Class __LaM-_ 
 Book_.JjiAk 
 Copyright N° 
 
 COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 
 
i 
 
'in I" i:k\!!\isck\ck.s 
 
 .lAMKS lUKUll.I. ANCI.l.L 
 
THE 
 
 EEMINISCENCES 
 
 OF 
 
 JAMES BURRILL ANGELL 
 
 LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO. 
 
 FOURTH AVENUE & 30TH STREET, NEW YORK 
 
 LONDON, BOMBAY, AND CALCUTTA 
 
 1912 
 

 COPYRIGHT. 1911, BY 
 LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO. 
 
 THE • PLIMPTON • PRESS 
 
 [ W D • O ] 
 NORWOOD • MASS • U • S • A 
 
 (S)CI.A3{i:367G 
 

 PREFACE 
 
 Many of my friends can bear witness 
 that it is not without a certain reluctance 
 that I have prepared this volume of Rem- 
 iniscences for publication. I have done it 
 under the pressure of frequent and urgent 
 requests from colleagues in the Faculties, 
 and from students of the three Universities, 
 with which I have been officially connected. 
 They have thought that msmy of the facts 
 which I have described in my narrative are 
 worthy of being recorded in a permanent 
 form. 
 
 I venture to hope that the narrative may 
 prove of interest to them. I can assure 
 them, however, that autobiography compels 
 one to write so largely of one's self that it 
 involves the serious discomfort of a seeming 
 lack of modesty. But that discomfort will 
 be cheerfully borne by the writer, if this 
 volume shall help to keep him in touch 
 with the colleagues and students w^hose 
 friendship has brought so much joy into 
 his life. 
 
 University of Michigan, 
 July 1, 1911. 
 
 [v] 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 From Birth to Graduation. 1829-1849 . . 1 
 
 The Southern Journey 41 
 
 Civil Engineering and Study in Europe . . 77 
 
 Professorship in Brown University . . . 105 
 
 Presidency of the University of Vermont . 121 
 
 The Mission to China 128 
 
 The Canadian Fisheries Commission . . . 169 
 
 Summer Trips to Europe 180 
 
 Mission to Ottoman Empire 188 
 
 Presidency of the University of Michigan . 225 
 
 [vii] 
 
EEMINISCENCES OF 
 JAMES B. ANGELL 
 
 I 
 
 FROM BIRTH TO GRADUATION 
 
 1829-1849 
 
 I WAS born in Scituate, Rhode Island, 
 on January 7, 1829. My parents were 
 Andrew Aldrich Angell and Amy Aldrich 
 Angell. They were remotely related. I 
 am the oldest of eight children, two of 
 whom died in infancy. I am the lineal 
 descendant, of the seventh generation, from 
 Thomas Angell who, an EngKshman by 
 birth, came, in 1631, to Massachusetts 
 with Roger Wilhams, and, in 1636, accom- 
 panied WiUiams when the latter settled on 
 the spot to which he gave the name of Provi- 
 dence. Thomas Angell was one of the 
 signers of the noted compact ^ to which 
 
 iThis is the Compact. "We whose names are here- 
 under written, being desirous to inhabit in the town of 
 Providence, do promise to submit ourselves in active or 
 passive obedience, to all such orders or agreements as 
 shall be made for public good of the body, in an orderly 
 way, by the major consent of the present inhabitants, 
 masters of families incorporated together into a township, 
 and such others whom they shall admit into the ^ame, 
 only in civil things." Signed by thirteen persons. 
 
 [1] 
 
REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 Rhode Islanders have always looked back 
 with pride, as the first instrument of pure 
 democracy, which leaves absolute freedom 
 in matters of religious concern. 
 
 In 1675, as is learned from the Provi- 
 dence Early Records, lands on the west 
 side of the so-called Seven Mile Line were 
 assigned to several men. Among them was 
 Thomas Angell. His grandson and name- 
 sake, Thomas, appears to have settled in 
 1710 on the farm on which I was born. 
 
 The town was incorporated in 1731. 
 Why the name Scituate was given to it is 
 not clear. It has been thought by some it 
 was because it was partly settled by emi- 
 grants from Scituate, Massachusetts. But 
 I have never heard of but one settler from 
 that place. We know that the Massachu- 
 setts antiquarians believe that the name is 
 Indian, being written Setuat, or nearly in 
 that form, and signifying Cold Brooks. ^ 
 It is not improbable that the site of the 
 town in Rhode Island bore a similar Indian 
 name, and was anglicized like that in 
 Massachusetts by the form Scituate. 
 
 The land, or a portion of it, on which 
 Thomas settled, was held and occupied 
 continuously by his descendants until after 
 the death of my father in 1864. Repre- 
 
 1 " Mass. Hist. Coll.," Second Series, Vol. 4, p. 223. 
 
 [2] 
 
JAMES B. ANGELL 
 
 sentatives of the Angell family are numerous 
 in Rhode Island, where in the main they 
 have remained. They have been found 
 chiefly in the ranks of plain farmers, me- 
 chanics and tradesmen, gaining by industry 
 and integrity an honest living, but win- 
 ning no particular distinction. Those best 
 known, perhaps, are Col. Israel Angell, who 
 commanded in a creditable manner a regi- 
 ment in the Revolution, and Joseph Kinni- 
 cutt Angell, whose books on law gave him 
 some eminence in the last generation. 
 Nearly always some of them have been 
 found in the State Legislature. 
 
 My immediate ancestors, like many of the 
 farmers of former days who lived on some 
 important thoroughfare, combined the busi- 
 ness of tavern-keeping with that of farming. 
 At an early day the Providence and Nor- 
 wich Turnpike Company, whose road passed 
 through our farm, was chartered. The 
 farmers of several towns in eastern Con- 
 necticut then marketed their products in 
 Providence and so travelled the turnpike 
 road. During the War of 1812, much of 
 the travel and transportation by land be- 
 tween Boston and New York went by this 
 route. Good inns were therefore needed. 
 Through the period of my boyhood the 
 number of travellers who sought accom- 
 
 [3] 
 
REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 modations in the spacious house which my 
 grandfather erected in 1810, was very con- 
 siderable. In earher days, the town meet- 
 ings were held at the tavern. In my own 
 time, the military gatherings — the " General 
 Trainings " — were held in the intervales 
 near by; political meetings, occasionally a 
 justice's court, were held in a large hall 
 which formed a part of the house. Com- 
 pared with the seclusion of the ordinary 
 farmer's boy's life, it will readily be seen 
 that life here was very stirring. I have 
 always felt that the knowledge of men I 
 gained by the observations and experiences 
 of my boyhood in the country tavern has 
 been of the greatest service. Human nature 
 could be studied in every variety, from that 
 of the common farm labourer to travellers 
 of the highest breeding and refinement. The 
 eminent political speakers were always en- 
 tertained at our table, and some of them 
 were very helpful friends in my later life. 
 If, as I have sometimes been assured, I have 
 any power of adaptation to the society of 
 different classes of men, I owe it in no 
 small degree to these varied associations of 
 my boyhood. 
 
 I began my education by learning my 
 alphabet from an old law book. My grand- 
 father had been Justice of the Peace, and 
 
 [4] 
 
JAMES B. ANGELL 
 
 therefore had this volume, each chapter of 
 which began with a very large capital letter. 
 Under the guidance of my uncle, I learned 
 these letters. That fact is my earliest 
 recollection. I recall with especial dis- 
 tinctness the large J, as I was made to 
 understand that it was the initial of my 
 name. 
 
 I may remark in passing that my name 
 was given me by my step-grandfather, who 
 was an admirer of James Burrill,^ an early 
 United States Senator from Rhode Island. 
 
 At a very early age (I know not how 
 early), I was sent to the District School. I 
 remember that I was so young that my 
 father used frequently to take me to school 
 on horseback in front of him on the saddle. 
 A large boy of the neighbourhood w^as hired 
 to take charge of me on the road when I 
 walked. The district school was then in a 
 very primitive state. A sloping board at- 
 tached to the wall quite around the room 
 was the writing desk for all the larger 
 pupils. They sat on benches with their 
 backs towards the middle of the room. 
 The small scholars sat on low benches in 
 the centre of the room. Those who wrote 
 
 iHe was the grandfather of George William Curtis 
 and Rev. James Burrill Curtis. Hence George Curtis 
 used playfully to call me his cousin. 
 
 [5] 
 
REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 made their own writing books. They pur- 
 chased unruled paper, cut it into leaves, 
 stitched them together, put a rough brown 
 paper cover on, and ruled the lines with a 
 leaden plummet. The first duty in the 
 morning was to mend the goose-quill pens, 
 and in the winter to thaw the ink on the 
 stove. The highest branch was Daboll's 
 Arithmetic, and the older pupils who had 
 completed it one winter came back the 
 next and "ciphered through it" again. 
 Reading, spelling, writing, a little grammar, 
 elementary geography, and arithmetic, fur- 
 nished the whole curriculum. 
 
 Fortunately for me, when I was about 
 eight years of age a Quaker, Isaac Fiske, 
 came to the neighbourhood, and established 
 a school for boarders and for day scholars, 
 and I was placed under his care. He was a 
 most thorough, painstaking, and exacting 
 teacher. He had little class-work. His 
 instruction was personal. He went round 
 from pupil to pupil to render needed assist- 
 ance in solving mathematical problems. 
 When we had completed them he required 
 us to copy our work neatly into manuscript 
 books. I remained with him four years, 
 and not only completed arithmetic, but 
 studied surveying also. As he did not 
 teach foreign languages, ancient or modern, 
 
 [6] 
 
JAMES B. ANGELL 
 
 he advised my parents to place me in some 
 school where I might study Latin. But, 
 for the thoroughness of his instruction I 
 have always felt under deep obligations to 
 
 him. 
 
 Some boys whom I knew were attending a 
 seminary in Seekonk, Massachusetts, about 
 three miles from Providence, and urged me 
 to come there. It was a great trial to my 
 mother to have me leave home ; but it was 
 decided that I ought to go. I was then 
 twelve years old. On arriving at the school, 
 I found that in arithmetic I was far ahead 
 of the boys of my age, and so it was 
 wisely concluded that I should give my 
 whole time to Latin. And this experiment 
 of intensive study, carried on in a rational 
 way, had a very interesting result. The 
 principal put me in charge of his sister, a 
 very intelligent woman. He had been drill- 
 ing a class of older boys two years on the 
 dry rules of Latin grammar, without letting 
 them read much Latin. The sister gave me 
 a small book containing the paradigms and 
 easy reading lessons. I met her twice a 
 day, finished the book, and by the end of 
 the three months' term was able to join 
 the class of older boys in such reading as 
 was then set for them, and to go on with 
 them without difficulty. 
 
 [7] 
 
REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 After I had spent one term at this 
 school, my parents decided to send me 
 to the Smithville Seminary, an Academy 
 which the Freewill Baptists had estab- 
 lished in the northern part of my own 
 town, only five miles from my home. 
 
 The two principal instructors. Rev. Hosea 
 Quinby, a graduate of Waterville College, 
 Maine, and Mr. S. L. Weld, a graduate of 
 Brown University, were familiar with the 
 traditional methods of the New England 
 Academy. Without being eminent scholars, 
 they had the faculty of interesting, and to a 
 fair degree of stimulating, their pupils. 
 Most of these were farmers' sons and 
 daughters who wished to supplement the 
 limited work of the district schools. A 
 small number were preparing themselves 
 for college. I joined them in their classes 
 with no such purpose distinctly formed. I 
 also took nearly all the scientific instruc- 
 tion which was given, and given as well as 
 it could be without laboratories or much 
 apparatus. Many of the students were 
 men in years. They were diligent students. 
 Some of them were awkward and rustic in 
 manners, but they were thoroughl^^ earnest 
 and gave a good tone to the school. 
 
 The best instruction, and that was the 
 case in such schools generally, was in mathe- 
 
 [8] 
 
JAMES B. ANGELL 
 
 matics. I pushed on through algebra and 
 plane and solid geometry. English was 
 taught by the stupid method of parsing 
 "Pope's Essay on Man" and that dolorous 
 book, *' Pollock's Course of Time." The 
 ideals of writing and speaking which were 
 in vogue were greatly wanting in simplicity 
 and directness. The instruction in the 
 classics, while it would not now be regarded 
 as sufficiently critical, encouraged and en- 
 abled us to read rapidly enough to get real 
 enjoyment from the author. We soon 
 caught the swing and the flow of the Vir- 
 gihan verse, so that we read with genuine 
 delight in the last six books of the iEneid 
 at the rate of three hundred lines a day. 
 The poem was not made a mere frame-work 
 on which to hang puzzhng questions in 
 grammar, but read as a poem which we were 
 to enjoy as we did Scott's ''Marmion" or 
 the '' Lady of the Lake." That method may 
 be deemed old-fashioned by modern doctors 
 of philosophy ; but I have always been very 
 grateful that under that method my first 
 acquaintance with Virgil was not dull task- 
 work, but the source of constant delight. 
 
 As I look back on the work done in the 
 dead or moribund academies of New Eng- 
 land which have been supplanted by the 
 well-appointed high school, I am convinced 
 
 [9] 
 
REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 that, with their many defects, due in large 
 part to inadequate means, they rendered 
 a most valuable service. They prepared 
 teachers for the district schools, young men 
 for business, and a limited number to meet 
 the moderate requirements which were 
 asked in that time for admission to college. 
 We are in danger of underrating the value 
 of their work. 
 
 While during my fourteenth year I was 
 at school at the Academy, Mr. O. S. Fowler, 
 a somewhat noted phrenologist of that day, 
 gave some lectures in the village of North 
 Scituate and made a professional "exami- 
 nation" of my head. I still have his writ- 
 ten report on me. It was ridiculous in its 
 exaggerated estimate of my gifts, but it 
 had one good result. He persuaded my 
 relatives and friends that by study I was 
 overtaxing my strength, and that I ought 
 to leave school for a time and lead a vigor- 
 ous out-of-door life. While I was by no 
 means ill, I have little doubt that I owe in 
 some degree the physical vigour with which 
 I have been blessed all my life to the fact 
 that owing to his counsel I spent the next 
 two seasons, from early spring till late 
 autumn, at work upon my father's farm, 
 side by side with his hired men, hoeing my 
 row and mowing my swath and learning 
 
 [10] 
 
JAMES B. ANGELL 
 
 all the details of farm work. Much of this 
 I had previously learned in vacations; but 
 I now learned thoroughly how much back- 
 ache a dollar earned in the fields repre- 
 sented. I was also enabled to see how the 
 world looks from the point of view of the 
 labouring man. Often in later years, when 
 weary with study, I was inspired with new 
 zeal by recalling how much severer were 
 the fatigue and monotony of the work of 
 the farmer's boy. It is a good fortune for 
 a boy to have known by experience what 
 hard and continuous manual labour means. 
 The life in my native town during the 
 years of my boyhood was much like that in 
 the other rural towns of Rhode Island. It 
 was very simple and frugal. The popula- 
 tion was of pure English descent. I think 
 my father within the period of my recollec- 
 tion brought the first Irish maid-servant 
 into the town. Farming was the chief 
 occupation. There were half-a-dozen cot- 
 ton factories of moderate size scattered 
 through the town; but the operatives were 
 drawn from the farms and were all Ameri- 
 cans. The farmers got their limited supply 
 of money from the sale chiefly of wood, char- 
 coal, and potatoes, in Providence, and of 
 milk and butter to the operatives in the 
 mills. Some added to their income by 
 
 [11] 
 
REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 turning bobbins and spools in the winter 
 in small shops erected on little streams upon 
 their farms. They found a ready market 
 for their products in the cotton factories 
 through the State. The practice of the 
 greatest economy was necessary to make a 
 small farm support a family. In 1840 the 
 census-taker permitted me to accompany 
 him in his gig over a large part of the town. 
 I think we entered only two or three houses 
 which had aTry other carpets or rugs than 
 those which the occupants had made from 
 rags. I believe that there were not more 
 than two pianos in the town. There was 
 no public library; there were very few 
 books in private libraries. Although the 
 town was only twelve miles from Brown 
 University, I was the first boy from Scitu- 
 ate to graduate from the college. But 
 there had always been in the town some men 
 of prominence in public affairs. Stephen 
 Hopkins, the signer of the Declaration of 
 Independence, lived there. In my own 
 time, one governor of the State and one 
 lieutenant-governor resided there; but 
 the great mass of the inhabitants were 
 hard-working farmers, who led toilsome, 
 honest lives, and left little to .their children 
 beyond the inheritance they had received 
 from their parents. If the children were 
 
 [12] 
 
JAMES B. ANGELL 
 
 now willing to practise the same industry 
 and frugality they could live with equal 
 comfort upon the farms. But they are 
 rapidly selling them to the Irish and the 
 French, who are willing to practise even 
 greater economy than the fathers did two 
 generations back, and so are hving in com- 
 parative thrift. The change in the type of 
 population is marked, as it is in most of 
 the rural towns of New England, perhaps 
 even more so, since the operatives in the 
 factories are now almost all of foreign 
 birth. 
 
 The amusements of the country folk were 
 few and simple. Perhaps the most gen- 
 erally attractive was the annual visit to 
 the shore of Narragansett Bay, usually at 
 a place called the Buttonwoods, where, 
 under the shade of some sycamore trees, 
 they made a clambake after the manner 
 of the Indians. They first gathered the 
 clams from the sand laid bare by the reced- 
 ing tide or the quahog from the adjacent 
 waters. They built a fire on stones and 
 heated them thoroughly; and then placing 
 the shell-fish and potatoes and ears of corn 
 on the stones they covered the whole with 
 sea-weed, and the cooking was slowly done. 
 While the roasting was going on, a bath in 
 the sea was enjoyed by all who wished it. 
 
 [13] 
 
REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 The clam or quahog, held in the hand, was 
 dipped in a cup of melted butter and eaten 
 with a relish which no participant in one of 
 those out-of-door feasts will ever forget. 
 
 Every farmer was expected to take his 
 family and his hired men "to the shore" 
 at least once, when the haying season was 
 over. At the time of the August full moon 
 the roads were well filled with these pilgrims 
 to the sea. Occasionally a party of neigh- 
 bours, numbering fifteen or twenty, hired a 
 large sail boat at Apponaug or East Green- 
 wich, and after the clambake sailed down the 
 bay to Hope Island, spent the night there, 
 and rose at dawn to fish. Occasionally the 
 dullness of the winter was enlivened by a 
 ball at some one of the taverns in the town; 
 but the life was upon the whole monoto- 
 nous, and constant toil was relieved by few 
 amusements. 
 
 Probably, owing to the reaction among 
 the early settlers of Rhode Island from the 
 Puritanical spirit of their neighbours in 
 Massachusetts and Connecticut, Sunday 
 was not generally kept as it was in those 
 States. It was the day for visiting rela- 
 tives and friends and largely for fishing and 
 hunting and ball-playing. It may truth- 
 fully be said that the factory operatives had 
 no other time for visiting or for pleasure. 
 
 [14] 
 
JAMES B. ANGELL 
 
 The most numerous religious bodies in our 
 part of the State were the Six Principle 
 Baptists and the Freewill Baptists. The 
 preachers of the former denomination were 
 all men of limited education; so were most 
 of the preachers of the latter. Naturally 
 enough, the men of the most intelligence 
 and influence rarely attended church, and 
 the spiritual life of the town was at a 
 rather low ebb. But the general standard 
 of morals would compare well with that of 
 the present day. Drunkenness and gam- 
 bling were not prevalent. A man sup- 
 posed to be addicted to gambling or to 
 licentiousness could not retain the public 
 esteem. Political life was purer than it has 
 been of late years in the State. 
 
 The language of the people retained some 
 peculiar expressions which must have come 
 from England, and which I have heard 
 rarely or not at all in other parts of our 
 country. Thus after a wedding it was cus- 
 tomary for the parents of the bride to give 
 a party. That party was always spoken of 
 as the onfare. Whether that is the proper 
 spelhng I cannot say, as I never saw it in 
 print. It would seem to come from the 
 word fare in the sense to travel. The occa- 
 sion was, therefore, a sort of God-speed, to 
 send the married couple faring on their way. 
 
 [15] 
 
REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 Again, if a candidate for office was going 
 about, buttonholing men and soliciting 
 support, he was said to be "parmateering." 
 It has occurred to me that that word might 
 be an abbreviation of Parliamenteering, if 
 that form was ever used to signify going 
 about seeking support for parliament. An 
 auction was generally spoken of as a 
 vendue, pronounced vandue. That word 
 borrowed from the French was used in 
 England. 
 
 Up to the time I left the Academy I had 
 no fixed plan for life. My teachers had en- 
 couraged me to believe that I could succeed 
 in college studies. But, although at the 
 age of fourteen I had covered more ground, 
 especially in Latin and mathematics, than 
 was required for admission to any of the 
 New England colleges, I had no definite 
 purpose of going to college. During the 
 summers I was at home on the farm. I 
 made some unsuccessful efforts to secure a 
 clerkship in business establishments in 
 Providence; but in my fifteenth year it 
 was clear that I ought to decide what 
 career I should endeavour to follow. Mv 
 father informed me that he was able and 
 willing to send me to college, but in that 
 case would hardly be able, in justice to my 
 five brothers and sisters, to aid me further. 
 
 [16] 
 
JAMES B. ANGELL 
 
 It was left to me to say whether I should 
 go. I was certain that it would gratify 
 both him and my mother if I chose to take 
 the college life, and so the die was cast. 
 
 Conscious that in my somewhat pro- 
 longed absence from school my knowledge 
 of the classics had become rather rusty, and 
 being still a year below the age set for 
 entering Brown University, I spent the 
 larger part of a school year in the Univer- 
 sity Grammar School in Providence. It 
 was then conducted by Mr. Merrick Lyon 
 and Mr. Henry S. Frieze, afterwards the 
 distinguished Professor of Latin in the Uni- 
 versity of Michigan. My studies were 
 mainly in the classes of the latter. Contact 
 with this inspiring teacher formed an epoch 
 in my intellectual life, as in that of so many 
 other boys. He represented the best type 
 of the modern teacher, at once critical as a 
 grammarian and stimulating with the finest 
 appreciation of whatever was choicest in the 
 classic masterpieces. At first, as we were 
 show^ered with questions such as I had never 
 heard before, it seemed to me, although the 
 reading of the Latin was mainly a review 
 to me, that I should never emerge from my 
 state of ignorance. But there was such a 
 glow of enthusiasm in the instructor and 
 in the class, there was such delight in the 
 3 [17] 
 
REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 tension in which we were kept by the daily 
 exercises, that no task seemed too great to 
 be encountered. Though in conjunction 
 with our reading we devoured the Latin 
 grammar so that by the end of the year 
 we could repeat almost the whole of it, 
 paradigms, rules, and exceptions without 
 prompting, the work of mastering it did not 
 seem dry and onerous, for we now felt how 
 the increasing accuracy of our knowledge 
 of the structure of the language enhanced 
 our enjoyment of the Virgil and the Cicero, 
 whose subtle and less obvious charms we 
 were aided by our teacher to appreciate. 
 
 I here interrupt the sketch of my educa- 
 tion in school to speak of an important 
 event in 1842, which awakened a deep and 
 a permanent interest in me in political and 
 constitutional questions: I refer to what 
 is known in Rhode Island history as the 
 Dorr war. 
 
 Rhode Island retained the very liberal 
 charter she had received from Charles II 
 as her Constitution down to 1843. Under 
 that Constitution the right of suffrage was 
 limited to the owners of land of the value 
 of at least one hundred and thirty -four dol- 
 lars and to the oldest sons of such land- 
 holders. So long as the people of the State 
 were engaged mainly in farming, in com- 
 
 [18] 
 
JAMES B. ANGELL 
 
 merce and in whale fishing, there was no 
 serious discontent with this hmitation of the 
 suffrage. But after the War of 1812, manu- 
 facturing, especially the manufacture of 
 cotton, grew up rapidly in the State. By 
 1840 the operatives and the mechanics in 
 the State, who had no right to vote, were 
 a numerous body. Naturally enough they 
 sought an amendment to the Constitution 
 which would permit them to have a voice 
 in choosing their rulers; but they sought 
 in vain. There, as everywhere, the exclu- 
 sive possessors of power preferred to retain 
 it. Therefore the petitioners, seeing no 
 possibility of securing an amendment to the 
 constitution in accordance with the method 
 provided by it, called a convention to frame 
 such a constitution as they desired, nomi- 
 nated officers to be voted for at the same 
 time the constitution was submitted to be 
 adopted or rejected by those on whom this 
 new constitution conferred the privilege of 
 suffrage. The supporters of the State gov- 
 ernment mainly absented themselves from 
 the polls. The new constitution was de- 
 clared by its friends to be adopted. Thomas 
 W. Dorr, a most worthy and capable man, 
 belonging to one of the most respectable 
 families of Providence, was said to be elected 
 governor. He at once laid claim to the 
 
 [19] 
 
REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 office and demanded possession of the State 
 property. Then his subordinate officers 
 attempted to take possession. Governor 
 King resisted, and so an armed conflict 
 came on. Those who supported the regu- 
 lar State authorities were known as the Law 
 and Order Party, and the opponents as the 
 Dorrites. 
 
 I am not to recite the detailed history of 
 the strife, which resulted in the defeat of 
 the Dorrites and in the trial, conviction, and 
 imprisonment of Mr. Dorr on the charge 
 of treason. It also led the victors to 
 see that the time had come for enlarging 
 the suffrage. They made a new and more 
 liberal constitution, under which by the 
 payment of a small registry or poll tax the 
 suffrage was opened to all citizens of Ameri- 
 can birth. 
 
 But the issue which was raised by the 
 original contest was one of great constitu- 
 tional interest and importance and was 
 made so plain that we schoolboys could 
 comprehend it clearly enough to discuss it 
 in our essays and debates in school, though 
 I believe great constitutional lawyers are 
 not yet fully agreed upon the decision of 
 the fundamental question involved. The 
 question is whether the citizens of a State 
 have a right to call a convention and adopt 
 
 [20] 
 
JAMES B. ANGELL 
 
 a constitution by any other method than 
 that prescribed in the Constitution already 
 in force. This was, of course, decided in 
 the negative in Rhode Island. 
 
 The feeling of opposition between the two 
 parties in the state was almost as acute as 
 that between the Union men and the Con- 
 federates in the Border States during the 
 Civil War. My father was a Law and Or- 
 der man, and a member of the Legislature 
 during the troubles. The people who lived 
 near us in the adjoining factory village 
 were all Dorrites. They gave us to under- 
 stand that they would not aid us to ex- 
 tinguish the flames if our house took fire. 
 We happened to be building a large addition 
 to our kitchen that year. They dubbed it 
 the Algerine kitchen, as their favourite name 
 for their opponents was Algerines, because 
 of the alleged cruelty of the State officials 
 towards the prisoners they took. The 
 family adopted the name for the kitchen, 
 and it was known as '*the Algerine" so 
 long as the house stood. As in the South 
 after the Civil War, the women retained 
 their animosities much longer than the men. 
 The Dorr War affected permanently the 
 political division of men in the State. The 
 Democrats in other States generally sym- 
 pathized with Mr. Dorr. Therefore most 
 
 [21] 
 
REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 of the Rhode Island Democrats (of whom 
 my father was one) who opposed him, and 
 they were numerous, subsequently acted 
 with the Whig party during the remaining 
 years of the existence of that party. I 
 therefore grew up with an inherited attach- 
 ment to the Whigs, save that like most of 
 the Brown University students I was led 
 by President Wayland's instructions to 
 doubt the wisdom or justice of protective 
 tariffs. 
 
 My college life covered the period from 
 1845 to 1849. In these days, when the 
 faculty numbers nearly a hundred, it is 
 difficult to comprehend how a faculty of 
 seven men carried on the institution with 
 vigour and success. I need hardly say that 
 each one of the seven was a man of force 
 and was admirably qualified for his special 
 work. 
 
 The youngest was Professor Lincoln. He 
 had recently returned from Germany, where 
 he had pursued extended studies in the 
 classics and in philosophy. We had the 
 pleasure of reading Livy with him while 
 he was preparing his edition of that author. 
 He was, therefore, brimful of enthusiasm on 
 the subject and fired us with much of his 
 own spirit. Although we were studying a 
 dead language, no classroom was more 
 
 [22] 
 
JAMES B. ANGELL 
 
 alive than this. He was intolerant of 
 sluggishness or laziness, and often rebuked 
 it with a stinging word. *'I have for- 
 gotten," said an indolent fellow one day in 
 reply to a question. '* Forgotten," was the 
 sharp retort of the teacher, "did you ever 
 know.^" One answer given him amused 
 him and the class as affording rich material 
 for his notes on Livy. We were reading 
 the twenty-first chapter, which describes 
 the passage of the Alps by Hannibal. The 
 professor asked one of the class why Hanni- 
 bal had the elephants with him. With 
 great promptness the answer came, '*to 
 draw up his cannon." The youth who 
 made the reply was so chaffed by his class- 
 mates that he left Brown and went to 
 another college. 
 
 Professor Boise, who afterwards at the 
 University of Michigan and the Chicago 
 Theological Seminary won so high a repu- 
 tation, had charge of the Greek. He mani- 
 fested the same philological acumen which 
 always distinguished him. But he seemed 
 to us at that time to dwell too much on the 
 minutiae of grammar, and not enough on the 
 beauties of Greek literature. The current 
 saying among us was that *'he would die 
 for an enclitic." But it is impossible to 
 overstate the influence which he and his 
 
 [23] 
 
REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 colleague, Professor Frieze, exerted in the 
 West through their labours at the Uni- 
 versity of Michigan in diffusing love for 
 the stud}^ of the ancient classics. 
 
 The librarian, Professor Charles C. 
 Jewett, who had been in Europe purchas- 
 ing books for the library, had charge of the 
 instruction in French in my sophomore 
 year. He was greatly beloved by the stu- 
 dents. It was with much regret that we 
 saw him accept the post of librarian of the 
 Smithsonian Institution. He afterwards be- 
 came the librarian of the Boston Public 
 Library, and died at a comparatively early 
 age. 
 
 Fortunately his place in the classroom 
 was taken by George W. Greene, the well- 
 known historical scholar. His life had been 
 chiefly spent in Europe. The revolutions 
 of 1848 were raging while we were under 
 him. Greatly to our delight, and I may 
 add to our profit, his time in the classroom, 
 under the provocation of questions from 
 us, was chiefly spent in discussing European 
 affairs, and especially in describing the 
 eminent persons who were conducting the 
 military or political movements. Not a 
 few of these he knew personally. None of 
 us, who hung upon his lips in these hours, 
 can ever forget his narratives. He had the 
 
 [24] 
 
JAMES B. ANGELL 
 
 art of the best French raconteur, I confess 
 that my own intense interest in European 
 poHtics and history dates from the hours I 
 sat under the spell of George Greene's fine 
 talk. And who of our American wTiters 
 has surx)assed him in a pure and flowing 
 English style? I am sure the inspiration of 
 the contact with so finished a scholar was 
 lost on but few of the class, even though 
 the demands for the details of recitation 
 were not very exacting. 
 
 Professor Gammell had charge of our 
 writing and speaking and also of the work 
 in history. lie maintained the tradition of 
 pure and chaste writing which, established 
 under Professor Goddard, has, I am happy 
 to believe, never been lost at Brown. He 
 was most exacting in his demands upon the 
 writers, and no one willingly subjected him- 
 self to the humour and the stings of his 
 pungent criticism. Even those who could 
 not at the time receive them with compla- 
 cency lived to recognize in them with grati- 
 tude "the wounds of a friend." No teacher 
 rejoiced more than he in the success of his 
 students in life or v»^atched their careers 
 with more interest. His course in history 
 was fuller than that at any other college 
 except Harvard. It w^as chiefly devoted 
 to English constitutional history, though 
 
 [25] 
 
REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 some time was given to American consti- 
 tutional history. It called for solid and 
 fruitful work. 
 
 According to the custom of those days in 
 all the colleges, one man was called to give 
 instruction in several sciences. This man 
 was Professor Chace. He taught chemis- 
 try, geology, botany, and physiology. At 
 times he also conducted classes in Butler's 
 Analogy. He really ought to have been 
 assigned to the teaching of philosophy. His 
 natural bent was towards metaphysics. 
 His mind was singularly acute, his mental 
 processes were most logical; his style of 
 expression was absolutely lucid. His in- 
 struction was, therefore, highly appreciated, 
 though from the brevity of the courses he 
 could give us only elementary instruction 
 in science. Laboratories had not then been 
 introduced anywhere in this country. His 
 opinion on any subject carried great weight 
 with the students. It was generally be- 
 lieved that no one could outwit him by 
 any trick or device. Therefore the vain 
 attempt was seldom made. 
 
 Professor Caswell, who gave instruction 
 in mathematics, astronomy, and natural 
 philosophy, had of all the teachers the 
 strongest hold on the affections of the stu- 
 dents. To him every one who needed 
 
 [26] 
 
JAMES B. ANGELL 
 
 sympathy or counsel instinctively went. 
 His great warm heart drew all to him. He 
 had the gift of making mathematics attract- 
 ive to most students, and even tolerable 
 to that inconsiderable number who had no 
 gift or no taste for the study. When the 
 vote on recommending for degrees was to 
 be taken, he looked with abundant charity 
 on those who had never been able to pass 
 the examinations in mathematics, saying 
 amiably, "Let them pass. The conies are 
 a feeble folk." The impress of his beauti- 
 ful character upon all the students was never 
 forgotten or entirely effaced. 
 
 President Wayland taught us intellectual 
 and moral philosophy, pohtical economy, 
 and (in a brief course) the evidences of 
 Christianity. I have met not a few of the 
 men whom the world has called great; but 
 I have seldom met a man who so impressed 
 me with the weight of his personality as did 
 Dr. Wayland. After making due allow- 
 ance for the fact that I was but a youth 
 when I sat under his teaching, I still think 
 that by his power of intellect, of will, and 
 of character, he deserved to be ranked with 
 the strongest men our country has pro- 
 duced. It may be said of him as of his 
 friend, Mark Hopkins, that his published 
 writings do not adequately represent the 
 
 [27] 
 
REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 man as his pupils knew him. As a teacher 
 he was unsurpassed. His power of analyz- 
 ing a subject into its simple elements and 
 his power of happy illustration, often 
 humorous, were equally marked. One- 
 fourth of my classmates were Southerners. 
 When we came to the subject of slavery in 
 our study of moral philosophy, we discussed 
 it for three weeks. The robust personality 
 of Dr. Wayland was felt throughout the 
 whole life of the institution. The discipline 
 which was administered exclusively by him 
 was unnecessarily rigorous, the standard 
 of scholarship was high, the intellectual 
 demands upon the students were exacting. 
 For those who attained high rank the life 
 was a strenuous one. The method pur- 
 sued was specially calculated to cultivate 
 the powers of analysis and memory. Where- 
 ever the subject permitted of such treat- 
 ment, we were always required to begin 
 the recitation by giving an analysis of the 
 discussion in the text-book or the lecture. 
 We were then expected to take up point 
 after point of the lesson and recite w^ithout 
 being aided by questions from the teacher. 
 There was a general belief among the stu- 
 dents, though no formal statement to that 
 effect was made by the Faculty, that they 
 would gain higher credit by repeating the 
 
 [28] 
 
JAMES B. ANGELL 
 
 language of the book than by reporting the 
 substance of the thought in their own lan- 
 guage. By dint of continued memorizing, 
 some of the students attained to a remark- 
 able development of the verbal memory. 
 I think that nearly one-fourth of the men 
 in my class in their senior year used to 
 learn in two hours — and that after an 
 indigestible dinner in Commons — fifteen 
 pages of Smyth's "Lectures on History," so 
 that they could repeat them with little 
 variation from the text. The training in 
 analysis was of very high value in teaching 
 men to seize and hold the main points in an 
 argument and to make points distinctly in 
 the construction of a discourse. On look- 
 ing back, I think most of the old students 
 will agree that too much value was attached 
 to memoriter recitations. 
 
 But none the less, many of them have 
 found great advantage in life in the facility 
 which they acquired in retaining with accu- 
 racy what they read or write. The reaction 
 against training the memory has probably 
 gone too far in these later days. The natu- 
 ral sciences were taught as skilfully as they 
 well could be in an overcrowded curriculum, 
 and in days when laboratory methods were 
 not employed. Personally I gained great 
 advantage by being permitted to assist the 
 
 [29] 
 
REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 Professor of Chemistry for two years in 
 preparing the experiments which he made 
 before the class. In the ancient languages, 
 certainly in Greek, I think the professors 
 who taught us would now say too much 
 time was given to grammatical and philo- 
 logical detail and too little to rapid reading. 
 But their method was then generally in 
 vogue, and the teaching was excellent of its 
 kind. 
 
 To nearly every student the most impor- 
 tant event in his college life in those days 
 was the contact with the vigorous and 
 suggestive mind of Dr. Wayland, in the 
 senior classroom, and especially during the 
 study of moral philosophy. It is difficult 
 for those who know Dr. Wayland only by 
 his writings, valuable as some of them are, 
 to understand how he made so deep an 
 impression on his pupils. He was not a 
 great scholar; he was imperious, sometimes 
 prejudiced; but his mind was singularly 
 penetrating and lucid. He insisted on the 
 clearest and sharpest definition of terms 
 before answering a question or engaging 
 in a discussion, and thus often made the 
 inquirer answer his own question by an 
 accurate definition or rendered the dis- 
 cussion superfluous. Withal, he had the 
 keenest wit and a thorough knowledge of 
 
 [30] 
 
JAMES B. ANGELL 
 
 men, especially of students. He had the 
 happiest way, often a homely way, of stat- 
 ing an important truth so that it remained 
 forever fixed in the mind of the hearer. 
 There was, too, beyond all this, a certain 
 power of personal presence, a force of char- 
 acter, a moral strength, which lent a tre- 
 mendous weight to even his commonest 
 words. I have met in my day not a few 
 distinguished men; but I recall none who 
 have so impressed me with their power of 
 personality, none who have uttered so 
 many wise words which I recall every week 
 to my advantage and help in the duties of 
 my daily hfe. He was a very inapt pupil 
 who passed from under Dr. Way land's 
 instruction without catching something 
 of his catholic spirit, his passionate love 
 of soul-liberty, and his earnest Christian 
 principle. 
 
