Part 14

Vom Vater hab ich die Statur, Des Lebens ernstes Fuhren, Vom Mutterchen die Frohnatur Und Lust zum Fabuliren.

His father had him educated for the study of law. In his sixteenth year he was sent to the University at Leipzig. Later he went to Strasburg, where he became acquainted with the poet Herder, and had his first love affair with Friederike Brion of Sesenheim, whose charm has been kept alive in Goethe's autobiography, "Dichtung und Wahrheit." In 1772 he returned to Frankfort and practiced law. While thus engaged he wrote his first romantic-historical play, "Goetz von Berlichingen." In the following year he published his sentimental romance, "The Sorrows of Werther," based in a measure on one of his own unfortunate love affairs at Wetzlar. Both of these early works achieved instant success. "The Sorrows of Werther" inaugurated in German literature what is known as the period of storm and stress. Disenchantment of life, or "Weltschmerz," became a fashionable malady. The romantic suicide of Goethe's sentimental hero Werther was aped by a number of over-susceptible young persons. Wieland drew the attention of the Duke of Weimar to Goethe, and the young poet was invited to Weimar. He remained under the patronage of this enlightened prince until the end of his days. At Weimar, Goethe was the centre of a court comprising some of the foremost spirits of Germany. The little capital became a Mecca for poets, scholars, artists and musicians from all over the world. Goethe's only rival poet in Germany, Schiller, was drawn into the circle and the two became life-long friends. Most of Goethe's lyric poems were written during the first ten years at Weimar. At the outbreak of the French Revolution he accompanied the Duke of Weimar in one of the campaigns against France. The thrilling atmosphere of the Revolution furnished him with a literary background for his epic idyl, "Hermann und Dorothea." Goethe's subsequent journey to Italy, which was a turning-point in the poet's career, was commemorated in his "Letters from Italy"--a classic among German books of travel. Another eminently successful creation was the epic of "Reynard, the Fox," modelled after the famous bestiary poems of early Flemish and French literature.

During the same period Goethe wrote four of his greatest dramas, "Iphigenie in Tauris," "Torquato Tasso," "Egmont," and the first part of "Faust." Later he wrote his great prose work, "Die Wahlverwandtschaften," a quasi-physiological romance; "Wilhelm Meister's Lehr und Wander Jahre," a narrative interspersed with some of Goethe's finest lyrics, such as the songs of Mignon and of the old harper, as well as the famous critique of Hamlet. The height of Goethe's superb prose style was reached in "Dichtung und Wahrheit," which stands as one of the most charming autobiographies of all times. Goethe's versatility as a writer and man was shown not only by his free use of all literary forms, but also by his essays on such abstruse subjects as astrology, optics, the theory of color, comparative anatomy and botany. Shortly before his death, the poet finished the greatest of his works, the tragedy "Faust." He died in the eighty-third year of his life, uttering the words "More Light." Goethe was entombed in the ducal vault at Weimar, by the side of his friends, Friedrich Schiller and Carl August of Weimar.

Like Heine, Goethe offended his fellow Germans by his apparent lack of purely national and patriotic sentiments. To the present day his outspoken admiration of Napoleon and his cold abstention from the ardent enthusiasm of the Prussian war of Liberation have not been forgiven by certain Germans. As a man, Goethe has been denounced as an egotist, for the apparently selfish character of his relations with women, ending with his marriage to a woman far below him. On the other hand, Goethe must be regarded as the most universal literary genius produced by Germany. He stands in line with those master spirits of all ages, Homer, Virgil, Dante, Cervantes, Shakespeare and Molière.

