some months to come-busy in translating the Odyssey. One thought is almost constantly in my mind, making me frugal of my time-that at my age there are a great many holes in the bridge, and if I waste any part of my time which should be given to the translation, I may drop through one of the holes before my task is ended. Kind regards to Mrs. Langdon and to the other members of your household whether I have ever seen them or not. I am, dear Phillips, truly yours. W. C. BRYANT. MANUSCRIPT:

MHS

ADDREss:

Hon

Willard Phillips.

I. Phillips was then in his eighty-seventh year.

2007.

To Julia S. Bryant

Dear Julia.

Cummington

July 30. 1871.

We thought that we might get a letter from you last evening, but it did not come. Mrs. Leunggren, 1 desires me to say that she is "getting along [on] very well," and that I believe is all that is to be said except that it rains more than half the time. I send you with this a letter that has come for you. There is another from Richfield Springs, but that I suppose can wait for your return. I have written to Mr. Waterston, asking him to come with Mrs. Waterston at any time in August after next Friday. Raspberries are plenty; the rains have made them larger than when we came to Cummington. The owners of mowing fields grumble about the showery weather. Kind regards to Anna 2 Yours affectionately W. C. BRYANT. P.S. I have a letter from Miss Christiana Gibson dated at Crieff from the Hotel on the Knock Hill. 3 She is better for the change of air. W.C.B. MANUSCRIPT:

NYPL-GR ADDRESS: Miss Julia Bryant.

I. Presumably the Bryant housekeeper or cook. 2. Julia's close companion in her later life, her cousin Anna Rebecca Fairchild, daughter of Frances Bryant's brother Egbert N. Fairchild (1802-1864). See Bryant's will, in Bigelow, Bryant, p. 346.

LETTERS oF WILLIAM CuLLEN BRYANT

430

3. Letter unrecovered.

2008.

To Jerusha Dewey

Cummington, August 8th [1871]

I thank you for remembering as you did the sad anniversary of the 27th of July 1-sad to us who remain; joyful, no doubt, to her friends beyond the dark river. It is celebrated there, I doubt not, in a different manner, with floral decorations also, but with super-Miltonic hymns-poetry sublimated to a degree which this world knows notand perchance with Lydian measures, trodden by airy feet on the ever-flowery lawns or in the ever-fresh myrtle bowers of Paradise. You often ask me what books I am reading. Homer, of course, and I am obliged to read him pretty carefully. But I brought with me Craik's "History of English Literature and the English Language," 2 which I have been looking into. It is more lively and entertaining than Warton's "History of English Poetry,'' 3 though there are several omissions, but, on the whole, it makes a pleasant book. I have also looked into Dr. Noah Porter's "Books and Reading." 4 He is the president of Yale College, just elected with the general approbation of the learned and the unlearned. He is pretty liberal and catholic in his estimate of authors, but he is much afraid of Emerson, whose pantheism he regards as a form of atheism, and advises those, who in reading him find themselves getting astray, to lay him down forever .... MANUSCRIPT: Unrecovered TEXT (partial): Life, II, 304-305. l. Frances Bryant had died five years before, on July 27, 1866.

2. This was George Lillie Craik (not "Crook," as printed), History of English

Literature and the English Language (1861). 3. Thomas Warton, History of English Poetry (1774-1781). 4. Noah Porter (1811-1892, Yale 1831), a Congregational clergyman, was president of Yale College, 1871-1886. His Books and Reading; or, What Books Shall! Read and How Shall! Read Them? was published at New York in 1870.

2009.

To Robert C. Waterston

My dear Sir.

Cummington

August 9th

1871.

Allow me through you to return my thanks to the Standing Committee of the Massachusetts Historical Society for affording me the opportunity of being present at the Special Meeting of the Members to be held on the hundredth anniversary of the birth of Sir Walter Scott. 1 My engagements will not allow me to attend the meeting, but I desire to take part in the general expression which this anniversary

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will call forth, of admiration for his genius and of gratitude to Providence for having raised up so nobly endowed an intellect to adorn the literature of the age. 2 In the department of letters in which he achieved his highest fame others have since arisen who by their writings have challenged the admiration of mankind, but none of the authors of these later years have displaced him from his high preeminence. The delighted astonishment with which the reading world received his works, one after another, as they appeared, has subsided to a gentler emotion, but the calm wonder with which we now regard them is likely to last while the language in which he wrote shall endure. I am, dear sir, very truly yours. W. C. BRYANT. MANUSCRIPT:

NYHS (final); NYPL-GR (draft) Life, II, 305-306.

ADDRESs:

To the Revd. R. C. Waterston

PUBLISHED:

1. At this meeting, addressed by Emerson, Longfellow, and others, Waterston read Bryant's letter. Life, II, 305 note. Waterston's invitation of August 7 is in NYPLBG. 2. Bryant delivered an address at the dedication of a statue of Scott in Central Park, New York, on November 4, 1872. See the text in his Orations and Addresses, pp. [389]-393.

2010.

To Nestor Corradi 1

Cummington, Massachusetts. August 21, 1871.

Dear Sir.

I am unfortunately unable, for various reasons, to be present at the commemoration of the recovery of Rome to the Italian people and the completion of Italian Unity. 2 I must content myself with expressing my earnest hope that the future destiny of that noble race by whom the different regions of Italy are peopled may be as happy as the liberation of her ancient and renowned capital has been fortunate. I am sir with great respect Your obt Servant W. C BRYANT. MANUSCRIPT:

NYPL-GR (draft)

ADDRESS:

ToN. Corradi Esq.

1. The portrait and miniature painter Nestor Corradi of New Orleans had opened a studio at New York in 1854. DAA. 2. No invitation to Bryant to address such a meeting has been recovered. Previously, however, in January 1871, he had spoken on a similar occasion in the Academy of Music, which celebrated the entrance of an Italian army into Rome on

432

LETTERS OF WILLIAM CuLLEN BRYANT

September 20, 1870, and its establishment by plebiscite on October 2 as the capital of Italy. See "Italian Unity," Orations and Addresses, pp. [353]-358.

2011.

To Christiana Gibson

Dear Miss Gibson,

Cummington, Massachusetts, September 4th. 1871

I was very glad to hear from Crieff again by means of so pleasant a letter as was your last. 1 I knew that sooner or later Dr. Cunningham would gain the battle of the organ, for I saw that the religious mind in Scotland was drifting that way-but I hardly expected to hear of it. 2 You have done well to go to the dry climate of Crieff which in summer is so charming, and I rejoice that it has, as you say, done you good. You do not say whether you submit to the processes of the watercure, which seem to me a little harsh, but I suppose you yield them what may be called a qualified compliance. I am here at work upon the Odyssey, of which I have translated eighteen books-three fourths of the whole number. My brother John is with me, and I have had a visit from my other brother Arthur, living also in Illinois. The summer here has been as cool as I found it in Cireff, and my brother and I have had many a long walk over the hills and through the woods. At every step the blackberries tempt us; the brambles are loaded with the glistening fruit, of a finer variety and richer flavor far, than any which grow naturally or are brought to market in the neighborhood of New York. Blackberries are in fact our daily feast, and here they have a long season lasting till October, unless too severe a frost affects their flavor. Julia just now has left us for a ten days visit to Berkshire, taking with her Miss Fairchild 3 and Miss Leupp, the horses and the colored coachman, Jerry Mayhew, a sleek fellow whom we picked up at Roslyn, delighting in fresh white gloves and big silver-plated buttons. Julia made the same visit last summer and found so many friends in Berkshire, and was so well pleased, that she made up her mind to repeat it. Tomorrow I expect Professor Snell of Amherst, 4 my cousin, who brings his wife and two daughters, to see the place where his father was born and passed his youth. I may as well tell you here of a folly which I have been committing. I have purchased the place adjoining and overlooking this which my grandfather Snell, nearly a hundred years since, reclaimed from the wilderness. It is a remarkably fine place in some respects, having a commanding site with views of even greater extent than this. The carpenters are fitting up the house, so that Fanny may sometimes occupy it. 5 Mr. Skirving, of whom you speak, was I believe a contributor to

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Blackwood. He and Mr. Leupp wrote frequently to each other after we came back from the East. 6 I was glad to hear of him again. In this world where death strikes down men so suddenly, there is-to me at least-great satisfaction in hearing that some one whom we knew and thought well of years ago, is still in life and acting his part among his fellow men. I was greatly-shocked I may say-to hear of the death of Mr. Edwin W. Field of Hampstead, by drowning in the Thames-a man of prodigious mental and physical energy, who seemed almost sure of a long life. 7 I suppose that by this time you have returned to Morningside, where I hope you have found your dog and the canaries reclaimed from their vagrant habits, your fruit-trees far exceeding their meagre promise in the early season, and your autumnal turnips making amends for the crop that ran to seed. Talking of fruit-here is all New England, which till now was proud of the abundance and quality of its apples, now literally without them. The pear trees are doing their best to make up the deficiency and are loaded with fine pears, but there is hardly one pear tree to five hundred apple trees. With kindest regards to your excellent mother and scarcely less excellent elder sister, and all others of your family, I am, dear Miss Gibson, faithfully yours W. C. BRYANT. NYPL-BPMP Sept. 4 I 1871.

MANUSCRIPT:

ADDRESS:

Miss Christiana Gibson

DOCKETED:

Mr. Bryant:

1. Letter unrecovered. 2. John Cunningham (Letter 1713). Bryant's reference to the "battle of the organ" is explained in Letter 1714. 3. Anna Fairchild. 4. Ebenezer Strong Snell (1801-1876), son of Cullen's uncle Thomas Snell; see Letters 2012, 2013. 5. See 2012.4. 6. See Letter 818. 7. See Letter 2024.

2012.

To Julia S. Bryant

Dear Julia.

Cummington

Sept. 5. 1871.

I got your letter last night 1-Monday evening- I am glad that you have had so pleasant a journey and reception at Lenox. I take for granted that you have had the same fine weather there as we have had here-this is the sixth fine day. We are expecting the Amherst professor and his family this afternoon, and Mrs. Leunggren has been

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OF

WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT

purveying for them. Tell Laura [Leupp] that the blackberries are finer and more plentiful than ever and we expect to astonish our friends from a less favored quarter of the state with their excellence and abundance. 2 There is nothing new going on here. As the Spaniards say, when all is right, No hoy novedad. 3 The new road is making progress and we hope it will be done by the time you get back so that you can have a new pleasant walk. 4 I had a letter from Miss Dewey last evening. 5 She complains that you do not write to her. Mr. Strong has brought his wife to look at Roslyn-a pleasing, but very quiet person. She says nothing about the place, and Mr. Strong has not yet accepted the call.-6 Kind regards to the young ladies. Mrs. Leunggren sends love to all and bids me say that every thing is going on well. Affectionately W C. BRYANT. MANUSCRIPT: NYPL-GR ADDRESS: Miss Julia Bryant. 1. Letter unrecovered. 2. See Letter 2011. 3. "No news today." 4. This was a winding driveway Bryant was building to give access to a new house he was erecting on the hill above his homestead, on the site of-and apparently incorporating within it-an earlier house built about 1806 by his uncle Ebenezer Snell, Jr. See Letter 2018; Only One Cummington, p. 355. 5. Letter unrecovered. 6. In 1871 Charles R. Strong succeeded Samuel R. Ely as pastor of the First Presbyterian Church of Roslyn. Goddard, Roslyn Harbor, p. 106.

2013.

To Julia S. Bryant

Dear Julia.

Cummington

September 6th

1871.

