,a\>t p'T" -54- 21.37 'rem Date Due fJlP^JT^ 0Krs(5 1 )65tw ^ "-^ MIC - 3 m'^^ Cornell University Library PT 2516.S4Z97 Charles Sealsfield 3 1924 026 211 551 H\ Cornell University Library The original of this book is in the Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924026211551 c Charles Sealsfield Ethnic Elements and National Problems in his Works. BY B. A. UHLENDORF, Ph.D. UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS. •d Reprinted from "Deutsch-Amerlkanischo Geschichtsblattra*," Jahrbuch der Deiitsch-Amerikanischen Historischen Gesell- schaft von Illinois — Jahrgang 1930-21 (Vol. XX — XXI). 417 Mailer Building Chicago, 111. -v^ FT 889129 TABLE OF CONTENTS Page PREFACE VII INTRODUCTION 1 THE WRITER AND HIS WORKS 7 PART I: POLITICAL, ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL CON- DITIONS' IN AMERICA 35 CHAPTER I : COLONIZATION 35 II RELATION OF INDIANS TO THE WHITE RACE 46 III GREAT HISTORICAL EVENTS 56 Revolutionary War 56 Louisiana Purchase 60 Second War with England 62 Texas Revolution....!..., : 63 Three Great Statesmen 65 IV LIBERTY AND EQUALITY 68 V GENERAL RETROGRESSION 94 Politics 95 A New Economic Force 105 Social Life 113 PART II : NATIONAL TYPES 122 CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION 122 II KENTUCKIANS -.. 129 Ralph Doughby 134 III BACKWOODS SETTLERS 139 Nathan, the Squatter Regulator 142 Squire Copeland and the Alcalde 158 The Trapper and Desperado 160 IV THE FRENCH ELEMENT AND THE AMERICAN PLANTER IN LOUISIANA 167 V NEGROES AND SLAVERY 185 VI THE GERMAN ELEMENT 201 VII NEW YORK AND NEW ENGLAND TYPES 212 NATIONAL CHARACTER .-. 224 BIBLIOGRAPHY 232 V PREFACE. Little appears to be known in this country of the fact that the gigantic modern epic as it was enacted in the settlement of this continent, in the founding of our democratic state and the development of a new composite nationality, combining the characteristics of various ethnic elements and civilizations, had found a rhapsodist of extraordinary powers here among the distinguished German settlers during the third and fourth decades of the last century. It seemed deserving of the effort, therefore, to inquire into the spirit in which our romancer, known under the pseudonym Charles Sealsfield, had conceived this epic and to make a special study of how the racial con- stituents of the growing American nationality, as well as the questions connected with their amalgamation into a body politic, unfolded themselves before his keen and observing eye. To what extent the character of the American democracy and civilization of the present time still agrees with the democratic ideal that Sealsfield beheld and glorified in his novels the reader of this monograph will determine for himself. A study such as is here presented, moreover, appears to be timely especially now in consideration of the revived in- terest in Sealsfield indicated by the recent translation into luignol Tof one of his early political pamphlets, as well as by the publication in Germany of new editions of several of his romances. This revival of interest in Sealsfield, the prophet of German democracy, is doubtless due to the recent political upheaval in. Germany as much as was the decline of his con- temporary popularity after the failure of the revolution of 1848. The writer's interest in Charles Sealsfield was first awak- ened by Professor Otto Heller of Washington University who at that time was planning a critical edition of the works of the famous German-American novelist. It is, however, to the profound historical and philosophical insight of Professor Julius Goebel into the many literary, historical and cultural VII problems contained in the works of our romancer that the author of the present monograph owes his chief inspiration. For the benefits derived from his teaching and guidance and for the many valuable suggestions and criticisms freely given, the writer wishes to express his sincere gratitude. He also desires to acknowledge gratefully the interest shown by Pro- fessors C. W. Alvord and O. E. Lessing in the progress of this study and the unfailing assistance given him by his wife. Urbana, 111., July 4, 1922. B. A. U. VIII INTRODUCTION. Although the author whose works are the subject of the following discussion, is listed among the notable German romancers of the nineteenth century in all histories of modem Grerman literature, comparatively little has been done in the way of a scientific study of the man and his productions. This is all the more remarkable in view of the sensation his first appearance caused in contemporary literary criticism, and especially in view of the romantic interest which he attracted by his early anonymity, by the subsequent adoption of an Eng- lish pseudonym, and finally by the posthumous disclosure of his identity. The neglect with which he has been treated by literary investigators is to be explained, however, largely by the fact that the necessary source material and other means of research are in his case not accessible to the German student, while in this country only a few scholars have recog- nized the fact that Sealsfield's works form a part also of Amer- ican literature. What Friedrich Kapp, in a noteworthy essay on German-American interrelations,^ said forty years ago is still true today: no American history of literature mentions him even by name.- 1 Kapp, Friedrich, Deutsch-amerikanische W echselhesiehwigen. Deutsche Rundschau. Berlin, 1880, v. XXV, pp. 88-123. -The brief notice in The Cambridge History of American Litera- ture (v. I, p. 325) which lists him among the Travelers and Observers, 1763-1846, and merely mentions him as a follower of Cooper only em- phasizes Kapp's assertion. Nor can the half page devoted to Sealsfield in V. IV, (p. 579) be considered a treatment adequate to his literary importance. CHARLES SEALSFIELD Owing to their unacquaintance with American conditions and American history the early critics of Sealsfield could of necessity judge him only according to traditional literary standards. The first attempt at a more adequate appreciation of the literary character of Sealsfield's works from the point of view of esthetics and the history of civihzation, was made by Rudolf Gottschall in Die deutsche Nationallitteratur des ip. Jahrhur.- derts, Breslau, 1854. His discussion of the novelist, which in later editions was revised and enlarged, still remains by far the best estimate of his work given in the current histories of modern German literature. Shortly after Sealsfield's deatli, which called foi'th numerous necrologies,' Gottschall published a separate essay"* on our author, making a careful and more detailed analysis of his works and adding what was then avail- able of biographical material. As a literary portrait of Seals- field this essay is still unsurpassed. Gottschall was the first to inquire into the poet's conception of the art of fiction as embodied in his autobiographical sketch, written for Brock- haus' Conversationslexicon, and in the various prefaces to his novels. Moreover, he was die first to appreciate the true his- torical significance of Sealsfield's romances and to interpret correctly the racial and ethnic problems which they attempt to solve. In 1875 L,eo Smolle published a monograph (Sealsfield: Biographisch-literarisches Charakterbild) containing some new and important biographical data, which the author had ob- tained from Sealsfield's brother, Joseph Postl. As a literaiy 3 Kertbeny, K. M., Brinnerungen an Charles Sealsfield, Briissel, 1864. Hartmanii, Alfred, Der deutsch-amerikanischc Romantiker, Gur- tenlaube, 1864, No. 4, pp. S3-SS ; Bin aufgekldrtes Literaturgeheimnis, ibid., 1865, No. 6, pp. 94-95. Meyer, Elise, Der Dichter beider Hemi- sphdren, Daheim, 1865, p. 295 ff. Hemmann, Fr., Btwas iiber Charles Sealsfield, Gegenwart, No. 36, 1878, pp. 149-157; Brinnerungen an Charles Sealsfield, Nord und Si'td, Sept. 1879; Sealsfield-Postl ibid 1889, V. L, pp. 337-352. * Charles Sealsfield. Bin Uterarisches Portrdt, Unserc Zeit, n. s. V. I, pp. 241-266. Reprinted in the author's Porirdts und Studicn Leip- zig, 1876. INTRODUCTION criticism, however, this study cannot compare with that of Gottschall. It was not until 1879 that the first scientific attempt was made to throw more light upon Sealsfield's life. This was done by Victor Hamburger in his booklet Sealsfield-Postl; bis- her unveroffentlichte Brief e und Mitteilungen zu seiner Bio- graphie, Wien, 1879. According to the preface the author had obtained records bearing upon Sealsfield's clerical career, and had also made a careful study of his descriptions of travel as far as they threw light on the novelist's life. The material thus collected was carefully sifted and critically examined with the result that the biographical sketch, comprising the first forty-seven pages and some valuable annotations on pages 146- 149 of the book^ is, almost creditable contribution to our knowl- edge of Sealsfield's life. It is, moreover, written with sym- pathetic spirit and in excellent literary form. Appended to the sketch are the autobiographic outline in the form of a letter to Brockhaus, thirteen letters to Freiherr J. F. von Cotta, the publisher of his first book, and fifteen letters to Heinrich Er- hard, manager of J. B. Metzler, bookdealer, the publisher of the author's Collected Works. To none of the critics mentioned thus far had it occurred that a true understanding and appreciation of Sealfield's pecu- liar literary character was possible only by viewing him in the light of a German- American writer. This point of view was emphasized first by Friedrich Kapp, the eminent historian and author of the Geschichte der Deutschen im Staate New York, in the essay already mentioned, in which he reviews and supple- ments Gustav Korner's excellent book Das deutsche Element in den Vereinigten Staaten. While Kapp's brief discussion of Sealsfield does not claim to advance new results of investiga- tion, it points out how on American soil he became the greatest "painter of customs and nationalities'' in German literature, the charm of whose romances consists in the glorification of the genesis of society and the state, illustrated by the concrete example of the growth of American nationality. OHARI.es SEALSFIEl^D The distinction of having been the first in this country to make a special study of Sealsfield and his works, belongs to Professor A. B. Faust. His Doctor's dissertation (Johns Hop- kins University, 1892) entitled Charles Sealsfield (Carl Postl) ; Materials for a Biography; a Study of his Style; his Influence upon American L,iterature, produced some new biographical material, classified and discussed Sealsfield's use of words, syn- tax and general style, and attempted to assign to him a position in American literature by tracing the influence he exerted on some of his American imitators and plagiarists. In 1894 Faust printed a series of newly discovered letters of Sealsfield,^ which shed welcome light on the last twenty )'ears of his life, and finally, in 1897, he published a biography of the romancer under the title, Charles Sealsfield (Carl Postl), der Dichter heider Hemispharen. Sein Leben und seine Werke, Weimar, 1897. The aim of Faust's book, which is based on sources then available as well as on material gathered in Europe and in this country, is stated in the preface as follows : "The attempt is made in the introduction to demonstrate how emi- nent a place in the literature of both hemispheres the poet may claim. Since Sealsfield influenced the modem German novel especially in the direction of realism this treatise on the writer's life and works may be considered a contribution to the history of the German novel." The principal value of Faust's painstaking work is to be found in the biographical portions of the book and in the dis- cussion of literary relations, rather than in the explanation of the specific qualities and of the ethnographic and historical significance of Sealsfield's romances. A number of important points which Faust had over- looked in his biography of the poet were set forth in a review of the book by Professor Julius Grodit\(Americana-Germanica, 1897, V. I, pt. Ill, pp. 94-103). To interpret Sealsfield cor- rectly, the reviewer maintains, it is necessary to keep in mind his outspoken Americanism, and to explain from this point of ^Publications of the Modern Language Association of America, 1894, V. IX, pp. 342-402. INTRODUCTION view his poetic development as well as the avowed purpose of his romances to foster the growth of democracy in Germany by depicting the marvelous evolution of democratic nationality and civilization in the United States. In 1907 Die Gesellschaft zur Forderung deutscher Wissen- schaft, Kunst und IJteratur in Bohmen appointed Professor Otto Heller of Washington University to act as chief editor of a complete critical edition of Sealsfield's works to be in- corporated in the Bihliothek Deutscher Schriftsteller aus Boh- men. As a groundwork for this proposed edition he brought together the most complete extant collection of Sealsfield's writings in their several editions, as also an extensive biblio- graphy. An article in Buphorion (1907, v. XIV, pp. 718-724) corrected a bibliographical error due to a misstatement in Sealsfield's autobiography concerning his connection with the Courier des Etats-Unis. In 1908 (Modern Language Review, V. Ill, pp. 360-365 ) Heller published additional bibliographical notes on The United States, on Tokeah, or The White Rose, on Morton, and on Christopherus Bdrenhduter. Material of bibliographical importance is also contained in his note to an unpublished letter** of Sealsfield.^ In 1910 he published a sig- nificant article on Some Sources of Sealsfield.^ Here he points to a story which probably gave Sealsfield the idea for his White Rose in Tokeah, and refers to the model for a comical harangue in George Howard as well as to the source of an episode in the same novel. ° Christopherus Bdrenhduter, which had until then been considered a production of Sealsfield's pen, was shown to have been translated from The Western Monthly Review of 1827. Finally, a chapter in the KajUtenbuch, which Sealsfield himself mentions as not being his own, was traced to Samuel Lover's Legends and Stories of Ireland. In an article entitled Sealsfield-Funde,^" Professor Heller presented « Buphorion, v. XVI, pp. 516-517. '' The writer has obtained several references from Professor Heller, for which he wishes to express his sincere gratitude. 8 Modern Philology, 1910, v. VII, pp. 587-592. 9 Cf . Heller, Modern Language Notes. 1908, v. XXIII, pp. 172-173. 1" German-American Annals, n. s. v. VIII, pp. 82-86 ; v. IX, pp. 3-30. — 5 CHARLES SEALSFIELD the results of an investigation into Cotta's journals. He found seven contributions written by Sealsfield, part of which were new and part already familiar to the student of his works." Although Professor Heller fully appreciates the greatness and literary significance of Sealsfield, as is evident from his essay published in The Bulletin of tlie Washington University As- sociation of 1908 (v. VI, pp. 18-44), his chief interest, as may he seen from the publications cited above, is that of the biblio- grapher. A recent contribution to the study of Sealsfield was also made by Professor A. Ravize of Bordeaux. Verifying a state- ment in Sealsfield's autobiography he identified five short stories in the Englishman's Magazine of 1831,^- as being part of his works. The two most recent investigations are those of Thomp- sons^ and Schultz." The former attempts to show that our romancer, at least in one novel, drew largely upon personal observation. The latter treats on a broad, historical basis of Sealsfield's colorful, realistic descriptions of exotic nature. ^^ It is evident from the foregoing brief survey that the greater part of the investigations on the subject under dis- cussion are of a biographical and bibliographical nature. In the present monograph a study is made of the ethnic elements, and the historical, political, and social conditions as they appear in Sealsfield's descriptions of the rise of American civilization, society, and nationality. 11 Preston A. Barba seems to have accidentally come across a source used by Sealsfield in his Kajiitenbiich entitled A Visit to Texas, New York, 1834. Cf. German-American Annals, n. s. v. IX, pp. 31-39, ^^ Enphorion, 1909, v. XVI, pp. 102-116. 13 Thompson, Garrett W., An inquiry into the sources of Charles Sealsfield's novel "Morton oder die grosse Tour," Univ. of Pa. Diss. 1910. 1* Schultz, Paul, Die Schilderung exotischer Natur im dentscheii Roman mil besonderer Berucksichtigung von Charles Sealsfield, Mun- ster, 1913. 15 Cf. Diez, Max, Ueber die N aiurschildcrung in den Romancn Seatsfields, Washington University Studies, 1914, pp. 184-226. 6 LIFE AND V/ORKS THE WRITER AND HIS WORKS. In Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine of 1845^ there is an excerpt in English translation from an unnjimed German writer under the title "German-American Romances." The translator, although he withholds his name, is undoubtedly Frederick Hardman.^ In an introductory paragraph he ex- presses his views on German narrative literature of his day in these words : "The most obvious defect of the German school of romance is the universal tendency, and the conse- quent absence of the characteristic and the true in their de- scriptions both of human and of external nature . . Shut up in their studies with no companions but their books and their meerschaums, and viewing the external world through the 'oophole of retreat, often anxious too, to advance and illus- trate some pet theory of their own, their writings smell horrib- ly of the lamps, and are long-winded, tedious and unnatural. . . . However, a new and radiant star has arisen in the cloudy firmament of German fiction — a novel writer, whose works ex- hibit a striking example of entire exemption from the defects so evident in the great majority of his brethren. This is a nameless personage, known among German reviewers as Der Unbckannte, or the Unknown, and who has broken ground that no German writer had hitherto ventured upon." In fact, like Walter Scott, this novelist was for a long time spoken of only as the "Great Unknown," until, in 1845, he published his Collected Works under the name of Charles Sealsfield. But even then the reading public knew little more, until shortly after his death, in 1864, he was identified with a fugitive German- Moravian monk, who had long been forgotten. Although his last will was also signed with his nom de plume, it gave a clue insofar as it bequeathed the bulk of his earthly possessions to the family of one Anton Postl, resident of Pop- pitz, Moravia, with the special clause that in case one of his 1 B. B. M., V. LVII, pp. 2S 1-258. 2 Frederick Hardman (1814-1874) was an English novelist and journalist, who wrote much for Blackwood's and for the Times. CHARLES SEALSFIELD children were dead, "or otherwise lost sight of," his share should be divided amongst those surviving. This provision naturally led to the discovery of the real name of the queer testator. And when the brother of the deceased arrived at Solothum, Switzerland, where the author had died, there could no longer be any doubt as to the surmised identity, so close was the resemblance. Karl Anton Postl was bom March 3, 1793, as the first son of a well-to-do German-Moravian farmer and wine-grower. In accordance with the wishes of his mother, a devout Catholic, the boy was destined to the service of the church. After finishing the Untergymnasimn at Znaim, he proceeded to Prague, where he was matriculated in the college conducted by the Knights of the Cross, a religious order whose head master resided in the Kreuzherrenstift. Five years later, in 1813, he entered the cloister as a novice. Having been ordained a priest the following year, he was, because of his unusual talents, named adjunct-secretary in 1815, and full secretary after but one year of service. The gloomy cloister buildings could have little attraction for a cultured, liberal minded young man, conversant in sever- al languages. Hence, the discontented ecclesiastic, although he had formed many social connections in and about the Bo- hemian capital, some, in fact, with Austria's feudal aristocracy, was most unhappy. He longed for a life where he might satisfy his glowing ambitions. An opportunity soon offered itself. In 1823 Postl accompanied an ailing brother to Karls- bad, whence he left without permission of his superiors for Vienna. Here he made an attempt to obtain the position of a private secretary in the service of the government. Although recommended to Count Saurau by patrons in Prague, he made an unfavorable impression upon the official, and failed on that account. Seeing his plans thus frustrated, he found himself in a most embarrassing position. One thing, however, was certain: he could not return into the confines of the Kreuz- herrenstift. After long and painful inner struggles he decided to flee to Switzerland, unmindful of the pursuit by the police, LIFE AND WORKS which was carried on with great energy as the police records of Prague and Vienna show. He travelled through Switzer- land and France, and finally embarked at Havre for the United States. Here he hoped to find the liberty which he knew did not obtain in Europe, where the crafty and powerful Metter- nich ruled with a rod of iron, not only over Austria, but over the neighboring states as well. The fugitive monk had disappeared so completely that even his immediate family lost all trace of him. In the early thirties, however, there appeared several anonymous novels which startled both readers and critics ; these stories were so new, so original, so altogether different from what the public had been accustomed to read, that their author was called "The Great Unknown." He preserved his anonymity also in his subsequent and equally successful novels and sketches, until in 1845, he published the first edition of his Collected Works under the name of Charles Sealsfield. This name furnished, of course, no clue to the author's identity. He had been care- ful, moreover, to omit from his writings anything that could be interpreted as a reference to his personality, nor was it possible to determine from internal evidence whether he was of German or American origin. As a matter of fact, many contemporary critics believed him to be an American born of German parents.' Why Sealsfield was so careful to conceal his true name will perhaps never be satisfactorily answered. Whether it was due to a morbid fear of retributive justice, or to his secretive and slightly eccentric nature, is difficult to decide, in view of the fact that in his works he appears as a fearless champion of truth. Postl seems to have landed in New Orleans in the fall of 1823. After a short stay there, he travelled about in the south- ern states, including the Mexican province of Texas, and in all probability, Mexico proper. He then journeyed through Ken- tucky, Ohio, and Pennsylvania to New York and New Eng- 3 Taillandier, Le Romancier de la Democratie Americaine. 9 CHARLES SEALSFIELD land, returning to the Southwest again in 1824. The return trip lasted about one year. During this time he studied the American people and its various racial constituents with the penetrating eye of the historian and the ethnographer. The result of these studies was a descriptive work, published in 1827 by the celebrated firm of J. G. Cotta, whose head was at that time Johann Friedrich Cotta, a promoter of liberal ideas* and the enthusiastic supporter of "Young Germany." (Seals- field contributed later to the Morgenblatt, edited by this firm.) The book appeared under the name of C. Sidons, Biirger der Vereinigten Staaten von Nordamerika, and bears the title Die Vereinigten Staaten von Nordamerika nach ihren politischen, religibsen und gesellschaftlichen Verhdltnissen betrachtet. The following year an English translation of this work was pub- lished in two separate volumes and in the guise of different titles. The first of these volumes was a partial, rather free translation and to a certain extent a revision of the first part of the original, and appeared anonymously under the title The United States of North America as They Are, R. Marshall of London being the publisher. The second volume, for the most part a translation of the remainder of the German original, bears the title The Americans as They Are, Described in a Tour Through the Valley of the Mississippi, By the author of Austria, as it is. It was published by Hurst, Chance and Co., also of lyondon.^ Both books are discussed in the North American Review of 1828. The fact that Sealsfield strongly attacked John Quincy Adams and did not conceal his admiration for Andrew Jackson in the first volume, may account for the contemptuous treatment by the reviewer, who summed up his opinion thus : "Its character may be given in the word 'vile trash'." The second volume, however, was very highly spoken of. The critic remarks : "We have not seen a more correct view of * Proclss, Johannes, Das juiiye Dculschland, chapter II, .Johann Friedrich Cotta und Borne." ■' Heller, Otto, Bibliographical Notes on Charles Sealsfield. Modern Language Reviezv, v. Ill, pp. 360-362. 10 UF'E AND WORKS 'western people' and also of Mississippi and Louisiana, than is here presented." Sealsfield's stay in Europe lasted approximately two years. His letters to Cotta show that he was delayed chiefly by his lack of funds. It was then, in a moment of financial embarrass- ment and utter despair, that he wrote to Prince Metter- nich asking for a ffosition in the Austrian secret service, a step which must be regretted as unworthy of a man of his sub- sequent literary eminence. Deeply chagrined by the refusal of his request, he took pains now to avenge himself by a denounce- ment of Metternich's policy in the shape of a book entitled Austria as it is, or Sketches of Continental Courts, by an Bye- Witness. (London, Hurst, Chance & Co., 1828.) The sale of this book was forbidden by the German and Austrian author- ities,' but finally came to light again in 1834, under the title Seufser aus Oesterreich und seinen Promnsen'' , which was a translation from the mutilated French version, L'Autriche telle qu'elle est.^ In June, 1827, Sealsfield returned to America. After a short stay at Philadelphia he retired to Kittanning, Pennsyl- vania, where he composed his first novel, Tokeah, or the White Rose, Philadelphia, 1829. Although the tale showed the defects of the literary apprentice who takes up a favored theme such as the Indian story was at the time, it attained considerable popularity. There are extant at least four English and six German editions or versions. Some of the latter are based on the author's later revision of the work, and have been printed in the form of juvenile fiction until quite recently.' The author's revision of the novel just mentioned appeared in 1833 under the title Der Legitime und die Republikaner. Bine Ge- "For attempt.s toward suppression, see Weiss, Aueust, Allgemeinc Zritung. Beilage No. 270 (Novennber 22, 1895). ^ It is interesting to note that recently the original was translated into German, Oesterreich zvie es ist, oder Skiasen von Furstenhofen des Kontinents. Wien, 1919. 8 Cf. Arnold, Robert F. Zur Bibliographie Cliarles Sealsfields, Studien zur vergleichctiden Literaturgeschichte , 1901, v. I, pp. 228-233. * Heller, Bibliographical Notes, pp. 362-363. 11 CHARLES SEALSFIELD schichte aus dem letzten amerikanisch-englischen Kriege. Com- paring it with the original version we notice how the author has tried to remedy the defects of the earlier story. The trite Indian tale has grown into an ethnographic and historical picture of remarkable dimensions, foreshadowing the master- ful art which we admire in Sealsfield's later works. While Chateaubriand depicts the Indians as the sons of imdefiled, ideal nature and causes the reader to look with envy and yearn- ing upon the primitive simplicity of their life, while Cooper has us lament the pathetic fate of his Mohicans, Sealsfield, no less a sympathizer with this unfortunate race, doomed to gradual extinction, nevertheless convinces the reader that a nomad and huntsman must of necessity make room for the more enlightened settler and commonwealth-builder.^" The author has succeeded in making us spectators of a drama of race struggles, out of which rises the civilization of a new human world— a drama of history in which the destiny of the red man is only a pathetic episode. Late in 1828 Sealsfield made another trip to the South- west and to Mexico, and probably bought and worked a plan- tation with the moderate fortune he had accumulated. He was, however, unsuccessful in this undertaking, and quickly lost his investment. In 1830 he left for Europe, and from 1832 on he lived in Switzerland, except for several trips to the land of his adoption, whither he was called by business interests. About 1858 he bought a small estate near Solothurn, Switzerland, where he lived a very retired life until his death, May 26, 1864." i** Cf. Schmidt, Julian, Geschichte der deutschen Literatur, v. II, p. 272. 11 Hamburger, Victor, Sealsfield-Postl, p. 35, says: " 'Nichts Neues -.ion driibenf, were his last audible words.* Thus died the man, whose cradle stood in the plain farmhouse on the rushing Thaya, who deserted the service of God, over whose head flamed the Cross of the South, who stayed in the wigwams of redskins and in the palace of princes, whose name is mentioned among the best, who unrecognized every- where, a wandering riddle, found an eternal resting place in the valley of the Aar River on the slopes of the Jura mountains." * These words are made the theme of a poem by Caspar Butz, Gedichte eines Deutsch-Amerikaners. Chicago, 1879, pp. 117-118. 12 — - LIFE AND WORKS The literary activity which made Charles Sealsfield fam- ous as the Great Unknown, falls between the years 1834 and 1843. All of his works except Der Virey und die Aristokraten and Suden und Norden deal with the American people. In Virey (1834) the author lays bare the social and political causes of Mexico's struggle against the Spanish yoke in 1812, and in Suden und Norden (1842-43) he portrays the life of the young Mexican republic in its various aspects. Again we admire his handling of race problems, his weird fancy and the remarkable realism and gorgeous coloring of his descriptions of natural sceneries. The novels which treat of American themes exclusively appeared in rapid succession between the years 1834 and 1841. Most of these works were published at first under various col- lective titles, which, however, were partly dropped in the author's Collected Works.^^ They will, therefore, be quoted here under their individual titles: Morton, oder die grosse Tour; George Howards Bsq. Brautfahrt; Ralph Doughbys Esq. Brautfahrt; Pflanzerlehen (including Die Farbigen^^) ; Nathan, der Squatter-Regulator ; Das Kajiltenbuch, oder Na- tionale Charakteristiken. Morton, of which part one is laid in the United States, part two in England, where Morton was sent as emissary of Stephen Girard, depicts the uncanny power of money concentrated in the hands of a few, which at that time began to assume a dominant influence in society and politics.^* That Sealsfield, with the divination of the prophet, foresaw the danger and conflicts concomitant with the growth of modem capitalism in this country, as well as in Europe, is 12 There are two editions of Gesammelte Werke, one in 18 vols., 8mo., 1844-1846, and one in IS vols., 12mo., 1845-1849, both published by J. B. Metzler, Stuttgart. They lack, however, his political-descriptive works, Christopherus Barenhduter, (a ludicrous sketch appended to the editio princeps of George Howard), Die Wahlverwandtschaften, and the 12mo. edition lacks also Suden und Norden. Since the 12mo. edition has had the larger circulation, it was used in this study. 13 Die Farbigen being a vital part of Pflanzerlehen will not be con- sidered under the subheading, but as belonging to Pflanzerlehen, pt. II (pp. 163-384.) 1* Thomson, G. W., Sources of Morton, claims that Sealsfield drew mostly upon personal observation. 13 CHARLES SEALSFIELD evident from the following passage in the preface to the novel : "What will be the outcome of the great conflict of principles, or rather interests, which is now being waged with so much obstinacy, is a question, the answer to which does not belong to the realm of polite literature; but inasmuch as the latter represents social life in all its shades and thus becomes an agent in the formation of this life, it is its business indeed to consider die peculiar nature of this new power (of money) which seems to be destined to play so great a role in the coming revolution." The five novels following next upon Morton form a cycle revolving around the life in the southwestern states. Here the author found the various racial elements in closer juxtaposition than anywhere else in the Union. The Creole planter and the Acadian huntsman met in this region with the energetic pioneer, who through dogged perseverance and untold priva- tions, conquered the wilderness. Here the enlightened Amer- ican strove to show his Creole neighbor how to alleviate tlie evils of slavery. In this section of the frontier the Yankee peddler was encountered cheating and ''stuffing" the gullible backwoodsman. Moreover, since all these stories take place in 1828, the year when two new political parties struggled for pre- dominance, and the most extensive electioneering machinery was introduced, — since all these events occurred upon a soil where the descendants of French aristocrats championed their monarchical ideas against the staunch adherents of the "peoples' candidate," the author finds occasion to dwell upon the subject of national and civic institutions, the love of vi^hich he considers the all-embracing tie uniting and amalgamating the polyglot population. It is generally agreed that Das Kajutenbuch is the author's masterpiece. In the first part, bearing the special title Die Prairie am Jacinto, and containing some of Sealsfield's finest descriptions of nature, he depicts frontier life in the Mexican province of Texas, especially that of the desperado type so common at the boundaries of civilization. In the second part the hero, a criminal saved from the gallows, fights in th..' liattles of independence against Mexico. The story then takes 14 UKE AND WORKS us into South American countries, and acquaints us with the struggles of their inhabitants against Spanish supremacy. In the novel Die deutsch-amerikanischen W ahlverwandt- schaften .Sealsfield relinquished for a time his preference for the frontier in order to give his attention to another phase in the development of the process of American civilization, a process which in the title he designated as "the elective affin- ity." This technical term borrowed from chemistry, which Goethe had used as a symbol in his Die Wahlverwandschaften, to describe with marvelous art the secret, inexplicable attrac- tion of sex and character, is applied by Sealsfield to the inter- relations of the ethnic elements in America, of which the Amer- ican and German are to him the most conspicuous. The char- acters which symbolize the process of blending and amalgam- ating of the two civilizations are chosen from the sphere of so-called refined society, which affords the author the oppor- tunity of depicting types and environments quite different from those of the frontier regions. If an3rwhere, the author gives in this novel, some of his most cherished thoughts and personal experiences. The racial unity of the typical American and German, who were then the predominant ethnic elements of this country, was to him a fact of the greatest significance, a fact upon which he based his frequently expressed hope of a retroaction of American freedom upon the political conditions of Germany. The attempts to range Sealsfield's novels under accepted literary categories and to assign to them their proper place in the histor)' of modern fiction have, from the time of their first appearance, been many and varied. In turn they have been classified as novels of travel and of adventure, ^^ or as exotic,^" historical" and ethnographic'^ fiction. While some of these I' Cf . Salzer, Geschichte der deutschen Litcratnr. p. 1770. '^Gottschall, Unsere Zeit, 1865, ser. Ill, v. I, p. 241. NationaiUtera- litr, 7th ed., v. IV., p. 510. — Kummer, Deutsche Literatwrgeschichie , p. 284. — Robertson, History of German Literature, p. 579, I'f Cf . Litcraiurblatf, 1835, where Morton, George Hoix-ard and Virey are reviewed under the heading "Historische Romane" — Laube, Moderne Charakieristikcn, v. II, pp. 250-251 — Heller, Charles Sealsfield • 15 CHARLES SEAlvSPlELD designations may apply to certain features of the stories, none of them taken alone, is expressive of their essential character. In a highly interesting and suggestive preface to the Lebensbilder aus beiden Hemisphdren (1835), now printed as a preface to Morton, as well as in his short autobiographical sketch written for Brockhaus' Conversationslexicon in 1854, the author himself defined with excellent historical insight and critical judgment, his position in regard to his predecessors and contemporaries, and at the same time stated what may be called his theory of the novel, as well as the end to which he aspired in his romances. Novel writing, he says, was previous to Walter Scott, an occupation that met with little esteem. Only a few persons distinguished by genius, philosophical preparation and political or social position, had condescended to cultivate this branch of literature. Among these men he mentions Goethe as the fore- most of German novelists. While he recognizes the beauties in Wilhelm Meister's Lehrjahre, he is also aware of its defects, which, in his opinion, consist in the absence of the truly ethical and patriotic elements. It is interesting to note that Sealsfield's criticism of Goethe's alleged egotism, his aristocratic attitude, his lack of patriotism, and his moral latitudinarianism, agrees in many respects with the views of "Young Germany" and especially with those of Wolfgang Menzel. In view of the fact that some of the critics of his first novels had pointed to Chateaubriand and Cooper as his models, Sealsfield cleverly refutes the insinuation of being one of their imitators by introducing a few well chosen, and at the same time trenchant critical remarks on his supposed models. Refer- ring to Chateaubriand's famous Indian story Atala (1801), (Washington University Bulletin), v. VI, p. 34, "Historical Novel of the Present." 18 Cf. Literarische Zeitung, 1846, col. 430 — Bartels, Geschichte der deutschen Literatur, v. II, p. 279, "master of the transatlantic, exotic, ethnographic novel." — Biese, Deutsche Literaturgeschichte, v. Ill, p. 114 — Koenig, Deutsche Literaturgeschichte, v. II, p. 413 — Kurz, Geschichte der deutschen Literatur, v. IV, p. 691 — Salzer, Geschichte der deutschen Literatur, p. 1770— Scherr, WeltUteratur, v. II, p. 299. 16 UFE AND WORKS and especially to his Natchez (1826), he says:^* "I confess that my former opinion of Chateaubriand was not a very favorable one. The extraordinary exaggerations of which he makes him- self guilty at the expense of veracity at every opportunity, as for example, in his Natchez, in which he gives inaccurate de- scriptions of Louisiana and of the principal river of the United States, are unjustifiable. To exaggerate thus seemed to me taking too great a license even in the case of a poet. More- over, his criticism of Shakespeare^" and the spirit pervading his Martyrs convinced me that he had not grasped the spirit of his time, that he still belonged to the age of Madame de Main- tenon, to whom his Genie du C hristianism would have been a real comfort in her last days. As a man, however, he has in- finitely gained in my admiration by his firm attitude toward Charles X, by his chivalrous loyalty to this monarch after he had fallen, and by his bold defense of the rights of the royal grandson." Censuring James Fenimore Cooper and the lack of realism in his novels, he has the following to say: ^^"In the entire United States you will not find dolts who permit themselves to be pulled about like L,eatherstocking, nor a Kentuckian who would stand before a captain with his cap in his hand, as is the case in The Prairie. The author, a seaman, transferred naval discipline to the mainland, and made a mistake in this. For the American of the mainland is a person altogether different from the American who is confined to the ship. I have the greatest respect for the sea novels of this excellent writer. That was his proper sphere, within it he was more than a mere imitator of Walter Scott, he was an original genius and he has been of the greatest service, for he has strengthened the seafaring spirit of the nation, and by choosing this course has demonstrated that the Americans are the first seafaring nation." ^9 Morton, pp. 13-14. 20 Cf. Chateaubriand, Oeuvres Completes, Saint Beuve edition, v. XI, pp. 576-580. 21 Morton, p. 15. 17 CHARLES SEALSFIELD Comparing Cooper with Walter Scott, he continues : ^^"Of his (Scott's) numerous imitators the author of The Last of the Mohicans is probably the only one who was truly permeated with his calling as a writer. The nature which he describes ib greater than that Walter Scott has pictured; his ocean scenes are unsurpassable, but as I said, he lacks the scientific and philosophical education, and unfortunately, he also imitates Walter Scott in the sin of writing too much." Among the remaining contemporary novelists he makes honorable mention of Bulwer-Lytton and of Victor Hugo, but his greatest tribute of praise and admiration he pays to Walter Scott. -^ "I know of no writer," he says, "who is filled more deeply with the sacredness of his calling than is Walter Scott. . . . What self-esteem, what esteem for his country, pervades his work . . . -*The true novel can thrive and flourish only upon a free soil, because upon the latter depend the free expression of opinion and the unrestricted representation of social and political conditions in all their relations and interrelations." It is in connection with his summary of Scott's work as the founder of the classic-historical novel that Sealsfield states the principles which guided him in his own literaiy endeavors. He says: "It was he (Walter Scott), who raised the novel to the high plane which it occupies now, who has given to the best and most enUghtened of his country, as well as to the middle classes and the less educated a national reading book for their recreation and instruction, and thereby has relieved one of the most pressing wants of the time."^^ To follow the example which Scott set, not as an imitator, — for he thinks little of imitation — but as his compeer, is the ;tim which Sealsfield wishes to attain in his novels. ^""I wish to contribute my part," he continues, "to give to the historical novel that higher significance by which it may influence more 22 Mo Wo H, p. 17. 2S/b,U, p. 11. ■i*Ibid, p. 13. 25 Ibid, p. 17. if'Ibid., p. 18. 18 LIFE AND WORKS effectually the culture of our time. . . ^'The goal at which I aim is the principle of enUghtenment and of spiritual progress, and I shall remain true to it." He wishes to attain this, not by the portrayal of bygone ages and characters, but "by depicting facts, living persons of the present time according to the prin- ciple that public characters may be treated in public." Again he defines his conception of the historical novel as distinguished from that of Walter Scott in his autobiographical sketch as follows: "The author (Sealsfield) who, on his fre- quent journeys to the southwestern states of the Union, had become familiar with their development artd their progress conceived the idea of representing this process of civilization in sketches and pictures. Moreover, he had not failed to ob- serve that in a coimtry with a widely distributed public press the traditional family novel or historical novel was out of place — that in a country having a highly deiveloped public life a novel of similar character would be possible. The author therefore, entertained the idea to represent this public life not only in sketches and pictures, but to represent them so that although only loosely connected they would form a whole which should bring the Republic of the United States before the eyes of the German people in the living image of the novel form."=« The success of his novel Der Virey und die Aristokraten, which had been written as an illustration of his new conception of a national-historical novel, encouraged him to carry out his ^T Morton, p. 19. 28 That later American historians have looked upon Sealsfield's novels as a source of history may be seen in the following passage of Henry T. Tuckerman, (America and her Commentators, p. 311) : "The intensity and freshness of their delineations excited much interest. They seemed to open a new and genuine view of romance in American life, or, rather, to make the infinite possibilities thereof charmingly apparent. This was an experiment singularly adapted to a German, who, with every advantage of European education, in the freshness of life had emigrated to this country, and there worked and traveled, observed and reflected, and then, looking back from the ancient quietude of his an- cestral land, could delineate, under the inspiration of contrast, all the wild and wonderful, the characteristic and original phases and facts of his existence in Texas, Pennsylvania, or New York." 19 . CHARLES SEALSFIELD favorite idea of representing the United States in national or higher ethnic romances (Volksroman). Defining in detail what was in his mind he gives most valuable hints in regard to the new technique of the novel which he developed. "Whereas in the former family novel, the picaresque novel, or whatever it may be called, the hero of the story was the chief char- acter around whom the other characters revolved, the hero of the new novel is, if I am permitted to say so, the entire people ; their social, political and religious relations take the place which was formerly taken up by 'adventures'; the past and future of the nation are used as the historical costume, love scenes and adventures are employed only occasionally as a foil, for the sake of contrast, interest and emphasis." This genre of the novel which the author chooses to call the national or higher ethnic novel, in order to distinguish it from the traditional popular romance, "has a many colored basis in history, of which it is destined to become an important second- ary source. Much is, of course, to be done yet in this field, but he feels justified in claiming to be the origfinator of this kind of novel, as he believes to have been the first who laid this broad, historical, national and social foundation for it." That Sealsfield with this theory of the national-ethnic novel anticipated by at least fifteen years Karl Gutzkow's doc- trine of the Roman des Nebeneinander and of the social novel, was pointed out long ago by Professor Julius Goebel in his review of A. B. Faust's monograph. In the same review atten- tion was called to the fact that Wolfgang Menzel, the critical forerunner of Young Germany, had expressed views similar lo those of Sealsfield several years before in his remarkable book Die deutsche Literatur, published in 1828. The resem- blance of ideas is indeed so striking that it cannot be explained as a fortuitous coincidence, and we are constrained to assume that Sealsfield was acquainted with Menzel's book. This is all the more probable in view of the fact that in 1828 he became not only a contributor to the Morgenblatt, the literary supplement of which was edited by Menzel, but also the business represen- tative of the book firm of Cotta at Philadelphia, to whom the . 20 UFE AND WORKS latest and best German publications were to be sent, among them the Morgenblatt.^^ While it is most likely that Menzel's Deutsche Literatur, which was the literary sensation of the day, was included in these shipments of books, there is, moreover, sufficient inner evidence to prove Sealsfield's indebtedness to the critical pathfinder. Finally a comparison between Tokeah, or the White Rose (1829), a sentimental Indian story in Coop- er's style, with Der Legitime und die Republikaner (1833) shows a change in the author's conception of the novel which can be explained only- by his acquaintance with Menzel's book made in the interval between 1829 and 1833. Discussing the origin and influence of modem Roman- ticism, the chief characteristic of which he sees in the marvel- ous as opposed to classical intellectualism, Menzel says: ^""There is finally a fifth kind of the Romantic which promises more and more to become the most important and effectual. In many respects we may consider Herder its real fotmder. It seeks the romantic marvel in the sphere of nationality, in the particular nature, ways, and manners of peoples. Its principal champion at present is Walter Scott. He has the undeniable merit of being the foiuider of the historical novel, as a char- acteristic species of fiction, and his extraordinary popularity is due to the fact that he understood the general trend of his time, whicli manifested itself in a wide-spread interest in the peculiar physiognomy of various nations, their differences and characteristics." The innermost notion of the historical novel created by Walter Scott differs essentially from similar previ- ous attempts. The latter hitherto placed single distinguished men or families in the foreground, assigning to the nation from which the hero sprang the role of a supernumerary. The new method, however, describes in place of single heroes whole nations, instead of single characters the physiognomy, the cus- toms, and characteristics of entire countries and times, instead 29 See the highly interesting draft af the business contract in A. B. Faust's monograph, Der Dichter beider Hemisphdren, p. 178 ff., contain- ing a remarkable list of books for which Sealsfield expected to find a market in America. ^'^ Die deutsche Literatur, v. II, p. 97 ff. 21 CHARLES SEALSFIELD of single deeds the life-development of whole generations." This kind of poetry may, therefore, also be called democratic in character. "From time immemorial," continues Menzel, "man has been the subject of poetry, and from this principle the new novel cannot deviate. However, it sees in man a mem- ber of human kind rather than an individuality. The hero of the historical novel, therefore, is no longer a single man but the people."^"- As Menzel was one of the first German critics in the early part of the nineteenth century to espouse the cause of a closer union of life and hterature, we are not surprised to find that Sealsfield followed Menzel's suggestion also with regard to his advocacy of realism. "Out of a single hero," says Menzel, "the poet can make what he pleases, but a people he must take as it really is. There is nothing left to him but to recognize the poetic element in reality."^- And in conformity with Men- 31 Compare also the following passage, p. 171 : "From the entire bulk of the distant and bygone the poet selects bright coherent pictures, and presents them to our eyes in a pleasing frame. We are looking into the strange present, into a different world, in which, however, everything is so natural, as if it were still living, and this is the epic element of the historical novel. Finally the poet brings several nations into close contact, and chooses moments of history, in which they really became engaged in a vital conflict." 32 It is interesting to note that Sealsfield at the close of his career attributed the success of his novels chiefly to their realistic qualities. Kertbeny, an Hungarian writer, who saw much of him during his last years and carefviUy marked down everything worthy of note, reports the following conversation : "When one day I turned the conversation to the novel and the role it plays in modern life, Sealsfield remarked : 'In France and Germany where the novel is only a means of exciting the imagination, and offers only entertaimnent, and at the most, brilliant discussions of inner problems, one has no idea how important a role the novel plays in the civilization of England and America. There all questions of daily and social life are ventilated in this form, and the masses who read journals and novels almost exclusively, obtain their educational nourishment almost entirely from these two sources. A good deal, therefore, of the surprise and fascination which my novels created is not due as much to my individual endowments, as to the vantage ground of having been the first to introduce this genre into German hterature, and to maintain this ground so unconcernedly as though Germany had long been accustomed to it. This genre is called Reality, an artistic interest in which is created and increased by the in- troduction of profound psychological problems'." — Cf. Meister, Oskar, Brinnerungen, p. 18, who speaks of the psychology in his works, and (p. 23) calls him the hochgefeierte Vblkerpsychologe. 22 ■ UFE AND WORKS zel's view Sealsfield says in the introduction to Morton: "Ac- cording to my opinion the nature of the subject which we treat must determine the form and manner of treatment: the rep- resentation must be in conformity with nature, in short it must be as reaUstic as possible." That Sealsfield was hailed as a champion of 'realism,' which the group of Young Ger- many had made their watchword, by contemporary writers may be seen from a review in the Literarische Zeitung of August 30, 1837, entitled Der neue Unbekannte who "lately has been called an Englishman of the name of Seatsfield (sic!)." The reviewer, who is proud of the fact that the Anglo-American Sealsfield has chosen the German language as his vehicle of expression, calls his productions the most national that have appeared of late, and continues : "What characterizes the 'New Unknown' is his strict adherence to the present, to life and reality, and with this he has attained the most marvelous effect ; he has contrasted the purely imaginative novel with the novel of reality. The domain of fiction has thereby been enriched in the same way as the drama was once advanced by Shake- speare ; it has become the expression of the fullest and most intense life and of the richest individuality. For his endeavor to represent reality the author could not have found a more favorable field than is presented by America, the country of history in the making." In a similar way a critic in the Hallische J ahrbiicher of February 18, 1842, says of the author of the Lebensbilder aus beiden Hemisphdren: "He displays a vividness of conception and a power of realistic representation which dazzle the Ger- man reader." At the same time the defects of a bold realism such as Sealsfield cultivated were not overlooked by the critics. Thus a reviewer in the Literarische Zeitung of January 2, 1847, has the following to say : "The truthfulness and boldness which are peculiar to him and from which result the merits of his productions are, however, also the cause of their faults. By depicting life as it is he frequently gives us pictures of rude, uncouth and wild scenes without the necessary poetic mitiga- 23 CHARLES SEALSFIELD tion. In general he inclines to flaring and exaggerated color- ation in his writings. Of course, he aims at reality even in those parts of his writings in which he exaggerates, but he looks at reality through a glass as it were, through which everything appears more glaring and the picture becomes a sort of caricature. It is evident, moreover, that he frequently, not unlike E. T. A. Hoffmann, endeavors to obtain an uncanny effect." Finally, the last part of Treitschke's short discussion of Sealsfield in his history of the 19th century may be quoted as a fair estimate of our author's position in the development of modem realism in German literature: ^^"His novels Die Legi- timisten (Der Legitime) and Der Virey led our poetry for the first time into the far west, into the national wars and race struggles, in which so many Germans have participated. In the marvelous splendor of the landscape which he describes, in the energy of his character painting, he surpassed Cooper by far, but in all his writings there was a feverish restlessness at work, to which the masses of his readers preferred even the verboseness of Cooper. In such unschooled, vigorous talents the spirit of an epoch can best be seen, Sealsfield's writings proved how irresistibly the time pressed on toward realism." Although Sealsfield in many respects agreed and sym- pathized with the political, social and esthetic ideals of Young Germany, it would be a mistake to rank him with this con- temporary group of writers, tiearly all of whom he excelled in creative power as well as in the knowledge and experience of the world. After he had read Gutzkow's famous novel Die Ritter vom Geist, he wrote to a friend : ^*"One can easily see that Gutzkow lives among women and literary men and not in the world. . . . ^^Gutzkow is one of the shallowest writers known to me, who has nothing true about him except his shal- lowness. At the same time there is a display of learning in 33 Treitschke, H. v., Deutsche Geschichfe int ncuncehnten Jahr- hundert. pt. IV, p. 4S1. 34 Faust, Der Dichter beider Hemisphdren, p. 264, 35 Ibid, p. 26S. 24 LIFE AND WORKS his stories which must enchant the Germans, who are always given to this hobby. Indeed, there is Httle hope for poor Ger- many if one is permitted to infer from its Hterature and its writers to the people itself, for among all other nations litera- ture is one of the mainsprings of national character and nation- al consciousness." It was probably on account of Heine's lack of national pride and consciousness that Sealsfield refused to make his asquaintance while on a visit to Paris. He con- sidered Heine "a writer of a conscience morally too corrupt to make it possible for a man of principle to have intercourse with him."^« At the same time Sealsfield fully recognized the pro- gressive tendency of the young German writers, as is shown by a significant passage in Deutsch-amerikanische Wahlver- wandtschaften. He ridicules the fine wits "who continually entertain us with their same old trifles, and if possible, would like to take us back to the good old times of Ramler, Uz and Gleim. This the nation does not want and it is for this reason that in our day the people do not take any interest in literature and in the lot of the writers ... A new period of develop- ment, however, is dawning in our entire social life as well as in literature. The young men called Young Germany have b^un this new period of development, or rather are its pre- cursors. Feeling that the old roads no longer can be travelled they have taken a new course. To be sure they have gone astray, but they awakened the consciousness of the nation, if I may say so, and for this they have been treated too harshly (by the government) . . . This, however, was probably caused by tiie fact that these young men assumed a revolutionary air. But it was all mere air; to talk of their 'republicanism' or their attempted 'revolution' is folly. On the other hand there is no doubt that they anticipated a new era of national develop- ment and are working for its realization. "It was a period such as the present that once produced a Shakespeare. In the same way the present period of tremsi- ^^Ibid, p. 78. — Cf. Faust, Seahfield's Place in Literature, Americana Germanica, v. I, No. 1, p. 7. 