Noble living and grand achievement. Giants of the republic, embracing the lives, deeds, and personal traits of eminent statesmen, great generals, noted reformers, successful men of business, distinguished literary men, and famous women

Front matter

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Introduction

BY EDWARD EVERETT HALE, D. D., Author of " The Man Without a Country," etc.

THE history of mankind is made up of the biographies of men. This is a simple enough thing to say, and yet it would seem, from a good many histories, that it had never occurred to their writers.

It is quite certain, however, that we appreciate and understand the history of our race most thoroughly, in those periods where we know of the personal lives of many of the actors. The periods where we do not know anything of individual lives are to us dreary deserts. For instance, it would probably be fair to say that the reason we give the Dark Ages that bad name, is that most of us know little or nothing of the personal movements or of individual lives of men and women in those ages.

The book in the reader's hands is compiled in the effort to bring together the lives of a hundred men and women who have led the United States since the middle of the last century. It is a very remarkable series. The people of the United States in that time have exhibited a genius for the science of government, such as the world has never elsewhere seen. In a hundred and fifty years following the first settlement of these coasts, there grew up on the edge of the Atlantic Ocean thirteen States. At the time of the Revolution these States were strong enough to equip armies and navies, and to defeat George the Third, who supposed that he was the strongest monarch in Europe when the Revolution began. The people in these thirteen States then had to organize forms of government wholly new for themselves and their successors. They took the

EDWARD EVERET traditions and methods which had been developed in a century and a half, they studied with care the history of Europe, and they organized a set of constitutions which have made a new era in the political history of the world. In the first lives in this volume, the authors have tried to give to the careful reader some idea of the make-up of those men who engaged in work so remarkable ; and we shall be disappointed if the American reader does not appreciate more highly the successes of the great founders of the republic, from knowing more intimately the details of their lives and of their education.

It is impossible to say that all these lives differ, in any one essential quality, from lives which have been led under the old civilizations of the European world. But in almost every one of them the reader will find a certain quality which he does not find in the average biography of persons brought up under European forms. If we compare a typical American with a typical European, the contrast is very strong. There is sometimes an American who has been educated in the European forms, and there is sometimes an inhabitant of the old continent who has been educated in unconventional forms, and in such a case the contrast between these two would not be strong. But, speaking in general, we may say that the book in the reader's hands will give him, if he reads it carefully, a good conception of what we mean when we speak of the American type, and so it will perhaps show to him how the history of the world has been affected by that providence which, in the discovery of America, gave white paper for the writing of its history.

The misfortune of most biography is a certain blindness which comes over the writer, when he forgets that his special business is to show his hero to the reader, and that he is not engaged, in the first instance, to give the general history of the hero's time. Even Mr. Irving lapsed here when he wrote his Life of Washington. There are whole chapters of that life in which Washington's name is not mentioned. More than half of it is a history of the United States, for the years when Washington was commander-in-chief of her army, or was President. On the other hand, the value of biography, as the common sense of the world has found out, is in such writing as Plutarch's. It may be doubted whether Plutarch were a very large man ; it is certain that he did not take very noble views, either of man, of God, or of history. But Plutarch had the great art of being entertaining. His speculations may be foolish, but his narrative is interesting. Whoever will carefully study his method, will see that there was perhaps an advantage to Plutarch that he wrote before the days of printing, and, in most cases, some centuries after the men had died whom he described. The law of selection applied, therefore, for those things which were interesting about these men were still remembered, while the uninteresting things had sunk to the bottom and Tvere forgotten, — by the mere law of the attraction of gravitation, one might say. Plutarch writes what had proved to interest mankind, and leaves the rest unwritten. And what is it that interests mankind ? Infallibly it is the narrative of events, if that narrative be enlivened by the personal characteristics of men engaged in the affair. In Plutarch's case, the most vivid of such characteristics shone through the dust and mist and smoke of centuries. He recorded what he knew, and did not record the rest, because he could not.

The reader of this volume will find, as I hope, that the various accomplished authors who have been engaged in it have been working on the principle which is illustrated in Plutarch's great success. We shall be disappointed if readers do not see how the personality of such great men has affected the time in which they lived. They ought to learn that what is called the drift of history, or the order of events, really results from the original life and purpose of the men and women who make up history.

The European critics of American life, who have never seen American life with their own eyes, are apt to construct a theory regarding us and our history which has no real foundation. John Stuart Mill, for instance, at many different times, expressed his opinion that in a social order resting upon universal suffrage, men will be forced by the pressure of a common life into a certain average existence, in which each man will resemble each other man, quite as so many shoe-pegs resemble each other when they are cut by the same machine. Mr. Mill does not say so, but if one were to give an illustration or two, he was afraid that an American Longfellow would be exactly like an American Lincoln, or an American Franklin exactly like an American Benedict Arnold. To us, on this side of the water, who suppose that we are living in a world of persons curiously unlike each other, such grave criticisms as these by Mr. Mill, Mr. Matthew Arnold, and other critics, who are writing about that of which they know very little, seem amusing. The contrasts presented between different lives in this volume will show how little danger we are in from this source, at least for several centuries.