I thought you might like to hear of us once more before coming away from Lenox. The weather has been most delightful for the last seven days, this included. Last evening at five o'clock a carriage drove up to our door with four people-my cousin, Professor Snell with his wife and daughters. They are pleasant, cheerful people. This morning they went to see the Snell place and the Cemetery. About one o'clock Mrs. Mitchell came with Jenny and the little Weston boy 1 and dined with us. She goes this afternoon to Plainfield to be at the wedding tomorrow. Our guests from Amherst-tell Miss Leupp--are particularly fond of blackberries. The pears-Roslyn pears-that is of the sort which grows by the corn house came on Thursday evening in

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435

good order, but are going so fast that I think they will be part rotten and the rest eaten, before you get home, which I hope will be on Saturday at furthest. Kind regards to all Yours affectionately W. C. BRYANT. MANUSCRIPT:

NYPL-GR ADDREss: Miss Julia Bryant.

1. Bryant's niece Ellen Theresa Shaw Mitchell (Mrs. Clark Ward Mitchell); see 738.1. Jenny and the Weston boy have not been certainly identified.

2014.

To Jerusha Dewey

Cummington, September 6th [1871]

... Here we have had a visit from Mr. and Mrs. Waterston, of Boston. Mr. Waterston preached on Sunday before last in the new house on the hill, yet unfinished, to a congregation of some fifty persons, assembled at a short notice-a sermon decidedly clever and well thought out, though extempore. 1 The people were all highly delighted, and expressed themselves grateful for the treat he had given them. A few days afterward I saw Mr. Samuels, 2 the orthodox minister in the West Village. He asked why I did not inform him that Mr. Waterston was here and would preach, as in that case he would have offered him his pulpit; and, when I said that I had not expected that, he remarked that he was not "easily scared." ... MANUSCRIPT:

Unrecovered TEXT (partial): Life, II, 306.

1. Waterston described this incident in detail in "A Sunday at Cummington," in his Tribute to William Cullen Bryant . .. at the Meeting of the Massachusetts Historical Society, june 13, 1878 (Boston: John Wilson & Son, 1878), pp. 22-25. 2. Rev. Robert Samuels was pastor of the West Cummington Congregational Church in 1871-1872. Only One Cummington, p. 400. The printed text has "Samuel."

2015.

To Orville Dewey

Dear Doctor.

Cummington September 11th 1871.

It is a very fine thing to be a mountain, for then you are not obliged to go to Mahomet, but Mahomet must come to you. It is my lot, I perceive, to play the part of Mahomet, since the mountain will not stir from its place. 1 I am only an example of the great law by which the little gravitates to the large. Hold a stone over the edge of a precipice and then open your hand and the stone falls down to the earth-the earth does not fall upward to the stone. Wherefore it may

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WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT

be inferred that the man who said to his wife "Please sew my coat to this button," used the wrong phrase, and should have said "Please sew this button to my coat." I want to see you and as there can be no hope of either getting you to this place, or to Roslyn, I must try to see you at Sheffield, on my way to New York, should it be convenient to you to receive me, and should nothing occur to make [it] inconvenient for me to stop in my descent to a lower latitude. I am busy with the Odyssey, "and how am I straitened till" the task be "fulfilled!" I think I have quoted rightly. 2 The shadows of the hills and trees are growing fearfully long, and the sun, though shining pleasantly, yet, seems not far from the vapors that dim the horizon's edge. I sometimes say to myself, "what if he should set before my task is finished!" So you see I am naturally enough frugal of my days, and though I take care not to work too hard-for life at my age is a brittle thing and will not bear to be rudely tossed about, yet it makes me uneasy to miss a single day. 3 I am glad to know that the memoir of Miss Sedgwick is through the press. I am now certain of reading it at some time or other, in doing which I promise myself much pleasure. 4 We have had Mr. and Mrs. Waterston with us-an eight days visit-think of that! What a case-an example I mean-of self sacrifice, which ought to make you, who so selfishly stay at home, consider whether you are not letting others go far beyond you in the practice of that greatest in the catalogue of virtues- However that may be, I hope to see you, if that should be convenient for you, about the last week of this month, but will write further to say when I am coming, if to come should be in my power. Mean time commend me to the kind remembrance of your wife and all others of your amiable household very truly yours W. C. BRYANT. MANUSCRIPT: NYPL-GR ADDRESS: Revd Dr 0. Dewey. 1. Cf. Bacon, Essays, "Boldness": "Mahomet made the people believe that he would call a hill to him, and from the top of it offer up his prayers for the observers of his law. The people assembled: Mahomet called the hill to come to him again and again; and when the hill stood still, he was never a whit abashed, but said, 'If the hill will not come to Mahomet, Mahomet will go to the hill.' " Dewey had apparently again declined an invitation to Cummington. See Letter 2006. 2. The source of this quotation is obscure. 3. In reply to this letter, Dewey wrote on September 12: "Dear and Venerable,For it seems you grow old, and count the diminishing days, as a bankrupt counts his ducats. I never heard you say anything of the sort before, and have only thought of you as gorwing richer in every way." Autobiography and Letters of Orville Dewey, D. D., ed. Mary E. Dewey (Boston, 1884), pp. 315-316. 4. See 1887.1.

Homer Completed

2016.

To James B. Thayer

Cummington September 12th

My dear Sir.

437

1871.

I thank you for the trouble which you have so kindly taken in communicating the fact of the two omissions which I have made, of passages in the Odyssey-leaving them untranslatable. The omissions were accidental certainly. 1 I have not the first volume of the Greek here to verify them, and shall be obliged to postpone repairing my fault till I return to New York and Roslyn. It vexes me very much that I have been guilty of this blunder. I thought that I was very exact, and had taken great pains to avoid such accidents-but the truth is that I was always in danger of making blunders of one sort or another from my youth up. I am glad that your general opinion of the work is so favorable. I have tried to make the translation readable, and not wholly to lose one characteristic of Homer, that of being a good story-teller. Meantime I shall very thankfully receive any suggestions which it may occur to you to make, as you are looking over my translation. It cannot but have faults, I am certain. It has been with me a solitary task. I have not consulted a living soul in regard to the rendering of a single line or even word in it, and it is all the more likely to be faulty on that account. I hope I have not omitted any other passages than those which you have done me the favor to mention. I am, dear sir, very truly yours, W. C. BRYANT. MANUSCRIPT:

HCL ADDRESS:

J. B. Thayer Esq. PUBLISHED (in part): Life, II, 309-310.

1. Addressing Bryant on September 8 (NYPL-BG), Thayer reported that he had written a notice of Bryant's translation of the Odyssey for the Boston Daily Advertiser, and had found that two passages, one of seven and the other of fifteen lines, had been omitted. He added that the omissions were obviously accidental.

2017. To Leonice M.S. Moulton

Dear Mrs. Moulton.

Cummington September 18th

1871.-

I am glad to learn that your landlord is liberal enough to freshen the interior of your dwelling with paint and wall-paper. It implies, I think, that he wishes to keep you as a tenant. 1 The verses that you sent me I had already seen-those I mean of Mr. Waterston; he brought them to me himself-made us an eight days visit, and preached in a large unfurnished house near us, to the

LETTERS OF WILLIAM CuLLEN BRYANT

438

great acceptance of a considerable audience. But the slip of paper pasted in your letter, 2 concerning the Reverend Abraham Jackson, seventy eight years old, and Mrs. Rachel Allen, of seventy four, was quite new to me, and when I handed your letter to Julia to read, was not understood. She thought they were dead, and innocently asked what I could know about them, that you should send me their names and ages. But I told her that I was sure that they were only marriedthough the slip did not say so and though it was true enough that people were apt to die when as old as this couple were. The first volume of the Odyssey, to which you refer so kindly, is now published, and I am, if any thing, better satisfied with the translation than the one I made of the Iliad. You speak of the coolness of the season, and fires on the hearth at evening and morning. Here it has been, at one time, absolutely cold-but we have none of the hickory coals you speak of. The tree does not grow here naturally-neither that, nor the oak, nor the chestnut. We burn beech, yellow birch, and the sugar maple, best of all. Kind regards to Mr. Moulton and the professor .... 3 MANUSCRIPT: NYPL-Bryant-Moulton Letters ADDRESS: Mrs. L. M S. Moulton I care of J. W. Moulton Esq. I Roslyn I Queens Co. Long Island I N. Y. POSTMARK: Cummington West Village MASS I SEP I 18. 1. The Moultons were apparently then occupying a cottage on Bryant's property.

2. Unrecovered.

3. John Ordronaux (1033.5). The complimentary close and signature have been cut from this letter.

2018.

To Robert C. Waterston

Dear Friend

Cummington

Sept. 23d

1871.

Julia and I were very glad to learn, first from your letter, 1 and next from that of Mrs. Waterston, that your visit to the northwestern corner of our state, was so pleasant. I only wish that you could have lingered a little longer in Williamstown-the scenery of which, if you could have explored it a little further, you would have found, not only beautiful, but of a largeness and diversity of beauty, which entitle it to be called magnificent. The fine weather began just as you left us,-the weather which was meant, I doubt not for your visit to Cummington, only you made your visit a little too early to allow the two blessings to coincide. Long before this the cool-1 should have written coldnights, and the keen air of the mornings must have sent you back to Chester Square.

Homer Completed

439

But you and your better half did not take every thing with you when you left Cummington. You left a pleasant memory, not only with us, but with our good neighbors, who speak of the religious services which you were so obliging as to hold at the new house on the hill, as a "treat," and I must confess, I quite agree with them. Another summer we will hope to see you again on these hills. If the season had not been a cool one on the Atlantic coast, you would have found the refreshment of a visit to this hill country much greater. We are on the eve of flitting. My brothers have both left me, 2 and we go either Monday or Tuesday, if that be the good pleasure of Providence. The new house is nearly half plastered, and the new road is made to it-a pretty winding way-a sauntering, loitering road, creeping sideways up the slopes and humoring the undulations of the surface, and now and then passing through a thicket of trees. I have seen all my improvements in a good way, and now I must go back to Roslyn, where the autumnal climate is more genial and where the summer sunshine and summer flowers linger later than here. By the way, what bad lines those are in Goldsmiths Deserted Village, "Where smiling Spring her earliest visit paid, And parting Summer's lingering blooms delayed" 3 Observe the cacaphony- "ing ing ing ing" and observe what is worse, the tautology of the second line. "Smiling," too, in the first line, is a trivial epithet, and has no business there. But I did not begin this letter with any expectation of ending it with a critical disquisition. I will do what is better, by way of conclusion-that is, by commending myself to a place in the kind remembrance of my good friend Mrs. Waterston, to whom Julia sends her best love. Yours very cordially W. C. BRYANT. MANUSCRIPT:

1. 2. him at 3.

2019.

NYHS ADDREss: Revd Robert C. Waterston.

Unrecovered. Arthur and John Bryant, Cullen's surviving brothers, then customarily visited Cummington each summer. See Life, II, 324-325. Oliver Goldsmith, The Deserted Village ( 1770), lines 3-4.

To James B. Thayer

Roslyn, October 3d [1871]

... I have your criticism of my work in the Boston "Daily Advertiser." You treat my version of the Odyssey very tenderly, and I am glad that

440

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OF

WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT

you found in it so much to commend, besides owing you so many thanks for commending it with so little reserve. 1 In the particular of vivacity, which you hint might have been attained in a greater degree by a careful attention to the effect and force of the particles in the original Greek, it is very likely that one more familiar with the niceties of that language than I am might have been more successful in transferring their import in some way to our language; but I found an obstacle in my way-the necessity of adopting paraphrases, which seemed to me difficult to reconcile with the Homeric rapidity of narrative. I shall be glad at any time to receive the suggestions of which you speak, and which I am sure will be valuable .... MANUSCRIPT: Unrecovered TEXT (partial): Life, II, 310. 1. Sending a copy of this notice, Thayer had written in an accompanying letter from Boston on September 28 (NYPL-BG), "The new Iliad & Odyssey are a great & permanent addition to our literature."

2020.

To George Bancroft

My dear Mr. Bancroft.

Roslyn, Long Island, October 9th. 1871.