A few months after the death of Goethe, in September, Sir Walter Scott died in England. Goethe was accustomed to speak of Scott as "the greatest writer of his time." Shortly before his death Goethe said: "All is great in Scott's 'Waverley Novels'--material, effect, characters and execution." Scott himself derived much of his inspiration from Goethe's writings. One of his earliest works was a translation of "Goetz von Berlichingen." The creation of Mignon, in "Wilhelm Meister," furnished Scott with the character of Fenella in his "Peveril of the Peak." Scott began his career as a writer with a translation of Buerger's "Ballads." His most successful metrical pieces, "The Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border," "The Lay of the Last Minstrel," "Marmion," and "The Lady of the Lake," for the most part appeared during the opening years of the Nineteenth Century. Then came the great series of the "Waverley Novels," named after the romance of "Waverley," published anonymously in 1814. The series comprised such classics as "Guy Mannering," "The Heart of Midlothian," "Kenilworth," "Quentin Durward," and "Ivanhoe." Scott's historical romances, based as they were on painstaking researches into old chronicles, revived in Englishmen an interest in their own past. The romance of the Middle Ages was recognized for the first time, if in an exaggerated degree, throughout the civilized world. The romantic movement in French literature, now in full swing, was directly inspired by Scott. Notwithstanding his great success as a writer, Scott's later career was clouded by difficulties and debt. Through his friendship with Canning early in his career he obtained the post of court clerk in Edinburgh. This left him leisure to edit a number of literary works, such as the editions of Swift, Dryden and Sir Tristan. The great popular success of his novels soon made him rich. His hospitality at Abbotsford grew so lavish that in order to defray his expenses he joined in a financial partnership with his publishers. The failure of the Bank of Constable, in 1826, and the consequent failure of the house of Ballantyne, ruined Scott. His debts amounted to £117,000. In his efforts to earn enough money wherewith to pay this enormous sum, Scott became a literary drudge. It was at this time that he wrote his seven-volume history of the life of Napoleon Bonaparte, "Tales of a Grandfather," and a two-volume "History of Scotland." His work as a historian was by no means equal to that of his purely literary creations. In 1830, as the result of overwork, Sir Walter Scott suffered from a stroke of paralysis. A journey to Italy brought no relief. Two years later he died. He was buried at Dryburgh Abbey. For several generations after his death Scott remained one of the most popular authors of England.

A remarkable instance of good resulting from evil was afforded this year by the revolting murders committed by Burke and Hare in Edinburgh. These two men deliberately killed a number of persons to sell their bodies to medical dissecters. The discovery of their crimes led to a Parliamentary investigation in the course of which Sir Astley Cooper boldly stated that any man's body could be obtained in the United Kingdom if enough money were offered. The scandal resulted in the passage of an Anatomy Act licensing the traffic in human bodies within strict limitations. Before this reform surgeons experimenting in human anatomy had to rely on body-snatchers for their material. The repeal of the old laws on this subject removed much of the odium hitherto attached to the science of dissection, while the increase of experimental material gave a fresh impetus to the study of anatomy.

A menace to the royal crown of France was removed by the death of Napoleon's son, the young Duke of Reichstadt, erstwhile King of Rome. He expired at Schoenbrunn, after an empty life spent under Metternich's tutelage in Vienna, and was buried there. His death at the time was commemorated in the famous German ballad, beginning with the lines:

In the gardens of Schoenbrunn Lies buried the King of Rome.

The French playwright Rostand made the life and death of this unfortunate Prince the subject of a romantic tragedy "The Eaglet," in which Sarah Bernhardt achieved so striking a success at the close of the Nineteenth Century.

The removal of another menace to Louis Philippe's throne was accompanied by circumstances less tragic. In April, the Duchesse de Berry, wearying of her exile, crossed over to Marseilles and travelled thence in disguise to Château Plassac, in the Vendée, where she summoned the Royalists to arms. She was betrayed into the hands of constables sent to arrest her, and was placed in safe keeping at Château Blaye on an island in the Gironde. The affair took an awkward turn for the cause of the Orleanists in France, when the Duchess gave birth to an infant daughter, whose parentage she found it difficult to explain. Next, the death of General Lamarque, a popular soldier of France, started an insurrection at Paris in the summer. An attempt was made to build barricades, and conflicts occurred in the streets, but the National Guard remained true to the army and the King, and the revolt was soon put down. The government of Louis Philippe resorted to severe repressive measures, and trials for sedition were common. In Germany a revolutionary appeal to arms, made at a popular festival at the Castle of Homburg, near Zweibrücken, resulted in renewed reactionary measures. The German Diet, at the instance of Metternich, declared that the refusal of taxes by any legislature would be treated as an act of rebellion. All political meetings and associations were forbidden and the public press was gagged.

The excesses of Dom Miguel's followers in Portugal were followed by more serious international results. A series of wanton attacks upon foreign subjects in Lisbon called for outside intervention. English and French squadrons appeared in the Tagus. Lord Palmerston, the British Foreign Secretary, declared himself satisfied after Portugal had apologized and paid an indemnity to the British sufferers. The French admiral, unable to obtain quick redress, carried off the best ships of the Portuguese navy. The worst result for Dom Miguel was the foreign encouragement given to his brother, Emperor Pedro of Brazil, who was preparing an expedition against him in the Azores. Some of the best British naval officers and veterans of the Peninsular War were permitted to enlist under Dom Pedro's banner. Captain Charles Napier took charge of Dom Pedro's navy. In July a landing was made near Oporto, and that important city was captured by Dom Pedro's forces. Dom Miguel was constrained to lay siege to Oporto. Thus the civil war in Portugal dragged on.