 The following incidents will give one an 
 idea of his manner in the classroom. One 
 day a rather conceited man said in the 
 class when Dr. Wayland was speaking of 
 the great wisdom of the Proverbs in the 
 Scriptures, "I do not think there is any- 
 thing very remarkable in the Proverbs. 
 They are rather commonplace remarks of 
 common people." "Very well," rephed the 
 Doctor, "make one." 
 
 [31] 
 
REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 The Doctor's son, Heman Lincoln Way- 
 land, one of my classmates, inherited from 
 his father a very keen wit. The passes be- 
 tween father and son were often very enter- 
 taining to the class. One day when we were 
 considering a chapter in the father's text 
 book on Moral Philosophy, Lincoln arose 
 with an expression of great solemnity and 
 respect and said, *'Sir, I would hke to pro- 
 pound a question." *'Well, my son, go 
 on," was the reply. ''Well, sir," said the 
 son, "in the learned author's work which 
 we are now perusing I observe the follow- 
 ing remark," and then he quoted. The 
 class saw that fun was at hand, and began 
 to laugh. ''Well, what of that?" said the 
 father, with a merry twinkle in his eye. 
 "Why, this," continued the son. "In an- 
 other work of the same learned author, 
 entitled 'On the Limitations of Human 
 Responsibility,' I find the following pas- 
 sage.' He then quoted. Clearly the two 
 passages were irreconcilable. The boys were 
 delighted to see that the father was in a 
 trap, and broke into loud laughter. The 
 Doctor's eyes twinkled more merrily, as 
 he asked, "Well, what of that .^" "Why," 
 said the son with the utmost gravity, "it 
 has occurred to me that I should like to 
 know how the learned author reconciles the 
 
 [32] 
 
JAMES B. ANGELL 
 
 two statements." "Oh," said the father, 
 "that is simple enough. It only shows that 
 since he wrote the first book the learned 
 author has learned something." 
 
 And this remark reveals one of the strik- 
 ing characteristics of Dr. Wayland's mind. 
 It was ever growing. It cost him no 
 struggle to change his opinion when he had 
 good ground for so doing. He imbued his 
 students with this open-mindedness. He 
 encouraged the fullest and freest discussion 
 in the class. The passage in Milton's Areo- 
 pagitica about letting truth grapple with 
 error was often on his lips. 
 
 During the spring of my Sophomore year 
 there arose among the students a deep inter- 
 est in personal religion. Though like most 
 school boys I had thought with some seri- 
 ousness upon religious subjects, I had been 
 repelled by the extravagances and excite- 
 ments of so-called revivals in the country 
 towns and villages, which apparently ap- 
 pealed to ignorant and emotional persons 
 rather than to the rational and intelligent. 
 But here my thoughtful and even my 
 merry companions addressed themselves 
 calmly but earnestly to the great question 
 of determining their duty to God and of 
 deciding with what aim and what spirit 
 they should hve. The high resolves then 
 4 [33] 
 
REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 formed shaped the careers of a good num- 
 ber of the most conspicuous men in college. 
 I think they would generally testify that 
 they were greatly aided in that critical 
 period of their lives by the wise counsels of 
 Dr. Caswell and Dr. Wayland. Perhaps 
 at no other time did the latter so deeply 
 impress the students as when, standing in 
 the midst of them in the old chapel, and 
 resting one foot on a seat and his arm on 
 the raised knee, he looked into their faces 
 with those piercing eyes and spoke with 
 fatherly tenderness of the divine love. 
 With what pathos he repeated the parable 
 of the Prodigal Son. None of his published 
 sermons gives one any adequate idea of the 
 power of those heart-to-heart talks. 
 
 But to us country boys, as we entered 
 upon college life, nothing was more fasci- 
 nating and more novel and more helpful 
 than the access to well-furnished libraries 
 and the society of students of marked 
 ability and scholarly enthusiasm. The boys 
 who are reared in the neighbourhood of 
 libraries can have no appreciation of the 
 sensations which we country lads, w^hose 
 supply of books had been the most meagre 
 imaginable, but whose thirst for reading 
 was insatiable, experienced in being ush- 
 ered into a large library and told that all 
 
 [34] 
 
JAMES B. ANGELL 
 
 these books were now at our service. I 
 sometimes tremble to think what an on- 
 slaught we made upon the crowded shelves. 
 Fortunately association with older students 
 soon helped us learn how and what to read. 
 For there was at that time — and, I hope, 
 always — in Brown a profound interest in 
 literary culture. The students, with few 
 exceptions, lodged in the dormitories, and 
 took their meals in Commons Hall. They 
 went little into society in the city. They 
 were thus drawn very close to each other. 
 The enthusiasm of the more gifted and ac- 
 complished scholars was caught in some 
 degree by nearly all. I remember that men 
 were divided as Carlyleists or anti-Carlyle- 
 ists, Coleridgeians or anti-Coleridgeians, 
 and so on, and that literary, historic, and 
 philosophic theories were as hotly discussed 
 as the current political questions of the day. 
 Not wishing to be unduly laudator temporis 
 actiy I am sure that whoever examines the 
 triennial catalogue of Brown for the years 
 from 1845 to 1852, will see that the college 
 contained within its walls in those years a 
 good number, perhaps an exceptionally 
 large number, of men whose lives have 
 shown that it must have been a high privi- 
 lege to be intimately associated w^th them 
 in the companionship of student Ufe. The 
 
 [35] 
 
REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 society of some of them has been one of the 
 chief factors in my own education, both in 
 college and afterward, and one of the chief 
 delights of life. On the w^hole I think that 
 any student in Brown University who did 
 not graduate in those days with a mind well 
 disciplined for entering upon any worthy 
 career was himself greatly at fault. 
 
 The careers of the men who were in col- 
 lege in my time furnish the best proof of 
 the value of the training then given. I may 
 name a few of one hundred and forty stu- 
 dents who were my college mates. In the 
 class of 1846 were Thomas Durfee, Chief 
 Justice of Rhode Island, a man of poetic 
 gifts as well as of legal attainments; Frank- 
 lin J. Dickman, a Justice of the Supreme 
 Court of Ohio, a man of fine literary taste 
 and acquirements; Samuel S. Cox, for 
 many years a prominent member of Con- 
 gress, first from Ohio, and afterwards from 
 New York, and subsequently United States 
 Minister to Turkey, a gifted speaker; and 
 Francis Wayland, Dean of the Yale Law 
 School. In the class of 1847 were Profes- 
 sor George P. Fisher, of the Yale Theologi- 
 cal School, distinguished as a writer in 
 ecclesiastical history, and James P. Boyce, 
 President of the Southern Baptist Theologi- 
 cal School at Louisville, Kentucky. In 
 
 [36] 
 
JAMES B. ANGELL 
 
 the class of 1848 was Pendleton Murrah, 
 Governor of Texas in the last years of the 
 Civil War. In my own class, 1849, were 
 Benjamin F. Thurston, one of the leading 
 patent lawyers in the country; James Til- 
 linghast, long the leading lawyer in Rhode 
 Island on real estate; Juhan Hartridge, a 
 most eloquent member of the Confederate 
 Congress, and afterwards of the Union Con- 
 gress, and Rowland Hazard, one of the most 
 eminent business men of his time and en- 
 dowed w^ith superior scientific and literary 
 gifts. In the class of 1850 were James O. 
 Murray, a prominent Presbyterian divine 
 and Professor and Dean in Princeton Col- 
 lege, and Edward L. Pierce, conspicuous in 
 pubHc affairs in Massachusetts and biog- 
 rapher of Charles Sumner. In the class of 
 1851 was Professor J. L. Diman whom I 
 regard as one of the most gifted men I have 
 know^n, the most conspicuous teacher of 
 history of his generation, but who died 
 while in the very prime of his strength. 
 
 We students in Brown beheved that there 
 was no better teaching in any college than 
 in ours. Since reading Senator Hoar's 
 description of the instruction at Harvard 
 at the same time, and Andrew D. White's 
 description of the instruction at Yale a 
 Httle later, I am inchned to think that our 
 
 [37] 
 
REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 impression was correct. The one college 
 teacher of that time whose instruction took 
 rank with that of Dr. Wayland was Mark 
 Hopkins, President of Williams College. 
 
 Immediately after leaving college I had 
 an experience not unusual for young gradu- 
 ates. It was necessary for me to do some- 
 thing for my maintenance; but I found 
 nowhere any call for my services. I had 
 left the warm and genial atmosphere of col- 
 lege life to plunge into the great busy world 
 and realized what Schiller meant when he 
 said he stretched out his arms to serve the 
 world and found he had clasped a lump of 
 ice. The great, busy world went on its way 
 and apparently had no use for me and ho 
 sympathy with me. The contrast between 
 the warm companionships of college days 
 and this sense of loneliness and isolation and 
 uselessness made the experience of those few 
 weeks following graduation the most painful 
 of my life. The recollection of it has led me 
 often to warn students against being too 
 much discouraged by a similar fortune. 
 
 For in due time I was invited to take the 
 place of Assistant Librarian in Brown Uni- 
 versity for a part of each day, and to 
 spend another part in teaching a boy who 
 was prevented by weakness of his eyes from 
 the study of books. The compensation was 
 
 [38] 
 
JAMES B. ANGELL 
 
 very modest, but it gave me the great de- 
 light of returning to the society of college 
 friends and teachers, and the equal delight 
 of having free access to the library, and, 
 incidentally, of guiding to a considerable 
 degree the reading of undergraduates. 
 During the work of classifying and arrang- 
 ing the books in the library an amusing 
 incident occurred, deserving perhaps to be 
 recorded among the "Curiosities of Liter- 
 ature." One of the staff, coming upon 
 Edgeworth's book on "Irish Bulls," cata- 
 logued and placed it among the works on 
 agriculture. This was itself one of the best 
 of Irish Bulls. 
 
 I read aloud from one to two hours a day 
 interesting books to my pupil, and was 
 surprised to find how many volumes we 
 finished by reading thus for about six 
 months.^ I gave a part of my leisure hours 
 
 I I take pleasure in saying that this receptive pupil, 
 with whom I maintained the relations of the most cordial 
 friendship until his death, was Thomas Poynton Ives, son 
 of Moses Brown Ives, of the house of Brown and Ives. 
 When the Civil War broke out, young Ives placed his 
 yacht at the service of the government, enlisted as the 
 commander of it, equipped it for service, and was sta- 
 tioned in the Chesapeake. He married Miss Motley, 
 daughter of Motley the historian, but did not long sur- 
 vive the marriage. She afterward married Sir William 
 Vernon Harcourt, the distinguished English statesman. 
 
 [39] 
 
REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 to my classical studies, re-reading "Vir^'ir* 
 and readiiii;- lor the first time Demos- 
 tlienes' "Oration on the C^rown." 
 
 In the spring of 1850 I took a severe cold, 
 ^vliieh seriously atVeeted my throat. Never 
 having been ill, it did not occur to me that 
 I ought to refrain for a time from oral 
 instruction to my pupil. I continued to 
 talk and read five hours a day to him until 
 I became too hoarse to continue. I thus 
 fastened an inflannnation on my throat, 
 from which I have never fully recovered. 
 I returned to my father's house and spent 
 the summer in the attempt to recuperate, 
 but was only partially successful. INIean- 
 time my classmate and intimate friend, 
 Kowland Hazard, had been suffering from 
 hemorrhage of the lungs. Ilis father, Row- 
 land G. Hazard, a prosperous manufacturer, 
 who afterwards became somewhat noted for 
 writings on philosophic subjects, and who 
 m earlv life had travelled on business 
 errands extensivelv in the South, thought 
 that it would be beneficial to his son to 
 make a journey on horseback through the 
 South. But he deemed it hardly prudent 
 for the young man to go alone. So, know- 
 ing my condition, he invited me to accom- 
 pany his son on this southern journey, and 
 I accepted the invitation with pleasure. 
 
 [40] 
 
II 
 
 THE SOUTIIP:iiN JOURNEY 
 
 Setting out on my southern journey, I 
 left horn(* October 5, 1850, and went to 
 I\-ace Dale. Tuesday evening we started 
 for Philadelphia via New York. We spent 
 some days in I^hiladelphia, where my friend 
 had numerous relatives. During our stay 
 we heard Albert 13arnes j^reaeh a very plain 
 and simple sermon, somewhat in the style 
 of his then famous notes on the Gospels. 
 We also heard Jenny Lind, then on her first 
 tour, sing. I have never been so impressed 
 by singing as by her rendering of "I know 
 that my Jledeemer hveth." Philadelphia 
 had many objects of interest to me, Inde- 
 pendence Hall, the Mint, the Schuylkill, 
 Fairmount, etc. 
 
 We got our outfit of saddles and bridles 
 and went via Baltimore to IIari>er's Ferry 
 and Winchester. When we had planned to 
 set out on horseback for a journey through 
 the South, we had clothed ourselves in suits 
 of heavy gray cloth, and steeple-crowned, 
 brick-coloured hats, known as California 
 hats. We had india-rubber ponchos for use 
 
 [41] 
 
REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 in rainy weather. Our effects were packed 
 in saddle bags. We purchased two excel- 
 lent horses here. 
 
 We had letters to some intelligent men 
 in Winchester. From conversation with 
 them we received the impression that the 
 more thoughtful regarded slavery as eco- 
 nomically of no advantage to that section; 
 but they did not relish the attitude of the 
 North in criticizing them for continuing to 
 maintain it. Some of them seemed to be in 
 a rather confused state of mind, admiring 
 the prosperity of the North, expressing de- 
 votion to the Union, but defending their 
 course in retaining their negroes in bondage. ^ 
 
 1 One gentleman, who had attended the annual meeting 
 of the Railroad Company at Harper's Ferry., and had in- 
 dulged rather freely in the beverages offered, amused us 
 by a sort of speech, with which he welcomed us. The 
 following are extracts : 
 
 "Gentlemen, we welcome you to Virginia. It is all 
 important that you go back with right impressions, that 
 you should go back Union men. Now my niggers live 
 the same as I do, not at the same table, but have the same 
 food. Every dish is carried for them into an adjoining 
 room, a plastered room, Gents. 
 
 "What is the use then of kicking up such a fuss in the 
 kitchen? Why don't we say that you sha'n't have gray 
 cattle or no cattle or yellow cattle.? What business is that 
 to us.? Now would it not be a pretty spectacle to see the 
 bayonets at Springfield clashing with those made at 
 Harper's Ferry? Would it not be sublime, Gents of the 
 
 [42] 
 
JAMES B. ANGELL 
 
 We were deeply impressed with the pros- 
 perity of the Shenandoah Valley as we 
 travelled along its great highway. Wagons 
 laden with corn and the other products of 
 
 North, to see you and me sticking each other in the abdo- 
 men? What do you want to do it for? New England, 
 God bless her! We love her. All the goods I sell come 
 from New England. She is the bone and the sinew and 
 the back and the breast and the head and the all. We 
 love her, we do. We want you to go North with right 
 impressions. 
 
 "Then there is a man up above here that has two hun- 
 dred nappy-heads. Now, Gents, that seems strange to 
 you. Yet they fare well. Now here's my Jim. WTiat 
 is the matter with him? That's Jim, sleeps eighteen hours 
 out of the twenty-four. Gents, you can see plenty of 
 pretty girls in Virginia, with Virginia fortunes, ten niggers, 
 and if you want to marry one you can do it fast enough. 
 You tell her you are an abolitionist. She kisses you a few 
 times, says the niggers are doing well enough. Pretty 
 soon you would fight for them niggers. It is so, Gents. 
 Now, Gentlemen of the North, why can't we keep united? 
 The Jews were formerly the chosen people of God. Now 
 if you'll look in Deuteronomy, Exodus, somewhere along 
 there, you'll find they disobeyed God and He set his face 
 against them and turned to the Gentile nations of the 
 West. W^e are the West, Gents. We are a great and 
 growing country. We are E Pluribus Unum, One out of 
 many. God bless us! What is the use then, I say, of 
 kicking up a row in the kitchen? We of the South want 
 you of the North to go back with right impressions, Union 
 men. Amicitia, Amor, et Veritas. Love your country 
 and be true; the translation of that is, Gents, love 
 America and be true." 
 
 [43] 
 
REMINISCENCES OP 
 
 the fertile farms passed on in continuous pro- 
 cession towards Winchester, the terminus 
 of the railway from Harper's Ferry. We 
 visited Weyer's Cave, which though not so 
 extensive as the better known Mammoth 
 Cave in Kentucky, was as beautiful and 
 striking to us who had never seen such a 
 geological formation. From Waynesboro 
 we crossed the Blue Ridge by the Rockfish 
 Gap. Under Monsieur Crozet, a French 
 engineer, the men were driving the tunnel 
 for the railway. Our immediate destination 
 was Charlottesville. We wished to visit 
 Monticello, the home of Jefferson, and the 
 University of Virginia. 
 
 We reached Turpin's Hotel in the after- 
 noon. Our costume was hardly calculated 
 to impress strangers with the idea that we 
 were entitled to special civilities at their 
 hands. In fact we had generally been taken 
 by the men we had met on the road for 
 drovers, who were seeking cattle, or for bill 
 collectors, sent out by northern firms to dun 
 their debtors. More than once those who 
 held the latter theory put whip to their 
 horses to escape from us. 
 
 But in the evening we had a fine example 
 
 of Virginia hospitality. In some way a 
 
 group of gentlemen sitting near us in the 
 
 hotel learned the object of our visit to the 
 
 ' [44] 
 
JAMES B. ANGELL 
 
 town, and notwithstanding our costume 
 proffered their services to make our visit 
 agreeable. The oldest of them, Mr. Wil- 
 liam Gilmer, widely known as we soon 
 learned as Billy Gilmer, introduced himself, 
 saying that he had received courtesies in 
 New England and that he and his friends 
 would be glad to entertain us. He intro- 
 duced us to them and immediately began to 
 lay out a programme of hospitalities which 
 would have occupied us for a week or ten 
 days. *'You will go to dinner with me to- 
 night, to-morrow we will go to Southold's, 
 the next day we will have a fox hunt," and 
 so on. We were obliged to decline this 
 kind offer; but we told him we should be 
 obhged to him if he could help us gain 
 access to Monticello, since we had heard it 
 was closed to visitors. '*0h, yes," he re- 
 plied, "I will go with you to-morrow 
 morning. As a child I grew up a neighbour 
 of Jefferson and was often in his house. I 
 will see that you get in." 
 
 The next morning he appeared at the 
 appointed hour. Monticello is about two 
 miles from the town. As we rode up the 
 hill he told us some interesting stories 
 about Mr. Jefferson, w^hich I here give on 
 his authority. 
 
 The view from the hill commands the two 
 
 [45] 
 
REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 fertile counties of Fluvanna and Louisa. 
 "If in the place of them there had been a 
 lake," Jefferson used to say, "this would 
 have been the finest situation on earth." 
 "And," added Mr. Gilmer, "if he could 
 have had his way, he would have sunk them 
 both in the lake." 
 
 Pointing to a wooded peak rising behind 
 Monticello, he said that Mr. Jefferson once 
 planned a sawmill to be placed there and 
 driven by a windmill, since there is always 
 a breeze up there. When some wood-man 
 asked how he would get the logs up there to 
 be sawed, he was nonplussed. 
 
 Mr. Jefferson, who was much interested 
 in scientific matters, had been led to adopt 
 the theory that the western prairies were 
 almost treeless because the mastodons, be- 
 heved to be arboraceous, had gnawed down 
 and consumed the trees which originally 
 grew on them. A wag of the neighbour- 
 hood, Billy Preston, was aware of Jeffer- 
 son's views on this subject. On a journey 
 which Preston made to Illinois, he wrote to 
 Jefferson that he had found a remarkable 
 confirmation of his theory. He had come 
 upon the remains of a mastodon in a slough, 
 in which the animal had been mired, and 
 just where the stomach must have been 
 there was a great mass of what appeared to 
 
 [46] 
 
JAMES B. ANGELL 
 
 be sawdust, evidently the tree which had 
 been eaten. Mr. Jefferson was so gratified 
 at this news that he at once wrote a Memoir 
 on the matter and sent it to his scientific 
 correspondents in France. 
 
 We passed the monument to Jefferson 
 just before we reached the entrance to the 
 grounds. It was badly mutilated by visit- 
 ors who had broken off chips of the stone 
 as souvenirs. The stew^ard in charge of the 
 estate happened to be near the gate which, 
 however, was locked. Mr. Gilmer shouted 
 to him from afar in the most famihar man- 
 ner; but as we reached the gate, the stew- 
 ard informed us that Captain Le\y, the 
 naval oflScer, into whose possession the 
 estate had come through his marriage, had 
 left the strictest orders that during his ab- 
 sence in Europe no one should be admitted 
 to the house. We had heard that Captain 
 Levy had taken offence because he had not 
 been received as ^persona grata by his 
 neighbours. On the announcement by the 
 steward of this prohibition, Mr. Gilmer 
 evinced deep anguish. "This is really too 
 bad," he exclaimed. '*Here are tw^o sons of 
 old acquaintances and friends of Mr. Jef- 
 ferson, who have ridden hundreds of miles 
 to pay a tribute to his memory, to visit his 
 residence as a sacred shrine, and now they 
 
 [47] 
 
REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 are to be shut out. If Mr. Jefferson were 
 alive, how he would have greeted them! 
 Oh no! this cannot be, my good friend. 
 Allow me, sir, to introduce you to Mr. 
 Charles Francis Adams, the son of John 
 Quincy Adams, and to Mr. Fletcher Web- 
 ster, the son of Daniel Webster!" As it 
 happened he called me, who was about the 
 size of Mr. Adams, Mr. Webster, and Mr. 
 Hazard, who was six feet high, Mr. Adams. 
 He had not notified us of his intention to 
 play this trick, and it required our best 
 efforts to play the parts assigned us with- 
 out breaking into laughter. The steward 
 was evidently a little puzzled to explain to 
 himself how so distinguished men should 
 appear in such costume. But he yielded 
 to Mr. Gilmer's request with the remark 
 that he supposed Captain Levy would not 
 object to the admission of such visitors. 
 We were shown about the grounds and the 
 house. In Jefferson's sleeping room was 
 the bed on which he died, July 4, 1826. 
 On the mantel were two small statues of 
 him. In the dining room was a bust of 
 Voltaire. The furniture of the house was 
 wrapped in coverings. In the silence and 
 the dim light which was admitted through 
 the half -closed shutters, the house in which 
 so many statesmen had discussed the grav- 
 
 [48] 
 
JAMES B. ANGELL 
 
 est public questions seemed in fact a tomb. 
 For once even the merry talk of our friend 
 Gilmer fell with a certain dissonance on the 
 ear. 
 
 In the afternoon we rode out to the Uni- 
 versity. A student, Mr. Chalmers, intro- 
 duced us to the Librarian, Mr. Wirtenbaker, 
 who received us very cordially. The stu- 
 dent's dormitories and the lecture halls, 
 planned as was the University itself by 
 Mr. Jefferson, still stand as we saw them 
 on two sides of the beautiful Green, though 
 other and finer structures have since been 
 added. 
 
 Perhaps this is the best place to say that 
 I attended the inauguration of President 
 Alderman, in the spring of 1905. Being 
 invited to speak at the banquet, I found 
 that there were few, if any, persons present 
 whose memory of the town and the Uni- 
 versity reached back as far as mine. When 
 I gave some of the reminiscences above 
 recorded, the audience seemed highly enter- 
 tained, especially by my report of the acts 
 and stories of "Billy Gilmer," the reputa- 
 tion of whose w^it and humour has survived 
 in that region. 
 
 We crossed the Blue Ridge to Staunton. 
 On this journey w^e first saw negro w^omen 
 working in the fields. In Staunton we 
 5 [49] 
 
REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 visited the State Institution for the Blind 
 and for the Deaf and Dumb, and the State 
 Lunatic Asylum. From Staunton we went 
 to Lexington, then and afterwards noted 
 for the State Military Institute, at which 
 some of the most distinguished confederate 
 officers were educated. Stonewall Jackson 
 was a professor here when the Civil War 
 broke out. 
 
 My journey up the Shenandoah Valley 
 proved of essential service to me in my 
 editorial work during the war, because 
 that valley was the scene of so many mili- 
 tary operations of importance, which I had 
 occasion to discuss. 
 
 From Lexington we went to the Natural 
 Bridge, where the boldness of the scenery 
 surpassed our expectations. We started 
 from the bridge for the Balcony Falls on 
 the James River. On our journey, when we 
 supposed we must be approaching our des- 
 tination, we inquired of a man whom we 
 met how far it was to Balcony Falls. He 
 looked at us in astonishment. He said he 
 had never heard of them. We expressed 
 our surprise at this, when suddenly he put 
 his hand to his forehead and exclaimed, 
 "Oh, you mean Bel-co-ny (with the accent 
 on the second syllable) Falls," and then gave 
 us the desired information. We found 
 
 [50] 
 
JAMES B. ANGELL 
 
 them, a picturesque spot, where the river 
 breaks through a narrow gorge filled with 
 rocks. Passing a tollgate on our ride, we 
 asked the gatekeeper, a woman, how much 
 we had to pay for two of us. She rephed 
 that the toll was three cents for one, but 
 she was unable to reckon the total amount 
 for two. As my companion was noted in 
 college for his mathematical attainments, I 
 called on him to solve the problem, which 
 he did, and we passed through. 
 
 By almost impassable roads and lanes we 
 went to the Peaks of Otter. We forded one 
 stream thirty-two times in going seven 
 miles. The views from these peaks were 
 very extensive and impressive. None, we 
 were assured, on all the mountain ranges of 
 Virginia are more so. We paused a few 
 hours in Lynchburg, which then had about 
 eight hundred inhabitants. Its chief trade 
 was in tobacco. We went next to Dan- 
 ville. On the way we passed the Isle of 
 Pines, lying in Staunton River, and formerly 
 owned by Patrick Henry. We also passed 
 two small villages known by the significant 
 names of Hard Times and Scuffletown. We 
 were told by one of the natives that in that 
 region they raised *'a right smart chance of 
 sheep and snorting crops of tobacco." But 
 the soil was really thin and in a large part 
 
 [51] 
 
REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 of our route covered with forest. We 
 met hardly any travellers in a whole day's 
 ride. So far as we could judge from our 
 conversations with Virginians on our whole 
 journey from Winchester to Danville, that 
 is from Northern to Southern Virginia, 
 opinions as to the desirableness of main- 
 taining slavery were divided. Not a few 
 were convinced that it was of no advantage 
 to their State. But no one could make the 
 journey we did without being impressed 
 with the great natural resources of the 
 State, with the attractiveness of the scenery 
 on both sides of the Blue Ridge, and with 
 the shrewdness, intelligence, and activity 
 of the inhabitants of the Shenandoah 
 Valley. 
 
 Passing from Danville into North Caro- 
 lina, we travelled on a level ridge for twenty- 
 seven miles without crossing a stream. We 
 came also on the first camp we had seen of 
 a slave trader, buying up negroes to take to 
 the gulf states. That was a prosperous 
 business both in Virginia and in the Caro- 
 hnas. Some of the table arrangements in 
 Danville and in towns further south were 
 novel. Beef steak was served in a large, 
 deep potato dish, from which you drew your 
 rations with a spoon. Butter, a most 
 hberal supply, from one to three pounds, 
 
 [52] 
 
JAMES B. ANGELL 
 
 was placed in slices on the largest plate on 
 the table. Sometimes this plate was placed 
 on an inverted bowl, sometimes on a cir- 
 cular board twelve or fifteen inches in di- 
 ameter, which was supported on a wooden 
 standard a foot high. 
 
 Our journey to Greensboro, North Caro- 
 hna (named after General Green of revolu- 
 tionary fame), took us over the battlefield 
 of Guilford Court House, and over the region 
 in which Cornwallis and Green contended 
 for some time. A venerable man, said to be 
 the oldest in Martinsville, assured us that 
 Washington fought the battle with Corn- 
 waUis and won it. He modestly added that 
 he remembered nothing more about it. 
 
 Near Greensboro we visited the Hodgins 
 Gold Mine, which was then worked with 
 profit, but like the other North Carohna 
 gold mines was afterwards abandoned. 
 The gold was found chiefly in the earthy 
 matter which surrounded the loose quartz. 
 Copper was also found. We also went to 
 see the mines of Gold Hill where they were 
 taking out four hundred dollars worth of 
 gold daily. 
 
 We passed through Salisbury to Char- 
 lotte. There was here a branch mint, 
 where they made no coins larger than five 
 dollar pieces. They employed only four 
 
 [53] 
 
REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 men in their work. We crossed the State 
 hne into South CaroHna, and traversed 
 Lancaster County, passing over the scene 
 of Sumter's and of Gates' mihtary opera- 
 tions in the Revolution. The soil was hght 
 and sandy. Lofty pines were here first en- 
 countered. In this region we met the first 
 advocates of secession. Some of them 
 warned us that it would be dangerous for 
 us to approach Columbia. We replied that 
 we would continue our journey until we 
 saw signs of danger. 
 
 Camden we found an attractive town of 
 between two and three thousand inhabi- 
 tants. De Kalb's remains lie beneath a 
 monument in the Presbyterian church. 
 His name was given to a cotton factory 
 which we visited. Near it was the figure 
 of an iron man on which Colonel Dickinson, 
 killed in the Mexican War, had practised 
 with his pistol in preparation for a duel. 
 We were told that a duel had been fought 
 in the town a year before our visit, and an- 
 other two years before. Public opinion 
 seemed to approve of duelling. Camden 
 was CornwalHs' headquarters at one period 
 in his southern campaign. The Camden 
 Journal was a violent secession sheet. 
 
 On the road from Camden to Columbia 
 we passed large fields of cotton, one a mile 
 
 [54] 
 
JAMES B. ANGELL 
 
 long. As the Legislature was in session 
 we found it impossible to gain admission to 
 any hotel, but after a long search in the 
 evening were received at a boarding house. 
 The next day being Sunday, we had the 
 good fortune to hear Rev. Dr. Thornwell, 
 one of the most distinguished preachers in 
 the South, deliver the baccalaureate sermon 
 to the graduating class of the University 
 of South Carolina. It was a discourse of 
 great power. 
 
 On the next day we attended the 
 Commencement exercises. The Governor 
 (Seabrook), the President of the Senate, the 
 Speaker of the House, and a group of promi- 
 nent citizens occupied the stage. We were 
 rather surprised to see a supply of cus- 
 pidors on the stage for tobacco chewers, and 
 they were by no means superfluous fur- 
 niture. We thought the students' speeches 
 were only moderately good. The Presi- 
 dent's address to them was solely an appeal 
 to them to abide by the State in the disso- 
 lution of the Union which he regarded as 
 inevitable. He exhorted them to fight and 
 conquer or fall beneath the Palmetto banner. 
 Several of the students' speeches referred to 
 the secession of the States as certain to come. 
 
 On the following day we visited the Leg- 
 islature. The halls were hung in mourn- 
 
 [55] 
 
REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 ing for Calhoun. During this session the 
 speeches abounded with allusions to the 
 coming dissolution of the Union. In the 
 evening we took tea with Mrs. McCord, a 
 most gifted and learned w^oman, the daugh- 
 ter of that eminent statesman, Langdon 
 Cheves. Though extremely cordial to us 
 personally, she expressed what seemed to be 
 the general feeling in Columbia when she 
 said to us, "We ought to fight you of the 
 North." It will be remembered that this 
 was nearly nine years before the attack on 
 Fort Sumter. 
 
 From Columbia we set out for Augusta, 
 Georgia. At the end of the second day's 
 journey we halted before a house and in- 
 quired for Leestown, w^hich appeared on the 
 map. No other house was visible. "This 
 is Leestown," responded a man, who proved 
 to be Mr. Lee. He informed us — we had 
 not failed to observe it — that the land in 
 that neighbourhood produced little or noth- 
 ing. The country we had passed through 
 was of course very sparsely settled. We 
 lodged at Mr. Lee's. As we entered Ham- 
 burg, opposite Augusta, we saw twenty 
 negroes marching round a piazza singing 
 merrily. They were for sale. Not even 
 this fact depressed their spirits. 
 
 We found Augusta the most attractive 
 
 [56] 
 
JAMES B. ANGELL 
 
 southern city we had seen. It had about 
 twelve thousand inhabitants. The two 
 principal streets were lined with fine dwell- 
 ings. One of them, a mile or more in 
 length, had two rows of trees in the middle, 
 and one row on each side. There were two 
 large cotton mills under the charge of a 
 man brought from Lowell, Massachusetts. 
 They were as well equipped as any we had 
 seen at home. The operatives were all 
 white. We made a vain attempt to sell 
 our horses, as we learned that owing to the 
 sparseness of the population in southwestern 
 Georgia we should find it very uncomfort- 
 able travelling on horseback to middle 
 Florida, where we had decided to go for the 
 remainder of the winter. We left the 
 horses in Augusta, while we went by rail 
 to Charleston, South Carolina. 
 
 We had to leave at five a.m., without 
 breakfast. We stopped for breakfast near 
 Aiken. Mr. Hazard paid for our meals. 
 As we were sitting by the fire near a Vir- 
 ginian, the whistle blew and we three started 
 for the train. A negro waiter came run- 
 ning after us, exclaiming, "Didn't one of 
 you gemmens forgit to pay for breakfast?" 
 Mr. Hazard replied, "We paid." The Vir- 
 ginian, looking the negro fiercely in the 
 eye, said sharply, "Which is it.^ Point 
 
 [57] 
 
REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 him out." "I d'n know," said the negro. 
 *' Point him out," repeated the Virginian. 
 By this time the cars were moving and we 
 all jumped in. **That is my fix," coolly 
 remarked the Virginian to us. 
 
 Till we were within four miles of Charles- 
 ton, we were passing through a succession 
 of cypress swamps and pine barrens. We 
 spent a few days in Charleston most agree- 
 ably. Our classmate, Mendenhall, and 
 friends to whom we had letters, received us 
 with the hospitality characteristic of that 
 city. The houses were generally built in 
 the Grecian style of architecture, with 
 broad piazzas on three sides. Magnolias 
 and live oaks abounded in the open spaces. 
 We made an excursion up Cooper's River 
 to see the rice fields, and to Sullivan's 
 Island, which was then a summer resort 
 for the Charlestonians. We obtained our 
 trunks which we had sent by sea from 
 Baltimore. Mr. Hazard had been robbed 
 of a part of his wardrobe; but we were 
 enabled to lay aside our suits of Vermont 
 gray and dress in proper form to receive 
 the hospitalities of our friends. 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. McCord having invited us 
 when we were at Columbia to spend the 
 Christmas holidays with them on their 
 plantation at Fort Motte, some thirty miles 
 
 [58] 
 
JAMES B. ANGELL 
 
 south of Columbia, we gladly availed our- 
 selves of the opportunity to see something 
 of plantation life under so auspicious cir- 
 cumstances. On December nineteenth we 
 went by rail from Charleston. We were 
 most cordially received by our host and 
 hostess who were living in a fine mansion 
 surrounded by grounds laid out in excellent 
 taste. 
 
 We walked out with Mr. McCord to the 
 negro quarters. He had one hundred and 
 thirty-seven negroes, and was building new 
 and comfortable tenements for them. He 
 had a house in which all the negro children 
 w^ere kept during the day in charge of at- 
 tendants, and a hospital provided with 
 nurses. Every negro had his particular 
 task and drew his ration of food. The 
 arrangements were very systematical. The 
 children sang hymns for us and all of them 
 down to the veriest tot sang con amove, as 
 legs, arms, and bodies were all called into 
 requisition. The plantation called *'Lang 
 Syne" had about three thousand acres and 
 produced from one hundred and eighty to 
 two hundred bales of cotton. We were 
 hospitably entertained by dinner parties 
 and hunting parties on the plantations in 
 the neighbourhood. Partridges, rabbits, 
 and squirrels were the game sought. The 
 
 [59] 
 
REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 negroes running and shouting rivalled the 
 dogs in securing the game shot. 
 
 Our visit corrected our impression that 
 the life of the planter and his wife was one 
 free from care. They did have more leisure 
 than the northern farmer. But careful 
 management was required to secure good 
 profits. And the negroes, careless about 
 their health, called for much attention. 
 Our hostess, during our visit, was up all 
 night caring for a sick negro baby. She 
 had made a careful study of political 
 economy and had translated a valuable 
 French work on that subject. She had 
 given much attention to the economics of 
 plantation life. She told us that she w^ould 
 prefer to have $25,000 in good bank stock 
 rather than $100,000 in negroes and plan- 
 tations. The negroes of "Lang Syne" 
 seemed cheerful and merry, especially when 
 they came on Christmas day to the house 
 to draw their extra Christmas rations. But 
 we were much impressed by an incident 
 which occurred while, on our departure, we 
 were on the way to the railway station. 
 The negro driver was a grave elderly man, 
 a Baptist preacher, in fact, for his people. I 
 ventured to say to him, ''You servants must 
 all be very happy in your lot with such a 
 kind master and mistress." He answered 
 
 [60] 
 
JAMES B. ANGELL 
 
 not a word, but looked at me with a sur- 
 prised and pathetic air, which seemed to 
 me to say, ''You, who are from the North, 
 ought to know that slavery is not a happy 
 condition." I dropped the conversation, 
 but I have never forgotten the expression 
 of his countenance. 
 
 While waiting for a delayed train at the 
 station, we met a hotel keeper from Quincy, 
 Florida, whose commendations of his town 
 decided us to go there for the winter. Mr. 
 Hazard stopped at Aiken, where we were 
 to remain a few days, and I went on to 
 Augusta to bring the horses down. The 
 people at the hotel hardly recognized me, as 
 I no longer wore the riding costume in 
 which they had seen me. The horses hav- 
 ing been in the stable three weeks I had 
 a lively time, riding one and leading the 
 other. It rained heavily all day. I ar- 
 rived at Aiken soaked to the skin. The 
 next day as Mr. Hazard and I were taking a 
 ride, his horse ran away and he was thrown 
 heavily against a tree, but fortunately my 
 fear that he was seriously hurt proved to 
 be unfounded. We sold the horses and 
 saddles and bridles for a little more than 
 they cost us. We remained a week in 
 Aiken. It rained almost every day, and 
 once we had snow three or four inches deep 
 
 [01] 
 
REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 at which some of the negro children were 
 much excited, as they had never before 
 seen it. 
 