This note will be brought to you by Mrs. C. Wheeler, 1 who with her two daughters and a son-in-law, a chemist, is to visit Berlin, I believe with the expectation of making it a residence for a short time, and of ere long being joined by her husband, a retired New York merchant. Mrs. Wheeler is a person of cultivated mind and agreeable conversation, and is held in high esteem by a large circle of friends. I venture to commend her to those attentions which as the representative of our country you are ever ready to show to your fellow citizens and especially to persons of such merit as the bearer of this note. 2 I am, dear Mr. Bancroft, very truly yours, W. C. BRYANT. MANUSCRIPT: DuU ADDRESS: A son Excellence I George Bancroft, I Ministre des Etats Unis, I Berlin, Prusse.1. Possibly Mrs. Candace Wheeler, to whom Bryant wrote on January 31, 1876, regarding a fair for the benefit of the Young Women's Christian Association. See letter 2362. 2. From 1867 to 1874 Bancroft served as United States minister to Berlin.

Homer Completed

2021. To William Dean Howells 1

My dear sir.

441

New York October lOth. 1871.-

It is a compliment to be asked to contribute to the Atlantic Monthly, of the value of which I am fully sensible, but I am at present quite unable to send you any thing for several reasons-one of which is that I have nothing ready written, and another, that I am so closely engaged with the Odyssey, that I have no time to write any thing. 2 I am, sir, very truly yours. W. C. BRYANT. MANUSCRIPT:

HCL.

1. Although the recipient of this letter is not named in the text, it may be conjectured that it was William Dean Howells (1837-1920), who had become editorin-chief of the Atlantic Monthly earlier in 1871. 2. This invitation for a contribution to the magazine has not been recovered. But see Howells to Bryant, August 18, 1873 (NYPL-GR), asking for a series of autobiographical articles for the Atlantic.

2022. To Messrs. James R. Osgood & Co.

Gentlemen.

New York, October 17th. 1871.

I mail, this day, to your address, the manuscript of my translation of the Twenty first Book of Homer's Odyssey. Will you do me the favor to let me know whether it comes to your hands? Yours very truly. W. C. BRYANT. MANUSCRIPT:

NYUL ADDREss: To Messrs.

2023. To James B. Thayer

My dear sir.

J. R. Osgood & Co. New York October 27th 1871.-

I should have thanked you before this for your manuscript of suggestions relating to my translation of the Odyssey but I have been so busy with the work as almost to neglect every thing else. When I am more at leisure I shall sit down to see what can be done to mend my lines according to the lights you have given me. Your animadversions

LETTERS

442

OF

WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT

seem to me very valuable, and you have laid me under a real obligation.1 I am, dear sir, truly yours. W. C. BRYANT. MANUSCRIPT: HCL ADDREss:

J. B. Thayer Esq.

1. On October 14 Thayer had sent Bryant what Godwin describes as an "almost word by word" comparison of Bryant's translation with the original Greek. Life, II, 310. Thayer's accompanying letter is in NYPL-BG.

2024.

To Alfred Field

[Dear Mr. Field,

Roslyn, November 20th [1871]

Ever since the news was brought to us of the sad death of your brother Edwin I have meant to write to you to express my sorrow and my sympathy with the members of his family in England. 1 I have no excuse for not doing that earlier save that I was engaged in an engrossing literary task which tempted me to put off writing to you from day to day till I am quite mortified to see how long I have delayed it.)2 The death of your brother, a man of such high and noble aims, so able, so active, so public-spirited, and singularly energetic and efficient in whatever he undertook, is a public calamity. Those who knew him in this country feel that, although it is England that loses in him one of her most useful citizens, no such man can pass away without his loss being felt by the civilized world, since nothing can be done for the good of the human race in any country without the world at large being in some way the better for it-by the influence of example, at least, if nothing more. As for myself, I have been so much in the habit of connecting my idea of him with my visits to your country, when so many years of activity were apparently before him. I was deeply touched by the testimony, so warmly expressed, which your wife in her letter to my daughter 3 bore to your brother's worth. The consolation of his friends under this calamity lies in the reflection that his life, up to the moment of its close, was crowded with good deeds and useful services. That it was so prematurely closed [was?] we know the appointment of a wisdom which we cannot question. Measured by the good he did, his life was a long one-longer than that of thousands who have died of old age .... 4

Homer Completed NYPL-GR (incomplete draft) manuscript.

MANUSCRIPT:

TEXT

443

(partial): Life, II, 311, and draft

1. On July 30, 1871 Edwin W. Field and his law clerk Henry Elwood were drowned when their sailboat capsized on the Thames. Though both were good swimmers, they became exhausted supporting another clerk who could not swim, yet was saved by their efforts. Warwick [England] Advertizer, August 8, 1871. 2. Matter between brackets is from the draft manuscript. 3. Letter unrecovered. 4. Edwin Field is commemorated in a memorial window in the Rosslyn Hill Chapel at Hampstead, London, where Bryant had gone with him in 1858 to hear Rev. Thomas Sadler, its pastor from 1846 to 1891. See Rosslyn Hill Cluzpel, A Short History, 1692-1973 (London: Rosslyn Hill Chapel [1974]), pp. 77, 84; Vol. IV, 9.

2025. To Messrs. James R. Osgood & Co.

Gentlemen.

New York

Nov. 22d

1871.

I have sent you by mail the manuscript of my translation of the twenty third book of Homer's Odyssey. Please advise me of its reaching you- The last book is partly done, and will be sent before long. Yours very truly w. C. BRYANT. MANUSCRIPT:

2026.

DuU

ADDRESS:

To Messrs.

J.

R. Osgood & Co.

To Messrs. James R. Osgood & Co.

Gentlemen.

New York, Nov. 27, 1871.

I should take it as a favor if you could have the printing and the proofreading, so far as I am concerned, of the second volume of the Odyssey completed within the month of December-as I am thinking of making a journey in December. I should be glad also if the contract could be executed about this time. The last book is more than half done. Yours truly W. C. BRYANT. MANUSCRIPT:

Andrew B. Myers

ADDREss:

Messrs J. R. Osgood & Co.

2027. To Messrs. James R. Osgood & Co.

New York, December 7th [1871]

... I have sent you by mail the twenty-fourth and concluding book of my translation of Homer's Odyssey, together with the table of contents for the second volume ....

LETTERS

444

OF

WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT

MANUSCRIPT: Unrecovered TEXT (partial): Life, II, 311. 1. Godwin contrasted this "bald announcement" with William Cowper's "beautiful words" prefacing his translation of Homer [eighty] years earlier: "And now I have only to regret that my pleasant work is ended. To the illustrious Greek I owe the smooth and easy flight of many thousand hours. He has been my companion at home and abroad, in the study, in the garden, and in the field; and no measure of success, let my labors succeed as they may, will ever compensate to me the loss of the innocent luxury that I have enjoyed as a translator of Homer." Life, II, 311. But Bryant-who had said of Cowper's diction in his Homer that "The greater part is in such stilted phrase" that "all the freedom and fire of the old poet is lost" (Letter 1338)commented more soberly in his own preface, "I have found this a not unpleasing employment for a period of life which admonishes me that I can not many times more appear before the public in this or any other manner; .... This gentler exercise of the intellectual faculties [gentler than that of original composition] agrees better with that stage of life when the brain begins to be haunted by a presentiment that the time of its final repose is not far off' (Odyssey, I [iii]).

2028. To Robert Bonner

Dear Sir.

New York Dec 9th 1871.

It struck me after Mr. Bartlett 1 left me yesterday that a passage from my version of the Odyssey might answer your purpose-that part I mean which is not yet published, the second volume not being yet out, and now passing through the press. The publishers would not object, provided their name were mentioned. It might be prefaced thus: "From the Manuscript of W. C. Bryants Translation of the Odyssey, now in press and to be published by J. R. Osgood & Co." 2 But I only mention this that you may consider whether this would be what you want. Please let me know. Yours truly W. C. Bryant. MANUSCRIPT: NYU ADDREss: R. Bonner Esq. 1. Perhaps this was William 0. Bartlett, later an editorial writer on Charles A. Dana's New York Sun. See Frank Luther Mott, American journalism: A History of Newspapers in the United States Through 250 Years, 1690 to 1940 (New York: Macmillan, 1941), p. 376. 2. Evidently this provision did not suit Bonner; see Letter 2029.

2029.

To Robert Bonner

My dear sir.

New York, Dec

14th. 1871.

I am obliged to return your Cheque, which you will find enclosed. I have a letter from J. R. Osgood & Co. 1 in which they say:

445

Homer Completed

"It really seems to us that no publication ought to be made from the Odyssey without a statement of the fact that it is a part of the translation to be published by us. "2 Yours truly W. C. BRYANT. MANUSCRIPT:

UTex ADDRESS: Robert Bonner Esq.

1. Letter unrecovered. 2. Although no reply from Bonner has been recovered, this stipulation was apparently unacceptable to him.

2030. To an Unidentified Correspondent

Dear Madam.

The Evening Post, 41 Nassau Street, cor. Liberty, New York, December 16. 1871

I cannot positively say that the ancestors of our family, the Bryants came from England, but that is the tradition. I have heard my father say that the first of the Bryants in the Old Colony came from the West of England, and I remember that my grandfather, Dr. Philip Bryant a brother of Job Bryant, once said in my hearing that his ancestor of that name came to Plymouth in the second ship that came over. The name of this first Bryant was Stephen. If I had some papers at hand relating to him, I could give you more information respecting him, but they are at present not within my reach, being at some distance from me, in my house in the country. Stephen Bryant was a very early settler in the Old Colony, and the ancestor of a numerous class of descendants. When I was in England I found the name Bryant very common there. I found them in Somersetshire, where there were a great many towns and parishes bearing the names which are given to townships in the Old Colony, such as Taunton Bridgewater, Kingston &c. &c. The strong probability is therefore, that the first Bryant was from England. I am Madam, respectfully yours. W. C. BRYANT. MANUSCRIPT:

Homestead Collection.

2031. To George H. Bryant

My dear sir.

New York

December 18th

1871.-

When you wrote me concerning a volume of my poems about a year since, I was about getting out a new edition. It has since come out

446

LETTERS OF WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT

and as the holidays are not far off I send you a copy as you then hinted. It is not long since it was got out after an incubation of many months. Will you please let me know of its coming to your hands. Yours very truly W. C. BRYANT. MANUSCRIPT: UVa ADDREss: Geo

2032.

H.

Bryant

To Theseus A. Cheney

Esq.

New York, December 19th

Dear Sir.

1871.

I have none of the autographs of the persons whom you name, except that of Mr. [George] Bancroft, of whose letters and notes I have several, one of which I might send for your collection, if I had it at hand, but they are all in the country at my place, to which I do not intend to return at present. When I am again at Roslyn, if I can remember it, I will send you a note of Mr. Bancroft's. General [John A.] Dix is, I believe, now in New York. I am, sir, truly yours. w. C. BRYANT. MANUSCRIPT: CU ADDRESS:

2033.

Dr. T. A

Cheney.

To George H. Bryant

The Evening Post, 41 Nassau Street, cor. Liberty, New York, Deer. 30 1871

Dear Sir.

It was careless in me not to inform you by what conveyance the volume of my poems was sent to Buffalo for you. It was the American Merchant's Union Express. You will no doubt find the parcel at their office in your city, if you will send for it. I am, sir, truly yours. W. C BRYANT. P.S. I have not yet come upon the coat of arms belonging to Sir Guy Bryant W.C.B. MANUSCRIPT: UVa ADDRESS: George

H.

Bryant

Esq.

