A life of Francis Parkman

Front matter

A LIFE

A LIFE

OP

Preface

The chief interest of Francis Parkman's life was not his connection with the great events, important questions, or celebrated people of his time, his life being singularly devoid of external and tangible elements available for a biography. The main attraction of the subject lies in his picturesque, manly character, his inspiring example of fortitude and perseverance, and his training and achievements as historian. As a man he was even greater and more interesting than his work. It is therefore the man himself that I have tried to keep everywhere in view, as the chief object among the experiences of his somewhat uneventful life.

This purpose early brought on a conflict between a sentiment and a conviction, — respect for Parkman's extreme reserve and a belief that this must be ignored by his biographer. He never admitted any one to his inner life, nor did anything to make himself known to the public ;

viii PREFACE

on the contrary he greatly preferred retirement, and believed that the public had no legitimate concern with the private life and character of an artist. It is clearly out of accord with his nature and feelings to write a biography of him worth the reading, and many may suppose that to lift the veil ever so little would be entirely against his wishes. Yet good reasons have led me in this memoir to be as explicit and intimate as possible.

First, I do not agree with him that the public has no concern with the private life and character of the artist. No man, in any form of activity, can elude his personal equation, or produce work that is disconnected from its helping and hindering forces. As the artist thus depends on the man, a knowledge of the man is the indispensable key to his productions. While living the artist has an undoubted right to his retirement ; it may even be indispensable to his free activity. But after he has left us, there is nothing but benefit in making known the qualities and defects, the capacities and limitations from which his works took their birth. What perfection of senses had he for perceiving men and things ? To what degree did his health affect his sensuous and mental activities ? What were the nature and trend of his intellectual faculties ? What powers of sympathy or imagi-

PREFACE ix

nation secured his intimate relations with his work? What were the force and range of his moral sensibilities ? These are among the most vital questions in estimating an artist's labors, and they can be answered by studying his character in the numerous relations of life, far better than by considering only his productions. A perfect biography would be the strongest testimony a sound reputation could ask, or a false one could fear.

Second, Parkman gave an example in his own person of the utmost thoroughness and sincerity. I am convinced that he would desire his biography to be written, if at all, in the frankest way. Also, he has put himself on record in two autobiographic letters, as if wishing to make his experience useful to any student who should meet with unusual difficulties. To this end he wrote of his conditions and trials with a fulness that he never even approached in daily intercourse with friends. Finally, there is nothing to hide in writing Parkman' s life, and it would thus appear that his biography should be as free as was his character from all shams and concealment.

The materials for a life of him are extraordinarily scanty. When I began the work he seemed to me almost a mythological person, so little matter was there sufficiently interesting for

X PREFACE

publication. Being obliged to save his strength and sight for historical labors, he wrote very few letters, diaries, or papers of general interest. Moreover, while his external life was too uneventful to serve as the main dependence, his real inner life was never revealed to any one. Nor is it easy to show his personality in his works, for they are singularly impersonal ; he kept to the facts of the story, avoiding all expression of his philosophy, tastes, opinions, or feelings. Furthermore, he felt little sympathy with the political, social, religious, or other reforms of his time ; and though his views were very decided, he seldom had eyesight or strength to expend in opposing these movements. Again, he held but little intercourse with noted people. The singular lack of personal elements in his life thus made it impracticable to paint him in a picture of his times surrounded by important characters. He could be presented only as he was — a solitary, often a pathetic, figure in the silence and shadow of his study. And in turning thus to the most interior source of interest — the growth of his mental and moral nature — there was yet found comparatively little to say ; for his opinions, tastes, and character were formed when quite young, his inelastic, conservative nature changed but little with the passage of years, and he left no

PREFACE XI

autobiographic record of the forces and methods concerned in this development. Then, partly because he was not one of those men who say and do quotable things, reminiscences of his friends were somewhat disappointing. They could give few anecdotes, few witticisms, few important thoughts, few noteworthy actions. And lastly, my own personal intercourse with him seemed too brief to justify his family in selecting me as his biographer. Our acquaintance began in 1885, and my departure from Boston in 1890 put a stop to our social relations. In common with all his friends I often regretted that his illness made frequent visits impossible. I enjoyed, however, one exceptional privilege and opportunity, in camping with him for a month on the Batiscan river, near Quebec — a good occasion for getting data and impressions of value.