 On January 6, 1851, we set out from 
 Aiken for Florida. We sat up, as there 
 were no sleeping cars on the trains in those 
 days, all night on the journey from Augusta 
 to Atlanta. This place was just getting 
 started as the junction point of three rail- 
 roads. We went on at once to Macon, the 
 farthest point on our route which we could 
 then reach by rail. At 10.30 p.m. we 
 started from there in a small coach. Why 
 I know not, but all through the South the 
 coaches which we took generally started in 
 the night, some of them at 2 a.m. We 
 had hardly left the town when the coach 
 was upset, and unluckily the only door was 
 on the side next to the ground. We broke 
 the window on the other side and crawled 
 out into the mud. I took the driver's lan- 
 tern and walked ahead, while Mr. Hazard 
 held up the coach to keep it from capsizing 
 again. After awhile we remounted, but 
 had not gone far before the coach fell 
 plump into a mud hole so as to pitch off a 
 clergyman from the driver's seat and to 
 pitch the driver off headlong after him. It 
 proved we were near a camp of negro 
 teamsters who had a lightwood fire and 
 
 [62] 
 
JAMES B. ANGELL 
 
 some loads of furniture. We cut down 
 chairs and sat by the fire and waited un- 
 til nearly daylight, when a larger and bet- 
 ter coach came to our relief. Frequently, 
 during the journey the mud was so deep 
 that we had to alight and w^alk in the 
 night as well as in the daytime to enable 
 the horses to draw the empty vehicle. As 
 
 1 sat with the driver, he pointed out to me 
 the sloughs in which the coach had been 
 upset on previous trips. The food at the 
 inns was as bad as could be. 
 
 One day we had a long fast because we 
 reached no inn. The country was very 
 sparsely settled. The roads were indescrib- 
 ably bad; swamps, corduroys, roots of trees, 
 gullies, mud holes, creeks to be forded, were 
 our obstacles. Three nights we travelled 
 in these conditions, much of the time in 
 heavy rain, and finally reached Quincy at 
 
 2 A.M., after the most fatiguing and un- 
 comfortable journey we had ever taken. 
 This was Friday morning and we had not 
 been in bed since Sunday night. South- 
 western Georgia, as we saw it, was not 
 very inviting. 
 
 As we were taking a late breakfast in the 
 hotel, the morning of our arrival, we wit- 
 nessed a scene which was disturbing to 
 northern young men. The negro waiter 
 
 [63] 
 
REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 whom we had sent to the kitchen to fill our 
 order, in crossing the back yard, fell into a 
 fight with another negro. In the midst of 
 the tumult a white man appeared with a 
 raw hide and began to lay it on the back 
 of our waiter with great force. The boy in 
 his pain ran and struck his head repeatedly 
 against the brick wall as if to dash out his 
 brains. But the white man continued his 
 blows until the negro fell to the ground. 
 We were told that the white man was his 
 owner and was a citizen of New Jersey, of 
 a family so distinguished that if I should 
 mention his name most readers of these 
 lines would recall it as familiar. It is need- 
 less to say that we did not care for any 
 more breakfast. 
 
 We walked out soon after to the front of 
 the courthouse, where a crowd was gath- 
 ered. We found they were selling at auc- 
 tion the slaves of a citizen who had recently 
 died. The negro families that were to be 
 separated were evincing much feeling. A 
 fine looking girl, about eighteen years old, 
 was mounting the block as we arrived. 
 The auctioneer rudely proceeded to speak 
 of her good points, as he might of those of a 
 horse. He made her show her teeth, coarse 
 men came to feel of her ankles and the 
 calves of her legs, to test the quality of her 
 
 [64] 
 
JAMES B. ANGELL 
 
 muscles. It was the most repulsive and 
 disgusting spectacle we had ever seen. We 
 felt that this scene and that at the hotel 
 were showing us a side of slavery that we 
 had learned nothing of in the hospitable 
 homes of South Carolina. Near the town 
 there were constantly camps of negroes, 
 whom slave dealers had brought from the 
 northern slave states. 
 
 We spent three months in Quincy. A 
 considerable company of invalids were win- 
 tering there. As we met each morning at 
 the post-ofBce, their habitual conversation 
 concerning their coughs and expectorations 
 and other tuberculous symptoms, were not 
 very exhilarating, though fortunately w^e 
 were not ill enough to be much disturbed 
 by them. We were very hospitably re- 
 ceived by the citizens, many of whom were 
 persons of intelligence and excellent char- 
 acter. That part of Florida had been 
 mainly settled from the Carolinas. Not a 
 few of the men, after unsuccessful business 
 ventures elsewhere, had come there to 
 make a fresh start in life, and were as de- 
 voted to money-getting as they supposed 
 the Yankees to be. Land was cheap and 
 well adapted to the growth of cotton, which 
 was the chief crop. As no railways had 
 reached that section, marketing the cotton 
 
 [65] 
 6 
 
REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 was difficult and costly. It was sent for 
 shipment to St. Marks. There were in the 
 neighbourhood an undesirable number of 
 men who had fled from creditors with no 
 intention of paying their debts and of men 
 who had committed crimes in their old 
 homes. Among this rougher element, 
 drunkenness and violence were not uncom- 
 mon. The rooms we rented were over a 
 surgeon's office. It was a rare week when 
 some one who had been wounded in a fray 
 did not require the surgeon's attention. On 
 the other hand the town was an educational 
 centre for Middle Florida. There was an 
 excellent boarding school for girls, kept by 
 two cultivated w^omen from Connecticut. 
 There was also a boarding school for boys. 
 The churches had one undesirable feature 
 in their construction. They had no under- 
 pinning, but rested on posts three or four 
 feet high. Unhappily the swine which 
 were allowed to run in the streets made 
 their lounging place under the churches. 
 The rain flowed into the excavation they 
 made, and in these pools fleas were bred 
 in profusion. Unhappily also the floors 
 of some of the churches were so loosely 
 laid that the fleas often made their way 
 up through the cracks, and climbing up 
 under the garments of the worshippers 
 
 [66] 
 
JAMES B. ANGELL 
 
 greatly interfered with a reverential enjoy- 
 ment of the services. 
 
 We thought that there and generally in 
 the South a larger proportion of the people 
 attended church than in the North. I have 
 been struck with the fact that Southern po- 
 litical orators indulge much more than 
 Northern speakers in scriptural allusions 
 and quotations. Is it because the South- 
 erners are more familiar with the Bible 
 than the Northerners? I will mention one 
 incident which may show that some of the 
 southern children are as unfamiliar with it 
 as the Northern children, whose unfamiliar- 
 ity with it is so often commented on in our 
 days. Finding that the daughter of our 
 boarding-house keeper and some of her 
 companions, girls of fourteen or jBfteen 
 years of age, were not much interested in 
 the Biblical narratives, I imitated a device, 
 which I had somewhere read about, that 
 Franklin tried with a company of French 
 infidels with success. Having promised to 
 tell them an Oriental story w^hich I thought 
 would interest them, I narrated in my ow^n 
 language the story of Esther. Not one of 
 them, it proved, had read it. When they 
 expressed their delight with it, I told them 
 where they would find it told in a more much 
 touching manner. 
 
 [67] 
 
REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 I must repeat one incident illustrating 
 how one's native place is to him the centre 
 of the world. A rather dull, overgrown boy 
 of fifteen once asked me where we came 
 from. I replied "from Rhode Island." 
 "How far away is that? " he asked. "About 
 thirteen hundred miles," said I. " Golly," he 
 rejoined, " I don't see how you stand it to hve 
 so fur off." In fact the knowledge of the 
 hfe and industries and ideas of the North 
 among even the more intelligent was natur- 
 ally very limited. But they were charitable 
 enough to me to urge me very strongly to 
 remain in Quincy and teach. 
 
 In March we made an excursion to 
 Tallahassee and St. Marks. The road to 
 the capitol lay through forests and swamps. 
 At one point near Ocklocknee Channel, 
 posts were set up to guide the stage driver 
 in swimming his horses where water over- 
 flowed the road. Tallahassee was made 
 attractive by its beautiful gardens. On 
 coming south we were impressed by the fact 
 that the farther south we came the more 
 intenselv Calvinistic and severe was the 
 theology which inspired the preaching. In 
 Tallahassee we heard by far the sternest and 
 most sulphurous discourse we listened to. 
 
 A dilapidated railway, on which a car 
 was drawn by horses, connected the city 
 
 [68] 
 
JAMES B. ANGELL 
 
 with Newport. The one pubhc building in 
 this new town was used for a church, an 
 academy, a masonic lodge, a courthouse, 
 and a jail. From Newport we walked three 
 miles to St. Mark's, the old seaport for this 
 region. One warehouse and liaH-a-dozen 
 dilapidated, weather-beaten houses com- 
 posed the town. The remains of the old 
 Spanish fort showed still a part of the wall 
 and parapets and moat. General Jackson 
 seized it in 1818. Creepers and peach trees 
 were growing from its sides. We sailed 
 down to the lighthouse, eight miles, passing 
 Port Leon on the way, and gained our first 
 view of the blue waters of the GuK of 
 Mexico. Here, too, we first saw cormo- 
 rants and alhgators. When returning by 
 the railway we found that fire in the 
 forests had set the track on fire at several 
 points; but the driver put whip to his 
 horses and carried our street car safely 
 through the fire. 
 
 The next day we drove sixteen miles to 
 see the Wakulla Spring. We passed a few 
 cabins on the road, tenanted by sallow, 
 wretched-looking people. This spring, of 
 which the Indian name Wakulla is said to 
 mean *' Mystery," breaks out of a sub- 
 merged limestone cliff, one hundred and 
 ninety feet down and forms a pool one hun- 
 
 [69] 
 
REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 dred feet wide. The water is so clear that 
 one can see a button dropped to the bottom. 
 At certain angles one sees beautiful pris- 
 matic hues. The shadow of your boat is 
 plainly perceptible on the bottom. You 
 seem to be floating in the air. Near by 
 were some of the bones of a mastodon which 
 had been taken from the spring. The re- 
 mainder of the skeleton had been sent to 
 Barnum's Museum. 
 
 On April 2 we bade adieu to our good 
 friends of Quincy, not one of whom have I 
 ever seen since. We drove to Chatta- 
 hoochee over a dreadful road, and in the 
 evening took the steamer Palmetto for 
 Columbus, where we arrived the next day 
 at 1 P.M. The river with its precipitous 
 banks largely covered with cypresses was of 
 more interest than we had expected. Co- 
 lumbus was a prosperous city of six thousand 
 inhabitants. Several cotton mills were in 
 process of construction. 
 
 The next morning at 2 a.m., the usual 
 hour in the South for stages to start, we 
 set out for Opelika. Hardly had we seated 
 ourselves when one of the two women pas- 
 sengers said to the other, "Wall, Poll, I 
 s'pose we might as well begin to rub snuff. 
 You got your bottle." Poll produced it and 
 they began this disgusting habit of rubbing 
 
 [70] 
 
JAMES B. ANGELL 
 
 a little wooden swab dipped in snuff in 
 their mouths. The odor of the smoke of 
 the lamps and a fresh wind furnished us 
 some relief. I may as well say in this con- 
 nection that in Florida the young women 
 of good breeding were often addicted to 
 this habit, though in private. On this 
 journey we met with a remarkable negro. 
 He had purchased his freedom. He was on 
 his way to release from arrest for drunken- 
 ness his former owner to whom he had fre- 
 quently shown this kindness. He was the 
 builder of a very long bridge which we 
 crossed. We were told that when the 
 builders of the capitol at Montgomery 
 were puzzled in framing the dome, he was 
 called in to extricate them from their 
 trouble. 
 
 From Opelika we went seventy miles by 
 rail to Montgomery. The view from the 
 Capitol to the north extended over an in- 
 terminable forest, clothed in the delicate 
 green of early spring. The city lies in a 
 semi-circle of hills, and appeared to be 
 fairly prosperous. As we were passing 
 some negroes, one asked, "How's de peoples 
 up de country?" '*0h, dey's all extant," 
 replied another. We gathered from con- 
 versation that the sentiment in Montgom- 
 ery and the adjacent country was by no 
 
 [71] 
 
REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 means unanimous for secession, though the 
 subject was under discussion. 
 
 We proceeded by steamer to Mobile, a 
 sail of a day and a half, through rather tame 
 and monotonous scenery. As we passed 
 the steamboats at the wharves in Mobile, 
 one of our negro men would lead off in a 
 song and the negroes on the other boats 
 would join in a chorus. This made an 
 animated scene of our arrival. We spent 
 a happy day with some good friends, but 
 were obliged to hurry on to New Orleans. 
 The business, mainly in cotton, of Mobile 
 had been declining, but they hoped that 
 the completion of the Mobile & Ohio 
 Railroad would revive it. The harbour 
 was so shallow that much of the cotton for 
 export had to be carried thirty miles in 
 lighters. 
 
 We went by steamer to New Orleans. 
 At that time, steamers and sailing ships, 
 foreign and American, crowded the levee 
 for miles. The products of the Mississippi 
 Valley lay piled in confusion as far as the 
 eye could see. Thousands of negroes were 
 busy loading drays and ships, singing as 
 they toiled. No other such scene could be 
 witnessed in America. The visit to the 
 foreign quarters, the mingling of French and 
 Spanish with the English, the cemeteries 
 
 [72] 
 
JAMES B. ANGELL 
 
 with their peculiar tombs, the thousand 
 sights which characterize a European city, 
 were all strange and fascinating to us. 
 Visiting the steamer Peytona to bid fare- 
 well to some friends, we had our first and 
 only view of Henry Clay who was depart- 
 ing for home on that boat. As was the 
 custom, a concourse of ladies were kissing 
 him good-bye. That proved, I think, to be 
 his last visit to New Orleans. We dined 
 with Jacob Barker, the most distinguished 
 merchant in the city, who once won a 
 famous law-suit, which turned on the con- 
 tention raised by him that a whale is not a 
 fish but a mammal. 
 
 On ascending the river we passed two or 
 three large crevasses through which the 
 water, pouring like a river, had flooded the 
 country as far as we could see, and to the 
 depth of several feet. The people had fled 
 from their houses in boats. We stopped at 
 Baton Rouge long enough to visit the capi- 
 tol, not quite completed, and the state 
 prison, whose inmates were employed in a 
 cotton mill established within the walls. 
 We continued on the steamer we took at 
 Baton Rouge until we reached Paducah. 
 There we heard a Judge charging the jury 
 in a very original manner. He always re- 
 ferred to the Court as "She," and inveighed 
 
 [73] 
 
REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 against demagogues " honey f ogling the 
 people." 
 
 We went by steamer to Nashville. We 
 found the views of the bluffs on the river in 
 refreshing contrast to the low, level, and 
 monotonous banks of the Mississippi. The 
 city has a fine site in the hills overlooking 
 the Cumberland River. State prisoners 
 were erecting the Capitol. They had been 
 at work on it six years, and it was supposed 
 that three years more would be required to 
 complete it. 
 
 From Nashville we went by stage coach 
 to the Mammoth Cave. We spent two 
 days in exploring that most famous of all 
 caves. A tedious stage coach journey took 
 us from the Cave to Louisville. After a 
 brief visit with friends, one of them our 
 college classmate, Reuben T. Durrett, since 
 well known as a scholar, learned in the his- 
 tory of Kentucky, we took the steamer for 
 Cincinnati. 
 
 We spent Sunday in that city. By 
 chance we went to the church of which Dr. 
 Willis Lord, once pastor of my ow^n church 
 in Providence, was the pastor and heard 
 an excellent sermon from him. On climb- 
 ing the hill back of the city, we gained a 
 view of Professor Mitchell's Observatory, 
 of which years afterwards I heard him 
 
 [74] 
 
JAMES B. ANGELL 
 
 speak so frequently. He used to relate 
 with pride, that in a hundred days from his 
 departure for Europe he returned with his 
 telescope. Few astronomers could tell in so 
 eloquent language as he did of the revela- 
 tions made to him by his instrument. 
 
 We left Cincinnati by coach at 4 o'clock 
 A.M. for Dublin, Indiana, to visit the Van- 
 uxems, Quaker relatives of Mr. Hazard. 
 This drive took us through a most fertile 
 country, inhabited by an industrious and 
 thrifty people. When I saw a white man 
 actually sawing his own wood, I felt like 
 going to shake hands with him. We had 
 come to a land where honest physical toil 
 was honourable. The beautiful beech and 
 maple groves of eastern Indiana, having no 
 undergrowth, were charming to our eyes. 
 We spent a week most pleasantly with the 
 simple, hospitable, prosperous people of 
 Dublin and Cambridge, and returned to 
 Cincinnati in a long day's drive to take the 
 steamer for Pittsburg. 
 
 No scenery we had beheld was so enchant- 
 ing as that on the voyage up the Ohio. 
 We looked up our friends, the Randolphs 
 and Tanners, and passed a pleasant day 
 with them. We made the journey to 
 Johnstown by canal boat, a most agreeable 
 mode of traveUing through the romantic 
 
 [75] 
 
REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 valleys. At Johnstown we were drawn up 
 an inclined plane and started by rail for 
 Philadelphia. We called upon our old 
 friends. I left Mr. Hazard there and 
 reached home on May 22, after an absence 
 of seven months and eighteen days, rein- 
 vigorated in health. 
 
 [76] 
 
in. 
 
 WORK IN CIVIL ENGINEERING AND 
 STUDY IN EUROPE 
 
 The trouble with my throat described on 
 page 40, really changed the whole plan of 
 my life, as I had then marked it out. I 
 had formed the purpose of studying for the 
 ministry. Some of my most intimate college 
 friends were already pursuing theological 
 studies in the Andover Theological Semi- 
 nary, where I used to visit them. I had 
 formed the acquaintance of the eminent 
 Professors, Park, Edwards, and Phelps. I 
 had even gone so far as to engage my room 
 for the autumn. But the trouble with my 
 throat continued for weeks so obstinate 
 that I deemed it wise to consult a noted 
 Boston speciahst on diseases of the throat. 
 He informed me that I must not indulge in 
 the hope of being able to pursue any pro- 
 fession in which I should have to speak in 
 public. He said it would not be prudent 
 for me even to attempt to teach. He ad- 
 vised me to choose some out-door employ- 
 ment. This announcement was a bitter 
 disappointment. It seemed for a time that 
 
 [77] 
 
REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 every door to a career in which I had any 
 interest was shut in my face. 
 
 I asked myself what out-of-door employ- 
 ment is there in which I can profit by the 
 education I have had. I decided that civil 
 engineering gave the best promise of ful- 
 filling that condition. Fortunately some of 
 my friends knew Mr. E. S. Chesboro, a 
 former resident of Providence, and then 
 City Engineer of Boston. In answer to 
 their inquiries he expressed a willingness to 
 take me into his ofiice. I reported to him 
 for duty in August, 1851. The work on 
 the Cochituate water supply in Boston was 
 not then completed, and I was employed 
 mainly on that. In those days few men in 
 the engineering ofiices had received a tech- 
 nical or even a mathematical education in 
 the schools. They had usually worked 
 their way up from the position of rodman, 
 and they accomplished what they did by 
 rule-of -thumb work or by the mechanical use 
 of formulae the rationale or origin of which 
 they did not know. It proved that I was 
 the only one in the oflSce from the chief 
 down who had studied the Calculus, and as 
 a real knowledge of some of the formulae 
 for water problems involved that study, I 
 presently found them turned over to me. 
 As one recalls how slender were the op- 
 
 [78] 
 
JAMES B. ANGELL 
 
 portunities in those days for training in 
 engineering studies and observes the large 
 number of excellent engineering schools in 
 our country, one may say that in no branch 
 of education has there been more rapid 
 and helpful development than in that of 
 engineering in all its applications. 
 
 The Grand Trunk road from Montreal to 
 Boston was opened while I was in the 
 office. I assisted in making an immense 
 map, which was stretched in the tent on the 
 Common when the celebration of this event 
 was held. Lord Elgin, the Governor-gen- 
 eral of Canada, and President Fillmore were 
 present. I remember that as Mr. Fillmore 
 was said to be unaccustomed to riding, I 
 saw two negroes holding his horse carefully 
 by the bits as the animal slowly walked in 
 the procession. We all agreed that he was 
 a very handsome man, but not much of a 
 cavalier. 
 
 At one time complaint was made of the 
 impurity of the Cochituate water in Boston. 
 Mr. Chesboro invited me to walk with him 
 through about two miles of the conduit, 
 from which the water had been partially 
 drawn off, somewhere west of Cambridge. 
 And there on this subterranean excursion I 
 made the acquaintance of Professor Hors- 
 ford of Harvard, whose friendship I after- 
 
 [79] 
 
REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 wards enjoyed through his hfe. The walk- 
 ing on the bottom of an egg-shaped conduit 
 in which about a foot of water had been 
 left was not altogether easy or agreeable. 
 It was decided that some vegetable deposit 
 had found its way into the water. 
 
 One day near the end of November, Mr. 
 Chesboro assigned to me the task of making 
 a survey and a map of Boston Common, 
 showing every path and every tree on it. 
 This was to be made at the request of some 
 dweller on Beacon Street, who for many 
 years had daily walked around the Com- 
 mon. I began in the corner just in front 
 of the State House. While I was at work 
 I received a letter from my friend Hazard 
 saying that he was still having trouble with 
 his lungs and that his father had decided 
 to send him to Southern Europe for the 
 winter and wished me to accompany him. 
 He begged me to come to his home immedi- 
 ately and confer with him. I did so, and 
 it was decided that we should sail at once. 
 I went back to Boston, and took my leave 
 of Mr. Chesboro, to whose kindness I was 
 greatly indebted. So ended my work in 
 engineering. After a brief visit to my 
 parents, I joined Mr. Hazard and we sailed 
 from New York for Havre on the steamship 
 Arago, Captain Lines, on December 13. 
 
 [80] 
 
JAMES B. ANGELL 
 
 We had only thirteen passengers. Among 
 them were Mr. Spence of Baltimore, after- 
 wards our Minister to Turkey, George W. 
 Kendall, editor of the New Orleans Pica- 
 yune, who greatly enlivened our voyage by 
 his wit, and one typical specimen of the 
 self-rehant Connecticut Yankee. This last 
 was on his wedding trip. His opportunities 
 for education had been hmited. But he was 
 daunted by no obstacles of travel in foreign 
 parts. By some means he had persuaded 
 himself that although he knew no French, 
 he could make a French word out of an 
 English word if he pronounced it very 
 loudly and added the termination bus. So 
 he would accost one of the waiters who were 
 all French, thus: ^'Gargon, bring me some 
 cheese-ihus/' And in fact he generally got 
 it. He travelled at such a pace that by the 
 time we reached Florence he had been all 
 through the East and was on his way home. 
 We met him in the street in Florence one 
 morning with one-half of his face covered 
 with lather and inquired of him what had 
 happened to him. With much vehemence 
 he said: *'I wanted to be shaved. I went 
 into a shop which had a barber's pole in 
 front and sat down. The barber soon gave 
 me to understand that he bled people, but 
 did not shave them. So I went to another 
 
 [81] 
 
REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 shop. The barber there lathered my face 
 and began to shave me with a razor so dull 
 that I snatched it from his hand and told 
 him I could make a razor sharper than that 
 on the sole of my boot. So here I am look- 
 ing for another barber." We asked him how 
 he had contrived to get all over southern and 
 eastern Europe so rapidly and with no lan- 
 guage but English. Holding his purse in 
 one hand and his cane in the other, he 
 replied, "With that purse in one hand and 
 that cane in the other, and with swearing a 
 little at times, I can go all over Europe." 
 And I have reason to think he did. 
 
 We arrived at Havre on December 27. 
 When the pilot came aboard he astonished 
 us by the announcement that by a couj) 
 d'etat Louis Napoleon had taken full pos- 
 session of the government, that many of the 
 prominent statesmen were in prison, and 
 that martial law was declared. On landing, 
 Mr. Hazard and I proceeded at once to 
 Rouen, where we spent a day in visiting 
 the churches. We were delighted with our 
 first view of the florid Gothic architecture. 
 Thence we went immediately to Paris, 
 where we found much excitement over the 
 couf d'etat. The marks of the bullets which 
 had been fired in the conflicts along the 
 Boulevard des Italiens were still fresh. 
 
 [82] 
 
JAMES B. ANGELL 
 
 But the places of amusement were all 
 open. At the Theatre Frangais we saw 
 that great actor Got in Moliere's Malade 
 Imaginaire and Rachel in Phedre and the 
 theatre was crowded on both nights. When 
 I was in college we were, like students in 
 most New England colleges, forbidden to 
 attend the theatre on pain of expulsion. 
 Therefore I had never before seen plays 
 presented by great actors and actresses. 
 Although my understanding of the lan- 
 guage was imperfect, these performances 
 w^ere the revelation of a new world to me.^ 
 
 We were assured that many prominent 
 men had been thrown into prison. But so 
 far as we could observe, business seemed to 
 be going on everywhere, and we were not 
 interfered with at all. 
 
 There was a notable service in Notre 
 Dame which we attended, in which the 
 Archbishop of Paris invoked the divine 
 blessing on the President in his new under- 
 taking. 
 
 We also attended a reception given by 
 
 1 1 may properly remark here that during this visit 
 to Europe, I did not keep a diary, but wrote home my 
 detailed letters, which were preserved until they were 
 burned when my father's house was destroyed by fire. 
 I depend on my present recollections for what I now write 
 concerning the European journey. 
 
 [83] 
 
REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 our Consul, Mr. Goodrich, the Peter Parley, 
 whose books have been the dehght of our 
 childhood. He appeared to us to be the 
 impersonation of the amiable, entertaining, 
 child-loving Peter Parley, of whom we had 
 been so fond, and he seemed much pleased 
 at our acknowledgment of our great in- 
 debtedness to his books. 
 
 The weather was very damp and chilly, 
 and therefore, a week after our arrival, we 
 set out for Marseilles on our way to Italy. 
 Having engaged our seats in the diligence, 
 we went to the office at the appointed hour 
 and occupied them. The diligence was 
 driven to the railway station and there the 
 body was lifted with passengers and bag- 
 gage by a crane and deposited on a flat 
 car. So we were transported to Dijon, 
 where the diligence body was again lifted 
 by a crane and placed on wheels. We were 
 then drawn by horses to Lyons. Thence 
 we were taken by rail to Marseilles. On 
 our journey we saw many citizens tied to 
 ropes and marching under military guard 
 to prison. Everywhere there was manifest 
 a feeling of high tension. 
 
 A young lieutenant in uniform journeyed 
 with us from Lyons to Marseilles. On 
 arrival there a customs ofiicer came to ex- 
 amine our baggage. The lieutenant refused 
 
 [84] 
 
JAMES B. ANGELL 
 
 to allow the officer to touch his port- 
 manteau. When the officer insisted, the 
 lieutenant drew his pistol and forced a re- 
 treat. After the officer left, the lieutenant 
 turned to us with a laugh and said, "The 
 pistol was not loaded." Leges silent inter 
 arma. 
 
 From Marseilles we went by diligence via 
 Draguignan to Genoa, and thence by sea to 
 Naples. We spent a few days there, of 
 course visiting Pompeii and ascending Ve- 
 suvius. We met our old teacher. Professor 
 Gammell, who was on his wedding trip with 
 his wife, the daughter of Robert H. Ives. 
 He proposed to us to join them in the 
 journey to Rome in a private carriage. In 
 those days of few railways this was a charm- 
 ing method of travel. The vetturino, 
 usually a Swiss, furnished the carriage and 
 horses, stopped wherever one wished on the 
 journey, paid all the hotel bills, and spared 
 one all the trouble of bargaining with the 
 natives. As there was a railway as far as 
 Capua, Mr. Hazard and I went ahead to 
 visit that place of so much historic interest. 
 We drove out towards evening to the vil- 
 lage near which Hannibal was said to have 
 encamped, and found a most interesting 
 fete going on. The peasants in their pic- 
 turesque costumes were dancing on the 
 
 [85] 
 
REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 green. On our return to the hotel we were 
 told that we were fortunate in escaping 
 robbery, since that village was the resort 
 at such times of some desperate characters. 
 Mr. and Mrs. Gammell joined us on the 
 next day, and we had a delightful three 
 days' journey to Rome. The approach to 
 the city from that side is far more pic- 
 turesque than from Civitavecchia or from 
 Florence. We spent six weeks in the high- 
 est enjoyment I ever experienced in all my 
 travels. Fresh from our college studies, 
 with Horace in the pocket as a guide-book, 
 every step revealed to us some object of the 
 deepest interest. At night we returned to 
 our rooms to read afresh of all we had seen. 
 Almost literally we could say that we 
 travelled and observed all day and then 
 studied all night. Such delights could 
 hardly come to one later in life. Subse- 
 quent visits to Rome never yielded a full 
 repetition of the first experiences. Rome 
 was also more interesting then to the young 
 American traveller than it is now because 
 it was completely under ecclesiastical con- 
 trol, and the streets were always gay with 
 processions, celebrations, church festivals 
 of one kind and another. We saw Pius IX 
 (to whom the liberals everywhere were still 
 looking as friendly to their cause) on two 
 
 [86] 
 
JAMES B. ANGELL 
 
 occasions, a man with so benignant a face 
 that no one who saw him could expect from 
 him anything but benevolence and love. We 
 first saw him in the Sistine Chapel on Ash 
 Wednesday, when with the impressive cere- 
 monial of his church he placed the ashes 
 on the heads of the cardinals and on that 
 of the Duke of Norfolk, the great Eng- 
 lish Catholic. I remember distinctly the 
 marked face of Cardinal Antonelli who be- 
 came the dominant adviser of the Pope. 
 He had brilliant eyes, a swarthy complexion, 
 and an expression that put you on your 
 guard against his strategy. One act in the 
 service produced a comical effect on us who 
 had never witnessed the ceremonial before. 
 When the Cardinals kneeled as a prayer 
 was offered, a page stepped behind each 
 and twisted the tail of his gown into a knot, 
 exactly as we tie a horse's tail into a knot 
 in muddy weather. 
 
 One morning with a large assembly we 
 stood in St. Peter's, waiting for the Pope 
 to appear before the high altar for a great 
 ceremonial. Distinguished representatives 
 from all civilized lands were present. At 
 last the doors from the Vatican approach 
 swung open, the song from the choir broke 
 upon the ear, and the Holy Father appeared 
 borne in a sort of palanquin. As the atten- 
 
 [87] 
 
REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 tion of the multitude was absorbed by the 
 scene, a man standing by my side pointed 
 to a beautiful Italian boy near us and said, 
 "It is hard, is it not, to realize that this 
 little body is a temple greater than that in 
 which we stand?" 
 
 A drive to Tivoli and the sight of the 
 "Praeceps Anio" gave us one of our most 
 delightful days. 
 
 The visit to Rome brought to me the first 
 real revelation of the arts of sculpture 
 and painting. The galleries and churches 
 opened to me a new world. One can not 
 describe what it was to a person who had 
 no conception of art except what he had 
 derived from the sight of Powers' Greek 
 Slave and copies in private houses of two 
 or three classical masterpieces of painting, 
 to have suddenly spread before him the 
 immeasurable artistic wealth of Rome, 
 with full liberty to gaze upon it at will and 
 to attain to some worthy appreciation of its 
 wealth. Life could never again be quite 
 what it was before. Of all the gifts of 
 Rome to me that was the greatest. 
 
 During our stay in Rome the diligence on 
 the journey between Rome and Florence was 
 several times stopped by highwaymen, and 
 the passengers were robbed of their money, 
 watches, and jewels. It was said that the 
 
 [88] 
 
JAMES B. ANGELL 
 
 robbers were for the most part men of good 
 families. Certainly they showed good breed- 
 ing. They usually begged the passengers 
 to fear no bodily harm. They said that 
 they regretted extremely that the stress of 
 the revolutionary period had forced them to 
 resort to this means of gaining a livelihood. 
 They politely helped the ladies to alight, 
 and after receiving their jewels and money 
 politely handed them back to the carriage. 
 
 We four, who found the travelling from 
 Naples with the vetturino so pleasant, em- 
 ployed him to take us to Florence. We 
 were six days on the journey, going by 
 Perugia, and a most agreeable journey it 
 was. We encountered no highwaymen. 
 
 Of course the galleries at Florence chiefly 
 absorbed our attention. But the pohtical 
 situation was extremely interesting. The 
 Austrians were in possession of Tuscany. 
 They were intensely hated by the Itahans. 
 We had rooms on the great Piazza del Gran 
 Duca. 
 
 Twice a week Austrian troops assembled 
 there and their attractive bands discoursed 
 most charming music. But as the troops 
 passed along the streets the shutters were 
 closed and on the Piazza not a Florentine 
 could be seen. The foreigners and the Aus- 
 trians had the music to themselves. On the 
 
 [89] 
 
REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 occasion of a church festival we saw the 
 Grand Duke and members of his family in 
 garb of penitence, marching at the head of 
 the procession. But on his approach the 
 streets were deserted. 
 
 We went via Bologna and Padua to 
 Venice where we spent some daj^s in that 
 delight which Venice brings to every travel- 
 ler. The city seems to me to have changed 
 less since that time than any other Italian 
 city of importance. 
 
 We sailed thence to Trieste and then 
 made the long journey by diligence, travel- 
 hng day and night, to Gratz, which was even 
 then a flourishing, manufacturing city, 
 though we like most Americans had hardly 
 known of its existence. From Gratz we 
 were able to go by rail to Vienna. Partly 
 because we had friends there, we spent 
 several days in the Austrian capital. 
 
 We were fortunate enough to be there on 
 what was called the Day of the Three Em- 
 perors. There was a military celebration 
 of the suppression of the rebellion of Hun- 
 gary. The three sovereigns present were the 
 Austrian Emperor, Francis Joseph, the Rus- 
 sian Emperor, Nicholas, and the Prussian 
 King, William. Fifteen thousand troops 
 were assembled on the Glacis. The Em- 
 peror Nicholas took command and ordered 
 
 [90] 
 
JAMES B. ANGELL 
 
 the manoeuvres. He looked the Emperor 
 more than any man I ever saw. Of the 
 gigantic Romanoff stature, of commanding 
 mien, he sat upon his powerful horse as 
 though ready in a joust to meet any foe.^ 
 As after the manoeuvres weve ended the 
 troops marched through theprir;cipal streets, 
 they w^ere preceded not only 'by the sover- 
 eigns and a large number of generals but 
 also by the ladies of the Imperial Austrian 
 family in their open carriages. Though 
 we young Americans, never having seen so 
 many men under arms, were impressed by 
 the brilhant display, yet our sympathy with 
 the Hungarians whom the Austrian govern- 
 ment had been enabled only by Russian 
 help to defeat, led us to look on with an in- 
 ward protest, especially as we had seen the 
 breaches in the city walls which the Hun- 
 garian revolutionists had made with their 
 cannon as they were on the point of gaining 
 their independence. 
 
 In these later years, when the affection- 
 ate loyalty of the Austrians to Francis 
 
 ^ On the day before this parade we visited the Imperial 
 stables. Noticing one horse standing in his stable with 
 two heavy sacks on his back, we were told that he was 
 to bear the Emperor Nicholas, and was in training for 
 the unaccustomed load, as the Emperor weighed two 
 hundred and forty pounds. 
 
 [91] 
 
REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 Joseph has apparently saved the Empire 
 from dissolution, I have often recalled the 
 statements made to me by a highly intelli- 
 gent Viennese during this visit. He said 
 that the young Emperor who had recently 
 come to the throne was really hated then 
 by the populace for his cruel and over- 
 bearing manner. He gave as an illustration 
 the statement that a student crossing the 
 Glacis in a snow storm with his head down 
 did not see the Emperor who was passing, 
 and so did not salute him, and that the 
 Emperor was so affronted that he caused 
 the innocent offender to be flogged. 
 Whether this report was true, I cannot 
 say. But that it could be circulated in- 
 dicated a feeling utterly different from that 
 which his subjects now cherish towards 
 him. 
 
 While at Vienna I received a letter from 
 President Wayland, offering me as I might 
 prefer either the Chair of Civil Engineering 
 or that of the Modern Languages in Brown 
 University, with permission to remain 
 abroad a year and a half for the purpose of 
 study. After deliberation, I decided to 
 accept the Chair of Modern Languages. 
 My throat had so far regained its strength 
 that I thought I could venture to try the 
 experiment of teaching. 
 
 [92] 
 
JAMES B. ANGELL 
 
 We made brief visits at Prague, Dresden, 
 Berlin, and Cologne on our way to Paris. 
 Here Mr. Hazard left me on June 10, 1852, 
 and returned home via England. I began 
 the search for a teacher of French. After 
 a httle I had the good fortune to make the 
 acquaintance of Monsieur Jansen who had 
 once been a Professor in a Lycee, but had 
 been thrown out of office owing to his 
 radical republicanisn, He was a guileless, 
 scholarly man, without much skill in mak- 
 ing his way in the world, especially in the 
 troublous times which had come to France. 
 He detested Louis Napoleon and all his fol- 
 lowers and believed that the eyes of spies 
 w^ere always upon him. He had a charming 
 wife, one of the best type of the intelligent, 
 well-bred, frugal woman of the middle 
 class, and a diffident gentle daughter of 
 eighteen years. Into this charming house- 
 hold I was permitted to come as a boarder 
 and a pupil. It was a surprising revelation 
 to me who, like most young Americans, had 
 formed my ideas of French domestic hfe 
 from sensational stories of Parisian adven- 
 tures, to see the beautiful simpHcity of this 
 quiet and virtuous French home. I soon 
 learned that this was not an exceptional 
 home. Perhaps in no particular have Eng- 
 lish and Americans been so far astray in 
 
 [93] 
 
REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 their judgments of the French people as in 
 respect to the purity of their domestic hfe. 
 Monsieur Jansen lived in Passy, on the 
 Avenue de St. Cloud, just outside of the 
 Arc de Triomphe de I'Etoile. It was an 
 easy stroll to the Bois de Boulogne, whither 
 I often went with my books. Frequently 
 with the family I went on a picnic to St. 
 Cloud or some other attractive spot. On 
 Sundays I usually went to the Church of the 
 Oratoire, where I heard some of the most 
 eloquent Protestant preachers. One pe- 
 culiar, but rather commendable custom of 
 the preachers, which I have never seen 
 spoken of in books, I noticed with interest. 
 Their style was picturesque or dramatic. 
 After an eloquent passage which closed one 
 division or head of the sermon, the preacher 
 would pause to clear his throat or use his 
 handkerchief, and the whole congregation 
 availed themselves of that opportunity to do 
 the same thing. Then as he proceeded, he 
 was not interrupted by coughing. In due 
 time he paused again for the same purpose, 
 and the congregation imitated him once 
 more. Occasionally I went to the Sor- 
 bonne or the College de France and heard 
 lectures. But in the main I gave my at- 
 tention to writing French and conversing 
 and reading French literature. One inter- 
 
 [94] 
 
JAMES B. ANGELL 
 
 esting and instructive diversion was after 
 reading French history to go to Versailles 
 and see the historical pictures which adorn 
 the walls. 
 