Abbreviations and Short Titles Adkins, Halleck. Adkins, Nelson Frederick. Fitz.-Greene Halleck: An Early Knickerbocker Wit and Poet. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1930. BDAC. Biographical Dictionary of the American Congress, 1774-1961. Washington: United States Government Printing Office, 1961. Bigelow, Bryant. Bigelow, John. William Cullen Bryant. ("American Men of Letters") Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1897. Bigelow, Retrospections. Bigelow, John. Retrospections of an Active Life. ... 5 vols. New York: The Baker & Taylor Co., 1909-1913. Bryant, "Diary, 1866-1867." Manuscript "W. C. Bryant's Journal of a Tour in Europe November 1866 to Sept 1867" in Goddard-Roslyn Collection, New York Public Library. Bryant, Iliad. The Iliad of Homer, Translated into English Blank Verse by William Cullen Bryant. 2 vols. in one. Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin [1870]. "Bryant: Illinois Landholder." Baxter, David J. "William Cullen Bryant: Illinois Landholder." Western Illinois Regional Studies, I (Spring 1978), 1-14. Bryant, Odyssey. The Odyssey of Homer, Translated into English Blank Verse by William Cullen Bryant. 2 vols. in one. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1881. Bryant, Orations and Addresses. Orations and Addresses by William Cullen Bryant. New York: Putnam's, 1873. Bryant & Henderson. Theodore Hornberger. William Cullen Bryant and Isaac Henderson; New Evidence on A Strange Partnership . ... Austin: University of Texas Library, 1950. DAA. Groce, George C., and Wallace, David H. The New-York Historical Society's Dictionary of Artists in America, 1564-1860. New Haven and London: Yale University Press [1957]. EP. New York Evening Post. Goddard, Roslyn Harbor. Goddard, Conrad Godwin. The Early History of Roslyn Harbor, Long Island. Printed by the Author [ 1972]. Hoyt, "Bryant Correspondence." Hoyt, William D., Jr., "Some Unpublished Bryant Correspondence (II)," New York History 21 (April1940), 193-194. Lehmann-Haupt. The Book in America. Lehmann-Haupt, Hellmut, in collaboration with Lawrence C. Wroth and Rollo G. Silver. The Book in America: A History of the Making and Selling of Books in the United States. Second Edition. New York: Bowker, 1952. Library of Poetry. A Library of Poetry and Song, Being Choice Selections from the Best Poets, with an Introduction by William Cullen Bryant. New York: J. B. Ford. 1870. Life. Godwin, Parke. A Biography of William Cullen Bryant, With Extracts from His Private Correspondence. 2 vols. New York: D. Appleton, 1883. Longfellow, Letters. The Letters of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Ed. Andrew Hilen. 4 vols. Cambridge: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1966-1972. McKitrick, johnson and Reconstruction. McKitrick, Eric L. Andrew johnson and Reconstruction. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press [ 1960]. Nevins, Evening Post. Nevins, Allan. The Evening Post: A Century of journalism. New York: Boni & Liveright [1922]. Nevins, Fish. Nevins, Allan. Hamilton Fish: The Inner History of the Grant Administration. . . . 2 vols. New York: Frederick Ungar [1957]. NUC. Library of Congress Catalogs; National Union Catalog, 1979- . Washington: Library of Congress, 19800nly One Cummington. Foster, Helen H., and Streeter, William W. Only One Cumming-

448

LETTERS OF WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT

ton: A Book in Two Parts. Cummington, Massachusetts: Cummington Historical Commission, 1974. Poems (1876). Poems by William Cullen Bryant. Collected and Arranged by the Author. Illustrated by One Hundred Engravings from Drawings by Birket Foster, Harry Fenn, Alfred Fredericks, and Others. New York: D. Appleton [1876]. Poetical Works. The Poetical Works of William Cullen Bryant. Ed. Parke Godwin. 2 vols. New York: D. Appleton, 1883. Randall and Donald. Randall, J. G., and Donald, David, The Civil War and Reconstruction, 2d. ed. Boston and Toronto: Little, Brown [1969]. VanDeusen, Seward. VanDeusen, Glydon G. William Henry Seward. New York: Oxford University Press, 1967. Vital Records of Cummington. Streeter, William W., and Morris, Daphne H., The Vital Records of Cummington, Massachusetts, 1762-1900 [Hartford, Connecticut, 1979). Wershub, 100 Years of Medical Progress. Wershub, Leonard Paul. One Hundred Years of Medical Progress: A History of the New York Medical College Flower and Fifth Avenue Hospitals. Springfield, Illinois: Charles C. Thomas [1967].

Index of Recipients Volume V

References are to Letter numbers. Adams, Charles Francis, 1565, 1617 Aldrich, Thomas Bailey, 1656 American Free Trade League, 1755 Ames, Ellis, 1580 Amy, Francis Javier, 1618 Arnold, George, 1541 Atwood, M. G., 1603 Austin, A., 2002 Baker, William A., 1851 Bancroft, George, 1661, 2010 Barnard, Frederick Augustus Porter, 1961, 1963 Barney, Hiram, 1723, 1724, 1726 Barrett, G. C., 1894 Beekman, James William, 1624 Bellows, Henry Whitney, 1586 Bennet, Emma, 1733 Berrian, T. B. C., 1552 Bigelow, Jane Poultney (Mrs. John Bigelow), 1550 Bigelow, John, 1525, 1536, 1561, 1609, 1612, 1619, 1620, 1621, 1627, 1632, 1761, 1812, 1813, 1863, 1909 Bogart, Daniel, 1588, 1610, 1985 Boker, George Henry, 1745 Bonner, Robert, 1754,1780,1782,1902,1970, 1971,2028,2029 Booth, Edwin, 1913 Botta, Vincenzo, 1966 Boutwell, George Sewall, 1903 Bovee, Marvin Henry, 1538, 1734 Boyd, Andrew, 1725 British and North American Mail Steamship Co., 1719 Brown, H. C., 1894 Bryant, Arthur, 1593, 1643, 1962 Bryant, Austin, 1517, 1570 Bryant, F. P., 1885 Bryant, Frances F., 1528, 1542, 1543, 1553, 1554, 1555, 1556, 1557, 1558, 1559, 1560, 1566, 1574, 1625

Bryant, George H., 1898, 1911, 2031, 2033 Bryant, John Howard, 1512, 1582, 1583, 1594, 1633, 1634, 1636, 1637, 1642, 1644, 1651, 1655, 1687, 1741, 1759, 1777, 1779, 1820, 1836, 1848, 1946, 1950, 1964 Bryant, Julia S., 1549, 1646, 1799, 1803, 1804, 1805, 1806, 1810, 1815, 1877, 1878, 1879, 1880,1957,1994,1995,2007,2012,2013 Bryant, S., 1577 Carey, Alice, 1841 Chase, Salmon Portland, 1783, 1789 Cheney, Theseus Apoleon, 1727, 1760, 1873, 2032 Chesson, F. W., 1563 · Child, Francis James, 1568, 1589, 2004 Childs, George William, 1551 Church, William Conant, 1628 Cline, George B., 1613, 1663, 1676, 1690, 1694, 1705, 1707, 1801 Columbia College, Trustees of, 1531 Corcoran Gallery of Art, Trustees of, 1982 Corradi, Nestor, 2010 Corzenaga, Antonio, 1792 Cozzens, Frederick Swartwout, 1751 Creamer, David, 1931 Cunningham, John, 1713 Dana, Edmund Trowbridge, 1652 Dana, Richard Henry, 1529, 1537, 1611, 1631, 1638, 1639, 1647, 1649, 1668, 1738, 1739, 1764, 1824, 1831, 1838, 1844, 1861, 1943, 1954, 1997 [Davisson?] E. F., 1774 Dawes, Francis Howland, 1530, 1608, 1623, 1701, 1989 Dawes, Henry Laurens, 1915 Deane, Charles, 1867 Dennison, William, 1567 Dewey, Jerusha, 1689,1728,1767,1796,1977, 2008,2014 Dewey, Orville, 1697, 1887, 1917, 1930,2015

450

LETTERS OF WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT

Dickson, Samuel Henry, 1852 Dodge, Robert, 1999 Dudley, Alice, 1960 Durand, Asher Brown, 1975 Durand, John, 1672, 1674, 1681, 1682, 1684, 1696, 1706, l7ll, 1729, 1988 Duyckinck, Evert Augustus, 1548, 1762 Dwight, Theodore, Jr.?, 1547 Edmonds, John Worth, 1752 Edwards, Richard, 1645, 1650 Evangelides, Alexander C., 1605 Evening Post, 1671, 1675, 1677, 1679, 1685, 1693, 1714 Everett, Edward, 1511 Faish, W., 1832 Fenton, Reuben Eaton, 1648, 1771 Field, Alfred, 2024 Field, Cyrus West, 1828 Field, David Dudley, 1850 Field, Edwin Wilkins, 1708, 1712, 1849 Field, Ferdinand Emans, 1722, 1821, 1825, 1858,1875,2000 Fields, James Thomas, 1535, 1622, 1657, 1659, 166~ 173~ 1732, 1775, 1817, 1826, 1939, 1990,1993,2003 Messrs. Fields, Osgood & Co., 1899, 1958 Fish, Hamilton, 1833, 1842, 1843, 1845, 1846 Folsom, S. Sarah, 1571 Messrs. John B. Ford & Co., 1927, 1935, 1936, 1941, 1942, 1944 French, E., 1735 French, John William, 1895 Fuller, Jane Gay, 1781 Furlong, J. K., 1743 Garfield, James Abram, 1973 Garvin, Samuel B., 1883 Gaubart, M. N., 1579 Gibson, Christiana, 1595, 1666, 1699, 1720, 1748, l8ll, 1901, 1948, 1974,2001, 20ll Gilman, Daniel Coit, 1658, 1835, 1837, 1853, 1929 Godwin, Fanny Bryant, 1614, 1667, 1695, 1704, 1717, 1731, 1798, 1802, 1854, 1882, 1892 Godwin, Parke, 1910, 1965, 1972 Gould, Mrs. [Robert Howe?] Gould, 1905 Gourlie, John Hamilton, 1533, 1766, 1786, 1794, 1864, 1868, 1945 Grant, Ulysses Simpson, 1847 Gray, John Gordon, 1881 Hale, Edward Everett, 1896, 1904 Hannah, George, 1992 Hart, Charles Henry, 1949

Harvey, George, 1569,1600,1616,1912 Hatfield [Julia?], 1809 Hayne, Paul Hamilton, 1951 Henderson, Isaac, 1592, 1635, 1664, 1680, 1683, 1686, 1688, 1691, 1698, 1702, 1709, 1715, 1795 Higginson, Thomas Wentworth, 1519 Hill, Clement Hugh, 1746 Hoagland, Jennie, 1733 Hoiland, Josiah Gilbert, 1955 Holmes, Oliver Wendell, 1526 Hopkins, Mark, 1807, 1865 Horn, Robert, 1710 Howe, Julia Ward (Mrs. Samuel Gridley Howe), 1596, 1876, 1964 Howe, Samuel Gridley, 1900 Howells, William Dean, 2021 Johnson, Andrew, 1540, 1756, 1791 Johnson, Roland, 1757 Johnson, William Samuel, 1923 Jones, William Alfred, 1871 Judkins, Eliza Maria, 1889 Kendrick, Asahel Clark, 1968 Ketchum, Mrs. Morris, 1866 King, Preston, 1534 Knight, Elizabeth, 1721 Lamb, Martha Joanna Reade Nash, 1839 Lang, Louis, 1513 Lanman, Charles, 1869 Leusse, Abbe Gaspard de, 1670 Lieber, Francis, 1770 Lincoln, Abraham, 1515 Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth, 1753 Love, Mira, 1733 Lowell, James Russell, 1787 Massett, Stephen C., 1956 Mayer, Brantz, 1768 Mercier, Eva Hepp (Mrs. Victor Mercier), 1700 Mexican Claims Commission, 1906 Mitchell, Donald Grant, 1857 Mitchell, Ida M., 1737 Moore, M. R., 1562 Morgan, Edwin Denison, 1576, 1604, 1629, 1640, 1758, 1976 Morgan, George Washington, 1926 Moulton, Leonice Marston Sampson (Mrs. Joseph White Moulton), 1678, 1784, 1797, 1840,1897,1922,2017 Nast, Thomas, 1808 Nordhoff, Charles, 1673, 1790, 1937