25 • CHARLES SEALSiHELD tion will transform the life of book-worms and pedants, in fact our whole inner life into real life and repopulate our Par- nassus which has been deserted since Goethe's death. Just let these young and strong minds become free and active and take hold of life as Shakespeare did, and you will soon hear that we Germans are able to accomplish things as great as the Eng- lish and any other nation has accompHshed." Sealsfield was a writer of too pronounced a personality and too independent a character to join hands with a literary coterie given in a large measure to useless theorizing such as was Young Germany. In view of his friendly attitude toward the movement which they represented, it is, however, of the greatest interest to notice their opinions of his work as a novel- ist which in many respects seemed to embody some of their political and esthetic doctrines. That Sealsfield was not claimed directly by Young Germany as one of their associates is due chiefly to the fact that they were not aware of his nationality. As early as 1835 Heinrich Laube in his Moderne Charak- teristiken has a short chapter on Sealsfield under the title "Der neue Unbekannte," whom he, like the rest of the group, con- sidered a countryman of Cooper and not a German. Of Seals- field's novels there had appeared up to that time only Der Legitime und die Republikaner, Der Virey und die Aristokra- ten, and Transatlanische Reiseskiszen (George Howard), and upK)n these Laube based his criticism. He commends the "un- known" author upon his happy choice of a popular subject, i. e., of America, which (doubtless on account of the lai^e emigration) "is perused by our statesmen and our story writers like a grammar." He believes that the new American author compares very favorably with Washington Irving and Cooper, and in fact, surpasses the latter in variety and fertility of mind. He claims, moreover, that the "New Unknown" satisfies tlie demands of the German reader who, having become tired of the various offshoots of Romanticism "now finds the magic of novelty in the connection of history with reality." Theodor Mundt, another member of the Young German group, places Sealsfield above Cooper and Irving, and calls • 26 LIFE AND WORKS him ^'"the great national character painter of his country," who "in everything he writes, proves to be of an exhaustive thoroughness, which in itself is just as imposing as the subject which he treats is immense. In the description of American landscapes and their prodigious vegetation, and of the poetry of the wilderness, all of which he knows how to conjure up be- fore us in their details as well as in their overwhelming vast- ness, he has attained the highest perfection by the simplest means of coloring. Equally admirable is the psychological in- sight with which he views the combination of the national and the human elements in the individuality of his characters."^' While it may seem strange that lyudolf Wienbarg, the foremost critic of the Young German group, does not even mention Sealsfield in his writings, it must be remembered that he paid little attention to the theory of the novel and, more- over, had a strong aversion to Walter Scott and especially to his numberless imitators, among whom he may have counted the German-American author.'* It is, however, of special interest and significance to note that it was Wolfgang Menzel who in his Litcraturblatt*" first recognized the lasting qualities in Sealsfield's realistic art, and predicted for his novels a permanent place in German Utera- ture. He says : "The name of the author of these spirited de- scriptions (Lebensbilder aus beiden Hemisphdren and Nathan) is still unknown. We must, however, say in his praise that his latest works are still more attractive than his first, and that he excels both Cooper and Washington Irving if not in truth- fulness of delineation, then certainly in delicacy and warmth of coloring. If we are not totally mistaken these transatlantic pictures will not be forgotten like so many ephemeral produc- tions, but will maintain an honorable place among the books that live forever. . . . The author has indeed the rare gift of ^'' AUgemeine Literaturgeschichte, 1848, v. Ill, pp. 387-388. 38 Of the same contents is a characterization in his Geschichte dcr Literatur der Gegenwart, 1853, pp. 738-739. 39 Schweizer, Victor, Ludolf Wienbarg, p, 148 ff. *o February 14, 1838. 27 CHARLES SEALSFIELD affording us the illusion of absolute reality and to snatch from nature those intimate details which force the imagination to give itsielf over entirely to the object described. . . Every one of his pictures breathes life, truth, nature !" The best contemporary appreciation of the significance of Sealsfield's work was furnished by Alexander Jung, a dis- tinguished critic and en&usiastic champion of the modem spirit of German literature, in a course of three remarkable lectures, published under the title of Vorlesungen uber die Mo- derne Literatur der DeuUchen, 1842. He defines the modem spirit, whose history he traces in German literature since Goethe, as the spirit of individual, political, and social freedom, the spirit of true democracy, which to him includes the social element. The chief exponents of this spirit he sees in Schleier- macher and especially in Hegel, of whose philosophy he is an enthusiastic disciple. Of all the modem poets and writers who are representatives of this spirit, none has embodied it in its most perfected form and all-embracing breadth and deptii as has Sealsfield, whose works should, therefore, be called world epics. "In this novelist," he says, at the close of his last lecture, "the modem spirit has thus far undoubtedly found its most objective and greatest development and personifica- tion, a personification that stands above parties as well as na- tions." Not knowing who the great Unknown is, Jung ven- tures the conjecture that he belongs to that nation (the Ger- man) which "has in an ideal manner absorbed the spirit of all peoples, in order to comprehend this spirit philosophically and then to reflect it artistically." "However that may be," he continues, "we are amazed at Sealsfield's omniscience as we are amazed at Shakespeare's infinite knowledge. Whatever he pictures to us, he presents in such a way that we perceive it in every fibre of life, no matter whether ugly, despicable, and terrible, or whether graceful, lovely and charming; no matter whether nature or man, or earth, ocean and heaven ; whether backwoodsmen, fashionables of New York, or a highly edu- cated Prussian, with a little, just a little, comical by-taste of provinciality. Since our poet, liberal, educated, and intelligent 28 LIFE AND WORKS as he is, knows how to present people in the most natural and, therefore, most true relation, and since he narrates all this in such choice and new, as well as simple and most flexible lang- uage, we extol in him at the same time the principal character- istics of modern thought and life — liberty and free social existence, elegance and popularity in their most intimate union."*^ Finally the critical estimate of Arnold Ruge, a political writer, literary critic, and adherent of the younger Hegelian school of philosophy, deserves to be mentioned. It is contained in his Sdmtliche Werke (2nd ed., 1847), and attempts a characterization of Sealsfield as portrayed in his Cabin-Book. Ruge sees in the author's treatment of the transatlantic world his true greatness. He wishes that the "good sense and brave political spirit, the honor and the pride of this wonderful republican people" might be transp-lanted to Germany (v. III. p. 309.) It is above all the presence of the modern spirit and of the extraordinary realistic power revealed in Sealsfield's writ- ings which the critical opinions just cited brings out in strong relief, explaining at the same time the amazement and the enthusiasm with which these writings were received by the gen- eral public. Appearing at a time of widespread political and social unrest, the period of Weltschmerz, a time weary, more- over, of the dream-world of romanticism, and craving for actu- ality, activity and liberty, the productions of the New Un- known came like a message from a land where all the hopes and desires of the German people seemed to have found ful- fillment. In the new world which this mysterious nameless author painted with such glowing colors there existed life, active, pulsating life — ^here, indeed, was a nation that had been successful in its struggle for freedom, that had created its own institutions and laws, and under the banner of liberty was liv- ing in happiness and plenty. No wonder that Sealsfield's novels *i The vvhole criticism is translated in Tailandier's Le Romancier de la democratic americaine, Revue des Deux Mondes, ser. I, v. LXXI, pp. 466-467. 29 CHARLES SEALSFIEU3 stimulated the desire for emigration to America to a degree even greater than had Schnabel's description of the peaceful transatlantic Utopia Insel Pelsenhurg. Nor can there be any question that in Germany itself these novels nourished and strengthened the rising democratic spirit. As early as 1827, in the preface to his book Die Vereinig- ten Staaten von Nord-Amerika, Sealsfield considered it his mis- sion *^"to direct the attention of Europe and her inhabitants (meaning, of course, chiefly Germany) to the present status of the Union and to give them a correct view of the country which has already reacted in so many ways upon the old world and which is destined to react upon it even more in the future."*^ In the same spirit he dedicated the second edition of the Lebensbilder as follows : "TO THE GERMAN NA- TION, roused to the consciousness of its power and dignity, these pictures of the domestic and public life of the FREE CITIZENS OF A FREE STATE destined to historical great- ness, are respectfully dedicated as a mirror for self-examina- tion." Finally in the preface to his Gesammelte Werke he ex- pressed his gratitude to the German people for the very favor- able reception which they gave his works, "a reception which will never cause the author to regret that he devoted his modest talent to the German nation." Hence Leo Smolle, his early biographer, describes Sealsfield's conception of his calling quite correctly when saying: ""To transfuse the freshly pulsat- ing blood of the Transatlantic Republic into the senile veins of the Old World, to acquaint his countrymen with the spirit of true liberty he considered his sacred duty, a duty which he felt obliged to take upon himself as a mission entrusted to him by a higher power." It is all the more tragic, therefore, that the failure of the revolution of 1848, the culmination of the democratic move- ^^ Die Vereinigten Staaten, v. I, p. VI. ** This phase of Sealsfield's romances was emphasized by Kurz, Geschiehte der deutsehen Literatur, v. IV, p. 715, Literarische Zeitung, 1842, No. 42, and especially in Professor Goebel's review of Faust's book. *4 Smolle, Leo, Charles Sealsfield, Wien, 1875, p. 18. 30 UFE AND WORKS ment to which Sealsfield's novels had indirectly contributed so much, caused not only the abatement of his productivity, but also the waning of his popularity and influence. During the period of reaction following the revolutionary events the former interest in literature and poetry had almost ceased. How discouraging, however, the unfortunate turn of political events was to Sealsfield, may be seen from a remark in one of his letters : *°"Since I heard the debates in the Frankfort par- liament, I expect from Germany little else than literary re- views. In this they are masters ; I mean — in mere criticising." In a moment of such dejection he burned the manuscript of his last work, the continuation of his novel D eutsch-amerikanische W ahlverwandtschaften, the greater part of which had been ready for the printer as early as 1848. Nevertheless he fol- lowed the poUtical development in Germany with the deepest interest, and in 1862 he wrote : **"Now I begin to divine that Germany, despite all apathy and phlegma, is undergoing a transformation and that Prussia is destined to take the leader- ship." With a concern equally deep, if not deeper, Sealsfield, after his return to Europe, followed the development of his adopted country, and especially the events which led up to the Civil War. '""Our troubles in the United States are of a kind which makes me fear the worst, in fact, the very worst ; the separation of the Union not only in two, but perhaps in four or five parts. In this case many hundred thousands would lose their possessions. I, of course, would be among these and I may be forced to take refuge again to my pen, an eventu- ality which God forbid. It is a pleasure to write if one finds pleasure in it, but it is drudgery if one has no joy in it, and I have none." Again, on January 28, 1861, he wrote: "Our con- ditions over there are sad and make one despair . . . My country must pass through all the crises which go with the diseases of larger repubUcs." What these diseases were Seals- ■•* Faust, Der Dichter beider Hemisphdren, p. 267. *6 May 8, 1862, Faust, Ibid., p. 267. "Jaiiuary 6, 1861, Faust, Ibid., pp. 269-270. 31 CHARLES SEALSFIELD field knew only too well, but like many patriots he saw in the war a process of national purification. Writing October 15, 1861, he says : "Our government at Washington seems to be composed of absolutely incapable men — lawyers who do not look beyond their lawsuits. They proceed like the president and the directors of a railroad company, and in addition to all this, the fatal corruption, stealing and swindling. I begin to despair of the safety of my beloved America. Of course, what happens over there is at the same time a process of purifica- tion, but during this process millions of the best citizens must suffer while the scoundrels are on top." Nevertheless, he does not lose faith in his country and in the ways of providence. "If you study the course of develop- ment which the United States have taken," he writes to his friend,** "you will become aware of the greatness of this providence." When finally the prospects of victory had be- come brighter he proudly exclaims in a letter of May 2, 1862 : "The people, the nation have shown their greatness during the past year 2md that consoles a citizen like myself and quiets him in the midst of all calamities. It is a veritable sea of blood — of our blood, through which our people must wade— but it was necessary for our purification and regeneration." The very fact that he considered the purification and re- generation of the nation a necessity shows that his patriotism was not that of a jingo who is blind to all national faults and believes that his country is always right. He recognized the evil forces and the dangers which threaten democracy, and, like a prophet, he again and again in his works warned and reproved his people. When after an absence of seventeen years he returned to America for a short visit, he wrote to a friend : *°"I found the material progress enormous, the political improvement much less, and the intellectual and moral advance smallest of all." This change in the spirit of the nation de- pressed him to such an extent that he refused to have a new *8 October 15, 1861, Faust, p. 273. 49 April 25, 1854, Faust, p. 284. 32 LIFE AND WORKS edition of his works printed, "because," as he said to Kert- beny, "they no longer show the Americans as they are." Had Sealsfield written in English he would doubtless be counted among the foremost American novelists of the nine- teenth century. Having arrived in this country when the tradi- tions of the Revolutionary War were still alive and the gigantic work of colonizing the vast areas of the West was at its height, he had the good fortune of witnessing the heroic age of our Republic whose great exploits he was to recite in a series of romances of enduring value. Some of his competitors in the field, novelists like James Fenimore Cooper and William Gil- more Simms, may in their best works surpass him in matters of technique, such as the structure of the plot and the unity of action — none, however, equals him in psychological pene- tration, in historical and philosophical training, and in truth- fulness of delineation. Comparing the picture of America and American life reflected in his works, with the image mirrored in the poems written by Sealsfield's countryman and contemporary, Nikolaus L,enau, the great lyric poet, during his brief stay in this country, one is struck with the fidelity to nature of the former and the spirit of optimism and energy pervading it, in contrast to the pessimism, the discontent, and the consequent distortion in Lenau's portrayal. This difference is due not only to the dis- similarity of temperament in the two men, but most of all to a difference in attitude. The readiness and receptivity of mind with which Sealsfield embraced the new world had been the attitude of hundreds of thousands of his countrymen who had come to this country to take part in the building of a new civilization and of a new nationality. Since the Revolutionary War a German- American literature had been growing up in this country, which reflected this spirit and attitude of the Amer- ican citizen of German descent, of which Sealsfield is the greatest spokesman and the first classic. His works are a per- manent contribution both to American and German literature for he was great enough to combine a deep attachment to the culture of his native land with the sincere loyalty to the coun- 33 CHARLES SEALSFIELD try of his adoption. A contemporary of Karl Follen, Francis Lieber, Gustav Korner, and many other men of science and letters, who wrote in English as well as in German, Sealsfield is the foremost American romancer in the German language. As the questions connected with tlie ethnic elements are closely interwoven with the history of our country, Sealsfield's views concerning the genesis and development of the Amer- ican body politic will be treated first. 34 PART I. POUTICAL, ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL CONDITIONS IN AMERICA. Chapter I. COLONIZATION. The first Europeans to colonize the North American con- tinent were the British, French and Dutch. They were all made of different stuff and had different reasons and motives to urge them into the wilderness. But none had come with the same intentions nor lived the same life as did the Spanish in Central and South America. The Spaniard had come to gain riches, and riches only, and after he had satisfied his greed and had gratified his animal desires, he returned to his mother country and left nothing except, perhaps, some children begotten by the woman with whom he lived in concubinage. What a difference between such settlers and those that colo- nized North America !^ "The free Briton, who, seeking greater liberty, settled in the American wilderness and transformed it in tireless struggle, and with the sweat of his brow into a place of culture, did not only bring with him liberal institutions which guarded him against brutal usurpation, but infused also a certain respect which even by the most presumptuous is never denied a man of action, and which for the same reason was withheld from the descendants of the Spanish colonists in Mexico, who were absorbed in the voluptuous enjoyment of life, and who reaped where they had not sown. We must never overlook this dif- ference in the method used in the first European settlements 1 Virey, pt. II, p. 200. 35 CHARLES SEALSFIELD of both countries, since it was the basic factor for the different development of social conditions."^ What courage, energy and perseverance it took to wrest the land from the natives, only to gain it anew through even more persistent efforts from the reign of the wilderness; the strength and endurance it required to withstand disease and pestilence, is shown in the case of later French settlers. They landed in the South, in the Mississippi delta, and pushed north, fighting fever and noxious insects — ^many succumbed, while others conquered, partly by subduing the swamps, partly by becoming themselves acclimated. ^"Yes, those were daring souls, who built the first cabins on these terrible shores. They are mementoes immortalizing the power of man, which the Frenchman may be proud of. To win battles, to destroy coun- tries, to subdue nations under a mighty yoke — demands no strong national spirit, no extraordinary power. The Huns, Tartars and Turks can do these things as well, perhaps better, than Europeans ; under an Attila, Timour, Solyman they have done it. But to settle as a creative spirit in terrible solitude, in a watery desert — to struggle with nature, with the wilder- ness, heat, cold and the floods — to persevere in a strife, which no trumpets of fame proclaim to posterity, demands a genuine spark of the Promethean fire, and displays the unconquerable energy of man. If the Frenchmen had left no other memorial of their prowess than the settlement and culture of Louisiana, that alone would be all-sufficient to establish and perpetuate their fame. The history of the settlement of western Egypt by the French government was c'haracterized by folly, error 2 Andree, Karl, Nord-Amerika, p. 36, says: "But in the North the plough prevailed, in the South the sword. The notions of the Puritan who came to this home covered with deep snow, were different from those of the conquistador in the sunny South." — Cf. Heeren, A. H. L., Europe and its Colonies, pt. I, pp. 31-32. He distinguishes between four kinds of colonies. "1. Agricultural colonies. Their abject is the culture of land. The colonists become proprietors and are at home in their possessions ; and, as they advance, finally grow into an independent nation." 2. Colonies for plantations. 3. Mining colonies. 4. Commercial colonies. — The English colonies in America, although founded by men interested in the fur-trade, belonged to the first class. 3 Aalph Doughby, pp. 48-49. ■ 36 POLITICAL AND SOCIAL CONDITIONS and levity, deserving more to be called the conceptions of an idiot than the measures of an enlightened government for the foundation of a colony; but, luckily, the spirit of the French settlers was stronger than the levity of their rulers, and this spirit succeeded finally, in spite of almost insurmountaliie obstacles which nature and rulers threw in its way, in laying the foundation for the civilization of a continent, which is certainly destined to play one of the most important parts in future history." French immigrants had also settled in the peninsula of Nova Scotia, where they tilled the soil in a peaceful way. But these Acadians, as they called themselves, were not to enjoy the fruits of their labor very long. In the year 1713 Nova Scotia, up to then a French colony, was ceded to Britain in the treaty of Utrecht. According to agreement the colonists were to be neutral in case of war between the two powers. Nevertheless, in 1776* they were asked by England to take up arms against their beloved France, and when they steadfastly refused, were driven from their homes. For six years they wandered about, persecuted by the English, and only few reached Louisiana. These few were hospitably received by their brethren. Now they were under Spanish sovereignty, Louisiana having been ceded to Spain in 1763. These are ex- planatory data which Sealsfield records in a foot-note to Ralph Doughby, p. 52, and which are to sketch the historical back- ground of the following excerpt, which may serve at the same time to show the author's ability to weave historical and ethno- graphical material into the texture of a narrative. They are never forced in, but seem rather to be an integral part which lends beauty and completeness to the whole : '"We have passed the Cote des Acadiens. How enchantingly beautiful the pale silvery stripe draws along toward the north ! They are the cypress groves, lit up by the last rays of the moon — a thin and mysterious light; it sparkles mildly, like the rainbow of the moon — mildly, like the eye of Providence, which guides the * It was in 1755. 5 Ralph Doughby, pp. 51-52. ■ 37 CHARLES SEALSFIELD world ! Perhaps it is the same silvery stripe, which lit the path of the poor Acadians on their sorrowful wandering, when eighty years ago they pursued their thorny path for three thousand miles, from the coast of Nova Scotia. They were twelve thousand families, who, at the command of the Second George and his Tories, were torn from their homes, their fire- sides and their huts, because they would not fight against their fathers, their brothers and Louis Quinze, their native king. In the midst of winter they were driven from their valleys and plains and fields, which their hands had redeemed from the wilderness. Men, women, old men, girls and infants were chased by bloodhounds beyond the boundaries of their own country. Thousands froze to death, starved, or fell prey to wild beasts. Only a miserable remnant succeeded in reaching, across the lakes and Illinois, the shores of the Mississippi, down which they floated on miserable rafts. On her shores and in the Attacapas, among their countrymen and the Span- iards, they found succor and a resting place. "^ sCf. Haliburton, Thomas C, Nova Scotia, v. I, pp. 175-198. Cf. Carpenter, W. H., History of Massachusetts, p. 174 ff. : "Sixteen years before the landing of the Pilgrims at Plymouth, a small French colony had established itself upon the penin.iula now known as Nova Scotia, but to which the early settlers had given the name of Acadia. With the lapse of time, the little colony gradually increased both in numbers and prosperity. Reproached for their adherence to the Catho- lic faith by the more intolerant of their Puritan neighbors, they were not unfrequently drawn into disputes wholly at variance with their quiet habits and pastoral mode of life. At length, by the treaty of Utrecht, .A.cadla became a province of Great Britain. True to the language, man- ners, customs, and religion of their forefathers, the old inhabitants still regarded France with undiminished affection, even while yielding sub- missively to the jurisdiction of England. — The conquest of all the regions east of the St, Croix River having been thus easily accomplished, the Acadians were called upon to take the oath of allegiance to Great Britain. To this demand they yielded readily, but could. not pledge themselves to serve against France." Lawrence, the lieutenant-gover- nor, said: " 'If they refuse the oath it would be better they were away!' Their expulsion, determined upon from the first, was now attempted to be legalized by the making of a judicial decision; a plan having been secretly arranged to seize them by surprise — men, women and children — and to distribute them through the several colonies. Alarmed by the foreshadowing of some mysterious calamity, the Acadians offered to take the oath of allegiance in any form the authorities might desire, but this act of meek submission was now refused. Regarded by the prejudiced conquerors as 'popish recusants,' their deportation was re- solved upon. Unconscious of what was to follow, all the male inhabitants 38 POLITICAL AND SOCIAL CONDITIONS Near these Acadians who took refuge on the east bank of the Mississippi, north of New Orleans, and whose settle- ments were called Premiere and Seconde Cote des Acadiens, the first extending eight, the second six leagues, there is also a Premiere and Seconde Cote des Allemands, extending to- gether about sixteen leagues/ Chapter II of Ralph Doughby, from which the last two selections were taken, devotes also a paragraph to these most unfortunate settlers of Louisiana: '"These people were originally Germans' imported under the command of some Swedish or Dutch baron, to populate the new dukedom of Arkansas; the notorious Law,^" and -i company of dragoons, had been sent along to keep order and discipline among them. The card house of the Mississippi of Acadia above nine years of age, in obedience to a general proclama- tion, assembled on the ninth of September at places previously indicated. At Grand Pre, one of these posts, four hundred armed men met to- gether. Having been marched into the church, the doors of which were immediately closed, Winslow, commanding the Massachusetts forces, notified them that their lands and tenements and their personal property were forfeited to the crown, and that they themselves were to be re- moved from His Majesty's province of Nova Scotia. Their wives and families shared this sudden blow. The houses they had quitted in the morning they were never to see again. This was not all. On the day of embarkation they were driven on shipboard at the point of the baj'onet, not in families, nor in a single vessel, but divided according to sex, and in different ships, destined for different colonies. By this heartless arrangement, husbands and wives, parents and children, brothers, sisters and betrothed lovers, in spite of tears and agonizing entreaties, were torn from one another, many of them never again destined to meet on earth. From the 10th of September to the middle of December, the work of embarkation went slowly on; the unfortunate ,A.cadians' being, in the meanwhile, crowded together on the coast, suffer- ing from an insufficiency of clothing, and begging for bread. Seven thousand of these unfortunate people were thus callously deprived of their homes, which after their departure, were razed to the ground to prevent them from affording a shelter to any of the exiles that should chance to return. Distributed among the colonies more than a thousand were carried to Massachusetts where they remained a public burden, until, heartbroken and hopeless, they finally languished away." ''Navigator, Appenida, p. 200. — Cf. An Account of Louisiaim (U. S. Jefferson) 1803, pp. 5-6. 8 Ralph Doughby, pp. 46-47. " Flint, Timothy, Recollections, p. 335, refers to these Germans as being removed from Nova Scotia! 1" John Law was primarily a French financier, and his Mississippi scheme was to help France financially. Cf. Wiston-Glynn, A. W., John Law of Lauriston, Edinburgh, 1907, p. 52. 39 CHARLES SEALSFIELD company^^ was just falling to pieces, when these thousand unfortunates arrived in the pathless wilderness of Arkansas, and of course were dismissed from thought. Nine-tenths of them dieid in the forests, and on the way down the Mississippi ; the miserable remainder succeeded in reaching New Orleans, and finally obtained permission to build their huts twenty miles above the city. And they built in sorrow and in misery, war- ring with floods, alligators and vermin ; but their children and grandchildren reaped the fruits of their labor and lived in peace and plenty under the aegis of liberty."^^ Another phase and a different kind of colonial settlement Sealsfield pictures to us in Die Deutsch-Amerikanischen Wahl- verwandtschaften. He had spent several years in New York and in the New England states and had witnessed there much of the life of fashionables, a caste, the accepted members of which either traced their ancestry back to the Mayflower and to the early Dutch settlers, or were but newly initiated par- venues. Part III, Chapter VII, of this work, entitled "History of the Rambles," traces the lineage of the main characters in the novel. It begins : "Both belonged to our high Dutch noblesse, one of those historical races which will ever be the ornament and pride of our country, whatever be its fate, for it is one of those genea- logical trees which first spread their shade over this land. They did not invade it at the head of murderous bodies, the sabre in one hand and the firebrand in the other, to doom the poor 11 Cf . Rattermann, H. A., Die Mississippi-Seifenblase. — Cf . Baird, Robert, View of the Valley of the Mississifibi, p. 48, who calls this undertaking "the Mississippi scheme'' or "bubble." — Today we still use both terms. l2Andree, Karl, Nord-Amerika, pp. 487-488, tells us that a Scotch- man by the name of Law, who was one of the Mississippi company, had obtained permission to establish a dukedom on the Arkansas river. He meant to settle it with nine thousand Swiss and Germans. "Two thousand of the latter were imported in the year 1716-17, but were landed, some in the unhealthy Mississippi delta, some near Biloxi, where they were left without food or shelter. Most of them were snatched away by fever ; only few returned to their fatherland. Approximately three himdred, who settled in the year 1722 in the district of the Atta- rapas (S'ealsfield's two Cotes des Allemands), prospered." — Cf. Deiler, Hanno, The Settlement of the German Coast of Louisiana. 40 POLITICAL AND SOCIAL CONDITIONS Indians^' to slavery or to compel them to the construction of castles and towers for their government and control. No, our ancient Dutchmen were too prudent to act the part of lords and lieges in heroic tumult. They had crossed the water with more modest intentions. As peaceful Dutchmen they wanted to exchange money for hides and skins, or perhaps to domesticate themselves comfortably, as well becomes vener- able Dutchmen — to smoke a pipe, raise children, and drink their genevre — in a word, to introduce Dutch civilization, which they accomplished leisurely and to their heart's desire, since they had an abundance of time and space". ^* "And why should they destroy the poor Indians, who were to them useful and convenient for exchanging their genevre'^^ for the skins of beavers^^ and martens, which was one of the well known designs of their visit and settlement.^' Altogether, the ancient Dutchmen were a desirable people, far from being imperious and aristocratic ; but on the contrary more republic- an in their ideas than their northern neighbors, the Yangheese, as the Indians styled them, or as they called themselves, the pious fathers, wanderers, pilgrims of Plymouth, who, to con- fess the truth, had brought with them into the wilderness an odious taste of British pride and plebeian tyranny, so that they immediately became embroiled with the poor savages in strife and quarrels, which resulted in conflicts and murder and slaughter, in true Scotch and English style. No, your Dutch- is They met with one of the five tribes of the Iroquoian confedera- tion, the Mohawk, who by this time, although there were still some Algonquian tribes dispersed amongst them, occupied the entire east of the state of New York, extending into the southeast corner. — Cf. Morg- an, Louis, League of the Iroquois. 2 maps. 1* Cf. Van Buren, Augustus H., Proceedings New York Historical Society, v. XI, p. 133, who describes these Dutch settlers with the fol- lowing words : "Most of them could neither read nor write. They were a wild, uncouth, rough and most the time a drunken crowd . . . they were afraid of neither man, God, nor the devil." IB It is surprising how readily the natives subjected themselves economically to the white man. 16 Goodwin, Maud W., Dutch and English on the Hudson, p. 18. "The manifest of one cargo mentions 7246 beavers, 675 otters, 48 minks, and 36 wildcats." 1^ Cf. Heckewelder, John, Indian Nations, pp. 76-82. . 41 ■ CHARLES SEAL.SFIELD men were a different set of people, anxious from the first to establish amicable relations with their somewhat blunt neigh- bors; they were indefatigable in their exertions to change the wild insolence of the native redskins to their own good humor. Hence they adopted a mode of intercourse far different from the posts and forts of the warlike Yankees. In lieu of cannon, blunderbusses, royals and muskets, they placed their bulky casks of genevre, from which they willingly gave potations to the fierce redskins, when they brought the skins of beavers and bears, or at least of foxes and deer, the latter of which, how- ever, were equivalent to but a small draught of the animating, precious fire water — truly,' a very humane principle ! And the application of which one might conjecture was productive of the most beneficial results on the neighboring Indians ; and we are sorry to confess that the breach of it, or the gift of larger potations, was more fatal to the poor savages than the blunder- busses of the pious pilgrims. But still there was a freedom of action, and this process of colonization and civilization evinced a higher degree of information and humanity, a vigor- ous, guiding idea, before which the poor Indians vanished,^* it is true, but which would have been creditable even in our enlightened day. "We love, even at the expense of a short deviation, to extricate such bold, guiding ideas from the intricate webs of the history of humanity, and to present them to the eyes of the present generation ; thus humbling a little our pride, by which we might be persuaded to think that we have invented all wis- dom, while our ancestors not only worked before us, but laid the foundation of all the grandeur which signalizes us among all the nations of the earth. As the germ of the acorn not 18 Although no one will doubt that the worst crime which white men committed against the aborigines was the sale of fire water*), we do not believe they vanished on that account. The Iroquois Indians left their territory to seek fur-bearing lands. Having found those they came back with immense loads of animal skins, which they traded main- ly for fire water and firearms, only to set out again conquering and an- nihilating one tribe after another. *) Cf. Schoolcraft, Henry R., The Red Race of America, pp. 353- 365. (The influence of ardent spirits on the condition of North Amer- ican Indians.) — Cf. Blair, E. H., Indian Tribes, v. 1, p. 208. 42 POLITICAL AND SOCIAL COljIDITIONS only contains the elements of the limbs and the leaves, but also of the root, the future support of the mighty oak — so in the good-natured features of the founders of these New Nether- lands our present Empire State, and especially the moneyed men of the present day, slumbered in embryo." Now the author goes back to the year 1610 or 1620 when Claas Ramble is supposed to have had a dream in which the lyord urged him to send his eldest to America where he can gain riches by trading fire water for furs and hides. Brom Ramble came to New Amsterdam^' with good recommenda- tions to high magistrates and diverse mynheers, and, "backed by a choice selection of the precious Schiedam," he was soon installed as commandant of a fort. "The location of this fort was in the neighborhood of the present Sixth Avenue; it was armed with two musketoons, one battle axe, three sabres, four lances, and one wheel arquebuse, but more especially with eleven gin casks, real Schiedam." Brom was the youngest of twenty-two sentinels who had their forts, ^° or rather log houses, for such they really were, on all weak points of the Dutch territory open to the invasion of the redskins. But the family chronicles tell us, that after the eighteenth month of Brom Ramble's stay there the Indians had withdrawn from that region. Two years later Brom was removed still higher up the river, and thus he advanced six times in ten years, and finally settled in the vicinity of the present Sing Sing. But as the old European nobility obtained their titles and honors in battle, so Brom was to receive his highest rewards in a feud with rival settlers. "A gang of Yankees, descend- ants of the pious Pilgrims, had located themselves, or rather squatted, in die region of West Point, within the province of the New Netherlands, without even asking permission of the high authorities. The new settlers, far from the accustomed humility and modesty of pious pilgrims, were firm in the belief 19 New Amsterdam was not founded until 1626. ^0 Goodwin, Maud W., Dutch and English on the Hudson, p. 18. "In establishing this fur trade with the savages, the newcomers primar- ily required trading posts guarded by forts." 43 CHARLES SEALSFIELD of their Bible, but far from agreeable — nay, — they were a desperate people, prone not only to treat the good Dutchmen as Philistines, and to introduce peculiar practices regarding the mine and thine — two vital points among the Dutch — ^but also to deride them and seriously injure their commerce with the Indians." Mynheer Ramble, at the head of one hundred and fifty Dutchmen, drove them beyond the limits of the state. ^'^ As a reward he received the entire acreage held by the Yankees, and in 1645 also the burgomastership of New Amsterdam. He was married and was honored with two sons. One traveled in the footsteps of his father, and the other sided with the English, his father's enemy, and hurt the honest Dutchman whenever he was able to do so. The older branch prospered, the younger lost all honor and respect. Only Ramble the VI of the younger line proved that he was a chip of the old block. He went into partnership with one Patrick Kennedy in a lunch and liquor "joint." Improvements were made and Brom prospered, for Pat had sold out to him, and Fly-market Porter- house became "the most frequented establishment in the neigh- borhood of Maiden Lane." "The rumor, too, that the young host, a descendant of a noble family of historical fame, had laid aside his pedigree for a -while, with a view of serving the sovereign people in a true democratic manner, was a great auxiliary to his success, and the more so since, the shares in our noblesse being at their lowest ebb, democracy had taken possession of the people's throne with full sovereignty." And in a true American way he changed his political views to suit his customers. "He had the faculty of throwing out his canting, dry witticisms and ideas, at the expense of democracy when only aristocrats were present, and then turning the same witticisms against aristo- crats or federals when only democrats honored him with their presence." In the course of time he had become rich and 21 This particular dispute between the Yankees and Dutch seems to be fictitious ; yet there were repeated quarrels in which the Dutch some- times used the Indians against the English*), as the English used Iro- quoian tribes against Illini Indians and the French. ♦) Cf. Buchanan, James, North American Indians, v. II, p. 114. 44 POLITICAL AND SOCIAL CONDITIONS thereby rose in the estimation of the other branch of the fam- ily, which was still in possession of the land wrested from the Yankees. He was invited to a dinner — and four weeks later he married a daughter of the older line. Both belonged to the New York fashionables ; the one represented the old aristo- cracy, the other the new moneyocracy.^^ The Porterhouse thus accomplished for the younger branch of the family what the fort log-house had done for the older. 22 According to Murray's English dictionary (v. VI, pt. 2) this word was first used in 1834 in Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, v. XXXV, p. 339. The article in question appeared in March. Sealsfield used the word moneycracy in Morton (pt. II, p. 117), which he wrote the same year. 45 Chapter II. RELATION OF THE INDIANS TO THE WHITE RACE. On the whole the colonization of North America was not accomplished by as much bloodshed as one would suppose. This is due chiefly to the immigrants, who did not shrink from toiling themselves where they might have forced the native savage into slavery. The historians Heinrich Steffens^ and Heeren^ recognize in this peculiar way of settlement the source of the persevering strength necessary to fight the obstinate climate and the savage nature of the original inhabitants, in short, that trait of character which laid the cornerstone for an edifice that was destined to exist for ages to come. How the trappers, the backwoodsmen, the first rangers and planters had to suffer, and how they guarded themselves against destruction with the exertion of all their strength, we shall see later. For the present we shall return to the ab- origines to see how they faced the danger which the advance of the white race brought to them. It is a pathetic picture 1 Steffens, Heinrich, Die gegenw'drtige Zeit, pt. II, p. 324 ff. "The fact that here civil Hberty thrived so advantageously, is based upon the spirit of the time, out of which the state formed itself, togetlier with the manner of its development. Never had colonies grown in sudi a peaceful way, entirely without significant wars, and in so domestic a manner as those of North America. In the extensive lands the weak tribes roamed about ; they were driven away, rather than conquered through warfare. Therefore, that belligerent character, that severity and seriousness of mind did not appear, but neither did they develop an ennobling sense. The Europeans who arrived there had all the wants of their educated countrymen, but they possessed also the ability to satisfy them. When in primitive times rough heroes took possession of countries, the subjugated peoples had to work the fields — here possession and labor were united. The possessors themselves had to conquer the rough climate, clear the forests, and cultivate the fields ihey had won." 2 Heeren, A. H. L., Europe and its Colonies, v. I, p. 121. 46 POUTICAL AND SOCIAL CX)NDITIONS which Sealsfield unfolds before us. Discussing the inexor- able fate which awaited these unfortunate children of nature, he says in the introduction to Dcr Legitime, addressed to A. J. Smith, Esq., Daughin Co., Pennsylvania, pp. 1 — 5 : "The painful sensations with which we left M— e and the sick-bed of the honorable statesman, upon which he was thrown under the burden of false accusations — thus being torn in such a shameful way from the glorious path for which he was born — had made you at the time less receptive to the suffering of a people, which even in its present condition of political and moral degeneration, permits us to suspect such a wonderful coloring. You have, however, justified in a marvellous way the expectation that these late impressions would not pass you unnoticed, and the hope that the sup- pressed and maltreated race would finally be secure against hostile operations, and would continue to live in its new abodes, has now become stronger than it ever has been. I, too, am of the opinion which you have so often uttered from the orator's platform and in your writings, that this people, if any longer in warfare against the greed of our border popu- lation, will be entirely annihilated,'' that it cannot continue to live thus, and that in case of its stay, at the best only the so-called chiefs and their relatives and some few strong char- acters can be won over to our citizenship — but that the rest will unavoidably sink ever deeper and deeper, and will have to be degraded to that scum, which burdens so many countries of the old world. I agree with you completely : the remnants of this interesting people can only be saved if they are trans- ported again upon the soil of their primitive forests, which i* It is commonly thouglit that the Indians living today are only a very simall percentage of the number that inhabited North America when the white man came. This is wrong. All information gathered seems to point to the fact that there never existed more than several hundred thousand Indians. Yet, it is doubtful whether this were true, had the Federal government not been more humane than the English Colonial Legislature, which on the 25th of February, 1745, passed an act giving rewatxls for Indian scalps, and, oh, horror!, in 1722 the government of Massachusetts raised the reward from forty to one hundred pounds for one scalp ! Buchanan, James, North American Indians, v. I, p. 19. 47 CHARLES SEALSFIELD agrees with them, and if through immediate contact with related tribes their sapless nationality will be refreshed, and their degenerated customs become ennobled, but above all — they must be torn from the disastrous contact with the glaring avarice of our squatters and shop-keepers. But nevertheless the fate of this unhappy people remains lamentable, and great is the pain which the stronger souls amongst them must suffer regarding the separation from the land in which they and their fathers were bom. Some time ago I saw a division of these migrators in the neighborhood of the Yazoo River, when they were just ferried across the Mississippi.* The poorer ones were everywhere immersed in their customary apathy. They uttered neither joy nor pain, although the maintenance they received during their exodus was excellent. The chiefs and the wealthier families seemed to succumb to the burden of their sorrow. It was a painful sight to see them staring across upon the eastern shore of the Mississippi; some stretched out their hands toward it. During the march from their native woods, so the commissioners told me, they turned every thousand steps and looked back upon the mountains and plains" which they were leaving, and became more sinister and disconsolate every hour. Some carried the bones of their parents, they being the most valued treasure, in order to con- * President Jackson in a message to Congress in 1831 stated that Congress had appropriated one-half million dollars for the voluntary removal of Indians. Darby, William, Geographical Description of Louisiana, v. 11, p. 84, quotes from an "Address to the American people," by George W. Hawkins, chief of the Choctaw tribe, printed in the "Natchez." " . . it is said that our present movements are our own voluntary acts . . ., such is not the case. We found ourselves, like a benighted stranger, following false guides until he was surrounded on every side with fire or water. . . . Painful indeed is the mandate of our expulsion. . . . Let us alone. We will not harm you. We want rest. We hope in the name of justice, that another outrage may never be committed against us; and that we may for the future be cared for as children, and not driven about as beasts, which are benefited by a change of pasture." 5Cf. Schoolcraft, Henry R., The Red Race of America, p. 381, speaking of Creek Indians being removed, says : " and they had left the southern slopes and sunny valleys of the southern AUeghanies with 'a longing, lingering look'." 48 POLITICAL AND SOCIAL CONDITIONS sign them to the earth of their new dweUing places. The scene was so much more melancholy, since one could not guard against the oppressive thought that while we open our country to the dregs and adventurers of the old world, we should drive the last original possessors of the soil, which truly clung to their native woods after most of their neighbors had al- ready given way, out into the wild darkness of the prairies — only to satisfy the avarice of the children and grandchildren of the very same fathers whom they once sheltered hospitably in their huts. In truth the great sage* had good reasons to express his gloomy prophetic admonitions, and the longer I ponder over the destiny of this pitiable race, the more I too, begin to fear. Since that trip I have occupied myself much with this people and its manners and institutions,' and it ap- peared to be no thankless enterprise, to speak to the minds of our fellow-citizens in a worthy manner through a historical presentation of one of the great characters of the time when they began to become more disproportionate to our people." How loathsome it was for the Indians to withdraw into the regions assigned to them by the government, and how they bore the injustice of the white race partly with murmur and ill humor, partly with cold resignation, but how it gnawed at their hearts, and hurt above all their leaders, we hear from the lips of Tokeah, who in this novel is the last chief of the * He doubtless refers to Thomas Jefferson's words quoted as the motto to Der Legitime: "I tremble for ray people when I think of the injustice which it has committed against the first inhabitants." Jeffer- son was often called the sage of his time. — Cf. Schurz, Henry Clay, V. I, p. 127. ' Where personal observation of the Muscogeans did not suffice, he says in the introduction to Der Legitime, he obtained information from books such as "McKenney's Tour to the Chippewas and More's Account of the Indians' (McKenney, T. L., Sketches of a Tour to the Lakes , and Morse's Indian Report). Especially the first work fur- nished material on customs and manners. Since the Indians are not a part of the American nation, (Cf. article in the Chicago Daily News of March 20, 1920, "Indians fit to Fight, but not to Cast Vote") there shall be no occasion to enter into a deeper discussion of the red man in the second part of this study, where national types are delineated. 49 CHARLES SEALSFIELD Oconee, then the main tribe of the Creek.' ""The great spirit has made large spiders in the land where the chief lived, and one of them can kill a little bird. The spiders said to the birds : 'See, we will let you alone and will not break with you; but you must not tear our webs.' The poor birds remained in their nests and sat before them a long while. Hunger finally drove them out, but as they wanted to fly up, they found all the woods covered with the nets of the spiders, and the poor birds fell into the snares and were devoured by the poisonous spiders, or had their blood sucked out and thus died a slow death. The red men are the poor birds, the white men the spiders. Tlieir tribes were many. They have disappeared from the face of the earth. They died, many through the long knives of the white men, but still more through their cunning and their fire water. Tokeah wants to go far away from them."" Tokeah, the noble chieftain, who reveals the entire mag- nitude of his soul to his daughter Cannondah and to the White Rose, a girl whom he had snatched from a savage after she had already been destined to die, grieves himself to death over the fate of his race. He and the most worthy of his tribe, who could not endure to live among the white men, wandered westward to settle there and to unite with the rem- nants of some other tribes and thus to counteract complete annihilation. Shortly after Lafitte, who plays an important role in Der Legitime, had burned the settlement of the Oconee, because Tokeah had broken his oath of friendship after dis- 8 The Oconee once inhabited the banks of the Oconee river in Georgia, where Sealsfield correctly puts their abode before they ex- changed it for the west bank of the Mississippi River. But he probably confused the name Oconee with Oconi, an ancient Creek town in Georgia, when he called them a Creek tribe. See Hodge's Handbook of American Indians, pt. U, p. 105. 9 Legitime, pt. IH, p. 277. 1" Cf. a large and varied collection of addresses and newspaper and magazine articles in Brothers, Thomas, The United States of North America. Cf. Heckewelder, John, Indian Nations, pp. 76-82. 50 — POUTICAI, AND SOCIAL CONDITIONS covering that Lafitte was but a common pirate/^ the Great Spirit appeared to the chief and demanded that he go to his former land (Georgia) and fetch the bones of his forefathers before the plough-share of the white settlers would unearth them. Now, he and some of his most faithful followers, set out to visit the distant beloved land. It touches one's heart to read how stoically they bore their pains. ^^ But before they re-enter the wilderness, they are stopped by white men, are accused of spying and consequently imprisoned — it is at the time of the second war with Britain. Now we must not wonder if Tokeah gives expression to his bitter anger with the follow- ing words^^ : "You are scoundrels 1 Your tongues speak of things of which your hearts know nothing. You tell us, we shall love our neighbors, while they take our furs, our cattle, our land, and expel us into the desert." Sealsfield, however, does not maintain that the white race had no right to drive out the redskins. No, he knew the history of mankind better than to be unaware of the fact that it is the natural course of events." The less civilized must 11 Marryat, Frederick, Diary, Ser. II, v. I, p. 249. "The early his- tory of the Mississippi is one of piracy and buccaneering; its mouths were frequented by these marauders, as in the bayous and creeks they found protection and concealment for themselves and their ill-gotten wealth. Even until after the war of 1814 these sea-robbers still to a certain extent flourished, and the name of Lafitte, the last of their leaders, is deservedly renowned for courage and for crime ; his vessels were usually secreted in the land-locked Bay of Barataria, to the west- ward of the mouth of the river." Flint, Timothy, Recollections, p. 253. — Cf. Brown, S., Western Gazetteer, p. 141. 1- Herder's Ideen, pt. I, p. 293. "The North American (he is speaking of the Indians) suffers tortures and pain with a heroic im- perceptibility out of principles of honor; he was educated to this from youth, and women do not lag behind the men in this. Stoic apathy, therefore, in physical pain too, becomes one of nature's habits, and their lessened stimulus for sensuousness along with otherwise brisk natural strength, even that placid apathy which has sunk many a subjugated nation apparently in a day-dream, seem to be due to this cause." ^3 Der Legitime, pt. Ill, pp. 150-151. — Cf. Pflanzerleben, pt. I, p. 46. 1* Flint, Timothy, Mississippi Valley, p. 107. "They are not the less objects of our pity and of our untiring benevolence, because the causes of their decay and extinction are found in their own nature and char- acter, and the unchangeaible order of things. It is unchangeable, as the laws of nature, that savages should give place to civilized men, possessed 51 CHARLIES SEALSFIEIvD attach himself to the civihzed in order to reach by and by the same level of culture, or he must make room for the superior power of civilization, either by leaving his dwelling place or by perishing miserably. ^^"Barbarism must always give way in the fight against enlightenment, just as night yields to day; but you have the means^" in hand to attach yourself to this enlightenment, and to enter into our civilian life. If you do not want this, however, and if you prefer to be savages (I^egi- time) instead of honored citizens, then you must not quarrel with fate, which throws you away like toys, after you have run through your nocturnal course." Not only judging from the position of those who support their arguments by "might is right," but also from the stand- point of ethics, Sealsfield justifies the removal of the primitive inhabitants. ^'"Tokeah, the Great Spirit has made the earth for the white and red men that they may plough it, and work on it, and live from her fruits ; but he has not made her for a hunting ground, that some hundred red men may occupy a place in lazy existence, upon which millions could live and thrive happily. ^^ If you will clear the landed property which of the strength, spirit and improvement of the social compact." — The writer does not quite agree with this view ! 15 Der Legitime, pt. Ill, p. 281. 1" Great sums were expended annually to educate the Indians and to teach them trades. Ardy, E. S., Journal, v. II, p. 76, mentions thirty- two schools with nine hundred and sixteen pupils. Henni, Johann Martin, Thai des Ohio, pp. 26-27, claims that the Indians cannot be effectively civilized, and sees the rea.son for this in the fact that they are not living through the herdsman stage, but are expected to advance from hunters to agrarians. 17 Der Legitime, pt. Ill, pp. 278-280. 