 In October, 1852, I left Paris for Ger- 
 many. I travelled through Holland and 
 went to Braunschweig to study German. I 
 found an excellent home in the house of 
 Herr Sack, the clerk of the Circuit Court, 
 an elderly man w4io had fought in the Battle 
 of Waterloo and was a somewhat noted 
 local antiquary. His eldest daughter, who 
 was a teacher in a private school and was a 
 scholar of large reading in English as well as 
 in German literature, became my teacher. 
 She was most competent. I have always 
 regarded myself as so greatly indebted to 
 her that I continued correspondence with 
 her until her death in 1907. I know few 
 American women who can recite so many 
 fine passages from English poets as she 
 could. I was impressed by this and other 
 facts with the excellent literary training 
 which the German schools gave their girls. 
 
 One book from the father's pen was a 
 striking illustration of the German thor- 
 oughness (Griindlichkeit), which I had 
 occasion so often to remark in German 
 writers. In early times the Bruns wickers 
 of wealth and rank placed elaborate family 
 
 [95] 
 
REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 coats-of-arms on their chimneys in con- 
 spicuous positions. Herr Sack found in 
 these with their mottoes a valuable con- 
 tribution to the history of the city. So he 
 wrote a book on the History of the Chim- 
 neys of Brunsw^ick. It was divided into 
 two parts. In order to lay a proper foun- 
 dation for his interpretation of the sym- 
 bols, he devoted the first part to the history 
 of chimneys in Greece and Rome and there 
 reached the conclusion that the Greeks and 
 Romans had no chimneys. Not till he had 
 done this was he prepared to discuss the 
 History of Chimneys in Brunswick. 
 
 So far as I could learn I was the first 
 American ever known in Brunswick. One 
 South American from Bogota arrived there 
 before me. But as people generally knew 
 nothing of Bogota, he used in company to 
 draw near to me, throw his arm across my 
 shoulder, and say somewhat ostentatiously, 
 "Ach! wir sind Amerikaner." 
 
 I was invited to join a club of German 
 gentlemen who met occasionally to speak 
 English and who wished me to correct their 
 expressions when necessary. It so hap- 
 pened that for some time the only member 
 to whom English was vernacular was a 
 mechanical engineer from London, con- 
 nected with the railway. He was illiterate 
 
 [96] 
 
JAMES B. ANGELL 
 
 and his speech was pure cockney. I was 
 soon embarrassed by their remarking the 
 differences between his speech and mine, 
 and asking for explanations. These I gave 
 when he was not present. 
 
 '* Uncle Tom's Cabin" by Mrs. Stowe 
 appeared while I was in Brunswick, and was 
 read with great eagerness. But many of my 
 acquaintances were puzzled by Topsy's 
 English, and could find no help in their 
 dictionaries. For a time I could scarcely 
 take a walk on the street without being 
 accosted, occasionally by strangers to whom 
 I had been pointed out as an American, for 
 aid in interpreting the negro dialect. 
 
 In this connection I am tempted to de- 
 scribe an adventure which befell me in a 
 school to which English and Irish girls of 
 good families had been sent to learn Ger- 
 man. The proprietor of the school was a 
 relative of the Sacks with whom I was liv- 
 ing. So I was invited with them to a 
 Christmas supper at the school. I was 
 seated at the table at a safe distance from 
 the girls who appeared to be from fourteen 
 to eighteen years of age. At the close of 
 the supper I was surprised to receive, 
 through the host, a request from the girls 
 that I would say a few words in American. 
 It had not occurred to me that they could 
 
 [97] 
 
 8 
 
REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 be ignorant of the fact that Enghsh is our 
 vernacular. But as it appeared that they 
 were, I thought an innocent trick was allow- 
 able. So I arose and made a speech in what 
 in my childhood we boys called "hog 
 Latin." It consists in beginning a word 
 with the last syllable and then recurring 
 to the first: e.g., the word "German" 
 would appear as "man-o-ger." Of course 
 there was resemblance enough in some 
 words to the real words so that they would 
 catch a little of what I was saying. But 
 they were much bewildered. And the Ger- 
 man hearers were even more so. I sat 
 down amid hearty applause. The young 
 ladies sent up an expression of thanks. I 
 never explained the trick to my German 
 friends until I went to Brunswick forty 
 years later. 
 
 The tenor singer in the Brunswick Opera 
 Company and his wife occupied a room 
 directly under mine. He was a very genial, 
 jolly fellow, and I used often to walk with 
 him. Through him I made the acquain- 
 tance in his rooms of his associates in the 
 Opera Company. As the members of the 
 company hold permanent positions in a 
 German city, I met them at times in general 
 society. They presented to me a new side 
 of life. I found them very companionable 
 
 [98] 
 
JAMES B. ANGELL 
 
 and entertaining, but was surprised to ob- 
 serve that most of them had very Hmited 
 attainments beyond their professional train- 
 ing. The breath of their hfe seemed to be 
 pubhe applause of their performances, and 
 perhaps as a consequence of this they were 
 very jealous of each other's success. Most 
 of them mingled with their neighbours 
 without attracting more especial attention 
 than other respectable citizens. 
 
 I spent a pleasant afternoon w^ith Herr 
 Sack, visiting the great hbrary at Wolfen- 
 buttel, then in charge of an aged librarian 
 who, though utterly bhnd, could lay his 
 hand on any book he sought in the great 
 collection. 
 
 It was on the whole a most profitable and 
 enjoyable winter that I spent in Brunswick. 
 In April, 1853, 1 left the circle of friends, by 
 whom I had been most hospitably received, 
 with sincere regret, in order to attend lec- 
 tures on modern German hterature at the 
 University of Berlin. 
 
 I took lodgings near the middle of the 
 city. I was disappointed in applying at the 
 University to find that there was no course 
 to be given on the subject I wished to 
 study. I sent to several Universities and 
 could learn of no such course except at 
 Munich. While I was busy in this quest, 
 
 [99] 
 
REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 and was seeking to procure from the city 
 authorities the ordinary permission to oc- 
 cupy lodgings, I was surprised to be in- 
 formed by the pohce officers who had 
 received my passport that I could not 
 receive that permission in the usual form. 
 On the contrary I was directed to report 
 twice a week in person at the police office. 
 In answer to my inquiry for the reason of 
 this extraordinary demand, I was told that 
 revolutionists with the spirit of 1848 were 
 busy, that bombs and other munitions had 
 been found in the attic of a storehouse, and 
 that Germans bearing American passports 
 were supposed to be coming to town to en- 
 gage in law^less enterprises. "Well," I 
 said, *'how does that concern me?" "Well, 
 we thought you might be one of these Ger- 
 mans." "It is very flattering," I rephed, 
 "to be regarded by you as a German. W^ill 
 you not be good enough to tell me why you 
 have taken me for a German.^" "Well," 
 was the reply, "you have a square head and 
 light hair and complexion, in short, look 
 like a German." "But," I rejoined, "you 
 must see that I do not speak your language 
 like a German. I have been in your coun- 
 try only a few months." "Yes," said the 
 official, "but the foreign accent could be 
 assumed." 
 
 [100] 
 
JAMES B. ANGELL 
 
 I could not argue against "Caesar with 
 his ten legions." After a week's sojourn 
 under these conditions, reflecting that only 
 in Munich could I find the lectures I wanted, 
 I resolved to go there. So I went to the 
 police office and demanded my passport, 
 vised for Munich. To my surprise and to 
 my temporary satisfaction the oflScer could 
 not find it. I saw at once that there I had 
 him at my mercy. In those days a pass- 
 port was regarded in official circles as such 
 a sacrosanct document that a police official 
 could hardly commit a more serious offence 
 than to lose it. So I assumed the menac- 
 ing air, and told him that if the passport w^as 
 not at my room vised within three hours I 
 would report the case to the American 
 Charge for complaint to the Government. 
 It was delivered to me within the time and 
 I set out for Munich. 
 
 On the way I spent a day or two with 
 intense delight at Nuremburg, in which it 
 was so easy to reproduce in imagination the 
 mediaeval life of Hans Sachs' time. I also 
 stopped at Augsburg. 
 
 At Munich the police office at first de- 
 clined to give me permission to reside, be- 
 cause in my application I wrote out my 
 middle name in full, while my passport 
 contained merely the initial letter of my 
 
 [101] 
 
REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 middle name. It required an argument to 
 convince the stupid official of my identity. 
 
 One of my first pleasures in Munich was 
 that of hearing the great chemist Liebig 
 lecture. Of all the professors I heard, he 
 was the most attractive in manner. It 
 proved to be his son-in-law, Moritz Carriere, 
 who gave the course in modern German 
 literature which I came to hear. I wanted 
 especially to listen to discourses on Lessing, 
 Goethe, and Schiller. As I had six weeks 
 at my disposal, and Carriere was announced 
 for three lectures a week, I hoped I might 
 get some valuable instruction. He was an 
 excellent lecturer. But alas! the old Ger- 
 man "Grtindlichkeit," if not so striking as 
 that of Herr Sack in his "History of the 
 Chimneys of Brunswick," proved fatal. 
 For he began back with the Germans of 
 whom I had read in the Germania of 
 Tacitus, and in my six weeks had only got 
 down towards the modern times as far as 
 the translation of the Bible by Ulfilas. 
 However, I heard other excellent lectures 
 on the Ancient Classics, and enjoyed much 
 the visits to the galleries of art. My so- 
 journ was not without profit and pleasure. 
 
 From Munich I went to Zurich. After a 
 short stay there I crossed the lake and 
 walked over the Brunig Pass to Thun and 
 
 [102] 
 
JAMES B. ANGELL 
 
 Berne, and travelled thence by diligence to 
 Geneva and thence by diligence and rail to 
 Paris. I received a hearty welcome from 
 my old friends, the Jansens, with whom I 
 remained about six weeks. During this 
 sojourn in Paris I had the pleasure of meet- 
 ing at dinner at the house of a friend, Mon- 
 sieur Sainte-Beuve, the great critic, whose 
 writings had greatly attracted me. He was 
 most genial and interesting. He was of 
 medium height, inclined to embonpoint, and 
 for some reason which I should be puzzled 
 to explain reminded me of the picture I had 
 always formed to myself of the poet Horace. 
 From Paris in July I made a hurried 
 journey through England, spending a week 
 in London, then passing by Stratford, War- 
 wick, Oxford, and York, to Edinburgh and 
 Glasgow and to Liverpool, whence I sailed 
 on July 29 for Philadelphia. We had a 
 wonderfully smooth voyage. The steamer 
 soon sailed on her return voyage, and was 
 never heard from. I stopped in New York, 
 where the first of our national expositions 
 was being held. I remember seeing a good 
 farmer and his wife gazing on the casts 
 of Thorwaldsen's Christ and the Apostles, 
 and concluding after some discussion that 
 they were the Presidents of the United 
 States. 
 
 [ 103 ] 
 
REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 I reached my father's house in Scituate 
 after an absence of nearly two years. I 
 learned that both my maternal grandparents 
 had died since my last letters had reached 
 me abroad. I was especially grieved at the 
 death of my grandmother. It was from 
 her that my dear mother inherited most of 
 her traits. 
 
 [104] 
 
IV 
 
 THE PROFESSORSHIP IN BROWN 
 UNIVERSITY AND EDITORSHIP 
 OF THE PROVIDENCE JOURNAL 
 
 I WAS twenty -four years of age when I 
 entered on the duties of my professorship. 
 I was the youngest member of the Faculty. 
 Most of the professors had been my teach- 
 ers. Professor Robinson P. Dunn, who had 
 recently been called to the Chair of Rhetoric 
 and English Literature, was only a few 
 years my senior. He became at once my 
 intimate companion and a most congenial 
 associate in my studies. I was well aware 
 that my preparation for my special work 
 was less adequate than I could have de- 
 sired. I purposed to return to Europe for 
 further study as soon as I had liquidated 
 the debt I had incurred in my sojourn in 
 Europe. I was particularly desirous of 
 studying the Italian language and litera- 
 ture. I had become deeply interested in 
 tracing the influence of the leading Euro- 
 pean literatures on each other. I soon wrote 
 articles for the North American Review, 
 
 [105] 
 
REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 under the encouragement of its scholarly 
 editor, Dr. Andrew P. Peabody, pointing 
 out to some extent the interaction of the 
 French, German, and English literatures. 
 I cherished the hope that on a visit to 
 Europe I might write a book of some 
 worth on the reciprocal influence of the 
 chief literatures on each other. Like many 
 another dream of early years that has re- 
 mained only a dream. But, in my teach- 
 ing, which was necessarily elementary, since 
 most of my students began the study of the 
 modern languages with me, I strove and 
 not without fair success, I hope, to imbue 
 them with some enthusiasm for the study 
 of the great authors to whom I introduced 
 them. 
 
 It was an interesting period in the his- 
 tory of the University when I entered upon 
 my official connection with it. President 
 Wayland, who was a pioneer in the reform 
 of our traditional collegiate system, had 
 induced the Corporation to make important 
 innovations. As early as 1842 he had pub- 
 lished a small book entitled "Thoughts on 
 the Present Collegiate System in the United 
 States," in which he had pointed out what 
 he regarded as some of the defects in that 
 system. He maintained that the colleges 
 were not furnishing the education which 
 
 [106] 
 
JAMES B. ANGELL 
 
 was needed to meet our wants, especially 
 that they were not training men in science 
 and its applications to life. The book at- 
 tracted some attention, but not so much as 
 it deserved. 
 
 Further observation and reflection con- 
 firmed him in the opinion that a change in 
 the organization of our colleges ought to be 
 attempted. In a report to the Trustees of 
 Brown University in 1850 he so impressed 
 them with his views that they raised a fund, 
 large for those days, for the reorganiza- 
 tion of the work of their institution in 
 accordance with his ideas. He provided 
 for more generous work in the sciences and 
 in modern languages and in engineering 
 and large liberty in the election of studies. 
 He really opened the way for that broaden- 
 ing and liberalizing of collegiate study 
 which in a few years prevailed to a con- 
 siderable extent in every American college 
 of standing. He was the pioneer who 
 broke away from the old traditional path, 
 which our colleges had followed from the 
 seventeenth century, and pointed them to 
 the road which they are now all following. 
 The credit which is his due for this service 
 he has not always received. The immedi- 
 ate consequence of the adoption of what 
 was called the ''new system" had been a 
 
 [107] 
 
REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 large increase in the attendance, and a cer- 
 tain enthusiasm among the students about 
 this new departure. This was favourable 
 to the work in my department. Extension 
 lectures, which have since been introduced 
 by some universities in this country and in 
 England in order to bring university in- 
 struction to the masses, were given by 
 Professor Chase to the jewellers and by Pro- 
 fessor Caswell to the mechanics in Provi- 
 dence. The college which had not been in 
 close touch with the people of the State 
 was brought nearer to them by lyceum lec- 
 tures given by members of the Faculty. I 
 went out frequently to lecture on "Life in 
 Europe" and on education. But in spite 
 of the enthusiasm with which Dr. Wayland 
 and some of his friends gave a new impulse 
 to the college, serious difficulties were en- 
 countered in carrying into effect his cher- 
 ished plans. Some of the Professors had 
 not much sympathy with his ideas of re- 
 form. The funds raised to carry the "new 
 system" into operation, though regarded as 
 adequate w^ien they were raised, proved 
 insufficient. The President finally became 
 discouraged and resigned his place in 1855. 
 He was succeeded by Dr. Sears, who was 
 friendly to the traditional ideas of college 
 work rather than to Dr. Wayland's. There- 
 
 [ 108 ] 
 
JAMES B. ANGELL 
 
 fore from the time of his accession to office 
 the spirit of collegiate reform visibly lan- 
 guished. But the impulse which had been 
 given to the college was not w^holly lost. 
 In the classes which I had the pleasure of 
 teaching, were not a few whose subsequent 
 careers reflected much honour on themsleves 
 and on the University. Most conspicuous 
 among them are Richard Olney of the class 
 of 1856, and John Hay, of the class of 1858. 
 Both gave marked promise. Mr. Olney, 
 af terw^ards Attorney-general and then Secre- 
 tary of State of the United States, showed 
 the traits of mind which characterize the 
 profound lawyer. For Mr. Hay one would 
 have predicted a briUiant Hterary future. 
 I have often said that he was the most 
 felicitous translator I ever met in my 
 classes. He wrote verses of unusual merit 
 for an undergraduate. He was modest even 
 to diffidence, often blushing to the roots of 
 his hair when he rose to recite. In the 
 years of his middle hfe, and especially after 
 the production of his books on Spanish life, 
 written in so picturesque a style, I used in 
 common with many of his friends to regret 
 that circumstances had diverted him from 
 a purely literary career. But we all rejoice 
 now that Providence placed him in the chair 
 of Secretary of State, at a time when he could 
 
 [109] 
 
REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 be of such transcendent service to us and to 
 the Eastern world. As I happened to be 
 on the steamer with him when he was 
 returning from the Embassy at London, I 
 know from my conversation with him on 
 the voyage that he entered on the duties of 
 that high office with hesitancy and mis- 
 giving. He said to me, ''I accepted it be- 
 cause it is an office that one can hardly 
 refuse." 
 
 When I entered on the duties of the pro- 
 fessorship, the curricula were so arranged 
 that my students could carry the work in 
 the modern languages and hteratures to a 
 somewhat advanced stage, and to my great 
 satisfaction. But later changes were made 
 which restricted my classes to one year's 
 work in each of the languages. This ele- 
 mentary teaching soon became rather un- 
 inspiring to me. I used to say it did not 
 seem to stretch the flexor muscles of the 
 mind. 
 
 Partly owing to this fact, by an arrange- 
 ment with Governor Anthony, editor and 
 chief proprietor of the Providence Journal, 
 while I was holding the chair in college, I 
 wrote regularly leading articles, chiefly on 
 foreign affairs. When he was elected to the 
 United States Senate in 1858, I assumed 
 responsibihty, for 1859, of all the leading 
 
 [110] 
 
JAMES B. ANGELL 
 
 articles, while James S. Ham acted as 
 managing editor. This attempt to carry 
 both my college work and my editorial 
 work did not prove satisfactory to me. 
 During the year, Senator Anthony proposed 
 that I should resign my position at the 
 college and take the editorial charge of the 
 newspaper. The college salary was very 
 small and there seemed to be no prospect 
 of an increase. The Journal held a very 
 commanding position. The great ques- 
 tions which the North and South were soon 
 to submit to the dread arbitrament of war 
 were already under discussion. The field 
 for earnest and patriotic editorial work was 
 very inviting. I decided to exchange the 
 professor's chair for the editor's. 
 
 I was called on at various times to give 
 lectures in and near Providence. 1 first 
 wrote out some lectures and read them. I 
 soon found that this was not the most effec- 
 tive mode of lecturing and moreover that it 
 made too great a draught on my throat. 
 So I decided to throw away manuscript. I 
 thus acquired the habit of speaking with- 
 out notes, which 1 have followed through 
 my life with few exceptions and then 
 against my wishes. Many of my speeches 
 I have after delivery reduced to writing in 
 order to preserve them; but the pleasure 
 
 [111] 
 
REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 and effectiveness of speaking without read- 
 ing can never be equalled by reading a 
 manuscript. 
 
 It was during the period of my official 
 connection with Brown University on No- 
 vember 26, 1855, that I was married to 
 Sarah Swoope Caswell, only daughter of 
 Rev. Alexis Caswell, D.D., for many years 
 Professor in the University and afterwards 
 its President. This was the most fortunate 
 event in my life. She was eminently fitted 
 to be my helpmeet in all the various experi- 
 ences of our lives. If I have achieved any 
 degree of success, I owe it largely to her. 
 
 The spirit in which Mr. Anthony had 
 always conducted the Journal was that of 
 courtesy towards opponents and of optim- 
 ism concerning the country. Three things 
 he insisted on: first, the Journal should 
 be a clean paper, even in its advertisements ; 
 second, the Enghsh should be pure; third, 
 whatever the Journal could do for the hon- 
 our, the prosperity, the glory of Rhode 
 Island should be done at any sacrifice. 
 For us who were left in his absence to carry 
 on the work it was the tradition and the 
 law to let his spirit prevail, so far as we 
 could attain to it, in all departments of the 
 paper. Accordingly at the end of the 
 academic year, 1859-60, 1 resigned my chair 
 
 [112] 
 
JAMES B. ANGELL 
 
 in the college and accepted the invitation to 
 take the editorship, subject of course to the 
 control of the Senator. That position I held 
 from the summer of 1860 to the summer of 
 1866. A more interesting and important 
 period for the responsible post of con- 
 ducting such a newspaper has not been 
 presented in our history. Few of the news- 
 papers in the country have so won the 
 confidence and so controlled the opinions 
 of their constituency as the Providence 
 Journal under the editorship of Henry B. 
 Anthony. Its opponents used to say that 
 its readers considered it their political bible, 
 and opened it in the morning to know what 
 they ought to think. The opportunity, the 
 privilege, the duty of such a journal at 
 such an epoch, no one comprehended more 
 thoroughly than Senator Anthony. Never 
 was there a more indulgent chief. He left 
 us in the ofiices the utmost liberty com- 
 patible with the general policy of the paper. 
 Though with my limited experience I must 
 have made mistakes, I do not remember 
 that he ever complained to me or ever 
 criticized me, except as criticisms may 
 sometimes have been gently implied in 
 suggestions. 
 
 Those who now enter the spacious offices 
 of the Journal and see its large mechanical 
 
 [113] 
 
 9 
 
REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 outfit and its force of writers, reporters, and 
 clerks, will have difficulty in understanding 
 on how modest a scale it was then con- 
 ducted. The efficient clerk at the desk in 
 the counting room was the only accountant. 
 I not only wrote as a rule all the editorial 
 articles, but read all the exchanges and made 
 the clippings and supervised and edited all 
 communications. We had no regular re- 
 porter except the marine reporter who was 
 a compositor and set up all the news he 
 gathered. When I wished a reporter I sent 
 out and found one. Two or three college 
 students held themselves subject to my call 
 when I could find them. After the war 
 came on I engaged some young officer in 
 each Rhode Island regiment and battery, 
 generally one of my college pupils, to send 
 correspondence from the front. Not in- 
 frequently, after I had gone home at a late 
 hour, the foreman of the printing office 
 receiving some important war news, brought 
 it to my house and I crept out of bed and 
 in very slender attire wrote an article for 
 him to take back. 
 
 In respect to the questions which engaged 
 public attention in the months preceding 
 the war, I, hke most young men, shared the 
 views of the more radical wing of the Re- 
 pubhcan party in Rhode Island. But the 
 
 [114] 
 
JAMES B. ANGELL 
 
 business relations of our cotton brokers and 
 manufacturers in that State with the South 
 had been so close that a large portion, per- 
 haps a majority, of the party were very 
 conservative, and ready to concede much 
 to the South to avoid a conflict. Some of 
 the elderly citizens of wealth and influence 
 from time to time laboured earnestly with 
 me to convince me of my errors and to per- 
 suade me to commit the paper to a less 
 dangerous policy. 
 
 The election of a governor of the State 
 was the occasion of a rupture in the party. 
 A worthy grocer, Mr. Seth Padelford, by 
 active canvassing secured the gubernatorial 
 nomination at the Republican State Con- 
 vention, and in accordance with usage the 
 Journal supported him as the regular 
 nominee. His nomination was distasteful 
 to a large number of the prominent Re- 
 publicans in Providence. They persuaded 
 William Sprague, a wealthy young manu- 
 facturer, to accept a nomination against 
 him. One of the principal arguments which 
 they adduced for opposing Padelford was 
 that he had at some time given a hundred 
 dollars to circulate a volume written by 
 Hinton Rowan Helper of North Carohna, 
 to show that on economic grounds slavery 
 was injurious to the South. This was 
 
 [115] 
 
REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 loudly proclaimed as a proof that Mr. 
 Padelford was an abolitionist and so un- 
 friendly to the South. I believe Mr. Padel- 
 ford had in fact never read the book. Of 
 course ij: fell to me to make as good a fight 
 for him against many of the old friends of 
 the Journal as I could. The strong bank 
 account of the Spragues was heavily drawn 
 upon, and Mr. Padelford who spent his 
 money freely was defeated. 
 
 During the campaign two or three gen- 
 tlemen, who were managing the Sprague 
 campaign, waited on me and asked if the 
 Journal could be bought. (They had no 
 newspaper then.) I repHed that I did not 
 ow^n it, but that I presumed that like other 
 property it could be bought if enough was 
 offered for it. They talked on for some 
 time rather vaguely, until at last it appeared 
 that they did not care to buy it unless I was 
 bought with it. When I discovered this I 
 rephed, holding up my quill pen, "As I have 
 said, I presume you can buy the Journal, 
 but the Spragues have not money enough 
 to buy this quill." Whereupon they with- 
 drew. 
 
 Another interesting incident occurred in 
 the campaign. We invited Abraham Lin- 
 coln to make a speech in Providence. He 
 had come to New York to give his Address, 
 
 [116] 
 
JAMES B. ANGELL 
 
 now SO famous, which shows that the 
 Fathers of the Repubhc hved in the hope of 
 the ultimate extinction of slavery. He was 
 an entire stranger in Providence; and 
 when he appeared on the stage with his 
 long, lank figure, his loose frock coat, his 
 hair just cut rather close, his homely face, 
 we were rather disappointed. But as he 
 proceeded with his speech our soHcitude 
 disappeared. It so happened that I sat by 
 the side of the editor of the Democratic 
 paper, Welcome B. Sayles.^ At the close 
 of the address he said to me, ''That is the 
 finest constitutional argument for a popu- 
 lar audience that I ever heard." And cer- 
 tainly I agreed with him. 
 
 It was not long before the speaker 
 was nominated for the Presidency. Rhode 
 Island like other Eastern states had hoped 
 for the nomination of Seward. x\nd when 
 the news of Lincoln's nomination came, 
 we recalled that awkward figure which 
 we had seen in Railroad Hall, and heard 
 the commendations of him as a rail-split- 
 ter, and we wondered whether he was 
 to prove the leader we needed for the 
 trying days we were expecting. So keen 
 was the disappointment in the State that 
 
 1 Mr. Sayles afterwards went to the war as Colonel of 
 the Seventh Rhode Island regiment, and was killed. 
 
 [117] 
 
REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 clearly an effort was needed to secure him 
 earnest support. 
 
 I bethought myself of one source of help. 
 I remembered that John Hay, my old pupil, 
 was a student of law in Lincoln's office. I 
 wrote to him, explaining the situation and 
 asking him to write a few letters about Lin- 
 coln, which would help me in awakening 
 enthusiasm. He complied with m^y request, 
 but he was so accustomed to look at Lincoln 
 with western eyes that he dwelt unduly for 
 my purpose on the qualities which had made 
 him so popular in Illinois. I "edited" his 
 writing severely and published it. What 
 would I not give now for the original manu- 
 script which went to the waste basket with 
 other copy! 
 
 During the war the labour of editing was 
 very severe but intensely interesting. The 
 breach in the Republican party was healed, 
 and finally Mr. Padelford was elected Gov- 
 ernor, largely by the aid of the supporters 
 of Sprague. I found the annoyance of edi- 
 torial life much less than I had anticipated. 
 The oflSce was the gathering place for all the 
 prominent men in the state. My practice 
 was to write in the outer room surrounded 
 by these men. I was thus able to feel the 
 public pulse every day and to get many 
 excellent suggestions from the conversation. 
 
 [118] 
 
JAMES B. ANGELL 
 
 I used jocosely to say to some of these 
 bright men that "I milked every cow that 
 came into my enclosure." 
 
 I recall with interest visits to the office 
 of many prominent men, among them 
 Charles Sumner, Schuyler Colfax, Henry J. 
 Raymond, Editor of the New York Times, 
 Horace Greeley, and Governor Andrew. 
 Of all these the most stimulating to the 
 young editor was Governor Andrew, with 
 his lofty enthusiasms and great good sense. 
 Mr. Greeley having once asked for a place 
 where he could write, I offered him my 
 table, which was of the usual height. "You 
 don't write at such a table as that, do you?" 
 said he. "Let me have some books to pile 
 on it." I piled up on it the bound volumes 
 of the Congressional Record, until when he 
 was seated they reached to his chin, and on 
 top he spread his paper and wrote. 
 
 After George W. Danielson in 1863 be- 
 came connected with the Journal, the super- 
 vision of the business, of the printing, of the 
 local reporting, and of the evening edition, 
 called the Bulletin, was assumed by him. 
 Perhaps I may properly say now that he 
 and I conceived the idea of purchasing, if 
 practicable, the Journal and publishing it as 
 a non-partisan independent newspaper. But 
 Senator Anthony was unwilling to sell. 
 
 [119] 
 
REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 In 1866 the severity of the work in which 
 I had really been engaged for eight years, 
 with only a week's vacation in each year, 
 was beginning to affect my health. An 
 urgent call to return to academic life led 
 me to accept the presidency of the Univer- 
 sity of Vermont in August of that year. 
 But my experience of newspaper life has 
 been of great service to me in all my sub- 
 sequent career. Editorial work trains one 
 to both readiness and accuracy in writing. 
 One learns to say on the first trial exactly 
 what one means to say, and to avoid dif- 
 fuseness. One who has a responsible charge 
 in the conduct of a newspaper has large 
 opportunities to understand men and to 
 test his own courage in standing for what is 
 right and conducive to the public good, 
 especially when in his opinions he differs 
 from some of his friends. It was not with- 
 out much reluctance that I decided to 
 abandon editorial life and return to aca- 
 demic work. 
 
 [120] 
 
THE PRESIDENCY OF THE UNIVER- 
 SITY OF VERMONT 
 
 The University of Vermont, founded in 
 1791, though a small college, had an hon- 
 ourable history. Its standard of work 
 compared favourably always with the better 
 New England colleges. Eminent scholars 
 had held places in its Faculty. President 
 James Marsh, one of the first Americans to 
 commend Coleridge to us, was one of the 
 most gifted philosophers this country has 
 produced. President Wheeler, Professor 
 Joseph Torrey, the translator of Neander, 
 Professor Shedd, afterward a member of the 
 Faculty of the Union Theological Semi- 
 nary in New York, and Professor George 
 W. Benedict, a most energetic adminis- 
 trator, had given to the college a reputation 
 which attracted students from beyond the 
 boundaries of the State. It had a good 
 proportion of eminent graduates. 
 
 The Civil War, however, had broken its 
 strength. A large number of its students 
 entered the army, and the boys in the 
 academies were diverted from college to the 
 
 [m] 
 
REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 public service. The resources of the insti- 
 tution dechned. Its friends became de- 
 spondent. Some thought it must die. 
 
 But when the so-called Morrill Bill, estab- 
 lishing Agricultural Colleges, was passed, 
 the trustees decided to accept the endow- 
 ment offered to Vermont and to organize 
 the college in connection with the Univer- 
 sity. Senator Morrill became one of the 
 trustees. Some of the old classical gradu- 
 ates feared the result. 
 
 My task was to organize the Agricultural 
 College and effect a harmonious union with 
 the old college, to aid in raising funds which 
 it was clearly seen were needed, and to in- 
 spire the pubhc and especially the alumni 
 with the confident belief that the Institu- 
 tion really had a future. 
 
 This required all the energy and enthu- 
 siasm which I could command. In some 
 measure the college had drifted away from 
 the people in Burlington, owing to their de- 
 spondency about it. One of the first steps 
 my wife and I took was to bring the citizens 
 into close social relations with the college. 
 The addition of cultivated young men to 
 the Faculty made this easy. I then im- 
 proved every opportunity to visit schools, 
 to lecture in many towns, to address the 
 county and state fairs on agricultural edu- 
 
 [122] 
 
JAMES B. ANGELL 
 
 cation, in fact to beat the bushes from 
 one end of the state to the other in 
 order to convince the pubhc that we were 
 ahve and were especially desirous to do 
 something for the farmers. I need hardly 
 add they were the hardest class to con- 
 vince that we could be of any help to 
 them. With an associate from the Trustees 
 or from the Faculty, I visited Boston, New 
 York, and Washington, to obtain subscrip- 
 tions. I remember with pleasure as soon as 
 we reached Washington, Henry J. Raymond, 
 who was an alumnus, gathered five other 
 alumni in Congress in front of the Speaker's 
 desk, before the session opened, and after 
 making a handsome subscription himself, 
 induced them all to subscribe. Thaddeus 
 Stevens was one of them. 
 
 As we had not funds enough to com- 
 plete our Faculty, I set myself to teach the 
 branches not provided for, namely, Rhetoric, 
 History, German, and International Law. 
 
 The persons who w^ere of the most assist- 
 ance to me in this work of raising money 
 and awakening the state were Grenville G. 
 Benedict, Secretary of the Corporation, and 
 Professor Buckham, w^ho filled the place of 
 President after I left, until his death in 1910. 
 
 In all that strenuous life there were some 
 amusing experiences. I was speaking one 
 
 [123] 
 
REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 day at the State Fair at Brattleboro. As I 
 sat down, a gentleman planted himself 
 squarely before me and exclaimed, ''Sir, 
 how old are you?" I was a little surprised 
 at being accosted thus by a stranger. Sud- 
 denly it occurred to me that the State Luna- 
 tic Asylum was in that town, and I said to 
 myself, "This is some harmless patient to 
 whom they have allowed liberty." So I 
 said to him, "Sir, how old are you.^" He 
 replied, "I am thirty -eight." I then said, 
 "That is exactly my age." He went away 
 satisfied. I learned on inquiry that he was 
 pastor of a church in the town. 
 
 Afterwards in Vermont, I was repeatedly 
 asked when introduced to a stranger, how 
 old I was. I know of no explanation, out 
 of China, for such a usage, except that some 
 of the recent Presidents had been advanced 
 in years and infirm, and there was genuine 
 surprise at seeing one so young as I was. 
 
 I also once learned how much it w^as worth 
 to attend the funeral of a relative who was 
 a benefactor of the college. A man who 
 had given his little property to endow some 
 scholarships on condition the college should 
 pay his board with a nephew and niece so 
 long as he lived, finally died. I attended 
 the funeral. The nephew and niece accom- 
 panied the body some miles with me to the 
 
 [ 124 ] 
 
JAMES B. ANGELL 
 
 burial. I told them to send me the bill for 
 the funeral expenses. When it came it 
 contained a per diem charge for the time 
 consumed in going to the burial. I ordered 
 the treasurer to pay that bill, since it was 
 worth the price to learn what one can earn 
 in attending a relative's funeral. 
 
 When I went to Burhngton, I found in 
 force a rule that any student who in his 
 whole college course should have ten un- 
 excused absences must be expelled. I said 
 at once, "That is a foohsh rule. What will 
 happen is that you will excuse the tenth 
 absence. However, until we change the 
 rule, I w^ill enforce it." 
 
 A rather slack, self-indulgent boy came 
 to me to be excused to attend his grand- 
 mother's funeral. He had nine unexcused 
 absences. But of course I excused him. 
 In two weeks he came to be excused to at- 
 tend another grandmother's funeral. As 
 he might have two grandmothers, I ex- 
 cused him again. Judge of my surprise 
 when in two weeks more he came to be ex- 
 cused to attend another grandmother's 
 funeral. *'How is this," I said, *'You 
 have been to two grandmother's funerals." 
 *'Yes." he replied, ''This is my step-father's 
 mother." "I see," said I, "but mark my 
 word, if you have another grandmother's 
 
 [no] 
 
REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 funeral, you will leave college." He gradu- 
 ated. 
 
 The administration of a college with a 
 small number of students taught me cer- 
 tain lessons. It gave me peculiar pleasure 
 from my intimate personal acquaintance 
 with each pupil and in many cases with his 
 parents. Since I also taught every one in 
 more than one branch, I was able to guide 
 and impress them all, to direct their reading 
 and writing and help shape their character 
 and their plans as would have been quite 
 impossible in a large institution. The rela- 
 tions thus established between me and them 
 have been a source of permanent gratifica- 
 tion to me and I trust to not a few of them. 
 
 Nor can I refrain from recalling the friend- 
 ship formed with two eminent citizens of 
 Burlington, which proved of lasting pleas- 
 ure and service to me. I refer to Senator 
 Edmunds and the Honourable E. J. Phelps, 
 afterwards Minister to Great Britain. They 
 were the leading lawyers of Vermont. Sen- 
 ator Edmunds showed in his long public 
 service the powers of a great statesman, and 
 to the great regret of the nation withdrew 
 too early from official life. Mr. Phelps 
 was one of the most brilliant minds whom 
 it has been my fortune to know. Un- 
 happily during most of his life he was on 
 
 [126] 
 
JAMES B. ANGELL 
 
 the wrong side in polities to be called into 
 public service. They both lent a charm to 
 social life in Burhngton, which makes me 
 look back on it as a good fortune to have 
 dwelt there w^ith them. 
 
 Though I lived in Vermont only five 
 years, I formed a wide acquaintance in the 
 State, and became strongly attached to the 
 people. They were an agricultural com- 
 munity of the best type. Serious, earnest, 
 industrious, frugal, they formed their opin- 
 ions with deliberation, and adhered to them 
 firmly. Their moral and rehgious ideals 
 were high. The sons of Vermont, scattered 
 far and wide through the land, reflect great 
 honour upon her. 
 
 The university has received generous 
 gifts from its alumni and other friends and 
 has enjoyed great prosperity under Presi- 
 dent Buckham.^ 
 
 1 He died November 29, 1910, after thirty-nine years 
 of service as President. He has been succeeded by Dr. 
 Guy Potter Benton. 
 
 [127] 
 
VI 
 THE MISSION TO CHINA^ 
 
 On February 20, 1880, I received a letter 
 from Hon. H. P. Baldwin, a Senator from 
 Michigan, informing me that Mr. Evarts, 
 Secretary of State, desired to see me at an 
 early date in Washington on a matter of 
 public interest. It occurred to me as pos- 
 sible that he wished me to take a place on 
 a commission to consider either the Fish- 
 eries Question or the Isthmian Interoceanic 
 Canal Question. 
 