Index of Recipients Olds, Sarah Snell, 1744 Osgood, James Ripley, 1827, 1830, 1872, 1884, 1914,2005 Messrs. James R. Osgood & Co., 1919, 1979, 1983, 1984, 1987, 1991, 2022. 2025, 2026, 2027 Osgood, Samuel, 1597 Parker, Reginald A., 1578 Parsons, Anna, 1524 Dom Pedro II de Alcantara, Emperor of Brazil, 1520 Peet, Rufus, 1967 Peirce, Benjamin, 1523 Pell, Eliza G. Wood (Mrs. Alfred Pell), 1859 Perry, Horatio J., 1665, 1692, 1703, 1788 Phillips, Willard, 1641, 2006 Phillips, William F., 1518 Pierce, D. E., 1654 Pierce, George Henry, 1881 Pilat, Ignaz Anton, 1662, 1773, 1778, 1793, 1800, 1856, 1862 Piper, Richard Upton, 1606 Piper, S. [Mrs. Richard Upton Piper?], 1981 Porter, George W., 1585, 1590, 1818 Prince, William R[obert?], 1814 Pugh, Laura C., 1564 Putnam, George Palmer, 1855, 1870, 1893, 1924 Randall, John, 1765 Raymond, Henry Jarvis, 1816 Raymond, John Howard, 1940 Reynolds, Euphie, 1733 Rice, Sarah Sigourney, 1572 Richards, Joseph H., 1986 Robinson, Edward, Jr., 1925 Rogers, John, 1886 Rosenthal, S. P., 1921 Sands, Julia M., 1573, 1718, 1819 Sargent, Epes, 1920, 1932 Saxe, John Godfrey, 1776 Secor, D.P., 1959 Sedgwick, Catharine Maria, 1539, 1584, 1630, 1669

451

Sedgwick, Charles Frederick, Jr., 1532 Seeger, F., 1894 Shurtleff, Nathaniel Bradstreet, 1860 Simms, William Gilmore, 1575 Simpson, James Young, 1716 Slade, Mary B. C., 1996 Sloan, A. E., 1736 Smythe, Henry A., 1615, 1769 Spencer, Bella Zilfa, 1527 Spring, Rebecca (Mrs. Marcus Spring), 1523 Stone, William Leete, Jr., 1581, 1607 Sumner, Charles, 1742, 1750, 1952 Thayer, James Bradley, 1888, 2016, 2019, 2023 Thompson, C. L., 1907 Thompson, Joseph Parrish, 1890, 1891, 1928, 1978 Messrs. Ticknor & Fields, 1653 Tilton, Theodore, 1785 Trumbull, Lyman, 1587 Unidentified, 1516, 1601, 1740, 1747, 1763, 1874,1998,2030 Union Army, Soldiers of, 1510 Usher, T., 1980 Walker, James P., 1626 Ward, Samuel Gray, 1598, 1599 Washburn, Emory, 1749 Waterston, Anna Cabot Lowell Quincy (Mrs. Robert Cassie Waterston), 1602 Waterston, Robert Cassie, 1521, 1918, 1934, 2009,2018 Weir, John Ferguson, 1933 Messrs. Welch, Bigelow & Co., 1908, 1916 Weston, Theodore, 1938 White, Andrew Dickson, 1947 White, Henry, 1835 White, Richard Grant, 1953 Wiles, Lemuel Maynard, 1544, 1546 Williamson, Alexander, 1514 Wilson, James Grant, 1822, 1823 Wittenberg, Wa[lter?] E., 1772 Wood, Bradford R., 1591 Woodue, William Darwin, 1834

Index

The numbers refer to pages. An asterisk marks a page containing principal biographical data. Adams, Charles Francis, 50*, 60,92 Agassiz, Louis, 7, 8 Alden,Joseph,242, 300 Aldis, Asa Owen, 140, 168, 169*, 170 Aldrich, Thomas Bailey, 67, 121*, 364 Allen, Rachel, 438 Ames, Ellis, 61, 62 Ames, Frank B., 164 Amy, Francis Javier, 92 Andrews, John Albion, 13, 14 Andrews, James B., 151, 164 Anselm, Saint, 408, 409 Messrs. D. Appleton & Co., 49, 392 Archer, William Segar, 76 Armstrong, Samuel Chapman, 312 Arnold, Georg Michael Daniel, 32, 33*, 269 Asis, Francisco de, 164 Astor, John Jacob, 228, 229 Astor, William Backhouse, 228, 229 Atwood, M. G., 82 Austin, A., 426, 427 Avery, John, 27 Bacon, Francis, 436 Barndorff, Auguste von, 291, 292*, 403 Bailey, Thomas A., 371 Baker, Abraham, 257 Baker, William A., 317 Bancroft, Elizabeth Davis (Mrs. George Bancroft), 73, 123 Bancroft, George, 3, 5, 22, 73, 89, 123, 213, 291,292,301,440,446 Barili, Ettore, 42 Messrs. Baring Brothers & Co., 351 Barker,Jacob,228,229 Barnard, Frederick Augustus Porter, 394, 395 Barney, Hiram, 216,217 Barrett, G. C., 345 Bartlett, Willaim 0., 444 Bates, Marshall, 178 Baxter, Alfred T., 78 Baylies, William, 1, 62, 308 Beckwith, N. M., 67

Bedell, Gregory Thurston, 140 Beecher, Henry Ward, 37,405 Beekman, James William, 95 Belknap, William Worth, 362 Bell, Betsy, 206 Bellows, Henry Whitney, 5, 8, 65, 141, 176*, 255,282,396,405 Bennet, Emma, 223 Berrian, T. B. C., 40 Berrian, William, 40 Bierstadt, Albert, 129 Bigelow, Jane Poultney (Mrs. John Bigelow), 39,41,47,48,67,290,323,324 Bigelow, John, 3, 6, 19, 21, 24, 29, 42, 44, 47, 66, 67, 86, 88, 93, 94, 96, 97, 99, 100, 125, 126, 143, 144, 165, 173, 174, 178, 186, 198, 199,237,238,240,242,249,250,279,289, 290,319,323,324,352,354,358,359,399, 401,419,429 Bigelow, Mrs. E[rnest?], 42 Blackie, John Stuart, 342 Blair, Francis Preston, Jr., 276, 287 Blatchford, Mrs. Samuel, 286, 289 Blatchford, Samuel, 286 Bleecker, Anthony J., 27, 28 Boethius, Anicius Manlius Severinus, 166, 167 Bogart, Daniel, 70, 86, 412 Boggs, William G., 246, 247, 369 Boker, George Henry, 8, 144, 233*, 234 Bonner, Robert, 3, 144, 242, 245, 246, 264, 265,351,389,404,444,445 Booth, Edwin Thomas, 1, 6, 18, 19*, 360, 361, 403 Booth, John Wilkes, 5, 6, 19*, 20, 21 Boswell, James, 298 Botta, Vincenzo, 397 Boutwell, George Sewall, 353, 355*, 376, 377 Bovee, Marvin Henry, 30, 223 Bowles, Samuel, 390 Boyd, Andrew, 216,217 Bragden, Mr. (book agent?), 395 Brant, Joseph, 349 Brett, John Watkins, 196

454

LETTERS OF WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT

Briggs, Charles Frederick, 387 Briggs, James, A., 83, 101 Brown, H. C., 345 Brown, Henry Kirke, 5 Brown, Mr. 48 Browning, Elizabeth Barrett, 141, 375, 376 Bryant, Abigail, 338 Bryant, Adeline Plummer (Mrs. Austin Bryant), 74, 101,420,421 Bryant, Anna, 338 Bryant, Arthur (ne Peter Rush), 73, 110, 336, 394,395,402,432,439 Bryant, Austin, I, 8, 14, 15, 26, 54, 55, 73, 74, 112,301,421 Bryant, Charity Louisa (Mrs. Justin Olds), 233 Bryant, Charles Howard, 73, 74, 420, 421 Bryant, Cullen (Cyrus' son), 44 Bryant, Cyrus, I, 8, 14, 1.5, 18, 24, 45, 112, 301,313,339 Bryant, Elijah Wiswall, 41 Bryant, Elizabeth French, 338 Bryant, Fanny (Mrs. Parke Godwin), 25, 41, 42, 43, 59, 75, 87, 107, Ill, 142, 175, 179, 272,287,333,384,391 Bryant, Fanny (daughter of Fanny Bryant Godwin), 384, 391 Bryant, F. P. 338, 339 Bryant, Frances Fairchild (Mrs. William Cullen Bryant), I, 3, 25, 33, 34, 35, 36, 40, 41, 42, 43,44,45,46,47,48, 51,57,65, 73, 75,81, 95, 100, 101, 102, 103, 104, 105, 108, Ill, 141,142,233,280,308,346,429 Bryant, Gamaliel, 338 Bryant, George H. 348, 349, 359, 445, 446 Bryant, Sir Guy, 446 Bryant, Hannah, 338 Bryant, Harriet Wiswall (Mrs. John Bryant), 100, 110 Bryant, Henry L., 372 Bryant, Ichabod (son of Seth and Elizabeth Bryant), 338 Bryant, Ichabod (son of Stephen, Jr., and Mehitabel Bryant), 338, 339 Bryant, Job, 338,445 Bryant, John, 338 Bryant, John, Jr. (of Plymouth), 338 Bryant, John Howard, 3, 12, 25, 41, 63, 66, 70, 73, 74, 83, 98, 100, 101, 103, 104, 105, 108, 109, 110, Ill, 117, 119, 120, 164, 173, 191, 210,230,231,232,237,238,242,248,263, 279,286,294,306,315,316,334,335,336, 354,372,386,392,399,400,402,421,432, 439 Bryant, Julia Sands, 3, 25, 33, 34, 38, 40, 41, 42,43,44,46,48,60,66, 74, 75,87,88,89, 95, 101, Ill, 112, ll3, ll6, ll9, 123, 125, 126, 127, 128, 129, 130, 136, 140, 143, 146,

157, 166, 167, 168, 170, 173, 176, 179, 187, 188, 190, 192, 193, 195, 196, 197, 198, 199, 202,210,219,221,226,229,235,236,237, 242,252,256,263,269,270,272,273,274, 276,277,278,279,280,281,282,283,284, 285,286,287,288,289,290,291,317,318, 324,330,332,333,334,335,367,370,384, 391,392,405,406,420,421,427,429,432, .433, 434, 435, 438 Bryant, Laura Smith, 41, 101 Bryant, Lydia, 338 Bryant, Mary, 339 Bryant, Mehitabel, 338 Bryant, Nathan, 338 Bryant, Olive, 339 Bryant, Peter, 354 Bryant, Phebe Ruth, 338 Bryant, Philip, 232, 338, 372, 445 Bryant, Prudence, 338 Bryant, Ruth Staples, 338 Bryant, Sarah, 338 Bryant, Seth (son of Ichabod and Ruth Staples Bryant), 338 Bryant, Seth (son of Seth and Elizabeth Bryant), 339 Bryant, Silence Howard (Mrs. Philip Bryant), 372 Bryant, Stephen, 58, 59, 445 Bryant, Stephen, Jr., 338 Bryant, Timothy, 338 Bryant, William, 338 Bryant, William Austin (son of Austin Bryant), 14, 15 Bryant, William Clement (of Buffalo), 348,349 Bryant, Wm. C., & Co., 340 Bryant,Zebeah,339 Bulter, George B., 296 Bulwer-Lytton, Edward George Earle Lytton, 67,173,174,352 Bundy, Jonas Mills, 420 Bunyan, John, 135,136 Burhardt, Miss, 51 Burns, Robert, 13, 353 Busbee, Dr., 288 Bushnell, Horace, 408, 409 Butler, Benjamin F., 298 Cadenhead, J. E., Jr. 126 Cairns, Ann Eliza (Mrs. William F. Cairns), 90 Calder6n de Ia Barca, Frances, 164 Calvin, John, 208 Calvus, Cneius Cornelius Scipio, 160, 163 Campbell, Mr. 193 Campbell, Mrs. 202, 288 Campbell, Victoria Gibson, 143, 192, 193 Cary, Alice, 310 Cary, Phoebe, 310