18 Hodgson, Adam, Letters, v. II, Appendix. — Opinion of Hon. J. Q. Adams, Esq., on Indian titles. "There are moralists, who have questioned the right of Europeans to intrude upon the possessions of the aborigines in any case, and under any limitations whatsoever. But have they maturely considered the whole subject? The Indian right of possession itself stands, with regard to the greatest part of the country, upon a questionable foundation. Their cultivated fields ; their constructed habitations ; a space of ample sufficiency for their sub- sistence, and whatever they had annexed to themselves by personal labor, was undoubtedly, by the laws of nature, theirs. But what is the fight of a huntsman to the forest of a thousand miles over, which he has accidentally ranged in quest of prey? Shall the liberal bounties 52 ■ POUTICAL AND SOCIAL CONDITIONS you still possess, and which is still as large as many a kingdom of the old world, where several millions happily live and prosper, then you can be richer and happier than any equal number of citizens of the United States." In order to be fair to the white race and especially to the government, we must take care not to assume that the natives were always unjustly compelled to migrate and pitch their tents somewhere else. No, often they were paid considerable sums^'' for their lands and were then assigned new territory west of the Mississippi. But the money paid out to the chiefs was ill-used. "If you chieftains," we read in one of Seals- field's works, ^° "divide the money which you receive as an- nual pay for your renounced land amongst yourselves and give your people several dollars at the most, and then permit them to starve — and if you thus degrade them to the scum, and force them to beg for their bread at the doors of our citizens, and to roll about in the mire of the street, instead of of Providence to the race of man be monopolized by one of ten thou- sand for whom they were created? Shall the exuberant bosom of the common mother, amply adequate to the nourishment of millions, be claimed exclusively by a few hundreds of her offspring? Shall the lordly savage not only disdain the virtues and enjoyments of civiliza- tion himself, but shall he control the civilization of a world? Shall he forbid the wilderness to blossom like a rose? Shall he forbid the oaks of the forest to fall before the axes of industry, and rise again, trans- formed into the habitation of ease and elegance? Shall he doom an immense region of the globe to perpetual desolation, and hear the bowl- ings of the tiger and the wolf, silence forever the voice of human glad- ness ? Shall the fields and the valleys, which a beneficient .God has framed to teem with the life of innumerable multitudes, be condemned to everlasting barrenness?" Cf. Vattel, Emerich, Law of Nations, used at West Point as Duke Bernhard tells us, Reise, near end of Chapter IX. 19 Jefferson, Writings, v. IV. Observations on the article fitats Unis, January 22, 1786, "aud it may be taken for a certainty that not a foot of land will ever be taken from the Indians without their consent. The sacredness of iheir right is felt by all thinking persons in America as much as in Europe." But how does this letter compare with the follow- ing: "Feb. 27, 1803, to the Governor of Indians. "The Cahokias being extinct, we are entitled to their country by our own paramount sover- eignty. The Peorias, we understand, have all been driven from their country, and we might claim it in the same way." ^^Der Legitime, pt. Ill, pp. 279-280. 53 ■ CHARLES SEALSFIELD taking care of them, to win them for culture and to support them — then you must not blame these citizens when they get tired of such company. I know you chiefs. You are such blood- suckers of your people as any profligate tyrant of the old world can be." This money, which the chiefs for the most part kept to themselves, enticed many a white man to marry the daughter of a chieftain, because he thus gained both a certain wealth as well as respect amongst the redskins.-^ The author seems to think that it was a policy of the government to denationalize the Indians through these marriages, ^'^ and perhaps he was justified in making this statement, which greatly resembles the views expressed in the transactions of one of the societies for promoting the general welfare of the Indian tribes in the United States,^* and also those of Jefferson in a letter to Ben- jamin Hawkins, an Indian agent. ^* Sealsfield, in truth, witnessed a spectacle which in the old world had presented itself some three thousand years previous. Then also the hunters were the vanguard of primeval civiliza- lion, on whose trails the nomadic tribes, and finally the front- iersman, turning to primitive agriculture, followed. The transition from the earliest forms of human civilization to the subsequent stages, which in the old world occupied centuries, was not unfrequently accomplished on the new continent dur- ing a few decades. This acceleration of the historical process 21 Raumer, Friedrich von, Die Fereinigten Staaten von N ordameri- ka, V. I, p. 297, tells us that white men married Indian girls for the money which they received from the government. ^^Der Legitime, pt. Ill, pp. 232-233. 23 Morse's Indian Report, p. 75. "Let the Indian?, therefore, be taught all branches of knowledge pertaining to civilized man ; then let intermarriage with them become general, and the end which the gov- ernment has in view will be completely attained." — Quoted in Hodgson, A., Letters, v. II, Appendix. 24 Jefferson, Writings, v. VIII, p. 214 (1803). "The ultimate point of rest and happiness for them is to let our settlements and theirs meet and blend together, to intermix, and become one people. Incorporating themselves with us as citizens of the United States, this is what the natural process of things will, of course, bring on, and it will be better to promote than to retard it." 54 POLITICAL AND SOCIAL CONDITIONS is due chiefly to the fact that the history of the human race was repeated in this country by the descendants of the highly developed civilization of Europe, and not re-enacted by prim- itive man. On the whole, however, the fundamental forces which govern the growth of human civilization everywhere, were at work in this country also : man's struggle with nature, his attempt to establish social organizations, the mutual rela- tions and conflicts of the social groups developed by these or- ganizations, atod finally man's striving for the ideal. 55 Chapter III. GREAT HISTORICAL EVENTS: REVOLUTIONARY WAR, LOUISIANA PURCHASE, SECOND WAR WITH ENGLAND, AND TEXAS REVOLUTION. THREE GREAT STATESMEN. So much for the fight with the internal enemy, nature and savages. Meanwhile the time had come when the colonial settlers could feel themselves strong enough to revolt against their mother country, which had already oppressed them too long. This uprising of the colonists, who had obtained moral and physical strength, marked the beginning of their future happiness. It is, according to Sealsfield, justified by the fact that the Americans were fighting for their inborn rights — he maintains that every man is born free^ — and against insolent oppressors. The author says : -"When citizens who are quiet, peaceful, proud of their liberty, jealous of their innate rights, and oppressed in their fatherland by political and religious prosecution, turn from it in order to enjoy the rights which are contested, and when they are tired of being encroached upon — when they and their descendants, and their children and grandchildren clear the wilderness, ever fighting with wild animals and even wilder men ; when under their tireless hands there are created verdant plains, comfortable houses, and rich cities ; when communities gradually, through lawfulness and diligence, develop into states, and advance in enlightenment and domestic arts ; and when they in the consciousness of their power long to give laws to themselves, instead of receiving them from the distant m^other country ; when they yearn to use the fruits of their labor, the savings of their wives and children for the good of their own country, instead of wasting them on a distant and extravagant aristocracy for never-end- ^ Morton, pt. I, p. 58. 2 Virey, pt. I, pp. 29S-296. 56 POLITICAL AND SOCIAL CONDITIONS ing projects and wars; when such citizens, the most con- scientious and prudent, put their shoulder to the wheel, and are the first to stand in the gap, and let their will become deed, and arise to fight for their innate rights : — then these states and the struggle for their freedom, this society and the revo- lution, through which they tear themselves loose from the mother country" will be quite different from the rebellion of a people, which revolts only to quench its thirst for revenge.' Although this step in the national progress of the Amer- ican people was taken by violence and force, it was their most sacred duty; for home and children are closer to a man than a distant government, which demands his savings — not to use them for the good of the country, but to squander them. It was not a revengeful act which won liberty for his country : No, it was the determined will to regain innate rights. During the discussion between Colonel Morse and the Alcalde, who is Sealsfield's spokesman in the character of an early western settler, a man with his own philosophy of history, of life, and of religion, we hear the following: ^"The wheel of the world in its rapid course is not moved by dwarfs, but by giants. In its powerful revolutions it crushes the weak; the strong overpower it and guide it." The divine spark of liberty had inflamed the hearts of all and kindled an all- devastating fire in the "rotten tinder of prescriptive despotism." These words may be applied in connection with the Revolu- tionary War just as Sealsfield used them speaking of the up- rising of the Texans. How much the brave fighters had to suffer, we hear in the deep-felt words of Colonel Isling,^ who had come to Amer- ica with a Hessian infantry regiment, was taken prisoner, and 3 Sealsfield's idea embodied in Virey: — Although Mexico has a con- stitution she is not free, for she obtained Hberty through a caprice. Her inhabitants are free like a herd of choleric horses, who escaped through the carelessness of a servant; free — until they feel the lasso around their neck again. * Kajiitenbuch, pt. II, p. 115. s Colonel Isling, probably a fictitious character, at least a fictitious name, for J. G. Rosengarten mentions no such name in his various studies on German soldiers in the revolution. 67 ■ CHARLES SEALSFIELD finally, like so many other Germans, fought for his new country and suffered for and with it. ^" 'Alas, the first days which I spent in the service of the Union were dark . . . Yes, things looked black at the time when I entered the formations of the American warriors, these fighters in a sacred war. Alas, our sufferings were terrible ! When I think of the battle of the Brandywine ! ... It was a heart-rending sight. The entire road from the Brandywine up to Germantown, over to Morris- town — one terrible field of blood — ^blood, not from those de- ceased — no, from the living — fresh and healthy. It was freez- ing weather like today — it was frightfully cold, and in the entire army there were not a thousand pairs of shoes. ^ The men had to march on, without shoes and socks, on the hard- frozen street, which only became soft through their blood. And the men did mot murmur. Indeed, we suffered terribly at that time ; but we did not complain, for our sufferings were interwoven with high and great emotions. What are the wars of today, the wars of Napoleon, compared with this holy war ! This war, which like the manger of Bethlehem, will bring a more beautiful future for humanity in recompense for the sufferings of thousands of years.' With these words the Colonel turned his eyes heavenward again. 'And the men who carried on this war — such men they were! What are the heroes of antiquity compared with these magnificent and yet so plain characters ? Those were divine hours ! Indeed, divine hours, young man.' He took off his hat, and while he held it in his hand, he looked as though his glance wanted to penetrate the heavens. The young man had followed his example, and even the oarsmen stopped with bent-over bodies. 'Washington and Green, and lyaFayette, that wonderful Frenchmen ! and Steu- ben, the magnificent Prussian! And DeKalb, the kind, good- natured DeKalb ! They were men innocent as children.' " B Morton, pt, I, pp. 79-81. ^ Cf. Jefferson, Writings, v. II. p. 466, to Major-General Baron Steuben in Council February 24th, '81 — "Sir, I have received repeated information that the nakedness of the miUtia in service near Wmsburg and want of shoes is such as to have produced murmurines almcst amountinja; to mutinies, and that there is no hope of being able longer to keep them in service." 58 ■ POLITICAL AND SOCIAL CONDITIONS Officers as well as enlisted men suffered great privations ; even the General's staff was satisfied with the very least. The quarters of the chief and his staff were usually in a barn ; they were not elegant quarters with generals abounding in gold, with staff officers, and with all the luxury of an arrogant soldiery of some monarch. *'"There was need of the most necessary commodities, but especially of gold, and still worse, the colonies groaning in pains of labor, had no credit." But at that time noble France raised her voice, and lent an arm to the brave fighters, whose strength was almost exhausted." "■""Yes, they were days of sorrow, those days of '80 and '81. when the fathers of the new liberty looked over toward the East, with hearts sickened by anxiety and fear ! Their arms were almost lamed, their swords had become dull in the five )'ears' struggle. They fought like men ; but even men will finally fall before a greater power; and that power was ter- rible. Noble France then raised her powerful voice, and like a sister held out her hand to the exhausted swimmer — the worn-out warrior.^^ That the thirteen stars at that time rose victoriously through the clouded skies, we may still, without diminishing our own greatness, thank that great nation. Yes, mankind may thank her for it."^- The war was finally won. The colonies had freed them- selves from their mother country — freed, politically only; commercially they remained dependent upon Great Britain for a good many years. There were no industries to speak of, s Morton, pt. I, p. 82. " Billow, D. von, Der Freistaat von Nord-Amerika, v. I, p. 76, states that in 1779 American money was worth one-tenth of its nominal value. 10 Ralph Doughby, p. 50. 11 Cf. Carpenter, \V. H. History of New York, "Vergcnnes, actuated less by a love of liberty than by a desire to sever from Great Britain her noblest dependencies, expressed his willingness to enter upon treaties of friendship and commerce and of defensive alliance. On the 8th (6th!) of February (1778) these treaties were concluded." — The te.xt of the treaty is appended in Dubuisson, Paul Ulrich, Abrege de la Re- volution de t'Amerique Angloise par M***, Americain, n. p. 1778. 1- For an account of the first federal government, its dissolution, the convention of 1787, and the new constitution, see Pflan::erlcbcn, pt. II, pp. 142-145. 59 CHARLES SEALSFIELD and there was no money to establish them. The states were poor, the inhabitants were poor. The misery prevailing amongst the people was inconceivable. Colonel Isling describes a stretch of land in Pennsylvania with the following words : ^^"There were caves, not even huts, without doors and windows, built of untrimmed logs, chimneys made of rocks placed upon each other, inhabited by men who resembled savages more than citizens of a great republic, which had just freed itself from the most powerful nation in the world; during the winter clothed in hides ; blackened with smoke and soot, during the summer half naked. Everybody congregated there — Amer- icans, Englishmen, Scotch, Irishmen, but above all, Germans." England out of pure derision, — because she knew that the young Republic had no money, — gave her one banquet after another, and the poor guests could not even feast her in return. Now a German, General Steuben, gave proof of the stuff of which he was made. He sold all jewelry and family silver to banquet the enemies of his adopted fatherland." "Wonder- ful Steuben ! He died, and the country remained his debtor." The next great historical event discussed in the works of Sealsfield is the Louisiana purchase. ^^ He considers the Louisiana territory the cradle of a large . western empire, "which the tireless hand of man will erect there." It is ex- tremely important to see what a wonderful future some trav- elers of Sealsfield's time predicted for the Mississippi valley.^" 13 Morton, pt. I, p. 122. 1* This seems to be fiction. Steuben communicated little with his relatives in Prussia, and was most probably not in possession of family- silver and jewelry. He lived in comparatively mediocre circumstances and was often obliged to appeal to Congress for back pay. In fact the government never did reward him fairly for his services as drill master of the entire revolutionary forces. Although he possessed little, he was kind and generous. The eulogy chisseled into a stone plate on the Lutheran Church in Nassau Street, New York, ends with the following words : "His hands, open as day to melting charity, closed only in the grasp of death." — Cf. Kapp, Friedrich, Stejiben's Lehe-n, pp. 526- S46. 15 In Der Legitime, pt. 11, p. 125, Sealsfield gives briefly the history of this territory. 16 Duke Bernhard, Reise, v. H, p. 121, believes that St. Louis will some time be the metropolis of a large empire. Duke Bernhard had in mind a separation of the western states such as Aaron Burr had con- 60 POLITICAL AND SOCIAL CONDITIONS Our author is interested in the ethnic study, although he fully realizes the commercial importance of the purchase. '^^ Surely it must be interesting to observe how this trans- ference affects the inhabitants of the ceded territory. Will there be conflicts between them and the Americans, who are of such a different nature, or will they intermarry readily? In the second part of this work, where different national types are characterized, there will be an opportunity to treat this question more fully. May the following excerpt suffice for the present. It tells us of Louisiana's (the state's) rela- tion to the United States during the first ten years, especially at the time of the second war with England. ^'"Although the change which was experienced by the inhabitants of lyouisiana on account of her union with the States was con- siderable, it could only be noticed in a greater activity in mak- ing land arable and in commercial enterprises; the colonists of former days took little or nothing of the manly, independent spirit of the Americans ; their slavishly ruined spirit had with- drawn from the superior, more enlightened northern citizen, who, it is true, often expressed this superiority too rudely and without restraint. Even the better class of Creoles was not immune to the prejudice against their new fellow citizens, and, comparing their situation with that of the sharply out- lined and straight-forward American, they were so much more displeased with their position since they, being indiffer- ent to public life because they were used to compulsory service, templated. Yet the desire to have the national capital in the Mississippi valley did not vanish. — Cf. Reavis. L. U.. A change of national em-pire ; or arauments in favor of the removal of the national capital from Washington City to the Mississippi valley. St. Louis, Missouri, 1869. — Marrjrat, Frederick, Diary, Ser. II, v. I, p. 1S6. "What will be th»> con- sequence, when the western states become, as they assuredly will, so populous and powerful, as to control the Union?" — Heeren, A. H. L., Europe and its Colonies, v. 11, p. 187. "What a prospect for the future." — ^Griind,, Francis, Die Aristokratie in Amerika, pt. II, p. 237. "The West, not the East, turbid with European vision, is destined finally to rule the country." — Etc., etc. 1'^ Die_ V ereinigten Staaten, p. 160. "Only this purchase can give to the American merchant an independence and patriotism which he did not possess till now." 18 Der Legitime, pt. II, pp. 134-13S. 61 CHARLES SEALSFIELD predicted only disorder and anarchism in the new boundless liberty. But since these fears were not realized during the ten years of this unrestrained freedom, and since they gradual- ly learned to appreciate the advantages which resulted from the union with this powerfully thriving republic, they attached themselves with more determination to the common interest, and did not hesitate to contribute to the defence of the country. This was the better class ; the lower class of inhabitants to which these advantages appeared to be disadvantages, could scarcely hide their joy over the arrival of the enemy; and they hated much more the northern citizens who looked down upon them with arrogance than they hated the English whose com- ing they expected to result in a change and humiliation of the proud republicans." Thus we have arrived at the war of 1812-1814. This war serves as a substratum for Der Legitime. James Hodges, one of the main characters, is midshipman on a British frigate, which had entered the Mississippi delta. He loses his way during a fishing and hunting expedition, and reaches Tokecih's settlement. After a stay of about a week he at- tempts flight, dressed in Indian costume. The Americans take him prisoner and accuse him of having concluded alli- ances with Indian tribes (as history records repeatedly). Now we have an opportunity of seeing a militia battalion drill to enter the lines of combat. Let us look at them through the eyes of our Briton. He sees men and boys dressed in old garments, equipped very poorly, and maneuvering most awk- wardly. He smiles as he becomes doubly sure of victory on the British side. But — they begin rifle practice, and things look different. The first man cries : "second from the top," and hits the nail at which he aimed from a distance of fifty feet. After dark, candles are extinguished in the same manner. Now James Hodges is less optimistic, and still less so after he sees the morale, enthusiasm, and determination of the American soldiers. In the third part of the novel we hear the last decisive battles being fought at a distance. The victors 62 POLITICAL AND SOCIAL CONDITIONS return and rejoice over having gained a second time what Eng- land begrudged them — freedom of the seas. Now the Texas revolution in the years 1834-1836. A chapter of one hundred and twenty pages in the Kajiitenbuch, entitled Der Krieg, gives a detailed description of the rebellion. But before we come to this chapter we know that something is about to happen. Colonel Edward Morse tells us how the Alcalde confided to him the fact that the Mexican province of Texas was preparing to secede. The Alcalde does every- thing in his power to influence the jury not to condemn a dangerous criminal by name of Bob Rock, and after his at- tempts have been in vain he secretly cuts the rope by which the murderer is suspended from a live-oak. He needs this ruffian in the approaching revolution, when he shall atone for his crime by serving his country to gain liberty. It would not be fair to apply our ideas of right and wrong to a civiliza- tion which is as different from ours as night from day. The worth of a man's life depends upon its usefulness to society. The Alcalde expresses this very clearly in the following words^" : "Here a man's life is worth twice as much as up in the States and twenty times as much as in old England, where it has scarcely any value at all, and where a fellow is hanged for stealing a sheep. ^° He could steal here an entire herd of cattle and would be whipped at the most." A man of the western plains lives a life different from that of an easterner. He is forced to do so by the very nature of the country; but he also looks at things differently. It seems that the clear, pure atmosphere of the desert and prairie land gives a wider range to his vision and makes him feel himself closer to his Creator, enabling him to cast a glance into the works of God. Again the Alcalde : -'^"But in the prairie . . . you perceive things in quite a different light than in towns, for cities are built by the hands of man, and poisoned by man's ^^ Kajntcnbuch, pt. I, p. 222. 20 Cf. Archenholz, J. W. v., Annalcn der britischcn Ccschkhte, 1790 V. V, p. 150. ■^-^Kajiitenbuch, pt. I, pp. 207-208; Cf. ibid, pp. 208-209. 63 CHARLES SEALSFIELD breath; but the prairies are created by God's hand, and an- imated by His spirit. And this pure spirit enlightens wonder- fully your view, which becomes so sad in the smoke of cities. It is a beautiful thing, this enlightening, when the corrupt, pestilential smoke disappears, and you can look to the very bottoim of truth, and can see how the great Regent above makes use of the most desperate elements for his most beauti- ful and magnificent works, even of incarnate devils who rage there as if they were just emerged from hell." And these incarnate devils are needed to win battles, and make history, "for states and empires are not founded from the pulpit nor from the lecture desk — they are founded on the battlefield — through open, brutal force." In the same way the Normans, pirates as they were, defeated the Anglo- Saxons and thus laid the foundation to one of the largest empires of the world by inocculating them with a goodly degree of rapaciousness and pugnacity.^^ Now to the description of the war itself. Here Sealsfield depicts historic scenes, some of which, "for example the skirm- ish on the Salado River, the siege of Bexar, the decisive battle near L^ouisburg, are taken from the state archives at Wash- ington," as the author tells us in the introduction to the Cabin book.^" In these prefatory remarks our attention is directed to the historic value of the novel. Sealsfield intends to ^*"por- tray to the world the history of the period (the book appeared in 1841) and its most important momenta in vivid, plastic pictures." Such a historical event he has pictured in the Cabin book. "The instant of founding a new Anglo-Amer- ican state upon Mexican soil, the moment where the Germanic 22 Ibid., pt. I. The Normans and their history and influence upon the English character seem to be a hobby of the Alcalde. This again shows that Sealsfield was influenced in his history of philosophy by Herder, who in his Ideen, p. 372 ff., 380, SIS ff., attaches much import- ance to the advantageous mixture of Norman and Anglo-Saxon blood, which, significant even in a distant future, has given the English people its characteristic features. 23 A statement somewhat doubtful! Cf. Kajiitenbuch, pt. II, p. 117. — Cf. Ehrenberg, H., Fahrten und Schicksale eines Deutschen in Texas. 24 Kajiitenbuch, Introduction, p. 8. 64 • POLITICAL AND SOCIAL CONDITIONS race has once more made way for herself at the cost of the mixed Roman race, and has carried out the founding of a new Anglo-American state. They were the roughest leather- jackets who harbored the warmest hearts, the most iron will, who wanted great things, and who obtained these great things with the smallest means, who obtained religious and political freedom, who founded a new state, which, how unimportant it may seem at present, is certainly destined for great things. "^^ The student of history is well aware of the fact that in former times such wars established hereditary monarchies : the strongest, the commanders were not only crowned with the wreath of victory, but with the crown of sovereignty as well.^^ Here the state attached itself to the Union, and thus became a member of a great democracy. So far there are three outstanding figures in the political history of the United States : Washington, Monroe, Jefferson. The former is heralded as the hero of the revolution, the gen- eral who led the colonies to victory and thus freed them from the English yoke. At the very beginning of his Vereinigte Staaten, Sealsfield enters upon Washington's principles as to relations with other powers. He considers them the only means by which the states, which already are an "interesting 25/fejU, pt. II, p. 115. 26 Cf. Herder, Ideen, pt. I, pp. 377-378. "Other reasons must have heen present which introduced hereditary monarchies amongst men, and history does not conceal these reasons : Who gave Germany her governments, who gave them to civilized Europe? War. Nomadic hordes and barbarians invaded that continent, their commanders and nobility divided the land and the people amongst themselves. Thus originated principalities, fieves ; thus came into existence the villanage of subjugated peoples. The conquerors were the possessors, and what- ever changes have taken place since that time, they were always decided through revolution, war, agreement of the powerful ; always we notice the right of the strong. By this royal path history marches on, and facts of history cannot be denied. What subjected the world to Rome? Greece and the Orient to Alexander? What founded all great mon- archies as far back as Gesostris and the joyous Semiramis, and what shattered them? War. Violent conquest took the place of law, which later became law through superannuation, or, as our teachers of politic- al science call it, through a silent contract, but the silent contract in this case is nothing but that the stronger takes what he pleases and that the weaker gives or suffers what he cannot alter." 65 CHARLES SEALSFIELD spectacle for the thinking world," could obtain independence, power, and wealth. The Monroe doctrine goes a step farther. It makes known that the Union will not suffer intervention of any sort in South American affairs. This act Sealsfield considers the certificate of majority. -'"Her (the Union's) infancy is over. The nation has reached the year of majority. She has felt it and has put it before the eyes of the world. In the statement of President Monroe in his message of 1824 . . . the nation has expressed her views and she has the means in hand to make her words effective if she desires." But now, Jefferson : He is proclaimed the disciple of Democ- racy — the first democratic president, a man whom the author admired, whose works he studied, and whose views he preached. A conversation between the Alcalde and Colonel Morse-^ concerning this great statesman goes as follows : " 'Jefferson, if he still lived, would not have much pleasure in the fruits of his democracy'. . . . 'He would have all the pleasure . . . which a man can have who sees the principles which he carried out with an iron hand increase luxuriantly — perhaps a little too luxuriantly. Our people's principle of sovereignty, d'ye understand, wants priming, like a tree shot up too fast; but to him belongs the glory of having raised it. True, he is wished to the bottom of hell for it by our would-be aristocrats ; no wonder ! He overturned their apostles, the Hamiltons and Adamses — went the whole hog with them. But 'twas necessary, most necessary with people who carried them- selves so egotistically as the federals of that time, who thought the revolution was only fought for them, and that the millions had staked property and life in order to exchange the English yoke for theirs ; and they would have succeeded, I tell you, had it not been for Jefferson. But Jefferson was vigilant, and though Jefferson had his faults as a man, as a statesman he was one of the greatest that ever put his hand to the ship of state. Never has anyone so entirely comprehended the spirit of democracy, her nature, her fructifying power, and 27 Die Vereinigten Slaaten, Introduction. ii Kajutenhuch, pt. I, pp. 179-180. 66 POLITICAL AND SOCIAL CONDITIONS brought the triumphal chariot of man to advance so fast. The United States owe it to him that they will be in less than fifty years the greatest nation on the earth, that already they are spread, and firmly rooted, over half the world. It was he who opened to the people the sluices and dams in which the Hamiltons and the Adamses thought to pen them. Was just the man we needed then ; his was the true principle.' " We have seen how the colonists redeemed the land with the plough, and how they kept what they had gained through never-ceasing toil and hardship. Then they felt strong enough to revolt against additional burdens laid upon them by their mother country. They were victorious and thus established political freedom.^" But what is this political freedom com- pared with their social liberty ! Their common sacrifices brought common rewards. All became free men, masters over themselves, with no one above. History had never before seen such an example, at least not on so large a scale. The Squire, one of the main characters in the last part of Der Legitime, expresses this to James Hodges in the following words : "We have made our conquests from a few hundred thousand Indians, and with our plow ; the first disappeared through their own guilt, the second conquest makes all — all who are willing to work — independent men, who can and shall have a word to say in matters of their country."^" i^ Der Legitime, pt. II, p. 249. ^oihid., pt. Ill, p. 296. Chapter IV. LIBERTY AND EQUAIvITY. The two wars with England had not only liberated the states politically, but had also laid the corner stone for social freedom of the country. All had helped to throw off the yoke — all should eat of the fruits of civil liberty. Were the Americans ready for this liberty? Could they enjoy it sensibly? Or did the goddess of liberty answer the beckoning of a people that could not hold her? In the fifth chapter of Pflanzerleben, entitled in the English translation Uncle Sam and his Democracy, we read the following answer : ^"No! The great book of the past, and even of the present, shows on every page that the goddess of liberty is not a light, flower-encircled coquette, with whom poets and malicious fanatics amuse our senses — a voluptuous beauty, who, in a burst of passion gives herself up to the first ruffian she en- counters. She is a stern woman, advanced in years, with a motherly, nay, even a severe countenance; with a bonnet on her head resembling the southwester of a mariner,^ and refer- ring less to grace and to elegant manners, than unwearied exertions ; a pious dame, averse to folly and play, matron-like, watchful night and day, ever glancing suspiciously around her, guarding her hearth and household, and always conscious of her dignity. Uninvited she enters your domicile, if in you she beholds the virtues she esteems; but turns her back on you at the instant you heed not her warning voice, and roll the burden of your household on the shoulder of a hireling."^ 1 Pflanzerleben, pt. I, pp. 281-282. 2 This is "Liberty" as she appears on contemporary coins. 3 Cf. Brauns, E. L., Ideen, p. 753. "There one obtains liberty, which is the most precious possession of this worldly life for the intelligent, POLITICAL AND SOCIAL CONDITIONS Turning from the abstract and ideal, we shall quote the description of a stretch of land in Pennsylvania, the abode of this goddess. It is quite characteristic of Sealsfield to change suddenly from a deep reflective passage, occasionally very abstract, sometimes adorned with beautiful metaphors or even veiled in symbolism, to a little sketch roughly outlined, but here and there containing the varied and true coloring of a realist. *"This part has a touch of republican equality as even in this country of freedom cannot be found often. At a first glance we notice that it is a free citizen's country, not only on paper, but also in reality. In its development and civilization there existed not even the slightest pressure from above. There are no castles, no palaces, the battlements of which glare far into the land, but neither are there any huts which sigh under their protection ; there is not even the mock- ing mansion of a stiff, pious Yankee, who in his heart thanks God that he is not like unto his southern neighbor; we see nothing but plain yeoman seats, which by hundreds and thou- samds are connected like links of an immeasurable chain, and look so much more pleasant, since they, as a rule are inter- rupted by fields, meadows and often patches of forest, and thus resemble a tremendous park in which hundreds of thousands of human beings enjoy life. This view is the prose, the solid, vigorous prose of our Union." The following pages will show what virtues and social preconditions must have existed to bring about this vigorous outburst. Ivomond, the old English money tyrant, an extreme- ly interesting character in the second part of Morton, says to the young American envoy and tool of Stephen Girard : ^"Upon your soil, young man, is the citadel which defends the harbor, in the bosom of which the treasures of the entire world can lie in security. Upon your soil the mightiest despot is but a vain dream picture, and often even a sad gift, for the immoral one, the enthusiast, and the fool, which makes him unhappier than the most severe slavery." In his Skiszen, p. 3, he rejoices over the "highly recreating view of a rejuvenated mankind." * Morton, pt. I, pp. 116-117. 5 Ihid, pt. n, p. 114. CHARLES SEALSFIELD weaker than the tiniest wholesale dealer. There is the dam on which arbitrariness is broken ; there is the focus where the rays unite, and whence they are reflected, there is the rock against which all rulers would break their skulls, whence must come the freedom of the world and the security of property; not that Jacobinic liberty of fools and bloodhounds — but the freedom of the individual and security of possession ; and these are the bases of all true liberty." It is especially security of property which Sealsfield men- tions as being the fundamental prerequisite of true social free- dom. Hereupon rests personal liberty. It is dependent upon the former. The author is thinking of landed property, as we can see in the following quotation : ""Property, and especially landed property . . is a base, the solidity of which gives a hold even to the dullest brain, which the intelligent non-prop- erty holder assumes in vain." This possession is free from taxes and tributes. It is a patch of primeval forest whereupon an active man has settled and which he through continuous struggling with the wilderness has finally wrested out of her hands and changed into a beloved homestead. The estate is sacred to the owner. It is sacred also to others; no one will touch it, for everyone knows how dear it has become to the possessor through the years of toil. As long as everyone lives on his own land and raises upon it the food for the family, he can live independently. No one can abuse him for his debts, and lower him to the position of a slave, as was the case in former times. General Washington says that the colonies were not only fighting for individual freedom, but also for security of property. Colonel Isling tells us of an incident that he witnessed in the quarters of the chief of staff. The staff officers had taken a duck from a farmer boy and had already put it on the spear for roasting when Wash- ington came in. He looked serious, paid the boy, who stood in a corner crying, the price of the duck and then turned to his staff with these words: "I request you not to overlook in the future that we are not only fighting for our inborn liberty, but e Virey, pt. I, p. 318. 70 POLITICAL AND SOCIAL CONDITIONS also for the principle of security of property."' Quite similar are the following words from Nathan : '"Our principles have ever been, and ever will be, the principles of freemen: inde- pendence of persons and property."' Stephy (Stephen Gir- ard) maintains^" that the Greeks did not know the principle of security of property as well as do the Americans. '^'^ But what are the economic prerequisites of this sacred- ness of possession, the "basis of republican community wel- fare?" As we have mentioned above, it presupposes landed property which yields to the owner all he needs. ^^ The wealth of the United States and the comfort of her people is compared with that of European countries and their inhab- itants in the following passage : ^^"Everywhere a certain wealth is noticeable, which is solid, for it rests upon a firm foundation, the incontestable right of possession of the in- dividual.^* The righteous, intelligent and alert man lives nowhere as comfortable, free and happy, as in America. "'^■" Where people live upon their own, free inheritance, often far away from neighbors, there the individual man is thrown ■? Morton, pt. I, p. 88. s Nathan, p. 229. » Cf. Pflanzcrlebcn, pt. I, p. 2S2. 10 Morion, pt. I, p. 191. 11 Grund, Francis, Aristnkratie , pt. I, p. 83, speaking of Irish and German inumigrants ; "Since they were slaves all their life, they set an extraordinary high price upon abstract liberty, without knowing the significance of propertj'." — Cf. Grund, Die Anterikaner , p. 147. 12 Duden, Gottfried, Reise, p. 32. "That, especially in the interior, few thefts are committed, has the same reason why one does not meet with beggars. It is easier to obtain one's sustenance in a different manner." — Cf. Ibid., p. 124. — Cf. Warden, D. B., Account of the United States, v. I, p. 21. 1* Vereinigte Staaten, p. 201. 1* Cf. Murray, C. A., Travels in North America, v. II, pp. 297-298. "Pauperism, that gaunt and hideous spectre, which has extended its desolating march over Asia and Europe, destroying its victims by thousands, even in the midst of luxury and wealth, has never yet car- ried its ravages into the United States." 15 Cf. Duden, Gottfried, Reise, p. 289. — Cf. American History, No. 28, "Spirit of American Democracy, by Marquis de Chastellux." — Cf. Ibid., No. 12, "Characteristics of America, by Benjamin Franklin." 71 CHARLES SEALSFIELD upon his own resources ; he must govern himself and his house alone. Sealsfield maintains^" that a true republic is dependent upon "self-government of each individual citizen," and that this self-government needs again a high degree of political enlightenment which must be distributed over the entire na- tion.^' Elsewhere/' asking himself the question if Austria is ripe to obtain a constitution and to use it effectively, he answers with the following: "A constitution whether extorted by the force of arms from a weak prince, or whether the free gift of a sovereign, will sleep and not be properly enjoyed until the materials for its proper use are ready for it : a pro- portionate division of property and intellectual light." A similar statement we hear from the Conde.^° He advises against the battering down of the Mexican institution, because the people, as did the Hebrews at one time, has to wander through a long desert of suffering and need before it reaches the land of enlightenment, the only land where true liberty can dwell. But where is this land of enlightenment? Can it be reached through study? Is the road paved with books and scientific investigations? No, for the Germans possess this sort of knowledge without political enlightenment : a newly discovered Minnelied makes them forget everything;^" they are attracted by crumbling bones, old inscriptions and rocks. ^'^ "They know the entire world, the history of all nations, only their own is locked with seven seals. They know themselves and their own history less than they know the Hottentots. "^^ The Germans lack the faculty of judgment; they need a goodly portion of commonsense to see behind the intrigues of the grandees. It is political enlightenment which must precede 18 Virey, pt. Ill, p. 306. 1'^ Cf. Vereinigte Staaten, p. 78. 18 Austria, p. 154. 19 Virey, pt. II, p. 243. 20 Austria, p. 14. 21- Siiden und Norden, pt. I, p. 115. 22 Ibid. 72 POLITICAL AND SOCIAL CONDITIONS civil enlightenment, and this political enlightenment is an ex- clusive possession of the Americans. In the introduction to Der Legitime, Sealsfield calls the Americans the indisputably most enlightened people in politics ; and Lomond speaks of them as a people who concern themselves with politics at an early age and therefore become men when still rather young. Sealsfield's views are quite similar to those of Jefferson^' quoted below. Only stupid people allow themselves to be fooled by others. In fact they need a bellwether, whom they blindly follow, for they cannot and must not judge for them- selves. If they did, they would undoubtedly look behind the scenes and see there the machinations of the rulers, and a de- termined will, which according to Sealsfield keeps pace with enlightenment, would soon take the reins out of their hands. Stephy tells us^* : "The more stupid men are the more easily they are kept in leading strings, therefore the Cossacks are the very best subjects," and farther on he saj^s : "A discerning nation is hard to rule — i. e., to tame." Again Lomond: "Do you know who are the pillars of monarchies and aristocracies ? The Croatian, the Cossack, the London populace, the Paris canaille^ ^^ As long as you cannot make an enlightened Ameri- can out of a Russian serf, honest citizens out of the Paris canaille, freeholders out of the London populace, they must have strong governments for the protection of good citizens, 23 Jefferson, Writings, v. IV, pp. 268-269, to George Wythe, August 13, '86. "I think by far the most important bill in our whole code is that for the diffusion of knowledge among the people. No other sure foundation can be devised for the preservation of freedom and hap- piness. . . . Preach, my dear sir, a crusade against ignorance, establish and improve the law for educating the common people. Let our countrymen know that the people alone can protect us against these evils, and that the tax which will be paid for this purpose is not more than the thousandth part of what will be paid to kings, priests, and nobles who will rise up among us if we leave the people in ignorance." — ■ Again, Ibid., p. 480, to James Madison, December 20, '87. "Above all things I hope the education of the common people will be attended to ; convinced that on their good sense we may rely with the most security for the preservation of a due degree of liberty." 24 Morton, pt. L PP- 190-191. 25 Duden, Gottfried, Reise, p. 125, speaking of autocracy, says : "But where is the material for it in America. . . . There exists up to this time little populace." 73 CHARLES SEALSFIELD and these good citizens will support their government, nolentes volentes — for their own existence depends upon it."^' Thus Sealsfield correlates the strength of a government and the stupidity of its subjects. A strong government can only arise where the subjects possess no enlightenment. Therefore it is naturally the endeavor of a ruler to keep his subjects in the dark, for his very existence depends upon it.^^ This the author expresses clearly at an occasion^' when he speaks of the Austrians : "Their faults are those of thoroughly spoiled children, kept in ignorance of their rights by a demoralizing guardian, who wishes to prolong his tutorship." This general enlightenment combined with larnded property constitutes the third condition which, according to the author, is a basic factor of a healthy republic : America has no populace.^'' The Conde-'" admires the great republic of the North, because there the potter can be taken from his clay, the farmer from his plough, and be put to the rudder of the ship of state, "because in this country no one is gigantically great, nor are there any small as worms." In Der Legitime^'^ Seals- field attributes the fact that the American people have such a high degree of self esteem to the absence of a real populace. But where does the American obtain this knowledge of politics, the power to partake in the great events of the state? The main source is the press. This Sealsfield expresses in the following words : ^-"Of the most important bulwark of a nation's liberty, the freedom of the press, no people make a more extensive use than the Americans," and farther on : "The 26 Morton, pt, II, p. 107. ^''Austria, p. 131. 28 Ibid., p. 196. 29 Heeren, A. H. L., Europe and its Colonies, pt. II, p. 84. "A country where exists no populace." — Brauns, E. L., Ideen, pp. 131-132. "In our population the rich is neither presumptuous, nor is the poor unquiet ; a populace in the true meaning of the word can hardly be found with us." 30 Virey, pt. II, p. 242. 31 Der Legitime, pt. Ill, pp. 66-67. 32 United States, p. 113. 74 POLITICAL AND SOCIAL CONDITIONS American attends to his newspaper not like the German and the French, for the purpose of deriving a topic of conversation upon politics in which they have no concern, but for the regu- lation of his political and social life." Lomond, that Stephen Girard type in England, says the following: "^*They are the true mirror of our life, and give so much information con- cerning our public life, whereas the papers of the rest of the constitutional world contain nothing but elaborate articles dictated by those in power, '^ a kind of bait, fishing hook and net in which the aristocrats and bureaucrats catch the half- witted people — they are all half-witted except ours — like cattle and robbins." And again we find in the German edition of Sealsfield's work about the United States following the passage quoted above from the English edition, the following: ^°"To him the public papers are sample cards of the public and private life. That which in other states would be a crime, namely to obtain information upon the measures of his govern- ment, is his duty.'' No other government has so much interest as has the American, "to give the people the right views in every respect. "^^ Everyone, even the wicked, can express his 34 Morton, pt. II, pp. 47-48. 3' Cf . Gall, Ludwig, Meine Auswanderuntj nach den Vereinigten Staaten, v. II, p. 132, has the same views on American newspapers — But to set the opinion of these two Germans off, wc shall quote an Englishman and an American whose works appeared several years later, when, perhaps, the press had become somewhat degenerated. — Marryat,, Frederick, Diary, Ser. II, v. I, p. 176. "Every man in America reads his newspaper, and hardly anything else; and while he considers that he is assisting to govern, those who pull the strings in secret and . by flattering his vanity, and exciting his worst feelings, make him a poor tool in their hands. People are too apt to imagine that the newspapers echo their own feelings; when the fact is, that by taking in a paper, which upholds certain opinions., the readers are, by daily repetition, become so impressed with these opinions that they have be- come slaves to them." — Ihid., p. 16S. "A witty, but unprincipled states- man of our times, has said, that 'speech was bestowed on man to conceal his thoughts', judging from the present condition, he might have added 'the press in America, to pervert the truth' ". — The last is a quotation from James Fenimore Cooper, and can be found in his America]! Democrat, p. 135, where he (pp. 128-135) describes the cor- ruption and tyranny of the press as being the very worst imaginable, .38 Vereinigte Staaten, pt. I, p. 93. 37 Cf. Jefferson to Dr. Currie. Jan. 18, 1786. "Our liberty depends upon the freedom of the press, and that cannot be limited without being 75 CHARLES SEALSFIELD opinions in matters of politics and government. ^^"Therein lies the true spirit of a life of freedom, that the best as well as the worst type can assert itself in the struggle of opinions ; for the most venomous loses its poison when it is known and ap- preciated, and the purely rational alone arises and becomes a living principle." Nothing is more dangerous and can cause a quicker downfall of all social order than dormant brooding of the masses. Where there exists complete freedom of speech, there the will of the people is known. Nathan, the squatter chief, tells us in the somewhat curt manner characteristic of backwoodsmen : ^^"Are in a free country, men ! Is our land an asylum where anyone, I calculate, can express his opinion and inclination," and similarly, we read in Der Legitime: *°"We call our country free because anyone can openly state his opinion and may give expression to his thoughts freely." The voice of the people is sound and must be heeded. "Vox populi, vox Dei," says Howard,*^ and Colonel Morse tells us,*^ that the American spirit usually hits the nail on the head, that when- ever he listened to the voice of the people, he succeeded with his enterprises. Somewhere else*^ Sealsfield says that the lost." Writings, v. IV, p. 132.— Heeren, A. H. L., v. II, p. 149. "And so it could finally come to pass that the question of the preservation of the states was connected with the question of the preservation of the freedom of the press." — Jefferson to Edward Carrington Jan. 16, 1786: "The people are the only censors of their governors; and even their errors will tend to keep these to the true principles of their institutions. To punish these errors too severely would be to suppress the only safe- guard of the public liberty. The way to prevent these irregular inter- positions of the people is to give them full information of their affairs through the channel of the public papers, and to contrive that those papers shall penetrate the whole mass of the people. The basis of our government being the opinion of the people, the very first object should be to keep that right; and were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a momenf to prefer the latter." Writings, v. IV„ pp. 3S9-360. 3^ Der Legitime, pt. II, p. 237. 39 Nathan, p. 266. *o Der Legitime, pt. Ill, p. 144. *''- Ralph Doughby, p. 183. *^Das Kajiitenbuch, pt. II, p. 63. *^ Nathan, p. 7. 76 POLITICAL AND SOCIAL CONDITIONS Americans are proud to have servants^* in place of masters and rulers.*'' The writer feels obliged to translate parts of a lengthy passage, an episode of the war of 1812, as an example of re- sistance of subordinates. This will show at the same time how the author interweaves truth and fiction in his novels and hovf he occasionally points out for the reader less familiar with history that this, or at least a certain portion of it, is "really true."*^ A general (Jackson) has given order that a certain colonel shall join forces with his. The colonel does not act, but waits for the opinion of his subordinates. A little con- troversy ensues.*^ The colonel begins : " 'My property is as dear to me as yours to you, for I have acquired it. But I should rather see ■** Our potentates were not the first to have called themselves servants. Frederick the Great, in whose state everyone should ob- tain eternal life in his own fashion, had also called himself the first servant of the state. *5 Cf. Brauns, Ernst, Ideen, p. 573. "The governments are the servants of the people and are considered so by the people. . . . and whereas in Europe the people depend upon the rulers, here the regents as such depend upon the good will of the people." — Again we must quote Jefferson with whom Sealsfield has so many ideas in common. As pointed out above, he had probably read and studied most of his writings. — Jefferson, Writings, v. Ill, p. 254. Notes on Virginia, Query XIV. The administration of justice and the description of the laws? "In every government on earth is some trace of human weakness, some germ of corruption and degeneracy, which cunning will discover and wickedness insensibly open, cultivate and improve. Every government degenerates when trusted to the rulers of the people alone. The people themselves are its safe depositories. And to render them safe, their minds must be improved to a certain degree." — ^And again Jefferson, who wants a little rebellion nov/ and then to bring back lost health to the government. Writings, v. IV, p. 370 to Mrs. John Adams., Feb. 22, '87. "The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions, that I wish it to be always kept alive. It will often be exercised when wrong, but better so than not to be exercised at all. I like a little rebellion now and then. It is like a storm in the atmosphere." — ^Of the same contents is a letter written to James Madison, Jefferson, Writings v. IV, pp. 362-363. — Cf. Melish, John, Travels, pp. 48-49. *8 Der Legitime, pt. II, p. 226ff. *^ The whole is narrated by the squire, one of the principal charac- ters in the last part of Der Legitime. . 77 CHARLES SEALSFIELD the enemy burn up all than have an iota of my rights curtailed. I helped to raise the country, and I want to leave a free in- heritance to my children. We have', he continued with em- phasis, 'met here to keep the enemy from taking possession of our land as he threatened, but not to have our inborn right? snatched from us, and while we drive away one enemy, to have an incurable wound inflicted upon us by a more dangerous one, who forgets what he owes to himself and to his country, and who loses his head on account of a couple of thousand miser- able Britishers It is a question of abolition of all legal authority, centralization of all power in one person, a dictatorship de facto, and as little as it is dangerous in his hand, in another, more skillful amd daring, it may become very dangerous.' Someone else says : 'But does that deserve the name authority which exists only when there is no danger, and which is suspended and makes room for arbitrariness as soon as danger approaches. Does such an act not apparently show that we consider our free constitution insufficient in days of danger, if the appearance of fifteen or twenty thousand enemies is enough to dissolve it ? This is a blow to our national feeling which nothing can excuse, and which will leave a fatal festering and may become an example in future cases . . . .' They stepped into a boat which was awaiting them, and landed on the opposite shore where they took re- freshments, and went calmly and placidly to a meeting, which in another land might have cost streams of blood, and might have caused a revolution in the order of things; for this meeting aimed at nothing less than to set to rights a general blinded through the sovereign power given him by one of the chief executive officers of the country and to condemn his behavior before the whole nation. And all this at a time when the enemy had landed a big force upon the shore. But the Genius of this land is so marvelous, and the reasoning power is betrayed so plainly in eternal friction, that even the most threatening dangers cannot lead this public Genius astray. Slowly and thoughtfully, weighing all, he appears now apparently cold and heartless, moving on tediously as the 78 POUTICAL AND SOCIAL CONDITIONS hands of a clock, now as a violent confusion of brooding passions and hateful selfishness; but just from these activities arises a harmonic result which ties together millions 'Do not forget that these men, born citizens, resident and esteemed citizens, are now engaged in the execution of their sovereign rights, that they have to look out for interests for which it may be too late tomorrow. . .' Thus it is, and I believe that if the enemy should approach, this sovereign people would first ar- rive cautiously at their conclusions." The meeting is over. The resolutions having been handed to a captain, who is to take them to the commanding general, the colonel closes the discussion with the following words : "Listen, if five hundred, and tomorrow, a thousand citizens pronounce a sentence in view of the entire nation, and put themselves at the same time under his (General Jackson's) command, then we hope this will be sufficient to open his eyes to the danger which he is approaching. And this, Captain, is our first duty. I can vouch that the citizens will fulfill their second duty against the enemy below. He who fights with and for liberty is doubly sure of victory." **Then the squire tells us, that the general, who was prosecuted after peace was made, was fined two thousand dollars, and the author assures us of the veracity of his state- ments in the following words : "We do not believe it necessary to prove to our readers the fact which the squire has just related to us, and which, as we all know, terminated in finding the renowned victor guilty of infringement upon the Habeas Corpus act "*^ Morton, pt. I, pp. 124-127. * Refers to men like John Adams, who next to Alexander Hamil- ton was the great leader of the Federalists's party, imtil a dissension arose out of Adams' European politics which left only an insignificant moiety with the president. Also John Quincy Adams was a member of this party during the early part of his poHtical career. 