But all these unfortunate hindrances to a complete knowledge of him were to some extent offset by the strong picturesqueness of the man, and by the distinct self-revelations made by his unconscious, perhaps unwilling, pen.

My thanks are due, first of all, to Mr. Parkman's family, from whom I have received all possible aid. I should like also to express my gratitude to his many friends, both classmates and those of later years, who have in different xiv PREFACE

" Vassall Morton." '' The Oregon Trail " gives some striking scenes in liis life, — the last of the manly adventures he loved so much, and that he gave up only on account of his subsequent infirmities. The prefaces to certain of his books contain personal references of value, especially as to the difficulties and methods connected with the writings of the histories ; while his few miscellaneous articles, on Universal Suffrage, on Woman Suffrage, on Our Common Schools, give direct glimpses on important lines of his thought and feeling.

A word may be said about the plan of this memoir. As in the case of many other scholars, Parkman's external life was unimportant compared with the more interior interests of his education, his method of work, his historical productions, and the growth of his character. It seemed advisable, therefore, to depart from the tradition that accepts chronological narrative as the backbone of biography. I have tried to simplify the reader's labor and gain vividness of portraiture, by confining chronology chiefly to one chapter, thenceforth viewing facts and experiences as bearing mainly on achievement and development. This method naturally leads to some repetitions and returns ; but it enables one to bring many of the details of mere biograpliy into closer and more significant relations with

PREFACE XV

the deeper interests of life. The hasty reader, however, may be somewhat misled by some of these repetitions. As the frequency with which the subject's limitations are brought up is somewhat unusual in biography, he may attribute to them undue importance because of mere iteration. But they are repeated only when they are necessary in the treatment of successive topics. They should be viewed as shadows needed to bring out the modelling and maintain, at every point, fidelity of portraiture. The book naturally divides itself into three parts: (1) Parkman's preparation, (2) the reflection of his personality in his works, and (3) the story of his moral growth.

Silver Bay, Lake George, June, 1900.

CONTENXa

Page Introductort 1

Chronological . . , n

Part I. Preparation 42

" II. Parkman as seen in his Works . . 139

" III. Spiritual Growth .... 298

Appendix A ... 859

Index 879

A LIFE

OF

A LIFE OF

Chapter I

If we seek to trace Francis Parkman's individuality to its source in any of his ancestors, we shall be disappointed. Whether regarded as the outcome of his antecedents or as a member of his community, he was an original man, marked indeed by some of the strongest antipathies for the nature, training, and pursuits of his progenitors. Like many other distinguished New Englanders, he sprang from a clerical family, all members of the early Puritan colonies. Many of them were people of energy, capacity, and position ; a goodly number were scholars and divines graduated from Harvard College.^

1 Mr. Parkman's descent in the paternal line, through eight generations, is as follows :

1. Thomas Parkman, of Sidniouth, Devon, England.

2. Elias Parkman, born in England, settled in Dorchester, Massachusetts,

1633, married Bridget .

3. Elias, b. in Dorchester, Mass., 1635, m. Sarah Trask, of Salem.

4. William, b. in Salem, Mass., 1658, m. Eliza Adams, of Boston.

6. Ebenezer, b. in Boston, 1703, minister at Westborough, Mass., m, (2d) Hannah Breck.

Parkman's great-grandfather, the Rev. Ebenezer Parkman, a graduate of Harvard, 1721, was a man of note. " He is spoken of as a good example of the New England minister of the olden time. He magnified his calling, and was careful not to lower its dignity, wielding almost despotic power with firmness guided by discretion and tempered with kindness. He was largely concerned in making the history of the town, and also in writing it. The records of the church were kept by him on diminutive pages and in a microscopic hand during the whole of his pastorate. He also kept during the same period a private diary written in the same almost undecipherable characters. A portion of this diary is preserved in the library of the American Antiquarian Society

6. Samuel, b. in Westborough, m. (2d) Sarah Rogers.

7. Francis, b. in Boston, 1788, m. (2d) Caroline Hall.

8. Francis, b. in Boston, 1823.

The following is his descent on the mother's side, through the same number of generations, from John Cotton :

1. John Cotton, b. in England, 1585, m. (2d) Sarah Hankredge, of

Boston, England, widow of William Story. Came to Boston, 1633.