The most formidable revolt of the year was that of Mehemet Ali, the Viceroy of Egypt, against his suzerain, Sultan Mahmoud of Turkey. The disappointing results of Egypt's participation in Turkey's war in Greece left Mehemet Ali dissatisfied. He considered the acquisition of Crete by Egypt but a poor recompense for the loss of his fleet at Navarino.

A quarrel with the Pasha of Acre, Abdallah, gave Mehemet Ali a chance for Egyptian aggrandizement in that direction. Egyptian forces under the command of Mehemet Ali's adopted son Ibrahim marched into Palestine and laid siege to Acre. That stronghold resisted with the same stubbornness that Bonaparte had encountered years before. The protracted struggle there gave the Sultan time to prepare an expedition wherewith to intervene between his warring vassals. He took the part of the Pasha of Acre. A proclamation was issued declaring Mehemet Ali and his son rebels. A Turkish army under Hussain Pasha entered Syria. The fall of Acre, while the relieving army was still near Antioch, enabled Ibrahim to throw his full force against the Turks. In the valley of the Orontes the two forces met. The Turkish vanguard was routed and the Turkish main column fell back on Aleppo, leaving Antioch and all the surrounding country to the Egyptians. The Pasha of Aleppo, won over by Mehemet Ali, closed the gates of his city against Hussain's disordered forces. The Turks retreated into the mountains between Syria and Cilicia. The Egyptians pursued. At the pass of Beilan a stand was made by Hussain. The fierce mountain tribes turned against him, and with their help Ibrahim won a signal victory over the Turks, on July 29. The retreat continued through Cilicia far into Asia Minor. After several months a new Turkish army under Reshid Pasha, Ibrahim's colleague in the siege of Missolonghi, advanced from the north. A pitched battle was fought at Konieh on the 21st of December. The Turks were utterly routed. The army was dispersed and Reshid himself was made a prisoner. The road to Constantinople now lay open to Mehemet Ali. Sultan Mahmoud was so alarmed that he turned to his old adversary, Russia, for help. General Muravieff was summoned to Constantinople and was empowered to make terms for Turkey with Mehemet Ali.

In America, likewise, President Jackson had found it necessary to assert the rights of the United States by means of a punitive expedition. This grew out of the affair of Quallah Buteau on the Island of Sumatra in the Dutch East Indies. The American ship "Friendship" had put in there during the previous year to load with pepper. The captain, whose men were on shore, permitted the crew of a Malay boat to come on board. There was not a sign of danger, when suddenly the Malays attacked the Americans, killing the first officer and two sailors and plundering the vessel. They then tried to beach the vessel, but two other American ships compelled the Malays to flee. The Rajah of Quallah Buteau appropriated the plunder and refused to return it. Commodore Downs, with the frigate "Potomac," was ordered to Sumatra. He reached there early in February. Finding that nothing could be accomplished by peaceful means he landed two hundred and fifty of his sailors under command of Lieutenant Shubrick. The Malays refused to give or receive quarter. Their palisades were torn down and turned into a bridge, and the fort was stormed. The Stars and Stripes were hoisted. Another fort with its magazines was blown up. The town was occupied. In all one hundred and fifty Malays were killed and wounded, among them the Rajah. The total loss of the Americans was two men. The offending town was razed.

Jackson's domestic policy during this year brought him into conflict with two powerful factors. One was the United States Bank at Philadelphia. Jackson disapproved of the Bank on the ground that it failed to establish a sound and new form of currency. A financial panic had been caused by worthless paper currency issued by so-called "wildcat" banking institutions. A petition for the renewal of the National Bank's charter, which was to expire in 1836, was laid before the Senate. Both Houses passed a bill to that effect. Jackson vetoed it, and a two-thirds vote wherewith to override his veto could not be obtained for the measure. Jackson then ordered the Bank's deposits removed. He read to the Cabinet a long paper, in which he accused the officers of the Bank of mismanagement and corruption, and stated that he would assume the entire responsibility for the removal of the deposits. The Bank made a stubborn fight and spent over $50,000 in defending itself. In the Senate, Benton was the chief opponent of the Bank, and Webster was its principal defender. In December, the President sent a message to Congress recommending the removal of the public funds from the National Bank to certain State banks. Congress refused to remove the funds.