 I soon w^ent to Washington, and with 
 Senator Baldwin called on the Secretary 
 by appointment at his house. I learned 
 from him that my friend Senator Edmunds 
 of Vermont had some months before di- 
 rected his attention to me as a suitable 
 person for diplomatic service. 
 
 The Secretary soon made it known to me 
 that he desired me to go to China as one of 
 
 1 Though I went from Vermont to the University of 
 Michigan in 1870, it seems most convenient to defer the 
 narrative of my Hfe in Michigan until after the descrip- 
 tion of my experience in pubhc Hfe, and of two journeys 
 to Europe, 
 
 [128] 
 
JAMES B. ANGELL 
 
 two Commissioners (the other to be a Cali- 
 fornian), to secure, if possible, a revision of 
 our treaties with that Empire, especially 
 with the purpose of restraining in some 
 degree the emigration which was threaten- 
 ing to flood the Pacific States. He dwelt 
 on the importance of adjusting this Asiatic 
 life to ours in some way best both for the 
 Chinese and for us. His manner and con- 
 versation were most charming. A vein of 
 humour ran through his gravest talk like a 
 vein of silver through the rock. To my 
 inquiry whether he had any reason to sup- 
 pose the Chinese were ready to accede to 
 his propositions, he replied that General 
 Grant had, in his interviews w^ith high 
 Chinese officials, received the impression 
 that they were ready to take some steps in 
 that direction. He added then in his 
 inimitable way, ''I should not be surprised 
 if the Chinese should be entirely willing. 
 They may well say, ' You are asking us to 
 abide by our own doctrines. We always 
 told you that we did not wish to open so 
 intimate intercourse with you western na- 
 tions. But you forced us at the cannon's 
 mouth. You see we were right.' " Con- 
 tinuing, he said, "Perhaps we had better 
 not despise a government which for thirty 
 centuries has ruled a nation now^ numbering 
 
 [129] 
 
REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 three hundred millions, while we have only 
 jBfty millions, and they 'run us.'" 
 
 At the proper time I took occasion to say 
 that I thought the Consular history of 
 Rome was rather full of warnings against 
 the policy of employing a commission of 
 two, and that one of three would be more 
 likely to accomplish a result, at any rate, 
 to avoid an even decision. Later, Senator 
 Edmunds advanced the same opinion, and 
 finally a Commission of three was decided on. 
 
 At the close of the interview, the Secre- 
 tary took me to the White House to see 
 President Hayes. He seemed deeply im- 
 pressed with the importance of restraining 
 the immigration of the Chinese. I asked 
 if the government supposed the country 
 east of the Rocky Mountains was ready to 
 adopt measures restrictive of Chinese immi- 
 gration. In reply I was given to under- 
 stand that the action of such a Commission 
 as they were trying to appoint would of 
 itself have much weight in securing ac- 
 quiescence in reasonable measures. 
 
 After conference with Senators Edmunds, 
 Anthony, Baldwin, and Ferry, I promised 
 the Secretary that I would return home, 
 give the subject full consideration, consult 
 the Regents of the University, and give him 
 answer at an early day. 
 
 [ 130 ] 
 
JAMES B. AN G E L L 
 
 On March 11, I wrote to the Secretary 
 to the following effect: that if direct and 
 formal prohibition of Chinese immigration 
 was desired I preferred that some one else 
 should undertake the work, but that if cor- 
 rection of the abuses now connected with 
 the immigration was desired, and this cor- 
 rection should work as a restraint on the 
 immigration, I was willing to undertake the 
 task. He promptly rephed that there was 
 nothing in my letter incompatible with the 
 purposes of the President, and he desired 
 to send in my name to the Senate at once. 
 April 9, 1 was confirmed as Minister and also 
 as Chairman of the Commission for revising 
 treaties with China. John F. Swift of Cah- 
 fornia and WiUiam H. Trescot of South 
 Carohna were appointed Commissioners. 
 
 On April 1, I had interesting interviews 
 in Washington with Dr. Peter Parker, 
 formerly medical missionary at Canton, and 
 with George Bancroft, the historian. Both 
 of them w^ere opposed to unlimited immigra- 
 tion of the Chinese. Mr. Bancroft said he 
 did not want to see the young men in Massa- 
 chusetts towns forced to compete with the 
 Chinese who had such low^ standards of liv- 
 ing. He was also not without fear that the 
 South might employ them and virtually 
 reinstate a quasi-servitude. 
 
 [131] 
 
REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 On May 26, in response to a summons 
 from Mr. Evarts, I reported in company 
 with Mr. Trescot at his office in the expec- 
 tation of receiving instructions. We had 
 very charming interviews with him on four 
 successive days. He discoursed at length 
 on the various problems, which our rela- 
 tions with China have forced upon us, the 
 difference between European and Asiatic 
 immigration, the commercial questions in- 
 volved in the Lekin tax, the importance of 
 having an American policy, not tied to 
 England, the expediency of dispersing the 
 Chinese in our country, the importance of 
 impressing the Chinese government with 
 our desire to be fair and even generous to- 
 wards them, and the question whether we 
 can modify the treaty stipulations con- 
 cerning ex-territoriality. All this did not 
 result in furnishing us any specific instruc- 
 tions as to what we should demand in a 
 treaty. But the Secretary informed us that 
 definite instructions would overtake us on 
 our journey. 
 
 On June 4, prominent citizens of Detroit 
 gave a dinner in my honour. The Hon. 
 George V. N. Lothrop, the most prominent 
 member of the Michigan Bar, afterwards 
 our Minister to Russia, presided with his 
 characteristic grace. I would gladly have 
 
 [132] 
 
JAMES B. ANGELL 
 
 been excused from this reception, but my 
 friends persuaded me that it would be help- 
 ful to the University. In my remarks I 
 carefully refrained from discussing the ques- 
 tions which I was about to act on officially. 
 
 On the next day at 4 p.m., the Faculties 
 and the students gave me a hearty recep- 
 tion in University Hall. 
 
 On June 6, with my wife and daughter 
 and youngest son, I started for San Fran- 
 cisco and arrived there on the 11th, and 
 remained until the 19th. We received 
 many hospitalities. Mr. Trescot had 
 reached there before me and Mr. Swift re- 
 sided there. Especially profitable w^ere in- 
 terviews with the Chinese Consul and with 
 Mr. Low, who had long been our minister 
 to China. Apparently there was a general 
 feeling that the coming of Chinese labourers 
 should be limited, but not absolutely for- 
 bidden. One representative of the Labour 
 Unions asked prohibition of immigration in 
 order to protect American mechanics. I 
 asked him if he could name one mechanic 
 who had been crowded out of employment 
 by the Chinese, and he confessed he could 
 not. 
 
 On June 19, we sailed on the " Oceanic." 
 In the voyage of eighteen days we did not, 
 after leaving the California coast, see a 
 
 [133] 
 
REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 single vessel until we approached the coast 
 of Japan. We entered the harbour of 
 Yokohama at five o'clock in the morning. 
 Before the steamer had stopped, Japanese 
 boats, filled with half-naked boatmen, 
 swarmed about us to take passengers ashore. 
 Hardly had we dropped anchor before 
 Lieutenant Wainwright (now Admiral) 
 came on board to learn when I w^ould receive 
 a call from Admiral Patterson, who was in 
 command of the United States squadron in 
 the harbour. At half-past nine he and 
 Captain Johnson, commanding the gun- 
 boat, *'Ashuelot " called. Under orders from 
 our government they were waiting to take 
 us to China on the *' Richmond " and the 
 "Ashuelot." As on our arrival they w^ere 
 not quite readj^ to depart, we had the pleas- 
 ure of spending ten days in Yokohama and 
 Tokio. 
 
 In view of the discussion which has been 
 carried on for some years concerning the 
 expediency of erecting houses at the expense 
 of our government for the residences of our 
 ministers and ambassadors, it may not be 
 amiss to report a conversation I had with 
 Judge Bingham, our minister to Japan at the 
 time of my visit. Observing that he w^as 
 living in a comfortable though modest 
 house, I asked him if he had built it at his 
 
 [134] 
 
JAMES B. ANGELL 
 
 own expense. He said, '*0h, no. As we 
 have ex-territoriality here, I was obliged to 
 ask for an appropriation for a jail. I asked 
 my old friends in Congress for an appro- 
 priation so liberal that I was able to build 
 my house as an annex to the jail." He then 
 took me to the rear of the house and showed 
 me a prisoner confined in the room which 
 was the jail. 
 
 Judge Bingham prided himself on having 
 broken away from blindly following Eng- 
 land, as most of the other ministers had. 
 He said he had seen Sir Harry Parkes, the 
 British minister shake his fist under the 
 nose of the minister of Foreign Affairs. He 
 added that the forcible withdrawal of a 
 German vessel from quarantine was really 
 stimulated by the Enghshman. 
 
 On July 19, my family and I embarked on 
 the United States gunboat "Ashuelot," Cap- 
 tain Johnson, for Shanghai. We stopped at 
 Kobe and visited the old capital, Kioto. 
 The Italian ship of war, " Vettor Pisani," 
 under command of the Duke of Genoa, 
 was at Kobe. We exchanged calls with him 
 and found him very cordial and simple in 
 his manners. He preferred to be addressed 
 simply as Captain. The sail through the 
 Inland Sea was charming. It reminded one 
 of Lake Champlain and Lake George. 
 
 [135] 
 
REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 We arrived at Shanghai on July 27, and 
 were the guests of Consul-General Denny. 
 I was told that Rev. Dr. Yates, an American 
 missionary of the Southern Baptist Society, 
 knew the Chinamen better than any other 
 foreigner in the city. I therefore asked 
 him for a description of the Chinaman. He 
 said he had studied the Chinaman many 
 years. At times he flattered himself that 
 he had come to understand thoroughly the 
 Chinaman's nature to the very bottom. 
 But just as he began to inflate himself with 
 complacency at his achievement, some new 
 depth in the Chinaman's nature yawned 
 below him. About the only thing, he said, 
 that you can be sure of when you ask him 
 for the grounds of his beliefs is that the 
 reasons he gives you are not the real ones. 
 
 On August 1, we reached Chefoo. Mr. 
 Swift and Mr. Trescot had arrived on the 
 "Richmond." It was thought best that I 
 should go on in advance to Peking and ar- 
 range for our negotiations, while my col- 
 leagues and my family remained in Chefoo. 
 The Admiral took me on the " Richmond " 
 to Taku, as far as a vessel with her draught 
 could go. The " Ashuelot " then took me to 
 Tientsin, where we arrived on August 3. 
 
 The next day at 4 p.m., accompanied by 
 Mr. Holcomb, Secretary of Legation, and 
 
 [136] 
 
JAMES B. ANGELL 
 
 six naval officers, I went to call on the 
 Viceroy Li Hung Chang, at his residence. 
 He received us very cordially and frequently 
 took occasion to express his friendship for 
 the United States. He was very anxious 
 to know why General Grant had not been 
 nominated again in June. I mentioned 
 three reasons, one of which was that there 
 was a strong feeling against a third term. 
 This he could not understand, repeatedly 
 affirming that a man who had served twice 
 was thereby better fitted for the place. 
 
 On the following day Li came w ith a large 
 retinue to the '' Ashuelot" to return my call. 
 He remained an hour and a half and seemed 
 in fine spirits. He talked on several subjects 
 and joked freely. He repeated a remark 
 which I had made to him on the previous 
 day that the Brazilians who were trying 
 to make a treaty to secure coolies should 
 make a draft on us who were trying to 
 restrict the immigration. He told me in a 
 whisper that although the complications 
 with Russia on the Kuldja question were 
 serious, he believed China would escape 
 war. He said the idiots at Peking had 
 dreadfully blundered, that Tso (the Chinese 
 general in Kuldja) was a braggart, and that 
 he was now under strict orders not to pro- 
 voke w^ar with the Russians. 
 
 [137] 
 
REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 Much to my gratification, Li had brought 
 General Gordon with him. The General 
 had come to China to persuade the govern- 
 ment to keep out of a war with Russia. 
 He was living by himself in a Buddhist 
 temple, and I was told that he remained at 
 his devotions until ten o'clock, so that be- 
 fore that hour he refused all callers. Hav- 
 ing heard of his military achievements, I 
 had fancied him to be a big English "sw^ash- 
 buckler." Judge of my surprise when a 
 man of small stature, with a low and sweet 
 voice, with a manner almost feminine in 
 delicacy, quietly seated himself close to me 
 and told me his story. He said he had come 
 to persuade China to refrain from war, from 
 wasting her money on ironclads, the or- 
 ganization of a great army on the European 
 plan, and from a foreign debt. He said 
 that the true defence for them is howitzers, 
 fleet ships and a sort of guerilla warfare. 
 Their soldiers need no tents, and no com- 
 missary department. The way for them to 
 fight the Russians is to attack them at night, 
 allowing them no sleep, and then hasten 
 away till the next night. They can thus 
 keep them on the run and tire them out. 
 He tells them their capital is too near 
 Siberia and too near the sea. It can always 
 be easily captured. He was there with the 
 
 [138] 
 
JAMES B. ANGELL 
 
 British forces in 1858-60, and knows the 
 region thoroughly. He besought me to 
 impress these ideas of peace on Li, as I had 
 opportunity. He had come to meet me 
 for the purpose of making this request. 
 
 The British government soon recalled him, 
 because, it was reported, they were afraid 
 Russia would take offense at his action. 
 
 Li invited me to dine with him on my 
 return from Peking and placed at my dis- 
 posal his steam launch to take me twenty- 
 five miles up the river. 
 
 I availed myself of his offer, and after 
 leaving the launch w^ent by houseboats, 
 drawn by men to Tungcho and thence by 
 canal to Peking. Mr. Seward, the minister, 
 received me at the Legation, and in due 
 time introduced me to the Tsung-li-Yamen, 
 and presented his recall. Prince Kung im- 
 pressed me as far superior to the other mem- 
 bers of the Foreign Office. They returned 
 my call, and as they were passing through 
 the drawing room, some one struck the keys 
 of the piano. They hastened with a child- 
 like curiosity to look in under the cover of 
 the instrument to ascertain w^hat caused 
 the sound. Prince Kung announced the 
 appointment of two commissioners to ne- 
 gotiate with us and assured me they would 
 proceed with despatch. 
 
 [139] 
 
REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 The European ministers generally were 
 in expectation of war with Russia. Under 
 the walls of the city the soldiers were pre- 
 paring by practice to meet the Russian 
 army. This practice consisted of firing at 
 a target with bows and arrows. 
 
 The Tsung-li-Yamen having learned that 
 the Brazilian ministers were approaching 
 to make a treaty, asked the American 
 Secretary where Brazil was, and if it was a 
 country of much consequence. 
 
 Having in two weeks completed my busi- 
 ness in Peking, I returned to Chefoo. My 
 colleagues and I and our families at once 
 set out for Tientsin in the gunboats " Mo- 
 nocacy " -and " Ashuelot." We exchanged 
 calls with Li and hurried on to Peking. 
 
 On the journey up the river I had an in- 
 teresting conversation with Mr. Trescot, 
 concerning an event in the Civil War. After 
 this lapse of time, I think I may be allowed 
 to report it. In the American Case for the 
 Geneva Arbitration of the so-called Ala- 
 bama Claims, I had read that the British 
 government, through Lord Lyons, the Brit- 
 ish Minister at Washington, invited our 
 government to sign the Declaration of 
 Paris (of 1856), and informed the Con- 
 federate government of this action. At 
 the same time they invited the Confederate 
 
 [ 140 ] 
 
JAMES B. ANGELL 
 
 government to sign the second and third 
 Articles and to omit the first, which forbids 
 privateering, but did not inform our gov- 
 ernment of this action. Moreover, they 
 sent the message to Richmond and Charles- 
 ton, through Lord Lyons. If this plan had 
 succeeded the South could have commis- 
 sioned privateers, while we should have 
 been precluded, and the carrying trade for 
 both belhgerents would have been secured to 
 Great Britain. This was so dishonourable 
 a trick, that I had always been reluctant 
 to beheve it. As Mr. Trescot was em- 
 ployed in our State Department at the time, 
 and was also very familiar with transactions 
 in the South, I ventured to express my 
 doubts of the accuracy of the statement in 
 the American Case. He rephed, "You may 
 well beheve it, for I myself took the despatch 
 from Lord Lyons to Richmond." 
 
 At the first meeting of the Commissioners 
 with the Tsung-h-Yamen, we were informed 
 that two Commissioners had been appointed 
 to negotiate with us, Pao Chun, an aged 
 member of the body with an excellent repu- 
 tation for honesty, and Li Hung Tsao, one 
 of the most noted historical scholars. 
 
 It will be understood that I held two 
 Commissions, one as Minister Plenipoten- 
 tiary and one as Commissioner to negotiate 
 
 [141] 
 
REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 treaties. Therefore I had in hand the regu- 
 lar business of the Legation as well as work 
 on the Treaties. 
 
 When we American Commissioners met 
 to draft a paper to present to the Chinese 
 Commissioner, there was a sharp difference 
 of opinion between Mr. Swift on the one 
 side and Mr. Trescot and myself on the 
 other. Mr. Swift wished that we should 
 demand the absolute prohibition of the 
 immigration of labourers. Mr. Trescot and 
 I maintained that we should ask merely for 
 a stipulation giving us power to regulate, 
 but not to forbid, absolutely, immigration. 
 Mr. Swift asked that we telegraph to Mr. 
 Evarts for authority to present his demand. 
 We declined to do so. Mr. Swift of course 
 yielded, but not without some feeling. We 
 allowed him to spread on the record his 
 propositions and his protest against ours. 
 
 When we read our statement to the 
 Chinese, Pao said there were some diffi- 
 culties on both sides, but he thought there 
 were none which might not be adjusted. 
 
 After two or three meetings the details 
 of which I will not give, we found one day 
 to our surprise the whole Yamen in attend- 
 ance. They had brought a full pro jet for a 
 treaty, containing provisions that any re- 
 striction in immigration should apply to 
 
 [142] 
 
JAMES B. ANGELL 
 
 California alone, that artisans should not 
 be excluded, that there should be no punish- 
 ment for labourers coming in violation of the 
 treaty, and allowing persons, not Americans, 
 to import and employ Chinese labourers. 
 We did not encourage them to suppose we 
 could accept their draft, but took it away 
 for consideration. 
 
 Two days later we had a most anxious, 
 and, as it proved, a decisive session with the 
 Chinese. We took up the first Article in 
 their draft and the first in ours, regulating 
 immigration, and found ourselves so at vari- 
 ance with them, that Mr. Swift declared 
 they did not mean to give us a treaty, and 
 Mr. Trescot, usually hopeful, thought we 
 had come to the end, and that we had better 
 state our ultimatum and go. But I saw 
 the Chinese earnestly discussing and I sug- 
 gested patience, saying that w^e might well 
 spend an hour there, that perhaps never 
 would our time be more valuable. Let us 
 leave this Article, I advised, and take up the 
 last. Let the fish chew the bait awhile. 
 The last Article was one which provided 
 that no laws we should pass in respect to 
 immigration should be operative until ap- 
 proved by them. This was so unreason- 
 able that they soon said they would waive 
 that. Then we took up the Article in 
 
 [143] 
 
REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 which they seemed to us to ask that Chinese 
 students and merchants could take with 
 them employees. They explained that they 
 meant by that only household servants. 
 To that we had no objection. Having now 
 got into the mood of agreeing, we went 
 back to Article I. I pointed out to them 
 that this clause asking that no limitation 
 should be excessively great or excessively 
 long was inappropriate to a treaty, and 
 would only cause discussion instead of 
 hindering it. They consented to change 
 that. As to their clause about penalties 
 they said they only wished to guard against 
 personal abuse and maltreatment. We 
 agreed to guard against this. We thus paved 
 the way for dove-tailing their first Article 
 and oiu-s together, and the work was done. 
 It was agreed that Mr. Holcombe, the 
 Secretary, should come the next day and 
 with them arrange the texts. 
 
 Greatly relieved, we were about to leave, 
 when Pao detained us. He said he wished 
 to speak of one thing more. When the 
 Chinese treaties with the Western Powers 
 were made, they were one-sided. Now as 
 they wished to push new trade abroad, they 
 desired to secure equal commercial privi- 
 leges. As the United States had always 
 been their friend, they preferred to begin 
 
 [144] 
 
JAMES B. ANGELL 
 
 with US, and they wished to know if we 
 could consider a proposition for a treaty or 
 an article in this treaty on that point. We 
 cordially responded that we would take the 
 matter into friendly and sympathetic con- 
 sideration. 
 
 Apparently the Chinese intended to give 
 us the treaty we had made, but to concede 
 us as little as possible. We completed the 
 final agreement on the Immigration Treaty 
 at 3 P.M., November 8. 
 
 We then left with them our draft of a 
 Commercial Treaty. In it the two nations 
 agree to favour the extension of commerce 
 with each other, to fix the rate of tonnage 
 dues and import duties on the same scale for 
 both nations, to prohibit the trade in opium 
 between them, and to provide for the trial 
 of a person in the court of his nationality. 
 We had reason to believe that the dues and 
 duties for Chinese vessels entering Chinese 
 ports were less than for our vessels. The 
 request for the opium Article originated 
 with Li Hung Chang. We were very will- 
 ing to adopt it, though Mr. Trescot had 
 fears that we might be criticized for it as w^e 
 had no instructions on the subject. But I 
 believed that it would meet with favour at 
 home, though it might be criticized in 
 England. 
 
 11 [ 145 ] 
 
REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 After the agreement on the treaties, the 
 Chinese Commissioners sent presents to us, 
 consisting of ham, sausages, fruits, chest- 
 nuts, and cakes for which the messengers, 
 bringing them, expected and received suit- 
 able fees. 
 
 There was an interesting incident con- 
 nected with the signing of the treaties. We 
 had fixed on a day for signing them. When 
 we arrived at the Yamen, the Commission- 
 ers with an air of great mortification an- 
 nounced that they could not sign on that 
 day, that it was the Emperor's birthday, 
 on which they could sign no document 
 containing a word of unhappy significance, 
 that such a word occurred in the treaties, 
 and that in making the appointment they 
 had not remembered that it was the Em- 
 peror's birthday, and they therefore asked 
 for another date for the signing. Of course 
 we assented, and on November 17 we all 
 signed. 
 
 The European ministers were astonished 
 when we informed them that after forty- 
 eight days of negotiations, we had secured 
 two treaties. On my arrival at Peking, 
 Mr. Von Brandt, the German Minister, 
 perhaps the ablest foreign representative 
 there, told me that after two years of labour 
 he had just procured a treaty and that I 
 
 [146] 
 
JAMES B. ANGELL 
 
 must not hope to finish a negotiation under 
 a year. I have always supposed that what- 
 ever influence Sir Robert Hart had with 
 the Chinese authorities was used to our 
 advantage. I saw no evidence that any 
 of the foreign powers made any effort to 
 hinder us, though reports to the effect that 
 some of them did were more or less current. 
 My personal relations with all the Ministers 
 were most cordial. 
 
 One of the most serious embarrassments 
 of the Commission was due to what must 
 be considered an error of the State Depart- 
 ment in appointing my colleagues Commis- 
 sioners Plenipotentiary, instead of Envoys 
 or Ministers Extraordinary. The former 
 title was unknown to our naval oflScers and 
 to European diplomats. So there was 
 trouble with the naval officers in respect to 
 salutes and it required great care to avoid 
 unpleasant comphcations in the social rela- 
 tions at Peking. 
 
 After the departure of my colleagues on 
 the Commission in the early winter, my 
 duties were those of the Minister. A few 
 incidents may be worthy of mention, es- 
 pecially as illustrating the good dispo- 
 sition of the Tsung-li-Yamen. 
 
 As each village holds certain religious 
 festivals annually, under Chinese usage, 
 
 [147] 
 
REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 every village was taxed to meet the ex- 
 penses of the festivals. The Christian 
 converts were embarrassed by this re- 
 quirement, as some of the features of the 
 ceremonies were incompatible with the 
 Christian faith. The Roman Cathohcs 
 had some years before my coming procured 
 the exemption of their converts from assess- 
 ments for the festivals. When I learned 
 this, I asked for the exemption of the Protes- 
 tant Christians. The request was received 
 with great courtesy, and soon an Imperial 
 Decree was issued, relieving the Protestant 
 natives from the assessment. 
 
 At an auction sale of the goods of a Pres- 
 byterian missionary who was about to 
 leave Peking for America on a visit, some 
 rude fellows in the crowd which an auction 
 always attracts there, threw missiles into 
 the grounds, broke down shrubbery, and 
 caused much disturbance. When the news 
 reached me that the disturbance was going 
 on and threatening to become more seri- 
 ous, I sent a message to the Yamen, asking 
 for protection to the mission. They at once 
 sent a detachment of soldiers and arrested 
 the mischief makers, and when I went to 
 the mission on the next morning, I saw two 
 or three of the men arrested, sitting in the 
 street by the gateway of the mission, with 
 
 [148] 
 
JAMES B. ANGELL 
 
 cangues on their necks. The authorities 
 offered to furnish an armed escort for the 
 missionary on his journey out of the city, 
 but I dechned this as unnecessary. The 
 local olSicial who should have prevented 
 the disorder was at once discharged, and 
 he appealed to me to interpose for his re- 
 appointment. Our local authorities have 
 not always been so efficient in protecting 
 Chinamen in our cities. 
 
 When Mr. Blaine was Secretary of State, 
 a rumour reached him that the Chinese 
 government was cherishing a plan to seize 
 the Hawaiian Islands. He sent me a very 
 spirited despatch, instructing me to call the 
 attention of the Yamen to this report and 
 warn them that our government would not 
 permit such an act. No one in Peking 
 attached any importance to the rumour. I 
 presented Mr. Blaine's statement with all 
 seriousness. It was difficult to make Chi- 
 nese ministers comprehend the gist of my 
 inquiry about their intention to acquire the 
 Islands. But when they did, they burst 
 into a roar of laughter, and begged me to 
 inform the Secretary that whenever they 
 formed such a plan they would give the 
 United States timely notice. 
 
 The Japanese Minister, Mr. Shishido, 
 who had more than once confided to me his 
 
 [149] 
 
REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 troubles in doing business with the Chinese 
 government, one day came to me, appar- 
 ently much depressed in spirits, and said 
 that he wished in confidence to lodge a 
 document with me. The Yamen, he said, 
 had made a treaty with him, and when the 
 day on which they had agreed to sign it 
 arrived, they refused to sign. He had, 
 therefore, in indignation decided to leave 
 for home. He had drawn a paper reciting 
 the facts, which he was not showing to the 
 other foreign ministers. But his nation 
 felt so grateful to the United States for its 
 kindness and especially to General Grant 
 for his wise counsels to them on his recent 
 visit, that he wished to leave this docu- 
 ment in our hands. 
 
 I received it with hearty appreciation of 
 the friendship evinced for us, and especially 
 for the gratitude expressed for General 
 Grant. I had learned so much in Japan 
 and China of the great service Grant had 
 tendered to both nations, that this tribute 
 to him touched me with pride. He had 
 warned them to keep out of war, especially 
 with each other. He had showed them how 
 war would put them in bondage to European 
 creditors and how they should unite to 
 effect a permanent co-operation in taking 
 their places among the great self-reliant 
 
 [150] 
 
JAMES B. ANGELL 
 
 powers of the world. I had come to feel 
 that his services to those tw^o nations were 
 second in value only to his services to his 
 own nation. They both expressed to him 
 their desire that he would act as arbiter in 
 settling their trouble about the ownership 
 of the Loo Choo Islands. He declined, tell- 
 ing them, as he often did, that he was now 
 only a private citizen, and could take no 
 office. That fact they all came to under- 
 stand. 
 
 Naturally I hastened to describe the ac- 
 tion of the Japanese Minister to the State 
 Department, calling special attention to 
 what he said of General Grant. To my 
 great surprise, in due time I received a 
 reply from the Secretary of State calling 
 my attention in very serious tone to the 
 fact that General Grant held no official 
 post when he w^as in the East, and that I 
 should not have neglected my opportunity 
 to make that known. Why the honour 
 paid to General Grant should have gratified 
 the Secretary so little, I leave to the reader 
 to conjecture. 
 
 I was interested in finding that some of 
 the members of the Tsung-li-Yamen were 
 as keen reasoners in a discussion as one will 
 meet anywhere. Their intellectual train- 
 ing had been purely linguistic. The ques- 
 
 [151] 
 
REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 tion often suggested itself to me, whether 
 this fact had any bearing on the discussions 
 we so often have as to the value of our old 
 classical training in preparing men for pub- 
 lic life. These keen reasoners were almost 
 absolutely devoid of mathematical or sci- 
 entific education. I sometimes doubted 
 whether in reaching their conclusions they 
 were aware as we are of taking certain 
 logical steps. If they were, they did not 
 make known the steps to us, but at once 
 stated their conclusions. There was only 
 one man in the Tsung-li-Yamen who in 
 discussion with me gave his grounds, one, 
 two, three, for his opinion as we do. Much 
 to my delight he and I worked so harmoni- 
 ously that they left him to do most of the 
 business with me. His mind seemed to me 
 to work like the mind of a AYestern man — 
 by logical processes. 
 
 One of the most interesting members of 
 the Tsung-li-Yamen was the General Tso 
 Tsung Tang, of whom Li Hung Chang had 
 spoken to me as a boaster. Perhaps he was, 
 but he was entertaining. He talked at my 
 table of his campaigns in Kuldja with the 
 dramatic air of a Frenchman. It was re- 
 ported that he was appointed to the Foreign 
 Office in accordance with a shrewd Chinese 
 custom of curing a critic by giving him re- 
 
 [152] 
 
JAMES B. ANGELL 
 
 sponsibility. It was related that when he 
 came back from his campaign to Peking, he 
 complained to the authorities that too great 
 privileges were extended to the foreign lega- 
 tions, particularly that the French legation 
 were allowed by the Yamen to enclose too 
 large a part of the street in their yard. He 
 was at once appointed as a member of the 
 Board. It soon appeared that he enjoyed 
 the society of us foreigners, who hstened 
 w^ith interest to his conversation, and that 
 no one cherished a more hberal spirit to us 
 than he did. 
 
 ^Mien the Russian Czar was assassinated, 
 he inquired who killed him. AMien told 
 that it was the deed of Nihilists, he asked 
 who they were. When informed that they 
 were a secret society, pledged to kill sov- 
 ereigns, he said, "Secret societies! they 
 ought to make short work with them. 
 A few^ years ago the province of Fuhkien 
 was honeycombed with secret societies, and 
 in their conflicts with each other they were 
 destroying villages. The government sent 
 me down there to restore peace. In about 
 six weeks I had perfect tranquillity." 
 
 *'Well, your Excellency," he was asked, 
 "how did you accomplish that?" "AMiy, 
 in two weeks I cut oft' the heads of about 
 three thousand men, and it was perfectly 
 
 [153] 
 
REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 quiet after that." And he spoke of it as 
 calmly as though he were talking of killing 
 so many flies. 
 
 A business meeting with the Yamen was 
 always, in theory, a social meeting. Refresh- 
 ments were invariably served, and it was 
 vain to attempt to engage their attention to 
 a matter of business until the refreshments 
 were disposed of. It would seem that this 
 usage was calculated to bring men to their 
 conference in an amicable frame. 
 
 Sir Thomas Wade, the British Minister, 
 was a most genial gentleman, with a large 
 fund of Irish wit. As his family were in 
 England during our residence in Peking, he 
 was kind enough to be much in our house 
 and contributed immensely to our pleasure. 
 He had a great fund of stories. One he 
 told on D 'Israeli and Gladstone is perhaps 
 worth repeating. DTsraeli once said to a 
 friend in conversation that the English 
 artists lacked imagination. Within an hour 
 he had occasion to address a society of Eng- 
 hsh painters and declared that they excelled 
 in imaginative powers. Gladstone being 
 told of this said he could see how in the 
 fervour of debate one might say such a 
 thing, but how one could do it in such 
 circumstances he could not see. "It is 
 hellish," he exclaimed. 
 
 [154] 
 
JAMES B. ANGELL 
 
 Sir Thomas was a superior Chinese 
 scholar. He wrote the text book which 
 most students used in learning the language, 
 and was fond of talking about the language. 
 He said there is great difficulty in reducing 
 the grammar to our categories. The Chi- 
 nese do not seek classification of parts of 
 speech but are content to follow precedent 
 and usage. Exactness is attainable in the 
 expression of thought in it, though its 
 machinery for mode and tense is clumsy. 
 It has changed but little in five thousand 
 years. 
 
 It is sometimes remarked in diplomatic 
 circles that a minister may become in a 
 measure disqualified for his duties by too 
 long service at one post. He comes to look 
 at questions from the point of view of the 
 people with whom he has long dwelt. It 
 was charged that Sir Thomas often in- 
 stinctively took the Chinaman's view of a 
 controversy between England and China, 
 and so failed to satisfy the British Foreign 
 Office. 
 
 I have heard that once when President 
 Grant was asked to appoint as our minis- 
 ter at Peking a gentleman who had spent 
 most of his life in China, he replied that he 
 had but one objection, namely, that he did 
 not wish to appoint a Chinaman. 
 
 [155] 
 
REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 My intimate acquaintance with Sir Rob- 
 ert Hart, the head of the Imperial Customs, 
 was of great help to me and the source of 
 great pleasure. He, like Sir Thomas, was 
 of Irish birth. He was a graduate of the 
 University of Belfast, and a fine classical 
 scholar. He kept up his reading of Greek 
 and Latin in the midst of all his official 
 cares. He was, of course, a great Chinese 
 scholar. His advice to the government was 
 supposed to be of great weight, as it de- 
 served to be. 
 
 He told me, however, that one of his 
 chief obstacles was the conservatism and 
 stupidity of some of the mandarins with 
 whom he had to do. For his diversion he 
 played on the violin. He said that some of 
 the mandarins declared that he was paid a 
 large salary for sitting all day on his divan 
 and fiddling. 
 
 The government had founded a college 
 for the training of young Chinese to enter 
 into the diplomatic service. The American 
 missionary, Rev. Dr. Martin, was the 
 President. During his temporary absence, 
 Mr. Hart was put in charge. He asked me 
 to visit the college from time to time and 
 report to him what I found. The Profes- 
 sors were Europeans, who were teaching 
 English, French, and Russian and branches 
 
 [ 156 ] 
 
JAMES B. ANGELL 
 
 of Western learning. They told me that 
 the students were so afraid of being sup- 
 posed to have any connection with for- 
 eigners, that they would not recognize them 
 on the streets. The students were granted 
 an allowance like our students at Annapolis 
 and West Point. Mr. Hart wittily de- 
 scribed them as the sons of mandarins who 
 allowed their offspring for a consideration to 
 be defiled with the pitch of Western learning. 
 
 Mr. Hart told me that he came near 
 joining the Tai-pings in their great rebel- 
 lion in 1859, and that he believed they would 
 have succeeded if the foreigners had not 
 joined the government in opposing them 
 and that they w^ould probably have given as 
 good a government as that which prevailed. 
 
 He placed great stress on the filial respect 
 and reverence of the Chinese, saying Provi- 
 dence had fulfilled the divine promise of 
 length of days to the nation which obeyed 
 the command to honour the fathers. 
 
 He talked frankly to me of some of their 
 serious faults and of their antipathy to 
 foreigners, and as if foreseeing what actually 
 befell his ow^n house in the Boxer troubles, 
 said "None of us know how soon in some 
 excitement our houses may all be in flames." 
 
 The most brilliant minister at Peking 
 w^as Von Brandt, the German. He was the 
 
 [157] 
 
REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 son of General Von Brandt, distinguished 
 in the war of German Independence against 
 Napoleon. He had served several years in 
 Japan, and understood the Oriental mind 
 thoroughly, and had the means of getting 
 access to the secrets of the Chinese govern- 
 ment. As the legations acted together on 
 matters of common interest, he was of great 
 service to us. His diplomatic career was 
 terminated in a very romantic manner. He 
 chose to marry a very accomplished Ameri- 
 can lady. At that time, it was not per- 
 mitted to German diplomats to marry 
 ladies not of their own nationality. 
 
 Two young men whose names afterwards 
 became widely known were at that time in 
 the German legation. One was Count 
 Tattenbach, a member of a very old Ba- 
 varian family, who won distinction by 
 representing his country in the Morocco 
 troubles and also by being Governor of 
 Alsace-Lorraine. The other was Baron 
 Von Ketteler, whose bravery in attempting 
 to leave Peking in the Boxer troubles caused 
 his murder on the principal street of the 
 city, at the spot now marked by an impos- 
 ing monument erected by the Chinese 
 government. 
 
 Although I had found my diplomatic 
 labours attractive in many respects, and 
 
 [158] 
 
JAMES B. ANGELL 
 
 should perhaps have been disposed to con- 
 tinue in the service if ministers could have 
 counted on a permanent tenure, I decided 
 to return to my academic duties and there- 
 fore asked the President to accept my resig- 
 nation. 
 
 On October 4, we bade adieu to Peking. 
 A considerable number of our diplomatic 
 and missionary friends gathered at our resi- 
 dence to say good-bye, and several rode out 
 a few miles with us on our road to Tungcho. 
 The life at Peking in our time was so remote 
 from the rest of the world that the friend- 
 ships formed there were very close. It was 
 not without deep emotion that we parted 
 from those whose society had been so dear 
 to us. 
 
 On arriving at Tientsin, I called on the 
 Viceroy, Li Hung Chang. He received me 
 most affably, and thanked me very warmly 
 for my part in making the Opium Treaty. 
 I thought the opportunity favourable for 
 telling him some plain truth. I ventured to 
 say that I thought that he could carry Eng- 
 land for the anti-opium doctrine in five 
 years on one condition, namely, that the 
 Chinese officials should in at least five 
 provinces take hold of the work of suppress- 
 ing the growth of the poppy with vigour. 
 I assured him that the English maintain 
 
 [159] 
 
REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 that the Chinese wish to stop the importing 
 of opium merely to raise it themselves and 
 tax it for revenue. I do not think he en- 
 joyed my remarks. He assured me that 
 in five provinces (Chi-li being one) the 
 growth was already controlled. It was not 
 courteous for me to question his statement ; 
 but there was abundant evidence that 
 much was growing in Chi-li at that 
 moment. 
 
 I expressed the regret of my government 
 at the recall of the Chinese students from 
 America, which had just taken place. He 
 appeared also to regret it. 
 