2. John Cotton, b. in Boston, Mass., 1639, m. Joanna Rossiter.

3. Rowland Cotton, b, in Plymouth, 1667, ni. Elizabeth Saltonstall,

widow of Rev. John Denison.

4. Joanna Cotton, b. in Sandwich, 1719, m. Rev. John Bro^vn, of

Haverhill, Mass. (H. C. 1714).

5. Abigail Brown, b. in , m. Rev. Edward Brooks, of Medford.

6. Joanna Cotton Brooks, b. in , 1772, m. Nathaniel Hall, of

Medford.

7. Caroline Hall, b. in Medford, 1794, m. Rev. Francis Parkman, of

Boston.

8. Francis Parkman, b. in Boston, 1823.

(From Memoir of Francis Parkman, by Edward Wheelwright, in Publications of the Colonial Society of Massachusetts, vol. i. pp. 304-305.)

at Worcester; other portions have been distributed among his descendants. Its quaint humor was a never-ceasing delight to his great-grandson, the historian." ^

This excellent divine was worthy of the colonial times, not only for his masterful spirit, but also in being the father of sixteen children. His third son, William, was the boy of seventeen who is mentioned by Lowell, and who at Ticonderoga, in 1758, as Parkman tells us, " kept in liis knapsack a dingy little notebook in which he jotted down what passed each day." Another son, Breck, was one of the minute men who marched from Westborough on the 19th of April, 1775.

Samuel Parkraan, the twelfth child of this minister, was the grandfather of the historian. He came to Boston as a poor boy, and by his assiduity and talent rose to eminence and opulence among the merchants of Boston. He wds a liberal benefactor of Harvard University.

The Rev. Francis Parkman, father of the historian, was born in Boston in 1788, graduated from Harvard in 1807, received the degree of Sanctce Theologice Doctor in 1843, and was installed in 1813 as pastor of the New North Church in Boston, corner of Hanover and Clark streets. This charge he retained to the end of his pastorate in 1849. From 1819 to 1849 he was one of the Overseers of Harvard University. He added a donation to his father's gift to the College,

^ Mr. Wheehvright's Memoir.

and thus helped to found the Parkman Professorship of Theology. As a student he showed " a strong desire for knowledge and an aptitude to avail himself of all means which presented for general improvement." ^

''Every aspect of suffering touched him tenderly. There was no hard spot in his breast. His house was the centre of countless mercies to various forms of want; and there were few solicitors of alms, local or itinerant, and whether for private necessity or public benefactions, that his doors did not welcome and send away satisfied. The processes of his mind were practical, however, rather than speculative. His style was not wanting in force, but distinguished rather for clearness and ease. For many years he has been widely known and esteemed for his efficient interest in some of our most conspicuous and useful institutions of philanthropy. Harvard University . . . was very near to his heart, and its concerns touched his personal pride." ^

Another writer says of him :

"Whether he conversed on theology or politics or manners or individual character, or recorded some sad or pleasant experience of his own, the wise and genial humorist was always observable, softening, enlivening, enriching everything he touched; his practical discernments were so sure and keen, his knowledge of the world was so extensive and his perception of character and motives was so quick and deep that it was impossible to impose on him by any pretense or deception." ^

3 Edwin P. Whipple.

Lowell says of him : ^

''He still survives in traditions of an abundant and exquisite humor, provoked to wilder hazards, and set in stronger relief (as in Sterne) by the decorum of his cloth."

His genial temper, however, was often shadowed by attacks of melancholy. In spite of a nature that was generous, free even to eccentricity in certain directions, he was very conservative in feeling and opinions, — an excellent Bostonian of those days.