Index Catron, John, 31, 32 Cervantes Saavedra, Miguel de, 166, 167 Channing, Edward Tyrell, 53 Chapin, Edwin Hubbell, 396 Chapman, John, 141 Charles V of Spain, 139 Charles IX of France, 130, 131 Chase, Salmon Portland, 45, 265, 267, 270, 271 Chatelain, Jean-Baptiste Fram;ois de, 250, 251 Chaucer, Geoffrey, 224 Cheney, Theseus Apoleon, 217,218,249,281, 331,446 Chesson, F. W., 46, 49, 50 Child, Francis James, 8, 52, 53*, 71, 401, 427, 428 Child, Lydia Maria Francis, 8 Childs, George William, 39, 40 Christophorus (a monk), 349, 350 Church, William Conant, 97 Cicero, Marcus Tullius, 168 Clapham, Mrs. Thomas, 348 Clarendon, Earl, 321 Clark (Easthampton, Massachusetts, builder), 25, 26, 103, 104, 119, 195,200,221 Clark (of Princeton, Illinois), 230, 231 Clark, (Rev.), 334 Clarke, James Freeman, 14*, 408, 409,411 Clemen~eau, Georges, 142, 144, 219, 220 Cline, George B., 41, 44, 45, 88, 96, 124, 126, 152, 165, 168, 173, 178, 179, 186, 191, 195, 198, 199, 200, 201, 210, 221, 230, 235, 242, 256,277,278,279,282,283,333,334,367, 392 Cline, Isabella C. (Mrs. George B. Cline), 198, 230,242,277,279,280,334 Cline, Otto, 277, 281, 333, 334 Cobb, George Thomas, 304, 305 Cobden, Richard, 7, 46, 49, 241 Coddington, T. B., 93 Cole, Thomas, 6, 22, 301 Coleman, William, 85, 295 Coleridge, Samuel Taylor, 355 Colfax, Schuyler, 8, 276 Colt (a judge), 326 Confalonieri, Frederico, 141 Congreve, William, 363 Conkling, Roscoe, 79, 80, 82, 397 Cooper, James Fenimore, 6, 22, 301, 322, 390 Corcoran, William Wilson, 411 Corliss, John W., 216 Coronado, Carolina (Mrs. Horatio J. Perry), 127, 140, 144, 179, 197,242,264,265,269, 270,301,389 Corradi, Nestor, 431 Corzenaga, Antonio, 151, 164, 165, 196, 271, 272

455

Covey, Alcock, 120 Cowley, Abraham, 356 Cowper, William, 170, 444 Cox, Jacob, 353 Cozzens, Frederick Swartwout, 226, 244 Craig (Evening Post employee), 179, 180 Craik, George Lillie, 430 Crane & White, 272 Crawford, Miss (Godwin nurse?), 210 Creamer, David, 373 Croissant, Alexandro, 151 Crook, Craig, 143 Cunningham, John, 203*, 208, 209,432,433 Curtis, George William, 216, 315 Cushing, Caleb, 60 Cutts, Mary, 69 Damrosch, Leopold, 403 Dana, Charlotte, 226 Dana, Edmund Trowbridge, l, 23, 24, 87, 117, 118,227,313,323,380 Dana, Richard Henry, 3, 6, 23, 29, 65, 87, 88, 98, 99, 105, 106, 107, 108, 113, ll4, 115, 116, 118, 130, 131, 143, 225, 227, 229, 241, 242, 248, 249, 251, 252, 283, 297, 298, 301, 303, 307, 312, 313, 322, 323, 352, 375, 376, 379,380,388,389,422,423 Dana, Richard Henry, Jr., 24, 30, 66, 114, 118, 222,227,303,390 Dante Aligheri, 7, 19, 143, 222, 225, 292, 293 David, Jefferson, 7, 23, 35, 36 Davison, E. F., 261 Dawes, Francis Howland, 25, 26, 85, 86, 94, 95, 100, 104, 109, ll9, 178, 194, 195, 200, 281,334,335,416 Dawes, Henry Laurens, 26, 335, 361, 362 Dawes, Mary Burgess (Mrs. Mitchell Dawes), 334,335 Dawes, Mary Eugenia (Mrs. Charles F. Warner), 281 Dawes, Melissa (Mrs. Frances H. Dawes), 195, 281 Day, Samuel Phillips, 245 Dayton, William Lewis, 21 Deane, Charles, 327 Dennison, William, 51, 52 Devereaux, Mrs., 277, 282 Dewey?, Helen, 39 Dewey, Jerusha, 3, 34, 36, 45, 141, 176, 254, 256,273,282,284,407,430,435 Dewey, Louisa Farnham (Mrs. Orville Dewey), 277,282,284 Dewey, Mary E., 341, 365,436 Dewey, Orville, 3, 39, 143, 188, 190, 236,237, 256,282,283,291,324,340,341,352,363, 364,372,428 Dexter, George T., 291

456

LETTERS OF WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT

Dickens, Charles, 144, 236, 237, 238, 255, 332 Dickson, Samuel Henry, 3, 316,317,318,425, 426 Disraeli, Benjamin, 295 Dix, John Adams, 89, 142, 174,279,405,446 Dodge, Robert, 269, 424 Donne, John, 18, 19 Don~, Gustave, 166, 167 Downing, Andrew Jackson, 67 Dudley, Alice, 393 Dunham, Mrs., 89 Durand, Asher Brown, 406, 407 Durand, John, 3, 67, 123, 137, 142, 145, 146, 165, 167, 169, 170, 187, 188, 198, 199,201, 202,219,220,415,416 Duyckinck, Evert Augustus, 38, 67, 250 Dwight, Theodore, Jr., 37 Earle, Miss, 420 Earle, Mrs., 420 Early, Jubel Anderson, 9, 11 Eddy, Dr. William, 42 Edmonds, John Worth, 244, 245, 290, 291 Edwards, Richard, 112, 116, 117 Eigenbrogt, William Ernest, 368, 369 Ellis, Samuel, 63, 152 Elwood, Henry, 443 Ely, Samuel Rose, 26, 45, 46, 285, 367, 392, 434 Emerson, Mrs., 120 Emerson, Ralph Waldo, 381, 430, 431 Emerson, Tirza, 120 Ensign, Mrs., 47, 282 Espinosa, Jacinto Geronimo de, 151, 162 Evangelides, Alexander C., 83, 84 Evangelides, Cristos, 84 Everett, Edward, 6, 11, 24, 29 Fairchild, Anna Rebecca, 429, 432, 433 Fairchild, Egbert N., 429 Fairchild, Mina (Mrs. Charles W. Hopkins), 280 Faish, W., 304 Farragut, David Glasgow, 9, 11*, 270 Fenton, Reuben Eaton, 66, 115*, 116, 258, 260 Fessenden, William Pitt, 72 Field, Alfred, 143, 200, 214, 299, 442 Field, Algernon S., 200 Field, Charlotte Errington (Mrs. Alfred Field), 214 Field, Cyrus West, 238, 243, 300, 317 Field, David Dudley, 38,238,316,317,408 Field, Edwin Wilkins, I, 59, 142, 143, 199,200, 202,316,384,403,433,442,443 Field, Ferdinand Emans, 3, 142, 143, 199,215, 294,298,320,332,369,424 Field, Henry Martyn, 238

Field, Mrs. Henry, 39, 237 Field, Mary Sharpe (Mrs. Edwin Wilkins Field), 202 Field, Stephen Johnson, 317 Fields, Annie Adams (Mrs. James T. Fields), 249,262,282,283,401,402,427 Fields, James Thomas, 3, 7, 28, 40, 66, 77, 94, 118, 121, 122, 143, 144,215, 220,222,236, 241,244,262,292,293,299,377,378,402, 417,419,420,422,427 Messrs. Fields, Osgood & Co., 349, 358, 363, 392 Fish, Abigail Snell (Mrs. Elisha S. Fish?), 63, 248 Fish, Elisha S., 164, 248, 335 Fish, Eunice, 63, 164? Fish, Hamilton, 304, 305, 307, 311, 312, 313, 314,357 Fish, Moses, 335 Fisk, James ("Jim"), 353 Fletcher, James Cooley, 15, 16 Flower, Edward Fordham (family of), 141 Folsom, Charles, 55, 308 Folsom, S. Sarah (Mrs. Charles Folsom), 55 Foot, Lucius, 120 Forbes, John Murray, 14, 271 Ford, John B., 3 Messrs. John B. Ford & Co., 371, 375, 376, 379,380,427 Foresti, Felice, 141 Forrest, Catherine Norton Sinclair (Mrs. Edwin Forrest), 392 Forrest, Edwin, 310 FrancislofFrance, 130,131 Franklin, Benjamin, 289 Freeman, Clement, 55, 56 Freeman, Ellen Aurelia (Mrs. Clement Freeman) 54,55 French, Dependence, 338 French, E. (bookseller?), 224 French, John William, 345, 346 French, Mrs. John William, 346 Froude, James Anthony, 71 Fuller, Jane Gay, 264 Furlong, J. K., 231, 232 Galle, Johann Gottfried, 274 Gangloff, Miss, 334, 335 Garfield, James Abram, 405, 421 Garibaldi, Giuseppe 141 Garrison, Daniel, 247, 248 Garrison, William Lloyd, 142, 210 Garvin, Samuel B., 336, 337 Gaubart, M. N., 60, 61 Gibson, Christiana, 3, 33, 74, 127, 143, 192, 193, 202, 210, 212, 213, 214, 235, 237, 286,

Index 287,288,289,350,351,383,385,402,405, 425,426,429,432,433 Gibson, Jessie, 143, 209, 210 Gibson, Mrs. John, 385 Gifford, Sanford Robinson, 408 Gifford, William, 325 Gillilan family (of Cheltenham}, 193 Gilman, Daniel Coit, 122, 305, 306, 307, 318, 372 Given, Dr. (Pennsylvania asylum head), 316 Gladstone, William Ewart, 295 Godwin, Annie, 140, 333, 391 Godwin, Fanny Bryant (Mrs. Parke Godwin), 82,89,90, 129,141,187,197,211,212,220, 221,275,279,318,319,323,336,344,384 Godwin, Harold, 40, 384 Godwin, Minna, 40, 41, 42, 46, 179, 187,384 Godwin, Parke, 1, 13, 32, 45, 66, 125, 142, 175,197,200,237,239,242,245,253,260, 280,299,319,320,351,353,356,358,359, 391,396,397,404,405,442,444 Godwin, Walter, 1, 108, 142, 179, 187, 188 Godwin, William Cullen Bryant, 384 Goldsmith, Oliver, 439 Goodrich (liveryman), 387 Gould, Jay, 353 Gould, Mrs. Robert Howe, 356 Gould, Robert Howe, 356 Gourlie, The Misses, 328 Gourlie, John Hamilton, 3, 27, 33, 39, 242, 254,268,269,272,273,274,275,324,325, 327,328,381,382 Graham, Thomas (Baron Lynedoch}, 206, 209 Grant, Ulysses Simpson, 9, 18, 22, 24, 29, 42, 220,236,267,276,287,305,306,309,315, 352,353,371,376,377,405,424 Gray, John Alexander Clinton, 132, 140, 168, 242 Gray, John Franklin, 89, 100, 237, 275, 285, 333 Gray, John Gordon, 336 Gray, Mary,206,279 Gray, Thomas, 212, 213 Greeley, Horace, 67, 178, 180, 210, 315,405, 423 Greenough, Horatio, 231 Griffin, Mrs., 190 Hackett, James Henry, 245, 246 Hadrian, Publius Aelius Hadrianus (Roman emperor), 163 Hale, Edward Everett, 346*, 355, 356 Hale, John Parker, 140, 265 Hall, George Henry, 156, 157, 166, 425, 426* Hall, John, 396 Halleck, Fitz-Greene, 1, 144, 170, 226, 227,