95 CHARLES SEALSFIELD favorite of the so-called good families, his first and last word was always : A strong government, or as we call it at present, centralization.' Now, a central government is one where the people do or not do, not what they want, but what the rulers want, and a democratic government, on the other hand, is one where the ruling men do what the ruled, the people, want. You see, in these two participles (ruling, ruled), one active, the other passive, and their corresponding significance, lies the entire difference between the various governments. Happily, the active element has won a victory amongst the people. If this were not the case, do you thmk the Union, and especially Pennsylvania, would be what she is ? Pshaw ! She would be what the inland prairies of Russia are this very day. Note well, if I had to choose between rulers, then I would rather have one, a strong one, but not three hundred. I should prefer to be a Russian rather than an Irishman. . . . Under a govern- ment according to the plans of Adams and Hamilton the prominent families, to be sure, would have become greater, but only at the expense of thousands, of millions of less prominent families. Mansions and governmental palaces would have arisen^, but on account of too much socage people would have had no time to think of their own homes. Hamilton was shot, by a wicked man to be sure, but judging from the services which he has rendered to the people, that was all he deserved. He was an English Tory, and from England nothing good will ever come to America. Those gentlemiem had the in- tention of raising the United States to the level of a domain, which they and their so-called good families were desirous of bleeding, but then came your great-uncle,^ and the worthy Franklin and his allied great genii — and their enemies' air castles tumbled, and America became what it was destined Lo become, a land of the free, which helped to liberate the entire 7 Cf. American History, No. 85, "An Opinion of Hamilton," by- Secretary Thomas Jefferson, " that the ultimate object of all this is to prepare the way for a change from the present republican form of government, to that of a monarchy, of which the English constitution is to be the model." 8 John Morton, who was one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. He also helped to frame the Articles of Confederation. POLITICAL AND ^SOQAL CONDITIONS civilized world, and which to look upon, is a joy for the philanthropist." When Karl Postl came to America, John Quincy Adams had been nominated a candidate for the presidency, and the author was not a little disappointed to see that there was before the people in quest of the highest office of our republic ^"as dangerous a man as can be, who, even, if he were sent by the Holy Alliance, could not act more in her interest."" Later he claims that in the presidential election of 1824 the Union was approaching complete dissolution, ^^ and that at no other time her statesmen proved more unworthy. Since Adams was elected by the Tories and through the treachery of Henry Clay,^^ the entire nation was his opponent.^^ How low the self esteem of the nation and her desire for liberty had fallen, the author illustrates by the fact that Adams was elected in spite of having made the following statement while he was Secretary of State : "The United States will not be ranked among nations till the presidency becomes hereditary."" In the first volume of Die Vereinigten Staaten von Nordanierika nach ihrem po- litischen, religi'dsen und gesellschaftlichen Verhdltnisse he- 8 Die Vereinigten Staaten, v. I, pp. 17-18. 10 C£. On the contrary Schurz, Henry Clay, v. I, p. 1S4, ". . . . Adams, who was always inclined to take the highest ground for his country against any foreign power." 11 Die Vereinigten Staaten, v, I, p. 6. 12 This is the view of a Jackson man. Many newspapers which had thrown their influence in the scale for Jackson, denounced Clay's unwillingness to vote for the "Old Hero" as a sort of high treason, (Cf. Schurz, Henry Clay, v. I, p. 241) referring, of course, to that mfamous "bargain and corruption" charge, which, although satis- factorily refuted, was never altogether buried. 1* Die Vereinigten Staaten, v. I, p. 19. Though this was not true at the beginning of Adams' term, it may be said of his later years more appropriately, for the twentieth congress had a majority hostile to the administration in both branches. — Cf . Schurz, Henry Clay, v. I, p. 286. — Cf. Morse, John Quincy Adams, p. 193. 1* The United States, v. I, p. 20 — The writer found no authority for this somewhat bold statement quoted above. Sealsfield, "The man of the people", published two political works — one in German, the other in English, in time for the election of 1828; here he tried to promote the cause of his candidate by making adverse statements against Adams. 97 CHARI^ES SEALSFIELD trachtet, published under the pseudonym C. Sidons, he has a good deal to say about John Quihcy Adams: ^'"The intelligent observer cannot refrain from serious reflection when he thinks of Adams and his politics. If a man gets to the rudder of the ship of state in such a manner as Adams did, one should think that he would try to heal by means of reconciliatory acts the wounds which he has cut into the in- jured self-esteem of the nation, and that he would not pro- claim axioms which will only strengthen her in the thought that he was aiming at autocracy. One should expect this so much more of a man who is such a cold, calculating diplomat, as Adams is, who in addition to all this has the example of his father before his eyes. But if the new president, on the con- trary, in his message openly announces his intentions to rule; if he, which even a king of England could not do, calls unto liim an unpopular Secretary of State,'^^ and keeps him ; if he not only announces his desires to depart from the accustomed system, but realizes them against the will and the interest of the nation, and to spite her; if he decides her internal and external affairs in a manner hitherto unheard of ; if he assumes the language of a monarch toward the representatives of the mdividual states, as well as toward foreign powers : — then ihe question arises, whether such a man is not a monarch de facto, and whether in a republic where all this goes on un- heeded, the autocratic principle has not already gained the upper hand. We must do justice to Adams' abilities and not suppose that he knew his own power so little, as to follow the promptings of a blind, mad ambition. Now he is at the bead of the party,^'^ which in 1812 proved quite clearly that it was tired of a republican constitution. At that time he left the party ^* because it wanted not him but England as a ruler. 1' Die Vereinigten Staaten, v. I, pp. 47-49. 16 Henry Clay was by no means more unpopular than Adams him- self. 1' This refers lo the Federals ; but this party existed in 1827 only by name. 18 He had left the party as early as 1806. — Cf. Morse, Johti Quincy Adams, pp. 38-40. 98 POLITICAL AND SOCIAL CONDITIONS Now he is most intimately connected with it, it is his phalanx in the true sense of the word, and he is its chief and organ. Through it he has the New England states entirely. New York and New Jersey partly. In these two states as well as in Virginia more and more voices are heard in favor of a monarchical system. At what stage of corruption and bribery the West is, the last presidential election has shown.^** How patiently the nation subj.ects herself to her ruler, daily ex- perience teaches us! ... . The United States are approaching a crisis which will decide whether the republican or the monarchical principle will be predominant. If Adams is capable of asserting himself in the next election, then the naition has lost all feeling for right and liberty, and she is sufficiently tamed to bend tinder the yoke. Unhindered Adams will be able to follow his plans, which he and his party have drawn up, and then there will be no doubt as to the destination of the northern states. A separation from the western and southern states, with a monarchical constitution must be the immediate and natural consequence. Then the riddle will be solved, why the same Adams, who, when Secretary of State, resisted so lively the acknowledgement of the South-American republics,^" now suddenly is their most intimate friend in spite of the danger to have the slave states of the Union as his most bitter enemy. ^' Sealsfield criticises most severely the position of Adams and Clay on the South American question, and especially the note sent to St. Petersburg, May 10, 1825, asking for the inter- vention of Russia in the critical affair between South America and Spain. The author argues that Adams should 18 The author is probably thinking of Missouri, where Scott gave his vote to Adams after he was given assurance that his brother, then judge in Arkansas territory, who was threatened with tire loss of his office because he had killed his colleague in a duel, should stay in office. — American Nation, v. XIV, p. 263. 20 Not a true statement. 21 For the opposition of the slave states against the recognition of the South American republics and especially against the Panama Con- gress, compare Morse, John Quincy Adams, p. 191 ff. 99 CHARLES SEALSFIELD either have maintained complete silence at that time and waited for further development, or he should have been more decisive and direct in his request, instead of assuming the ludicrous role of a second-hand mediator.^^ A little more con- siderate is his criticism of Adams' stand on the question of the Panama Congress in 1826. Sealsfield's judgment of Adams is perhaps unduly severe and for the greater part unjust. He considered him an aristocrat and representative of the old party of Federals which, although out of existence as a political party, still nourished its old principles. Soon its descendants became strong again and arose under the name of National Re- publicans and later under the nom de guerre of Whigs.-^ The next pages shall put before us the contest between this party and another, which, although not strictly a descendant of Jefferson's republican party, at least embodied a similar creed — at the present time they were merely anti-Adams — the latter in power in Congress, the former represented by Adams and Clay. It is quite interesting to listen to an argument between an extreme old-school aristocrat, and a democrat of the new creed, strange to say, both Adams men, who give expression fo their views at the time of the campaign of 1828. The for- mer begins : 2*" 'You observe rightly, . . . the spirit of that time (Jeffer- son's administration) was fresh, democratic, and the present era is like it; but it is beginning to be exhausted, and we Federals have more hopes than ever of regaining power. But we must not fold our hands, or the proper moment will pass. If political influence only remains ten years longer in the hands of these people, our power is gone forever. New families will come into possession, and displace us. Moreover, there is a 22 Die Vereinigten Staaten, v. I, pp. 32-34. 23 Wahlverwandtschaften, pt. IV, p. 242. 24 Ralph Doughby, pp. 180-183. 100 POLITICAL AND SOQAL CONDITIONS mark upon us, which makes it very difficult for one of our party to gain any influence. Just try it !' 'I care not for political influence!' 'You are wrong, and so are most of us. The people, the nation can spare us, we cannot spare them. It is the greatest folly which aristocrats can commit to believe that they can successfully oppose the people. Our fathers, the Federalists, framed the Constitution; but look at it, how it stands. It appears as a frame house full of holes, into which everybody enters at pleasure, without regarding doors or windows; and why? Because democrats have the keeping of the building. The longer it lasts, the worse it will be.' 'But who wishes to drink whiskey with plebeians, plough- men, cobblers or tailors, or to lie about in groggeries ?' 'Just that is our fault. Because we are too proud to mix with the people, they turn their backs on us, when offices are ro be filled, which require trust and confidence. We lose ground, and our old families, who have settled the country, and fought for our independence, must make way for the sons of Irish drunkards, English beggars, and French hair-dressers, because they are less delicate.' 'They will soon be forced out and the people will discard them.' 'I doubt that, for the people look at us with suspicion. They know not gratitude; besides these persons are of the people, who are so much inclined to forget the services of our aincestors in the matter-of-fact present. Meanwhile their in- clinations become still more democratic, or rather mobocratic ; the central government loses its authority; our House of Representatives, and Congress swarm with persons without education, without position, who have crowded in by the lowest flattery, by means of whiskey feasts and stump speeches. Our offices of trust will be degraded, and will become foot- men's places.' 101 . CHARLES SEALSFIELD 'Still the nation is well governed, and was never more prosperous than at present. I, moreover, don't think much of systems of government designed only for the future, and use- less for the present. Let the people alone — vox populi, vox Dei. You have still those English notions in your head.' 'But they are not so very contemptible. Look at the aristocracy of England, how brilliantly it stands — upon what a pinnacle of unprecedented grandeur is the country placed ! and why? Because this aristocracy has been eighty years in possession of power, and possessed the right to make laws, and protect itself, and to make barriers which the people could not over-leap. We ought to be ashamed, when a Briton of good family comes to us and sees this pele-niele. No, this must not be, we must try by all means, and if we cannot come into possession of power ourselves, we must at least have friend.s who will act with us and in our interests.' " The novel from which this extract is taken contains a good deal of campaign material for Jackson. ^^ Ralph Dough- by,^" a delegate of the Jacksonian party, favors us with several speeches made for the benefit of Red River passengers, after which new delegates are chosen and sent out amongst the people on the shore. Thus we witness the first installment of an extensive electioneering machinery, which from now on -5 Rattermann, H. A., '^Charles Sealsfield", ]Verke, v. X. n. 14. claims that Sealsfield acted as German and English speaker in West- Pennsylvania in the interest of Jackson's party during the election of 1824. Rattermann, however, does not cite his proofs. 26 In Doughby, the author puts before us a man of the people, uncouth and rough, but liked by everybody except the French aristocrats of Mississippi. We are told how he was lately elected Major in a militia regiment. Some captain was nominated, and would probably have been elected, when Doughby arrived, and a general cry com- menced that he must be their major. " 'Done,' cried Doughby, 'done boys; I will be your major; but let us drink first'. And all went to the hotel, where they took their drink, and then to the cigar box, into which they threw their tickets ; and the result ? Poor Wielding had scarcely ten votes. Doughby was elected, and would have been elected, had it been for governor of Louisiana; and why? Because he drinks, fights, smokes, chews, and converses with planters, himters, squatters, peddlers, and can make himself agreeable with all, and yet commands a certain respect from all." Ralph Doughby, pp. 184-185. 102 POLITICAL AND SOCIAL CONDITIONS was to be used at every election. (Cf. Schurz, Henry Clay, V. I, p. 280) It was indeed the most furious and disgusting campaign ever witnessed by the American people. The spirit was most bitter and the words most rancorous on the side of Jackson ; and why shouldn't it have been ? Did not the intro- duction of the "spoils system" promise ample reward to every active participant if his candidate should win out ! Jackson, the author maintains, will never be as dangerous for the nation as Adams has been, and will be in case he .should be re-elected. He knows "Old Hickory's" violent character and is aware of the danger arising from arbitrary acts; yet he thinks, the people can protect themselves better against those than against steady and well planned under- mining of their rights. "But," Sealsfield continues, "even he is not safe from the sneaking poison of European diplomacy,-' which is spreading so rapidly in our country, and which will soon bring the nation to the point where she will look upon an hereditary monarch as a benefactor.^* The year 1828 will be a crisis for our country, and will decide whether her citizens will remain free, or whether they will be separated and be- come subjects."^' Jackson was elected — but Sealsfield was not satisfied. ""■"When President Jackson took hold of the rudder (he says) his motto was reform and nothing but reform. ^^ To be sure 27 Die Verebiigten Staaten, v. I, pp. 68-69. 28 Jackson lacked only little of being an autocrat, which is partly proven by the many changes in his cabinet. He dismissed a man when he no longer suited his purpose, which was, of course, to agree with him in all points in question. Thus he had during his two terms four Secretaries of State, five Secretaries of Treasury, two Secretaries of War, three Secretaries of Navy, three Attorney Generals, and two Postmaster Generals (Cf. Thorpe, F. N., edit. Andrew Jackson, p. 10.) 29 Schurz, Henry Clay, v. I, pp. 280-281, speaking of Jacksonian newspapers, says : "They gradually succeeded in making a great many well-meaning people believe. that if such a dreadful event, as the re-election of Adams, should happen, it would inevitably be the end of liberty and republican institutions in America." 30 Wahlverwandtschaften, pt. II, pp. 344-345. 31 This "reform" was indeed far reaching. The number of men dismissed from oiBce in the various departments, simply because they 103 • CHARLES SEALSFIELD he kept his promise .... The voice of the people was with him,^^ but he did not always have his eyes on the Lord, and consequently there arose idolaters, called demagogues,'^ who created the golden calf of idolatry, took the word reform as their motto, and attempted to overthrow with it the old God and faith, namely constitution and customs." Later, in 1839, Sealsfield speaks of t!he lawlessness and violence of Andrew Jackson,'* and elsewhere''' he refers to his hatred for bankers and moneyed people.'^ Thus we see that the author was dis- appointed in the man whom he had admired so much during his military career, and as a candidate for the presidency. More than that, he even believed the very base of our ' democracy unstable, shaking the entire structure and threaten- ing its fall. "'^Oh, Democracy ! a precious thing thou art on paper, but I doubt whether thy great apostle (Jefferson) would be still the same zealot in 1828 (the novel was written about 1836), as he was in 1801. Terrible are the effects of Ibese cancers ! Terrible this kind of democratic government ! The former order of things which was the support of our laws, the entire formation of our civil code, it cannot be denied, received its tone and its tendency from Old England. Our respect for the law, the main rampart of our social order, is mostly an inheritance from the time when England ruled us with a strong hand, by which she controlled the passions of the people, and maintained that authority, which she has were not, or at one time had not been, Jackson men, is astonishing. While the first six presidents made in all seventy-four removals, Jack- son dismissed from office during the first year of his administration four hundred and nineteen postmasters and two hundred and thirty- nine other officers. — Cf. Schurz, Henry Clay, v. I, p. 334. 32 Jackson, perhaps more than any other president, was a popular idol. 33 Does Sealsfield mean Jackson's political advisers — ^his "kitchen- cabinet"? — ^Cf. Wahlverwandtschaften, pt. IV, p. 247. 34 Ibid., pt. Ill, pp. 363-364. 36 Morton, pt. II, p. 41. 36 Cf. Richardson, J. D., Messages and Papers, v. Ill, p. 30, where Jackson justifies the removal of deposits from the Bank of the United States. Also Schunz, Henry Clay, v. I, pp. 353, 377-378 ; v. II, p. 25. 37 Pflanzerleben, pt. I, pp. 32-33. 104 POLITICAL AND SOCIAL CONDITIONS understood how to preserve for her great national name. Transmitted to us, it gave also to our ship of state that direction, which was long felt after the helmsman had left his post. The gallant ship pursues her course, even after the helm is abandoned. But-the tackle begins to slacken, the ropes give way, the authority of great historical men has vanished. Our shoemakers and tailors speak of Washington and Franklin as of their apprentices and every whipster believes himself capable of rearing a better fabric of a state. Gloomy symptoms of basely corrupted vigor !" The following passage shows that Sealsfield perceived clearly, and interpreted boldly, but probably correctly, the pohtical life of his day. ""^In our democracy many good qualities are certainly to be found, but it would be in vain to seek there for that old virtue, styled sincerity. It is un- doubtedly comprised of many excellent ingredients, but also of envy, deception, ambition, slander, and avarice, which serve our so-called democratic politicians or demagogues, as a rich treat, filling their mouths with the eloquence of false prophets, with the most ardent expressions of patriotism, of generosity, and of desire to promote their fellow citizens' happiness, while they themselves grasp the fattest morsels in consideration of their patriotic exertions.'' How true today ! Does a democratic government always lead to corruption? Was ours not more corrupt during the war, when it lacked very little to make it most autocratic? May the twentieth century answer these questions. It will see new republics arise, and — perhaps proper. It is of the utmost interest to observe how Sealsfield treats of the economic forces and issues which either arose or culminated in this period. A democracy has few rewards as compensation of service. There are no honors which stimulate her citizens to noble and note-worthy deeds ; nor do there exist decorations, which furnish the means of reward for distinction so frequently in the Old World. Outside of money she can 38 Pflanzerleben, pt. I, pp. 204-205. 105 ■ CHARLES SEALSFIELD offer few compensations, and we can well understand how the acquisition of wealth becomes one of the most powerful motives of individual endeavor. Sealsfield says on one occasion: "^"With us money takes the place of love, it covers many, or rather all sins," and Tokeah believes that the hearts of white men do not beat, as do those of the red skins, they rattle because they contain only dollars.^" This love of money has caused classes to arise within the nation which are almost as well confined as are those of old Europe. "*^The man who has a hundred thousand dollars, will not condescend to look at the ons who has but fifty thousand; and the latter is as arrogant toward him who has only ten thousand. You are just as respectable as you are heavy."*- Mr. Ramble*^ introduces his political friends to Baron von Schochstein as Mr. X, who is worth a million, Mr. Y, worth six hundred thousand, et cetera.** As pointed out in the introduction to this work, Morton, oder die grosse Tour deals with the power of money over man, and with the tremendous influence gold has in social life and in politics. Nowhere in the literatures of other countries has the writer found as early in the nineteenth century a work of equal volume, the essence of which seems to be : Money is power; money rules the world. There is a period in the history of every state when the moneyed interests come to be felt in politics.*^ In Europe it began with the reign of Louis XIV — in America, during the Jacksonian democracy. When money became plentiful in the hands of some people in America, it was a safer possession than in most other countries, and attained more influence for the possessor of the 30 Morton, pt. I, p. 211. *" Der Legitime, pt. Ill, p. 163. 41 Ralph Doughhy, p. 85. *2 Cf. Grund, Francis, Aristocratic, v. I, p. 44. ** Wahlverwandtschaften, pt. II, pp. 244-245. 't* Of. Marryat, Frederick, Diary, Ser. I, v. I, p. 289.— Cf. Nichols, Thomas L., Forty Years of American Life, v. I, p. 402. 45 Cf. Schiirz, Henry Clay, v. II, pp. 322, 353, 377; v. II, p. 25. 106 POLITICAL AND SOCIAL CONDITIONS fortune. Lomond tells us that America was the only safo dbode of money tyrants." These wholesale merchants, for that was usually their business, are sovereign powers, as sovereign as are the monarchs that rule countries ; they have llieir subjects, their cabinets, and their alliances as have the great powers of Europe."" They rule the nations through their own wants and needs.*' No one can eat, drink, or have his being without paying a heavy tribute to these modern tyrants. They are as dangerous as autocrats — they are themselves autocrats, in a way. When the people suffer from want, when the nation suffers, then they have won a victory, then they are at their goal.*" Stephen Girard,^" wholesale merchant, banker, and philanthropist, as he was called after his death, or mis- anthropist, as, during his life time most everyone believed him to be, is one of the principal characters in Morton. Chapter VI of part I, Das lever des alien Stephy, oder We are in a Free Country (pp. 133-211) deals entirely with the odd man and his ways and means. In the second part, which takes us 1o London, where Morton acts as agent of Girard, Lomond, of whom Stephy is the prototype, is a leading character. Here, in London we see the inner workings of society. We see princes begging to have another month on a note, and princes- ses offering their last jewel, and finally their virtue, to have their credit extended. "^^Do you see now", says Lomond to Morton, "what brings the duke, and the marquis, and the *« Morton, pt. II, p. 114. <7 Morton, pt. I, pp. 204-205. <8 Ibid., pt. I, p. 192. <» Ibid., pt. II, p. 90. 50 Brothers, Thomas, The United States, pp. 113-131, "On the Character of Stephen Girard, the banker," shows that his biography, written by the son of one of his cashiers is a gross misrepresentation. Yet Brothers' biographical sketch, while it tears to pieces the other work, is in itself such a rank falsification, that we are unconsciously reminded of Mrs. Trollop's book. Parton, James, Famous Amerieans. pp. 223-257 gives an entirely different and very favorable picture of him. 51 Morton, pt. II, pp. 100-101. 107 CHARLIES SEALSFIELD count, and the viscount before your door as supplicants ; and what drives women to turn wantons, and finally — ; what causes monarchs to flee from their thrones, and makes traitors out of statesmen? But today, my dear Mr. Morton, there are no more traitors because grandees have no longer a fatherland, no longer a religion. These exist only for the canaille: grandees have only interests. That is the chain which links together aristocrats of birth and money, ''^ namely us, the rulers of the world." But the novel is just beginning to lead up to the climax. We hear how these plutocrats meet, compare notes, and determine the destiny of families and countries. " '^^We are ten', said the man ( Lomond) with an elevated voice, 'distributed over the entire world, and never- theless we are together every day and hour ; united by no bond, and again, by the most intimate bond, the bond of common interest, which shall give to the world a new shape sooner or later. In London we are five. We meet every week, compare notes and determine the course of events in this world. The mysteries of finance of this cotintry and of all others, and the mysteries of their existence lie clearly before our eyes. No country, no family, no class of people, which ever came in contact with us, has escaped our anatomical lance. We are liolding in our hands the threads of existence of every state and every family, from the very highest down to the very lowest. In our debit there are billions, states and families, kings and emperors. Our notes are as those in the book of the Eternal Judge. Public credit and domestic weal, the well-being of the three kingdoms, and of all countries in the civilized world, i. e., the debt-contracting world, the weal and woe of trade and traffic, depend upon our wills and whims. What is Ihe miserable secret service of the entire continent compared with that paid by us, masters of the world ; for such we will be sooner or later. Before long we shall occupy the place of these 62 Cf. Pflanzerlehen, pt. II, pp. 52-53. "The power of the moneyed aristocracy, which as mediatress between nations and thrones, balances each in her scales." 53 Morton, pt. II, pp. 114-118. 108 POLITICAL AND SOCIAL CONDITIONS aristocrats entirely. We shall be the closest to the thrones, Mr. Morton ! And these thrones shall not be less stable for it. France, now gnashing in her fetters ; Germany, phlegmatic, somnambulant ; Spain, lazy and bigoted, and miserable Italy, gnawing at the bones of her three-thousand-year-old fame — they all must bend and give, and all countries of the earth must follow ; for our miners are at work. We send our am- bassadors daily, hourly ; every sack of coffee, every can of tea, every bale of goods, every loan gives a better foundation to our reign. Pshaw, and there are fools, who say we love money — it is true, we do love it, but much more do we love to rule, for sway and domination are sweeter than gold. . . . There are others who think that we are working for the piggish mob — Pshaw ! We, the moneyed interest, the moneyocracy fighting for the piggish mob ! We are fighting against aristocracy of birth, but we are fighting for ourselves. . . Here, within these paltry disconsolate walls the greatest hero, who has fought battles by the dozen, has become soft and mild, as does a poor sinner who is about to be tossed over into eternity ; here the wildest lover, whom one word from his beauty would have moved to ecstacy, or again to madness, has lain upon his knees ; here, the statesman who tramples upon millions, has writhed ; here, the merchant who has millions; here, atheists who never pronounced the name of God but with a sneer, learned to pray to the eternal God ; here, dukes and the sons of kings will learn to pray, young man, and in the most beautiful manner for, here', and he stroked his brow with his hand, 'are the scales which will weigh the destiny of millions and millions.' " As Richard M. Meyer has shown in Deutsche Arbeit, v. VI, (pp. 510 — 512) this passage was taken from Honore de Balzak's Gobseck.^^ Here as well as there, the passage marks the climax and is the ecstatic expression of an old plutocrat, who tells us of the new use to which money is put. It is no longer simply a means of acquiring estates and beautiful ^* Balzac, Honore, de, Oeuvres completes, Paris, 1899, v. Ill, pp. 479-480. 109 CHARLES SEALSFIELD mansions, surrounded by wood-like parks in which these humans vegetate, albeit in luxury and super-abundance ; it has now become a means of attaining influence, of ruling over thousands and millions, of making them happy, and — unhappy. This love for money is another trait which the American has in common with the Englishman. Yet according to Seals- field it is even more pronounced in the English character, and the possession of riches is more determining in the individual's life. Without money he might as well not exist. May the author speak to us: "^^Pshaw! John Bull ridicules Brother Jonathan's love of dollars, and certainly we love dollars. It is a strong mote in our eye, this perpetual dollar-seeking, I con- fess, but the ridicule does not sit well on John Bull with the beam in his own eye. Certainly we love dollars, and are busily engaged in finding them ; but if we lose them again, we do not, like John Bull, cut our throats. I do not know that one re- spectable American has ever hanged or drowned himself on account of the loss of his dollars, as the Enghsh do daily. Let John Bull say what he will, the man is still of some value with us apart from his dollars; but with him a man is not worth a straw more than his guineas. For this reason the English ex- pression 'he is worth so much', has remained in our seaport towns, and has never prevailed in the country. The British character has undoubtedly many brilliant traits, such as justice, manliness, and greatness and strength of soul, but it has also ugly ones, and amongst them are greediness for wealth, which does not allow him to consider it as a means, but as the highest aim of life, or rather, as a kind of higher being, to obtain which he does not hesitate at the most desperate things. The Briton serves Turk, and Jew, Carlist and Christians, for the sake of money. We do not — we fight only for liberty! He would mercilessly tear the coin out of your entrails with iron claws ! God pity the poor fellow who treads penniless the soil of Great Britain ! With us, hundreds of thousands expelled by European tyranny find their morsel of bread. Say what you please, there is still in the British character something hard and unfeeling, 66 Kajutenbuch, pt, II, pp. 198-200. 110 POLITICAL AND SOCIAL CONDITIONS which constantly reminds one of the Norwegian and Norman pirates, and, much as it has been polished off in the eight or nine hundred years of his appearance on the stage of the world, he has never quite thrown it off, no matter where he lives, whether in Europe, or in Asia, or in the East or West Indies." It seems that this very fact, namely that the English are more greedy and selfish than we are, is one of the reasons why we have such a hatred for that country. There is a certain jealousy in that hatred, which casts a bad reflection upon both nations. The Alcalde is an exponent of this sort of dislike for Great Britain. Of him the author says : "''"His com- posedness v/as permanent ; only when he began to speak of the Britons did he get a little more excited. These he hated, to use his own expression, with all his heart, with all his soul, with all his mind, and with all his strength, only because they are still more selfish than ourselves — a peculiarity characteristic of genuine American hatred which first disclosed to me the nature of our hatred for the Britons." This same love for money, misled by the adventurous spirit of the Americans, brought about another evil which made itself felt in Jackson's time, but did not attain its climax until his successor, Martin Van Buren, occupied the chair. Jackson, after moving several Indian tribes from southern states,'^ sold their land to the public. Soon a misuse crept into this land sale. Land was sold and resold only on the map.^^ Speculators 58 Kajutenbuch, pt. I, p. 190. 5' Concerning this removal and the attitude of some politicians as well as that of Great Britain toward this act against their former confederates, we hear the following in Kajutenbuch, pt. I, pp. 117-118: "This removal, as you know, drew forth in profusion the tears of all our old political women; and, still more astonishing, found many op- posers amongst our good Yankees — echoes of our equally good friends in Great Britain, to whom, certainly, it could not be very pleasing to see their confederates so entirely expelled from the midst of us. Ah, British humanity, how lovely it appears, when observed closely. Much, much too full of love ! God preserve us from the love of British humanity." Happily Jackson's iron soul had not a spark of their super-love. 58 Cooper, James Fenimore, Home as Found, v. I, pp. 116-118, gives us an insight into a land market. — Cf. Ihid., v. I, p. 29. "Some Ill CHARLES SEALSFIELD laid it out and sold it for ten times the value which they had paid for it, taking notes and paper money instead of specie.^" In Wahlverwandtschaften^" Sealsfield speaks of this speculation/'- or swindle-fever, as he calls it. He claims that it is an expression of the national character,"^ and that it has come every ten to twenty years, and will continue to come at the same intervals. This excessive speculation, aided by other factors, such as a large foreign debit^^ and a currency inflated with worthless bank notes"* brought about one of the greatest catastrophies in the commercial and social world. May, 1833 the American paper system avenged itself : Banks refused to pay specie; they could not. And now the moneyed interests proved how strong they were. They had compelled the govern- ment to put its revenue at their disposal, and now, that Van Buren wanted an independent national bank which would accept only hard money, all moneyed people were against him. They formed a political party, which wanted to retain paper money, almost as the only means of trading, and which op- posed anything that would attack its own plutocracy. In Wahlverwandtschaften, pt. II, pp. 268 — 276, we have an op- portunity to attend a caucus of politicians who are making up resolutions to oppose the introduction of specie as the only legitimate means of trading. They claim it will destroy the entire credit of the individual and of the nation, and with it all our way (lawyers) have gone into the horse-line ; but much the greater portion are just now dealing in western cities. . . . and in mill-seats, and in railroad lines, and other expectations." 59 Andrew Jackson had commanded the price for public land to be paid in specie. He doubted the solvency of some banks. 60 Wahlverwandtschaften, pt. IV, p. 142, 61 Cf. Kajiitenhueh, pt. I, p. 22. 62 Marryat, Frederick, Diary, Ser. I, v. I, p. 57, calls the disease of excessive speculation peculiarly English and American. 83 Cf. Wahlverwandtschaften, pt. IV, p. 144. 6* Worthless for two reasons : firstly, most banks put much more paper money into circulation than they had hard money in reserve; secondly, the number of counterfeited bank notes was unbelievable. Bicknall's Counterfeit Detecter and Bank-Note List of January 1, 1839, enumerates thirteen hundred and ninety-iive counterfeited or altered notes then supposed to be in circulation. 112 POLITICAL AND SOCIAL CONDITIONS enterprise and every virtue in man which has raised the Union to its present height."^ This caucus is only preliminary to a "glorious democratic Whig meeting in Tammany Hall" which for the sake of drawing a large crowd is announced with placards having the following headlines: 2,000 homicides, 1,500 divorces, 1,000 atrocities, 800 felonies, 600 cholera morbus ! Not only the economic problems treated of in the pre- ceding pages centered around money, but also social life re- volved around this same great factor in our public and private life.^* In the English translation of his first book the author says : "^'Social orders as yet there are none, but they are de - veloping in the same way as wealth, luxury,^^ ambition, and sciences, on the one side, and poverty, ignorance and indirect oppression on the other side, are increasing. Here, as every- where else, this is the natural course of things." But it seems to be especially the first, wealth, and its antipode, poverty, which establish classes. As mentioned before, the amount of money which a person possessed put him in a certain class. We are now to witness the struggle between aristocracy and plutocracy, or aristocracy of birth and aristocracy of money, as Lomond called it. In George Howard^^ this class is called mushroom aristocracy ; Stephy cails these parvenues would-be- aristocrats, and describes them as "^"miserable stuff! Sons of runaway Irish and Scotch, who were cobblers and tailors." Elsewhere^^ they are termed the existing and are defined with ^5 For arguments against credit see Wahlv^rwandUchaften, pt. IV, pp. 144-145. *s Cf. Cooper, James Fenimore, The American Democrat, pp. 45, 82. 67 The United States, p. VIII. ** The following are references to passages where luxury is called a vital force in the downfall of democratic ideals in the United States : Jefferson, Writings, v. IV, p. 188. — Brauns, Ernst, Ideen, pp. 187, 259. — Cooper James F., Die Nord-Amerikaner, v. I, p. 124. — Schmidt, Fried- rich, Versuch iiber den politischen Zustand der Vereinigten Staaten, v. I, p. 4S4. 89 George Howard, p. 21. ™ Morton, pt. I, p. 166. 71 Wahlverwandtschaften, pt. Ill, p. 61. 113 Charles sealsfield the following words : "The existing are the good individuals, the elite, the cream on the surface of this aggregate of four- teen millions of human beings, styled American nation, and composed of plebeian vulgarity, of shoe makers, tailors, mechanics, and farmers, the fraction of the hundreds of thousands which follow in the train of the fourteen millions, these are the existing, thus styled for the sake of distinction from the dead mass." But we learn little about them by simply giving the various names and telling what sort of people belonged to this class. Let us step behind the scenes to see how these actors play their roles in the theatre of public life. Here we shall obtain an insight into the struggle for existence of this class, and become aware of another deteriorating force working in the social life of our elites of that time. "^^Good Heavens ! how busily they work the web ! One might laugh at their childish weaving if it were not so serious. Yes, they spin threads which will reach from the Gulf of Mexico to Lake Erie and Champlain, and soon across to Huron, in fact, wherever our good families reside. An im- mense net they are spinning, which will be ten times torn by the giant, called spirit of the people (Volksgeist), and as often woven again by thousands and thousands of lazy, yet busy hands. Like spiders, too, they withdraw further into darkness after every rent, but as soon as they recover from the shock, they appear again. Yes, yes, our aristocracy, or rather quasi- aristocracy! It is really amusing sometimes to look at the cards it plays ; it is like a band of roving musicians, who can only play one air, but can play that perfectly; start whatever tune you like, sober or drunk, and they will chime in and play their tune. Our aristocrats are real cats; throw them as you will and they alight on their feet. No means are beneath them ; no lever is too weak — they can use them all, suit themselves to all ; give them a cuff on the left cheek, and they will smile, satisfied, and hold out the right; but then look out for them! 72 Ralph Doughhy, pp. 189-191. 114 POLITICAL ANt) SOCIAL CONDITIONS they pay you back a thousand times ! They have already spun their threads from the Town of Brotherly Love, and the Yankee City across the whole Union. Priests are their quartermasters, old women are their heavy ordnance, and our boys and girls their light cavalry, with which they surround Uncle Sam, and try to catch him after the manner of catching a wild horse. "Yes, my dear Uncle Sam, you drive happily and merrily about on the great prairie of your glorious liberty, but beware ! for dogs and hunters are multiplying to chase you ! Take care, or they will draw a noose over your head, for they have many and various ones ; and I should believe, that if good George IV had money enough to send one of his brethren over with a few hundred pounds, payable at John Bull's bank, our precious Boston blue-stockings. New York men-on-'change, and Phila- delphia tariff-men would be persuaded to give in their al- legiance, and would run head over heals not to miss the first levee of the new American Majesty. Such a levee would be an excellent thing for our aristocrats, where the . plebeian democrats could only look on ! "Yes, the race I speak of is a dear race, a sweet race, a little spoiled by vulgarity, and pale and bilious, and in its veins IS less pure blood than spoiled spirits; but otherwise it is full of the warmest feelings for thee, dear Uncle Sam ! But you know them, and consequently you have given them their passport, just renew that passport for the next three hundred years, and you will find it to your advantage." It is true we always have looked up to European aristo- cracy and their titles. And now that we have waged war on aristocracy, allied with aristocracy, it seems that we more than ever pay homage to it. But back to Sealsfield and Baron von vSchochstein who was not little surprised at "'^the almost idolatrous homage offered to his title of baron and chamberlain (Junker) that he seemed to ask himself : 'Is this, then, your boasted republic ?' " 7S Wahlverwandtschaften, pt. II, p. 249. 115 • CHARLES SEALSFIELD In the same work, from which this last quotation is taken, our romancer, speaking of the works of James Fenimore Cooper, defends those writings in which he attacked and ridiculed the Amei-icans ;. although no title is mentioned, we can easily see that Sealsfield is thinking of The American Democrat, and especially of Home as Found (both appeared in 1836). "Mr. Cooper", the author says, "may have written passionately, imprudently; his injured pride, strongly ap- preciating the distinctions shown him in Europe, had induced giddiness in him and roused him on his return against our far from tenderhearted democracy; but his assertions, neverthe- less, are true. As an American, a patriot, he deeply and pain- fully feels the bad influence beginning to react from Europe, and chiefly from England, on our own country, poisoning in its very marrow and inmost fibres, our republican body. We have doubtless, during the last seven years, retrograded rather than advanced in civilization and social order." The upper class has become more English-loving — they have attained wealth ; now, not unlike John Jacob Astor, they implore social standing, the breeding of bom aristocrats, and the customs and manners^* of a land, the civilization of which is a thousand years older. ''^ How much we relied upon England for everything fashionable and proper and how much we aped Englishmen we see in Cooper's Home as Found. But in W ahlverwandtschaf- ■^4 Cf. Wahlverwandtschafteii, pt. Ill, pp. 426-427.— Ci. Grund, F., Die Americaner, p. 16. "The Americans have been reproached as slavishly imitating European customs, which at least amongst the richer classes is done to a degree which borders on the ridiculous." ■75 One of the most pernicious customs was that of duelling : Seals- field (Kajiitenbuch, pt. II, p. 176 f.) states that in 1826 and 1827 more than a hundred duels were fought each year. He, furthermore, tells~us that bank presidents came to an understanding not to give credit to anyone who would not give his word of honor to cease that feudal practice, at least during the time he was their debtor. In Die Ver- einigteii Staaten, duelling is called a result of the European diplomacy of Adams. Anti-duelling bills were passed in various states. (For Virginia, cf. Warden, D. B., A Statistical, Political, and Historical Ac- count of the United States, v. II, p. 207; for Mississippi, cf. Marryat, Frederick, Diary, ser. II, v. II, p. 21.) To illustrate how the practice of duelling had developed its rules and regulations, we shall quote again 116 POLITICAL AND SOCIAL CONDITIONS ten, we have just as good an example, perhaps portrayed with less ridicule. There was a certain Thornton in New York, who had come from England to give lessons in etiquette and manners, concerning whom one of the dandies in the novel says the following: "We are heartily tired of our democracy — mobocracy, rather. He comes quite apropos, nay, entre nous, our 'existences' gave him a call through their friends in old England ; mais entre nous, we need his assistance m giving the death blow to our mobocracy. All the good agree with him. He'll receive, however, a few cuts in our dailies for the sake of blinding the eyes of the millions." Just as this class is the upper extreme so do we have a lower extreme in the class called "workies," which we do not believe to be so well portrayed and in such lively colors, in any contemporaneous work. "'^The young man, twenty-three years of age, landed here (on a Mississippi plantation) a few days since, offering his services as a carpenter or cabinet-maker. Being informed of che want of such a person on the plantation, he remained and introduced himself to me on my return from the fields ; during this complimentary process, his left hand rested in his breeches pocket, the right supported a roll of twist, from which he supplied himself, while he eyed me, at his ease, from head to foot — retaining his variegated high-crowned beaver on his head. His clothing consisted of a black dress-coat, probably on his back night and day for the last four weeks ; pantaloons of the same color, dirty stockings, and shoes down at the heels. Under his arm he held a package with cigars and newspapers, both forming doubtless his chief bodily and mental sustenance — in a word, an image of horrible apathy. I considered him one of those appendages of our courts of justice, in the South- from Marryat, ser. II, v. II, p. 295. "Princeton, Miss., May 9, 1838. Terms of combat proposed between John T. Bowie and W. Nichols — First, the weapons to be used shall be bowie knives, length of blade ten and three-fourths inches, etc., etc. — N. B. Further preliminaries will be settled between the seconds when those terms shall have been ac- cepted." 76 Pflanzerlehen, pt. I, pp. 27-32. 117 CHARLES SEALSFIELD east styled bloodsuckers; but I found my error on being in- formed by bim that he was a gentleman desirous of making a temporary arrangement with me as carpenter and cabinet- maker, in consideration of the lawful equivalent. I was now aware that in him I beheld one of those worthies, a pupil of that new democratic school, which might certainly reconcile us to the curse of slavery, if anything could. I had heard and seen in the North many of the movements of these men, and thus considered it worth my while to make the acquaintance of a branch of this far-spreading tree of poison. To my question regarding that lawful equivalent, he replied, after having duly emitted a ray of coffee-colored juice from his toothless mouth, that he considered as such $1.50 per day, with genteel board and lodging, 'such as a citizen and gentleman required' . . . But we have thousands of his kind in the North. New York, Baltimore, Philadelphia are crowded — we may almost say, governed by them.'' They decide the elections; their tools occupy the seats in the Assemblies and in Congress. They have their officers, presidents, secretaries and agents — a perfect organization, and newspapers for the purpose of agitating the mob and of bringing their plans to maturity.'* These plans, although monstrous, are not new. They desire the Agrarian law of the plebeians of ancient Rome, but remodeled in true democratic style. They desire not only to take the surplus and apply it where they think fit, but also to make this en- viable state of the juste-milieu lasting. To destroy and forfit the monopoly of talent and knowledge, they condemn univer- sities and academies, as being alone accessible to the rich, hot- beds of vain speculations, mines of aristocratic opinions and preponderating ideas, at variance with the democratic prin- ciple. Mediocrity is their motto ; by it alone this precious principle can be retained in its purity." So far we have only used the works of Sealsfield ex- clusive of his letters. For the years following his last publica- ■'^ Cf. Chapter entitled "Our new pillars of state." Wahlverwandt- schaften, pt. IV, pp. 191-194. T8 Cf. Ibid., p. 191. 118 POLITICAL AND SOCIAL CONDITIONS tion (1842-43) we must turn to his correspondence.'* In a letter to Heinrich Erhard,'" dated New York, April 25, 1854," he makes the following statement: "I found the material advances during the seventeen years of my absence enormous, the political less so, and the intellectual still less. The huge immigration of Irish'^ — in the twelve to eighteen years three millions of Irishmen must have immigrated, all proletarians- - is a frightful fertilizer for this land; the consequences are evil, they manifest themselves in murder, drunkenness, and all other despicable vices. But these are matters which ought not to be discussed in a letter, since they would lead too f ar. ' On the 17th of July'^ he enters more deeply into the subject: "I tell you, the entire credit and mercantile system of the United States is rotten through and through. Not a day passes that a partner or a cashier is not caught in some fraud. If they are poor devils they are locked up, are they rich, then they drive about in their carriages just as they did before ; not a hand will touch them. The present condition of morals in the United States is shocking. I have before me the Louis- ville Courier, which enumerates thirteen homicides in that town and county during the last two years, and not a one of these murderers was punished in the least.** It has practically become a custom, and a man who sits at the table next to you will shoot you down after dinner with cold blood in his veins, because you have stared at him during the meal in a some- what displeasing way. In New York, three months ago we had a day when twelve — I tell you, twelve — murderers were tried at the same time. That would seem incredible, but the ''^ The writer had access only to those letters published in Faust, A. B., Der Dichter beider Hemtspharen. S" Heinrich Erhard was then manager of Metzler's Verlagsbuch- handfung, Stuttgart. 81 Letter No. 33. 82 Murray, C. A., Travels in North America, v, II, p. 169, calls the Irishmen "The most improvident, quarrelsome, turbulent population in the continent." — Cooper, James Fennimore, Die Amerikaner, v. II, p. 146, laments the strong Irish immigration. 83 Letter 35 B. 84 Cf. Wahlverwandtsclwftcn, pt. IV, pp. 189-190. 119 CHARLES SEALSFIELD newspapers give names, etc., there is no room for doubt, I am sorry to say. I possess quite a large collection of papers which I intend to use, for there is need, and the time has come that an honest pen should pronounce judgment over these horrible sprouts of our democracy and demogogy, and as far as I can see, some good can be accomplished, provided it be done in the right way." Then follows a little postscript which speaks for a good deal of delicacy on the part of the author: "Do not make use of these notes on the moral con- dition, etc., especially toward Cotta, if I may ask .... It is little befitting a citizen of the United States to talk against his country, others may do it, I don't care, but I shall not." So far we had no reason to believe that Sealsfield suffered any material loss in this country,^^ but in some of his letters of 1861 and 1862 written to Miss Elise Meyer, we find proof thereof, and we can well imagine how considerable losses in personal property might have influenced him to look at the American nation with a more pessimistic predisposition. January 6, 1861*" he writes from his new home near Solo- thurn, Switzerland : "The new year begins with ominous manifestations, which are taking a very disquieting turn." Speaking of the probability of a civil war he says that in case the southern states should secede he would lose his property. In a letter of January 28th*' we read: "My coun- try must pass through all those crises which are prescribed to all large republics during their sickness. Meanwhile the earthly possessions of entire generations are ruined. If I had sold four years ago, I would have realized hundreds of thou- sands." August 31, 186P* he speaks of a practice of cheating which is beyond belief, and remarks that this crisis was to ^5 Faust, A. B., Der Dichter heider Hemisphdren, p. 76, claims that the author lost considerable sums in a bank failure at New Orleans in the year 1830, but neither he nor any other biographer has proven this assertion. 86 Letter No. 48. ST Letter No. 49. 88 Letter No. 51. 120 POLITICAL AND SOCIAL CONDITIONS be expected; for eighty years of happiness and fifty years of peace have effeminated and spoiled the people. Thus he lives between hope*° and doubt"" until he sees after the first year of war that the nation has proven herself great."^ Kertbeny"^ tells us that Sealsfield refused to publish a novel"^ written between 1844-1848 because his trip to the United States in 1850 (1854!) convinced him that the descriptions of the people in his works were no longer true. Nevertheless Sealsfield lived for our country till the hour of his death. His last words before his spirits departed were: "Nichts neues von driiben?" In his testament he bequeathed to two boys of his brother's family special sums that they might go to America to find new and better homes. 89 Letter of September 21, 1861, No. 52. 90 Letter of October IS, 1861, No. 53. 91 Letter of May 8, 1862, No. 57. 92 Kertbeny, a Hungarian writer who was Sealsfield's friend during his last years, and who had intentions of becomiag his Eckermann. 9* Probably "Ost und West", 3 vols., which the author burned shortly before his death with one or two other works. 121 PART II. NATIONAI. TYPES. Chapter I. INTRODUCTION. In 1893 Professor Frederick J. Turner published an article in the Annual Report of the American Historical Association, entitled The Significance of the Frontier in Amer- ican History, in which he directs attention to the fact that American history had thus far been studied from the limited point of view of the Atlantic Coast, chiefly that of the Nev^ Englander. The true point of view in the history of our nation is, however, not the Atlantic Coast — it is the Great West. Our historians, he claims, have ever been students of constitutional and political history, but they have failed to inquire into the social development of the nation, a process, which, he asserts, must be studied on the various frontiers, where different ethnic and social elements met with savage inhabitants and primitive nature. Here these ethnic elements were confronted by an environment which at first seemed to overwhelm them. Gradually, however, they transformed the wilderness and imprinted their peculiar stamp upon it. Thus the various elements, he believes were consolidated into an American nation, and at the frontier were, in his opinion, developed the striking characteristics of the American intel- lect : That coarseness and strength combined with acubeness, inquisitiveness, et cetera. While it is true that economists and historians had until then overlooked this important field of study,^ the task which 1 What has since been done in this field is shown by the work of Solon J. Buck, Reuben G. Thwaites, and C. W. Alvord, and others. 122 NATIONAL TYPES Professor Turner set to American historiography had been formulated, and in a way accomplished by Sealsfield many years before. A student of history and of human civilization, an original thinker of unusual depth, who had assimilated the fundamental principles of Herder's philosophy of history, and a settler at the wild frontier of the Southwest for several years, he observed the historical process, which he had wit- nessed as a participant, with the keen insight of the historian as well as with the clear eye of the artist. None of the features which in Professor Turner's view constitute the significance of the frontier in the development of American life and nationality escaped Sealsfield, but he beholds them as partial phases of a rich, pulsating life rather than in the light of a fixed formula or an abstract academic theory. Nor is he opinionated enough to consider frontier life as the only, or even the chief source from which the striking character- istics of the American intellect took their origin. Again it is the innate love of the artist for the variety and multiformity of life which enables him to perceive the whole of American life and to recognize the many forces at work in the making of our comjKJsite nationality. He is fully aware of the sterling (jualities of manhood developed at the frontier, but he is far from weaving a romantic halo about the backwoodsman, for he knows that at the boundaries of civilization "the dreg.