When he died, in 1852, the Boston Association celebrated him as "one who loved his calling and discharged all its duties with untiring devote dness. As a preacher he was practical and evangelical ; as a pastor tender and affectionate. He was a man of active and useful charities, a friend to learning, a punctual member or an energetic officer of many literary, philanthropic, and religious associations, as well as a true friend of the worthy poor." One of the best tributes paid to him was Dr. Ephraim Peabody's saying that he was particularly kind to the unattractive. And finally, it is pleasant to add that "He was a kind and indulgent father, and though he did not sympathize with all his son's aspirations and pursuits, he never thwarted or opposed them." 2

Francis Parkman's maternal branch sprang from the good old Puritans, John Cotton of Boston and of Plymouth. His great-grandfather was the Rev.

1 The Century, November, 1892.

2 Mr. Wheelwright's Memoir.

6 A LIFE OF FRAXCIS PARIQIAT!!

Edward Brooks, of Medford, Massachusetts, who graduated at Harvard in 1757, and was " called to the church at North Yarmouth, Maine, where, however, he remained only five years, having been dismissed on account of his too liberal views." ^ This is the only person among Parkman's ancestors who is mentioned as having liberal tendencies. " On the 19th of April, 1775, he went over to Lexington, on horseback, with his gun on his shoulder, and in his full-bottomed wig."^ His chief exploit on that eventful day appears to have been saving the life of a wounded British officer. Parkman records that through the sister of Peter Chardon Brooks he himself shared in the Huguenot blood that often played so prominent a part in the history of New England.

Parkman derived more traits from his mother than from any other of his ancestors. She was Caroline, daughter of Nathaniel Hall, of Medford, Massachusetts. Mr. Frothingham wrote of her : ^ " She was a fine example of the best type of New England woman . . . She was a Unitarian by inheritance, but quite uninterested in speculative or dogmatic matters. With questions of doctrine she did not concern herself, and took no part in the controversies that were raging around her, though she had a profound respect for spiritual things and an undoubting faith in the cardinal principles of religion. Her devotion

1 Mr. Wheelwright's Memoir.

" Peter Chardon Brooks.

3 Francis Parkman, by the Rev. O. B. Frothingham, Boston, 1894. Proceedings of the Hist. Soc. of Mass., vol. viii. p. 521.

to her husband and children was with her a sacred duty. Humility, charity, truthfulness were her prime characteristics. Her conscience was firm and lofty, though never austere. She had a strong sense of right, coupled with perfect charity toward other people ; inflexible in principle, she was gentle in practice. Intellectually she could hardly be called brilliant or accomplished, but she had a strong vein of common sense and practical wisdom, great penetration into character, and a good deal of quiet humor." And Miss Parkman says of her : " She had a strong unselfish and gentle nature, a calm and steady temperament, with deep feeling, yet great,

thoug-h never cold reserve. She had abundant comes

mon sense and excellent judgment, great penetration in discerning character, shrewd and humorous, but never sharp in her criticism of it. She was too retiring and self-distrustful to share her husband's marked social tastes, but in her large circle of friends and relations she was a great favorite. She was very simple in her tastes, loved her home, and never wanted to leave it, and was its centre, the sure and loving dependence of all in it. The strength and sweetness of her nature were all expressed in her face. Whatever characteristics Frank inherited from his parents came from her. He was like her in many ways, and the expression of his face grew more and more like hers. She had, I think, always a peculiar tenderness toward him, her oldest child." Mrs. Parkman brought into the family most fortunate elements, — a mental steadiness and moral earnestness that elevated and purified as much as it sweetened.

This superficial account of Parkman's ancestry, is, however, almost useless, nor would a much fuller one help us where we most desire help, — in comprehending the personality we are about to study ; our data and insight are still utterly inadequate to a solution of the mysteries of heredity, and we cannot trace many of Parkman's peculiarities to their sources. Yet there is a certain interest, if no certain knowledge, in these glimpses ; they enable us to mark some traits that might be overlooked without such hints to arouse and direct curiosity. They will enable us to see how vigorously and independently he disagreed with many of the tendencies and traditions of his family ; how, on the other hand, he faithfully adhered to many of them ; and again, how he often wished to free himself from some of the most fundamental inherited forces of his character.