457

228,229,242,244,245,246,250,295,296, 297,306,307,309 Halleck, Maria, 244 Hamilton, Alexander, 141, 289 Hamilton, James Alexander, 286, 289 Hannah,George,418,419 Hardiman, Frederick, 141 Hardy, Paul, 82 Harley, Robert (first Earl of Oxford), 379 Harper, James, 313 Harper, Wesley, 303 Harper & Brothers, 313 Harrington, Miss, 38 Harris, Mr., 263 Harris, Ira, 315 Harris, Townsend, 371 Hart, Charles Henry, 385, 386 Harvey,George,3,53,54, 77,78,91,142,360 Hatfield, Julia, 284, 285, 349 Hay, John, 21 Hayes, Rutherford Burchard, 296 Hayne, Paul Hamilton, 386 Hayward, Emma, 63 Haywood, George, 54, 55 Heine, Peter Bernard William, 93, 94 Henderson, Esther (Mrs. Allen Henderson}, 280,281 Henderson, Isaac, 1, 3, 8, 43, 44, 73, 100, 102, 103, 125, 142, 143, 164, 168, 173, 175, 176, 178, 179, 180, 190, 192, 195, 196,200,201, 209,210,242,273,275,280,281,284,336, 353,358,359,398 Henderson, Isaac, Jr., 284 Henderson, Mrs. Isaac, 44, 102, 126, 165, 176, 201,210,211,242,275,281 Hendrickson (Roslyn Carpenter?), 277 Hennessy, William John, 337, 338 Hermosilla, Jose, 342 Herring, James, 86 Heyne, Christian, 342 Higginson, Thomas Wentworth, 15 Hill, Clement Hugh, 234 Hoagland, Jennie, 222, 223 Hoffman, John Thompson, 294 Hogg, James, 268 Holland, Josiah Gilbert, 390 Hollis (beekeeper), 335 Holmes, Oliver Wendell, 3, 5, 21, 22, 364, 38I Homer, I, 7, 28, I68, I69, I70, 236,242,248, 264,306,330,335,337,345,348,352,353, 36I,364, 379,380,385,40I,4I9,430,437, 44I,443,444 Hood, John Bell, 9, II Hood, Thomas, 364, 37I Hopkins, The Misses, IOI Hopkins, Mrs. Charles, 279, 280 Hopkins, Edward Augustus, I77

458

LETTERS OF WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT

Hopkins, Jenny, 100, 120 Hopkins, Mark, 251, 252, 284, 326 Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus), 296 Horn, Robert, 201 Horner, Charles W., 31, 32 Howard, Oliver Otis, 75 Howe, James M., 273 Howe, Julia Ward (Mrs. Samuel Gridley Howe), 76, 332, 333, 350, 395, 396 Howe, Samuel, 308 Howe, Samuel Gridley, 333, 349, 350* Howe, Timothy, 387 Howells, William Dean, 441 Howland family, 89 Hows, John Augustus, 242, 275 Hubbard, E. A., 362 Hunt, Wilson G., 50 Ingersoll, Eben Clark, 83, 399, 400 Ingersoll, Robert Green, 400 Inman, Henry, 244 Irving, Pierre, 329 Irving, Washington, 6, 22, 301, 328, 329 Isabella II of Spain, 162, 164 lves, Mrs. (of Great Barrington), 38 Jackson, Abraham, 438 Jackson, Andrew, 306 Jeffrey, Francis Lord, 143 Johnny (coachman), 280, 281 Johnson, Andrew, 22, 28, 31, 32, 66, 78, 79, 83,89, 90, 98,174,241,246,257,267,271, 298,309,310,353,400 Johnson, Jonathan Eastman, 408 Johnson,Reverdy,295,321 Johnson, Roland, 247 Johnson, Samuel, 225, 227, 252, 297, 298 Johnson, William Samuel, 368, 369 Johnston, Joseph Eggleston, 9, 11, 22 Johnston (storekeeper?), 57, 96 Jones, William Alfred, 251, 329, 330 Juarez, Benito Pablo, 67 Judkins, Eliza Maria, 342, 343 Julius, Pope, 141 Kean, Ellen (Tree) (Mrs. Charles Kean), 291, 292 Kemble, Frances Anne, 236, 255 Kemble, Gouverneur, 406, 407 Kendrick, Asahel Clark, 399 Kensett, John Frederick, 407, 408 Ketchum, Edward B., 45, 114, 258, 259, 260, 327 Ketchum, Morris, 45 Ketchum, Mrs. Morris, 326, 327 King (Evening Post cashier?), 334, 335, 336 King, Charles, 68, 179, 180

King, Preston, 27, 28, 257 King, Rufus, 142 Kirby, J. M., 41 Kirby, Rev. W. W., 45 Kirkland, Cordelia, 89, 165 Kitterman, Robert, 231 Knight, Charles, 142 Knight, Elizabeth, 211,212,215 Laird, John, 295 Lake, Rev., 215 Lamb, Charles, 4 7 Lamb, Martha Joanna Reade Nash, 308, 309 Lamers, Clara, 419 Landers, Warren P., 372 Lang, Louis, 12 Lanman, Charles, 328, 410,411 Langdon, Mrs., 428, 429 Laun, Adolf, 328, 329 Laurence, Mrs., 41 Lawrence, William Beach, 106, 113, 114, 118 Leavitt, Joshua, 37, 114 Lecky, Edward Hartpole, 71, 72 Leclerc, Miss, 237, 238, 384, 391, 392 Lee, Robert Edward, 9, 18, 22, 23, 24, 208, 209 Leggett, Eliza Seaman (Mrs. Augustus W. Leggett), 42, 43, 44 Leggett, William, 6, 82 Leupp, Charles Mortimer, 13, 33, 67, 123, 129, 382,433 Leupp, Isabella, 33, 382 Leupp,Laura,33,67, 123,126,128,136,140, 141, 143, 146, 166, 168, 170, 176, 188, 192, 193,198,199,202,212,382,432,434 Leupp, Margaret, 33, 382 Leunggren, Mrs. (Bryant's cook?), 429, 433, 434 Leusse, Gaspard de, 132 Lewis, Charlton Thomas, 349, 361,402 Lewis, Taylor, 352 Lieber, Francis, 32, 257, 258, 357 Lincoln, Abraham, 1, 3, 5, 6, 7, 13, 19, 21, 22, 23, 24, 32, 36, 83, 98, 118, 211, 216, 217, 309,340,385 Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth, 65, 77, 143, 222,224,225,242,245,248,249,262,275, 292,293,299,378,431 Losee, Mrs. James, 44 Louis XII of France, 130, 131 Love, Mira, 223 Lovell, Jacob, 281 Low, Abiel Abbott, 255 Lowell, James Russell, 8, 355, 356, 363, 364, 388 Loyson, Charles ("Pere Hyacinthe"), 343, 347 Lozier, Mrs. (homoeopathic doctor), 89

Index Lucian (Greek poet), 381 Luquer, Eloise E. P., 289 Luquer,Lee,288,289 Luscombe, Mrs., 188, 199 McClellan, George Brinton, 140, 168, 169, 173 McClosky, William, 67 McCoun, William T., 285 MacDonald, James Wilson Alexander, 296 McEntee, Jervis, 19 McNulty (Irish priest), 348 McPherson, George W., 90,91 MacPherson, James, 209 [McWattere/McWalters?], George S., 355 Mackie, Estelle Ives (Mrs. John Milton Mackie), 89, 113 Mackie, John Milton, 38, 39, 89, 113, 219 Mahan, Dennis, 403 Marcy, William L., 214 Marsh, George Perkins, 141 Marshall, John Fowle Baldwin, 312 Marshall, William Edgar, 118 Martial (Marcus Valerius Martialis), 109 Massett, Stephen C., 390, 391 Max, Madame (Paris housekeeper), 199 Mayer, Brantz, 256, 257 Mayhew, Jerry, 334, 432 Medicis, Catherine de, 130, 131, 133 Mendelssohn, Felix, 8 Megem, Henry, 29 Mercier, Eva Hepp (Mrs. Victor Mercier), 194 Merrill, Rev., 44 Metternich, Prince Clemens Lothar Wenzel, 124 Mill, John Stewart, 214 Miller, Charles, 34 Miller, Mrs., 89 Miller, Sarah B., 92 Mills, Lucy A., 360, 361 Milton, John, 225, 325, 326 Miner (Edinburgh reformer), 207, 313, 314 Minto[n?], Herbert, 148, 152 Mitchell, Clark Ward, 33, 85, 86, 102, 103 Mitchell, Donald Grant, 320 Mitchell, Ellen Theresa Shaw (Mrs. Clark Ward Mitchell), 33, 86, 434, 435 Mitchell, H. W., 362 Mitchell, Ida M., 225 Mitchell?, Jenny, 434, 435 Mitchell, Julia Clark, 33 Mitchell, Nahum, 338, 339 Montesinos, Rafael, 148, 151 Monti, Vincenzo, 168 Montpensier, Duke of, 160 Morales (Spanish artist), 148, 151

459

Morgan, Edwin Denison, 28, 58, 83, 97, 98, 101,108,247,248,400,407 Morgan, George Washington, 370, 371 Morgan, William, 117 Moore, M. R., 48, 49 Moore, Thomas, 355, 356 Morse, Samuel Finley Breese, I, 67, 196, 242, 243,296,300,401,418,419,422,423,424 Motley, John Lothrop, 317,353 Moulton, Joseph White, 21,274,438 Moulton, Leonice Marston Sampson (Mrs. Joseph White Moulton), 3, 140, 157, 267, 274, 309,310,347,367,368,437,438 Mudge, Amy & Elizabeth, 221, 276, 277 Muench, Francis, 383 Mumford, George H., 50 Messrs. John Munroe & Co., 167, 180, 197 Murillo, Bartolome Esteban, 162, 164 Napoleon III, 126, 186 Narvaez, Ramon Maria, Duke of Valencia, 270 Nast, Thomas, 242, 284*, 285 Newbold, Mr., 38 Nilsson, Christine, 402, 425, 426* Nolla (Spanish tilemaker), 149, 150, 152 Nordhoff, Charles, 47, 66, 126, 137, 138, 142, 165, 168, 191,209,271,282,314,322,349, 352,376,377,393,408 Norton, John Warner, 152 Nostrand, Charles P., 392 O'Connell, Daniel, 78 O'Conor, Charles, 246 O'Donnell, Leopoldo, 145, 146 Ogden, William Butler, 336 Olcott, Thomas W., 315 Oldham, John, 356 Olds, Charity Louisa Bryant (Mrs. Justin Olds), 1,144,233,237,276 Olds, Justin, 335, 336 Olds, Louisa, llO, 335 Olds, Lucy Wood, 276 Olds, Sarah S[nell?], 232, 233 Olmsted, Frederick Law, 45, 124, 221, 318, 319 Messrs. Olmsted, Vaux & Co., 319 Ordronaux,John,20,21*,367,368,438 Osgood, James Ripley, 3, 299, 303, 330, 337, 338,361,383,428 Messrs. James R. Osgood & Co., 365,409,412, 414,418,441,443,444 Osgood, Samuel, 5, 76, 221, 236, 255, 316 Messrs. Osgood & Fields, 304 Owen, Robert Dale, 32, 422, 423