^ repelled by civilized society collect," and he is not unmind- ful of the fact that respectable and cultured men whom ill fortune or love of adventure has cast into the wilderness of frontier life, will inevitably experience a decay of their higher aspirations, and in the course of time sink to the low intel- lectual level of primitive civilization, the typical lot of co- lonists of all times. There is, however, one tie which, in Sealsfield's opinion, binds the various racial and social elements together, and unites them into one cosmopolitan commonwealth : their love of liberty and of the free institutions of our republic. It is his in- sight into this powerful, all embracing, patriotic spirit pervad- — — 123 CHARLES SEALSFIELD ing the population of our country, which inspires our author to the prophetic words : ^"Only eighty years ago our country was a forgotten comer of the earth, inhabited by a few hun- dred thousand families of poor colonists, upon whom even their own countrymen looked down with haughty contempt as a degenerate race, as less than the dregs of the great European system — regarded, even by the Britons, as the scum of the earth, and treated accordingly, while they were scarcely known by the rest of the world. Who would then, when these poor French Acadians were driven from their huts by Britons and Anglo-American colonists, clad in skins, fighting imder Webb against the French Montcalm because their masters in Germany did the same — who would then have predicted that these sjmie despised colonists twenty years after would found an empire which, in less than sixty years, would become the pride of mankind? which would defy the mighty mother country, defeat it twice successfully in war, and take its stand among the mightiest nations upon earth? Sixty years more and this empire may stand, perhaps, master . of the world; and, in that beneficial reaction, which Providence has assumed as a principle in physical and moral government, oppose the mighty northern Colossus, which, equally obscure, though rougher and wilder in its origin, rose from the icy fields of the north and stepped forward amid siege and carnage, ruin and death, stretching its gigantic arms, some- times threatening, sometimes caressing across Europe, while she panted under the convulsions of liberty. Yes she pants, poor virgin Europe ! she pants with all her might for thi^ new birth ; she hopes to bring forth a brighter and more glorious offspring than the world has yet seen. But ah ! she forgets the mighty giant that must devour her child, and her sun sinks in the west, and dim twilight overspreads her, and her night comes on, while for us the glorious morning arises !" A remarkable survey of the historical process at the American frontier taken from the high vantage ground of 2 Ralph Doughty, pp. 53-54. 124 NATIONAL TYPES the philosopher of history and the past is contained in the following passage from Ralph Doughty: ^"And well may strangers, who first visit our country, stare at such sights. With us, they do not even create a smile; the collision into which we are thrown by our ever-movable, unsteady repub- lican intercourse, is certainly not particularly agreeable . . . The fellow who has just turned his back to us has in his cold smile, something that might be compared to a lurking congo-snake — a most devilish grin; thus a murderer must look who coolly puts the steel into his victim's breast. But can we have all Washingtons, Jays, and Franklins? Is it not rather a necessary, absolute condition of our liberty, that citizens' virtues, as well as vices, should grow more luxuri- antly, because they are freely permitted to grow and increase? And if the one outwdghs the other, is not the cause to be sought in the fact that crimes with us is the natural drain of those fluids which emit their impurities by the bung-hole? The dregs, repelled by civilized society, collect naturally near the boundaries of civilization, in the West, where laws are still weak. Indeed, things frequently look terrible along these boundaries — real scum is to be found there — gamblers, murderers, and thieves, among whom a respectable man's life is not safe. But these only last a short time ; better ones fol- low, and the rabble retreat farther, before approaching culture and civilization, and before the laws, which grow too strong. But their doings have not been worthless. Against their will, they have been forced by want and need to clear forests, make paths through the pathless wilderness, and till the earth for better successors. With such wild, desperate characters, originated the paradisian hills and valleys of Kentucky, the excellent farms of Ohio, and the magnificent meadows of Tennessee. They have gone many thousands of miles — their works have remained. They have become the foundation of the happiness of millions of free, civilized, and religious citizens, who pray to the God of their fathers in thousands and thousands of temples, in places where formerly only the 3 Ibid., pp. 233-236. 125 CHARLES SEALSFIELD wild Indian hunted. We love to see the culture of our land break through unto the borders of the second ocean ; we love well to glide for thousands of miles down the gigantic stream, in our magnificent floating palaces, and en passant, it may be said, collect a rich harvest of dollars from the extremity of our Union. We must not consider those men who help us in achieving these wonders, altogether worthless, and avoid any collision with them — the less, as there is many a respect- able character among them. The mouth which breathes the mephitic vapors of the Mississippi and Red River swamps, is not fit to chew raisins; that hand which fells our gigantic trees and drains our bogs, cannot be covered with kid gloves. Our land is the land of contrast— the land in which the life of man shows itself before our eyes as it was three thousand years ago, and as it is now. In our Eastern States, the high- est culture exists — in some parts, even higher than the European, with many of the vices of their debauched civiliza- tion. In the farthest West may be seen that commencement of civilization as it was brought over the Black Sea by Saturn and Jupiter, who were in recompense adored as gods; and later, by Cecrops from Egypt into Greece. These are con- trasts which only a narrow mind finds unnatural. The humane and well-informed understand them at a first glance; they see the necessity, and submit to the disagreeable feelings which this collision creates, as it affords them a deep glance into life and social position." In order to comprehend and adequately to depict the great contrast which the rising civilization of our country presents, Sealsfield does not confine his attention to the cha- racters and events of frontier life. His vision embraces the various races and types of humanity, the products of diverse civilizations, which have assembled in the different sections of our country, where all of them are destined to play a role in the creation of a new society, a new humanity, and a new civilization. In splendid procession there move before us the Puritan New Englanders, the Hollanders, the Germans in Penn's settlemeot, the Irish in the Carolinas, and later in 126 NATIONAL TYPES Kentucky, the French aristocrats, and the Creoles in Louisi- ana, the Negroes and the Mexicans — all of whom are different in speech, in inherited manners and customs, in short, in mental and physical qualities. Since, however, not only physiological characteristics, but also mental traits are sub- ject to hereditary transmission, the descendants of the various types and races will of necessity show the distinctive mental and physical features of their ancestors, though, perhaps, somewhat changed by environment and intermarriage. While Sealsfield takes pains to trace the racial and cultural differ- ences of the various settlers in his tales to their European origfin, he is equally careful to describe the psychological change going on in the new surroundings. *"In the midst of this activity we were not little astonished that we had begfun to reason quite differently concerning things of the past and future, in a manner which had not the least connection with our earlier modes of thought. We began to judge the con- ditions of life, our position, and that of others, in a more materialistic way, independently, in the same degree as we began to become more independent. A revolution occurred in our system of ideas; even the condition of public life, the politics of Europe, of our royal house, appeared in an entirely new light, our cavalier views were lost in a perspective. — We were not a little astonished, for it was a psychological phe- nomenon, and was so much harder to explain, since we had never spoken to our squatter neighbors about it. Our ideas were spontaneous. It seemed as though we had awakened out of a long dream, and had outgrown childhood and its leading strings, which had been guiding us hither and thither." —And elsewhere he speaks of a spontaneous change in the emigrant with the following words : '"This egoism creeps over the emigrant in America, whether he will or not — an- other strange peculiarity, a contrast which is always seen between the inhabitant of this country and the Europeans. Nature herself is the cause." • Nathan, pp. 376-377. " Pflanzerlehen, pt. II, pp. 244-245. 127 CHARLES SEALSFIELD While in the first part of the present study we have dis- cussed the political and economic development of this country as it appeared to Sealsfield, we shall follow in the succeeding chapters how he pictures the various ethnic elements which represent the actors in the gigantic epic of civilization, which he unrolls before our eyes. Impelled by the same motives and hopes, leach of these elements shares in the mighty struggle with primitive nature as well as in its final conquest by the energy and intelligence of man, and each ethnic group con- tributes the best of its national European heritance to the character of the rising nationality, and to the new, gradually developing civilization in its irresistible westward course. It is the heroism, not of single great individuals, but of the groups and masses, of a democracy, winning by restless toil and untold privations, sufferings, and sacrifices, a new con- tinent, which our rhapsodist celebrates in his remarkable epic. Nor is the tragic and deeply pathetic strain wanting in his heroic song : the description, already discussed in the first part of this study, of the death struggle of the aborigines who can- not be merged into the new nationality, and are therefore destined to gradual extinction. 128 Chapter II. KENTUCKIANS. The student of western history will notice that civiliza- tion did not advance slowly and steadily, conquering the wilderness in its path, but that it advanced with the pioneers by leaps and bounds, leaving more civilized life hundreds of miles behind.^ Thus Kentucky was settled — its beautiful val- leys first — thus the Kentuckians left the "dark and bloody ground"^ — an appellation not originating with the contentions of whites with Indians, but of Indians with Indians^ — and settled Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Missouri, and Arkansas, after advancing not only a few hundred but fifteen to twenty hundred miles. Kentuckians, whatever be their character, since they gave the ground color* to the con- querors of the next west, must be studied before we attempt an analysis of the life and character of the American inhabit- ants of the Mississippi Valley. ,., Sealsfield, not unlike D. B. Warden^ and Timothy Flint," considered them a people of peculiar ethnic characteristics, which he traced back to two main sources. They are on ^ Cf. Skinner, Constance, Pioneers of the Old Southwest, p. 31. 2 Sealsfield refers to it as "bloody ground" when the first pioneers settled there, as though it had had the name already, Pflanserleben, pt. I, p. 286. . * The Iroquois, Cherokee, and Shawanee claimed it as their hunting grounds, and after the Iroquois had ceded it to the British Crown in 1768 by the treaty of Fort Stanwix the Cherokee again protested so that another treaty was signed — Cf. Skinner, C, Pioneers, pp. 129-130— Hall, Sketches of the West, p. 234. * VXmi, Indian Wars, p. 49. "The people of this state have im- pressed their name, character, and spirit in a great degree upon the whole West." Cf. Flint, History and Geography, p. 180. 5 Account of the United States, v. II, p. 327. 6 Recollections, pp. 70-71. 129 CHARI^ES SEALSFIELt) one hand the offsprings of affluent and noble planters of Virginia and North Carolina/ and on the other hand, ad- venturers, rowdies and men fleeing from justice, who took here free land by "tomahawk claim" — that is by cutting their names into the bark of deadened trees.® These first settlers of the "bloody ground," their character, their struggles and final success due to tireless effort, are described by the author in the following words : " "Glancing from the right shore of the belle riviere'^'' to the left, you find an entirely different branch of Uncle Sam's family, a branch very different from the cold, frosty Yankee. He is a jovial fellow, still bearing his Indian wars fresh in his memory, and loving races, rows, cards, and dice more than is absolutely necessary; tossing his head, and boasting somewhat of being descended from Old Virginia, who, you are aware, dates her genealogy from a younger son of a noble English race, and consequently looks down somewhat con- temptuously on her plebeian brethren, as younger sons of old families are prone to do. His head is less cool than that of his brother Yankee, but his heart also is warmer, and in the right spot. Some seventy years since, his ancestors, a number of those sons of Virginia, overstepped her present western boundary in search of discoveries and adventures. At that time woody darkness lay spread over the entire Ohio and Mississippi. The lowest shores of these endless streams, and of our Red River, were at that time but thinly settled by Frenchmen. When the brave wanderers penetrated deeper into the majestic darkness of the natural forest, and ap- proached the gruesome 'bloody ground,' as the present Ken- tucky was styled, and heard the wild music of cougars, panthers, bears, and wolves, they were terrified. Still they persevered in the joyous hope of meeting the Ohio; but when ^ Cf. Ibid. 8 Skinner, Pioneers, p. 33. 8 Pflanzerlehen, pt. I, pp. 285-288. 10 Author's footaote : "The Ohio called 'Beautiful River' by the Frenchman." This is not quite correct, for it is only a translation of the Indian word 'Ohio', which means beautiful river. 130 NATIONAI, TYPE^ they penetrated deeper into the heart of the 'bloody ground' without reaching their aim, and suddenly the whoop of the red men sounded in their ears, their courage failed and, hor- rorstruck, they fled for their homes. Some seventy years have elapsed since that day,^^ and if now your path goes through the 'bloody ground,' you almost stumble, I may say, over cities of five and ten thousand inhabitants in the very midst of those forests which terrified the first adventurers of Virginia in so fearful a manner .... And this is the work of the jovial, and often inconsiderate Kentuckian, notwithstanding his Irish deviltry,'^ and his wild rough-and-tumble habits, and his oc- asional contempt for his brethren of Uncle Sam's family, when he remembers his transatlantic origin. "^^ This Kentuckian we shall characterize now, and throw enough light upon bis "Irish deviltry" to understand why he should be the "horror of all Creoles, who, when they wish to describe the highest degree of barbarity, designate it by the name of Kentuckian."^* In The Americans^^ the author repeats a conversation which he had with some Kentuckians on his trip in 1826. Somewhere near Bigbone Lick he stopped at a farm house "of a rather better appearance;" but the first night's lodging convinced him but too plainly, "that the in- 11 Sealsfield, of course, knew nothing of the first explorations of this country which fell into the years 1560-1574. Daniel Boone and his followers, of whom the author is thinking, had been preceded by many a pioneer. — Cf. Alvord and Bidgood, First Explorations. 12 Winsor, Justin, Westward Movement, p. 528, speaks of the "lawless profligacy of the border, which the Irish had done so much to maintain." 13 Cf. Flint, Recollections, pp. 66-67. "I was much amused to see the countenances of some of the hoary patriarchs of this country, with whom I stayed, brighten up instantly, as they began to paint the aspect of this land of flowers and game, as they saw it when they first arrived here . Indeed the first settlement of the country, the delightful scenes, which it opened, the singular character of the first adventurers, who seem to have been a compound of the hero, the philosopher, the farmer, and the savage " 1* The Americans, p. 143. — Cf. Peck's Guide to the West, p. 124. "The name of Kentuckian is constantly associated with the idea of fighting, drinking, and gouging (Quoted from Hall's Sketches of the West). 15 lUd., p. 22ff. 131 CHARLES SEALSFIELD habitants of this state, justly called in New York, half horse and alligator,^^ had not yet assumed a milder character." The "stranger"^' was welcomed with a dram of whiskey and the customary question as to where his home was. The Ken- tuckian having been informed that it was Pemisylvania, saw an opportunity to express his opinion on that state and its in- habitants. Comparing them with the Kentuckians, he says : "I like the people of Pennsylvania better than these G-d d — d Yankees, but still they are no Kentuckians .... The Ken- tuckians are astonishingly mighty people, they are the first people on earth . . They are immensely great, and wonder- fully^^ powerful people . . . They are ten times superior to any nation on earth'^ . . . The Pennsylvanians have not a square mile of land in their state equal to our poor lands. "^'' 16 Thornton, Richard H., American Glossary, v. I, pp. 410-413, gives the following explanation of this peculiar phrase: "A ludicrous appellation of boatmen and backwoodsmen in former days," and illustrates it with thirty-three quotations found in backwoods literature between 1809 and 1860, to which we are in position to add seven more : "The Americans, p. 22, quoted above; Ralph Doughhy, p. 72, "Don't be a half horse, half alligator." — Ihid., p. 217, "I remarked about a dozen half horse and alligator faces, who might easily clear the table before we have enjoyed the view of it." — Pflanzerleben, pt. I, p. 172, "I shake my head reprovingly while he approaches, the man of the spur, around whom a number of yelling, laughing, half horse, half alligator countenances have collected, to see the man who has boasted he could empty the Red River." — Grund, Aristokratie, v. II, p. 63, refers to Mrs. Trollop's half horse, half alligator race of the West — Flint, History and Geography, p 137, Kentuckians, designated with the "repulsive terms backwoodsmen, gougers, ruffians, demi-savages, a strange mixture in the slang phrase of the 'horse and alligator'." — Grund, Die Americaner p. 204 speaking of western settlers : "Their amphibious nature, originating in the necessity to become familiar at an early age with navigation on the western waters, and the braveness of their undertaking have given them the characteristic name of half horse and half alligator." 1'^ "This is a western term, which supplies the place of the word 'friend' in other sections of the Union." — ^Schoolcraft, Henry, Red Race of America, p. 46. — ^Cf. Robbs, John S., Squatter Life, p. 65. 18 Western phraseology and pronunciation is rendered best by Robb's Squatter Life. 19 Flint, History and Geography, characterizes them as being very boastful and says the following concerning their love for their home state : "When the Kentuckian encounters danger of battle or any kind, when he is even on board a foundering ship, his last exclamation is 'hurrah for old Kentucky"." 20 The fertility of Kentucky land of this time is described in Winsor, Westward Movement, ,p. S28. 132 NATIONAL TYPES Now he describes a hand to hand, or rather a thumb to eye fight, which he had just witnessed, never omitting a curse-^ if he can find a place for one, calling the seconds wonderfully lovely fellows because they did not spoil the sport with inter- fering, and then he continues : "I presume you have races in Pennsylvania?" — "Yes Sir" — "and fightings and gougings?"^^ — "No Sir" — "Yes," he finally ended his remarks and in- quiries with a sardonic smile, "the Pennsylvanians are a quiet, religious sort of people; they don't kill anything but their hogs, and prefer giving their money to their parsons." Indeed there are low and lawless people everywhere, and one does not need to go back to the nationality of the an- cestors of that class; but it seems that beside a daring ad- venturous spirit, without which the settlers of the first hun- dred years^^ could never have maintained themselves, the very life of a frontiersman — a new type in history, which was developed before 1700^* — and above all, his constant strug- gles, could not nurture many noble qualities. ^^"They estab- lished themselves under a state of continual warfare with the Indians, who took their revenge by communicating to their vanquishers their cruel and implacable spirit .... A Ken- tuckian will wait three or four weeks in the woods for the moment of satisfying his revenge, and he seldom or never forgives." It is quite possible that the frontiersman has as- sumed some peculiarly Indian traits. Through constant con- tact with this savage race, he may have been imbued with 21 Everywhere in contemporaneous literature these people are rebuked for their profanity. 22 In Ralph Doughby, p. 158, which was written nine years later, we read about this praiseworthy custom : "In gouging, you know, I am a novice ; it is not the fashion either in Louisiana or Old Virginia" — "And neither in Old Kentucky! No Kentuckian of any respectability does it." — ^Cf. Flint, Recollections, p. 98. "Indeed, .1 saw more than one man who wanted an eye, and ascertained that I was now in the region of 'gouging'. It is to be understood thajt it is a surgical operation, which they think only proper to be practiced upon blackguards and their equals." 2* For first expeditions into Kentucky territory, see Alvord, C. W., First Explorations (1650-1674). 24 Ibid., p. 27, Alvord, Illinois Country, p. 121. 25 The Americans, p. 50. 133 CHARLES SEALSFIELD parts of its nature.^^ Another evil which influences their character and behavior is slavery and the wealth and in- dependence of the slave holder resulting from it. ^'"Passions must work with double power and effect, where wealth, and arbitrary sway over a herd of slaves,-* and a warfare of thirty years with savages, have sown the seeds of the most lawless arrogance and an untamable spirit of revenge." 26 Cf. Turner, Frontier in American History, p. 201. 27 The Americans, pp. 51-52. 28 Cf. Warden, Account of the United States, p. 327, speaking of Kentucky: "Slavery, however, has taught the rich to despise labor, and planted the seeds of other vices in their character," 134 RALPH DOUGHBY. "The Kentuckian as he Is and Lives." There are also many noble traits in the Kentuckian cha- racter. These Sealsfield depicts so well that the reader can- not help acquiring a liking for Ralph Doughby, "the Ken- tuckian as he is and lives,""^ a man,^ "rough, but not coarse, fiery, but not unfeeling. On the contrary he has all the tender feeling of the Kentuckians, when touched in the right place. " '"Not the least suspicion of connection with black, quadroon, or white beauties, rests upon him ; he is much too volatile, even too proud, for that. His madness is, in reality, nothing but the exuberant spirit of an unspoiled child of nature — of a natural Kentuckian." But actions speak louder than words : Several disappointments in foolish love affairs, but above all his love for adventure, and a desire for economic better- ment, which was the one great driving force in the American westward march, prompted him to buy some Mississippi land with "improvements." After having served at the tender age of seventeen under "Old Hickory" in the Seminole war,* he leaves his home on Cumberland-bend and departs with several negroes for his new abode near New Feliciana, Louisi- ana,^ which he finds, of course, in a deplorable condition. But diligence and judgment create a valuable plantation, and Doughby, though looked down upon by most Creole planters just because he has come from Kentucky, is honored and 1 Ralph Doughby Chap. IV is entitled "Der Kentuckier, wie er leibt und lebt." 2 Ibid., p. 178. 3 Ibid., p. 179. * Cf. Ralph Doughby, p. 12S, footnote. 5 There is a Parish of East Feliciana and West Feliciana. 135 CHARLES SEALSFIELD esteemed by all American settlers. Soon he begins wooing again, not exactly as "wild Ralph" did when on the Cumber- land, but nevertheless in a manner so daring and foolhardy that he causes his beloved, Emily Warren, to be at times much disgusted with him. During a river trip on the Helen MacGregor^ up the Mississippi into the Ohio, Doughby notices that the George Washington, a new boat with two hundred horse power, is about to overtake them. At the moment that becomes clear to him, he leaves his beloved and entreats the captain to take up a race in spite of the superior force of his adversary, until the captain acts as though he were possessed with demons. The good work of the stokers, produced by the promise of a ten dollar bill for each man, keeps the Helen MacGregor in the lead until she is within half a mile from Trinity. Then she loses ; no one on deck knows the reason, — ^until an investigation below shows that a Negro not being able to withstand the tears and promises of the women and some "soft-soap Creoles," had opened a valve. Miss Warren was very angry, and the old gentleman as mad and stiff as a pair of fire tongs, but Doughby could'nt help it, "honor goes above all.''" At another time, when looking at some land near Yellow Springs, Ohio, they passed the Miami Cliffs,' when one of the company makes the remark that some years ago a Kentuckian is said to have jumped across the abyss, but as the story goes, almost lost his life — "and that moment it seemed," says Doughby, "as if a dozen devils were laughing at me from below. A Kentuckian is said to have jumped across? .... In one minute you can say, a Kentuckian has jumped' across, and that sound and safe." No one can prevent him, he jumps, slips, and hangs over the abyss, holding himself only with the tips of his fingers on a rock. Emily saves his life, but at the same time requests Doughby to consider the relations which S This steamer was destroyed in an explosion a year later. 7 Ralph Douahby, pp. 142-155. 8 Cf. Footnote ibid., p. 16?. — Die Vcrcinrntcn Sfanfen, v II, p. 50. The cliffs in question must be those on the Little Miami, east of Dayton. "" ' ''''' "^ 136 NATIONAL TYPES had existed between them as terminated. ° He still hopes, but he is soon to find out that "she has real Yankee stubbornness, and never forgives." One day the same party is going down the Mississippi, and is just about to turn in the Red River, "when a boat crossed over from Woodville, and had already approached within a hundred yards, ere the watch on deck observed it. It passed through the numberless floating logs and trees with a swiftness and daring which to us, who were near the middle of the stream, seemed almost madness." It was Doughby again. "The madcap stood in the boat, which danced up and down amid logs, as straight as an arrow, scarce swerving to either side. The six negroes who rowed it were drenched from the splashing waves." He caught a rope thrown him, and after having been cast like a "featherball" against the side of the steamer, he jumped with one leap across the railing. He had made this little excursion to see Emily, who had no- thing but a disgusted look as thanks for his heroic voyage. While drinking several glasses of toddy and Monongahela, he laments ihis fate, calling himself the most unfortunate devil in all the world, and wishing himself three hundred feet down in the bottom of the Mississippi"^" The red-hot, burning, boiling Kentuckian, however, realizes that he only needs a woman to set him right, — the woman whom his very next adventure is to give him in the person of a beautiful Creole girl. A buck which had escaped the rifle of an Indian was swimming from the right to the left shore. Doughby caused a boat to 'be lowered, and the next minute he stood in it brand- ishing a six foot gun. The oarsmen succeeded in reaching the much frightened animal before the Indians did, and Ralph, taking the buck by his horns, jumped into the water and tried to cut his throat. The knife slipped out of his hands, a struggle ensued between the two, and Doughby was very near 9 Ralph Doughby, pp. 160-174. 1" Ralph Doughby, pp. 101-105. 137 CHARLES SEALSFIELD being killed when the Indian came to his rescue. Although the redskin had killed the animal, he withdrew leaving the prey to his white competitor. But now Doughby shows the good true heart which he has in his bosom and dearly pays for the buck with silver dollars and several bottles of rum, against the desire of all present." We must not wonder, then, if Julia de Menou, daughter of a rich and influential Creole planter, learns to like him, for he ^^"is indeed no bad boy, boiling hot, that is true, always foremost when there is anything extraordinary to be done, but his heart is under all circumstances in the right place ; and with all his impetuosity, he has in his behavior something so inartificial, so much ease — I might say grace, if this epithet could be applied to a Doughby." It was love at first sight, which culminated in an elopement. After the excitement resulting from it is over, Doughby gives expression to his happiness and joy in the following words: ^^"All shall be merry today ! Papa Menou 'has pardoned me ! I am indeed, the best soul — only all must go by impulse. I'll carry my Julia on my hands, and all shall carry her on their hands. I'll snap the head off everyone who shows her an unpleasant face, just like a snapping turtle. I'll be shot, by Jingo, I will ! Try and be merry. Papa Menou has pardoned me!" Their marriage is a happy one, and Doughby prospers even more and becomes the envy of his Creole neighbors. ""That a light hearted Kentuckian who came amongst them with half a dozen negroes and one thousand dollars should have risen to an important station in society, and have drawn a prize in the lottery of matrimony and should now dare to take an active part in politics, makes him odious in their eyes." 11 Ralph Doughby, pp. 191-201. 12 Ibid., p. 202. 13 Ibid., p. 333. 1* Pflanr.erleben, pt. I, p. 214. 138 Chapter III. BACKWOODS SETTLERS. In Ralph Doughby we have a representative of the Amer- ican planter in Louisiana, who has come with some means to settle on the land to which he has a claim. Since it com- prises a large tract of cleared land, and since transportation facilities are excellent, he has a sure and ever increasing in- come. Within several years his slaves alone will represent a considerable capital. But there are other, less fortunate settlers in the lower regions of the Mississippi ; people who probably live there in banishment, voluntary or involuntary, for none but outcasts will choose to breathe the pestilential vapors of swamps. During a Red River excursion just after passing the first bog through which streams the "infernal Red River," we approach the bank in order to take in fuel. There we witness the pitiful sight of a Negress waiting for the death of her husband, a French imperial guard who had been "spared in the deserts of Egypt, the battles of Marengo and Waterloo," and who is now dying of fever and ague. ^"What a paradox is man! Had this unfortunate been sent to this, or a similar pestilential place by his superior of- ficers, no gold on earth could have induced him to remain. But he came voluntarily, probably driven from better society by his connection with the Negress,^ and now he falls per- haps a just sacrifice to his passions. The spot on which his cabin stands is not even his own property, but for that he cares not. He has cleared a few acres of wilderness, planted some corn and tobacco, the sale of which and of wood, supports him, and might have made him wealthy, had this ugly Negress 1 George Howard, pp. 212-214. 2 The "Black Code" of Louisiana aimed to regulate the relations between \¥hites and Blacks. — Cf. Deiler, Settlement of the German Coast of Louisiana, p. 114. 139 CHARLES SEALSFIELD not been connected with him. His cabin stands a few steps back, and before the door a couple of dark brown imps are waddling in the mud. They look more like pigs than human beings, but they are fresh and hardy, and destined by nature to cultivate this ground. Their parents vegetate only a few years, till 'ague-cake'^ ends their sorrows. By hard labor they have built their hut; with the sweat of their brow they have cleared a little place, but their children reap the benefits of their toil. Born in this poisonous atmosphere, used to these pestilential vapors in early childhood, they are already ac- climated, and they grow up like the swamp rose, to transmit good health to their children and grandchildren. In this way arose the present population of lower I^ouisiana, and in the same way, this race will multiply here. The former has long since decayed; they came from all climates and all countries, debtors, revolutionists, criminals, exiles, and men who de- served a better fate ; all — all found a grave here ; but even in these worthless beings, as we call them in our pride, kind nature shows her motherly care. Yes, what is deemed can- cerous by the world — the scum, the dregs of civilized society — she- uses to populate this wilderness, and pave the way for the onward march of civilization." Another type of settlers in the backwoods of Louisiana is described in George Howard (pp. 190-191), where the author tells us of a young couple who has left civilized society and now begins anew in the West. "Happy will it be for us if future generations do not view this way of renovating society as too loathsome!" In the attempt to characterize the Kentuckians we have referred to a goodly portion of the desperado element, which, 8 In a footnote on page 212 in George Howard, Sealsfield defines this ague-cake as a swelling on the lower part of the abdomen, an immediate omen of approaching dissolution — Cf Flint, Timothy, His- tory and Geography, p. 39. "But these agues when often repeated, and long continued, gradually sap the constitution and break down the powers of life. The person becomes enfeebled and dropsical. Maras- mus, or what is called 'cachexy' ensues. A very common result is that enlargement of the spleen, vulgarly called |an ague-cake' "—Cf. Birk- beck, Morris, Notes on a Journey in America, p. 72. 140 NATIONAL TYPES of coursie, we must also expect in the farther West. Yet we must not expect to find an inhuman soul where we find a wild exterior, and though a long knife be worn in the girdle, it may never have been used on any living creature except wild animals or, perhaps, a treacherous Indian. On Missis- sippi and Red River steamers we can find representatives of almost every western state, and surely of every backwoods type. Thus we read in Ralph Doughby: *"0n the dividing line between the fore and aft deck, and in equal distance from stern to boW, stood a group which could not be met with in our country again. It seems as if all the western states and territories had sent representatives on board our steamer. Suckers from Illinois, and Badgers^ from the lead mines of Missouri, and Wolverines from Michigan, and Buckeyes from Ohio, intermingled with Redhorses from Old Kentucky, and trappers from Oregon, stood in the most lovely confusion be- fore us, and in costumes which in the glare of the torches gave them the appearance of delegates from Pandemonium. One had a hunter's blouse of blue and white striped calico, which gave his broad back the appearance of bearing a tremendous, walking feather-bed cover; another made him- self remarkable by a large straw hat, which looked like the chimney-roofs on our villas. Winnebago wampum girdles and Cherokee moccasins, leather jackets, made out of tanned and untanned deer skins, with New York dress coats, and red and blue jackets, formed here a perfect pattern card of our na- tional costumes."* And again: '"A strange class of people! I almost be- lieved I was in Old Kentucky. Drovers and butchers from New Orleans, who were on their way to the northwestern countries — half savage hunters and trappers, burning with a * Ralph Doughby, pp. 16-17. 5 The author erroneously calls the Missourians Badgers, an ap- pellation given to inhabitants of Wisconsin; those of Missouri are called Pukes. 6 Peck's Guide to the West, pp. 116-117, describes the dress of the frontiersman. 7 George Howard, pp. 208-209. 141 CHARLES SEALSFIELD desire soon to see the prairies beyond Nacogdoches,' and there to civilize the Indians, or rather, swindle them — and peddlers from Alexandria, or thereabouts; these formed the so-called respectable part of our company, and they were a solid set, to judge from the thickness of their soles and iron- shod heels." In the following passage Sealsfield with the hand of the artist, sketches a picture of the extreme southwestern popula- tion, which just at this time experienced a rapid growth due to every kind of undesirable human material settling in the border states, whence most left for Texas at the outbreak of the rebellion in 1834, there, perhaps, to redeem their souls by sacrificing their bodies at the altar of liberty. '"Some of our dinner company," says George Howard, "now looked like desperadoes, and, as if to preserve perfect consistency, each of them is armed with a knife, whose horn shafts peep out of their breast pockets. It is worth while to become better ac- quainted with this collection of human curiosities, and to learn their biographies. Merchants from Santa Fe, squatters from Arkansas territory, settlers from Ouachita,^" trappers from the Sabine, emigrants from Colonel Austin's^^ colony in Texas, the new land of brigands, standing, sitting, half lying, their feet on the chairs." NATHAN, THE SQUATTER REGULATOR. Nathan, the Squatter Regulator, as pointed out before, is a novel portraying backwoods life. The character of the frontiersman, his daily life with its joys and sorrows, and his relation to the colony, are pictured as well as the life of the entire community, its customs, laws, and its relation to the state. * Nacogdoches, the first Mexican town after leaving Louisiana, footnote on page 209. Today it is situated in the county of the same name in Texas. 9 Ralph Doughby, pp. 220-221. 10 Baron Bastrop and the Marquis of Baton Rouge had large grants on the Ouachita, where they settled colonists. 11 Stephen F. Austin made his first trip to Texas in 1821. 142 NATIONAI. TYPES In the year 1792 four families, who were banished from their homes on the Salt River^^ in Kentucky," floated down the Ohio into the Mississippi, and thence rowed up the Red River to find some land where "an honest squatter"" might settle without fear of being taken as a luncheon by an al- ligator, or being shown a house farther on by a sheriif." Somewhere just above the mouth of the Black River they landed and went in a southern direction, until they found a beautiful stretch of "transcendent land," apparently claimed by no one, for neither cuts nor carvings could be found in the trees/° Here they erected their log houses and broke some ground for the coming season. But since their flour and whiskey barrels began to show the bottom, they shot a dozen bears and several dozen of deer, and filled a boat with the hams and legs of venison, bear grease, and skins, and started on a voyage down the Mississippi to New Orleans ; after bribing the harbor master^" with a dozen bears' claws, they 12 The Salt River is a tributary of the Ohio from the Kentucky side. 1* About this time there was great interest in Kentucky, which caused no little fear amongst Spanish officials — Cf. Winsor, Westward Movement, p. 526. "There is no doubt that the Spanish stood in dread of some ebullition of passion which would hurl a large force againsit their settlement on the Mississippi, and the Kentuckians were spoken of in connection with the Cumberland settlers, as 'restless, poor, ambitious, and capable of the most daring enterprises', and Carondelet was fearful of their ultimate attempts to cross the Mis- sissippi" 1* Nathan, p. 30, author's footnote: "Squatter, from squat, to sit in Indian fashion; thus are called backwoodsmen, who, without caring for title of possession, settle on any piece of land, build a log cabin, and till the soil. Half hunter, half farmer, they can be considered a middle class between hunters proper, and backwoodsmen. Many remain squatters all their life, others settle lawfully, and thus return to society." ^^ Cf. passages, p. 39 and 305. It is hard to determine just where Sealsfield places the settlement. But it must have been in the extreme southern, or most probably, southwestern part of Avoyelle County, for this place alone is within a reasonable distance from the Red River just above its confluence with the Black River, and not too far from the Bayou Chicot, whence Nathan and the two Frenchmen walk to the colony. 18 In order to sell, bribery was almost necessary, for the com- merce restrictions were rather severe — 'Cf. Gayarre, Charles, History of Louisiana, v. Ill, p. 35. "O'Reilly (1769-1770) expressly prohibited 143 CHARIvES SEAl^SFIELD sold everything at a good price, realizing in all three hundred dollars. Near Baton Rouge they hailed a flat boat and bought "a dozen barrels of corn, and a half dozen of flour and whiskey, with several other notions." But they were not to enjoy their possessions in peace. One day four Acadians came across the prairie, hatching mischief, as Asa Nollins^' and Nathan Strong suspected; but they remained apparently calm and the visit resulted in the purchase -of two horses from the strangers. Yet the settlers had a premonition of evil, and therefore, did not lose a moment to prepare themselves against a possible attack. On an Indian Mound^* nearby they built a strong blockhouse sur- rounded by a palisade. Scarcely had the fortification been completed and supplied with the necessary provisions, when a troop of eighty-five Spaniards and Acadians came with hostile intentions. The siege lasted the entire day, and resulted in a victory over the Spaniards, who had lost thirty- one men against one fatality on the American side.^' Now that they had shed their blood for the land, they called it rightly theirs. the purchase of anything from persons navigating the Mississippi." (Fine, one hundred dollars) — Ibid., p. 183, in 1767 Navarro, the In- tendant, wranted "a prudent extension and freedom of trade." — Ibid,, p. 325. In 1793 the commercial franchises were extended and in- creased. Spain had hitherto coniined all trade to her natural subjects, or to such who were naturalized and residing in her dominions. — Cf. San Domingo Archives (Transcripts in Illinois Historical Survey) A.-G. I. 87 — 1 — ^21, No. 490. American families, (que sean Catolicas) who were given permission to settle in Louisiana, had to pay six percent duties on utensils and provisions imported. (May 4, 1787). As a consequence of these restrictions there was much illicit trade carried on by Americans in Louisiana — Cf. San Domingo Archives, A. G. I. 87 — 1—22. April 21, 179S. IT This name was perhaps suggested by that of Philip Nolan, who in 1801 lead a filibustering expedition into Texas— Cf. Thwaites, Early Western Travels, v. XVII, p. 76. 18 The settlement was about twenty miles to the south of the Larto Mounds, -Catahoula Par., La.— Cf. Beyer, George E., The Mounds of Louisiana, especially map on page 12. 19 Chap. I, "The Bloody Blockhouse"— On page 135 Sealsfield claims that a report of the conflict between these Americans and the Spaniards can be found in the Moniteur de la Louisiane, and below, in the footnote the editor asserts that it is a historical event (?) and is mentioned in periodicals and historical works of the time(?!) The 144 NATIONAL TYPES To repel the Spanish a second time, in case they should come with a larger force, they decided to send several letters to their former neighbors on the Salt River, telling them of the beautiful land they had found and asking a dozen families, or as many more as would like, to come and settle with them, for there was ^°"land enough, and wood to build houses and make fences, without being obliged to pay the county clerk a cent for fees." Although Nathan would "prefer ringing an acre of the thickest live-oaks" to the task of composing these writings, in which he, by the way, was not going to say a word about the "bloody frolic" to keep "gougers, rowdies, and such folks away," he was just about to sit down to the task when some brave Kentuckians came toward the house. They proved to be relatives and friends from the Salt River, who, while making some repairs at Natchez heard and read about Asa Nollin's heroic battle. The joy over their arrival was great. But the following day they departed for Old Kentucky, where a meeting was called to vote public thanks to their brave countrymen, and to give them the assurance that many families would emigrate and help them protect their land against the Spanish government.^^ Beside two Acadian families, who asked permission to settle in the colony, and who were endured as neighbors, although they were never received into their society on account of the "abominable habits" of merrymaking and dancing, the settlement counted in 1799, seven years after its establishment, one hundred and Mouiteur de la Louisiane, a weekly newspaper (Cf. Robertson, Louisi- ana, V. I, p. 204) of which No. 26 is of Aug. 25, 1794, (printed in fac- simile in Publ. of Louisiana Hist. Soc. V. I, pt. IV) must have been established about Feb. 1, 1794. It, therefore, cannot describe this con- flict, unless Sealsfield has reference to a later occurance. 20 Nathan, pp. 124-125. 21 Thus we can say of Nathan what Peck, Guide to the West, pp. 114-115, says of the pioneer in general: "It is quite immaterial whether he ever becomes the owner of the soil. He is the occupant for the time being, pays no rent, and feels as independent as the 'lord of the manor'. With a horse, cow, and one or two breeders of swine, he strikes into the woods with his family, and becomes the founder of a new county, or perhaps state. He builds his cabin, gathers around him a few other families of similar taste and habits, and occupies it till the range is somewhat subdued and hunting a little precarious." 145 Charles sealsfielC) eighteen families. ^^ Whenever a new squatter settled, the entire colony gathered on a certain day to block up his house, and if necessary, on another day, to clear several acres of woodland. Since a barbecue was connected with this custom, these frolics (the second is called clearing frolic) were usually much en- joyed. As this custom is quite illustrative of western life, the passage describing it is quoted here: ^^" 'It is a frolic (says Nathan) which blocks up a house for you, and to which the whole community is invited'. 'But what indeed ought we to do?' (asks Vignerolles) 'Well, nothing more than to call at every house, and request in a friendly way the men to bring their axes with them to the frolic, and a dozen women you may invite also. They will know what you want.' .... The next morning we rode around the colony, inviting the inhabit- ants according to Nathan's desire. We saw clearly that some- thing unusual was on foot, thovigh we could not imagine what it might be. Great preparations were going on at Nathan's house; cows were butchered, pans and kettles were arrayed in new order, and all was bustle for the whole day. Early in the following morning the great conch shell sounded for our de- parture, its trumpet tones rolling over thirty plantations. When we mounted our horses the whole colony was in com- motion. Nathan, with Mrs. Strong and Miss Mary, was ready for the journey — the former on horseback, the two latter in a carriage, in which meat, bread, whiskey, pans, kettles, and various utensils were piled up, as though we were moving. Ourselves with Nathan and his two sons formed the vanguard. We had gone about half way, when the sharp, cracking blows of several axes were heard, and as we advanced, the blows 22 The student of western history knows that Louisiana was ver}' thinly populated at the time. The author exaggerates, especially the number of American settlers. — Cf. Cox, J., Explorations of the Louisi- ana Frontier, p. 157; — Marcy, R. B., Explorations of the Red River; — San Domingo Archives, A. G. 1., 87 — 1 — 22 No. 44, where we read in a letter of 179S of a contract between the governor and the Marqui-^ de Maison Rouge concerning the settlement of thirtj' or more fam- ilies on the Ouachita at a hundred pesos for each family. 23 Nathan, pp. 362-373. 146 National types grew louder and louder. We rode on rapidly, and soon saw- some fifty backwoodsmen occupied in cutting down trees. Still, riders with their axes came in from all sides .... The work grew more and more lively .... Some thirty women and girls riding part in carriages and part on horseback, came up and shook hands with us, and as soon as the men had built up the kitchen, they began their cooking. In less than an hour, the fire crackled and flamed up under more than twenty pans and kettles ; roast-beef, beef steaks, puddings, and cakes were cooking, and barrels of whiskey rolled in the grass. It was a scene really picturesque and exciting. At four o'clock the house stood blocked up — sixty feet long, fifty wide, and four stories high, built of cypress logs a foot thick. The work was immense — incredible! .... Now came the feast. Although the squatters, during their work, had snatched many a mouth- ful of beef steak, bread, or cake, yet the principal meal was saved to the last. A more gay and jovial meal was never be- fore taken .... The moon stood high in the heavens when we, in company with Nathan and his family, mounted our horses to return." This blocking 'frohc' is followed by several clearing frolics, for which, however, Vignerolle pays so many hands for so many days.-* 2-1 Thornton, R. H., American Glossary, defines 'frolic,' which is evidently taken from Low German and Dutch frolic and German ■jrohlich, as "a lively 'spree'," and his examples illustrate the word to mean nothing else. The usage in the above sense is apparently un- known to Mr. Thornton — Cf. Fearon, H. B., Journey through Bastern and Western States of America, p. 220. "Land is sometimes partially cleared by what is rather ludicrously termed a frolic. A man having purchased a quarter or half section for the purpose of settling dozvn, his neighbors assemble upon an appointed day : one cuts the trees, a second lops them, a third drags them to the spot upon which a log mansion is to be erected; others cross the logs, roof the habitation, and in three days the emigrant has a 'house over his head' : — Thus 'Mids the American frolic" — Cf. Stuart, J., Three Years in North America, v. 1, p. 260. "It is not unusual for the neighboring farmers to assist in conveying the wood, and the other operations for putting up the first log house for the settler's family, which is quickly com- pleted. When the laborers in this or other similar work lend their as- sistance for a day, they call it a frolic, and all work with alacrity." — Cf. Skinner, C. L,., Pioneers of the Old Southwest, p. 34. "Every special task such as "raising," as cabin building was called, was under- 147 CHARLES SEAI.SFIEI.D To be sure, these people, when establishing a household, could consider only the practical side. The necessaries of life, not its comforts, were furnished first. "Here we could behold what the sinewy arms and active hands of the back- woodsmen had done to prepare the way for the future growth and prosperity of tihe country. A Creole would have con- sumed the profits of the first crop in ornamenting his dwelling and decorating his person; thus giving to everything an im- proved outside air, which could not correspond with the reality within. Not so with the squatter; all was artless, un- civilized and rude — yet naturally and poetically rude."^' The dangers which confronted him wherever he went, made a rifle and an axe part of his indispensable equipment. Even when he was working in the field^" this rifle was always within reach, "for you know," says Nathan, "backwoodsmen do not leave their rifles far from them; they are their best friends, these rifles — friends with a steady hand and a sharp eye."^'' In crossing a swamp, for example, they are very often used to give an alligator, who may be sunning himself on a log, an ounce of lead into his eye before he can seize the calf of one's leg. Even Nathan, the old swamp trotter, when crossing the Carancro swamps,^* took a sixteen-foot alligator for the trunk of a tree and would have been buried alive in the mire, had he not first tried the "log" with tiie muzzle of taken by the community, chiefly because the Indian danger necessitated swift building and made group action imperative On the ap- pointed day for the "raising" the neighbors would come, riding or afoot, to the newcomer's holding — the men with their rifles and axes, the women with their pots and kettles. Every child toddled along, too, helping to carry the wooden dishes and spoons. These free givers of labor had something of the Oriental's notion of the sacred ratifica- tion of friendship by a feast." — Cf. Peck's Guide to the West, p. 118. '"The men of the settlement, when notified, collect and raise the build- ing." — Sealsfield, in a footnote on page 370, mentions also quilting and husking frolics. 25 Nathan, p. 310. 26 Cf. Skinner, C. L., Pioneers, p. 157. 27 Nathan, p. 59.— Cf. Ibid., p. 10. 28 There is a Caron Cros Bayou some fifteen miles south of the colony. — Carancro, Berquin-Duvallon says {Viu de la Colonic Es- pagnole, p. 102) is the Creole name for a bird, of which the Mexican name is Gallinazo. It is a species of vulture, also called aura tinosa. 148 • NATIONAL TYPES his gun.^' On one occasion, when on account of darkness a short cut was needed through a swamp, a couple of backwoods- men made a path in the following way: A cypress was cut down so that it fell in the direction desired. As soon as it had fallen,"^" "the two young woodcutters sprung upon the trunk, walked forward on it, and cut off all branches except those at the very top, so that we could see the tree lying in the bog, but mostly on the surface. They felled a second, a third, fourth," and so on, until they reached solid ground. This work was done with so much ease, that it seemed more like play than labor. The wanderers soon reached the "Bloody Blockhouse," and Nathan told the strangers of the battle with the Spaniards ; but they could not tarry much longer near the swamps, for they had begun to send out their health-wrecking vapors. A drink or two out of a whiskey bottle, — and then they went home with Nathan. In the morning Nathan's wife feared that the two Frenchmen have "got the shakes," but Nathan informs her to the contrary with the following words : ^^" I was about the blockhouse, you know, and a'telling them all about it, and you know the swamp is not a thousand steps from there, and it stagnates now, and it's just the most dangerous time of the year; it spreads its vapors around in the morning and even- ing, which, because they are so much lighter than the atmos- phere, it likes so well to raise. Well, I saw the night spectre come over, and, therefore, broke up, and brought them hence. You know in such cases I always take a couple of glasses of Madeira, and cover myself up warm; and the perspiration brings out the bad vapors, and the Madeira disperses the settling, even if it should stick like leeches to the veins." Since spirits are the only preventive against chills, we must not wonder why they are called "consolation,'' "stomach con- solation."^^ 29 Pflanserleben, pt. II, p. 342. 30 Nathan, p. 17. 31 Nathan, p. 167. 32 Ibid., pp. 1S)6-197. 149 CHARLES SEALSFIEIvD Mrs. Strong has confidence in the assurance of her hus- band, and insists that the two "Frenchers" take breakfast with the family. Concerning this morning meal, Compte de Vignerolles makes the following remark: -""The breakfast consisted of pigsfeet, pickled in pepper and vinegar, corn- cakes drowned in molasses, custards, a roast turkey, venison, hams, eggs, with an immense quantity of fruits preserved in sugar or vinegar, persimmons, the delicious Louisiana cherry, prunes, and wild grapes, which as you know, the backwoods- man understands so well how to preserve. As heterogeneous as these substances were, they had all to enter the alligator stomachs of the squatters. We saw them swallow pickled pigsfeet, with corncakes swimming in molasses, and red pep- pers in vinegar along with ham. Sometimes a squatter would put his knife into a persimmon or prune comfit, put the load into his mouth, and then push the dessert plate toward us, thinking we would do the same. Forks seemed to be entirely superfluous instruments here. Yet, overlooking these od- dities, a great deal of quiet and order prevailed, which seems to be natural to the even-tempered backwoodsmen. The fair sex behaved with a grace which I had never expected to find, and which gave us a most excellent opinion of Nathan's domestic arrangements." Before entering upon a description of Nathan's character and manners, and before depicting the community life of Asa's colony, we feel obliged to quote Sealsfield's curtain- raising passage of his backwoods drama : ^*"The life of a backwoodsman soon enchants you, more particularly if you are young, strong, and healthy, and have an eye for the beauties of primitive nature. And who can help admiring these eternal forests, that stand in such magnificent contrast to anything that can be seen in the old world — to all artificial splendor, and the mere world of man. 33 Ibid., pp. 205-206. 34 Nathan, pp. 7-8. The very end of the quotation is changed somewhat, and the last two sentences are supplemented by Hebbe, G. C. and Mackay, J., Translators. Seatsfield (sic!) Life in the Neu' World, p. 269. 150 NATIONAL TYPES Here, the stranger feels like a liberated bird, that has just left its cage to roam in unbounded space. A sort of trembling anxiety — ^an inexplicable agitation — a slight oppression at the heart, comes over the novice when he finds himself for the first time among our western wilds. The immensity awes, w^hile the vast variety confounds him ; and he regains his self- confidence only after he has tried his strength and over- comes dangers. The elasticity of spirit which he then ex- periences, is indeed a mental phenomenon, which meta- physicians would find difficult, not only to explain, but to describe. A daring consciousness of inherent power is one of the chief peculiarities of the backwoodsman's character. Nor is it strange, that a man who is in daily and hourly danger of being either choked in a swamp or drowned in a bayou — of being devoured by an alligator, or torn to pieces by a bear — should at length acquire that familiarity with what is generally called danger, which naturally produces a change in their manners, language and whole existence. Their phrases are original and practical, often rough and uncouth, it is true, but rarely, if ever, vulgar. Their conversation is usually em- bellished by figures of the strongest kind, which impart remarkable vividness to their ideas. Their manners display a recklessness, which at one moment makes your hair stand on end, and the next, produces a roar of laughter. Strange beings are these children of the West, and little understood by the civilized world. They are a vast community of separate existences — each, in a sense, independent of every other being except God !" Surely we have developed enough interest in Nathan to be desirous now of making the further acquaintance of this backwoods type — the man in an untanned leather jacket, '^"the republican, backwoodsman and woodcutter, who, with inconceivable sang froid, raises his shield against the Spanish government, conquers its troops, stands in a hostile position to the governor and the government, settles with hundreds of his countrymen in this strange and hostile land, and does it 35 Nathan, p. 154. 