A biography to be worth anything should have its basis in a thorough knowledge of the subject's character, since all the practical accomplishments of his life spring from that source. The fundamentals of his physical and mental being are the only keys to his aims, tastes, abilities, limitations, and achievements. We need these keys at the start, justly to appreciate, as we go along, the life to be described. Parkman's physical organism was strangely compounded of strength and weakness. It lacked that equilibrium of forces which secures health and makes consecutive labor possible. His eyes failed him in college, and ever afterwards refused their usual service ; his brain was affected by some disorder that limited, and often entirely prevented intellectual activity; in short, he had to endure a great deal of pain and suffering nearly all his life. In the intimate question of the body's relation to mental action, it must be noted that his senses were not highly developed ; he was more or less insensible to delicate impressions from sound, color, odors, taste, and touch. His pliysical organism thus imposed on him many limitations, although it gave him the advantages of exceptional energy, a great love of activity, and a very tenacious vitality and power of endurance.^

The mental make-up of the man corresponded with his physical development, his character being marked by a few simple and elementary powers rather than by delicacy, subtlety, and variety of sensibilities and emotions. His entire personality was moulded by the master quality of manliness. Impetuosity, courage, honesty, energy, reserve, a practical turn of mind, and an iron will were his chief forces. A lack

1 " In personal appearance Mr. Parkman was distinctly notice able. He was about five feet eleven in height, square-shouldered, and firm-set. He had a strong, clear-cut face, always closely shaved, with a chin and jaw of marked vigor of outline. His forehead was rugged and broad ; his whole carriage and expression was that of a modest but resolute man, capable, spite of whatever drawbacks and infirmities, of hard work and the persistent prosecution of difficult undertakings." (E. L. Godkin, in the New York Evening Post, Nov. 9, 1893.)

of certain elements of spirituality constituted his cMef defect ; a matter to be more fully dwelt on in a later chapter.

These, then, were the raw materials of the human entity, Francis Parkman — the marble that his gifts, ambition, and experience were to carve into the historian, the citizen, the friend, the father.

Chapter II

Feancis Paekman", eldest son of the Rev. Francis Parkman and Caroline (Hall) Parkman, was born in Boston, Mass., on the 16th of September, 1823. He was born in a house that still exists, though much altered, — the " Lyndhurst," No. 4A AUston Street. About 1829 the family moved to No. 1 Green Street, where they resided until about 1838, when they took possession of the house that Samuel Parkman, the historian's grandfather, had built for himself. This stately colonial mansion, No. 5 Bowdoin Square, was one of the landmarks of Boston.

"It was an excellent specimen of the Colonial residences once so common in and around Boston, a large square house, three stories in height, and built of brick. . . . Within was a fine entrance hall, and a noble staircase with spiral balusters. When the house was demolished the historian caused these balusters to be removed, and placed on the stairs of the house which he built for bimself at Jamaica Plain. . . . There was a 'front yard' enclosed by a light and simple iron fence with tall square pillars at the corners. In the rear was a large paved courtyard, and beyond that, where the land sloped rapidly to the north, a garden, divided into terraces, one below the otber, and devoted to the cultivation of fruits rather than of flowers. The flavor of a certain choice variety of bergamot pear which grew there still lingers in the memory of those who were ever so fortunate as to taste it." 1

Later we see Parkman as a child from eight to thirteen years of age, living on his grandfather's farm at Medford, where he developed his love of nature byroaming the woods of the Middlesex Fells; and again as a schoolboy, serious over his books in the Chauncy Hall School, or with equal earnestness studying nature more intimately in chemistry and the natural sciences.

In 1840 he entered Harvard College in the class of '44. During his college course he devoted himself with ardor and concentration to his special interests, — the study of rhetoric and history, the pursuit of physical development, and a knowledge of the American wilderness. His diaries of these years enable us to follow his vacation trips to the wilds of New England and localities of historical interest; but no record offers much information as to the formative forces of his life. In his freshman year he "chummed" with his classmate Benjamin Apthorp Gould in No. 9 Hoi worthy Hall. After that he had a room to himself, — a condition better suited to his reserved and studious nature. When sophomore he lived at Mrs. Aj^ers's on the corner of Garden Street and the Appian Way ; in the junior year he lived in 1 Wheelwright.