460

LETTERS OF WILLIAM CuLLEN BRYANT

Paine, John Knowles, 330 Paine, Mary Elizabeth (Greeley) (Mrs. John Knowles Paine), 330, 333 Palmerstone, Lord, 211 Parker, John A., 99, 100, 405 Parker, Reginald A., 59, 60, 65 Parks, Mr., 404 Parnell, Thomas, 379 Parsons, Anna (Mrs. Thomas William Parsons), 19 Parsons, Thomas William, 19, 292, 293 Messrs. Parsons & Co., 416 Patrick (Bryant coachman?), 221, 334 Patti, Adelina, 67 Peabody, Mrs., 42 Pedro II de Alcantara, Dom, Emperor of Brazil, 15, 16 Peirce, Benjamin, 6, 18*, 19, 397, 398 Pell, Alfred, 1, 44, 288, 321, 322 Pell, Alfred, Jr., 126 Pell, Eliza G. Wood (Mrs. Alfred Pell), 46, 321 Pell, Robert, 126, 288 Pellico, Silvio, 141 Percival, James Gates, 92 Pereire, Jacob Emile or Isaac?, 131 Perkins, Newton, 168, 170 Perry, Horatio J., 3, 129, 137, 151, 163, 164, 180,195,196, 197,265,269,27~351 Philip II of Spain, 140 Phillips, John, 293 Phillips, Willard, 3, 35, 66, 108, 109, 116, 120, 242,273,275,293,422,423,428,429 Phillips, William F., 15 Pierce, D. E., 118 Pierce, George Henry, 336 Pierpont, John, 331 Pierrepont, Edwards, 397 Pilat, Ignaz Anton, 123, 124*, 261, 263, 272, 278,319,323,327 Piper, Richard Upton, 84, 85, 165, 267, 410, 427 Piper, S. (Mrs. Richard Upton Piper?), 410 Pius IX, 182, 183, 186*, 356, 406 Pleasanton (tax collector?), 412 Poe, Edgar Allan, 8, 56 Pollitz, Emma, 34, 41, 42 Pollitz, Mrs. 0. W., 41, 42 Pollitz, 0. W., 58 Pomeroy, G. W., 21 Pope, Alexander, 77, 306, 341, 363, 364, 379, 425 Porter, George W., 69, 71, 72, 293 Porter, Mrs. George W., 71,293 Porter, Noah, 430 Potter, Horatio, 288, 289 Powers, Hiram, 168, 169, 171, 172 Praed, Winthrop Mackworth, 371

Primus, Marcus Antonius, 109 Prince, William Robert, 290, 291 Pugh, Laura C., 50 Pujade, Dr., 134, 135 Putnam, George Palmer, 3, 32, 258, 301, 319, 328,329,344,345,369 Quintana, Manuel Jose, 168, 169 Randall, John Witt, 253 Raymond, Henry Jarvis, 90, 291 Raymond, John Howard, 378* Reed (of New Orleans), 132 Reynolds, Euphie, 223 Ribalta, Francisco, 151 Ribera, Jose, 151 Rice, Sara Sigourney, 56 Richards, Emily Symmes, 378, 379 Richards, James Bandwell, 378, 379 Richards, Joseph H., 412, 414 Richards, Mary W. Symmes (Mrs. James Bandwell Richards), 379 Rioja y Rodriguez, Francisco de, 140, 160, 164 Ristori, Adelaide, 291, 292 Robertson, Frederick William, 64, 81 Robinson, Edward, 370 Robinson, Edward, Jr., 370 Robinson, Henry Crabb, 355, 384, 385 Robinson, Therese A. L. (Mrs. Edward Robinson), 370 Rogers, John, 339, 340 Romero, Matias, 143, 216, 217, 220 Root, Henry, 79 Rose, Miss, 34 Rosenthal, S. P., 367 Rouzaud, Auguste, 425, 426 Russell, Miss, 34 Russell, John, Viscount Amberly, 60, 225, 226 Russell, Lord John, 227 Sadler, Thomas, 443 Salamanca, Marquis of, 166 Samuels, Robert, 435 Sands, Julia M., 3, 56, 57, 113, 129, 143, 173, 175, 190,212,236,240,286,294,334,391, 406 Sands, Robert Charles, 62, 308 Sarah (Bryant servant), 25 Sargent, Epes, 366*, 373, 374 Sargent, John Osborne, 366, 367 Sarony, Napoleon, 420 Sawin, Lilla, 45, 47, 277 Saxe, John Godfrey, 262 Schuyler, David, 268 Schuyler, Louisa Lee, 141 Schuyler, Philip, 141 Schwab, G., 329

Index Scott, Sir Walter, 209, 4IO, 430, 43I Scott, Walter Francis, Duke of Buccleuch, 205, 206,209 Messrs. Charles Scribner & Co., 3I7 Secor, D. P., 392 Sedgwick, Catharine Maria, 1, 3, 8, 30, 36, 64, 98,131, I44,331,340,34I,365 Sedgwick, Charles Frederick, Jr., 26, 27 Sedgwick, Elizabeth Ellery (Mrs. Francis James Child), 53 Sedgwick, Elizabeth Ellery (Mrs. Robert Sedgwick), 53 Sedgwick, Henry Dwight, Jr., 39 Sedgwick, Robert, 53 Sedgwick, Thomas D., I26 Seeger, F., 345 Seneca, Lucius Anneus, I67, 168 Seville, Duke of, 173 Sewall, JohnS., 40I Seward, William Henry, 14, 24, 126, 174,239, 240 Seymour, Horatio,267,276, 287,295 Shakespeare, William, 382 Sheridan, Philip Henry, 9, II Sherman, John, I42 Sherman, William Tecumseh, 9, 22 Sherwin, Thomas, 375 Shurtleff, Nathaniel Bradstreet, 322 Simms, William Gilmore, I, 3, 8, 57, 352, 38I, 386,387 Simond, Louis, 184, 186 Simpson, James Young, I43, 2Il Sinclair, John, 164 Skirving, Mr. (Scottish writer), 432 Slade[?], Mary B. C., 42I Sloan, A. E., 224 Smith, Charles, 275, 276, 280 Smith, Edwin A., 96 Smith, John Somers, 370, 37I, 407 Smith, Lawrence, 25 Smith, Mrs. Cunningham, 405 Smith, Sidney, 39I Smith, Southwood, 408, 409 Smith, Stephen W., 56, 57 Messrs. H. B. Smith & Co., 336 Smollett, Tobias, 256 Smythe, Henry A., 90, 91*, 257 Snell, Ebenezer, l, 63, 152, 178,432 Snell, Ebenezer (Bryant's cousin), 402, 434 Snell, Ebenezer, Jr., 248, 434 Snell, Ebenezer Strong, 432, 433 Snell, Thomas, 248, 433 Southey, Robert, 376 Spalding, Dr., 373 Sparks,Jared,250, 256,257 Spencer, Bella Zilfa (Mrs. George Eliphaz Spencer), 22

461

Spring, Rebecca Buffum (Mrs. Marcus Spring), I7 . Stanley, Edward George Geoffrey Smith, Fourteenth Earl of Derby, 170, 17I, 352 Stansbury, Edward A., I65 Stanton, Edwin McMasters, 14 Stedman, Edmund Clarence, 381 Stern, Max, 3ll Sterne, Lawrence, 256 Stewart, John, 309, 310 Stewart, Leonice Josephine Moulton (Mrs. John Stewart), 274, 309, 310 Stevens, William Bacon, 140 Stone, William Leete, 62, 85 Stone, William Leete, Jr., 62, 85 Stowe, Harriet Beecher (Mrs. Calvin Ellis Stowe), 340 Street, Alfred Billings, Il6, 3I5 Strong, Charles R., 45, 434 Stuart, Ellen Eliza Cairns (Mrs. Robert Stuart), 34, ll3 Sturges, Jonathan, 255, 256 Sumner, Charles, 26, 72, 73, 80, 81, 82, 23I, 239,240,3I5,320,32I,353,354,387 Susan (Godwin servant), 89 Swift, Jonathan, 363, 379 Taglioni, Paul, 403 Taine, Hippolyte Adolphe, 21,67 Tennyson, Alfred Lord, 275, 355, 356 Terry, N. M., 43, 44*, 285 Thayer, James Bradley, 341, 342*, 401, 437, 439,440,441,442 Thomas, George Henry, 9 Thome, N., 205,209 Thompson, C. L., 357 Thompson, John Reuben, 387, 40I, 426 Thompson, Joseph Parrish, 88*, Il3, 258, 343, 344,371,372,409 Thompson, Launt, 242 Thompson, Mrs. Joseph Parrish, 113 Thomson, James, 375, 376 Thorne, Col., 192 Thorwaldsen, Albert Berte!, 181, 186 Messrs. Ticknor & Fields, 35, II8, 293 Tift, I. N., 216 Tilden, Samuel Jones, 143, 353,402,403,425, 426 Tillson, Welcome, 26 Tilton, Theodore, 5, 22*, 2I6, 268 Timrod, Henry, 386 Trajan (Marcus Ulpius Trajanus), I63 Trumbull, Lyman, 70*, 72, 73, 79, 81, 83,315, 400 Tucker (Paris banker?), I98 Tuckerman, Charles Keating, 231 Tuckerman, Henry Theodore, 231

462

LETTERS OF WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT

Tuscany, Duke of, 170 Tweed, William Marcy, 294, 353, 419* Tyng, Stephen Higginson, 288, 289 Tyng, Stephen Higginson, Jr., 288, 289 Usher, T., 409, 410 Van Buren, Martin, 315 Vanderenter, Mrs., 41 VanDyck (New York banker?), 38 VanWyck, 277 Vaux, Calvert, 124, 221*, 319 Velasquez, Diego Rodriguez, 162 Vergil (Publius Vergilius Maro), 382 Verplanck, Gulian Crommelin, I, 212, 213, 226,252,254,296,308,353,365,369,372, 375,385 Very, Jones, 375, 376 Vespasian (Titus Flavius Vespasianus), 109 Victor Emmanuel II of Italy, 177 Vining, Alden B., 362 Vining, Philomena T. Reed, 361, 362 Virginius, 162 Voorhies, Margaret Sinclair, 391, 392 Voss, Jonathan Heinrich, 342, 382 Walker, James P., 96 Ward, Elijah, 34, 113 Ward, Elizabeth Stuart Phelps, 364 Ward, Samuel Gray, 77 Waring, George Edwin, 334, 335 Waring, Mrs. George Edwin, 334 Warner, Charles Dudley, 427 Warner, Lewis T., 93 Warton, Thomas, 430 Washburn, Emory, 234,238, 239*, 327 Waterston, Anna Cabot Lowell Quincy (Mrs. Robert Cassie Waterston), 66, 72, 79, 81, 375,409,429,438,439 Waterston, Robert Cassie, 3, 7, 16, 17, 81, 364, 374,375,402,409,429,430,431,435,436, 438,439 Webster, Daniel, 4ll

Weed, Thurlow, 42 Weir, John Ferguson, 374 Weir, Robert W., 179, 180,312,374 Weitzel, Godfrey, 24 Messrs. Welch, Bigelow & Co., 357, 358, 362, 363,365 Welles, Miss, 42 Wesley, Charles, 373 Wesley, John, 373 Weston, Byron Curtis, 33, 336 Weston, Theodore, 377 Wheaton, Henry, 106, 114 Wheeler, Candace, 440 Whipple, Edwin Percy, 25 White (stonecutter), 272, 278 White, Andrew Dickson, 383 White, Henry, 305, 306 White, Richard Grant, 387, 388 Whitman, Walt, 241 Whittier, John Greenleaf, 3, 5, 22 Whittredge, Thomas Worthington, 408 Whitworth, Joseph, 142 Wiggins (Illinois farmer), 12 Wilder, Marshall, 142 Wiles, Lemuel Maynard, 35*, 36, 37 Williams (Californians), 92 Williams (liveryman), 387 Williamson, Alexander, 12, 13 Willis, Jacob 1., 336 Willis, Townsend C., 336 Wilson, James Grant, 228, 229*, 236, 244, 285, 295,296,297,348 Winkle, Mrs., 39,41 Wittenberg, Walter E., 260, 261 Wood, Bradford Ripley, 72 Woodruff, Lewis Bartholomew, 397 Woodue, William Darwin, 305 Wordsworth, William, 355, 389 Young, Miss, 42 Young,Edward,76,77 Young, John Russell, 216 Zaccheus,398, 399