151 CHARLES SEALSFIELD so quietly, so comfortably, so perfectly ^^s.fagoii, as 'if 'he had thrashed one of his backwoods neighbors and carried his rights of settlement, title deeds and claims, within his fist or waistcoat pocket," — the man who carries on a "drawling con- versation amidst danger, always keeping an impassive leather face," while the men to whom he is speaking are standing in water over their girdles and exposed to the bullets of wild Acadians, who shoot deer seeking refuge in a bayou during a prairie fire.^' At times, however, his words are more liquid, and his descriptions and figures extremely interesting and vivid. 37"j£ ypy travel on a flat boat," he says, "on a flat boat for four or six weeks, on the muddiest, sweetest, almightiest of all waters — and if every hour sawyers, planters, snakes, wood-islands, and whatever else these satans may be called, are upon you, and you fly past them as a trotter runs twenty knots an hour past mile-stones — and every one of these in- fernal mile-stones threatens to bviry you a hundred feet deep in the almig'hty deluge — then, I'll be shot, if you won't be glad to enter at last some quiet stream, say the Arkansas or the Red River." These words need hardly be supplemented with those of the count, who says : "Our backwoodsman be- comes verbose ; for he begins to talk of the Mississippi — a theme inexhaustible for him, as it is inexhaustible in itself." Sometimes their language is^^ stern and relentless, and ac- companies an arrogant and rough behavior.'^ They brag and gleam with self-importance, which is aroused, of course, by their self-reliance and the knowledge of their own strength.*" 36 Pfl.an::erleben, pt. II, p. 314. 37 Nathan, pp. 31-32. 38 Pflamzerlehen, pt. II, p. 332. 39 Nathan, p. 19. *<> Cf. Flint, History and Geography, pp. 13S-136. "The rough, ?turdy and simple habits of the backwoodsmen living in that plenty which depends only on God and nature, being the preponderating cast of character in the western country, have laid the stamina of in- dependent thought and feeling deep in the breast of this people. A man accustomed only to the fascinating, but hollow intercourse of the polished circles of the Atlantic cities, at first feels a painful revulsion, when mingled with this more simple race." — Cf. Flagg's, The Far West, Thwaites, Early Western Travels, v. XXVII, p. 98. " . . . . Squatters, those sturdy pioneers who formed the earliest American • 152 NATIONAL TYPES Thus Nathan says: *^"I calculate I should like to see him who should intend to offend or injure old Nathan, or to throw anything in his way. I would soon cool his appetite for him, old Nathan would— as long as he has a rifle and dagger with- in arm's length." It seems that even the features of the women are often *2"5tultified with that amazing apathy, which is, I suppose, a principal feature in the character of the inhabitants of the backwoods." What wonder if these women have something of apathy in their character, if they are all subjected to their masters as Mrs. Strong seems to be. When making some inquiry as to the presence of the two Frenchmen in her house, she received the following information: ^^'Tve a notion, old woman, your hair would not be a single item more gray, if you should not load your brains with things, which, I calculate, do not concern you. I tell you, old woman, I tell you, they don't belong here, the affairs from there; I am here now about the things here — am here now on behalf of these two French monshurs, and I tell you, here they are. It's a fact, old woman, they're here. How and why is not the question, and nobody has to trouble himself about it, but I've a notion they are just here because I want 'em to be, and I tell you, they shall stay here as long as they like." Indicative of backwoods reasoning is an argument pro- posing to establish the fact that Louisiana belongs to the United States just because its land is mostly Mississippi mire. ""You have often heard, and yourself saw it, that this Ivouisiana is nothing but Mississippi bottom — pure Mississippi bottom' — the settling of the river-mire of the Mississippi — and that this mire comes from our country ?" "That I know," settlements along our western frontier. And iti my casual acquaint- ance with them I have remarked with not a little surprise, a decision of character, an acuteness of penetration, and a depth and originality of thought betrayed in their observations." 41 Nathan, p. 25. *2 Nathan, p. 165. 43 Ihid., pp. 168-169. 4* Ibid., pp. 73-74. 153 CHARLES SEALSFIELD says Asa. "And that Louisiana is composed of this river- mire — of our mire, man— American mire ; to which neither Frenchmen nor Spaniards have a straw's worth of claim." "That's true," says Asa, "I've a notion they have not." "Well, man, if the powerful, muddy Mississippi takes away the land that is above, just like the bear which swallows the pig, and their land becomes so thick and dirty that he throws out the slime again, as the bear vomits out all that is bad and dirty, to whom does this refuse belong? Asa, tell me that — tell me, to whom else than the owner of the bear? — and the bear, does not he belong to the man on whose land he is found ^ Tell me this, Asa?" says I, "and so does not the bear, or Mississippi, belong to us?" "That's all right, so say I, too," says Asa, "and I'd like to see the man who would say other- wise. I would poke my five knuckles into his side so that he would soon sing another tune." Poor man ! thus he reasoned and labored to make his colony the embryo of a state which should later be attached to the Union. In 1803, when his wish was realized, American surveyors and Yankee land speculators came and measured off his land, which according to squatter law, he could buy with a large acreage surrounding it.*^ But this was too much for him — he, who had fought for the land and settled manv hundreds of people, and ruled on the land as a squatter regulator, making and enforcing his own laws, should now pay for what he had considered his for over ten years, submit to a strange code of laws and have a sheriff watching him ! This he could not endure, and so he left for Texas with twenty families. And when in 1811, Compte de Vignerolles made a trip into Texas, he came to an American colony, about five hundred miles from the former. It was Nathan's settlement. ""He was regulator again — again had a blockhouse, which might more properly be called a fort, and had finally found peace away from all land speculators, sheriffs and land offices. And there he lives, as regulator, *' Marryat, F., Diary, ser. I, v. II, p. 75. 46 Nathan, pp. 407-408. 154 NATIONAL TYPES president, governor — in short, chief of nearly a thousand squatters. To the East of his plantation, a certain Colonel Austin had founded a second colony; but the great nerve of the growing state was the colony of which Nathan was the chief."*' At the age of eighty, in the year 1828, he comes to Louisiana once more, to visit the count and his former neigh- bors. After he has retired one evening, the author bids him goodnight with the following words: ^^"Sweet be thy repose, venerable patriarch! Manfully hast thou battled with the storms of time, and nobly triumphed. His cold fingers have frosted thy locks. Thou, who hast preserved the divine spark, who hast understood how to ennoble thy humble sphere — sweet be thy repose!" As regulator*" of the colony, Nathan was entrusted with the preservation of order and the administration of justice. Whenever he found it necessary to call a meeting, he blew a big conch-shell, which assembled all male inhabitants in the public hall, where they waited for their regulator to open the discussion. ^""Grotesque and singular as the manners of the squatters appeared, there was something so dignified, so republican, reflecting, such a calm self-esteem," that one couid not help be interested in the proceedings. In these meetings the settlers proposed and discussed means to further the community welfare, such as the building of cotton gins, saw mills, and roads, which were all built and maintained by the colony. Concerted activity made it pos- sible to lay a cause-way to the Red River, which for one hundred and twenty families was a tremendous piece of work, *^ Parker, Amos A., Trip to the West and Texas, mentions thirteen land grants in Texas in 1835. *8 Nathan, p. 420. *'■' Webster gives the follov«ing definition: "R. in the United States a member of any of various bands or volunteer committees formed in newly occupied or settled regions before the establishment of local government, to preserve order, prevent crime, and administer justice." 50 Nathan, p. 225, ibid., p. 336. 155 CHARLES SEALSFIELD especially since the road led through swamps, and, therefore, had to be partly corduroyed. The community government provided also for a school, and cared for the education of the little ones. (On the other hand, the introduction of slaves certainly does not speak in the colony's favor as to the moral elevation of its settlers). Since the community did not believe itself subjected to Spanish jurisprudence, they tried their cases themselves. The punishment consisted usually of a flogging (the customary thirty-nine lashes), and a tarring and feathering, or both. ^^Yet, a difficulty arose whenever the delinquents were not of the colony. In such cases hot debates ensued, for the majority realized that, although they had a right to punish an Acadian hog thief, who was caught with his booty, they did not have the same authority to inflict punishment on a syndic, a Spanish official, who was implicated in an embezzlement. ^^"It was no easy matter," says Nathan, "to keep ourselves clear of these people, who first came crawling round us, flattering and mewing like cats — and then, seeing us above such things, began to snarl at us like puppy-dogs. It was no easy matter to keep clear of these impudent, ignorant scamps — these half-savages, who have just about as much notion of the right of property as the ebony niggers." Even more interesting are the discussions concerning the relation of the colony to the United States. George Nollins, the assistant regulator opens the argument with the following words : ^^"It is true, Mr. Strong and his friends have de- fended themselves, six against eighty-five, and maintained their rights, I reckon, because they were on legal ground, on the principle of independence of persons and property. They would not deprive the Spaniards of anything; neither would they suffer themselves to be deprived. But, I reckon, had 61 The doctrine that the squatters or actual residents of a ter- ritory had the right to make their own laws, is termed squatter sovereignty. 52 Nathan, p. 247. 53 Ihid., p. 236. 156 NATIONAL TYPES we taken anything of the Spaniards, and established in their land a county, with sheriffs, constables, and judges, and the laws of the States, it would have been displaying the flag of the States on a Spanish vessel, of which we had scarce van- quished the jolly-boat; and it would have been the first step to perpetual hostilities, and a downright insult to the whole Spanish power." We see that ^*"they were treating of noth- ing less than the introduction of the United States form of government into the Spanish province," — and they realized the difficulty they would encounter, and, therefore, went about it with great deliberation. But it seems that the States must have known ^^"that an aspiring party in the com- munity was laboring to effect a separation of Louisiana from Spain," and, therefore, "The American government had sent an agent (Major Gale from Tennessee) for the purpose of molding the embryo republic to their interests." He con- gratulates the regulators on the prudence and moderation with which they acted in so ^^"difficult and trying a case, and protected the property of American citizens without offending a foreign government." The economic value of the possession of Louisiana is stressed in the following passage : ^'"Do you think they will let this noble stream (Mississippi) be closed and barricaded by your lazy custom-house officers, and thus let their flour be soured, their hams be destroyed by worms, and leave the key of the whole country in your hands?" — But more beautiful are the words of Nathan when be speaks of the destiny of Louisiana : '''"Have you ever noticed the seed-corn, when planted in the fertile earth? Never seen, how, when sunk several inches deep into the ground, it is covered with a clod, which, a hundred times heavier than that little seed-corn, might seem to crush it to atoms? But does it do so? No' B4 Ibid., p. 237. 55 Ibid., p. 242. 56 Nathan, p. 260. 5T Ibid., pp. 292-293. 58 Ibid., pp. 294-296. 157 • CHARLES SEALSFIELD the little thing easily sprouts up, and shoots forth to the day- light, triumphant over the dead, heavy clod. Have you never seen this? I will tell you: we are the little seed-corn — Louisiana the fertile earth — and the Spanish government that dead-clod weight, pressing on the sprouting seed, the growth of which it would like to stop if it could. But it can't; there are too many strong leaves, and these leaves will pry away your dead-clod — the weight of your government — as lightly, you know not how lightly, and Louisiana will sprout up, and grow, and flourish, and we with it." — And finally Louisiana was joined to the Union, "a destiny for which Heaven has intended it." SQUIRE COPELAND AND THE ALCALDE. Sealsfield remarked in his footnote to the word "squatter"' that some of these pioneer settlers remain in the wilderness as squatters while others return into civilized society. ''The latter is true of John Copeland. We make his acquaintance at the very beginning of Der Legitime, where we find him amongst the Oconee Indians, in southern Georgia. Here he had opened a border tavern, offering "entertainment For man And beast (sic!)." But in reality he was no more then one of those contemptible fur-traders, who exchanged brandy and gin for precious beavers. When he had thus become rich, he sought a more comfortable place to live than the wilds in- habited by red skins.*" With a large family of children he went to Louisiana and settled in Opelousas, where we find him after a number of years as a squire, esteemed and hon- ored, wealthy and influential, somewhat polished, but still showing the rough edges of a backwoodsman. *^"The seven years during which we had not seen him, have caused an ad- vantageous change. A rough, selfish manner, which in former times had found expression in every word, had, on account of increased wealth, made room for some human 50 Supra, p. 143, footnote 14. ^ Der Legitime, pt. I, p. 50. 61 Ihid., pt. II, pp. 192-193 158 NATIONAL TYPES comforts, which, it must be admitted, still showed backwoods traits, and which just for that reason, appealed so much to us. It was, so to speak, the aged nature of a backwoodsman, which had assumed an especial kind of civilization through wealth, contact with others, and experience. He felt fully his own importance, but was, nevertheless, not the least insulting to others. He had nothing of the air of the arrogant butler, or the tradesman or merchant who has attained wealth. It was the hearty and resolute bluntness of a man, who had at- tained his importance through hard work, and who had earned the high esteem of his fellow citizens through his activity for public weal, who thought always first of the wel- fare of his county, and who would have sacrificed all for his state and his country. It is true, at times he was somewhat boastful, but he never aroused antipathy, because everything in him was natural, and had, so to speak, grown out of the soil of his country." Nathan was a squatter regulator on the Red River; John Copeland, a squire in Opelousas, I-,ouisiana, and the Alcalde, one might say, was both. He lived in the present state of Texas, presiding as judge over many American settlers, who, although they had obtained their land from Mexico, and were subjected to Mexican jurisdiction, (or rather to the whims and intrigues of an arrogant priesthood) tried their own cases. Had they not administered justice, many a criminal would have obtained pardon from Mexico under the condition that he become a Catholic, and would thereby have become a renegade to the great cause — the striving to tear themselves loose from Mexico and to prepare the country and its in- stitutions for an annexation to the States. Thus the man, who thinks so little of the Atlantic cities and their politics, and who puts so much more hope into the future of the West,"^ is playing just as important a role as Nathan. 82 Kajiitenbuch, pt, I, p. 191. 159 CHARLES SEALSFIELD THE TRAPPER AND DESPERADO. Before entering upon a more detailed description of frontier life as pictured in the Cabin Book, we shall become acquainted with another type of border inhabitant, which stands just as unique in the history of civilization as the squatter. Since we are, of course, unable to give a better picture of this type than the author, and since dissection and elaboration would only impair his description, we shall quote in full : ^^"There is something peculiar in these boundless prairies, that exalts the spirit, rendering it, we might say, as well as the body, energetic and firm.** There are to be found the wild horse, the bison, the wolf, the bear, and innumerable serpents, and the trapper excelling all in wildness — ^not the old trapper of Cooper, who never saw a trapper in his life*^ — but the real one, who could furnish matter for novels, which would inspire with wild enthusiasm even the most phlegmatic. "Our civilization, the noblest the world has ever seen, has nevertheless borne its own monsters, of which other civilized countries know nothing, and which can grow up only in a land where freedom is unlimited. The trappers are generally outcasts or outlaws, who have escaped the arm of the law, or those intractable minds, to whom the rational liberty, even of the United States, seems a constraint. Perhaps it is a fortunate circumstance for these States to be in pos- session of such a fag-end, where the passions of such persons may fret away their fury in wrestling with nature, because in the lap of well-regulated society they would probably cause terrible disturbances .... 63 George Howard, pp. 196-205. The whole passage is translated in Revue des Deux Mondes, ser. I, v. 18 (1835) where it follows a paragraph of general discussion, in which the author summons us to compare Sealsfield's passage with the "fantastic pictures" of Cooper. 6* Concerning the invigorating life in these prairies, see Darby, Louisiana, p. 36ff. 65 Cooper wrote The Prairie, which has as the principal character a trapper, without ever having seen a prairie. 160 —— NATIONAL TYPES *°"These trappers and hunters ^' are to be found from the sources of the Columbia and Missouri Rivers down to the mouth of the Arkansas and Red River, by all the right tributary streams of the Mississippi, which, as is well known, rise generally in the Rocky Mountains. Their existence depends chiefly upon the extirpation of animals, which for centuries have crowded on these flowering plains. They kill the wild buffalo in order to make use of his hide for clothing, and his haunches for their meals, — the bears, to sleep on their skins, and the wolves to amuse themselves ; and they catch and slay the beavers for the sake of their furs, and occasion- ally for their tails. ^* For these they receive in exchange powder, lead, flannel jackets, shirts and yarn for their nets, and whiskey to keep their bodies warm in the cold days of winter. "They often move about on the plaines in droves of a hundred or more together, and wage desperate conflicts with the Indians; but generally eight or ten live together, united for common defense and common labor — like wild gorillas. Yet these are more hunters than trappers; the real trapper lives generally only in company with one sworn friend,*' with whom he for a year or often many years, divides every toil, every amusement, and every danger. Should one of the comrades die, then the other is the sole heir of the hide, and the secrets of the places where the game is to be found. "What fear of punishment in many cases effected at first, becomes soon an absolute necessity; and unruled, bound- less liberty is an enjoyment which few of them would re- nounce if they were even promised the most honorable and lucrative places in regulated society. Such are the men, who, for years live on the plains, the savannas, and the meadows. 68 Beginning here the passage is translated in Saint-Rene Tai- landier, Le Romancier de la democratic americaine. 67 Cf. Peck's Guide to the IVest, pp. 126-128. 68 McKenny, in his Tour to the Lakes, speaks of the "exquisite preparation of beaver's tail, that nice morsel which could not even be dispensed with in Lent." 69 Cf. Hall's Sketches of the West, p. 226. 161 CHARLE6 SEALSFIELD and in the forests of the Arkansas, Missouri, and Oregon territories, which conceal in their midst enormous deserts of sand and stone, and withall the most beautiful prairies. Snow and frost, warmth and cold, rain and storms, and privations of every kind, have so hardened their limbs, made their skin so thick, like that of the buffalo which they hvmt, that the perpetual necessity in which they live of relying upon their bodily strength, breeds in them a self-confidence that shrinks from no danger; a sharpness of sight and a correct- ness of judgment, of which man in civilized society can form no just idea. Fatigue, privations and toils are often terrible, and we have seen trappers who have undergone sufferings in comparison with which the fabulous adventures of Robinson Crusoe are mere children's play, and whose skin was as thick as leather, bearing more resemblance to the tanned hide of the buffalo than to that of a human bedng. Only lead or steel could penetrate it. These trappers are wonderful psycho- logical phenomena; thrown into wild, boundless nature, their reason often developed itself in a manner so ingenious — nay, grand, that among some I have observed a genius which would have done honor to the greatest philosopher of ancient or modern times. "Daily, nay hourly, dangers, one would suppose, must elevate the minds of these wild men to the most High; but it is not so. Their hunting knife is their god ; their rifle is their patron saint, and their hardy feet are their only trust. The trapper hates mankind ; and the look with which he measures the man he chances to meet in the wilderness, is not so often that of a friendly white brother, as that of a blood-thirsty enemy ; for here, as in civilized society, avarice is a mighty incitement to bloody deeds, and generally one of two trappers who chance to meet, has to fall by the other's hand. He hates his white rival much more, on account of the valuable beaver skins, than he hates an Indian — the latter he shoots down as coldly as he would kill a wolf, buffalo or bear; but the former he stabs with a real fiendish joy, as if he felt that he had delivered society from a great fellow-criminal. 162 National types The fact that for years he lives on the strongest possible food, the meat of the bison, and without bread or anything else, contributes much to his inhuman wildness — as in a measure it changes him into a beast of prey. "On an expedition which we undertook in company with several acquaintances, along the upper Red River, we met sev- eral of these trappers; among others, an old fellow, so thor- oughly tanned and hardened by storm, privation and tempests, that his skin resembled more the shell of a turtle than the cuticle of a man. We had hunted for two days in his com- pany, without observing anything remarkable in him ; he pre- pared our meals, which consisted at one time of a saddle of venison, at another, of a haunch of buffalo ; he knew the cover and the course of game, and scented it nearly as well as the huge wolf hound which never left his side. Only the third morning we observed something which startled our confidence in our new companion. It was a mass of strokes and crosses upon the stock of his gun which gave us the first key to the real character of the man. These strokes and crosses were arranged somewhat like the following: "Buffaloes — No number given, as the amount was prob- ably too large. "Bears, 19 — These were marked with single strokes. "Wolves, 13 — With double strokes. "Red Interlopers, 4 — Marked with four cross strokes. "White Interlopers, 2 — With little crosses. "As our companion was closely examining the stock, endeavoring to discover the meaning of the word "Interloper," the grin which overspread the old fellow's features, attracted our attention. Without, however, uttering a word, he at- tacked the haunch of buffalo which he produced from the skin in which it had been enveloped, and now lay before us. It was a m'eal fit for a kifig, and it made us forget all our scruples. Suddenly he said with a suspicious smile, drawing his knife towards himself: 163 CHARLES SEALSFIELD " 'L/Ook ye, it's my pocketbook; d'ye think it a sin to kill one of theg'e two-legged red or white interlopipers (sic!) ? " 'Who do you mean ?', we asked. "The man smiled again, and rose; we now knew who those two-legged interlopers were whom he had marked on his shaft, with as much sang froid as if they had been wild turkeys instead of human beings, whom he had shot. "We did not feel called upon or empowered to stand up as judges at a place to which civilized society and its avenging arm does not reach, and said no more to the man. "These trappers, however, once in several years, return for a few weeks to the abodes of civilized society, when they have a large quantity of beaver skins. Usually they cut down a hollow tree near or at the shore of a navigable stream, pack it with their skins and other property, and then float down for thousands of miles on the Missouri, or Kansas or Red River, to St. Louis, Natchidoches, or Alexandria, where, clad in skins, they stare about the streets, presenting a sight which often transports the beholder's mind to a primitive world." Sealsfield's interest in the border regions, and in the people who inhabit them was so great that he dwells especially long on descriptions of the prairie and savannas which harbor all sorts of dangerous characters, who chose these solitudes in preference to the gallows. He likens our country to wine which emits its impurities by the bung hole. ^""The dregs, repelled by civilized society, collect naturally near the boun- daries of civilization, in the West, where the law is still weak. Indeed things frequently look terrible along these boundaries — a real scum it to be found there — 'gamblers, murderers, and thieves, among whom a respectable man's life is not safe.'^^ But these last only a short time; better ones follow, and the 70 Ralph Doughby, pp. 234-235. ''I A good sketch of this desperado element may be found in Hall, James, Sketches of the West, pp. 86-87, who says: "A frontier is often the retreat of loose individuals, who, if not familiar with crime, have very blunt perceptions of virtue. The genuine woodsman, the real pioneer, are independent, brave, and upright; but as the jackal pursues the lion to devour his leavings, the footsteps of the sturdy 164 NATIONAL TYPES rabble retreat farther, before approaching cuUure and civiliza- tion, and before the laws which grow too strong for them. But their doings have not been worthless. Against their v/ill, they have been forced by want and need to clear forests, make paths through the pathless wilderness, and till the earth for better successors." With such wild, desperate characters, originated the paradisian hills and valleys of Kentucky, the excellent farms of Ohio, and the magnificent meadows of Tennessee. They have gone many thousands of miles — their works have remained. They have become the foundation of the happiness of millions of free, civilized, and religious cit- izens, who pray to the God of their fathers in thousands and thousands of temples, in places where formerly only the wild Indian hunted." The Cabin Book, in which two such characters, Bob Rock, and Johnny, a tavern keeper, appear, makes us ac- quainted with the inner life of this type. Through the Al- calde, who has been a father and adviser to Bob Rock, and to whom the latter has often poured out his heart, we find out how some of these individuals are driven about restlessly and despairingly by their own conscience, until they finally have a longing for the rope as the only relief from pangs and apparitions. But the Alcalde wants to save Bob Rock until he is needed in the revolution against Mexico, where he shall atone for all his crimes, by raging amongst the enemy like a hunters are closely pursued by miscreants destitute of his noble qual- ities. These are the poorest and idlest of the human race, averse to labor and impatient of the restraints of law and the courtesies of civilized society. Without the ardor, the activity, the love of sport, and patience of fatigue, which distinguish the bold backwoods man, these are doomed to the forest by sheer laziness, and not for a bare sub- sistence ; they are 'the cankers of a calm world and a long peace', the helpless nobodies, who, in a country where none starve and few beg, sleep until hunger pinches, then stroll into the woods for a meal, and return again to their slumbers. — A still worse class also infested our borders — ^desperadoes fleeing from justice, suspected or convicted felons escaped from the grasp of the laws, who sought safety in the depth of the forest, or in the infancy of civil regulations. "The horse thief, the counterfeiter, and the robber, found here a secure retreat, or a new theatre for the perpetration of crime," — ^Cf. Robb, John S., Squatter Life, pp. VIII-IX. 72 Cf. Kajutenbuch, pt. I, pp. 227-228. - — - 165 ■ CHARLES SEALSFIEI.D hell-fiend, and thus help in the struggle for liberty.''^ The prairies of the province of Texas must have been a rendezvous for criminals from all over the states. The life they lived here was, according to Sealsfield, a solitary and miserable one. '""I tell you," says the Alcalde, "the criminal and the murderer is here as free as you and I ; none goes too near him ; and yet I know from experience he would often willingly give up this freedom to be with his fellows in a State prison, for this freedom is to him a horrible freedom. There is nothing more dreadful to the criminal than this freedom in the prairie. Would, I assure you, exchange it joyfully for a prison; for there he is amongst his fellows, not outlawed, not thrust out ; feels easier even in his solitary cell, for he knows that he is imder the same roof with them ; but here, he is not amongst his fellows, everybody avoides him; even the murderer flees him ; murderers do not like to meet together, even by the rum bottle. Are always in their own company, an awful company it must be, that self-company — a bad conscience, which, like a treadmill, drives him about without peace, without rest — tosses him about for ever and ever ; for mark, he stands there in the pure spotless creation, in the clear, rich prairie, with God's finger menacingly pointing at him from heaven and earth and all his mighty works — stands there with his foul murder taint, which the pure breath of God continually sends back into his nostrils. I tell you a murderer here is really not to be envied for his liberty." ''^ Cf. Ehrenberg, H., Fahrtcn tind Schicksale cines Deutschen in Texas, pp. 22-23. "What right have the States to load upon us these thieves, vagabonds? Who gives this gang of robbers permission to infect our prairies with their presence, especially since Mexico has never neglected to take care that a complete assortment of this article be always present in the despised province of Texas — but times will change — soon, very soon, they shall have to march over the Rio Grande or to him in hell ; they must be gone, and the province shall not have a single one in a couple of years. They must run, fight, or hang, as they choose ; we don't want a land infested with such "birds," and along with our liberty severe justice must begin . After victoiy has been won, we'll not care a straw about who has ac- complished the feat." Ehrenberg was probably acquainted v.-ith the Cabin Book, which appeared four years previous to his novel. 7* Kajiitcnbuch, pt. I, pp. 228-230. -^— 166 Chapter IV. THE FRENCH ELEMENT AND THE AMERICAN PLANTER IN LOUISIANA. In the preceding pages the frontiersman as Sealsfield saw him during his travels and his residence in Louisiana, has been described. This state was populated by a motley crowd, descendants of many nations, and representing various types. The prairie and savannas in the Northwest were in- habited by hunters, trappers, and individuals of doubtful character, the central regions by rangers and backwoods farmers, most of whom had come from Kentucky and were largely of Scotch-Irish descent — and finally, the southwestern part was settled by Frenchmen, Acadians, and a few Germans. Interspersed with these elements we find the American planter who has come here from the East, and, although sur- rounded by the same environment, lived a life very different from that of his Creole neighbor. Concerning the south- western regions, Sealsfield says: ^"With the exception of a number of respectable Americans, Louisiana and the valley of the Mississippi have hitherto been the refuge of all classes of foreigners,^ good and bad, who sought here an asylum from oppression and poverty, or from the avenging arm of justice in their native countries.^ Many have not succeeded in their expectation — many have died — others returned, ex- 1 The Americans, p. 213. 2 Cf. .Cox, I. J., Exploration of the Louisiana Frontier, p. 157, speaking of the lower part of the Red River, says : a "greater part con- sisted of Canadian-French 'of few wants and as little industry'. There were a number of Spanish and French Creole families apparently of the same general character as the Acadians, but interspersed with them were a few of a higher order of industry and intelligence. Mingled with the element surviving from the previous regimes were a few Germans, Irish and American settlers of the frontier type." * Cf. Der Legitime, pt. II, p. 159. 167 >' CHARLES SEALSFIELD asperated against a country which has disappointed their hopes, because they expected to find superior beings, and dis- covered that they were men neither worse nor better than their habits, propensities, country, climate and a thousand other circumstances had made them." Especially after the purchase of the territory, ^"crowds of needy Yankees, and what is worse, Kentuckians, spread all over the country, at- tracted by the hope of gain, the latter treating the inhabitants as little better than a purchased property." They were full of prejudice against the Creoles, who were mostly descendants of a nation of which they knew little more than the proverbial "French dog."^ This heterogeneous population, so different in language, manners, and principles, had only one character- istic in common — love for money, ^ — ^money, which the Ameri- can planter disdained to spend where he had made it,^ — money, which the Creole and French inhabitant earned lazily and spent imprudently,' wasting it even on Sundays in foolish and frivolous pleasures.® It seems that the climate of the country did not permit of exertion, but created rather a desire for indolent amusements." ""It is," says Sealsfield, "truly a land of laziness, well adapted to a nature originally aristocratic and idle." * The Americans, p. 169. 5 Ibid., p. 170. « Ibid., p. 179— Cf. 167, 186, 187— Berquin-Duvallon. Vuc de la Colonie Bspagnole, p. 297 — Duke Bernhard, Reise, v. II, p. 48, 107 — Baird, Robert, View of the Valley of the Mississippi, p. 282. T The Americans, p. 180— Cf. Flint, Recollections, p. 307. "The Americans come hither from all the states. Their object is to ac- cumulate wealth, and spend it somewhere else." 8 Nathcm, p. 310. 8 The Americans, p. 148 — Cf. Flint, Recollections, p. 307 — Grund, Americaner, p. 33, states that in 1835 a law went into effect according to which the public gambling houses, theatres and dance halls of New Orleans were to be closed on Sundays. 10 Cf. Darby, Geographical Description of the State of Louisiana, p. 278. "If climate operates extensively upon the action of human beings, it is principally their amusements that are operated by the proximity of the tropics. Dancing might be called the principal amuse- ment of both sexes." 11 Pfianzerleben, pt. I, p. 94. 168 NATIONAL TYPES In the first part of this study^^ a rather favorable picture has been given of some French immigrants, whom the author described in their struggle for livelihood without however criticising the conditions which kept them in need and distress. That Sealsfield fully recognized these conditions and their causes may be seen from the following passage: ""Neither should we forget that the Canadians (at that time Canada was called New France) were the first who discovered Louisi- ana, and established here their home. If their government had permitted them to do as they pleased, and had occasion- ally sent them a cargo of farming implements, cattle, weapons, and things of this kind, which were of higher value to them than barrels of dubloons, they would probably have succeeded as well as the English colonists did. They are of good stuff, these Canadians, in every respect. But their despotic govern- ment would rule everything, would have its hands everywhere ; and that is a great mistake — nowhere more so than in found- ing a colony. Their government took the matter into its own hands and directed from Versailles undertakings of which it knew as much as we do of the moon. It sent colonists good for nothing, and an army of office-holders well paid, but who, as soon as possible, began to comsume their salaries in luxuries, to build theatres, dancing and playhouses — in short, to civilize Louisiana at once. Ah ! that is the curse of Louisiana. They brought a debauched civilization in their train, which, like the worm, gnaws at the root, and which I fear will sooner or later corrupt the whole fruit of this beautiful country." After O'Reilly had taken formal possession of Louisiana in 1768, another regime was introduced, one of even more bureaucratic principles than the former. Squire Copeland, who had come to Louisiana about 1800 and who traded much with the inhabitants of New Orleans, gives the following description of the economic conditions in that city. ^*"Those poor devils lived a miserable life. They could not approach 12 Supra, pp. 36-37. i» Nathan, pp. 340-341. 1* Der Legitime, pt. II, pp. 186-187. 169 CHARLES SEADSFIELD the shore without first having obtained permission of a dozen shabby idlers to buy a young pig or a rabbit,^^ and when they finally came, they were always accompanied by several spies, who did not lose sight of them until we had departed, in order that we might not infect them with our republicanism. The devil himself they did not fear as much as us Americans, but they did not dare touch us . . . Miserable fellows ! stupid as animals in everything; only in one thing were they sharp — namely in making their subjects still more stupid and in smothering the little common sense they did have. None dared say a word until the governor had given his permission. They danced whenever he wanted them to do so, and prayed when he commanded, and were polite and again rude toward us just as be pleased. No one was allowed to think or to act for himself. And most surprising of all, these miserable creatures, who lived in thatched cabins and adobie huts, and waded in mire knee-deep, and were often eaten by alligators when they stepped out of their houses, who knew less of citizen life than our most stupid negroes do — they believed themselves civilized and us barbarians because they could scrape a leg and rattle off compliments." More interesting are the impressions of several French noblemen who arrived in New Orleans^^ with the desire to take possession of their grants in the Attacapas. They ar- rived there in 1799 when the yellow fever was again ravaging the city.^^ Chapter III of Pflanzerlehen, part II, entitled 15 Cf. Supra, p. 143, footnote 16. IS The last part of The Americans, pp. 144-218, offers as good a description of New Orleans as the writer has met anywhere. — Cf. Robertson, Louisiana, v. I, pp. 165-174. IT Cf. Robertson, Louisiana, pp. 17S-176. and also the \vords with which Ralph Doiighbv describes the city dtiring an epidemic. "Nothinc: was to be seen in New Orleans but hot, low-eyed negresses, without masters or clothes, Avho ran like jackals howling through the streets, and sneakingr about the bolted or broken doors and window shutters, particularly in the upper suburb, where the streets were totally vacant and desolate, the houses open, the doors and windows broken, the simoon blowing from Vera Cruz, and no other sounds to be heard than the solemn rattle of hearses, on which two or three coffins were laid, one above the other. It was high time to depart; the yellow fever had celebrated his triumphal procession, and ruled like a victorious 170 NATIONAL TYPES "The Soiree, or New Orleans in the year 1799," gives a vivid description of conditions during the epidemic. The city had become a wet grave. ^* ^""With its 'empty, lockcd-up houses and window shutters, filthy streets, filled, instead of pave- ment, with the remains of animals, gnawed bones and skel- etons, at which whole masses of carrion crows were hacking and pulling, and not a human being to be seen — our ship the only one in the harbor. It was the most melancholy looking Rnd deserted town I had ever seen. It was a city of the dead, whence everything of life had departed."^" On the day after their arrival the newcomers wished Lo have an interview with the governor, Don Salceda, concerning the necessary form or law to be observed on entering into possession of the land which had been granted them by Louis XV.^^ Having been informed that the governor was on a tour of inspection of the forts, they asked permission to see the vice-governor. This time they received the following answer : "His excellency Don Maria Nicolas Vidal Chavez, Echavarri de Madrigal y Valdez, civil governor lugertenientc, also military auditor in the province of Louisiana and West Florida, further chief justice, etc., etc.,^^ is in town, but lives retired from all business." Only when Count Vignerolles played with a couple of louis d'ors, and had deposited these "conditions" one by one into the hand of the Castilian butler, hero in a town taken by storm.'' George Hozvard, p, 188. — Cf. Dr. Paul All'.ot's definition of yellow fever. Robertson, Louisiana, v. I, p. 147 — ^Berqiiiin-Duvallon, Vue de la Colonic Espagnole, pp. 84-93 — Volney, View of the United States of America, pp. 297-323. 18 Cf. The Amiericans, p. 144. 19 Pflmi::erlehen, pt. II, p. 76. 20 Cf. The Americans, p. 193. "It is the pestilential miasmata which rise from swamps and marshes, and infect the air to a degree which it is difficult to describe. These oppressive exhalations load the air, and it is almost impossible to draw breath." 21 Pflanzerlehen, pt. II, pp. 95-96. -3 Berquin-Duvallon, i'ue dc la Colonic Espagnole, pp. 178-179 is the only place where we have found his whole name and part of his title. Here lie is called Lietitenant-Governeur-civil et auditeur de guerre des provinces de la Louisiane et de la Floride occidentale, .Tuge, etc., etc. Sealsfield knew Berquin-Duvallon's book, which we think the above passage will show. Other proofs will be referred to later. 171 CHARLES SEALSFIELD they were admitted. The impressions which the visitors- re- ceived upon entering the room are described in the following lines : '''"On a chair, which stood behind a table upon which lay corsets and mosquito- fans, old breeches, glasses with remains of pineapple punch, garters, and such other things, sat the person to whom we, or rather the Caballero de Mazanares, was introduced with a deep bow. He wore knee- breeches, open at the knee, but no stockings, one of his feet was dressed in an old slipper, the other was bare, over his shirt he had a black coat, on his head a three-cornered hat, and although sitting, had a sword belted to his side. This was his excellency, the vice-gobemador — en passant be it said, the most disagreeable ape to look upon I ever en- countered in all my life." He swept from the table the "named and nameless" articles, leaving only the punch bowl and glasses, when from the adjoining room came forth a creature, yelling and cursing. It was a mulatto wench, dis- habille, who with the most astonishing sans gens picked up everything, and then began to caress his Spanish excellency, not in the least heeding his request to be decent. Finally the woman left, and the Caballero signed the documents and dis- missed the Frenchmen with a huen viaje. As shown below,-' this passage proves a knowledge of Berquin-Duvallon's Vue de la Colonie Hspagnole. Another picture, drawn by Wetherell, a carpenter in the city of Natchidoches during the last decade of the eighteenth century, gives proof of the pomp and mock court life of this city during the Spanish regime. He had bdield Natchidoches 23 Pflanzerleben, pi. II, pp. 100-101. 2* This distorted and perhaps somewhat exaggerated picture of the private and public life of Vidal most probably goes back to the following lines in Berquin-Duvallon, p. 181. After a lengthy criticism of this chief justice's manner of executing his duty we read: "A man as vicious as the unjust magistrate, in the very face of his country- men, wiho are scandalized by his manner of living, and in a position where he ought to give others the example of good morals, is not the old rake with a monkey face, (a mine de singe, Affenphysiognomie) as ugly as it is impudent and evil, and wallowing in his celibacy, seen openly with a French mulatress whom he has enriched with a part of his plunder?" 172 NATIONAL TYPES in all its glory, its thriving and its lustre. He had also wit- nessed its decay and its downfall.^' There were military parades and levees with all those present qualified for court, who afterwards accompanied the commandant to church.^" Yes, there were even three distinct social orders in the city, which in 1788 counted but 1021" souls, of which about one half were people of color. But most illustrious were the days when the Marquis of Maison Rouge took his abode in the fort. He had just been granted some land on the Ouachita and was to ^'"create a new era in Louisiana, and thus to balance the Revolutionary States, as he called them." Since Sealsfield attached so much significance to the Southwest, we believe it necessary to give a more detailed description of the remarkable composition of Louisiana's population. Pfianzerleben, or The Life of a Planter and Scenes in the Southwest, as Hebbe and Mackay rendered the titles of part I and H, respectively, which now describes the life of the American planter, and again gives pictures of the Creole, is probably the work where Sealsfield depicts life best, since it is that of his own immediate environment. Creoles are the descendants of the white people who emigrated to Louisiana during the colonial period — i. e., be- fore 1803 ; and are properly speaking only those born within the limits of the original territory of Louisiana.^' "The con- sequences of an oppresive colonial government (described above), the natural effects of an enervating and sultry climate, could not fail giving to the character of the Creoles a certain tone of passiveness, which makes them an object of interest."' Thus Sealsfield says in The Americans,^" and continues as 25 Pfianzerleben, pt. I, p. 312ff. 26 The following quotation may serve as proof that Sealsfield's description does not deviate much from the truth. Gayarre, Louisiana, V. Ill, p. 21. "'Having been inform'ed by the curate of Natchidoches that during worship the church is filled with dogs, I request the commandant to prevent the repetition of this breach of decency'." 2T Gayarre, Louisiana, v. Ill, p. 215. 28 Pfianzerleben, pt. I, p. 319. 29 Deiler, Hanno. Settlement of the German Coast of Louisiana, and the Creoles of German Descent, p. 114. 3" The Americans, p. 170ff. 173 CHARLES SEALSFIELD follows: "Drawbacks of their character are an over-ruling passion for frivolous amusements,^^ an impatience of habit and a tendency for the luxuriant enjoyment of the other sex, without being very scrupulous in their choice of either the black or the white race. Their greatest defect, however, is their indifference towards the poor and towards their slaves." With these words Sealsfield introduces the Creole in his writings. Proceeding to a more detailed description of their char- acter, the author depicts them in the same paragraph as not being capables of '^"either violent passions or of strong exer- tion." Their unwillingness to work, and their lack of will power and of every mental activity, are branded somewhere else with the adjective "soft-soap. "^^ ^*The Creoles rathe dance their way through the world, just as their fathers, the French, did when they first came to this country. Even in their first settlements they could not rid themselves of this foolish dancing mania,^'^ and one of the first public buildings that was erected in a French or Creole community was a dance hall.^° In chapter V of Pflanzerleben, part I, which bears the heading "The Creoles," Sealsfield caricatures a minuet executed on board a ship. The music for this ex abrupto 31 Cf. Flagg's The Far West, pt. II, p. 52 — Cf. Franz, Alexander, Die Kolonisation des Mississippitales, p. 420. 32 The Americans, p. 170. 3* Ralph Doughhy, p. 153, The German word is seifeiiartig. 34 Flagg's The Fair West, pt. II, pp. 52-53. "The calm, quiet tenor of their lives presenting but few objects for enterprise, none of the strivings of ambition, and but little occasion of any kind to elicit the loftier energies of our nature, has imparted to their character, their feeling, their manners, to the very language they speak, a languid softness." — Cf. Volney, C. F., View of the United States of America, p. 384. — ^Compare with the testimony of these men that of Francisco Bouligny (Fortier, Louisiana, V. II, Ch. II, p. 33fF.) 33 George Howard, p. 220 — Cf. The Americans, p. 173. 38 Cf. Berquin-Duvallon. Vue de la Colonic Bspagnolc, pp 283-284, where the author speaks of the passion for dancing. — Cf. Pflanzer- leben, pt. II, p. 127. "The city (New Orleans) consisted only of some few miserable shacks, when a theatre had to be erected. Then fol- lowed gambling houses and ball houses, and still worse houses. And this they called civilizing the country." _ — 174 NATIONAL TYPES ball is furnished by two Creoles singing ta-ta, ta-ta, ti-ti, li-li, la — etc. They have a mattre de danse, and believe their whirling, leaping and bounding d I'incroyable, divine! superbe! and finally one of them exclaims: "Oh Messieurs, les Ameri- cains preferent la politique a toute autre chose, nous la danse!""'' This, no doubt, is true. Although it was only a few days before the presidential election of 1828, they knew little, and cared absolutely nothing about it; they wanted to be let alone and not be bothered with politics. They have, furthermore, no understanding for the desire of their Ameri- can neighbor to better their own conditions by improving their surroundings. "Ah,"^* says one of them, "the shentel- men in America sont une grande nation, but they give no quiet, no peace, neither by day nor night ; all they turn bottom upward — always they improve — never stay in one place . . . They come calling us to a meeting, 'must have a new road', they say, 'from Alexandria to Natchidoches'. 'Well', we reply, 'here is money, make the road; our negroes shall help, although our ancestors, who were surely no drones, did with- out the road to Natchidoches.' " But the progressive Ameri- can settlers want to extend the road to Santa Fe, and another argument ensues. They again obtain money and help, for this time the Creoles are in hopes that they won't be troubled any more. Soon, however, a canal is needed, and the Creoles argue that they did without one for a hundred years, and if the canal were really necessary "le ban Dieu would have cer- tainly created one." "Au diable with their public good,'' is their slogan even when called as jurors. Their ban plaisir lakes the place of the American's desire for community we!- fare.'» 37 Pfianzerlehen, pt. I, p. 221. S8 Pfianserleben, pt. I, p. 253. 38 Cf. Flint, Recollections, p. 209. "But, however happy these hunters, left unnrolested in the wilderness, may have been, the country made no advances towards actual civilization and improvement under them. Like the English mariners on the sea, their home was in boats and canoes, along these interminable rivers, or in the forests, hunting with the Indians. The laborious and municipal life, and the agricul- tural and permanent industry of the Americans, their complex system of roads, bridges, trainings, militia, trials by jury, and above all, their 175 CHARLES SEALSFIELD Many Creoles, especially those above Alexandria, are said to live as half-Indians;*" the majority are only half civilized, shallow,*^ and many ignorant of writing.*^ Ignorance will always be found as a creator and con- commitant of immorality. Such was also the case with our Creoles, at least with the men; "of*^ their devotion to the Negresses, they are strongly and justly accused, consequently, they make deplorable husbands." Their women, however, show a proper sense of decorum." *^" Adultery is seldom known among the better classes,*^ notwithstanding the many grounds afforded them by the infidelity of their husbands." In Pflanzerleben II we witness a most disgusting scene of this kind. A girl who has proof against her own father, a native Frenchmen, accuses him of spoiling her slaves by mak- ing them too impudent through his intimacy with them.*^ In the Allains,** however, who inhabit L,a Chartreuse, the most beautiful house in all the Attacapas, the author describes the voluptious coquetry of a Creole woman and her two daughters who live here as moral outcasts. taxes, were as hostile to the feelings of the greater portion of the inhabitants, when we purchased Louisiana, as the fixed home and labor of a Russian are said to be to a Tartar." — Cf. Flagg's The Par West, p. S3. "As to politics and the affairs of the nation, which their coun- trymen on the other side of the water ever seem to think no incon- siderable object of their being, they are too tame and too lazy, and too quiet to think of the subject." 4" George Howard, p. 225. 41 Ralph Doughby, p. 83— -Cf. Berquin-Duvallon, p. 298. *2 Pflanzerleben, pt. L P. 310— Cf. Berquin-Duvallon, p. 206. ** Pflanzerleben, pt. I, p. 303. ** Sealsfield agrees with Berquin-Duvallon also as to the char- acter of the women, who are pictured by both writers as being much superior to the men. — Cf. Franz, Die Kolonisation des Mississippitales, p. 42L ■*5 The Americans, p. 172. *® Cf. Darby, William, Geographical Description of Louisiana, p. 276. Tender, affectionate, and chaste, but few instances of con- nubial infidelity arise from the softer sex." 4T Pflanzerleben, pt. H, pp. 196-201. 48 Ibid., Chapters II and III. 176 NATIONAL, TYPES Of their indifference toward the poor,*' alluded to above, the Creoles gave proof when they refused to admit the San Domingo refugees, their own brethren and cousins, while the northern states opened their gates to the unfortunates. They showed themselves indeed so inhuman and cruel that Seals- field was justified in saying, "that period will forever remain a blot of disgrace upon the not very glorious history of Louisiana."^" We have here probably another example where Sealsfield proves his familiarity with Berquin-Duvallon's work (pp. 230-242), which discusses at length the fate which the San Domingo refugees met in Louisiana and compares it with the hospitality and kindness shown them by northern citizens. Even Menou, who with his whole family, was much superior to most Creoles, had a good many qualities in com- mon with them. He ruled his house with an iron hand, and was, in truth, a tyrant within his domestic circle,^^ especially where the marriage of one of his daughters was concerned. A marriage de convenance usually decided the fate of Creole girls, not affection and congeniality.^^ Although Menou did not treat his slaves as cruelly as did the rabble, he believed that an occasional flogging was the best method of showing superiority.^^ The most effective punishment, however, which he could inflict upon an untam- able Negro was the threat to sell him to Merveille, the owner of a sugar plantation, =* and a "veritable devil, who had his Negroes flogged so unmercifully that he had very often been in danger of his life."^^ 49 Cf. Berquin-Duvallon, Vue de la Colonie Espagnole, p. 223. "Benefaction and generosity are unfamiliar to them." (The pages fol- lowing give a striking example of the absence of these traits). 50 Pflanzerleben, pt. II, pp. 127-128. 51 Ralph Doughby, p. 264. 52 Ibid., p. 269. 63 The Americans, p. 133— .Cf. Berquin-Duvallon, p. 210, "dur pour leurs esclaves." Cf. ibid., p. 227. 5* Pflanzerleben, pt. I, p. 110. 55 Cf. ibid., p. 157, "To have a French master is as good as to have the devil himself" is a negro proverb. 177 CHARLES SEALSFIELD Long visits amongst friends, and feasts connected with them, are a bright side of the life of the better class. ''^ The Menous, for example, were "entertaining" constantly. Another evidence of Sealsfield's indebtedness to Berquin- Duvallon, we find in his remarks on their language, or rather, on the Creole's pronunciation of French. He must have known the book and must have reproduced the passage quoted below°' from memory as follows : ^^"zirai a la zasse et se vous assure que ze rentrai avec ma zarze de zibier (J'irai a la chasse et je vous assure que je rentrai avec ma charge de gibier). Furthermore in a footnote to this example of hissing pronunciation of the Creoles, he makes the same general re- marks as we find in Vue de la Colonic Bspagnole. The Creoles' character and mode of life are summed up best by Vignerolles who in the presence of several Creoles gives the following description of the Attacapans during the last years of Louisiana's colonial existence : ^""They were really a strange people, and reminded us, only too often, of the bayous which had driven us almost to despair — a torn fragment, carried hither by the floods of the Mississippi, sent from the European stream of civilization, and gone into stoppage, cessation, and decay. I cannot find a more gentle expression, for the whole colony really bore a disagreeable expression of decay. They resided in uncomfortable houses, and had thousands of cattle, calves, and cows on the meadows, and not a drop of milk or an ounce of butter in the house, because the care of a milk cow would have made too much trouble.'