24 Massachusetts Hall, during the senior year in 21 of the same building.

For the first year of his law course, 1844-5, he occupied No. 7 Divinity Hall ; after that date he generally lived with his parents, until his marriage in 1850.

It was in 1841 that he began the researches and experiences that were to fit him for his work, making his first trip to the wilderness with Daniel D. Slade, passing through Portsmouth to Alton, thence along Lake Winnipesaukee to Centre Harbor; on to the Notch and up Mount Washington; thence to ^f'ranconia Notch, Lancaster, Colebrook, Dixville Notch, thence to the Androscoggin river near the mouth of the Magalloway, and up this river to its junction with the Little Magalloway.

The next year, in company with Henry Orne White, he made a second trip to the Magalloway. They passed through Albany, Saratoga, and Glens Falls to Lake George. After studying the battlefields about Caldwell they hired a rowboat and spent a week camping along the shores of the lake, — fishing, shooting, climbing mountains, and hunting rattlesnakes. At Sabbath Day Point he tarried a day to gather from an old Revolutionary pensioner, Captain Patchen, traditions connected with the region. After a careful examination of Ticonderoga the two crossed Lake Champlain to Burlington, and there began their walk to Canada and the head-waters of the Magalloway. They passed through Essex, Jericho,

Underhill, Cambridge, Johnson, Troy, Stanstead, Barnston and Canaan, and finally reached Connecticut Lake. From this point onward their journey is described in " Harper's Magazine " for November, 1864. Parkman often expressed a particular fondness for Lake George ; it was perhaps, after his home, the corner of the earth most dear to him. As the object of his fu'st literary pilgrimage, it stirred his imagination strongly both by its beautiful scenery and its exceptional wealth of historical traditions.

In the winter vacation of 1843 he visited his classmates Hale and Perry, at Keene, N. H.

' ' It was doubtless with recollections of this visit and of others in his mind, that in the last published volume of his histories, Parkman speaks of Keene as ' a town noted in rural New England for kindly hospitality, culture without pretence, and good breeding without conventionality.' ^ His two classmates were not the only acquaintances he had in this delightful New Hampshire town. Two years before, while with Slade in the White Mountains, he had fallen in with a lively party of travellers from this place, and one young lady in particular had charmed him by the laughing philosophy' with which she had taken ' a ducking' in his company while passing through the Notch on the stage and in a pouring rain. Still more was he pleased by the * strength and spirit and good-humor ' she had shown in the ascent of Mount Washington. With this lady, who afterwards married a distinguished citizen of her native State, ^ Parkman kept up a lifelong friendship."

1 A Half Century, vol. ii. p. 230. '^ Wheelwright

There is no reference in diaries or letters of 1843 to any journey to the wilderness. But he made a trip to Canada for historical materials, examining again on the way the battlefields of Lake George and Lake Champlain, going on to St. Johns and Chambly, and visiting Montreal. He gathered notes of the Hope Gate and other important localities at Quebec, and on his way back to Boston through the White Mountains, noted many stories of frontier life and border warfare. Perhaps it was at this time that he made the trip to which he refers in " Montcalm and Wolfe " :

<' I once, when a college student, followed on foot the route of Rogers from Lake Memphremagog to the Connecticut."

He then went to Maine to study the Indians near Bansror and to collect the traditions of their wars with the Mohawks. This vacation was evidently something else than the collegian's usual season of idleness. This nineteenth summer of his life, the beginning of his exclusive devotion to historical labors, witnessed the birth of the deep enthusiasm that later overcame such remarkable obstacles, and infused his persistent industry with heroism.

In September he visited Europe, making the tour we shall follow in his diaries.

In 1844, after a creditable though not brilliant college career, he graduated from Harvard and entered the Harvard Law School.

" He was a member, while in college, of the Institute of 1770, of the I. 0. H., of the Hasty Pudding Club, — of which he was successively Vice-President and President, — of the Harvard Natural History Society, — of which he was Corresponding and Recording Secretary and Curator of Mineralogy, — of the C. C. or Chit-Chat, of the short-lived E. T. D., and of the Phi Beta Kappa." ^