The passage of a new tariff law, on July 14, which was considered harmful to Southern interests, brought the Federal Government into armed conflict with the South. On November 19, a State Convention met at Columbus, South Carolina, in response to a call of the Legislature, and on the 24th a nullification ordinance was adopted. The tariff laws were declared unconstitutional, and therefore "null and void and no law, nor binding upon the State." On December 10, President Jackson issued a proclamation against nullifiers, threatening them with trial for treason. Governor Hamilton of South Carolina in reply warned citizens not to be diverted from their allegiance to their State by this Federal proclamation. Jackson summoned General Scott to Washington and sent a part of the army to Charleston with a ship of war to collect the revenues. On December 28, J.C. Calhoun resigned the office of Vice-President on account of Jackson's proclamation. He was forthwith elected Senator from South Carolina.

It was during this year that renewed troubles with the Seminoles in Florida resulted in one of the most serious Indian wars of the century. By the treaty of Fort Muller, in 1823, the Indians were to be confined to a reservation on the eastern peninsula, but the Territorial Legislature petitioned Congress for their removal. Finally, in 1832, the treaty of Payne's Landing stipulated that seven Seminole chiefs should examine the country assigned to the Creeks west of the Mississippi, and that if they could live amiably with the Creeks, the Seminoles were to be removed within three years, surrendering their lands in Florida, and receiving an annuity of $15,000 and certain supplies. President Jackson sent a commission to the West to convince the seven chiefs that the country was eminently desirable, and a supplementary treaty from these seven was obtained without consulting the rest of the Seminoles. Many Seminoles were opposed to moving West through fear of the Creeks. The Sacs and Foxes and Winnebago Indians of Wisconsin by treaty, in 1830, had ceded their lands to the United States, but they still refused to leave their territory. Governor Reynolds, of Illinois, called out troops to compel them to go to the lands set apart for them, west of the Mississippi. Black Hawk returned, but was again driven off. In 1832 he came back with a thousand warriors and Indian warfare broke out. Generals Scott and Atkinson were sent with troops to Rock Island. It was the first time that a steamboat was used as a military transport. The force was there divided. General Scott could effect nothing, but General Atkinson pushed on, and in August defeated the Indians and took Black Hawk and his two sons prisoners.

In many other ways public attention was engrossed in America. On June 21, the Asiatic cholera appeared in New York with appalling results. The epidemic spread to Philadelphia, Albany, Rochester, and westward. A number of new railroads were opened in New York and Pennsylvania. The first horse-drawn street cars began running in New York. On July 2, the Agricultural Society of New York was founded, and the first public trial was held of Obett Hussy's new reaping machine, which Cyrus MacCormick also claimed as his invention. The device was destined to give a tremendous impetus to agriculture in the development of the western prairies. About the same time the last surviving signer of the Declaration of Independence, Charles Carroll of Maryland, died at the age of ninety-six. In American letters, this year is noted for the appearance of Smith's national anthem, "My Country, 'tis of Thee." Among the books that attracted attention were Whittier's "Moll Pitcher," Sparks's "Gouverneur Morris," and Irving's "Alhambra." James Gordon Bennett began the publication of the "New York Globe."

1833

At the very outset of this year in America the slavery question burst into flame. The abolition movement inaugurated by Garrison and Whittier in the North was in full sway. In the slave-holding States large rewards were offered for the apprehension of Garrison, Whittier and others connected with the publication of the Boston "Liberator," Philadelphia "Freeman" and New York "Emancipator." The legislatures of Northern States were called upon to suppress anti-slavery societies by penal enactments. Governor Edward Everett of Massachusetts and Governor Marcy of New York commended such legislation. Prominent Northern citizens travelling in the South were arrested, imprisoned and flogged for flimsy reasons. At New York, Montpelier, Utica, Boston, Philadelphia, Cincinnati and Alton, meetings were broken up, houses sacked, newspapers destroyed and public halls burned. Berry's "Philanthropist" at Cincinnati and Lovejoy's "Observer" at Alton were destroyed and Pennsylvania Hall at Philadelphia, a costly building intended for anti-slavery discussion, was burned on the day after its dedication, at which a poem by Whittier had been read. The firemen refused to extinguish the flames. In Boston, Garrison was dragged through the streets with a rope around his neck. Whittier and Thompson tried to lecture against slavery in Boston, but their meeting could not be held in the face of the following placard posted in all parts of Boston:

"That infamous foreign scoundrel, Thompson, will hold forth this afternoon at 46 Washington Street. The present is a fair opportunity for the friends of the Union to snake Thompson out. It will be a contest between the Abolitionists and the friends of the Union. A purse of one hundred dollars has been raised by a number of patriotic citizens to reward the individual who shall first lay violent hands on Thompson, so that he may be brought to the tar-kettle before dark. Friends of the Union, be vigilant!"