*'' They had slaves by the dozens, but employed them in fanning away the mosquitoes from the mistresses, carrying 68 Cf. Flagg's The Far West, pt. II, p. 52— Volney, View of the United States, pp 385-386. ^^ Berquin-Duvallon, Vue de la Colonie Bspagnole, p. 292. "Ze ne sace point avoir zamais He sacer, que se ne sois renire ce moi avec ma sarge de zibier." 58 Pflanserlehen, pt. II, p. 290. 59 Pflanzerleben, pt. II, pp. 215-217. (* For cattle raising (vacherie) in the Attacapas see Franz, Die Kolonisation des Mississippitales, p. 288. ■ 178 NATIONAL, TYPES her reticule or fan, and rolling her from one end of the bal- cony to the other, playing with the spoiled children, and afterwards causing them to be whipped by the overseer for pastime .... And then, the inhuman coldness with which they could order their Negroes to be whipped, and their cruelty to their animals. Do you see, a nobleman will, whenever he punishes a Negro, never forget what he owes to himself ; the canaille is always cruel, I have ever found it so." And still these Creoles are superior to some of their an- cestors, who lived in the backwoods and by constant contact with savages have assumed a similar character. "^"The back- woods Frenchman of Missouri is brutal, and on account of his connection with the Indians, malicious and unscrupulous, which the Creole is not. A mild climate, intercourse with refined foreigners and Americans from the North, have mitigated him, whereas the French, living in the backwoods, have only met with the scum of American and foreign popula- tion — we cannot designate the majority of adventurers and fur traders, who live there in their own way, by a different term." Even less favorable are the author's remarks concerning the Acadians, who had come from Nova Scotia,^^ whence they were dispersed over the English Colonies and Louisiana. ^^"Between the 1st of January and the 13th of May, 1765, about six hundred and fifty Acadians had arrived at New Orleans, and from that town had been sent to form settle- ments in the Attacapas and Opelousas." ''*Here they lived a most miserable life, suffering from the lack of food and shelter, for which the majority depended upon the govern- menf^ and charitable people. The Creoles and Frenchmen 81 Die Vereinigten Staaten, v. II, pp. 126-127. 82 Supra, pp. 37-38. 83 Gayarre, Louisiana, v. II, p. 121. M For a picture of an Acadian colony see Terrage, Les Derniers Annees de la Louisiane Frangaise, p. 281. 85 Cf. Gayarre, Louisiana, v. II, p. 122— .S"a?j Domingo Archives A. G I., 87-1-21 No 4. New Orleans, October 10, 1781— Berquin- Uuvallon, Vue de la Colonie Espagnole, p. 250. 179 CHARLES SEALSFIELD looked down upon them, partly, of course, because they were poor and possessed few or no Negroes, and had to plant their corn with their own rough and dirty fingers. ^^ Nathan calls them "^"excellent hunters, but savage, riotous, drunken bar- barians." And even the fair-minded Count Vignerolles speaks of them as follows : "^"The Acadians had at the first sign of the prairie fire shipped in boats on their bayou" to capture the frightened animals who were driven into the water by the prairie fire. "These Acadians were half savage figures, the men only with leggings around their thighs; the few women in coarse chemises and a kind of vest. Our hearts revolted at the brutal manner in which they shot down the animals.""' The Acadian Roch Martin on the other hand, is an upright and honest fellow, who feels somewhat hurt at being spoken of as an Acadian dog, but who knows himself to be far superior to most Creoles and Frenchmen of the Attacapas, and, therefore, is rather profuse with words of advice to Vignerolles and his companions. He warns them of the Creoles and French.'" Somewhere on the Red River, at Holmes' Station, in the heart of the Creole settlements, we are made acquainted with some American planters and their work, and its influence upon the community. George Howard introduces them with the following words: '^"A dozen American families have settled here simultaneously with myself. They thrive well. It is charming to me to view the development of our country in its various phases, and to consider the abyss between the past and the present. Thus I have seen the settlements in the plantations which we are approaching, exclusively in- habited by Creoles, and in as poor a state of cultivation as can be imagined. I full well remember my sadness at be- 88 Pflanzerlehen, pt. II, p. 172. w Nathan, p. 92. 68 Pflanzerlehen, pt. II, pp. 316-317. 69 A very good and condensed characterization of the Acadians may be found in Berquin-Duvallon. pp. 2S0-2S1. TO Pflanzerlehen, pt. II, p. 210. 71 Ihid., pt. I, pp. 337-340. 180 ■ NATIONAL TYPES holding these Rip van Winkle huts and houses, and those meagre cotton and tobacco fields covered with weeds. It seemed a cursed spot, on which work would be utterly use- less, and the community doomed to starvation. But a few dozen Americans have arrived, and they have already raised the character of the land. At first there was no end to quar- rels, slanders, and bon mots. The whole community had bu': one voice in this respect : it resembled an able-bodied land- lord, who, within his four walls, cares for neither the world nor his guests — well aware that both must drink his sour wine, it being the only species in that entire region; and who was only roused from his lethargy on suddenly beholding, opposite his door, a new sign and a new landlord, promising cheap fare. Notwithstanding the voice, of the good man and his party, the community are eager to prove the wine of the newcomer. They find it superior to the former sour stuff, and thus gained by the rivalry. They have gained, the place has gained, for the influx of travelers increases through the fame of the good wine and the excellent host. The same with our Creoles on this and all other stations. Their coarse and heavy tobacco becomes fragrant and perfumed, their yellow and short cotton, long and white, excelling all the rest in the State. It was precisely the same with their little community, as with the above ; the people lived comfortably and con- tentedly in their indolence, but were hurried out of it by the lively approach of a youthful rival; and it requires the exer- cise of all their five senses to preserve themselves from being overshadowed, if not overwhelmed." Here we have but an example of the better, the morally and physically stronger, surviving and finally taking the place of the weaker. ''^"Indolence, luxury, and effeminacy, are vices that are but seldom to be met with in the American planter. He does not yield to the northern farmer in activity or industry. He cannot work in person without exposing him- self to a bilious fever; but this is not necessary; the superin- tendence of his affairs is sufficient occupation for him." Con- ■^2 The Americans^ p. 136. 181 — - CHARLES SEALSFIELD cerning their alleged intimacy with female slaves, the author seeks to save their reputation with the following words: "^"Of the effeminate and luxurious style in which the southern planters are said to indulge — of their pretended fondness for female slaves, without whose assistance they cannot find their beds, I have never had any proof, though in both my jour- neys I have not passed less than a year in Mississippi and Louisiana, and know one-half of the plantations." And again in Chapter II of Pflanzerleben II, where the worry and toil of a planter's week are described, we read : '*"People often con- sider the life of a planter in Louisiana, a continued series of enjoyments; a resting on rosebeds, in a palanquin, fanned by a couple of Negresses, and so on. But in truth, our planter's life offers fewer comforts and enjoyments, than fall to the lot of the northern citizen, who may perhaps be less wealthy. Take for instance our table. It is laid out all the week with ham, buckwheat cakes, and fried potatoes — an article of luxury, since they are imported from Ireland. Now and then for a change — mackerel, a hen, or turkey, of which, by the way, some sick Negro or other has his share. Venison is plentiful, it is true; deer and bears appear daily on the edges of the forest, and swim across the river ; wild geese and ducks fly by thousands above your head, often drowning your voice with their cries; but we have no time to think of shooting them, and even did we spare a shot, ten chances to one, that an alligator would dispute the possession of the prey .... Thus we never think of hunting, even were the heat less op- pressive. By the most scrutinizing order alone, can we dis- charge our numerous daily duties. Mrs. Howard is in motion from early dawn. The pickaninnies must be attended to also, the families must be supplied with their rations, and cared for in many other respects . . She is for ever in motion; Psyche, behind her with ten bunches of keys, unlocking and locking; a storeroom remaining open for ten minutes, is sure to be ravaged or emptied. These Negroes steal worse than 73 Ibid., p. 130. 74 Pflanzerleben, pi. I, pp. 84-88. 182 NATIONAL TYPES crows, conceal the stolen goods wherever they can, and what they cannot hide, they destroy . . . While Mrs. Howard has the care of fifty Negroes, on me devolves the duty of superin- tending the cotton and corn crops, the cotton-gin, and a thou- sand .other things." Nothing but an exact knowledge of each man's capacity can secure the master against fraud and ruin." Some American planters tried to alleviate the evil of slavery through kindness and consideration. At least George Howard, at whose plantation the author entertains us for weeks, wants to be a father to twenty-five families of Negroes.'^ He sincerely desires the welfare of his slaves, and therefore, pursues the course which he is persuaded is the right one for their final civilization,'^ namely, to make them more human through kindness and love. It seems that the Frenchman and his descendants, the Creoles and Acadians (other admixtures of blood are not im- portant enough to destroy the strain) were not able to suc- ceed in the wilderness as well as the American, English and German colonists did. One of the reasons, Sealsfield believes, is the Frenchman's dependence upon his fellow creatures. He has an extraordinary desire to be "amused,'^ to chat, causer, as he calls it, and once reduced to himself, he soon loses these brilliant attributes which, while they so eminently distinguish his nation, expose, at the same time, a want of. mental con- sistency and creative power. Surely we find in civilized life nothing more stupid — the Negroes alone excepted — than a Frenchman or Creole who has been deprived of society for any length of time. His decline in civilization is striking; he evinces not the least desire for mental enjoyment; reading he considers a loss of time — folly. He is entirely the opposite of the American or Englishman, who even in solitude pro- gresses onward — yes ! and in it, will become an independent man. Behold him on his remote plantation, in the midst of a primeval forest, with all its energie — he is independent. May '8 Pflanzerleben, pt. I, p. 16S. T6 Ibid., p. 146. " Pfianserlehen, pt. I, pp. 78-79. ■ 183 CHARLES SEALSFIELD not the natural superiority of the English and the Americans, and the higher degree of civil liberty to which they have at- tained, be considered as attributes to their different elements of constitution and national character? I think so. Where the necessities of society demand it, the individual raises no objection to constraints, necessary on account of the central- ization of the social laws." Sealsfield was especially interested in the status of social relations between the Creole and the American settlers. In Der Legitime, ''^he treats of the change which was experienced by the inhabitants of Louisiana after the cession of the ter- ritory in 1803. At first they feared bad results, but finally the better class became aware of the advantages which arose to them out of this union, namely, the establishment O'f more liberal institutions, whereas the lower class continued to con- sider the newcomers intruders, and, therefore, refrained from all connections with them.'^ Undoubtedly, the author believe^ that great benefits will be derived from intermarriage. Two of his principal characters, Doughby and Howard, live in happy wedlock with Creole girls; VigneroUes, a Frenchman, marries Emily Warren, and thus a girl of New England's would-be aristocracy, a Kentuckian, and Virginian are united with French aristocracy and Creole slavocracy. T8 Der Legitime, pt. II, pp. 128-130. T9 Cf. Supra, pp. 61-62. 184 Chapter V. NEGROES AND SLAVERY. We cannot conclude our descriptions of Louisiana's population without speaking of the Negro. To men of Seals- field's character and temperament, the question as to the life and social condition of the black race in America must have had an especial appeal; and his reader, the German of the fourth and fifth decades of the last century, must have been equally interested in an institution which, in strange con- tradiction to the fundamental principles of the Declaration of the Rights of Man,'^ treated a whole race of human beings as chattels, living in absolute bondage — an institution which, moreover, had been upheld and perpetuated by the very men who had framed the Constitution of the United States. Seals- field tried to reconcile the conditions which we are about to depict, with his descriptions of liberty and equality either by ignoring the facts of the origin and growth of slavery, or by reasoning in a manner such as the following: since despite our efforts to avert it, the evil exists, we must try to remedy it by taking the right stand, and work toward eventual eman- cipation by educating the Negroes through kind treatment and by putting them in possession of property. Furthermore, he himself, although a professed enemy to every sort of slavery,^ kept slaves on his plantation in Louisiana, (if he ever possessed one)^ and felt, therefore, morally obliged to justify his views by picturing conditions in colors less dark than, for 1 Goebel, Julius, Jus Connaium and the Declaration of the Rights of Man, (Jour, of Engl, and Germ. Phil., v. XIX, No. I, pp. 1-18.) 2 Die Vereinigten Staaten, v. II, p. 161. * His biographers assert it without any other proof than the author's own words, which, however, have been contradicted by facts in more than one case. 185 CHARLES SEALSFIELD example, the publications of the American Anti-slavery Society did. Thus it may be said of Sealsfield what the author of an anonymous book on Negro Slavery* remarks of the planter in Hall's Sketches of America: "As a planter he is in- terested in concealing the evils, and still more the enormities, of Negro servitude; while, as an American (Sealsfield always speaks of himself as an American) he is naturally anxious to vindicate the national character in the eyes of a foreigner." The author must have reasoned as Compte de Vignerolles did after he had studied the situation and had overcome his in- born prejudices : ^"There are some evils which cannot be cured by avoiding them, but only by boldly meeting and man- fully facing them. Such an evil is slavery in the southern parts of the Union." But before entering upon his views on slavery as a prin- ciple and an institution, we shall draw some sketches of the daily life and social conditions of the black race as the author describes it in The Americans, and at George Howard's plan- tation, where we shall see twenty-five families, good and bad, in joy aind in sorrow, at work and after work, on weekdays and Sundays. They live in a little colony of huts close together, each family inhabiting its own little cabin. ^ We notice, then, that the very arrangement is based upon family life and not upon promiscuous concubinage, as was usually the case.'' "Formal marriages," be says in The Americans, '"rarely take place be- tween slaves ; if the Negro youth feels himself attracted by the charms of a black beauty, their master allows them to cohabit. If the female slave is on a distant plantation, the youth is permitted to see her, provided he be trustworthy, and not suspected of an intention to eflfect his escape. The chil- * Negro Slavery, or a View of the more Prominent Features of that State of Society, as it exists in the United States of America . . London, 1823, p. 2. 5 Nathan, p. 378. 6 Cf. American Slavery as it is, p. 19, 43. 7 Cf. Ibid., p. 8S. 8 The Americans, p. 133. • 186 NATIONAL TYPES dren belong to the mother, or rather to her master, who is not permitted to dispose of them before they are ten years of age." In one case, the author tells us, Howard acquired a female slave for four hundred and fifty dollars from Baker's Station to put an end to the continual excursions of one of his Negroes. ° ^""Each family has pigs and poultry, which are main- tained in the woods and plantation at the expense of the planter.'' Since most Negroes have usually finished their tasks by four o'clock, the remaining time is used by the women to raise vegetables and tobacco, which they either consume themselves or offer for sale. "Every male and female Negro receives monthly a bushel of corn, which they prepare in large hand-mills ^^for their favorite hominy," and since they receive also "weekly rations 'of meat, ham, and salt-fish, "^^ they certainly cannot complain either of the lack or the monotony of food.^^ George Howard's Negroes receive half-yearly allowances of clothing. That for winter consists of a ""woolen blanket, of which the women prepare a suitable garment, with the necessary material for pants." Their summer dress consists of ^'"light cotton inexpressibles, and, in the cool of the morn- ing, shirts of like material." ^^"The women are clad in short skirts and chemises, with a fastening around the neck." Quite a bit of trouble was experienced when Mrs. Howard enforced the covering of the bosom. ^' Women, when sick, and during the period of confinement are often taken to the back parlor of the planter's home, where they receive the best of carp. Here Tabby is delivered of twins, and here she stays while '* Pflanzerlehen, pt. I, p. 52. 10 Ihid., pt. I, p. 74. 11 Cf. Peck's Guide to the West, pp. 121-122. 1- Cf. The Americans, p. 130. IS Cf. American Slavery, pp. 18, 28-35. 1* Pfiancerleben, pt I, p. 74. 15 Ibid., pp. 67-68. 16 Ibid., p. 70. 1''' Cf. American Slavery, p. 19, 40-41. 187 — CHARLES SEALSFIELD her infants need the care of Mrs. Howard, since the mother herself is too careless to be trusted with the nursing of her infants ; and before she leaves for her own little cabin, she is permitted to receive some "callers" here. ^'"Among the guests," says Sealsfield, "we behold, several colored gentle- men from the neighboring plantations — at least ten miles distant — all in full-dress. The ladies — any other term would be sacrilege — in calico, even silk dresses, bearing on their gloved arms Florence shawls, on their woolly heads silk tur- bans ; their beaux in blue, yellow, green and white frock-coats and jackets; and red, blue and green pantaloons; shoes and stockings, watch ribbons and chains, and, as I live, two of the gentlemen carry monocles, or rather penny watch glasses, equally good for actual service. They have spied the new fashion in Vergennes and Merveilles, and are anxious to be everyhit gentlemen . . . Queer creatures, theS'e blacks ! Every feature and motion aped, and aped in the most fantastic style. Their aping ^'often produces looks, hatred and punish- ment. Our white population of a certain grade abhor it; and even more enlightened individuals behold in it gloomy fore- bodings. But there is no help for it ! Once for all the Negro renounces his color, and be his body ever so black, in his manners, he strives to be white. ^"AU his thoughts and desires are the reverse of those of the Indian. Contemplating their odious, affected manners, a stoic might be unable to refrain from anger, and be led strongly to treat them as a troop of clothed ourang-outangs." Their life is free of cares; joyfully and happily, ever laughing and talking, they do their work, and spend their evenings. Their very laughter is so carefree that sometimes their master envies it ; merrily they seize upon the bright side 18 Pflanzerleben, pt. I, pp. 12-14. 1* Cf. Odum, Howard W., Social and Mental Traits of the Negro, p. 47. 20 Odum claims that only by educating the Negro as a Negro, as one of his color, rather than one who is to imitate white man, and with the proper material, he can be raised to that higher level of culture. 188 NATIONAL TYPES of life, driving all dull care away.^^ Another phase of care- freeness is a good portion of carelessness, which, were it not for the mistress of the plantation would soon cause everything to go to ruin — garments, food, and their very children. ^^ '''^"The Negro, when in good humor — and this he always shares with his master — enters on his occupation with a sort of grace, and a lightness of heart, never found amongst the white population. You are disgusted (says Howard) with the gloomy expression of the white laborer, compared with that of the black." While at work he is forever in motion, prattling, laughing and joking. ^*"If he finds no human being with whom he can pass his time in social converse, he turns to the first object that meets his eye. A dog, a mouse, a rat, answers his purpose, until something turns up ; and only when this novelty is not to be found, does he grow irritated, im- patient and dull." ^^Sometimes, on a Sunday, a little amuse- ment is arranged for them. They are given something special to eat, and several bottles of rum. This feast is followed by a dance, which lasts till almost midnight.^* Their dances,'" indeed, are sensuous. Voluptiousness is visible in every mo- lion of the Negresses. But this is only natural, and must not be judged too severely. ^'"It is not so much vice as bad habit, which should be well distinguished from the lasciviousness of white females. However, it is a strange fact, that our female 21 Pflanzerlehen, pt. I, pp. 22-23. 22 Pflanzerlehen, pt. I, pp. 67, 87— Cf. Odum, Social and Mental Traits of the Negro, p. ISS. 28 Pflanzerlehen, pt. I, p. 69. 24 Ihid., pt. I, p. 77. 26 Cf. Odum, p. 184. "The ante-bellum Negroes were noted for their cheerfulness and gaiety. Their good nature and amiability, their good sense of humor and lack of resentment made their conduct especially agreeable to those with whom they were associated. Almost constant and pleasing musings while they were kept constantly at work, were factors in the Negro's life that kept him for the most part within bounds of a remarkable standard of rectitude." — Cf. Channing, W. E., Works, p. 720. 26 Pflanzerlehen, pt, I, pp. 37-49. 27 Ibid., pp. 70-71. 28 Ihid. 189 CHARLES SEALSFIELD slaves, notwithsitanding their animal passions, never descend to the lowest grade of infamy like white or colored females in the North. They do not even offer their embrace for sale in the disgusting, shameless manner of the whites. Even in their baseness there is something natural. Fickleness, a light heart, hot blood, the desire for a new ribbon or silken kerchief are their stimuli, which always keeps them above zero ; ^'for the same reasons they never ascend to the high moral feelings or the chaiste love of the whites. Something brutal and instinct- like ever predominates, preventing extremes." Some of their greatest weaknesses are lying and petty thieving. ^°"They are never to be trusted completely — treat them as ill, or as well, as you will — a gloomy trait in the Negro character.'' As soon as a storeroom remains open only ten minutes, ^^ it is ravaged or emptied. "They steal worse than crows, and conceal the stolen goods whenever they can," and when asked to confess to the theft, they will lie as long as a lie remains available. ^^ Howard claims that the Negroes are by nature malicious, ^^ and therefore takes great care to keep them peaceful, removing the disturbing elements, rather than giving them numberless floggings. ^*"The best materials for a durable and unfluctuating government,'' he says, "are an unchangeable degree of cool- ness and dignity, combined with the proper dose of humanity, which leads us, not to neglect the welfare of our blacks for our own, and an amount of wholesome severity, which does not shrink in case of necessity from applying a lash or two. Too much tenderness is a fault in the slave holder ; with it, he is unfit to own slaves, and the latter are unfit for him. In The Americans,^^ we are tqld, that the punishment which "' Cf. Odum, p. 185. "The open lewdness of their women was not known in the proportion of the present-day Negro." 30 Pflanzerleben, pt. I, p. 21. 31 Ibid., p. 87, 145. 32 Ibid., pt. I, p. 55. 33 Ibid., p. 104. 34 Ibid., p. 45. 35 The Americans, p. 133. 190 NATIONAL TYPES masters are allowed to inflict on the slaves, is a flogging of thirty-nine lashes.^* Howard, who is here undoubtedly Seals- field's spokesman, wishes for a time when he has no longer to resort to floggings. ^'"Severity with moderation, and mild- ness void of sentimentality,'' he believes, "are the sure roads by which we may ultimately arrive at the point so much to be desired, viz., dispensing with the scourge." When this is accomplished, he maintains, the greatest evil in slavery will be removed, for ^^"slavery itself is not so much an evil, as that men, who have escaped the pillory, the whip of the prison, and the gallows — men, born in fact for white slaves, can un- punished, practice their mean malice on the slaves." Seals- field's hope lies in humane treatment and in giving them an opportunity to learn the value of property by actual posses- sion, which is ^'"the surest road to their civilization and cultivation." But at times, Howard seems to despair, for he realizes that without punishment he is not served as well as are tyrants;^" nevertheless, he is resolved upon exerting him- self to the utmost in turning to advantage an evil existing in our society. Another factor vital to the eventual emancipation of the black race is the education received in schools. In Pflanzer- leben, (pt. I, pp. 81-82) we hear of a controversy between Creole planters on one side, and more enlightened American slave holders on the other. It seems that the Creole tyrants are holding a convention to enforce a state law forbidding the attendance of Negroes in schools, and especially their in- struction in reading.*^ 36 Cf. American Slavery, p. 20. " . slaves arc whipped thirty- nine lashes, and sometimes more." 37 Pflan::crlcben, pt. I, pp. 102-103. 38 Ibid., pt. II, p. 217. _3» Ibid., pt. I, p. 75— Cf. Channing, Works, p. 727, emphasizes pos- session as a means of elevating the Negro for the enjoyment of h'berty. *o Pflamerleben, pt. I, p. 146. *l Brown, David Paul, p. 24, Appendix C. quotes passages which testify to the prohibition against slaves receiving instruction. 191 CHARLIES SEAtSFIELD But their life is not all play and joy even at Howard's plantation. *^Men and women go to the cotton fields at sun- rise and work until each has accomplished his task/^ pensum, which, during the cotton crop, for example, consists for a male of gathering from eighty to one hundred pounds of raw cotton a day, and for a female, from fifty to eighty, according to strength and health. This work is usually finished by about four o'clock in the afternoon. ""The hours remaining till sun- down are at their disposal, and they either hire their further services out to their master, or devote these hours to their private affairs. The former is usually done by the men in consideration of from eight to twelve cents per hour. The women care for the kitchen and field." *^On Sundays the slaves are exempt from working for their master. Many of them, however, glean the fields and gather a large amount of cotton. Thus we see that their fate was sometimes not so la- mentable as described in contemporaneous anti-slavery litera- ture, and we can well believe Isling,*^ who tells us of many of his slaves returning after being emancipated. Still Seals- field realized and appreciated the enormity of the evil, and hoped for the day when slavery should be abolished. ^^"Yes, happy are ye that do not feel the bitterness of your lot; ye who have not felt the horror of perpetual slavery ! Thrice happy, if fate permits you to pass your days in harmless ignorance until the coming of the day which will create you free beings. Yes, it will come, this day, which will enable us to atone for the sins of our fathers." In part two of Pflanzerleben there is a chapter entitled "Debate on Slavery." Here Sealsfield attempts to remove the blemish of having introduced slavery from the American *2 Pflanzerleben, pt. I, p. 73. *3 Cf. American Slavery, p. 18. 4* Pflanzerleben, pt. I, pp. 73-74. 45 The Americans, p. 132. ■*6 Morton, pt. I, p. 65. *^ George Howard, p. 144. 192 NATIONAL TYPES character, and at the same time, justifies the holding of slaves, who have been lawfully acquired. His arguments represent, perhaps, the characteristic mode of reasoning of more en- lightened slaveholders. It is a debate between American planters and lately arrived Frenchmen. While the French newcomers have only been reasoning abstractly, without a knowledge of true conditions, Richards begins his reasoning from the historic point of view: *^" 'Do you know in what way we came into possession of our slaves?' 'The way it was done makes no difference.' 'Yes', rejoined Richards, 'the ways and means of gaining pos- session of a property, designate the right of holding it. That you ought to know as a man of one idea*^ .... Our slaves have actually been forced upon us,' continues Richards, 'and therefore we are not in the least responsible for the existence of the evil among us. Permit me, messieurs, to show you briefly and historically the origin of slavery in the United States.' " After a discussion of Great Britain's attempt to create a monopoly for herself on all imports into the Colonies, one of which was slaves, he continues : '"'" 'One of those permitted imports, soon after the co- lonies had attained some wealth, was the importation of African Negro slaves. The first importation was made by a Holland vessel in 1620,^^ with consent of the British govern- ment; ^'^which, however, soon monopolized this whole com- merce, and permitted it only by British vessels fitted up in British ports and belonging to British subjects — in a word, it became a most perfect monopoly,"^ the colonists did not dare *8 Pflanzerleben, pt. II, p. 132. *9 Cf. Schurz, Henry Clay, v. II, p. 70. "The old anti-slavery societies had continued a quiet existence, most of them in the South, without creating any alarm. Then appeared on the stage, with all its peculiar strength, that formidable revolutionary factor in human af- fairs, the man of one idea." 50 Pftmzerlehen, pt. II, pp. 135 ff. 51 It was late in August, 1619, when "A Dutch mati of warre that told us twenty Negars," arrived in Jamestown, Virginia, as John Rolfe tells us. Du Bois, W. E. B., The suppression of the African Slave- Trade, p. 17. 52 This is not true! 53 Although England was the chief slave trading nation (Du Bois, 193 • Charles sealsfield to object; but they strongly opposed the importation of the slaves themselves. " 'It did not escape them, that the importation of these black Africans, — who, like other goods in the market, were sold like tea, sugar or spices — would introduce slavery, and perpetuate it in their land; the arrival of the first slave-ships, thei'efore, caused universal alarm. The colonies immediately came to the conclusion to remonstrate with the British par- liament against this inhuman traffic. They did so : they begged and prayed the Crown to relieve them of the importation of Negroes, and the consequently inevitable slavery.^* Mas- sachusetts,^'' Pennsylvania,^" Maryland,''^ and Virginia'^ did so, and other colonies followed their example. p. 40) she did not monopolize the trade. In fact some of the first slavers were fitted out and owned by the colonists, as for example the Treasurer and the Desire (Spears, John R. The American Slave- Trade, pp. 6-7), and till the middle of the last century many vessels were engaged in the trade. (Du Bois, pp. 27-28, Spears, "Appendix A"). 54 It can hardly be said that the Colonies resisted the importation of slaves. Slavery was a profitable business, they needed labor, and it was only a question whether black or white labor would be most profitable. (Spears, p. 13, 91) — It is usually said that the Puritan mind at first revolted at the idea of slavery, which was then confined to "lawfull Captives taken in just warres & such strangers as willingly selle themselves." (a law of 1641, proving that voluntary slavery was common). This, however, is not true, as Seidensticker tells us in Die erste deutsche Einwanderung , p. 80. 55 While Massachusetts men carried slaves into South Carolina, they passed a law in 1705 raising duty on importation, but giving a rebate of the whole duty on re-exportation (Spears, p. 12 — Du Bois, pp. 30-31), thus encouraging the trade rather than buying with the purpose of keeping. 58 Du Bois, pp. 20-21 says : "One of the First American protests against the slave trade came from certain German Friends in 1688, at a weekly meeting held in Germantown, Pennsylvania." Seiden- sticker tells us of the meeting, translates the protest signed by Hen- dricks, Pastorius, Dirk and Abraham Op den Graeff, and follows up this document through the monthly, quarter-annual, and annual meet- ings, which refused to take action.— (Cf. Bettle, E., Notices on Negro Slavery, pp. 364-36S). In 1712 the Puritans passed an "Act to prevent the importation of Negroes and Indians," the first enactment of its kind in America (Du Bois, p. 22). 5'' Maryland was never over-burdened with slaves, and prohibitive duties, which in 1771 were raised to £9, finally abolished the trade. (Du Bois, pp. 14-15). 58 Virginia, too, laid heavy duties upon importation to lessen the 194 National type^ " 'To give you an idea of the earnestness of these pro- testations, and the desperate perseverence of the petitioners, it will suffice to allude to the example of Georgia. Th<3 colony was the youngest, and last of the great settlements established under the English government. The foundation falls within the last deceniums of the first half of the eigh- teenth century (1733), a period when the barbarism of the middle ages had already been dispelled by the light of civiliza- tion ; and statesmen had begun to assume more humane prin- ciples. The excellent Oglethorpe was the founder and first governor. Hardly had the colony been formed, when British slavers appeared in the ports of Georgia, and opened their market with the sanction of the British government. It was in vain that the governor and the council protested — it was a right of the Crown to designate what articles might be im- ported; the interest of British commerce, it was contended, required the protection of a branch of trade in which so many ships were employed — the weal of the colonies was only a secondary consideration. The petitions of the colonists, the governor, and the council were refused. The first failure did not frighten them from a renewal of their prayers; they petitioned more urgently, eight or ten times successively, as the government acts of the colonies will show. The final answer to their indefatigable remonstrances was, that the governor was discharged,^' the council dissolved with a strong reproof, and the slave trade continued even more vigorously than it had been before."^" slave trade. In 1772 the Burgesses petitioned the King to "check so pernicious a commerce." When in 1776 a Frame of Government was adopted, the King was assailed for encouraging the trade. (Du Bois, pp. 13-14). 53 He returned to England on his own accord in 1743, where he became a coadjutor of Granville Sharp (Goodell, W., Slavery and Anti-slavery, p. 21.) ^ Oglethorpe, although himself Deputy Governor of the Royal African Company, and the Trustees of Georgia forbade the introduc- tion of slaves when the colony was founded. But the colonists did not cease to clamor for the repeal of these restrictions, until in 1749, they were successful and forced a limited importation. "In Georgia we have an example of a community whose philanthropic founders sought to impose upon it a code of morals higher than the colonists wished." (Du Bois, pp. 6-7 — Spears, pp. 95-97.) 195 CHARLES SEALSFIEIvD " 'The bad success of Georgia did not frighten the other colonies from the renewal of their petitions. They petitioned and prayed, and the more fervently as the evil became greater. In the northern colonies, they laid every obstacle in their power in the way of the importation and sale of slaves; but in the southern, where the constitution was less liberal, and gave to the governors appointed by the Crown more power, the slaves were positively forced upon the colonists. ^^The evil was so universally and deeply felt, that 'even this slave- trade became one of the leading causes which finally led to our revolution. " 'So you find in the original sketch of our Declaration of Independence — drawn by Jefferson, Adams, Livingston, Sher- man, and Franklin, and composed by Jefferson — an article, which, among the many other grievances which forced the colonists to take up arms, and to cast off the British yoke, mentions also: " 'That England has torn a strange people from their homes, transported them over wide seas, sold them in the North American colonies for slaves, and thus with strange people, a strange race, has opened a bloody market — ^yes, that she had not hesitated even to encourage these slaves, sold by her own sanction as such to the colonists, to a revolt against their masters and proprietors'." This little paragraph the author supplements with a foot- note, in which he has translated into German the following passage : " 'He has waged cruel war against human nature itself, violating its most sacred rights of life and liberty in the persons of a distant people who never offended him, cap- tivating and carrying them into slavery in another hemisphere, or to incur miserable death in their transportation thither. This piratical warfare, the opprobrium of infidel powers is the warfare of the Christian King of Great Britain. Deter- mined to keep open a market where men should be bought 61 "The assertion that the British forced the traffic on un- willing colonists in America is a puling whine.'' Spears, p. 97. • ■ 196 NATIONAL TYPES and sold, he has prostituted his negative for surpressing every legislative attempt to prohibit or to restrain his execrable com- merce. And that this assemblage of horrors might want no fact of distinguished dye, he is now exciting those very people to rise in arms among us, and to purchase that liberty of which he has deprived them, by murdering the people upon whom he has obtruded them : Thus paying off former crimes constituted against the Liberties of one people, with crimes which he urges them to commit against the Lives of another.' See Acts of Congress of 1776."^^ And now the text goes on : " 'This article', continued Richards, 'has certainly been omitted in the publication of the Declaration of Independence, at the request of some delegates from the southern colonies,"^ who in the debates had declared their doubts of its expediency; and as universal agreement in so important a document naturally took precedence over all other considerations. But the disgust at this inconsiderate barbarism of the government was expressed no less loud in the southern, than in the northern colonies. " 'The colonies, even before the hostilities against Great Britain commenced, began to take measures to stop this in- human trade. The so-called Continental Congress of Philadel- phia, assembled in the year 1774, passed the unanimous resolu- tion that from the beginning of December of the same year, no slave should be imported or exposed for sale.^* The same resolution has been previously passed by the colonial As- semblies of New York"^ and Delaware.''^ That these resolu- 82 Jefferson, Writings, v. I, pp. 34-35 — lejfersonian Cyclopedia, p. 813, No. 7944. 83 "This clause," says Jefferson in his Autobiography (I, 19), "was struck out in complaicence to South Carolina and Georgia . ." who have never attempted to restrain the importation of slaves. ^ 8* Cf. Spears, p. 105. "When the colonists united to oppose British oppression, the talk about slavery and slaves, which had reference to their own condition, turned their thoughts to the un- fortunate Negro slaves, and on Tuesday, October 20, 1774, they signed an agreement that they would not purchase any slaves im- ported after the first day of December next." 65 New York forbade it in 1785 (Du Bois, p. 11.) 88 The first legislation in Delaware we find in 1775, but the governor vetoed the bill. 197 • CHARLES SEALSFIELD tions did not have the deserved success, must alone be ascribed to the inevitable discord which followed ours, as well as every other Revolution. " 'It would have been desiraible, if the fifty-two framers of this immortal monument of political wisdom, had also in- vested the central government with pov^^er to dispose of this slave question. But this was not done, and could not be done ; because the several States, enjoying now the full use of their civil and political rights, considered the slave question a ques- tion of property. A majority of them were now really slave holders, and only in the New England States, where slavery had never taken much root, had it been abolished during the interim of 1787 to 1789.^' A majority of the voices in Con- gress were in possession of the southern slave-holding States, who, gradually accustomed to the evil, were the more un- willing to abolish it, as they had invested a large part of their property in the purchase of their slaves. And if you con- sider the difficulties which had to be overcome, before a strong and efficient general government could be formed — difficulties the greater, as every State was unwilling to sacrifice more of its sovereign rights than was absolutely necessary, and that, thereby, the hands of the great framers of the constitution, Washington, Jefferson, Franklin, Adams, Hamilton, Morris, were in a measure tied, then you will easily understand, how even these great and wise statesmen had to yield in this, as in many other points, lest they should injure the great life- principle of the rising States ; for the question was, whether the delivered colonies should become thirteen small disunited republics, or one great, powerful Union. But even this con- vention did not wholly forget the slave question; Nay, more was done in it, than in all the governments of Eiu'ope of that 6T We must distinguish between slave holding and slave trade. It is the latter which was then abolished. New Hampshire, 1784; Rhode Island, 1787; Massachusetts and Connecticut, 1788. The same was also done by New Jersey, 1786; by Maryland after 1769; Pennsyl- vania, act for gradual abolition, 1780, and participation in trade outside of state, 1768; Delaware, 1787; Vermont, 1787; New York, 1785; Virginia, legal importation, 1788. Although abolished de juris, most slates, especially New England, carried on a large traffic much later. (Du Bois, p. 85.) 198 NATIONAL TYPES time put together. A bill was passed, which subsequently became a law, to the effect that, although the possession of slaves, as it had been guaranteed to the slave-holding States by the Crown of England, should for the future be secured to them, so that also, the solution of this difficult question should remain with them ; yet that the slave-trade should cease within the certain limit of seventeen years,"* and for ever; and that every American citizen, found after that time engaged in the slave-trade, should be regarded and punished as a pirate. This was done while England and the other governments had scarce thought of the inhumanity of the slave-trade'."®* So much for the introduction of slavery, restrictions of the trade, and legislation for its abolition, which as shown in the footnotes is not always based upon facts. Undoubtedly Sealsfield wanted the trade abolished, and more than that: although he himself was probably a slave holder, he wished for the time when emancipation would be possible and ad- visable. He conceived the evil in its entire magnitude, but he realized also the difficulties that would result from too hasty action. The following words will prove this: " 'None of us deny it is an evil, and an evil which operates against us in more than one way; that it is a mis- fortune to our social life, and that a radical cure is absolutely necessary; but that this can only proceed gradually, and by degrees, no one, who has the least candor or understanding, will pretent to deny. " 'You have already wasted more than twelve centuries in Europe, in endeavors to emancipate your white slaves, and the task is not accomplished ; and these are the descendants 88 This would make it 1804, whereas, Article I, Section 9 of the Federal Convention of 1787, reads : " . . shall not be prohibited by Congress prior to the year one thousand eight hundred and eight." o^ The first motion was introduced in Parliament in 1776, and the first bill to regulate the slave trade was read in 1783; in the nineties several bills passed in the House of Commons, but failed in the House of Lords. But a bill finally passed both Houses in 1806 (receiving the King's signature in 1807), which forbade the clearing of English slavers, and the landing of slaves in the Colonies by March 1807 CSpears, pp. 106-116). • 199 CHARLES SEALSFIELD of men, who have been deprived by their ancestors of their liberty, property and civil rights, to whom, consequently, they owe restitution. With us the case is different — nay, the world does not present an analogous case. This case is really a monstrous one, at the contemplation of which your reason may be startled. To comprehend it only in a measure, you must recollect that Great Britain has to its twenty-four mil- lions of inhabitants and its hundred and twenty millions of foreign subjects not over eight hundred thousand slaves in its West Indian domains. France, to its thirty-two millions, not three hundred thousand on Martinique and other islands. Both governments might buy or set free their slaves this day without doing any serious injury to their subjects; — they live thousands of miles from them and come into no collision with them. With us the case is different. We have nearly two and a half millions of slaves to a population of four mil- lions, and if you count the whole Union, of fifteen millins. Just imagine one of the European governments of seventeen millions of inhabitants with such a mass of strange blood forced upon them as slaves. Can you set them free at once, or put them on the same footing with yourselves, or grant them the equal rights of citizens?' " When finally reproached with the fact that even after emancipation, the Negro does not enjoy the same rights, nor occuipy a position in society beside his white neighbor, Richards replies : " 'I have never heard of any civilized people among whom illegitimate children have the same rights as lawful children, some solitary cases excepted'." And a little later he explains his stand on the question of emancipation with the following words : " 'The case with our blacks, is really a hard and an un- happy one; even harder than that of the white serfs m Europe. These, descending like their masters from the Caucasian race, can more easily be admitted into the same rank as soon as they have reached the necessary degree of civilization — it is very questionable whether it will ever be 200 NATIONAL TYPES good or practicable with our colored population. Theirs is another blood, a blood which in hot climates passes into boil- ing heat, and will boil up on every occasion. This the nation feels deeply, and hence our refusal to take the exotic race among us. About matrimonial ties, or the so-called amal- gamation, I must say frankly, that, were the disgust against it less, I could not possibly respect the people of the United States so highly as I think we have good reason to do at present'." 201 Chapter VI. THE GERMAN ELEMENT. In the introduction to the present study it was pointed out that Sealsfield always spoke of himself as an American, referring to the United States as his country even in letters to his acquaintances, written in Switzerland. Moreover, it should also be remembered that the author had fled from Austria pursued by police authorities, and that the identity of Charles Sealsfield with the missing Karl Postl was only dis- covered through his will in 1864. To keep the secret of his identity concealed, and to prevent detection, he wove an air of mystery about himself. He had only a limited number of friends, but even these knew nothing of his antecedents. He also refrained most carefully from alluding in his works to his German-Austrian birth. In fact it seems quite probable that his desire to mystify his readers and critics carried him so far as to limit his references to the German-American population of this country purposely and as much as possible, at least in his early novels. When he does, however, picture the German element he makes it quite evident that he is not partial to his own race. His descriptions of some of the German emigrants are, on the contrary, anything but flattering to the German people. Only toward the close of his life his attitude in this respect changes, as is shown by his novel Deittsch-Ainerikanische W ahlverwandtschaften. Chapter II in part I of Morton, which is entitled "Die deutschen Bmigranten," furnishes a significant illustration of how our author viewed German emigrant life during the third decade of last century. Young Morton had risked his entire — — 202 NATIONAL TYPES fortune on board the schooner Mary. After this ship, to- gether with its uninsured cargo, was lost at sea, Morton, in despair, mounted his horse and rode up the Susquehanna with the intention of committing suicide. A little above Harris- burg, he halted near a precipitous bank to settle accounts with his Creator, when he was disturbed by a family of immigrants. "At first glance one could notice that they were children of the unfortunate country, who for many years seemed to have been destined to fertilize the earth with their blood, and to disgust the world with their nakedness and their misery, one of those pictures of servile subjection, such as we often have an opportunity of seeing on the wharves of our coast cities . ." They sat down to eat a bite, and while Morton watched them devour cold potatoes and bread, he beard the trotting of a horse. It was Colonel Isling, the county judge, and a German- American himself, who approached, and seeing these un- fortunates, remarked to Morton with a significant look: ^"German emigrants." The latter ground his teeth, and his compressed lips seemed to ask : "What do they want in our country ?" Husband and wife, who had looked at each other timidly during this short conversation, now advanced a step, hesitated, and then stood silently and devoutly — the man with a piece of bread in his hand. Morton's horse stretched its neck for the bread, and the good German, although he had not 'enough for himself, gave it to the animal. Morton indignantly scolded the horse, whereupon the poor German gave him a look which caused him to cast his eyes to the ground. "It was the most stupid, and again the most significant look — a look in which the concentrated agony of a whole nation was reflected, and also the blows, the contempt, and the kicks from friend, stranger, master, and all." And then Isling continues : "A poor devil of a German, who escaped the misery of his caste in his country to find a better future." In spite of the wretched condition of the newcomer, Isling laments the fact that only Germany sends forth such people, for he knows, 1 Morton, pt. I, p. 53ff. 203 CHARLES SEALSFIELD that they will become good and worthy citizens. Then he tells Morton of the oppression under which these people suffer in Germany, how this man had sold all his possessions and come to Philadelphia with his family, penniless. After ob- taining some aid from a German auxiliary society,^ the man bought a wheelbarrow and is now on his way to Ohio, begging his way to his destination. The money which he receives, and which will probably amount to about a hundred dollars, will enable him to buy fifty acres of land and some necessaries, and in several years he will prosper and will be a worthy citizen of our Union. ^" 'Many of his countrymen were worse off', he continued after a pause, for they used to be sold as temporary slaves or redemptioners ; but I believe the country derived more benefit from the former Germans than from those of today. At least I do not remiember having ever seen one of these old Germans begging. They earned their living by hard labor, whereas the present day Germans seem to urge their shame and nakedness upon the whole world. It is really a sore spot in that nation. What would the German people say if such folk came to their country from the United States . . !" " 'But the ways of providence are wonderful, and per- haps the day will come when his former Prince, 'The God on Earth', whose splendor this poor fellow could no longer en- large through servile duties — or his children, will come in the same miserable condition to the door of this poor man. Lots of this sort have not seldom fallen in the wheel of fortune in our disastrous times !" Isling then goes on to tell of a personal experience with a redemptioner. " 'It was at the eleventh hour* of the redemp- 2 Sealsfield has the footnote, p. 56. "A foundation for the aid of needy German immigrants. Its officers are mostly native Amer- icans, yet Germans living in Philadelphia contribute too. 3 Morton, pt. I, pp. 57-58. * As the pernicious redemptioner system practically received its death blow by the federal act of 1819 regulating passenger ships and vessels, Isling's experience is supposed to have occurred shortly before this year. 204 NATIONAL TYPES tioner abuse .... Iwas in Philadelphia, where an entire ship load of such people was auctioned off by the Captain ; amongst others, a family which consisted of two grown boys, a girl and their parents.' " What Isling here is referring to was the so-called redemptioner system, a sort of bondage or slavery, which, for a long time, was sanctioned by law. Not only poor German immigrants were sold as redemptioners, in order to reimburse the ship owners for the cost of their transporta- tion, but destitute English, Scotch and Irish newcomers as well. The Germans of this country, however, were the first inhabitants who united against the criminal abuses con- nected with this system. The agents of English and American land companies, who, by extravagant promises and delusive representations, lured thousands of poor people to America in order frequently to defraud them on their arrival, were criminals, no less than the captains of the ships who under false pretenses persuaded the unfortunates to sign contracts which in some cases, they could not read. The first legislation, ■enacted in Maryland in 1685, fixed the legal term of servitude at four years, but in 1715, the time was raised to between five and seven years, and in case of children to the age of their majority. In several cities benevolent societies, such as the Deutsche Gesellschaft von Pennsylvanien, were organ- ized^ for the purpose of aiding and protecting the defenseless immigrants. They investigated cases of insufficient or bad food, and ravaging disease on board the ships, which at times, caused the death of more than half the passengers.® The survivors were frequently sold at a price to make up for this loss of human cargo. Furthermore, cases of cruelty, not only on ship board, but on the part of American slave-holders, were reported and investigated, and everything possible was done to alleviate the lot of their unfortunate countrymen. Finally, it was due to the combined efforts of this Philadelphia society and of Baron von Fiirstenwarther, a commissioner sent to America by H. C. E. von Gagem, to report on immigration 5 Korner, Gustav, Das deutsche Element, p. 22ff. 6 Henning'hausen, Louis P., Geschichte der deutschen Gesellschaft von Maryland. 205 CHARLES SEALSFIELD conditions, that the federal legislation already referred to, was enacted in 1819/ That Sealsfield did not know or fully realize the dread- ful conditions under which most of his compatriots reached this country is shown by the fact that he relates without com- punction how Isling at the auction in Philadelphia bought the head of one family, how a neighbor took the wife and daughter, and other people of the county the sons. They were to serve for five years. Simon Martin, for this was the man's name, carried with him a bundle of rags, which sent forth such odors that no one could go near him. When the Colonel objected, Martin begged so fervently to be permitted to keep it, that Isling consented. He was given a vacant Negro hut, where he lived in solitude like a leper. Isling was well pleased with him, "he worked diligently and prudently, he understood husbandry thoroughly, and although slow showed himself ef- ficient." To illustrate the thrift and the cunning of this immigrant, Sealsfield relates how one day, shortly before his redemp- tioner was to gain his freedom, he asked permission to go to a sheriff land sale in Harrisburg, just to look around a little, as he said. He came back the same night and worked the next day as usual. A few days later an acquaintance of Isling came to congratulate him on the good bargain he had struck at the auction. Martin was called and asked to explain. It was found that he had bought the farm for himself, but since he lacked a little over a week of being a citizen and since as a redemptioner, he was not sui juris, he had bought the farm in the name of Colonel IsHng. When asked how he expected to pay for three hundred acres of land, he took the two men ■^ See Max J. Kohler's article : An important European com- mission to investigate American invmigration conditions, Jahrbuch der deutsch-amerikanischen historischen Gesellschaft von Illinois, v. XVII, p. 393ff. Also Moritz von Fiirstenwarther, Der Deutsche in Nord- Am^rika, p. 416ff. of the same volume. For a more detailed ac- count of the frightful conditions on emigrant ships, the activities of the land sharks, etc., see F. Hermann, Die Deutschen in Nordamerika, 1806, and Ludwig Gall, Meine Ausivanderung nach den Vereinigten Staaten, 1822. 206 NATIONAL TYPES to his hut, opened his bundle and took out a little sack, out of which rolled eleven hundred gold pieces. Martin went on to explain that if he had bought a farm upon his arrival he would certainly have been cheated. "Now," he said, "I have not only my journey to America, but also the experience fi'ee, which I gained here."* IsHng, seeing himself outwitted, was disgusted with the man. "But thus are the present day im- migrants from that country," he reflected, "a peculiar mixture of honesty and baseness, of sound reason and absolute de pravity." In Isling himself, Sealsfield portrays a German of the older generation. We are told that he came to the United States as a lieutenant in a Hessian regiment of infantry, that he was taken prisoner at Trenton and later entered the revolu- tionary army. Now he lives as a county judge in Pennsyl- vania, and loves his country, and above all, his state, for he has seen it develop to a wonderful height. He prospered with the state and became happy in the circle of his family. His wife seems to have been of English parentage, and thus we find the most wonderful and ideal fusion in his daughter, "a tender attractive girl, in whose regular beautiful features, old English nobility, German Gemutlichkeit, and American reason were united in rare harmony.'' It may be in place here to add that Sealsfield was of the opinion that the Germans who came to this country should learn the English language as fast as they could, and should mix with their Anglo-American neighbors.' How highly Sealsfield valued the share of the Germans in the development and the civilization of this country may 8 Cf. Jefferson, Writings, v. IV, p. 159. " . .it was very frequent for foreigners who carried to America money enough, not only to pay their passage,^ but to buy themselves a farm, it was common, I say, for them to Indent themselves to a master for three years, for a certain sum of money, with the view to learn the husbandry of the country." 