 He courteously expressed the desire that 
 I should return to my post. 
 
 I attended the opening of a hospital 
 under very interesting circumstances. Miss 
 Howard, a medical missionary, who had 
 graduated at the University of Michigan, 
 had been assigned to duty at Tientsin. She 
 was called to render professional services to 
 the wife of the Viceroy, and had been the 
 means of restoring her to health. To show 
 his gratitude the Viceroy made a generous 
 contribution to found a hospital and in- 
 duced his subordinate officials to contribute 
 also. On its completion Miss Howard fixed 
 a day for the opening, when I could be pres- 
 ent and make an address. The Viceroy and 
 
 [160] 
 
JAMES B. ANGEL L 
 
 other high Chinese officials and the foreign 
 Consuls were present. The Viceroy made 
 very kind and complimentary remarks 
 about Miss Howard. In my address I of 
 course made proper recognition of his gen- 
 erous interest in the hospital. It has been 
 of great service to sufferers. I w^as told 
 that one man had brought his father in his 
 arms two hundred miles to be operated on 
 there. 
 
 In this connection I may say that in my 
 residence in China I was much interested 
 in the work of the Christian missionaries, 
 both Roman Catholic and Protestant. 
 
 Some of the Jesuit missionaries who 
 wielded so great an influence at the court 
 of the Emperors in the seventeenth cen- 
 tury, were men of large mould as scholars, 
 divines, and statesmen. It was with great 
 reverence that I stood in the cemetery, just 
 outside the walls of Peking, where Ricci, 
 Schaal, Verbiest, and others lie buried, and 
 thought how near, as it seems to me, they 
 came to making China a Roman Catholic 
 country. For a time they won the favour 
 of Emperors, and led scholars and high 
 officials to adopt their faith. Their achieve- 
 ments, their lives of self-denial, their suffer- 
 ings form a most interesting chapter in the 
 history of missionary effort. 
 
 [ 161 ] 
 
 12 
 
REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 Unhappily the success which seemed com- 
 ing to them was checked by dissensions 
 which sprang up between them and the 
 Dominicans concerning the lawfulness of 
 ancestral worship for Christian converts. 
 The controversy divided for a time the 
 church in Europe and resulted in the con- 
 demnation of the Jesuits' position by two 
 Popes and in a decree by the Chinese Em- 
 peror expelling missionaries from the land. 
 
 All missionaries w^ho have prohibited 
 those usages which we call ancestral wor- 
 ship have found that prohibition one of the 
 gravest obstacles to the acceptance of the 
 Christian faith. These early Jesuits, after 
 a careful study, concluded that the usages 
 were not properly called worship, but were 
 only a manifestation of fihal regard for an- 
 cestors, which was not at all inconsistent 
 with Christian faith. Some of our modern 
 Protestant missionaries hold the same 
 opinion, though most of them do not. And 
 Popes Clement XI and Benedict XIV were 
 led to forbid it by Papal Bulls. The con- 
 flict on the subject raged in the Roman 
 Cathohc Church for three quarters of a 
 century. 
 
 The presence of many American Protes- 
 tant missionaries in China raised questions 
 for my official action from time to time, as 
 
 [162] 
 
JAMES B. ANGELL 
 
 their work was interfered with by lawless 
 men. But for the most part our mission- 
 aries showed much tact and judgment in 
 avoiding difficulties. They called on me 
 for help so much more rarely than some of 
 the British missionaries called on Sir 
 Thomas Wade that he once asked me 
 jocosely if I would not trade missionaries 
 with him. 
 
 Quite apart from any consideration of 
 their religious activity, the influence our 
 missionaries have exerted in preparing the 
 way for the great change now going on in 
 China can hardly be overestimated. A 
 considerable number of the young men just 
 sent to this country for education have 
 received their training in the missionary 
 schools. Each missionary station has fur- 
 nished an illustration of the western learn- 
 ing they are coveting. 
 
 We spent a few days at Shanghai, await- 
 ing the sailing of the French steamer Ira- 
 wadi, for Europe. Dining one evening 
 with Mr. Cameron, the manager of the 
 Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank, he men- 
 tioned two facts worth repeating. He said 
 his Bank had loaned many thousand pounds 
 to Chinese merchants without taking so 
 much as a scrap of paper to show for it, and 
 the Bank never lost a sixpence by them. 
 
 [163] 
 
REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 Again, speaking of the testing of the silver 
 sycee, in which they had to deal largely, he 
 said they had in their service a Chinaman 
 who by his mere sense of touch could de- 
 termine so exactly the quality of the metal, 
 that his finding in respect to it could be as 
 absolutely relied on as analysis. It was 
 apparently a gift inherited in some families. 
 
 I met at Shanghai an American of whom 
 I had often heard, the freight agent of the 
 China Merchants' Steamship Company. I 
 was told that he had marked success in or- 
 ganizing the business, that he was very 
 musical and that he was well versed in 
 European languages. He was a coloured 
 man and came to China with Anson Bur- 
 lingame. 
 
 On our passage to Hong Kong the tail of 
 a typhoon struck us astern and we were 
 obliged to put on full steam to prevent the 
 following waves from overrunning us. 
 Chinese junks going north were lying with 
 large baskets attached to their bows, slowly 
 drifting astern. I asked the captain what 
 was to happen if, in plunging on at such a 
 rate, we came on one of these junks. 
 "Ah!" said he, "nous le couperons comme 
 un fromage." And I fear he cared as little 
 as though the junk had been a cheese. 
 
 The voyage to Europe, thirty-eight days 
 [164] 
 
JAMES B. ANGELL 
 
 from Shanghai to Marseilles, was very en- 
 joyable. We called at Hong Kong, Saigon, 
 Singapore, Point de Galle, Colombo, Aden, 
 Suez, Port Said, and Naples. We had 
 intended to debark at Naples, but were 
 prevented by the fact that at Singapore we 
 received some Dutch passengers from Java, 
 where the cholera was raging. At Mar- 
 seilles we were kept in quarantine twenty- 
 four hours. 
 
 We made a tour through Italy, Germany, 
 and Paris to London, and sailed from Liver- 
 pool on the Cunard steamer *' Catalonia " 
 on January 28, for New York. 
 
 I will mention here one incident on the 
 journey, and our experience on the voyage. 
 
 Travelling by rail from Marseilles to 
 Rome, we reached the little town of Venti- 
 miglia in the early evening in the midst of 
 what seemed to be a cloudburst. The train 
 came to a standstill just before we arrived 
 at the station, and remained there until the 
 water, coming down from the chff, reached 
 the body of the cars. The officials of the 
 road asked us to allow ourselves to be 
 carried to the station on the backs of men. 
 As I saw one fall down with a passenger, I 
 declined and said we would pass the night 
 in the comfortable carriage we were occupy- 
 ing. After a httle the officials returned 
 
 [165] 
 
REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 saying there was danger that the track and 
 the station would be washed away, that the 
 train would be pulled up to the station, and 
 that we must leave the carriage. Accord- 
 ingly we did so. We found the water on the 
 station floor ankle deep. We made our 
 way to a little inn. On entering we saw a 
 horse hitched to the post of the front stair- 
 way. The barn had been undermined by 
 the storm and the horse had been rescued. 
 The innkeeper built a fire at which we dried 
 our clothes and then went to bed. 
 
 The next mornmg I was told that the 
 railway could not be repaired for some days. 
 I decided to hire a coachman to drive me 
 down the beautiful Cornice road to Genoa. 
 Hardly had we started when the Mayor 
 stopped us, saying that a building in front 
 of which we had to pass was beginning to 
 fall, and that the motion of our carriage 
 might tumble it down altogether. I finally 
 persuaded him to let us dismount and send 
 the carriage past the building very gently, 
 while we followed on foot. In this way we 
 escaped from Ventimiglia. 
 
 We drove to San Remo to pass the night. 
 As I was giving the coachman orders to call 
 for us in the morning, I was informed that 
 the railway bridge a few miles further on 
 had been carried away and could not be 
 
 [166] 
 
JAMES B. ANGELL 
 
 repaired for some days. After remaining 
 three days at San Remo, I learned that a 
 temporary footbridge had been erected 
 near Taggia by the side of the wrecked rail- 
 way bridge, and that from Taggia trains 
 were running eastward. So we drove to 
 the footbridge, had our trunks carried over 
 by porters, and finally reached a train. 
 So much for railway travelling under the 
 shadow of the Italian Alps. 
 
 As the Cunard line of steamers had the 
 reputation of being very safe, I took passage 
 for my family and myself in the Cata- 
 lonia, which had made but one voyage. 
 She was very commodious; but it proved 
 that her engines were not powerful enough 
 to hold her head up against heavy gales. 
 Unluckily we encountered three. She was 
 obhged to run before the wind in each case, 
 and so went far out of her course. The sea 
 broke into the dining-hall and flooded it. 
 As we approached Newfoundland the cap- 
 tain found we were getting short of fuel and 
 turned towards St. Johns to procure coal. 
 But we ran into so strong drift ice that this 
 plan had to be abandoned, and we had to 
 take our chance of getting to Halifax. 
 Another terrific gale delayed us. We ran 
 by the entrance to Hahfax harbour and 
 barely escaped getting aground in a small 
 
 [167] 
 
REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 bay. It was reported that we had to burn 
 some of the woodwork of the ship to make 
 the harbour. Some of us resolved to take 
 the train to Boston. But a three days' 
 snow storm had blocked the railway. So 
 we remained on the ship and completed our 
 voyage to New York in nineteen days from 
 Liverpool. The Company sent her back 
 without taking passengers. 
 
 We arrived at Ann Arbor on February 24, 
 1882, and received a most hearty welcome 
 from Faculties and students. 
 
 [168] 
 
VII 
 
 THE CANADIAN FISHERIES COM- 
 MISSION AND THE DEEP WATER- 
 WAYS COMMISSION 
 
 In October, 1887, I was invited by Presi- 
 dent Cleveland to serve on an International 
 Commission to adjust the difficulties which 
 had arisen between us and Canada in re- 
 spect to the fisheries in the waters near the 
 eastern coast of Canada. More or less 
 trouble had been experienced almost ever 
 since the Treaty of Independence. It had 
 often become serious since the negotiation 
 of the Treaty of 1818, by which our privi- 
 leges were greatly curtailed. Laws, which 
 had seriously embarrassed our fishermen, 
 had been enacted by Nova Scotia and New 
 Brunswick, and later by the Dominion 
 Parliament, and they had been adminis- 
 tered with unfriendly severity, and, as we 
 thought, in violation of the Treaty of 1818. 
 The temporary relief furnished by the 
 Treaty of 1854, and a part of the Treaty of 
 1871, was lost by the abrogation by us of 
 the provisions which afforded the relief. 
 The friction between our fishermen and the 
 
 [ 169 ] 
 
REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 Canadian authorities had become a menace 
 to the continuance of friendly relations be- 
 tween us and our neighbour. Congress had 
 gone so far as to authorize the President to 
 execute retaliatory laws of a severe nature. 
 They declined to authorize a commission 
 to negotiate on the subject. There was hot 
 blood on both sides. 
 
 In the early autumn of 1887, correspond- 
 ence with the British government led the 
 President to hope that an international 
 commission might reach a peaceful and sat- 
 isfactory settlement of the controversy by 
 amending the Treaty of 1818 or by making 
 a new treaty. The two governments agreed 
 to submit the problem to such a commis- 
 sion. The British government appointed 
 Joseph Chamberlain, Sir Charles Tupper, 
 the Premier of Canada, and Lord Sackville 
 West, the British Minister at Washington, 
 as Commissioners. President Cleveland 
 appointed Hon. Thomas F. Bayard, the 
 Secretary of State, Hon. William L. Put- 
 nam, who had been for some time the coun- 
 sel of our government in the fishery cases, 
 and myself. I was led to accept, partly 
 by the urgent request of Hon. E. J. Phelps, 
 our Minister to Great Britain, through 
 whose hands the correspondence of our 
 government with Lord Salisbury had passed. 
 
 [170] 
 
JAMES B. ANGELL 
 
 Lord Playfair told me he himself would 
 probably have been appointed on the Com- 
 mission if Iddesleigh had lived. 
 
 Some of my friends among the Republi- 
 can Senators soon made it clear to me that 
 we should take up our work under the 
 heavy handicap caused by the fact that the 
 President paid no regard to their recorded 
 opposition to the appointment of a Com- 
 mission. As usual, however, he followed 
 his ow^n judgment. 
 
 The Commissioners held their meetings 
 at the State Department. Mr. John Bas- 
 sett Moore, then Assistant Secretary of 
 State, was our Secretary, and Mr. Henry 
 Bergne, of the British Foreign Office, was 
 the British Secretary. We held meetings 
 two or three times a week, from November 
 21 to February 15, except for a few days 
 at New Year's, when Mr. Chamberlain and 
 Sir Charles went to Ottawa to confer with 
 the authorities there. I shall not dwell on 
 the details of our prolonged discussions. 
 
 From the very outset we were much em- 
 barrassed by a misunderstanding on the 
 part of the British Commissioners concern- 
 ing the scope of the conference. They 
 claimed that we were met to consider the 
 fisheries only as a part of our commercial 
 relations, including in fact the tariff. If 
 
 [171] 
 
REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 this were not understood to be the case, 
 neither Great Britain nor Canada, they 
 said, would be represented here. Although 
 Mr. Bayard read his correspondence with 
 Lord Salisbury in refutation of this assump- 
 tion, and showed them that Congress alone 
 could change the tariff, more than once, 
 when hard pressed in argument on the 
 details of our work, they returned to this 
 statement, and with much apparent feel- 
 ing. Our constant aim was to hold them 
 to the consideration of the indisputable 
 fact that much of the Canadian legislation 
 concerning our fishermen had been of an 
 unfriendly and unjustifiable stringency, if 
 not in direct violation of the Treaty of 1818, 
 and that some change in their policy was 
 absolutely essential to the continuance of 
 peaceful relations between Canada and us. 
 We finally presented a draft of a treaty 
 which provided for delimitation of the ex- 
 clusion from the common fisheries and for 
 a liberal and just interpretation of the con- 
 ditions, under which, by the Treaty of 1818, 
 the "four purposes" for which fishing 
 vessels were to be admitted to Canadian 
 ports could be made available to us. It 
 secured the free navigation by our vessels 
 of the Strait of Canso, the purchase of sup- 
 plies on the homeward voyage, and the 
 
 [172] 
 
JAMES B. ANGELL 
 
 liberty to unload and sell cargoes of fish 
 from ships in distress. It stipulated that 
 if duties on fish should hereafter be removed 
 by us, the purchase of bait and fishing 
 tackle, the transshipment of cargo and the 
 shipping of crews, should be allowed by the 
 Canadians. After prolonged discussions, 
 in which on several occasions it appeared 
 that we were at a deadlock and that no 
 agreement could be reached, an agreement 
 w^as reached on substantially the above 
 provisions on February 14, 1888, and on 
 February 15 the treaty w^as signed. 
 
 As the fishing season was soon to begin, 
 the British Commissioners offered in behalf 
 of Canada a modus Vivendi for two years, by 
 which on receiving a license an American 
 fishing vessel could have the privileges ac- 
 corded by the treaty, even though ratifica- 
 tion of it had not been secured. This was 
 presented in a separate communication to 
 our government after the treaty was signed. 
 The Treaty was soon ratified both by the 
 Canadian government and by the Queen. 
 But in our Senate it w^as opposed by every 
 Republican and so failed of ratification. 
 
 The modus has continually been renewed 
 by the Canadians: therefore in a sense we 
 have been living under the Treaty. And no 
 better proof of the worth of the Treaty 
 
 [173] 
 
REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 could be asked for than is found in the fact 
 that not for years previous had there been 
 so httle friction on the Canadian coast as 
 there has been since 1888.^ 
 
 The fate of the Treaty in the Senate con- 
 firms the beHef that it is unwise to submit 
 an important treaty for approval to that 
 body when a Presidential election is at hand. 
 A party in power is reluctant to have its 
 opponent get the credit of settling a long and 
 bitter controversy on the eve of an election. 
 
 During the winter I met many interest- 
 ing men, of some of whom I may say a few 
 words. I prize especially the acquaintance 
 and friendship I formed with Mr. Bayard. 
 A man of singular personal charm, I have 
 never known one in public life of higher and 
 nobler sense of pubhc duty. He scorned 
 the mean arts of the mere politician and 
 whatever was unworthy in the spirit and 
 policy of his own party. He was so mag- 
 nanimous to his opponent, that to a certain 
 degree his generosity unfitted him to ne- 
 
 ^ Since while the modus Vivendi, which practically put 
 the treaty stipulations largely in operation, continued in 
 force, we had hardly any difficulties in Canadian waters, 
 perhaps the writer may be pardoned for raising the ques- 
 tion whether if we had ratified the Treaty, subsequent 
 negotiations at least on the issues then under considera- 
 tion, would not have been unnecessary. 
 
 [174] 
 
JAMES B. ANGELL 
 
 gotiate with so keen a man as Chamberlain. 
 He was tempted to concede too much. He 
 was gifted with wit which was never un- 
 generous or bitter, but always most enjoy- 
 able. Perhaps I may be permitted to give 
 an illustration. Lord Sackville West, dur- 
 ing our three month's discussions, never said 
 anything except to move to adjourn. In 
 reply to my inquiry, if in his official relations 
 w ith the Secretary he ever volunteered any 
 remarks, Mr. Bayard said, "No, he simply 
 communicates to me in writing a message 
 from Lord Salisbury, and acknowledges in 
 writing my reply. That is all." And then 
 he added, "I can hardly understand why the 
 British government keeps a minister on a 
 salary of $25,000, and then reduces him to 
 the function of a postage stamp." 
 
 I saw not a little of President Cleveland. 
 I was impressed with the readiness with 
 which he apprehended all the bearings of 
 the discussions which we reported to him, 
 and the promptness and soundness of his 
 conclusions. I remember being in his office 
 once at midnight, when he had a great pile 
 of papers before him. He said he must go 
 through them all before he slept. His 
 capacity for work was prodigious. 
 
 In company with Mr. Putnam, I saw 
 much of the Judges of the Supreme Court, 
 
 [175] 
 
REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 with all of whom he had an intimate ac- 
 quaintance. Two good stories I heard at 
 dinner at Judge Gray's are w^orth recording. 
 One Judge Gray told of the English Judge 
 Jessel. He had a very loquacious barrister 
 before him one day. When the latter was 
 pouring out a flood of words, the Judge asked, 
 "Have you been before any other court with 
 this argument?" "Yes," he replied, "but 
 the Judge stopped me." " He did," said the 
 Judge, "how did he do it?" 
 
 William Allen Butler, who was at the 
 table, told of a judge who complained of 
 insomnia. He said he had been unable of 
 late to sleep on the bench. 
 
 Mr. Chamberlain displayed his well- 
 known acuteness in discussion, but in re- 
 peatedly affirming that Mr. Bayard had 
 given ground to suppose that we were to 
 consider general commercial relations, in 
 spite of Mr. Bayard's assertions and proofs 
 to the contrary, he pushed his remarks to 
 the verge of discourtesy. 
 
 Sir Charles Tupper, with bluntness de- 
 fending the unjustifiable Canadian pro- 
 cedures, often found himself w^ithout any 
 apparent disturbance by his inconsisten- 
 cies in advocating measures one day which 
 he opposed on the next day. In his fervour 
 of debate he could not conceal the fact, 
 
 [176] 
 
JAMES B. ANGELL 
 
 though he often denied it, that his great 
 aim was to compel us to remove the duty 
 on fish so that his countrymen might have 
 access to our markets. 
 
 The British Commissioners, after the 
 completion of the Treaty, wished us to take 
 up with them the Alaska boundary and the 
 Behring Sea questions. We w^ere not pre- 
 pared to do so, and therefore declined. 
 
 On the initiative of Senator William F. 
 Vilas of Wisconsin, on March 2, 1895, an 
 Act was passed by Congress authorizing the 
 President to appoint three Commissioners 
 to confer with Commissioners to be ap- 
 pointed by Canada or Great Britain con- 
 cerning the feasibility of the construction 
 of canals which would enable vessels en- 
 gaged in ocean commerce to pass from the 
 Great Lakes to the Atlantic Ocean. 
 
 On November 4, President Cleveland an- 
 nounced the appointment as Commission- 
 ers of myself, as chairman, Hon. John E. 
 Russell, of Leicester, Massachusetts, a for- 
 mer member of Congress and Lyman E. 
 Cooley, C.E., of Chicago, Illinois, an engi- 
 neer of high repute. The Dominion of 
 Canada appointed as its Commissioners, 
 Oliver A. Howland, M.P.P., of Toronto, 
 Thomas C. Keefer, C.E., of Ottawa, and 
 
 [177] 
 
REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 Thomas Monro, C.E., of Coteau Landing. 
 The last two were engineers who had long 
 been in the service of the Dominion gov- 
 ernment. 
 
 On January 15, 1896, the American Com- 
 missioners took the occasion of the annual 
 meeting of the Lake Carriers' Association 
 to hold its first meeting in Detroit. We 
 took a large amount of testimony from 
 shipowners, masters, and merchants, who 
 were much interested in our work. 
 
 On January 18, we held a joint meet- 
 ing in Detroit with the Canadian Com- 
 missioners and marked out as far as was 
 possible the plan which w^e proposed to 
 pursue. We afterwards held another joint 
 meeting at Niagara Falls, Ontario. The 
 Canadian Commissioners co-operated with 
 us most heartily there and afterwards, and 
 furnished us from the public offices at 
 Ottawa a large amount of valuable ma- 
 terial, and made some special surveys to 
 assist us. 
 
 As the problems to be studied were largely 
 problems of engineering, Mr. Cooley was 
 authorized to establish an office in Chicago 
 and secure competent assistants to gather 
 from all available sources the data required 
 and prepare maps and plans. As only 
 $10,000 were appropriated for the expenses 
 
 [178] 
 
JAMES B. ANGELL 
 
 of the Commission, we could not make 
 special surveys, but merely collate and study 
 the information which could be gathered 
 from various sources, and draw^ our con- 
 clusions. This work of course fell mainly on 
 Mr. Cooley, who proved most competent. 
 
 The investigation proved to the Com- 
 missioners of deep interest and, in their 
 opinion, of great importance. It convinced 
 us of the practicability of establishing deep- 
 water communication between the Great 
 Lakes and the Atlantic, and of the immense 
 value to our nation and to the world of 
 accomplishing the task. Whoever reads 
 the interesting report prepared for us by 
 Mr. Russell and examines the facts set 
 forth by Mr. Cooley in his Exhibits, ap- 
 pended to the Report, will, I think, be also 
 convinced. 
 
 President Cleveland transmitted the 
 Report to Congress with warm commenda- 
 tions and recommended further appropria- 
 tions for the continuance of the work. 
 The Report with accompanying documents 
 was published by the Government in 1897. 
 But as no appropriations were made, the 
 Commissioners proceeded no further. Per- 
 haps the task may be taken up after the 
 Panama Canal is finished. If so, the work 
 of our Commission may prove of service. 
 
 [ 179 ] 
 
VIII 
 SUMMER TRIPS TO EUROPE 
 
 On two occasions I have spent the sum- 
 mer vacation in Europe, chiefly in England. 
 In 1886, my wife and I went abroad, with 
 the purpose of dividing the summer be- 
 tween London and the cathedral towns. 
 In 1891, Mr. Hazard and I went to Lon- 
 don as delegates to the first Pan-Congre- 
 gational Council, and afterwards went to 
 the Baths at Wildungen in Waldeck, and 
 to the Wagner Festival at Bayreuth. 
 
 What I am about to write is rather in 
 confirmation of what Henry James said to 
 me in London in reply to my inquiry how 
 he found so great a charm in the life of 
 that city. His answer was that the charm 
 lies in the fact that there one sees so much 
 life. *' In Paris," he remarked, " one finds 
 clever men within their limits. Here one 
 sees more of many men and of very marked 
 character." 
 
 Though in both visits I was in London 
 only six weeks, and in midsummer, and in 
 no official capacity, I met or heard dis- 
 courses from a good number of interesting 
 
 [180] 
 
JAMES B. ANGELL 
 
 men. This was in part due to the fact that 
 the American Minister, Edward J. Phelps, 
 and his wife were intimate friends of my 
 wife and myself and were in London in 1886. 
 At their hospitable table we met Robert 
 Browning. He was a short, rather stout 
 man with a cheery face, and was very 
 simple and cordial in manner. However 
 obscure is some of his writing, he was lucid 
 and animated in conversation. He said 
 his living in Italy was due to the delicate 
 health of his wife. He spoke at some 
 length of the stammering public speech of 
 Englishmen, w^hich he thought was due to 
 an excessive consciousness and pride. He 
 said when he was a boy, speeches were com- 
 mon at ordinary dinner parties. He him- 
 self had a great aversion to making a speech. 
 He gave an interesting anecdote of the 
 effect once of inability to make a speech. 
 A motion was pending in the House of 
 Lords to alter the old law, which for- 
 bade a person charged with murder to have 
 counsel, and so compelled him to defend 
 himself. A venerable peer attempted to 
 advocate allowing such a man to have coun- 
 sel. He found himself at a loss for words. 
 He could not go on. "You see, my Lords," 
 he said, "my condition. Although I know 
 you are all indulgent to me, you observe I 
 
 [181] 
 
REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 am embarrassed to express myself. Sup- 
 pose now I were on trial for murder. Any 
 innocent man accused of that crime might 
 be in my plight." The situation was so 
 impressive that his view prevailed. 
 
 In answer to our urgent request that he 
 come to our country and meet his many 
 admirers, he gave no encouragement, though 
 he expressed a most grateful appreciation 
 of the favour shown to his works in the 
 United States. 
 
 One of the most interesting men I met at 
 the Pan-Congregational Council was Rev. 
 John Brown, D.D., Pastor of the Church of 
 Bedford, in which Bunyan preached, and 
 author of an excellent biography of Bunyan. 
 With him we visited Bunyan's cottage at 
 Elstow. He informed me that Bunyan's 
 family had lived in that village for cen- 
 turies. He said he knew descendants of 
 Bunyan more than fifty years old, who had 
 never read "Pilgrim's Progress." 
 
 Dr. Brown told some stories of the wit 
 of Dr. Magee, the Archbishop of York. 
 Among them were these two. A man, with 
 whom he was discussing, said, "I am not so 
 stupid as I may look." To which the Arch- 
 bishop replied, "For that give God thanks." 
 When he went to York to be consecrated as 
 Archbishop, some woman passing by him, 
 
 [182] 
 
JAMES B. ANGELL 
 
 exclaimed, **What an ugly mouth!" He. 
 overhearing it, said to her, "You are right, 
 madam, but it has made my fortune." 
 
 Dr. Brown and other preachers spoke 
 freely of the social disadvantages under 
 which young men and young women in 
 dissenters' famihes found themselves. He 
 informed me that one Anglican clergyman 
 in his neighbourhood had recently in a 
 sermon or public address declared that 
 persons married by any but an Anglican 
 clergyman were living in adultery. When 
 Dr. Brown called the attention of the 
 clergyman's bishop to this the clergyman 
 was reprimanded. 
 
 At a tea given by the Bible Society at 
 their house, I saw what was said to be the 
 largest collection of Bibles in the world, 
 and was told the following story of the 
 origin of that renowned society: 
 
 A Welsh girl, named Mary Jones, walked 
 many miles to beg a Bible of a minister. 
 He had none to spare for her. She went 
 home weeping, but on his promise to get 
 one for her, she walked again twenty-five 
 miles to procure it. The minister came to 
 London, told the story, and persuaded men 
 to found the society. 
 
 I went one morning at 8 o'clock to break- 
 fast with the directors of the Tract So- 
 
 [183] 
 
REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 ciety at their rooms in Paternoster Row. 
 These directors, busy men, fifteen in num- 
 ber, meet every Tuesday morning at that 
 early hour for breakfast and the transac- 
 tion of the business of the society. They 
 were criticizing tracts which they had all 
 carefully read. Here, as at the meeting of 
 the directors of the Bible Society, I was 
 deeply impressed by the fidelity of these 
 officers of the societies in the discharge of 
 their duties. 
 
 Calling at the Foreign Office on Mr. 
 Henry (afterw^ards Sir Henry) Bergne who 
 was the English Secretary to the Fisheries 
 Commission on which I served in 1887-8, 
 I w^as introduced to Sir Edw^ard Herstlet, 
 and was shown by him into the rooms where 
 the Treaties are preserved. I seemed to 
 have a large part of the history of modern 
 Europe in my hands as I held an Official 
 copy of the great Treaty of Vienna of 1815 
 and one of the Treaty of Paris of 1856. 
 
 As an illustration of the remark of Henry 
 James about the life in London, I may say 
 that attending one afternoon a garden 
 party given by Lord and Lady Jersey, I 
 met and was presented to, among others, 
 Mr. and Mrs. Lecky, Lord Sherbrooke, Sir 
 Richard Webster, then Attorney General, 
 now Lord Chief Justice, Prof. Ray Lankester, 
 
 [184] 
 
JAMES B. ANGELL 
 
 and Mr. Knowles, editor of the Nineteenth 
 Century Magazine, On the return in the 
 train, an EngHsh gentleman, speaking of 
 the peerage just granted to Bass, the 
 brewer, repeated Labouchere's quotation 
 concerning the elevation of Allsop, '' Surgit 
 quidquid amarumJ' 
 
 Mr. Ouless, the painter, told a good story 
 in my hearing. Poole, the fashionable 
 tailor, having lent money to some of the 
 nobility, was sometimes invited by them 
 into company. Once, when he had been to 
 
 Lord 's, he was asked what he thought 
 
 of the gathering. He replied that it was 
 well enough, but the company was a little 
 mixed. "How," some one said. "What 
 could you ask.^ You could not expect they 
 would all be tailors." 
 
 Perhaps the most striking illustration of 
 freedom of speech in England is witnessed 
 in Hyde Park on Sunday afternoon, when 
 the advocates of every opinion are allowed 
 such unrestrained liberty of utterance in 
 the hearing of any persons they can induce 
 to listen. At various stands on one occa- 
 sion I heard the following speakers. No. 1 : 
 A Spirituahst; No. 2: An atheist; No. 3: 
 Anti-government, anti-rent, anti-everything 
 existing, a French revolutionist in manner 
 and in appearance; No. 4: A lay preacher 
 
 [185] 
 
REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 of the gospel. No. 5: A reformed drunk- 
 ard; No. 6: An anti-vivisectionist; No. 7: 
 A rabid and radical socialist. The spirit- 
 ualist and the lay preacher had the largest 
 audiences. But the authorities interfered 
 with none of them. There was no disorder. 
 
 In 1891, Mr. Hazard and I made a visit 
 to the Continent after the close of the 
 Council in London. We spent some days 
 in Brussels, where Mr. Hazard had import- 
 ant business relations. I asked prominent 
 men there why Belgium, a neutralized coun- 
 try, charged itself with the expense of an 
 army of a hundred thousand men. Their 
 answer was that the Great Powers virtually 
 require it to prevent any state from taking 
 advantage of a defenceless condition, and 
 furthermore, the officers drawn from the 
 higher classes have influence enough in the 
 government to maintain an effective force. 
 
 We spent some time at Wildungen in 
 Waldeck, where are excellent springs with 
 medicinal qualities like the waters at Carls- 
 bad. The waters, however, are cold and 
 most palatable. Some five thousand vis- 
 itors, mostly German, were there, among 
 them being our friend Carl Schurz. These 
 springs apparently are not widely known in 
 this country, though they deserve to be. 
 From this little state came Bunsen, the his- 
 
 [186] 
 
JAMES B. ANGELL 
 
 torian, Kaulbach, the painter, and Ranch 
 and Drake, the scnlptors. I took long walks 
 into the surrounding country, which is in- 
 habited by well-to-do peasants. They have 
 comfortable houses, but the manure heap, 
 apparently the accumulation of months, is 
 often in the front yard. Sometimes the 
 residence is in the second story, the barn 
 occupying the first story. 
 
 We went to Bayreuth to attend the Wag- 
 ner Festival. Knowing that Jean Paul 
 lived in that town for years and died there, 
 I sought to find his house. The cabman had 
 no knowledge where it was. Entering the 
 principal bookshop, I asked a young woman 
 who was in charge, where the house was. 
 She was unable to tell me. Soon strolhng 
 down the street, not fifty rods from the 
 bookshop, I came on the house, a fine three- 
 story dwelling with an inscription on it, 
 giving me the information I desired. Verily, 
 I thought, the prophet was without honour 
 in his own country. We found his statue 
 and the grave of Liszt without inquiry. 
 
 [187] 
 
IX 
 
 THE MISSION TO THE OTTOMAN 
 
 EMPIRE 
 
 In the spring of 1897, 1 was asked by Rev. 
 Dr. Storrs, President of the American 
 Board of Commissioners of Foreign Mis- 
 sions, if I would accept the position of 
 Minister to Japan or Turkey, if desired by 
 the President. Mr. WiUiam E. Dodge, of 
 New York, speaking for the Presbyterians, 
 asked the same question with respect to 
 Turkey. They both had in mind the in- 
 terests of Christian missions. I gave both 
 to understand that if the offer of such a 
 position came unsought by me, I w^ould give 
 it consideration. 
 
 In April, Senator McMillan, at the re- 
 quest of President McKinley, inquired by 
 telegraph whether I would accept the po- 
 sition in Turkey. After some correspond- 
 ence, I finally wrote that I would accept, 
 provided I could return at the end of a 
 year or remain longer if I chose. While, 
 with my wife and daughter, I was on a 
 visit to New Orleans, my name was sent 
 to the Senate and promptly confirmed. On 
 
 [188] 
 
JAMES B. ANGELL 
 
 my return home the Regents gave me leave 
 of absence for a year from October. The 
 Legislature of Michigan passed a vote of 
 thanks to the President for the appoint- 
 ment. 
 
 On May 6, I visited Washington and had 
 interviews with the President, Secretary of 
 State John Sherman, and other officers of 
 the State Department, all of whom received 
 me very cordially. But two despatches 
 were received from Mr. Terrell, our minis- 
 ter at Constantinople, which led me to ask 
 the President to excuse me from serving. 
 The first said the report had come to him 
 that while in the South I had charged 
 Russia with fomenting disturbances in Tur- 
 key, and that on this account my relations 
 with the Russian Ambassador would be 
 strained. The second stated that the Sul- 
 tan objected to me because I, like most of 
 the American missionaries, belonged to the 
 denomination of Congregationalists. I did 
 not desire to go with these difficulties as a 
 handicap. But Secretary Sherman tele- 
 graphed my denial of the truth of the first 
 despatch. It being soon ascertained that 
 the Sultan had made the mistake of con- 
 founding the denomination of Congrega- 
 tionalists with such an organization as the 
 Congregation of the Jesuits, with which he 
 
 [ 189 ] 
 
REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 had controversies, our Secretary in charge 
 of the Legation telegraphed that the objec- 
 tion to me was withdrawn. 
 
 I may as well say here that no one of the 
 European Ambassadors was more cordial 
 to me on my arrival than Mr. Nelidoff, the 
 veteran Russian Ambassador and that the 
 other ambassadors in answer to my in- 
 quiries, assured me that they never heard 
 the least criticism of me from Mr. Nehdoff, 
 or from any Embassy or Legation. 
 
 Furthermore, I may say, that the Sultan 
 was always most affable to me in my inter- 
 views with him, even when I had to discuss 
 some missionary questions. In fact, I 
 never saw any traces of the difficulties 
 which Mr. Terrell reported. 
 
 The President and the Secretary declined 
 to listen to my requests to be excused from 
 service. I decided to go to my post, and 
 made my arrangements to sail on July 17, 
 for Havre. My wife and I left home on 
 July 14. We reached Paris at an early 
 hour on July 26. While we were there, 
 floods in Austria destroyed the railways, by 
 which we had planned to go to Constanti- 
 nople. So we were compelled to go to 
 Marseilles and take the steamer. 
 
 On the way south we visited Avignon, 
 Nimes and Aries. After a comfortable voy- 
 
 [190] 
 
JAMES B. ANGELL 
 
 age on the Messageries steamship '' Senegal," 
 we reached Constantinople late in the after- 
 noon of the 18th. Mr. Riddle, the Secre- 
 tary, Mr. Short, the Consul, and a Turkish 
 official, representing the Grand Vizier, were 
 at the wharf to greet us. In the Legation 
 launch we proceeded at once to Therapia 
 and took lodgings for the summer at the 
 Palace Summer Hotel. The next morning a 
 messenger from the Sultan called to greet me. 
 
 As soon as convenient I made my calls 
 on the Ambassadors and Ministers. Baron 
 Calice, the Austrian, was the Dean, a most 
 courteous and amiable man with an Eng- 
 lish wife. His long service at that post 
 made his knowledge of affairs valuable to 
 us all. Nelidoff, the Russian, soon trans- 
 ferred to Rome, had been considered the 
 most influential representative. He was 
 succeeded by Zinovieff , a shrewd man, whose 
 whole career had been made in Asiatic 
 service. He informed me that Russia 
 trained its men in diplomatic service, 
 especially for Asiatic or for European posts. 
 He had been much in Persia and under- 
 stood the operations of the Oriental mind. 
 Russia treats Turkey as belonging to the 
 Asiatic department. 
 
 Sir Phihp Currie, the British Ambassa- 
 dor, had been taken, as Pauncefote was, 
 
 [191] 
 
REMINISCENCES OP 
 
 directly from the Foreign Office for dip- 
 lomatic service. He was a man of the 
 finest presence; but he could not get on 
 with the Sultan. His English love of jus- 
 tice and honesty made him impatient with 
 the artful devices and the wickedness of the 
 Turkish officials. He was obliged to see 
 Great Britain losing its influence and could 
 not conceal his indignation at the policies 
 of the Turkish government. But it was 
 refreshing to hear his noble Enghsh spirit 
 express itself. 
 
 Lady Currie, known in her own country 
 as an author of fiction, was a woman of 
 great brightness of mind and of singular 
 charm of manner. 
 