These events inspired Wendell Phillips, who was present at a meeting in Faneuil Hall, Boston, called to approve these outrages, to take an open stand in favor of the rights of the people, which were threatened, and gave to the cause for thirty years his active brain and eloquent tongue.

As a counterpart to the popular excesses in behalf of slavery, the Catholics of New England had to suffer persecution. At Charlestown, in Massachusetts, a mob burned the Ursuline Convent. Another indignation meeting was held at Faneuil Hall in Boston to denounce this outrage. As a concession to the Southern agitators, the American Congress, on February 26, adopted a so-called "Compromise tariff." The new bill cut down all duties of over twenty per cent by one-tenth of the surplus of each year, so as to bring about a uniform rate of twenty per cent within a decade. On the other hand, Congress passed a "force bill," which empowered the President to execute the revenue laws in South Carolina by force of arms. A State Convention in South Carolina for its part repealed the ordinance of nullification, but proceeded to declare the new Federal force bill null and void.

On May 24, John Randolph of Roanoke, Virginia, a descendant of Pocahontas, died at the age of sixty. He commenced public life in 1799, and served thirty years in Congress. There he became distinguished for his eccentric conduct, his sharpness of wit, and his galling sarcasm, which made him feared by all parties. He had to resign from the Cabinet under odious charges. In 1830, Jackson appointed him Minister to Russia. Randolph's speeches are still widely read.

In the extreme South the American settlers of Texas, aided by Davy Crockett's filibusters from the United States, began a war for independence against Mexico.

The abolition of slavery was likewise the most absorbing topic that came up during this year in the Parliament of England. Young Gladstone, the newly elected member from Newark, taunted with his father's slave-holding methods at Demerara, made his maiden speech in Parliament on this subject. One who heard the rising orator recorded: "Burke himself could not be more sympathetic, more earnest, and more strong." Another engrossing topic was that of Ireland. The state of Ireland at this period, as conceded by a Tory historian of modern England, was a disgrace to the history of the Nineteenth Century. So wretched was the government of this unhappy dependency that during the year 1832 alone nearly 1,500 people were murdered and robbed in Ireland. Instead of giving to Ireland a better administration, Parliament passed another coercion bill. Tithes for the Protestant clergy were collected at the point of the bayonet. The cause of Ireland, as heretofore, was pleaded most eloquently by Daniel O'Connell. He denounced the Irish Church bill as "the basest act which a national assembly could sanction." The people became so enraged that when an Englishman was killed in a riot the coroner's jury returned a verdict of justifiable homicide. The Court of King's Bench quashed the verdict and tried the murderer before a jury. He was acquitted in the face of the clearest proofs against him and in direct contravention of the instructions of the judge. The spirit of the English aristocracy was indicated by the fact that a bill for relieving Jews from their civil disabilities was thrown out by the House of Lords.

On July 26, William Wilberforce died in his seventy-fourth year. He lived long enough to hear that the bill for the abolition of slavery in the British colonies, to which he had devoted the greater part of his life, had passed its second reading, and that success was assured. Of all English advocates of human freedom he was the most persevering and faithful. After a distinguished Parliamentary career of forty-five years, he gave up all political ambitions to devote himself to the cause of humanity and religion. He had been the intimate friend and associate of Pitt, Fox, G. Milner, Brougham and Macaulay. His wish that he be buried simply and privately was not granted by England. He was buried in Westminster Abbey, close to the tombs of Pitt, Fox and Canning. Around his open grave stood the royal dukes of Sussex and Gloucester, the Duke of Wellington, Lord Chancellor Brougham, the venerable Archbishop Howley, with other representatives from the House of Lords and Commons.

It was at this period of the ecclesiastical history of England that the Tractarian Movement began at Oxford. It is a significant fact that the "Tracts for the Times" appeared at Oxford within less than a year after the passage of the Reform Bill. The connection of the two movements has been revealed in Newman's "Apologia Pro Vita Sua." In January, Dr. Arnold, the celebrated headmaster at Rugby, published his "Principles of Church Reform." He aimed at a reunion of all Christians within the pale of a great national church. In the discussion that followed, the foremost spirits were Newman, Froude, Dr. Pusey, and Keble, the sweet singer of the Church of England, whose "Christian Year" will live as long as that Church endures.