8 Die Vereinigten Staaten, v. I, pp. 73-74 — Cf. Lieber, The Stranger in America, p. 59, "You can judge from what I have said how valuable German immigrants are to our country, if they mingle with the Anglo-American race. 'They are sober, industrious, and excellent farmers', is the universal belief given of them." 207 CHARLES SEAIvSFIELD be gathered, from the remarks which Isling makes while ac- companying Morton to Bethlehem. Passing through a won- derful stretch of country studded with flourishing farms and prospering towns, he says: ^""These thousands of cottages, these towns and yeoman seats, I knew when they were still woods and wilderness into which now and then a hut had nestled. These huts were inhabited by poor German redemp- tioners, who had served out their time, and were now tilling a piece of land of their own. They were miserably poor people who could not pay for their passage and -were sold for the price of it . . . Their masters whom they had faithfully served, helped them along, and at once they began to till the soil themselves. But had they received a thousand times more aid, it would not have helped them in an autocratic country. Only in a land where everyone is entirely free, and can use the fruits of his toil for his own benefit, only there one can work with joy. And these Germans did work with joy. They toiled and toiled, and the fruits of their labor were blessed .... They became free citizens of the state; not only citizens, but participants in the sovereign power of the state; indeed not only participants but actual lawmakers and rulers. The grandfather of my son-in-law, a member of Congress, once was such a redemptioner, and his grandson married the daughter of a German baron . . . Young man ! In this change there is something great, elevating, something, which the book of history cannot show twice." Indeed Dr. Helmuth, the eminent divine, could well exclaim in his famous address to the Pennsylvania Germans in 1813 : "We have made the middle states jewels of the Union, the granary of our con- tinent. The Germans have in every respect been the greatest blessing that has been bestowed upon America. "^^ Before Isling parts from Morton he gives him a letter of introduction to Stephen Girard, who is to help him out of his financial difficulties, and finally leaves him with the significant words : "And if you ever meet a- poor immigrant again such 10 Morton, pt. I, pp. 128-130. 11 Brauns, Ratschldge und Belehrungen, p. 380ff. 208 NATIONAL TYPES as the one we saw yesterday, give him a friendly look for old Colonel Isling's sake."^^ In his novel Die deutsch-amerikanischen W ahlverwandt- schaften Sealsfield, no doubt, had intended to portray German and American traits in such a way as to account for the mutual attraction, the "elective affinity," of the principal cha- racters of the story, representatives of both nations, whom he wanted to unite : Harry Rambleton with Luitgard von Schocli- stein, and Baron Wilhelm von Schochstein with Dougaldine Ramble. But the novel, though running to the length of fourteen hundred pages remained a torso, and the author's original plan was not realized. This is to be regretted since the amalgamation of the two predominant ethnic elements, the Anglo-American and the German, seems to have been the final object of his plan, that was doubtless suggested by Goethe's famous novel W ahlverwandtschaften. Sealsfield could not fail to notice the decided change in the general cha- racter of the German immigration during the fourth decade of last century. While its great bulk consisted of farmers and tradesmen, the political events of this period had driven also many thousands of highly educated Germans to America, whose presence was soon felt in the political, social, and in- tellectual life of the nation. The problems connected with early frontier life from which America then was fast emerg- ing had changed to the problems arising from the fusion into a new and higher civilization of the inherited culture of vari- ous ethnic elements. That Sealsfield had changed his opinion of the German immigrants since he wrote Morton, may be seen from the remark of the captain of the ship on which Rambleton sails for America : ^'"L,et these Germans alone. Would to God all our immigrants were like these Germans."^* Again,^^ the author makes the following comment on the little 12 Morton, pt. I, p. 132. 1* Wahlverwandtschaften, pt. I, p. 230. 1* Cf. Jefferson, Writings, v. II, p. 235 : "Of all foreigners I should prefer Germans, they are the easiest got, the best for their landlords, and do best for themselves.'' 15 Wahlverwandtschaften, pt. I, pp. 270-271. 209 CHARLES SEALSFIELt) vesper service held by these pious emigrants : "It is their daily custom, and a beautiful custom it is, to carry the God of one's home country in one's heart and over the water into distant regions and woods. — May ye never forget this most beautiful custom, ye good Germans." Only once more before landing we hear something of the Germans on board, and then we leave them to the fate in store for them, while the author plunges us into the gilded society life of New York, takes us from balls at Saratoga to an old Dutch manor, and thence to the dwellings of fashion- ables in the metropolis. We become disgusted with the ab- surdities and shallowness of their life; and when Baron Schochstein enters a parlor filled with dandies and belles, we are all the more impressed with his personality. ^'"And it was truly a rare appearance — an appearance of which his and every nation may well be proud, a magnificent specimen of youthful German strength ; alas, such as the nation whose descendants hold a dominant position in the civilized world, rarely sends over to her granddaughter, America, although the latter above all others, is deserving of this friendly family visit; since she, the freest nation upon earth, has proved her- self at the same time the most liberal toward Germany, and has paid with interest the debt which she contracted with the Steubens and De Kalbs, by the hospitable reception of hun- dreds of thousands of their poor countrymen, and has always delighted in strengthening and cementing the mutual cordial relations." With all his enthusiasm for America and true American ideals, Sealsfield is not blind to the dangers which then al- ready beset our national life in the shape of a debasing ma- terialism and the mad worship of money. At the same time the author gives us an inkling of the role which in his story the German element was to play in the process of thnic coalescence.^' To make Baron von Schochstein acquainted 10 Wahlverwandtschaften, pt. 11, pp. 232-233. 1'' An article sent to the publisher of Die Vereinigten Staaten (Feb. 25, 1827), which was either to substitute the beginning of 210 iSTATIONAL TYPES with the political and social life of the metropolis, he has him attend a riotous political meeting of Tammany Hall, and one of the conferences of New York plutocracy. Shocked with their sordid methods and the homage they pay to the golden calf, he exclaims : ^^" . . . dollars, the gods of these Ameri- cans, of these terrible Americans, who, having thus deceived the hopes of the world, are lowering the goddess of liberty to a base prostitute. Ah ! but I will show them, yea, I must show them, that in a German's heart there is also room for truly human feelings." In a similar but more explicit sense Andrew D. White said many years later in an address on Some Practical In- fluences of German Thought upon the United States: "The dominant German idea is, as I understand it, that the ultimate end of a great modern nation is something beside manufac- turing, or carrying, or buying or selling products ; that art, literature, science and thought in its highest flight and widest ranges, are greater and more important; and that highest of all — as the one growth for which all wealth exists, is the higher and better development of man, not merely as a planner, or a worker, or a carrier, or a buyer and seller, but as a man. In no land has this idea penetrated more deeply than in Ger- many, and it is this idea which should penetrate more and more American thought and practice."" vol. II, or to be printed in the Morgenblatt, says the following of the Germans and their descendants in Pennsylvania : "Their char- acteristic traits are: honesty, simpHcity, and tireless activity." (Faust, Der Dichter beider Hemisphdren, letter 9b., p. 197). 18 WahlverwandtscJiaften, pt. IV, p. 171. 19 White, Andrew, D., Some Practical Influences of German Thought upon the United States, Ithaca, New York, 1884, p. 12. 211 Chapter VII. NEW YORK AND NEW ENGLAND TYPES. Sealsfield's art of characterization appears at its best in his description of the southwestern states — partly, of course, because he had lived there longest, but principially because he considered them most important in the development of our country. Nor must it be forgotten that at his time the South still predominated in the political life of the Union. Yet his delineation of eastern types of our population must not he overlooked. It is true, his descriptions display a great deal of sharp sarcasm, but they also contain many wholesome truths; and if we deduct a certain personal bias, due perhaps to the author's belief that the inhabitants of the Eastern states were inclined slavishly to imitating the British, we obtain as true a likeness of these people as we have in his western types. While he represents the latter mostly as healthy, energetic men, who earned an honest living by hard work, he gives us now an insight into the life of the wealthy pseudo-aristocracy, the drones of civilized society.^ In The Americans/ while sojourning at Cincinnati, he says : "There is nevertheless, not any city in the state of Ohio to be compared with New York, Philadelphia, or Boston, nor is it probable there will be. At the same time this want is largely compensated by the absence of immorality and luxury — evils necessarily attached to large and opulent cities — which may be said to attract the heart's blood of the country."^ 1 Cooper's Home as Found has similar pictures of eastern society. 2 The Americans, p. 14. * Cf. Grund, Die Americaner, p. 113. "The country will always be the best moderator of cities ; the passions of men are sooner excited, where they incessantly touch each other, and where personal enmity 212 NATIONAL TYPES In the first part of this study we have traced the gene- alogy of two New York families to the arrival of their fore- fathers in 1610 or 20. Now we shall see the sixth and seventh generations, who consider themselves an aristocracy by birth,* the landed interest,^ the first families of New York, who avoid coming into close contact with the masses. They are, in fact, a distinct caste,^ the cream of the country, who only marry into their own set, or perhaps, into old English fam- ilies, and thus retain the adventurous spirit common to both. Having obtained wealth, either from their ancestors, or like the "Fly market loafer"' whom we met in the first part of this study, through hard work, cunning and perseverance in business, they are now desirous of being adorned with titles and therefore are anxious to find for their daughters a baron or a count,^ who sometimes, of course, prove to be but soidisants barons or counts. To be worthy of these honors, they are very careful that their children, especially their daughters, receive the best of education in institutions where education is synonymous with polish and brilliant varnish over a crude interior. Their dress and manners are copied from England.^ That country occasionally sends over such men as Thornton^" who are to educate the plebeian daughter, America, so that she may soon be received again into the arms of the mother. This, according to Sealsfield, would indeed not be an impossible feat in the East, for these states are tired and family quarrels nourish the fury of political parties, rather than where they are spread over a large space, less dependent upon each other . . . Therefore large cities will always be the worst keepers of civil liberty, while the land is their protection." — Jefferson, Writ- ings, V. IV, p. 88. "Cultivators of the earth are the most valuable citizens. They are the most vigorous, the most independent, the most virtuous, and they are tied to their country and welded to its liberty and interests by the most lasting bonds." * Wahlverwandtschajten, pt. II, p. 363. 5 IhU., pt. IV, p. 142. 8 Cf. Ihid., pt. II, p. 121. 7 Ihid.. pt. Ill, p. 288. 8 Ibid., pt. II, pp. 247-249. 9 Ihid., pt. Ill, p. 427. 10 Ibid., p. 67. ■ 213 CHARLES SEALSFIELD of our democracy or mobocracy,^^ as they call it, and look forward to a new order of things. Metternich is their man, their ideal ; they want a government centralized in their own and their clique's hands. The older generation, the sixth in this country, we see engaged in money matters and politics only, while the younger set play part of the time the role of love-s«eking fashionables. In Cousin Erwin of the W ahlverwandtschaften, we have an example of a young fellow who is both a money man and a "ladies man." Though he is always mindful of his own ad- vantage, he worships at the same time at the shrine of the American demigod — popularity. ^^"He was indeed a double. A man of business from ten in the morning till three in the afternoon, a man of the world from three in the afternoon till three in the morning. No one understood better than he to picture the financially hard times, and the impossibility of cashing your notes under five percent a month . . . — this twenty-four year-old nephew of the bank president Jedidiah Dish." The latter is certainly a queer character, sparing in words and unscrupulous as a banker, filled with but one desii"e — to make money. The longest speech that ever came from his lips was the inaugural address installing his nephew as a broker in the catacombs under his bank. ^^" 'Cousin Erwin !', said the dignified man at that time, 'Cousin Ervnn! listen to me or be d — d, man ! Erwin ! Man ! . . . Erwin !', he repeated, 'you are my brother's son, but that doesn't make a fiddlestick of difference, man! Fifteen thousand dollars, the inheritance from your mother, you have eaten and drunk away, man ! Always too merry, man ! But during this merry making you have shown ability, man ! cleverness, cunning, dexterity, man ! You have understood how to make yours the girls of others, man ! Be still, man ! I am an old bachelor, who knows to ap- preciate such things, man ! And your cleverness, man ! to win the girls of others, has caused me to make up my mind, man! 11 Ibid., V. Ill, p. 70. 12 Wahlverwandtschaften, pt. II, pp. 158-159. 13 Ibid., pt. II, pp. 159-160. 214 NATIONAL TYPES to test you, whether you would also succeed in making other people's money yours, man ! Money is the principal thing, man! Money makes a man out of a man. Without money a man is no man, worth nothing! You must prove, man, that you are worth something, man ! Without money, to make the money of others your own, do you understand, man? It is a great art, man, without money, to make other people's money your own, man ! I want to teach you this art, man ! Will make a respectable man out of you, or you shall be d — d, man !' " "And the honorable uncle taught his worthy nephew the art without money to make the money of others his own, and the nephew was an apt pupil, and was not willing to be d — d !" And later we hear that Erwin has succeeded as a broker, and has become as dangerous a man as any one in New York — who would not hesitate to have his own father thrown into the debtor's prison.^* Of the meeting and caucus held to combat the administra- tion which had planned to introduce hard coin as the sole legal medium of exchange, we have already heard. ^^ Nor does the social life of this counterfeit aristocracy escape the author's criticism and ridicule. While Rambleton is in Switzerland, he reads in an American paper a full ac- count of a Grand Fancy Ball with a detailed description of the clothes and jewelry worn by the beauties and fashion- ables, mentioning especially that "those informed assert that the diamonds alone of Mistress A. cost fifty thousand dollars." To this Rambleton remarks : "Pshaw ! her father dealt in rope and tar."^^ Rambleton's return to New York furnishes our romancer the opportunity of picturing the parasitic life of a certain por- tion of New York 'Society'. His descriptions remind the reader strongly of Bulwer-Lytton's Pelham (1828), that great 1* U'ahlverwandtschaften, pt. Ill, p. 435. 15 Supra, pp. 112-113. 16 Wahherwandtschaften, pt. I, pp. 97-99. 215 CHARLES SEAIvSFIELD satire, which, taken seriously by London and New York 'Society', ^'"heralded a new intellectual dynasty of fops and puppies. "'^^ Sealsfield caricatures New York fashionables, just as the author of Pelham, ten years previous, had directed his satire against English elites. The set of people whose life he describes can be understood only when one realizes that they are imitating English manners and fashions. ^° Erwin Dish, proud of his nobly pale cheeks and his blue encircled eyes, as well as Rambleton, the Angler of Lake St. George, are pictured as fantastic-dreamy, a little Byronic, but still more after the type of Bulwer's Pelham.™ After Dougaldine, a thoroughbred society belle, had remarked to her father thai Harry was a tailor-made puppet, but no gentleman, Mr. Ramble replied greatly astonished: ^^"Harry, who pays his tailor at least a thousand dollars a year, ^^no gentleman? No gentleman, Harry, who uses five hundred dollars worth of salves and powders,^' and goes to bed with a corset, he no gentleman?" In fine, they are described now as assuming an air of Weltschmerz, and again as wallowing in luxury and satisfying their gourmand pleasures. Even less favorable than his picture of New York society, are Sealsfield's descriptions of the New Englander. What he criticizes with ridicule and irony in the Moneyocracy of the Metropolis, he depicts with more serious expostulation in the Yankee. With the word Yankee he designates the inhabitants of the six New England states. Gabriele, a minor character in 1'^ Moulton, Library of Literary Criticism, v. VI, p. 685. 18 Sealsfield expresses his opinion of Buhver-Lytton and his Pelham in the preface to Morton, p. 16, and in Kaj iitenbuch, pt. II, pp. 332-333. 1* Cf. Wahlverwandtschajten, pt. Ill, p. 196. 20 Ibid., pt. Ill, pp. 7-8. Cf. Cambridge History of English Literature, v. XIII, pt. II, p. 465. "Pelhamism superceded Byronism, established a new fashion in dress . . ." Cf. Wahlverwandtschaften pt. I, p. 236, pt. II, p. 137. 21 Wahlverwandtschaften, pt. Ill, p. 309. 22 Cf. Pelham, v. II, pp. 65-68. 2S Cf. Ibid., V. II, p. 59, 74. 216 NATIONAL TYPES Der Legitime, who gives Rosa some lessons in geography in- forms her (pointing to the New England states) : ''^"These are the Yankees. We call them so because they sell us walnut wood for nutmegs, and hickory for ham, and to our Negroes Mississippi mire for medicine; ^^in general because they are like Jews." This comparison is quite common in the author's works. Stephy says upon one occasion : ^^"Did you believe I was a Yankee, such a double-distilled Jew?" And George Howard calls them ^'"real, double-distilled Jews, who sell their daughters to the highest bidder just like their barrels of onions, flour, or whiskey." Even in his first work ^'we are warned against these "more than double-distilled Jews."^° In Ralph Doughby the author introduces a truly interest- ing specimen, in the character of Jared Bundle, half peddler and half missionary, who gets rid of his cheap and worthies-; ware on a Mississippi steamer. He sells Palmyra salve, ^°"a composition of lard, ground powder, and shoe blacking, scented with the decoction of walnut and tobacco leaves — most excellent for freckles and lockjaw." On the whole, he is the modernized successor of the early fur traders. While the latter not unfrequently drove a hard bargain with the Indians by taking their valuable furs in exchange for a little whiskey, the former victimizes his white fellow citizen even more crudely. There he stands in the midst of backwoods- men, ^^"his air, menacing and earnest, and then again sneak- s' Der Legitime, pt. Ill, pp. 121-122. 23 Flint, Recollections, p. 33. "The common reply of the boats- men to those who ask them what is their lading is "Pit-coal indigo, wooden nutmegs, strawbaskets, and Yankee notions." 26 Morton, pt. I, p. 194. 27 George Howard, p. 181. 28 Die Vereinigten Staaten, v. I, p. 162. 29 Nichols, Forty Years of American Life, v. I, p. 389. "Theodore Parker has remarked in one of his sermons, that New England was one of the few places in the civilized world where there are no Jews. The Yankees are too sharp for the children of Israel." 3» Ralph Doughby, p. 39. 31 Ibid., pp. 17-19. 217 CHARLES SEALSFIELD ing, drawing up his face into an innumerable quantity of fox- like wrinkles, with a reddish-gray, bright eye, seemingly quiet, but always rolling; sometimes resting on the backwoodsmen, and again thoughtfully squinting toward the cases of goods : his lips compressed; his whole thin but bony figure, in an attitude, which made it difficult to say whether it was better fitted for preaching, singing or schoolmastering. The man might have been about thirty, and was as dry as leather. He had a roll of chewing tobacco in one hand and a bunch of silk ribbon in the other, which he had taken from a half opened chest, in which peddlers' ware of every variety was visible. By the side of this chest were two others, and near them a crying Negro, scratching alternately his right shoulder and foot, but evidently far from being on the road to eternity. As the Yankee raised his hand, enjoining silence upon the Negro, his face gradually assumed that solemn, stiff and comic expression, which is the warning involuntarily carried in the countenance of one of these double-distilled Hebrews, that his southern brethren may be wary of him, when he is attempting to take quasi legal possession of their dollars and cents, by palming off some worthy equivalent." Using the Negro as a decoy, he had arranged with him that one of the chests was to fall on him, and that then he was to lament as though every rib in his body were broken. The salve was applied, and the Negro was healed almost in- stantly. Jared Bundle then makes a good sale of his beautifier and other notions, amongst which are also tea kettles. The first kettle, sold to a Mdssourian, leaks, and when confronted with the defective piece, the Yankee looked at the pot on all sides, shook his head and finally began : '^"Ah gentlemen, or rather ladies and gentlemen! Who would refuse in this happy land — this enlightened coointry of freedom, the most enlightened country in the world — to re- ceive information of the strange occurance which just took 32 Ralph Doughby, pp. 35-36. 218 NATIONAL TYPES place before our eyes? Who would not desire this explana- tion? I'll give it, ladies and gentlemen, this explanation, in which I have only to regret that I am obliged to tell you that there are gentlemen who sell tea-pots, and sell them for the south, when they are only fit for the north; and again, sell tea-pots for the north, which are only fit for the south, as i'< fhe case with these — which came from the store of the very respectable Messieurs Knockdown. These tea-pots, you must understand, have been made for the north, gentlemen, there is no doubt ; for you know that many tea-pots could stand the cold of the north, but not the heat of the south ; and that you are responsible for them only in as far as they have been made either for the north or the south. And I presume the cause of it is, that the gentlemen of the south are a very hot-tem- pered people, who have their gougings for breakfast just as we eat a mackerel. Now, we of the north have not so hot a temper, and the climate, mark, governs men, and the tea or coffee pots made for the north cannot possibly stand the heat of the south. I also wish to assert, that your boiling water is too hot, and this northern coffee or tea-pot cannot stand." This, of course, was too much for our backwoodsmen, they confiscated all he had, and then, on account of the "repub- lican stoicism which he had shown at the execution of his sentence, he was in a solemn way invited to 'go a whole hog cocktail'." The episode topped the climax, however, when he asked whether any of those present could help him to a place as schoolmaster in their respective communities. "But," re- markes the author, "such they are — these Yankees, just as Halleck^^ describes them in his 'Connecticut':" '*" Apostates, who are meddling, With merchandise, pounds, shillings, pence, and peddling ; Or wandering through the southern Climes, teaching The ABC from Webster's spelling-book. Gallant and godly ; making love and preaching. And gaining, by what they call "hook and crook," 3* Fitz-Greene Halleck, a New Englander. The quotation belongs to stanzas four and five. Cf. Halleck's Poetical IVorks, p. 98. 3* Ralph Doughby, pp. 40-41. 219 CHARLES SEALSFIELD And what the moralists call overreaching, A decent living. The Virginians look Upon them with as favorable eyes, As Gabriel on the devil in Paradise." In the Wahlverwantschaften^^ we are told that the name Yankee merchant is synonymous with that of a swindler, and in Der Legitime^" one of the characters lends emphasis to his words by saying, that, if he were proven to be wrong, he should be called a Yankee. No wonder, then, that at the frontier the Yankee was much disliked. The distrust with which the New Englander was met in the West is shown also by Flint, who says : ^'"I will only remark, that wherever we stopped at night and requested lodging, we were constantly asked if we were Yankees; and when we assured them that we were, we instantly saw a lengthening of visage ensue.'' Since the frontiersman, however, as a rule, came into contact only with the deceitful type of the Yankee, it would be wrong to generalize. Nevertheless, the Yankee seems to have had the common reputation of having something cold and calcu- lating in his makeup. On board a transatlantic steamer, which just before entering a harbor, had received some newspapers, we observe a Yankee glancing eagerly through the stock news. And ^'"now you can see the Yankee calculating, with curled lips, with half-closed eyes, thinking — reflecting. They are usually described as very stiff and unapproachable, but when formally introduced, ^'they become talkative, ^''and show animation and intelligence."*^ Other traits of theirs are due to their Puritan*^ ancestry, which, in fact, finds expression in their very features. George 35 Wahlverwandtschaften, pt. IV, p. 129. 38 Der Legitime, pt. II, p. 200. 3'i' Recollections, p. 32. 38 Wahlverwandtschaften, pt. II, p. 106. 39 Ibid., pt. I, p. 241. 40 Siiden und Norden, pt. I, p. 85. *l Die Vereinigten Staaten, v. I, p. 11. *2 For a good description of the Quaker inhabitants of Phila- delphia see Heller, Seals fie Id-Funde, German American Annals, v. IX, No. 1, p. S, reprinted from the Morgenblatt, January 21, 1828. 220 NATIONAL TYPES Howard describes a Yankee of the old school with the following words : ^'"And these serious, dry, sharp features, this pointed nose, with the blue, sunken, piercing eyes — they seemed to dart into me ! There was something good natured, but at the same time unconquerably staring in them. A Yankee of the old school, true to life," with "powdered queue, silk knee breeches, and shoes with golden buckles." Jared Bundle with his im- passive leather face is spoken of, too, as a descendant of the pious pilgrims of Plymouth. This Puritan piety forbids them to show emotions, and makes them hypocrites. Speaking of Emily Warren, who is angry with Ralph Doughby on ac- count of one of his escapades, the author says : **" Angry is not exactly the word; but it was that quiet, silent. New Eng- land antipathy, mixed with a strong dose of apathy, which had overmastered the girl, and seemed to give hope of any- thing rather than a reconciliation. These Yankees can hate so quietly, so bitterly, so calmly, mind ye, while under the calm exterior is a glimmer like that of their own Lehigh coal." And somewhere else, he refers to the moping pharisa- ism intrinsic in their being, with these words : *°"I meant to show the old Yankee what kind of a man he had before him (Doughby is speaking), that I was no thin-legged, ash-colored Yankee; no hypocrite, who goes to church the whole Sunday, and sits with his head hanging down, thinking and speculating in what manner he could scratch out the eyes of the warm blooded Westerners and Southerners."** Sealsfield, however, is well aware of the sterling qualities of the Yankee, in spite of his apparent dislike for New Eng- land's population. He admires their early struggles and praises them for having carried their civilization to the north - em states of the Middle West, where it has left its imprint. *3 George Howard, p. 157. ** Raiph Doughby, pp. 103-104. 45 Ibid, p. 138. *6 Cf. Another Westerner, Hall, James, Sketches of the West, V. II, p. 85, says the following concerning the Yankee's pious mode of life: "They made laws, burned witches, prohibited kissing, and knocked their beer-barrels on the head for working on the Sabbath." -^- 221 . CHARLES SEAlvSFIELD "Behold for instance the Yankee," he says in Pflanzerleben, *'"one of the eldest sons of said Uncle Sam ! behold him with his furrowed brow, his cold, gloomy eyes, his severe and com- pressed lips, which are only opened to praise the Lord in his holy temple, or the sugar, coffee and tea in his little stall : thanking the Lord in odious self-satisfaction — not only in his heart, but also with his lips, that he 'is not like other men', but a favored, a chosen being! And in him you have a toler- ably favorable picture of the pious fathers of Plymouth, who, if the chronicles be correct, never neglected the good things of this world for those of the next; and of their relatives, the Roundheads** and Puritans, and Cameronians,** and other heroes of a kindred sort. But again, those cold, unpleasant features conceal virtues which you would scarcely expect under their hard and repulsive exterior — virtues which origin- ally propelled him as on the wings of a bird, to seek a home in the cold, monotonous wilderness of New England, thence over the Alleghany mountains, never resting until he had transformed the wilds of the Great West to a fertile paradise. If at the present day you traverse the country west of the Alleghanies, that same country which less than fifty years ago, was the haunt of bears, wolves and other ferocious beasts, you will find millions of quiet, sober and active citizens, united in States, many of them surpassing in extent, circumstances, and particularly in civilization and in knowledge, the do- minions of your European kings: and though you sometimes meet with stray pigs and cows, you will find no country in any part of the earth superior in beauty. Railways and roads cross the country in every direction, and steamers cover the rivers and lakes. And to your question, 'Who has worked all these wonders ?', we answer : 'The Yankee ! the greater part at least', the Yankee, with his furrowed brow and cold, *7 Pflanzerleben, pt. I, pp. 283-285. ** In the reign of Charles I, and later, a Puritan or member of the Parliamentary party who wore his hair cut short, so called in derision by the cavaliers, who usually wore ringlets." (Webster). ** A Cameronian, a follower of Richard Cameron, who refused to accept the indulgence offered the Presbyterian clergy. 222 NATIONAL TYPES gloomy eye, who, as his neighbor tells you, has no very tender nor generous heart in his bosom. These are the men who prepared beautiful Ohio for your residence, so that now Ger- mans, and Englishmen, Scotchmen, and Frenchmen reap where they have not sown. Say, whence the riddle?" It is evident from the foregoing that Sealsfield's prime interest lay in the Southwest, where he lived for several years. These states, especially Mississippi and L,ouisiana seemed to offer more room for development and to present opportunities such as he had found nowhere else."" We must remember, too, that he wrote at a time before an extensive network of railroad lines connected all parts of the Union, and that previous to this time, farmers and merchants could exchange their goods only by way of water communication, there being only few and poor roads. Since almost all rivers between the Alleghanies and the Rocky Mountains empty into the Missis- sippi, the importance of this stream and its tributaries must not be overlooked. In fact, the question of navigation on the Father of Waters was for a long time a vital one in the history of the States. For most states west of the Alleghanies, New Orleans offered a better market than the Atlantic Coast, though in some cases the latter was less distant. The im- portance which Sealsfield attached to the acquisition of Louisi- ana he expressed clearly in these words: ''"Only this pur- chase was able to give to the American merchant an inde- pendence and patriotism which he did not possess till now." Since Sealsfield was interested so deeply in the south- western states, his descriptions of that region outrank all others in vividness and accuracy of detail, and the impressions of reality which the inhabitants of Kentucky, Louisiana, and Texas, and such characters as Ralph Doughby, Nathan, the Alcalde, George Howard, Menou, or the trapper, leave with the reader are indelible. American fiction had not at Seals- field's time really ventured into the West, and where it had, 50 Cf. The Americans, pp. 215-217. "1 Die Vereinigten Staaten, v. I, p. 160. 223 ■ CHARLES SEALSFIELD it was fiction only and not the bold realism of actual life. However, there is after all something unexplainable in Seals- field's descriptions, something that baffles us if we remember that he wrote some of his best works after a stay of only four or five years in this country. L,ittle could he have drawn these life-like pictures of the different racial elements and their enviroment had he not been the born artist, endowed by nature with a specific and most keenly developed sense for ethnic individuality. 224 NATIONAL CHARACTER. It has been pointed out^ in the preceding discussion that the mighty agency which, in Sealsfield's opinion, unites the various ethnic elements into a national entity, and thereby fosters the growth of a new nationality inspired by common aspirations and ideals, is democracy. The most remarkable passage in which the author gives expression to this thought and at the same time interprets his lofty conception of de- mocracy, occurs in Pflanzerleben, and reads as follows : ""I love not this democracy which places all on a level, equalizing all; yet I cannot despise it, for the more I reflect, the more evident is it to me, that this democracy is necessary to the ultimate grandeur and welfare of our land; that it is de- mocracy alone — and there is proof even in the fragment be- fore me — which in our present stage developes our entire strength in such various directions ; and without it, these won- ders of civilization and energy — those canals of three hundred and sixty miles ; those splendid cities, hardly a quarter of a century in age ; our seas and lakes covered with merchandise ; our railways nearly connecting the shores of the Atlantic with those of the Pacific, and daily increasing the civiHzation in the valley of the Mississippi, — would never have been realized. This democracy, so misunderstood by high and low, seeming to many nothing more than a transcendent phantom, is among us a law of necessity; that same democracy unites the population of our land into one homogeneous body;' baffled by no im- pediments, restrained by no regards, it works night and day 1 Supra, p. 123. 2 Pflanzerleben, pt. I, pp. 264-267. 3 Cf. Marryat, Frederick, Diary, ser. I, v. I, p. 4. "They are a mass of people cemented together to a certain degree by a general form of government." 225 CHARLES SEALSFIELD on the public good, and even ennobles our insatiable avarice by resting it on this honorable basis. It is this democracy, which divided the power of an earthly god, snatched i/ from a single hand, and shivered it into millions of parts, hurling to every individual a splinter of the thunderbolt and a spark of the lightning — each creating myriads of elements destined to become as powerful ; it is this democracy, which has caused self-esteem, even majesty, laughable as it may appear now, though far from laughable in reality, to enter our huts. For, remember well ! as our country is that portion of the world in which democracy has been developed to its widest extent, so also is it the only country, where it has entirely comprehended and gloriously fulfilled its mission — that of civilizing the most beautiful and the richest portion of the globe. And the secret by which it has been achieved, is the boundless aug- menta/ton of the free agencies, in opposition to those only acting in bodies. In this secret of individualizing rests its power of reproduction — in the self-esteem which it conveys to every individual, forming in each man a separate body, a responsible being, with entire freedom of thought and action."* With the same keen interest and psychological penetration with which Sealsfield had observed and described the cha- racteristics of the various ethnic elements he follows the development of the common national traits resulting from the formation of the new homogeneous nationality. The most conspicuous feature of the American character is, according to our romancer, strength, firmness and detei-mi- nation of will. Thus Whitely, an American traveling in Mexico, is characterized as a °"sharp, cautious man; in every sense of the word a true American, who thinks before he leaps and weighs slowly his determination, but when he has once made up his mind, he goes like a bullet to the target." The same determination and energy carried the Texan colonists to * Similar views are expressed in an article On the Formation of a National Character, The Western Monthly Magazine, Cincinnati, 1833, V. I, pp. 348-355. 5 Siiden und Norden, pt. II, p. 159. 226 National character victoiy over Mexican domination. ''"It was not a trifle," Colonel Morse tells us, "for a people such as the Texans, who at that time hardly numbered thirty-five thousand souls, to undertake with a republic whose population consisted of full nine millions, and who, spite of anarchy and internal division, could easily send against us double as many soldiers as w numbered souls. But then we were Americans, had spoken out our resolve to be free, and you know when the American speaks his will firmly, there is no power on earth which can hinder him from carrying it out." Again Sealsfield has the same trait of national character in mind when he remarks : '"Our proverb says — 'If it is cold with us, it freezes; if it is hot, it melts; if it rains, it pours', and in this it illustrates our national character as well as our climate. Our people do not like halves. If they desire anything they desire it v/holly. Difficulties and dangers do not terrify them, but only serve the more to spur them on. Half of them might sink in this struggle, the other would be sure to push through. No people on earth, the ancient Romans perhaps excepted, have had this intense energy, this enduring and almost terrible strength of will."s Closely allied to this indomitable will power of the American is the seriousness and gravity which Sealsfield dis- covers as one of his distinctive qualities. '"This gravity," he says in Die deutsch-amerikanischen Wahlverwandtschaftev, "is again a beautiful feature in our national character, a feature justifying us in our most exalted hopes, and which is found in an equal measure among no other people, not even among the English. The French begin to assume it ; neither the Germans nor the Italians are possessed of it, though the former with this gravity would be, perhaps, the greatest and the first of all nations. The English have it in a high, and we in a higher degree. No nation can aspire to greatness * Kajiitenhuch, pt. I, p. 310. T Ibid., pt. II, pp. 83-84. 8 Ibid., pt. II, p. 116. 9 IVahlverwandtschaften, pt. Ill, pp. 361-362. 227 CHARLES SEALSFIELD without this business character — this Roman character. The word itself is replete with strength. Tyranny trembles at the mere word gravity, resoluteness, strength of character. This is what I mean by gravity in business matters and character; the gravity of a people in executing with consistency its ob- jects, unbaifled by impediments, whatever they may be . . . This noble feature ... in the character of our people, promises an eminent future." Another national characteristic is the adventurous spirit of the American which Sealsfield believes to be an inheritance from the "Anglo-Norman nation," Great Britain. ^""Seventy years haven't passed," he remarks, "since the founding of the Republic, and already her colors are seen on all oceans, the thunder of her men-of-war is heard before the mouths of all rivers, and the speculating Yankee is seen in all ports. He visits the extreme boundaries of Eastern Asia, the Indian Archipelago, the Cape of Good Hope, and icy Russia, and everywhere he competes stubbornly with his English cousin for power and for commercial supremacy. Sometimes it ap- pears as though providence had destined him to spread the seeds of liberty over the entire earth and to ennoble thus his avarice which is at the bottom of this dare-devil game."^^ This same adventurous spirit, the author maintains, mani- fested itself after the purchase of the L,ouisiana Territory, when thousands of families left their homes in the East and migrated to the New Canaan, ^^"and," he continues, "if we observe with how much foresight these simple peasants have chosen the location of their cities, then we cannot do enough justice to their wonderful spirit of enterprise." 1" Der Legitime, pt. I, p. 237. 11 Lieber, The Stranger in America, p. 48. "An American dis- tinguishes himself from the inhabitants of all other countries by a restlessness, a striving arid driving onward, without which this coun- try would never have shot up in such an unexampled growth, and which opens to thousands of men, possessed of nothing but their energy, a successful career; whilst it also extinguishes in many in- dividual cases the calm enjoyment of what they have and possess." 12 Der Legitime, pt. I, p. 240. 228 NaTionaIv character Quite similar are the following remarks taken from his first work. ^^"The American is at home everywhere in his country, and, therefore, in truth nowhere. If today he settles on a piece of land, clears the woods, builds his house and his barns, he will, nevertheless, desert this home just as soon as a better opportunity arises two thousand miles further on." He is an adventurer, but in the good sense of the word."" A third trait which distinguishes the American people from almost every other nation is their avarice and egotism. "This egotism," he says in Pflanzerlehen, ^""creeps over the emigrant in America, whether he will or not — another strange peculiarity, a contrast, which is always seen between the in- habitants of this country and the European. Nature herself is the cause." Upon another occasion, ^'however, he calls it a peculiarly American and English trait. ^' Again referring to the English character as the source of an important American trait, Sealsfield says in Der Legitime: ^'"There is in the British character, and we must admit, also in ours, a repulsive, icy feature, which likes so well to isolate itself, and to shut itself up — a gruff, inflexible, aristocratic sense, which thinks of itself, and only of itself." This egotistic commercial spirit, this want of feeling, has as its basis a preponderance of mere reason well founded in na- tional experience, and, therefore, Sealsfield does not condemn it. "Our manner," he says in Ralph Doughby, ^°"is dry, republican, positive, our equilibrium is not easily disturbed, not even through the right of our best friends, albeit we had not seen them for many years." ^^In Die V ereinigten Staaten, IS Warden, Account of the United States, speaks of the migratory habits of the Americans, v. I, p. LXII — Cf. Flint, Recollections, p, 203. 1* Die Vereinigten Staaten, v. II, p. 192. 15 Cf. Nathan, p. 55. i« Pflanzerlehen, pt. II, pp. 244-245. 1'' Morton, pt. II, p. 43. 18 Cf. Ralph Doughby, p. 10. 19 Der Legitime, pt. I, p. 218fJ. 20 Ralph Doughby, p. 246. 21 Flint, History and Geography, p. 90. " . . there is perhaps less romance in the American character than in that of any other • 229 CHARLES SEALSFIELD he speaks even of the family life of the Americans as being void of emotions, cold, and formal. ^^ Akin to this difiference and apathy, which he considers part of the American nature,^^ is a stiffness and formality, and frequently an assumed dignity, which finds expression not only in their relation to strangers, but also in their public proceedings^* and in the execution of their personal duties." Often, of cottrse, these formalities are due only to imagined principles.^" Another national peculiarity is spoken of in the following words : ^'"There is in our American nature Something purely practical, which distinguishes us- from all nations on earth- - namely, a good degree of sound reason and common sense. "^' Finally a passage from Wahlverwandtschaften, though apparently full of contradictions, will reflect another side of our national character : ^'"A truly strange people ! — the roughest, most sober, most inaccessible, repulsive, kind, im- portunate, taciturn, loquacious people — which, ten minutes after being repulsed, again overloads you with the cornucopia of its plenty, forces you to accept its presents, hangs upon you like a burr, opens its purse and heart, and in its liberality ex- cites your extreme wonder; a people, who, if you touch its weak side or adopt one of its notions — and we have many-- only for a moment, knows no end to its friendship, receives you in triumph, leads you about' — at least until your evil genius plays you a trick, and you give a dangerous kick to that hobby, and put Uncle Sam or Brother Jonathan into ill humor. Mount the hobby, and the same man who ten minute^ people; and everything in our institutions tends to banish the little that remains. We are a people to estimate vendible and tangible realities." 22 Die Vereinigten Staaten, v. I, pp. 96-97. 23 iCf. Wahlvenvandtschaften, pt. II, p. 28. 24 Kajutenbuch, pt. I, pp. 256-257. 25 Der Legitime, pt. Ill, pp. 117-118. 28 Siiden und Norden, pt. I, p. 172. 27 George Howard, pp. 272-273. 28 Duden, Reuse, p. 293, emphasizes the practical life. 29 Wahlverwandtschaften, pt. I, pp. 122-124. 230 NATIONAL CHARACTER before, scornful and suspicious, would not grant you a word, will suddenly astonish you by his loquacity, and ultimately drive you to despair by the same means. Ask him a question about one of our railroads, and you will have the history of railroads and everything pertaining thereto from the infancy of Tubalcain, the first artificer of iron, down to Stephenson. You are lucky if, upon a second question concerning our good City of Manhattan, you have not to go back to Christopher Columbus, or Americus Vespudus, or Hendrick Hudson and his Dutch navigators. We are, believe me, a peculiar people — quiet, sober, and reflective — perfect Romans at one time, at another, ingenious and unsophisticated. Notwithstanding our sagacity and love of accumulating wealth, if you permit us to indulge in our egoism, we forget wisdom, and even dollars, and it is the easiest thing in the world to put us in leading- strings. We are famous for examining everything ab ovo, and with a minuteness over which your patience might run to seed like Dutch onions." The following tribute to the genius of Sealsfield by H. A. Rattermann, the eminent historian, eloquently sums up in poetic form what the writer of this study has attempted to present in the preceding pages : CHARLES SEALSFIELD. Austria's Sohn und Biirger Amerika's, warum verhiillst du Deine Wege, die du ehmals gewandelt voU Ruhm? Eine Riesengestalt von Shakespeare'scher Grosse so zeigst du Dich in den Werken, die du uns und der Nachwelt ge- schenkt ! Herrlich erscheinen am Pfad, den du zogst, die kiihnen Gebilde Deines Geistes voll Pracht: Menschen voll Mut und voll Kraft, Machtig und stolz, gewiegt in der freien Natur, der be- gliickten, Wild und unbandig wie sie, doch auch so frisch wie die Luft, Welche sie atmen; die starken Bezwinger und Herrscher des Urwalds, Frei, ungeberdig wie Ralph, partiarchalisch wie Strong! 231 CHARLES SEALSFIELD Yankees, Virginien's und Kentucky's Sohne und Tochter, Muntre Kreolinnen schon, Mexiko's Donnas und Dons, Neger, Mulatten, Mestizen, die roten Kinder der Wildniss, Alle schilderst du sie, wie du im Leben sie sahst. Endlose WJilder und Fluren und goldig bliih'nde Prairien Zeigtest am Wage du uns, Schluchten und Siimpfe voll Graus, Schaurige Stiirme im Norden und wilde Orkane im Siiden : Ganz die westliche Welt, so wie sie lebet und webt! Aber die Stapfen des Wegs, den du pilgertest, hast du ver- gebens Auszuloschen gestrebt, dass dein Geheimniss bewahrt Bliebe. — O herrlicher Geist! Dein Schritt war zu voll und gewichtig, Unverganglich gepragt ! — Dich preist die kunf tige Welt ! (Gesammelte ausgewahlte Werke, v. X, p. 28.) 232 BIBLIOGRAPHY I. SEALSFIELD'S WRITINGS Die Vereinigten Staaten von Nordamerika, nach ihrem politischen, religiosen und gesellschaftlichen Verhaltnisse befrachtet. J. G. Cotta, Stuttgart, 1827. The United States of North America as they are; Simkin & Marshall, London, 1828. The Americans as they are; Described in a Tour through the Valley of the Mississippi. Hurst, Chance and Co., London, 1828. Austria as it is ; or Sketches of Continental Courts, by an Eye- witness. Hurst, Chance & Co., London, 1828. Tokeah ; or The White Rose. Carey, Lea and Carey, Philadelphia, 1829. Der Legitime und die Republikaner. Eine Geschichte aus dem letzten amerikanisch-englischen Kriege. 3 vols. Orell, Fussli und Comp., Zurich, 1833. Der Virey und die Aristokraten, oder Mexiko im Jahre 1812. 3 vols. Orell, Fussli und Comp., Ziirich, 1834. Transatlantische Reiseskizzen und Christopherus Barenhauter. Orell, Fussli und Comp., Ziirich, 1834. 2 vols. (In the second edition Transatlantische Reiseskizzen was incorporated in Lebensbilder aus der Westlichen Hemisphare as part one, George Hovsfard's Esq. Brautfahrt). Lebensbilder aus beiden Heraispharen. Erster Teil. 2 vols. Orell, Fiissli und Comp., Ziirich, 1835. (Morton, oder die grosse Tour.) Lebensbilder aus beiden Hemispharen, zweiter Teil, oder der Trans- atlantischen Reiseskizzen dritter Teil. Orell, Fiissli und Comp., Ziirich, 1835. (Ralph Doughby's Esq. Brautfahrt). Transatlantische Reiseskizzen, Fortsetzung, oder Lebensbilder aus bei- den Hemispharen. Vols. 4-5. Schulthess und Orell, Fiissli und Comp,, Zurich, 1836. (Pflanzerleben und die Farbigen.) Transatlantische Reiseskizzen, Fortsetzung, oder Lebensbilder aus bei- den Hemispharen. Vol. 6. Schulthess and Orell, Fiissli und Comp., Zurich, 1837. (Nathan, der Squatter-Regulator.) Das Kajutenbuch oder Nationale Characteristiken. 2 vols. Schult- hess, Ziirich, 1841. Neue Land und Seebilder, 1st and 2nd vols. 3rd vol. in two parts, and 4th vol. Separate title page : Die deutsch-amerikanischeii Wahlverwandtschaften. Schulthess, Ziirich, 1839-1840. Suden und Norden. J. B. Metzler, Stuttgart, 1842-1843. 3 pts. COLLECTED WORKS : Gesammelte Werke. 18 pts. 8vo. J. B. Metzler, Stuttgart, 1844-1846 (containing partly unsold first editions, partly second editions of individual works.) Parts : 1-3 Der Legitime und die Republikaner. Eine Geschichte aus dem letzten amerikanisch-englischen Kriege. Parts : 4-6 Der Virey und die Aristokraten, oder Mexiko im Jahre 1812. Parts: 7-8 Morton, oder die grosse Tour. 233 CHARLES SEALSFIELD Parts : 9-13 Lebensbilder aus der westlichen Hemisphare (pt. 9, George Howard's Esq. Brautfahrt, pt. 10, Ralph Doughby's Esq. Brautfahrt, pts. 11-12, Pflanzerleben, pt. 13, Nathan, der Squatter-Resrulator, oder der erste Amerikaner in Texas.) Parts: 14-15 Das Kajiitenbuch oder nationale Charakteristiken. Parts : 16-18 Siiden und Norden. Gesammelte Werke, 15 pts. 12mo. J. B. Metzler, Stuttgart, 1845-1847. Individual works appear in the same sequence as above and bear the same titles. Siiden und Norden is lacking.) TRANSLATIONS USED IN THIS STUDY : Rambleton ; a Romance of Fashionable Life in New York during the Great Speculation of 1836. Transl. from the German by S., New York, 1846. (Incomplete!) Life in the New World : or Sketches of American Society, by Seats- field (sic!) Transl. from the German by Gustavus C. Hebbe and James Mackaj', New York (1844) (It contains: George Howard, Ralph Doughby, Pflanzerleben, pt. I-II, and Nathan.) The Cabin Book. Transl. by Mersch, New York, 1844. North and South ; or Scenes and adventures in Mexico. Transl. from the German by J. T. H., Winchester (1844) (Incomplete!) II BIOGRAPHYCAL AND BIBLIOGRAPHICAL MATERIAL GENERAL : Bartels, Adolph. Geschichte der deutschen Literatur. Leipzig, 1905, V. II. Biese, Alfred. Deutsche Lite-raturgeschichte, ^riinchen, 1911, v. III. The Cambridge History of American Literature. New York, 1917. The Cambridge History of English Literature. New York, 1917. V. XIII, pt. II. Cross, Wilbur L. The Development of the English Novel. New York, 1911. Erskine, John. Leading American Novelists. New York, 1910. Jung, Alexander. Vorlesungen iiber die moderne Literatur der Deut- schen. Danzig, 1842. Koenig, Robert. Deutsche Literaturgeschichte. Bielefeld, 1893, v. II. Kummer, Friedrich. Deutsche Literaturgeschichte des neunzehnten Jahrhunderts. Dresden, 1909. Kurz, Heinrich. Geschichte der deutschen Literatur. Leipzig, 1894, V. IV. Laube, Heinrich. Moderne Charakteristiken. Mannheim, 1835. Lublinski, S. Literatur und Gesellschaft im neunzehnten Jahrhundert. Band III. Das junge Deutschland. Berlin, 1900. Menzel, Wolfgang. Die deutsche Literatur. Stuttgart, 1828. (Menzel, Wolfgang) Die junge Literatur. Literaturblatt, 1836, Nos. 1-5 pp. 1-20. Mielke, Hellmuth. Der deutsche Roman. Dresden, 1912. Mundt, Theodor. Allgemeine Literaturgeschichte. Berlin, 1848, v. III. Geschichte der Literatur der Gegenwart, Leipzig, 1853. Proelss, Johannes. Das junge Deutschland, Stuttgart, 1892. Robertson, John G. A History of German Literature. New York. Salzer, Anselm. lUustrierte Geschichte der deutschen Literatur . . . Miinchen, n. d. v. III. Sauer, August. Literaturgeschichte und Volkskunde. Rektoratsrede. Prag, 1907. 234 BIBLIOGRAPHY Scherr, Johannes. Illustrierte Geschichte der Weltliteratur. Stuttgart, 10th ed. Schmidt, Julian. Geschichte der deutschen Literatur von Leibniz bis auf unsere Zcit. Berlin, 1896, v. V. Schwdzer, Viktor. Ludolf Wienberg. Beitrage zu einer jungdeut- schen Aestetik. Leipzig, 1898. Williams, Harold. Two Centuries of the English Novel. London, 1911. SPECIAI, : Arnold, Roibert. Zur Bibliographic Charles Sealsfields. Stud. i.. vgl. Literaturgesch. 1901, v. I, pp. 228-233. Barba, Preston A. Sealsfield Sources. (Kajiitenbuch) German-Amer- ican Annals, N. S. v. IX, No 1, pp. 31-39. Diez, Max. Ueber die Naturschilderung in den Romanen Sealsfields. Washington Univ. Studies, 1914, v. I, pt. I, pp. 184-226. Faust, Albert B. Charles Sealsfield fCarl Postl) der Dichter beider Hemispharen. Sein Leben und seine Werke. Weimar, 1897. Charles Sealsfield (Carl Postl) ; Material for a Biography; a study of his Style : his Influence upon American Literature. Baltimore, 1892. Diss. Charles Sealsfield's Place in Literature. Americana Germanica. Nev/ York, 1897. v. I, No. 1, pn. 1-18. Unpublished Letters of Charles Sealsfield. Publications of the Modern Language Association of America. Baltimore, 1894, v. IX, pp. 343-402. Goebel, Julius. Charles Sealsfield (Carl Postl) der Dirhter beider Hemispharen. Review. Americana Germanica, New York, 1897, v. I, No. Ill, pp. 94-103. Gottschall, Rudolph. Charles Sealsfield. Ein literarisches Portrait. Unsere Zeit, 1865, No. 5, v. I, pp. 241-266. Reprinted in Portrats und Studien. Leipzig, 1870. Hamburger, Victor. Sealsfield-Postl. Bisher unveroffentlichte Briefe und Mitteilungen zu seiner Biographic. Wien, 1879. (Hardman, Frederick) German-American Romance. Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, v. LVII, pp. 351-368. Hartmann, Alfred. Ein aiifgeklartes Literaturgeheimnis. Die Garten- laube, 1865, No. 6, pp. 94-95. Der deutsch-amerikanische Romantiker. Ibid., 1864, No. 4, pp. 53-55. Heller, Otto, Bibliopraphical Notes on Charles Sealsfield. The Mod- ern Language Review. Cambridge, 1908, v. III. pp. 360-366. Ein Brief Sealsfields. Euphorion. Leipzig, 1909. v. XVI, pp. 516-517. Charles Sealsfield. The Bulletin of the Washington University Assoc. St. Louis, 1908, v. VI, pp. 18-44. :Charles Sealsfield und der "Courier des fitats Unis." Euphorion, 1907, V. XIV, pp. 718-724. Sealsfield-Funde. German American Annals. 1910-11, N. S., v. VIII, No. 2, pp. 82-86, v. IX, pp. 3-30. -Some Sources of Sealsfield. Modern Philology. 1910, v. VII, pp. 587-592. The Source of Chapter I of Sealsfield's. "Lebensbilder aus der westHchen Hcmisphare." Modern Language Notes. 1908, v. XXIII, pp. 172-173. Hemmann, Fr. Erinnerungen an Charles Sealsfield. Nord und Slid. Eine deutsche Monatsschrift. Breslau, 1879, v. X, pp. 312-338. 235 CHARLES SEALSFIELD Etwas iiber Charles Sealsfield, Gegenwart, No. 36, 1878, pp. 149-157. Sealsfield-Postl. Nord und Sud. Breslau, 1889, v. L, pp. 337-352. Kertbeny, K. M. Erinnerungen an Charles Sealsfield. IJrussel, 1864. Meister, Oskar. Erinnerungen an Charles Sealsfield-Postl. Wien 1892. Meyer, Elise. Der Dichter beider Hemispharen. Daheim, 1865, p. 295ff. Meyer, Richard M. Ein Plagiat Sealsfields. Deutsche Arbeit, v. VI, No. 8, pp. 510-512. Rattermann, H. A. Gesammelte Ausgewahlte Werke. Cincinnati 1911, y. I, X. Ravize, A. Neu aufgefundene Novellen Sealsfields. Euphorion, Zeit- schrift fiir Literaturgeschichte. Leipzig 1909, v. XVI, pp. 102-116. Schultz, Paul, Die Schilderung exotischer Natur im deutschen Roman mit besonderer Berucksichtigung von Charles Sealsfield. Munster, 1913. SchmoUe, Leo. Sealsfield. Biographisch-literarisches Charakterbild. Wien, 1875. Thompson, Garrett W. An Inquiry into the Sources of Charles Seals- field's Novel "Morton oder die grosse Tour." Univ. of Penn. — Diss., 1910. Uhlendorf, B. A. Two Additional Sources of Sealsfield. Journ. of Engl. a. Germ. Phil., v. XX, pp. 417-418. Weiss, August. Allgemeine Zeitung. Beilage No. 270 (Nov. 22, 1895.) III. CRITICISMS AND REVIEWS. Hallische Jahrbiicher fur deutsche Wissenschaft und Kunst. Leipzig, 1838, V. I. No. 226, cols. 1801-1808. September 20. Review of Lebensbilder aus beiden Hemispharen, pt. 1-2, by H. Schlettner. 1842, v. V, Nos. 40-41, pp. 159-164. Review of Die nationalen Charakteristiken und Lebensbilder (all novels except Nord und Slid.) (Hardman, Frederick) The Writings of Charles Sealsfield. The Foreign Quarterly Review, London, 1846, v. 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