 Monsieur Cambon, the French Ambassa- 
 dor, was a most attractive personality. 
 He had been at his post in the time of the 
 massacres and exerted himself to the ut- 
 most to induce his government to interpose 
 by force to put an end to the cruel violence. 
 He thought the Great Powers missed a rare 
 opportunity at that crisis. He had the 
 finest powers of a French conversationalist. 
 I always counted it a happy hour when I 
 could meet him. He is most worthily 
 representing his country in London. He 
 is an elder brother of the ambassador who 
 won such favour with us at Washington 
 
 [192] 
 
JAMES B. ANGELL 
 
 during the Spanish War, in the dehcate 
 position of being the medium of communi- 
 cation between us and Spain, and who now 
 holds the difficult position of French Am- 
 bassador at Berlin. 
 
 The German Ambassador on my arrival 
 was Baron Saurmar-Jeltsch, who had been 
 Minister at Washington, a large, bluff, 
 blue-eyed hunter, who liked kilHng wild 
 boars better than formal dinners. But he 
 was soon succeeded by that able and dis- 
 tinguished statesman, Marschall von Biber- 
 stein, a man of high intelligence and great 
 force of character. The German Emperor, 
 who has sought and not without success to 
 secure the influence in Turkey once wielded 
 by Great Britain, sent this strong and vigi- 
 lant man to carry out his pohcy. He soon 
 made his power felt, and until the depo- 
 sition of the Sultan, Abdul Hamid, was 
 undoubtedly the leading ambassador at 
 Constantinople. 
 
 Signor Pansa, the Itahan Ambassador, 
 was a very agreeable gentleman, but Italy 
 apparently did not find her voice considered 
 of as much weight as that of the other 
 Great Powers. 
 
 My relation with the Spanish Minister, 
 Urrutia, was very friendly. He was trans- 
 ferred after a few months and succeeded by 
 
 [193] 
 
 14 
 
REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 a Marquis, who had been at St. Petersburg. 
 In that capital, as is well known, social 
 functions begin at a very late hour, some- 
 times at midnight. He was asked after he 
 had been in Constantinople some weeks, 
 how he found life there. "Oh," said he, 
 "in many respects very well. But I must 
 say it is the dullest place I have been in, 
 after 2 o'clock in the morning." He was 
 a most affable gentleman, and although the 
 outbreak of the Spanish War compelled 
 him and me to break off formal social 
 relations, we never sacrificed our friendly 
 feelings. 
 
 At the time of my arrival the ambassa- 
 dors of the six Great Powers were in ses- 
 sion with an Ottoman representative for 
 the purpose of adjusting the relations of 
 Turkey with Greece and the Balkan States. 
 The Congress did not accomplish very im- 
 portant results. The diplomatic wits said 
 it served to show " rimpuissance des Grandes 
 Puissances.''^ But in part at least owing 
 to their influence a satisfactory Treaty of 
 Peace between Turkey and Greece was 
 negotiated. 
 
 It is well known that German officers, 
 loaned to the Sultan by the German Em- 
 peror, really planned the campaign against 
 Greece nominally conducted by Edhem 
 
 [194] 
 
JAMES B. ANGELL 
 
 Pasha. One of the German officers who 
 was wounded in the war told me that the 
 Turkish victories might easily have been 
 made more decisive if the German advisers 
 could have persuaded the Turkish com- 
 mander to get up and have any fighting 
 before noon. 
 
 On September 3, I was received by the 
 Sultan. The whole staff of the Legation 
 and the Consulate, w^ere present. Court 
 carriages came for us. The Assistant In- 
 troducer, Ghabit Bey, who had called on 
 me in the name of the Sultan, on my arrival, 
 occupied the carriage with me and my 
 dragoman. The soldiers at all the guard 
 houses saluted as we passed. Arriving at 
 the Imperial Palace, the Yildiz Kiosk, 
 Munir Pasha, the Chamberlain, met us. 
 Officers in brilliant uniform were gathered 
 in the large reception room. The Secre- 
 tary of Foreign Affairs, Tewfik Pasha, then 
 escorted me to a smaller room, where the 
 Sultan was standing by the side of a small 
 table. He wore his semi-military blue 
 frock coat with no binding and wore many 
 jewels and decorations. I read my speech 
 in Enghsh, of which one copy in English 
 and one in French had alreadv been sent. 
 The Turkish Secretary then read a Turk- 
 ish version. The Sultan replied in a low^ 
 
 [195] 
 
REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 but pleasant voice, substantially recipro- 
 cating the wishes and sentiments I had 
 expressed. The Secretary also in a gentle 
 tone rendered the Sultan's speech in French. 
 The bearing of the Sultan was affable and 
 cordial. 
 
 I then w^ithdrew to the salon, where ciga- 
 rettes and light refreshments were served. 
 The great hero of the Russo-Turkish War, 
 Osman Pasha, and other notable persons 
 were present. After a little we returned to 
 the Legation and served refreshments to 
 the guests. 
 
 On the next day I made my calls on the 
 Ministers of the Porte. I will say a few 
 words of those with whom I had subse- 
 quently to do business. 
 
 The Grand Vizier, Khalil Rifaat Pasha, 
 was an old man whose mind seemed to 
 act very slowly, but who in all my dealings 
 with him was just and fair and obliging. 
 
 The Secretary of Foreign Affairs, Tewfik 
 Pasha, was a most affable and attractive 
 man. I sometimes thought he was too 
 ready to agree with me and to say yes to 
 my requests, especially when it proved he 
 had not the power to make good his prom- 
 ises. He had been Ambassador at Berhn, 
 and there married a German lady. I often 
 wondered whether in accepting his hand 
 
 [196] 
 
JAMES B. ANGELL 
 
 she supposed she was to be admitted to 
 diplomatic society in Constantinople. As 
 a matter of fact she was obliged, like all 
 Turkish wives, to live in seclusion. 
 
 Zahdi Pasha, the Minister of Public In- 
 struction, w^as an amiable elderly man with 
 whom I had much pleasant conversation 
 on education. He regretted the failure of 
 many officials to appreciate the value of 
 general education. He complained that 
 this greatly hindered his work, in which he 
 seemed deeply interested. I may relate 
 an incident which illustrates the devout- 
 ness of the pious Turks, which they are not 
 ashamed to have us know. On calling at 
 his office one day at 3 o'clock, I saw him 
 kneeling and praying. I proposed to the 
 porter that I should withdraw until he was 
 free to see me. *'0h no," said he, "come 
 in and take a seat." I did so. The Min- 
 ister on his prayer rug continued some ten 
 minutes at his devotions, then arose, and 
 without any ceremony greeted me and gave 
 attention to my business. One could hardly 
 have such an experience wuth a cabinet 
 officer in a Christian land. 
 
 He rendered me a valuable service in 
 instituting a search for an ancient manu- 
 script, alleged by the author of a book, 
 written in Missouri, to be in the library of 
 
 [197] 
 
REMINISCENCES OP 
 
 Santa Sophia. This book is entitled the 
 "Archko Volume." It professes to give 
 the contents of manuscripts called the 
 Acta Pilati, found in the Vatican, and con- 
 firmed in the library of Santa Sophia, giving 
 many details concerning the early life and 
 the trial and execution of Jesus. It was 
 published in Philadelphia by the Anti- 
 quarian Book Company in 1896. It bears 
 on the face of it the appearance of a fraud. 
 A gentleman sent me the book with the 
 request that I ascertain whether there is 
 in the library of Santa Sophia such a manu- 
 script or book as is referred to by the author 
 as the authority for the narrations he gives. 
 The Minister informed me that the library 
 in question was under his special care and he 
 would order a most thorough search. A few 
 weeks later he informed me that the search 
 had been made and that there was no trace 
 of any such work in the library. His report 
 did not surprise me. 
 
 Said Pasha, President of the Council, had 
 been formerly Secretary of Foreign Affairs 
 and Ambassador to Berlin, and had been in 
 public service all his life. He was a fine 
 story teller and had a good sense of humour. 
 He spoke with much interest of John A. 
 Kasson, who represented us at Berlin. 
 Among his stories was one of his handling 
 
 [198] 
 
JAMES B. ANGELL 
 
 of a missionary case when he was Governor 
 at Salonica. An American woman teach- 
 ing a missionary school had been annoyed 
 by a young Turkish hoodkim throwing 
 stones at her school house and made com- 
 plaint to the Governor. He summoned the 
 lad and was satisfied of his guilt. He then 
 sent for the young woman, told her that 
 he desired to frighten the fellow by threat- 
 ening him in her presence with very severe 
 punishment, and suggested that if she would 
 then interpose and ask for his release the 
 effect on the public would be most salutary, 
 and insure her and her colleagues against 
 further annoyance. She had the good 
 sense to agree to this treatm.ent of the case. 
 His programme was carried out and there 
 was no further interference with missionary 
 work while he w^as in Salonica. 
 
 Of all the ministers, he and Tewfik Pasha 
 alone spoke French. Munir Pasha, the 
 Sultan's interpreter, spoke French. It was 
 generally believed that the Sultan, who 
 when a lad was some time in Paris, could 
 understand it fairly. But he insisted in 
 using Turkish altogether in his interviews 
 w^ith the diplomats. 
 
 The Porte under Abdul Hamid had lost 
 the power which it had under his predeces- 
 sors. He insisted on reviewing the whole 
 
 [199] 
 
REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 of their work before action was taken on 
 any affair of the least consequence. There- 
 fore after working for weeks to carry a 
 measure through the Cabinet, the foreign 
 representative found his work only just 
 begun. And even with the best purpose on 
 the part of the Sultan to expedite business, 
 it was simply impossible for him to accom- 
 plish it. And if he did wish to delay it, he 
 had a ready excuse. The diplomatic body 
 with one accord were greatly dissatisfied 
 with the course which had to be taken, 
 even with urgent business. Moreover there 
 had grown up a sharp rivalry, one might 
 almost say hostility, between the Porte and 
 the Secretaries and other officials at the 
 Palace. It was currently reported and 
 widely beheved that the Secretaries at the 
 Palace had to be bribed if important 
 measures were to be attended to with any 
 promptness. 
 
 One day, after the completion of a little 
 transaction which had dragged along for 
 weeks, I said with some impatience to 
 Tewfik Pasha, "Why do you have such ways 
 of doing business? I have heard that you 
 are cousins to the Chinese. And you do 
 have this same habit of provoking delay in 
 finishing a task which in America we should 
 do in fifteen minutes. Why is it?" With 
 
 [200] 
 
JAMES B. ANGELL 
 
 his amiable smile, which partially disarmed 
 me, he replied, "Well, I can only say that 
 is our way." And that was the only ex- 
 planation. 
 
 Of course I had several interviews with 
 the Sultan on business. Although subse- 
 quently our Legation w^as raised to an 
 Embassy on the alleged ground that the 
 Minister had not the same facility of access 
 to the Sultan which the Ambassadors en- 
 joyed, I had no occasion to make that com- 
 plaint. I found no difficulty in securing an 
 audience when it was necessary. The bear- 
 ing of the Sultan was always affable. He 
 heard with attention what I had to say and 
 replied politely. On one occasion, during 
 an audience, a messenger entered in great 
 excitement with what appeared to be an 
 important message. I offered to withdraw. 
 The Sultan detained me. He gave some 
 orders to the messenger. He then informed 
 me that the message was that his sister's 
 palace on the Bosphorus was on fire and 
 that he had given orders to have the fire- 
 men hasten to the palace and to have his 
 sister and her children brought to his pal- 
 ace. Then he proceeded to preach a brief 
 but excellent sermon to the effect that when 
 misfortune comes we must do our best to 
 avert it, but having done that in resigna- 
 
 [201] 
 
REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 tion and faith, must leave all to God. I 
 ventured to reply that his doctrine would 
 be deemed good in all lands. 
 
 He remarked playfully to me one day 
 that I was the only American Minister who 
 ever came to his court who spoke French. 
 In this I think he must have been in error. 
 
 When he learned that I was going to 
 Jerusalem and Damascus, without any re- 
 quest on my part he sent orders to his 
 officials in the Holy Land to greet me and 
 aid me in my journey. They did this to 
 an extent which was sometimes almost em- 
 barrassing. I mention his courtesies, be- 
 cause I cannot but criticize and condemn 
 many features of his government. 
 
 Though he was averse to allowing capital 
 punishment, it was believed that his morbid 
 fear of assassination and his dread of revo- 
 lution led him to severe punishment of 
 mere boys and to the exile to remote prov- 
 inces of some of the best men in the empire. 
 Two cases of the unjust punishment of boys 
 came to my personal knowledge. A lad 
 who had been a student in Robert College 
 found his funds exhausted so that he could 
 not complete his education there. Having 
 heard that the Sultan sometimes gave 
 scholarships in a Turkish school, one Friday 
 he pushed through the military lines which 
 
 [ 202 ] 
 
JAMES B. ANGELL 
 
 guard the Sultan on his way to the mosque, 
 and threw into the carriage a petition for the 
 scholarship. It is a tradition of great an- 
 tiquity in Oriental lands that any subject 
 may petition the sovereign. When the lad 
 came home, one of his comrades asked him 
 how he succeeded in approaching the Sul- 
 tan's carriage. The lad rephed with fatal in- 
 discretion, " Why, it was easy enough. I was 
 so near him I could have shot him." This 
 unhappy remark being repeated, he was 
 arrested, charged with threatening the life 
 of the Sultan, convicted and sentenced to 
 fifteen years' imprisonment. All efforts of 
 influential friends to secure a modification 
 of the sentence were in vain. 
 
 The other case occurred in the Turkish 
 Medical School in Constantinople. Some 
 men of revolutionary spirit gained access to 
 the school and scattered incendiary cir- 
 culars about the building. One of these 
 papers was found in the room of a young 
 student from Smyrna, though he afiirmed 
 through no agency of his. He was ban- 
 ished, but his poor mother could not learn 
 where. In her despair she made, through 
 a lawyer whom I knew, a request of me that 
 I would forward through the Sultan's Sec- 
 retary a petition to His Majesty, that she 
 might be informed where he had been sent, 
 
 [203] 
 
REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 and that she might be allowed to go to the 
 same place and see him occasionally. Find- 
 ing that under the usages at the Palace I 
 could without impropriety oblige her, I did 
 forward the petition, which was one of the 
 most pathetic papers I ever read. But I 
 never heard of any results. 
 
 Many absurd law^s and regulations in 
 force in the capital at the time of my resi- 
 dence were believed to be due to the Sul- 
 tan's fear. For instance, though the city 
 had nearly a million inhabitants there was 
 no local mail. One had to send letters by 
 special messengers to persons in the city. 
 It was said that though there had formerly 
 been mail facilities, the Sultan suppressed 
 them because he received so many threaten- 
 ing postal cards and because conspirators 
 could by mail easily mature dangerous 
 schemes. 
 
 I had two singular controversies with the 
 customs officers to handle. An Englishman, 
 after visiting the hospital connected with 
 one of our American mission stations, gen- 
 erously sent out from London a thousand 
 dollars' worth of medicines as a present for 
 the physician to use in his merciful work. 
 In the invoice was a small quantity of car- 
 bolic acid, a remedy used in the treatment 
 of sore throats. It happens that it can 
 
 [204] 
 
JAMES B. ANGELL 
 
 also be used in the preparation of the explo- 
 sive gun cotton. On that account the whole 
 shipment was stopped and threatened with 
 confiscation. I laboured for some time 
 with the officers, explaining to w^hat an inno- 
 cent and even beneficial use the dangerous 
 article was to be put and urging them at 
 least to seize that and sink it in the Bospho- 
 rus and let the rest of the medicines go on 
 to their destination. Suddenly, as I thought 
 I w^as on the point of success, the customs 
 official, with whom I had been labouring, 
 was succeeded by another. He took up 
 the matter de novo. As though nothing 
 had been said he sent me a note, informing 
 me of the arrival of this shipment of medi- 
 cines, saying the duty paid on it was so 
 much, but that the fine on the acid was so 
 much more, and he would thank me for a 
 cheque for this excess and that the whole 
 shipment had been confiscated. So I had 
 to start all over again, and take as many 
 more weeks to secure the release. 
 
 One comical case occurred. Robert Col- 
 lege had appointed a young graduate of 
 an American college to teach the Oriental 
 boys not only some branch of book learning 
 but also the American game of base ball. 
 In examining his baggage, the custom offi- 
 cers came upon a pitcher's mask. ''^Yhat 
 
 [205] 
 
REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 is this?" they asked themselves. "Some 
 new kind of revolutionary weapon? " They 
 detained it as a strangely suspected article. 
 After a week's deliberation and full explana- 
 tion by the American consul it was per- 
 mitted to enter. 
 
 The Sultan watched with much interest 
 the events of our war with Spain and 
 especially the naval contests. He asked 
 me many questions about them. Finally 
 he inquired if I could tell him how he could 
 procure some ships like ours without the 
 intervention of middle men, who were so 
 given to cheating him in contracts. I told 
 him that the builder of the "Oregon," 
 which had performed its wonderful feat of 
 coming round Cape Horn and going di- 
 rectly into action, was then in St. Peters- 
 burg, and if he desired, I would ask him by 
 telegraph to come to Constantinople and 
 confer with him. I endeavoured to impress 
 him with the belief that very much of our 
 success depended on the man behind the 
 gun. His mind was evidently turned more 
 to our cannon than to our men. He said 
 he had ordered some of the cannon. It is 
 well known that he did finally order an 
 ironclad of the Cramps of Philadelphia. 
 
 In this connection I may mention a sin- 
 gular fact about the attitude of the middle- 
 
 [ 206 ] 
 
JAMES B. ANGELL 
 
 class Turks towards us in the Spanish War. 
 The sympathies in most of the Embassies, 
 except the British, were rather against us, 
 though they were never manifested to me 
 in an unpleasant way. The newspapers 
 published in Constantinople, except one 
 edited by a Frenchman, w^ere rather un- 
 friendly to us. That one I kept well in- 
 formed of our views. But rather to my 
 surprise I found that the main body of the 
 Turks in the capital leaned to our side. I 
 was puzzled to know why. Therefore I 
 asked a friend who was familiar with the 
 Turkish language and with many of the 
 people to ascertain the cause of their atti- 
 tude. "Why," they said to him, "don't 
 you remember that three hundred years ago 
 these Spaniards drove the Mohammedans 
 out of their land? Allah is great. The time 
 of punishment for them has come." Not 
 improbably the Sultan shared their feelings. 
 At the outbreak of the war I asked him 
 if he proposed to publish a proclamation of 
 neutrality. He said he would follow the 
 example of other nations and that the Great 
 Powers guaranteed the neutrality of the 
 Dardanelles at all times. I asked how 
 about furnishing munitions. "Oh," he re- 
 plied, "everyone knows we never spare so 
 much as a pistol." 
 
 [207] 
 
REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 It will be remembered that the Spaniards 
 sent some ships of war as far as Port Said, 
 on the way to Manila. They could not 
 proceed farther without procuring coal. 
 Tewfik Pasha asked me what international 
 law required of his government about allow- 
 ing the Spanish ships to coal. Of course 
 I told him his duty was to allow them to 
 take coal to return home but not to go on. 
 The Spanish ships returned home. I have 
 always supposed he knew the law without 
 asking me. But I am not quite certain 
 about it. 
 
 As I have spoken with emphasis of the 
 dilatoriness of the Turkish government, I 
 may properly credit them with commend- 
 able promptness in one case. During the 
 war with Greece the lights on the Turkish 
 coast were extinguished to prevent the 
 Greek war ships from approaching. In 
 December, 1897, after the close of the war, 
 the United States gun-boat, the Bancroft, 
 was coming from Athens into the port of 
 Smyrna in the evening. The captain saw 
 the outer light at the mouth of the harbour 
 burning, and so concluded that the port 
 was open at night and kept on his w^ay. 
 As he was passing a small fort on an 
 island in the harbour, he was fired on by 
 musketry without any notice. He stopped 
 
 [208] 
 
JAMES B. ANGELL 
 
 his engines and sent a boat with an officer 
 towards the fort, and the boat was fired on. 
 The Bancroft anchored till daylight and 
 then proceeded into the harbour and re- 
 ported to Admiral Selfridge, who was there 
 with the war ships, the Brooklyn and the 
 Olympia. The Admiral made his com- 
 plaint to the governor, who referred him to 
 Constantinople. He sent a despatch to me 
 and with it one of the bullets which had 
 fallen on the deck of the Bancroft. 
 
 I at once sent a spirited despatch to 
 Tewfik Pasha, demanding an apology and 
 the punishment of the officers of the fort 
 at Smyrna. The Imperial Council met the 
 next day and decided to meet all my de- 
 mands and to dismiss the officers at fault. 
 The Admiral expressed himself as satisfied, 
 and the affair was ended. 
 
 Whether action would have been so 
 prompt if our ships under Admiral Selfridge 
 had not been lying at Smyrna I cannot 
 say, but I doubt it. Unhappily perhaps 
 for some other business in my hands, owing 
 to the outbreak of the Spanish War the 
 Olympia was just then sent through the 
 Suez Canal to Manila, where she had a 
 part in achieving Dewey's notable victory, 
 and the Brooklyn was ordered home for 
 duty on this side of the sea. 
 
 [209] 
 
 15 
 
REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 My belief is that if Selfridge could have 
 remained at Smyrna with those vessels, 
 our claims against the Turkish government 
 would without great delay and without the 
 firing of a gun have been settled. When 
 I was asked to go to the East, largely for 
 the purpose of procuring a settlement of our 
 claims, with my knowledge of Oriental 
 ways I asked, and the President promised, 
 that the vessels should be ordered to the 
 Turkish coast. These claims were chiefly 
 for the destruction of the property of Ameri- 
 can missions by Turkish soldiers. As they 
 were under the control of the government, 
 and in a legal sense its agents, and the 
 property for which restitution was asked 
 was destroyed not by rioters but by them, 
 the responsibility of the government could 
 not be denied. In fact, when I presented 
 this argument to Tewfik Pasha, the Secre- 
 tary of Foreign Affairs, he did not and could 
 not deny its validity. On the contrary, he 
 told my dragoman that they w^ould will- 
 ingly settle our claims were it not for the 
 embarrassment caused by the larger claims 
 of the other nations. When the Great 
 Powers were in conference they decided to 
 present their claims not jointly but sepa- 
 rately, in notes substantially identical. The 
 various Ambassadors assured me that they 
 
 [210] 
 
JAMES B. ANGELL 
 
 were quite willing I should present ours at 
 once and one of them said he should be very 
 glad if we succeeded in collecting without 
 delay. With the outbreak of the Spanish 
 War and the withdrawal of our vessels, the 
 Foreign Office relegated the question to the 
 limits of indefinite discussion and procras- 
 tination, which lasted beyond my term of 
 service. A settlement of the claims was 
 finally made after some years more of delay, 
 by adding the sum due to a contract price 
 for the construction of a ship of war by the 
 Cramps, this excess to be turned over by 
 the builders to the mission board whose 
 property had been destroyed. 
 
 The resort to espionage was a most seri- 
 ous blot upon the administration. The 
 spies of the Sultan were every^where. One 
 Turk said to me the spy business was the 
 most prosperous of any. I was tissured 
 that spies were sitting at the dinner tables 
 of the principal hotels, to overhear the con- 
 versation of the guests. AVith one against 
 w^hose visits I had been warned I had an 
 amusing adventure. He was a handsome, 
 dignified Arab, who had been in England 
 long enough to talk English fairly well. 
 He introduced himself to me, savin"' he had 
 been Mavor of Jerusalem and was now try- 
 ing to procure from the government a con- 
 
 [211] 
 
REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 cession for the construction of a system of 
 waterworks for that city. He regretted, he 
 informed me, to find that the government 
 was so corrupt that he had no hope of secur- 
 ing his concession except by bribing a whole 
 row of high officials. It was refreshing to 
 him to turn aside from these representatives 
 of a corrupt and tyrannical government and 
 pay his respects to the representative of a 
 pure and honest democracy. 
 
 Supposing his object to be to draw from 
 me some remark derogatory to the Sultan, 
 which he could report to my disadvantage, 
 I ventured to remark that a monarchy pre- 
 sided over by a just sovereign was an edify- 
 ing spectacle and that even in republics 
 there were found sometimes corrupt men in 
 office. He seemed surprised at my remarks 
 and proceeded to eulogize republican gov- 
 ernments. I continued my commendations 
 of enlightened monarchies. The conversa- 
 tion ran on in this way for half an hour, 
 when he bade me adieu, but as I flattered 
 myself without any game for his bag. 
 
 The venality of some of the courts was 
 also a fearful weakness in the government. 
 I asked one of the best lawyers, an English- 
 man who had been practising twenty years 
 in Constantinople, whether the courts had 
 improved in his time. *'They have de- 
 
 [212] 
 
JAMES B. ANGELL 
 
 cidedly grown worse," was his reply. He 
 then gave me the following illustration from 
 his recent experience: 
 
 **I was counsel for a Liverpool merchant 
 to collect a sum due him from an Armenian 
 merchant here for a bill of goods. Not 
 long after the trial began I saw evidence 
 that one of the judges had been bribed by 
 the defendants. I asked and procured 
 his dismissal from the bench. Another 
 man w^as appointed and the trial was re- 
 sumed. After a little I ascertained that 
 this man was bought up by the defendants. 
 I arrested proceedings and asked for the 
 removal of the new judge. Thereupon the 
 Armenian came to me and offered to settle 
 for half the face of the bill. "But why," 
 asked my informant, "do you ask me to 
 accept half the sum due? You know you 
 owe the whole." "Oh, well," repKed the 
 merchant, "but it has cost me half the 
 amount of the bill to buy these two judges." 
 
 Some of the religious ceremonies one 
 sees in Constantinople are of much interest. 
 
 On January 9, we went to the Yildiz to 
 see the Pilgrims start for Mecca with 
 gifts. A Mohammedan acquires much 
 merit by making the journey. The streets 
 leading to the scene were lined with people. 
 The concourse of women was exceptionally 
 
 [213] 
 
REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 large. Dropped down on the grassy banks, 
 wearing their white wraps, they resembled 
 a flock of pigeons. As we looked on, a long 
 procession of venerable ulemas poured forth 
 from the mosque, where they had been to 
 worship. They wore robes of every shade 
 of green and a gilt band around the turban. 
 The procession was headed by several 
 camels and by a larger number of donkeys, 
 laden with the gifts. Most of these gifts 
 were covered by canopies of multi-coloured 
 stuffs. But the last donkeys carried just 
 such old hair-covered trunks as I used to 
 see in the country in Rhode Island in my 
 boyhood. As the procession started, a 
 sham fight was carried on, representing an 
 attack on the caravan, but a few brave 
 Moslems successfully defended it. The old 
 priests with much difficulty and considerable 
 boosting mounted horses, each of w^hich 
 was led, and closed the procession. The 
 day was perfect. The wild Arab music, 
 the real or simulated enthusiasm of the de- 
 fenders of the caravan, the gay trappings 
 of the camels, the large concourse of the 
 faithful, all made a fine Oriental pageant 
 of semi-barbaric nature. It is however 
 always well understood that the procession 
 will not march overland to Mecca, but will 
 be borne by steamer to Arabia. 
 
 [214] 
 
JAMES B. ANGELL 
 
 On May 2, we attended the reception by 
 the Sultan of the high rehgious and civic 
 officials. This is held in the great hall of 
 the Dolmar-batsche Palace. The diplo- 
 matic visitors, including the ladies, occupied 
 the gallery. We were asked to be present 
 at half -past six in the morning. The Sultan 
 sacrifices a sheep but not in our presence. 
 The ceremony began by the Sheik-ul-Islam 
 approaching His Majesty and receiving a 
 kiss on his shoulder. Then priests of high 
 rank came forward and kissed the hem of 
 the Sultan's coat. Those of lower rank 
 kissed a tassel fastened to the Sultan by 
 a gilt band and held by Osman Pasha. 
 These and the civil officers all wore their 
 official dress. The Sultan extended his 
 hand a httle as if to seem to lift up most 
 of the priests from their bowing position. 
 But in recognition of the salaams of the 
 other officials he made not the shghtest 
 response by movement or gesture. A band 
 played in the gallery during the whole 
 ceremony. Tea, cakes, and fruits were 
 served to us visitors during the long and 
 rather monotonous ceremony. Munir 
 Pasha, the Sultan's interpreter, came at 
 the close to thank us. 
 
 I attended a remarkable and rather re- 
 pulsive ceremony of the Persians at their 
 
 [21o] 
 
REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 Khan. They are known as the Shiite 
 branch of Mohammedans. They beheve 
 that Ah, the son-in-law of Mohammed, was 
 crowded out of the cahphate by his rivals 
 for years and his son Hassein was mur- 
 dered by them. Annually they have this 
 celebration in honour of Hassein. The ex- 
 citement is so great on the occasion that 
 not unfrequently scenes of violence are 
 witnessed. On this account it was not 
 deemed prudent for me to take my wife 
 with me. 
 
 It was already dark when I arrived. The 
 place was brilhantly hghted. Round and 
 round the building in the centre of the 
 sciuare, which is bordered by houses and 
 shops of Persians, the procession marched 
 from sunset till about 10 o'clock. It con- 
 sisted of three principal sections of about 
 sixty or seventy persons in each. One was 
 made up of men beating their breasts as 
 they marched before what seemed to repre- 
 sent a turbeh or tomb of Hassein, and re- 
 sponsively shouting something about him. 
 Another section carried chains with which 
 they flagellated their bare shoulders. The 
 third section carried swords. They were 
 clad in white cotton gowns, and as they 
 marched and shouted they cut their scalps 
 and faces with their swords till their necks 
 
 [^16] 
 
JAMES B. ANGELL 
 
 and gowns were saturated with blood. One 
 child five years old, riding a horse, did the 
 same, and I even saw an infant in arms 
 with a knife and its face and head appar- 
 ently slashed. This last section grew more 
 and more excited as the evening wore on. 
 From time to time men became so weak 
 that they were led away to be washed and 
 cared for. Near the close of the evening 
 one man appeared to be raving crazy. 
 There were musicians, flag bearers and light 
 bearers in the procession. 
 
 I understand the demonstration to be one 
 of grief for the death of Hassein and also 
 of penance. Many of the Persian by- 
 standers w^ept and some sobbed aloud. In 
 the houses adjacent, groups of Persians 
 were looking on in gravity. Some of them 
 were weeping, some were partaking of 
 refreshments. 
 
 The Turkish soldiers w^ere present in 
 force to keep order. One might well be- 
 lieve that otherwise these frantic zealots 
 would run amuck on the Giaours present. 
 I was told that in Persia the demonstra- 
 tions on such an occasion were more violent. 
 
 My wife and I frequently visited the Insti- 
 tutions, of which Americans may justly feel 
 proud — Robert College and the Woman's 
 College. The former was estabhshed by 
 
 [217] 
 
REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 that gifted missionary Cyrus Hamlin, en- 
 dowed largely by Mr. Christopher Robert, 
 of New York, and administered for so many 
 years by Rev. Dr. George Washburn. It 
 gave a good collegiate education of the 
 American type to a large number of Arme- 
 nian, Bulgarian and Greek students, and 
 thus incidentally imbued them with the 
 Christian spirit of regulated liberty. Sev- 
 eral of the men most prominent in develop- 
 ing the civic life of Bulgaria were graduates 
 of the college. Perhaps no foreigner in the 
 Empire was so well informed about the 
 political condition of South-eastern Europe 
 as President Washburn. So highly was his 
 opinion valued by the British government 
 that he rarely passed through England with- 
 out being asked by the Premier or the 
 Foreign Secretary for an interview. A few 
 Turkish students were in the college classes, 
 but owing to the attitude of the Imperial 
 authorities not many ventured to attend. 
 Enghsh was the language of instruction in 
 both colleges, though the eastern languages 
 were taught. 
 
 The Woman's College had girls of the 
 same nationalities as Robert College. Oc- 
 casionally a Turkish girl was sent there by 
 her parents. On one occasion I attended a 
 class in Enghsh Literature. It happened 
 
 [218] 
 
JAMES B. ANGELL 
 
 that the subject on that day was Long- 
 fellow's "Evangeline." I was surprised at 
 the command of our language by these 
 Oriental girls, and especially by the fact 
 that the most proficient was a Turkish girl, 
 the daughter of a Turkish official in the 
 Treasury Department. I was told that she 
 had entertained her father in his leisure 
 hours by translating at sight to him pas- 
 sages from Shakespeare and from Holmes' 
 "Autocrat of the Breakfast Table." She 
 had translated into Turkish an American 
 book, "Abbott's Mother at Home," if I 
 remember the title correctly, a work in- 
 tended to instruct mothers in rearing their 
 children, and her proud father had incurred 
 the expense of printing it and distributing 
 a thousand copies among the soldiers re- 
 turning from the Greek War. It is an 
 interesting fact that this Woman's College 
 owes its imperial authorization to Admiral 
 Farragut. It had long been asked for in 
 vain. He was informed of this on his 
 visit. When he was received by the Sultan, 
 in the friendly conversation of their inter- 
 view, he asked the Emperor to give the 
 college the sanction of an irade and his 
 request was granted. 
 
 The summer of 1898 we spent in the 
 island of Prinkipo, in the spacious mansion 
 
 [219] 
 
REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 of Mr. Azarian, and with our launch made 
 many beautiful excursions to the adjacent 
 islands and to the main land. 
 
 On July 4, we invited all the Americans 
 in Constantinople and all the members of 
 the British embassy. One of the British 
 gun-boats was placed at the service of the 
 Americans living on the Upper Bosphorus, 
 so that our company numbered about sixty. 
 We pinned little American flags on all, British 
 and Americans indiscriminately, and had a 
 merry celebration. Unhappily the news of 
 the capture of Cervera's fleet did not reach 
 us until the next day and even then was 
 denied at the Spanish Legation. 
 
 One day we went to Bulwer's Island, 
 some seven miles away from Prinkipo. It 
 is named after Sir Henry Lytton Bulwer, 
 who negotiated with us in 1850 the noted 
 Clayton-Bulwer Treaty. He built here two 
 castles of stone in Norman style. Earth- 
 quakes have made ruins of them, though 
 one can see the elaborate carved decora- 
 tions of the doorways and windows. It is 
 said that his life here was of such a char- 
 acter as to lead to his recall and caused Lord 
 Palmerston to give his successor the advice 
 "Beware of Islands." 
 
 The adventure of an English neighbour 
 of mine on Prinkipo is perhaps worth re- 
 
 [ 220 ] 
 
JAMES B. ANGELL 
 
 lating. Long resident in Constantinople, 
 he had been an anonymous correspondent 
 of a London newspaper, through which he 
 made known to the pubhc many facts con- 
 cerning the Turkish government, which the 
 Sultan preferred not to have proclaimed. 
 The tidings came to my friend that the 
 Sultan was preparing to banish him from 
 the country. He had large interests in 
 Constantinople which made it very unde- 
 sirable for him to leave. He bethought 
 himself of this device. 
 
 He sent for an influential Turkish official 
 to whom he had once rendered an important 
 service and w ho had promised to reciprocate 
 the service if opportunity ever presented 
 itself. He said to his friend, "I am think- 
 ing of going to England, and running for 
 Parliament. I know of a district in which 
 I can be elected." His friend besought him 
 to remain, but immediately went away and 
 spread the news among the officials at the 
 Palace. They saw that in Parliament he 
 could do much more harm than in Con- 
 stantinople. Nothing more was heard of 
 the scheme to banish him. 
 
 Since during the great fast of Ramazan 
 it is impracticable to transact important 
 business with the Turkish government, my 
 wife and I left Constantinople on January 
 
 [221] 
 
REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 26, 1898, on my sixty days' leave for a 
 journey to Egypt and the Holy Land. We 
 went up the Nile to Philae, spent several 
 days in Cairo, then went to Joppa and Jeru- 
 salem, to Jericho and Hebron, to Beirut, 
 where w^e visited the American College as 
 the guests of President BHss, to Baalbec 
 and Damascus, calling on the way home at 
 Smyrna and making an excursion to Ephe- 
 sus, finally reaching Constantinople on 
 March 23. At every town which we visited 
 in the Holy Land, the governors and mili- 
 tary and civic officials, in obedience to the 
 Sultan's orders, welcomed us on our arrival, 
 and during our stay rendered us any assist- 
 ance in their power. 
 
 One of the most agreeable excursions we 
 made while in Turkey was to Broussa in 
 fine days in May. The situation is most 
 picturesque on heights from which one 
 looks over a wide expanse of fertile valleys 
 to the Sea of Marmora. Here Osman, the 
 founder of the Empire, planted himself. 
 Here are his tomb and the tombs of some 
 of his successors. Here Phny the younger 
 was praetor, and here he wrote some of his 
 letters which have come down to us. While 
 we were there, a regiment which belonged 
 to Broussa and the neighbourhood re- 
 turned from the Greek War. The streets 
 
 [222] 
 
JAMES B. ANGELL 
 
 were crowded with men, women and chil- 
 dren. We expected to hear the soldiers 
 greeted with cheers. To our surprise, not 
 a sound of a voice was heard. The march 
 of these stalwart and sun-burned warriors, 
 returning from a triumphant campaign, was 
 made through the principal street in dead 
 silence everywhere. I inquired what was 
 the explanation of this strange scene. I 
 w^as told that the government had never sent 
 home or allowed to be sent home during 
 the war any tidings concerning these men. 
 Consequently the relatives were waiting in 
 anxiety now to see who, if any, were miss- 
 ing. In this suspense there was no impulse 
 to cheer. Those who were rejoiced to see 
 their kindred returning were- restrained 
 from a public demonstration by a delicate 
 regard for the feelings of those to whom the 
 day brought disappointment and sorrow. 
 This explanation made the spectacle very 
 pathetic. 
 
 I had an interview with the Acting Gov- 
 ernor-General Ilalib Ibrahim Bey. He had 
 been Vali at Sivas at the time of the mas- 
 sacres and had been removed on the demand 
 of the British Ambassador. But he now 
 talked to me in the most liberal spirit of 
 leaving freedom to all as far as possible. 
 He sent the military commandant and his 
 
 [223] 
 
REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 dragoman two miles out to meet me on my 
 arrival and a squad of cavalry all the way 
 to the sea on my return. 
 
 On August 5, I had my farewell audience 
 with the Sultan. He talked mainly on our 
 war with Spain, and asked me to request 
 our Secretary of the Navy to commend to 
 him some ship-building firms with whom he 
 could deal directly. He thanked me for 
 having maintained so cordial relations with 
 him. 
 
 On August 13, we embarked on an Aus- 
 trian steamer for Trieste. Some forty or 
 fifty of our friends, missionaries, teachers, 
 and diplomats gathered at the wharf to 
 bid us adieu. Our Turkish coachman and 
 servants evinced much feeling. It was not 
 without emotion that we parted with our 
 faithful servants and our numerous friends. 
 
 [224] 
 
X 
 
 THE PRESIDENCY OF THE UNI- 
 VERSITY OF MICHIGAN 
 
 In 1869, to my surprise I was invited to 
 visit the University of Michigan and de- 
 cide whether I would accept the presidency 
 of the institution which Dr. Haven had 
 resigned. My wife accompanied me, and 
 we spent two or three days at Ann Arbor. 
 We were much impressed with the vigour 
 and the promise of the University. But on 
 returning to BurHngton, I found that the 
 men who had ralHed generously to the sup- 
 port of the college would be sorely disap- 
 pointed if I left them then. I decided that 
 it was my duty to decline the invitation to 
 Michigan. So I devoted myself with all 
 my energy to the continuance of my work 
 in Vermont. In 1871, the invitation to 
 Michigan was renewed with much earnest- 
 ness. I felt that I had discharged my duty 
 to my Vermont friends and that the college 
 could move on fairly without me. I had 
 some hesitation about undertaking so large 
 a responsibility as that at Michigan. One 
 day when I mentioned this to a friend who 
 
 [225] 
 
 16 
 
REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 had very large business interests, he said, 
 "I have found if you have a long lever it is 
 as easy to raise a large load as to lift a small 
 weight with a short lever." 
 
 After careful consideration I decided to 
 accept the invitation to Michigan. In 
 compliance with the request of the Regents 
 of the University, I attended the Com- 
 mencement at Ann Arbor on June 28, 1871, 
 and delivered my Inaugural. I then re- 
 turned to Burlington and finished the 
 academic year which terminated on August 
 3. I removed to Ann Arbor with my 
 family early in September. 
 
 I found that largely under the influence 
 of John D. Pierce, Superintendent of Public 
 Instruction at the time of its organization, 
 of Isaac E. Crary, and of Henry P. Tappan, 
 its first President, the University had been 
 inspired to a considerable extent by Ger- 
 man ideals of education and was shaped 
 under broader and more generous views of 
 university life than most of the eastern 
 colleges. Mr. Pierce, a graduate of Brown 
 University in the class of 1822, was settled 
 as a Presbyterian Home Missionary in 
 Marshall. Mr. Isaac E. Crary, a gradu- 
 ate of Trinity College, Hartford, was a 
 lawyer in the same town. Both were much 
 interested in public education. Mr. Pierce 
 
 [226] 
 
JAMES B. ANGELL 
 
 was appointed the State Superintendent of 
 Public Instruction, the first officer with that 
 title in the United States. Mr. Crary was 
 a member of the Convention that framed the 
 State Constitution of 1835, and as Chair- 
 man of the Committee on Education 
 drafted the Article on Education in the 
 Constitution. Cousin's famous Report on 
 Public Instruction in Prussia had fallen 
 into the hands of Mr. Pierce and formed 
 the subject of much discussion between 
 him and his neighbour, Mr. Crary. Mr. 
 Pierce told me that he could take me in a 
 grove in Marshall to the very log on which 
 they often sat and conferred together on 
 this remarkable book, which gave them the 
 idea of a state system of schools with a 
 university at its head. That idea gave 
 shape to the constitutional Article on Edu- 
 cation and to the legislation afterwards 
 enacted in accordance with it. When Dr. 
 Tappan was made President in 1852, he 
 brought from Germany, where he had 
 studied, ideals quite in harmony with those 
 which Pierce and Crary had cherished at 
 the outset, and with his vigorous mind he 
 left a deep impression on the life and spirit 
 of the University. The Institution had 
 in its Faculties at the time of my arrival 
 men of marked abilit3^ I will name some 
 
 [227] 
 
REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 of the more prominent of the professors 
 who are no longer Hving. 
 
 Dr. Henry S. Frieze, Professor of Latin, 
 for the two years prior to my coming Act- 
 ing President, was a man of rare quahties, 
 a passionate lover of art and of music, a 
 scholar of large and varied attainments 
 and of the finest literary taste, an inspiring 
 teacher and a most winsome spirit. His 
 influence on students and on his colleagues, 
 in fostering the love of classical learning 
 and in the diffusion of high and broad 
 university ideals through all the West, 
 causes his memory to be cherished with 
 peculiar respect and affection. 
 
 Rev. Dr. Benjamin F. Cocker, Professor 
 of Philosophy, had had a romantic life. 
 A Methodist circuit preacher in York- 
 shire in early life, he lived for years among 
 the miners in Australia. On his voyage 
 from that country he was wrecked on an 
 island in the Pacific, inhabited partly by 
 savages. After a narrow escape with his 
 family he arrived in this State in utter des- 
 titution. Assigned to the care of a small 
 country church, his talent soon made him 
 known and secured his call to important 
 churches, and finally to the chair in the 
 University. His opportunities for gaining 
 an education had been slender, but by his 
 
 [228] 
 
JAMES B. ANGELL * 
 
 marked ability and his great industry he 
 had overcome in large degree the limitations 
 of his earlier years, though he never ceased 
 to lament them. Both as a preacher and a 
 teacher he had a singular charm of voice 
 and manner which, added to his clearness 
 and simplicity in discussions of the prob- 
 lems of philosophy, made his instructions 
 a dehght to his pupils. He is remembered 
 by them with abiding affection and grati- 
 tude. 
 
 Edward Olney, Professor of Mathematics, 
 also had a unique history. He was never 
 in school but a few weeks. Of mathe- 
 matics he seemed to have from childhood 
 an intuitive comprehension. His geometry 
 he learned while following the plough. He 
 drew the figures with chalk on the plough 
 beam and mastered the demonstrations 
 while travelhng in the furrow. Though 
 probably his attainments did not at last 
 reach much beyond the range of the higher 
 instruction in the undergraduate course, he 
 had a most unusual gift as a teacher. He 
 not only made his instruction simple and 
 clear, but what is not common in colleges, 
 he made the study of mathematics a fa- 
 vourite study of the great body of students. 
 He had a manly frankness and honesty of 
 character which often gave to his expres- 
 
 [229] 
 
5 REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 sions the air of bluntness, but commanded 
 the highest respect of his pupils and culti- 
 vated in them a spirit of manliness and 
 honesty kindred to his own. He was a man 
 of most earnest religious nature and was a 
 power for righteousness both in college and 
 in the community. 
 
 Charles Kendall Adams was Professor of 
 History. He had acquired his enthusiasm 
 for historical study under Andrew D. White, 
 when he filled the Chair of History in this 
 University. Mr. Adams had recently re- 
 turned from study in Germany where he had 
 become familiar with the Seminar method, 
 in introducing which he afterwards was 
 the pioneer in American universities. Mr. 
 Adams was even then greatly interested in 
 university problems and was carefully 
 studying all experiments in university ad- 
 ministration, both in America and Europe. 
 He subsequently made good use of his 
 knowledge of universities as President of 
 Cornell University and of the University 
 of Wisconsin. 
 
 Moses Coit Tyler was Professor of Rhet- 
 oric and English Literature. He was al- 
 ready master of that attractive style which 
 lent such a charm to everything that he 
 wrote and inspired his classes with a love 
 for the best in literature and for purity and 
 
 [230] 
 
JAMES B. ANGEL L 
 
 vivacity in their essays and speeches. In 
 his private study he was already showing 
 that deep interest in American History and 
 the early American authors which gave 
 shape and colour to his later works. He 
 had a fine sense of humour which enlivened 
 his instruction and made him a most agree- 
 able companion. 
 
 Alexander Winchell, like Professors of 
 Science in most American colleges at that 
 time, was giving elementary instruction in 
 Geology, Zoology, and Botany, but by his 
 pow^erful imagination and brilliant elo- 
 quence w^as widely known as one of the 
 most successful popular lecturers on science. 
 He was afterwards President of the Syra- 
 cuse University. 
 
 James C. Watson, Professor of Astron- 
 omy, was a man w^hose mathematical intu- 
 itions were near to genius. The son of an 
 Irish carpenter, he was one of the finest 
 products of the Michigan System of Pub- 
 lic Education, for he received his entire 
 training in the public schools of Ann Arbor 
 and in the University. While he was yet 
 a student he made a telescope and with it 
 discovered a comet. While still a young 
 man he discovered asteroids and wrote a 
 text book on Astronomy, which gave him 
 an enviable reputation among astronomers 
 
 [231] 
 
REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 here and in Europe. His college teachers 
 said that as a student he was almost as apt 
 in languages as in mathematics, and if he 
 had cultivated them as a profession, might 
 have won distinction in that field. He had 
 unlimited capacity for work. It seemed as 
 though he could observe all night and then 
 study all day. In teaching he had none of 
 the methods of the drill master. But his 
 lecture or his talk was so stimulating that 
 one could not but learn and love to learn 
 by listening. I have heard his pupils say 
 that sometimes while discussing an intri- 
 cate problem he would have an entirely 
 new demonstration suddenly flash upon 
 his mind as by inspiration and then and 
 there he would write it out upon the 
 blackboard. 
 
 George S. Morris, a man of the widest 
 reading, was the Professor of Modern Lan- 
 guages. He had already translated Ueber- 
 weg's History of Philosophy. He afterwards 
 welcomed the opportunity to give his whole 
 time to teaching philosophy here and in the 
 Johns Hopkins University, leaving in both 
 institutions a profound impression upon his 
 classes. 
 
 Edward L. Walter was then giving in- 
 struction in Latin. Later he had charge 
 of the work in German and in the Romance 
 
 [ 232 ] 
 
JAMES B. ANGELL 
 
 Languages. He was a master alike of an- 
 cient and modern literatures. Gifted with 
 remarkable powers of acquisition, he was 
 one of the most successful of teachers. We 
 were robbed of him while in the prime of his 
 strength by the sinking of the steamship 
 Bourgogne. 
 
 M. L. D'Ooge, Professor of Greek, was 
 absent in Europe, but the department was 
 in the hands of Elisha Jones and Albert H. 
 Pattengill, than whom better classroom 
 teachers of the classics were to be found in 
 no American college. 
 
 In the Medical Department, which was 
 crowded with over five hundred students, 
 were Professor Corydon L. Ford, doubtless 
 the best lecturer in the country on anatomy, 
 as it was then taught; Dr. Sager, a man of 
 large scientific attainments for his time; 
 Dr. Palmer, so long the eflBcient Dean; Dr. 
 Prescott, the distinguished chemist, and a 
 group of brilliant younger men. 
 
 In the Law Department were the three 
 great teachers, who had guided its fortunes 
 from its foundation, Thomas M. Cooley, 
 James V. Campbell, and Charles I. ^Yalker. 
 Never was a law school so fortunate as this 
 was in beginning its work and continuing 
 it for so many years under such gifted 
 instructors. Charles A. Kent, a worthy 
 
 [233] 
 
REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 coadjutor, had recently joined them. It 
 was not strange that the school attracted 
 students from all parts of the land. 
 
 Professors Cooley and Campbell were on 
 the Supreme Bench of the State. The 
 Court, by the wisdom of its decisions, had 
 already won the highest respect of the legal 
 profession throughout the country. Judge 
 Cooley had also won renown by his great 
 work on Constitutional Limitations. He 
 seemed to have an intuitive perception of 
 legal relations. He was a man of inde- 
 fatigable industry. Beyond all men I have 
 known, he possessed the power of writing 
 rapidly and with such accuracy that no 
 reader could misunderstand his meaning. 
 
 Judge Campbell was a scholarly man of 
 wide reading, and of a graceful style in 
 writing or speaking. He was most famihar 
 with the early history of the State and es- 
 pecially with the customs and traditions of 
 the French population of Detroit and the 
 vicinity. His narrations of the details of 
 their life were as fascinating as those of the 
 best French raconteurs. His lectures on law 
 were diffuse, but so charming in manner, 
 like his conversation, that they held the 
 undivided attention of his students. 
 
 Professor Walker was so lucid and me- 
 thodical in his instruction that his classes 
 
 [ 234 ] 
 
JAMES B. ANGELL 
 
 always testified to the great benefit they 
 received from him. 
 
 It will be seen that it was rather remark- 
 able that a University so young as this 
 should have gathered such a company of 
 teachers. It was indeed a stimulating body 
 for me to be associated with in my arduous 
 and responsible duties. 
 
 On my arrival I was sadly disappointed 
 to find that my former teacher and old 
 friend, Dr. Frieze, at whose suggestion I 
 had been chosen President, had gone to 
 Europe for a prolonged visit. I had relied 
 on him to give me full information about 
 the details of the Institution and to assist 
 me w4th his wise counsels. But I received 
 a warm welcome from the Faculties and the 
 students. During the first few weeks, I 
 attended classes to observe the methods 
 and the quahty of the teaching. I found 
 the instruction was for the most part excel- 
 lent. In both the colleges with which I had 
 been connected, we had a marking system 
 for recording the quality of the students' 
 recitations. Here I found none. I was 
 naturally interested to observe whotluT 
 without such a system students could i)e 
 held to a proper standard of work. A\hen, 
 after six weeks' attendance on classes, I 
 heard only two students say "not pre- 
 
 [2S5] 
 
REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 pared," I was forced to the conclusion that 
 as good results were secured without as with 
 a marking system. Prolonged observation 
 in later years has confirmed that belief, 
 although probably higher technical excel- 
 lence in recitation is attained by a few who 
 are studying for class rank. But the appeal 
 to a college student to w^ork for the sake of 
 learning is an appeal of a noble sort, and if 
 heartily responded to, yields a result of a 
 higher order than an appeal to ambition 
 for class rank. 
 
 I was early impressed with the great ad- 
 vantages both to teachers and students of 
 having the three departments: the Col- 
 legiate, known here as the Literary, and the 
 Medical and the Law Departments all upon 
 the same ground. It gave a certain breadth 
 and catholicity to the views of all. The 
 professors, organized as a Senate, met so- 
 cially at stated intervals to listen to papers 
 and discuss them, and so to consider sub- 
 jects from their different angles. As there 
 were no dormitories, the students of the 
 different departments were thrown together 
 in their temporary homes and were led to 
 see that there were things worth knowing 
 outside of their own special lines of work. 
 
 I was also soon struck with the good re- 
 sults of the plan adopted the year before 
 
 [236] 
 
JAMES B. A N G E L L 
 
 my arrival of bringing the High Schools 
 into closer relations with the University, 
 by receiving on diploma the graduates of 
 schools which had been approved })y the 
 Literary Faculty after inspection of them. 
 This innovation on the practice of Ameri- 
 can colleges was due to the fertile mind of 
 Dr. Frieze, who took the idea from the 
 usage of the German Universities in receiv- 
 ing the graduates of the Gymnasia without 
 examination of the students. In adapting 
 the plan to our needs, the Faculty wisely 
 made provision for a visit to the schools by 
 some University Professors. I made many 
 of these visits. The advantages both to 
 the schools and the University were soon 
 obvious. The methods of the school visited 
 and the fitness of the teachers for their work 
 were made known to the visitors. The op- 
 portunity for suggesting improvements was 
 furnished. Interviews with scholars were 
 held. Frequently the visit was made the 
 occasion for a pubhc address on education 
 to the citizens. Conferences were had with 
 the school board. An opinion could be 
 formed concerning the willingness or un- 
 willingness of the town to give the needed 
 support to the school, for the maintenance 
 of the proper standard of school work. An 
 impulse was given to the public to take a 
 
 [237] 
 
REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 new interest in the school which the Uni- 
 versity thought worthy of a visit. Above 
 all, an intimate and friendly relation be- 
 tween the school and the town on the one 
 hand and the University on the other was 
 established. The University was also en- 
 abled to see w^hat was possible to the High 
 School and was guarded against the danger 
 of asking too much of the students as the 
 condition of admission. 
 
 It was thought by some that the officers 
 of the school would not be courageous or 
 careful in maintaining high requirements 
 for the graduation of students who were to 
 go to the University. It proved that with 
 few exceptions they were both courageous 
 and careful and that sometimes they de- 
 clined to recommend students to us who 
 might have entered on examination by us. 
 They had a better opportunity to know the 
 qualifications of students by observing their 
 w^hole school course than we had in a single 
 examination, in which the pupil by diffi- 
 dence or accident, might not do himself jus- 
 tice. After a few years of experimentation, 
 we found that judging by the first year of 
 college work the students received on cer- 
 tificate made a better showing than those 
 received on examination. Perhaps in 
 nothing has the University been more use- 
 
 [ 238 ] 
 
JAMES B. ANGEL L 
 
 ful to the educational system of the State 
 than in the cultivation of the friendly rela- 
 tion with the schools by the introduction 
 of the diploma system of admission of stu- 
 dents. Our example in establishing it has 
 been generall}^ followed in the West, and to 
 some extent in the East, though not always 
 with our precautions in making visits. 
 
 The year before I came, the doors of every 
 department of the University had, under 
 the pressure of public opinion in the State, 
 been thrown open to women. Most of the 
 professors and of the students would have 
 preferred that they should not be admitted. 
 On my arrival the subject of their admis- 
 sion was still under discussion. The objec- 
 tions raised were, first, that women could 
 not master the difficult studies of college, 
 and, secondly, that the health of women 
 would suffer under the strenuousness of 
 college life. Experience soon showed that 
 neither objection was well founded. As it 
 required some courage for women to come 
 at first, fortunately those who did present 
 themselves were generally earnest, self- 
 reliant, scholarly persons. By their dis- 
 cretion and their scholarship, they won the 
 respect of teachers and fellow students and 
 made the path easy for those who came 
 after them. A good number of them, after 
 
 [239] 
 
REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 graduation, obtained commanding positions 
 in the Faculties of Women's Colleges, which 
 were springing up in the East, and won 
 honour for themselves and the University. 
 
 By way of illustration I may speak of our 
 relation to Wellesley College. When Mr. 
 Durant, the founder of that Institution, was 
 making up his first Faculty, he encountered 
 difficulty in finding women with suitable 
 training for filling professorships, because 
 there were so few colleges where women 
 could receive the proper training. Natu- 
 rally, he wrote to me to inquire whether we 
 had been graduating such women as he 
 needed. I recommended a graduate of the 
 Class of 1874 for his Chair of History. She 
 proved so satisfactory that he then wrote 
 asking me to recommend thereafter any 
 woman whom I should deem competent. 
 That greatly delighted me, and I sent him 
 one after another whom he promptly ap- 
 pointed. Among them finally was Alice 
 Freeman who subsequently was appointed 
 President and made so distinguished a 
 career. 
 
 The collegiate education of women has 
 proved of great value to the schools. For- 
 merly they could not easily find opportu- 
 nities for training which fitted them for the 
 best work in the high schools. If by any 
 
 [240] 
 
JAMES B. ANGELL 
 
 means they had obtained it, they did not 
 feel sure of it. They laeked the confidence 
 which is essential to the success of a teacher. 
 But when they had graduated in the same 
 classes with the most scholarly men who 
 were teaching, both they and the school 
 boards had confidence in their training. 
 The schools, in which a majority of the 
 teachers have always been women, took on 
 new vigour and life. 
 
 The fear that the joint education of the 
 sexes would lead to serious embarrassments 
 proved so unfounded that it is found almost 
 without exception in the Colleges and Uni- 
 versities of the ^Yest. It cannot be doubted 
 that the example of this University con- 
 duced largely to this result, and, judging 
 by our correspondence, was helpful in 
 opening the doors of some European Uni- 
 versities to women. 
 
 Our friends in the East have always 
 expressed surprise that most of the col- 
 leges and the universities in the West have 
 for the last thirty years educated the sexes 
 together. They fail to see that co-educa- 
 tion in those institutions was the natural 
 development of the plan followed in the 
 high schools of the AYest. \Yhereas in the 
 high schools of the East the sexes were 
 educated separately, in the West they were, 
 
 [241] 
 
REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 as a rule, educated together. Having thus 
 been instructed together up to the very 
 door of the college, it was no violent or un- 
 natural transition for them to enter the 
 college together. As in fact no serious 
 objections to their joint education have 
 presented themselves, the usage bids fair to 
 be continued at least in the West. 
 
 As I have always been fond of teaching 
 and have thought it was well for the Presi- 
 dent of a College or University to teach, I 
 soon availed myself of the opportunity 
 which presented itself to give some instruc- 
 tion in International Law and in Political 
 Economy. I continued to do so until I 
 went to China in 1880. On my return I 
 resumed the work in International Law and 
 continued it till I resigned the Presidency. 
 
 In order to keep in close touch with stu- 
 dents, especially those of the Literary (Col- 
 legiate) Department, for several years I 
 discharged the duties now assigned to a 
 Dean. I registered all new comers; I 
 granted (or refused) excuses for absence. 
 I took the initiative in examining all cases 
 for discipline. The result was that I knew 
 every student and could call him by name 
 up to the time of my departure for China in 
 1880. Of course it was easy for me to do 
 this in Vermont. But it was more diffi- 
 
 [242] 
 
JAMES B. A N G E L L 
 
 cult when I had to do wiili eight Inindrod 
 students. The infhience and the pleasure 
 it gave me was a great reward for the efl'ort 
 required. I wonder that the rresick^it even 
 of a great University wilhngly foregoes the 
 satisfaction which conies from sueli an 
 intimate relation with even a portion of his 
 students as comes from giving instruction 
 in some subject. 
 
 In 1873, largely through the influence of 
 Mr. Claudius B. Grant, at that time a 
 Regent of the University and a ]\Iember of 
 the Legislature, we persuaded the Legisla- 
 ture to give us the proceeds of a twentieth- 
 mill tax. This established a most useful 
 precedent. In later years our twenti(^th- 
 mill tax was raised first to one-ciuhth, 
 then to one-quarter, and then to thrtn^- 
 eighths of a mill. This proved to be a far 
 better plan than the voting of special 
 appropriations for a number of objects. 
 It spared the legislative committees and 
 the whole Legislature the trouble of scruti- 
 nizing a large number of specific recjuests. 
 It also enabled the University authorities 
 to use the funds granted them more ell'ec- 
 tively and more economically. For fre- 
 quently it happened that before the term 
 of two years for which the appropriations 
 were made had elapsed, it became ai)parent 
 
 [243] 
 
REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 that the money granted for some particular 
 object could be more wisely devoted to 
 some other purpose. Furthermore it is 
 quite essential to wise administration that 
 the authorities of a University should be 
 able to lay plans for some years ahead; and 
 resting on a tax bill which experience shows 
 is not likely to be repealed, they can adopt 
 wise policies for the future, when they might 
 not be able to do so if they had to depend 
 on specific appropriations to be renewed at 
 every session of the liCgislature. 
 
 I had occasion to visit the Legislature at 
 several sessions to make known to our Com- 
 mittees, and sometimes to the whole body, 
 our needs, and several times the whole 
 Legislature visited the University. I wish 
 to bear witness to the courtesy with which 
 I was always received at Lansing, and the 
 hearty interest in the Institution which the 
 members of the Legislature always evinced 
 on their visits to us. 
 
 Eastern critics of the system of State 
 support of universities have often assumed 
 that the institutions would become em- 
 barrassed by being entangled in the con- 
 troversies of party politics. It can be 
 affirmed that such has never been the case 
 in the support or control of this University. 
 Different parties have been in control in 
 
 [ 244 ] 
 
JAMES B. AN CELL 
 
 this State during the hfe of the Institution. 
 But we have fared equally well, whichever 
 party was in power, and no political con- 
 troversy in the Legislature or in the State 
 at large has ever embarrassed us. 
 
 The example of our Legislature in passing 
 a tax bill, providing in a lump for the needs 
 of the Universitv, has been followed bv 
 several states to the great benefit of their 
 Universities. 
 
 In 1875, the Legislature made appro- 
 priations for the establishment of the 
 Homeopathic Medical School, the College 
 of Dental Surgery, the School of [Mines and 
 a Professorship of Architecture. These new 
 departments of work were at once organ- 
 ized. Unhappily in 1877 the Legislature 
 did not continue the appropriations for the 
 School of Mines and the teaching of Archi- 
 tecture and we were obliged to drop the 
 work. This illustrates the difficulty of ad- 
 ministering a University which depends on 
 biennial appropriations. 
 
 In 1879, under the pressure of urgent re- 
 quests which I had made for some years, 
 the Regents established the Chair of the 
 Art and Science of Teaching, to aid in pre- 
 paring our graduates to teach in our schools 
 or to superintend schools. Our action was 
 severely criticized for a time by some college 
 
 [24o] 
 
E EM IN I S CE N CE S OF 
 
 men who maintained that teaching could 
 not be taught through formal instruction. 
 But only a few years elapsed before nearly 
 every university of standing, including those 
 which had criticized us most severely, ap- 
 pointed Professors of Education or Peda- 
 gogy. As a consequence, so-called Schools 
 of Education with large equipment have 
 grown up in some of these institutions. 
 
 In the late seventies a large freedom in 
 the election of studies in the Literary De- 
 partment was granted; the course of study 
 in the Medical Department was extended 
 from two years of six months to two years 
 of nine months, and the School of Pharmacy 
 was organized. During the decade from 
 1870 to 1880, the progress of the University 
 in all departments had been most satis- 
 factory. 
 
 This was especially gratifying because 
 from 1875 to 1879 an unpleasant contro- 
 versy was raging which threatened havoc 
 to the Institution. The accounts of the 
 Chemical Laboratory showed a deficit for 
 which the Director of the Laboratory or an 
 Assistant Professor was apparently respon- 
 sible. If the decision of the question of re- 
 sponsibility had been left to the Regents 
 alone, it would probably have been soon 
 settled. But for reasons which need not 
 
 [ 246 ] 
 
JAMES B. A N G E L I. 
 
 be discussed here, persons outside of the 
 University became interested and a bitter 
 contest ensued, involving the Legishiture, 
 the Courts and the Pul)Hc. It is obvious 
 now that the difficulty was largely due at 
 the outset to the defects in the system of 
 bookkeeping in the Laboratory. It was ade- 
 quate in the days when the number of stu- 
 dents was small, but was not well suited to 
 meet our wants when the classes had become 
 very large. After the controversy was 
 ended, it gave w^ay to a better system. It 
 is a good proof of the strong hold the Uni- 
 versity has on the respect and affections of 
 the people that the fierce and prolonged 
 contest left it unharmed. 
 
 During the last thirty years there has 
 been a constant and steady movement for- 
 ward in the enlargement and enrichment of 
 the work in all the departments. The En- 
 gineering which was carried on as a part of 
 the Literary Department has been devel- 
 oped into a separate Department, compris- 
 ing Civil, Mechanical, Electrical, Chemical, 
 and Marine Engineering, in close relation 
 with Architecture and having nearly three 
 hundred more students than were found in 
 the entire University when I came here. 
 The introduction of the elective system into 
 the Literary Department added greatly to 
 
 [247] 
 
REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 the variety of its work. Meantime a large 
 graduate school and a summer school of 
 more than a thousand students have grown 
 up. The course required for graduating has 
 been extended in the Law School and the 
 Dental School to three years and in the 
 Medical School to four years of nine months 
 each. The requirements for admission to 
 the professional schools have been materi- 
 ally raised. Excellent hospitals for the use 
 of the medical schools have been constructed 
 and upon the highly advantageous plan of 
 being entirely under the direction of the 
 Medical Faculties. This allows students 
 access to the patients with a freedom quite 
 impossible in hospitals otherwise conducted. 
 The idea of establishing hospitals on this 
 basis originated here, and is now being 
 adopted wherever practicable by medical 
 schools. 
 
 It is not intended to give here a history 
 of the University. But a few statistics 
 may properly be given. There were three 
 Departments in 1871 ; there are now seven. 
 The members of the Faculties then num- 
 bered 35; now they are about 400. The 
 students then numbered 1110; the last 
 Calendar (1910-11) registered 5383. The 
 libraries then contained 25,000 volumes; 
 now they have 260,000. The income was 
 
 [248] 
 
JAMES B. ANGELL 
 
 then $104,000; now it is $1,170,000. The 
 number of graduates from 1871 to 1009 is 
 about 20,000, and the number of non-grad- 
 uates approximately 17,000. They are 
 found in every state and territory of the 
 Union and on every continent of the globe. 
 
 My wife and I have received great 
 pleasure in our home from the visits of 
 distinguished men and women who have 
 come to address the University. It seems 
 proper to give reminiscences of some of 
 these visits. 
 
 Matthew Arnold, in his last visit to 
 America, accompanied by his wife and 
 daughter, was our guest. It may be re- 
 membered that, when lecturing in the 
 Eastern cities, he was criticized and even 
 ridiculed for his manner of delivery. Being 
 near-sighted, he had a reading-stand as 
 tall as he was, and to his annoyance his 
 manner in darting his head close to it at 
 each sentence was compared to a bird 
 pecking at his food. This fact led him, 
 it was said, to take some lessons in elocu- 
 tion from a competent teacher. His appear- 
 ance on our stage was one of the first after 
 this instruction. lie was received by our 
 audience with great favour, and his success 
 was so marked that he spoke to me with 
 much satisfaction of his reception. 
 
 [249] 
 
REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 A business manager accompanied him 
 on this Western tour. It was the custom 
 of the railways in those days to give special 
 rates to theatrical companies. Mr. Arnold 
 told me with great glee that when the 
 conductor of the train took the tickets 
 from the manager, he exclaimed, "Oh! 
 this is the Arnold troupe, is it.^" He 
 continued during his visit to address his 
 wife and daughter as the Arnold troupe. 
 
 Having passed by Seneca Lake on his 
 journey, he was apparently much inter- 
 ested in the fact that the lake bore the 
 name of the great Roman philosopher. 
 He was rather disappointed when I in- 
 formed him that the lake took its name 
 from the Seneca tribe of Indians and that 
 the word Seneca is in that case of Indian 
 origin. 
 
 Miss Edith Arnold, Mr. Arnold's niece, 
 was my guest when she came to dehver 
 a lecture on the Religious Novel. It was 
 an address of high literary merit. She 
 told me that a short time before his death 
 Mr. Gladstone had a prolonged interview 
 with her sister, Mrs. Humphrey Ward, 
 in which he discussed at length with the 
 author the religious doctrines set forth 
 in the novel "Robert Elsmere." As Miss 
 Arnold is a pronounced advocate of woman 
 
 [250] 
 
JAMES B. ANGEL L 
 
 suffrage and Mrs. Ward is a leader on 
 the other side, I asked her how lliey got 
 on together in their consickTation ol' that 
 subject. ''Oh," she said, "our (UU'erence 
 does not in the least disturl) our relations. 
 For of course my sister does not under- 
 stand the subject at all." 
 
 Dr. J. M. L. Curry, who was prominent 
 on the Southern side in our Civil Vsiw and 
 subsequently our Minister to Spain and 
 Agent of the Peabody Education Fund 
 for the aid of schools in the South, gave a 
 very valuable Commencement Address for 
 us. He and I sat up till midnight con- 
 versing on the race problems in the South. 
 He manifested the most generous spirit 
 towards the blacks. At last, after pacing 
 the floor, he exclaimed with great fervour, 
 striking the table with his hand, "We can- 
 not see the whole of the future. But one 
 thing w^e can know^ It must be eternally 
 right to educate the negro and to Chris- 
 tianize the negro." It is fortunate that 
 so many Southerners have come to agree 
 
 with him. 
 
 Among the many interesting stories he 
 told of his experiences in travelling through 
 the South, especially among the "poor 
 whites," as they are called, of the moun- 
 tain region between Virginia and Kentucky, 
 
 ['251] 
 
REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 I venture to repeat this. In a very 
 humble dwelHng he noticed that the 
 mother called her daughter who was wait- 
 ing on the table *'Ralgy." The name 
 was so new to him that before he left he 
 asked the mother where she found that 
 name. In reply the woman brought an 
 empty bottle which had contained patent 
 medicine. She pointed to the label which 
 announced that the medicine would cure 
 neuralgia and other ailments. She thought 
 neuralgia was a new and striking word, and 
 so she had named the child "neuralgia," 
 which in familiar address they had shortened 
 to "Ralgy." 
 
 Henry M. Stanley, the African traveller, 
 and his wife were most entertaining guests 
 on the occasion of his visit here to lecture. 
 
 Our Law students have for many years 
 celebrated Washington's birthday by secur- 
 ing an address from some eminent man. 
 The February before Mr. Cleveland's second 
 election to the Presidency, he was the orator 
 of the day. I invited a number of the 
 prominent citizens of both political parties 
 to meet him at my house at luncheon. An 
 immense throng from various parts of the 
 State came to hear his address, which was 
 very felicitous. In the evening a public 
 reception was held by him in the city, and 
 
 [252] 
 
JAMES B. ANGELL 
 
 on the next evening another was held in 
 Detroit. The result was that the Demo- 
 cratic party in Michigan raised witli nuieh 
 spirit the cry for his nomination to the 
 Presidency. And they have always boasted 
 that the impulse thus given led to his 
 nomination and election. 
 
 However that may be, his visit to Ann 
 Arbor certainly had one result of some con- 
 sequence. Years after I asked him how 
 it happened that he chose for his perma- 
 nent residence Princeton rather than New 
 York. He rephed, "AVhen I visited Ann 
 Arbor, vou remember that vou drove with 
 me through several of the streets of your 
 city. And when I saw so many modest 
 and pleasant homes, I said to myself it 
 is in a college town with its simple life 
 that I will try to find a home when I am 
 through with public life. I never lost 
 sight of that thought. Hence my decision 
 to hve in Princeton rather than in New 
 York." 
 
 One of my more recent visitors was the 
 British Ambassador James Bryce, whose 
 versatihty was admirably displayed. In 
 the evening he gave a most scholarly ad- 
 dress to the Phi Beta Kai)pa Society on 
 Culture. The next noon he addressed the 
 Detroit Chamber of Conunerce on ^Nlunici- 
 
 [253] 
 
REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 pal Government, in which his great famil- 
 iarity with municipal experiments and 
 discussions, both European and American, 
 appeared; in the evening he addressed the 
 University Club in Detroit on the changes 
 in American college and university life 
 since his first visit to our country. In 
 this address he showed a knowledge of 
 our academic life that could not be sur- 
 passed by any of our college presidents. 
 All these addresses were given without a 
 scrap of paper before him. One was re- 
 minded of the offer ascribed to Mr. Carnegie 
 to bet a miUion dollars that Mr. Bryce 
 knows more than any other man in the 
 world. 
 
 Many other eminent visitors might be 
 named, among them Chinese and Japanese 
 ambassadors, foreign missionaries. Univer- 
 sity Presidents, Mr. Justice Miller and Mr. 
 Justice Harlan of the United States Supreme 
 Court, Secretary Bayard, Mr. Roosevelt, 
 when Governor of New York, Sir Frederick 
 Pollock, and Charles A. Dana, editor of 
 the New York Sun. These names may 
 suffice to illustrate how stimulating the 
 life of a University and especially the life 
 in the President's home are made by the 
 guests who come to lend inspiration to 
 the Institution. 
 
 [254] 
 
JAMES B. AN CELL 
 
 In considering the relation of the Uni- 
 versity to the State, I have always had two 
 great ends in view^ 
 
 First: I have endeavoured to induce 
 every citizen to regard himself as a stock- 
 holder in the Institution, who had a real 
 interest in helping make it of the greatest 
 service to his children and those of his 
 neighbours. 
 
 Secondly: I have sought to make all the 
 schools and teachers in the State understand 
 that they and the University are parts of 
 one united svstem and that therefore the 
 young pupil in the most secluded school 
 house in the State should be encouragixl to 
 see that the path was open from his home 
 up to and through the University. 
 
 The prosperity and usefulness of the 
 University are due to the fact that these 
 objects have been in a fair degree ac- 
 complished. 
 
 Although some State Universities were 
 founded before ours, owing to the fact tliat 
 the University of Michigan at an earlier 
 date than any of the others secured a very 
 large attendance in all three of its (le])art- 
 ments, its influence in the develoj)ment of 
 all the rest has been very great. No small 
 portion of my correspondence has been 
 devoted to explaining to other univer- 
 
 [255] 
 
REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 sities our methods and the reasons of our 
 comparative success. I have been called to 
 expound the principles on which Michigan 
 has proceeded in building up its University 
 to most of the States which have estab- 
 lished their Universities. 
 
 Far be it from me to claim undue credit 
 for the success of the Institution. Rather 
 do I desire to speak of it with gratitude 
 that I have been permitted to be so long 
 associated with it in its days of prosperity. 
 It has been a singular good fortune to be 
 allowed to work with so many excellent 
 men in the Board of Regents and in the 
 Faculties and to come in touch with so 
 many students who have gone forth to 
 careers of usefulness in all parts of the 
 world. 
 
 The life of the President of a college or 
 university is often spoken of as a hard 
 and trying life. A laborious life with its 
 anxieties it is. But I have found it a 
 happy life. The satisfactions it has brought 
 to me are quite beyond my deserts. The 
 recognition of the value of my services 
 w^hich has come to me in these recent 
 days from regents, colleagues, graduates, 
 and undergraduates humbles me while it 
 gratifies me. 
 
 And one acknowledgment I desire above 
 [256] 
 
JAMES B. ANGELL 
 
 all to make. If I have had any success in 
 my career, especially in the achninist ration 
 of the two universities, it has been hirgcly 
 due to the social tact and wise and untiring 
 co-operation of my dear wife. 
 
 In January, 1905, though not conscious 
 that I had lost my physical or mental 
 ability to discharge satisfactorily the duties 
 of my office I tendered to the Regents my 
 resignation, because I had observed that 
 some men on reaching my age were not 
 aware of infirmities which in the opinion 
 of others disqualified them for continu- 
 ing to hold responsible positions. The 
 Board in very courteous terms dechned to 
 accept it. 
 
 But in February, 1909, having reached 
 the age of fourscore, I renewed my request 
 to be released under the conviction that 
 notwithstanding the good health which had 
 been granted to me, it was better for the 
 University to call some younger man to my 
 place. They kindly acceded to my request, 
 asking me to accept the title of President 
 Emeritus, to receive a generous salary, and 
 to retain my residence in the President's 
 house. I cannot be too grateful for what 
 they have done to cheer my pathway 
 through the remaining years of my life. I 
 can thus hope to spend the days allotted 
 
 [257] 
 
 18 
 
REMINISCENCES OF 
 
 to me near to them, to my beloved col- 
 leagues in the Faculties, and to the great 
 company of students whose presence has 
 long been, and still is, one of my great 
 delights. 
 
 THE END 
 
 [258] 
 

 LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
 
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