Careful readers, again, will observe one distinguishing mark of American life, in the youth of many of the actors in our great dramas, so much younger are they than most of the men distinguished in similar work in the Old World. Thus, when the war of the Revolution began, Washington was only forty-three. It is amusing to see how his younger friends venerated his age. Of his aides. Hamilton was nineteen when he commanded a battery in New York and first attracted Washington's attention. Lafayette was nineteen when he was wounded at Brandywine. Pickering, who was quartermaster-general when the war ended, was but twenty-seven when* it began. Knox was twenty-five. Nathan Hale, the hero of young Americans, was but twenty-one when he died for his country, and expressed his regret that he had but one life to give for her. Of the five leaders in the founding of the nation, whose biographies we have here, the average age when the war began was but thirty-three. Adams and Jefferson, as is well remembered, were so young that they lived to see the greatness of their country half a century after that Declaration of Independence with which they had been so closely connected.

The readiness with which young men thus come forward into positions of trust and authority is readily accounted for by any one who has seen the conditions of a new settlement. Those conditions mark the arrangements of a rising State. The new town needs every one it can call into service. If a young man can do a man's work, he must. To revert again to the conditions of the war of the Revolution, when Burgoyne had driven in the American advance on the shore of Lake Champlain, when there was danger that his well-equipped army might sweep through the whole valley of the Connecticut, the States of Massachusetts and Connecticut ordered out every boy who was above the age of fifteen to meet the invading force. If he could carry a musket, the boy was old enough and big enough. Conditions like those lead to the rapid advance of young men. And even when the circumstances have all changed, the power of such conditions, through generations before, shows itself all through the social order.

The division into different books, which we have adopted, brings together those great characters who illustrate the service which has been rendered to our country in different fields of activity. The reader will readily note for himself the points at which the lives of these great men touch each other. He ought also to see how largely each life is affected by the influences of republican government, and those conditions which belong to States in their youth or in their infancy. Fulton in his earlier life painted a portrait of Dr. Franklin, which is one of the curious memorials of that time. John Ouincy Adams is now most often remembered for the marvelous activity and spirit which he showed in his old age ; -but, as the reader will see, his personal memories ran back to the days when he copied documents for his father in the time of the Revolution. Young men should remember, indeed, that all through his early diary we find his expressions of regret that he had not the skill of an orator, and it should encourage them to recollect that when he died he was most often called the "old man eloquent."

But, without attempting in detail to show how closely the work of one of these heroes depends upon that of another, we ought to call the reader's attention to that many-sidedness of American life which, in each case, compels strong people to occupy themselves in public affairs. To a true American, there must be no jealous seclusion of himself from his fellow-men. It is not simply that at each election he has his part to bear ; in every civil contest he must define his position.

The literature of the country is therefore very closely connected with its politics, with its invention, with its discovery. Although at certain times we call very naturally upon the strongest men to go into the administration of the government, on the whole we are well pleased if such a man as Beecher keeps his position in the pulpit of Plymouth Church, and does not seek an appointment as a diplomatist or a. member of the House of Representatives. If Mrs. Stowe o-ives her prayer and thought and time and genius to writing " Uncle Tom's Cabin," we are as well pleased at the result as if she had been canvassing for votes in the choice of a supervisor for the schools. George Peabody spent most of his life in London ; the habits of his life were those of a banker and a financier. But, all his life through, he loved his country, and he believed in the principles on which the constitution of the country was founded. When the time came for the disposition of his great fortune, he was in touch with men of intelligence who knew the country better than he did, and he was able, therefore, to make the magnificent gifts which he made for education, for hospitals, and for the right study of history. He is to be remembered, therefore, as one of the real benefactors of America, with just as much gratitude as if he had served her in diplomacy, in Congress, or on the bench. And that man is a very careless reader who does not see that William Lloyd Garrison, quite outside of the administration of government, became a more important factor in the control of the history of this country, than many of those persons who occupied high official positions. Indeed, the young reader should observe that many of those persons are now entirely forgotten, and would have no place in any collection of the real leaders of America.

We shall, therefore, be very much disappointed if those who study this book do not learn the great lesson that he who does the duty next his hand, serves, in the providence of God, in the great purpose for which this nation exists, if only he loyally remember that he is a citizen of the nation and that the nation relies upon him. Alexander Hamilton may have thought, when he was a young man, that his genius was thwarted and humbled by the mercantile training to which he was bound. But it proved that Alexander Hamilton, precisely because he had a knowledge of financial and mercantile affairs, was the person on whose life the credit of the nation depended, in the great adjustment of its finances in the administration of Washington. George Washington himself may well have thought that in the monotonous services which he rendered, as one of the House of Burgesses in Virginia, he was throwing away abilities which deserved a nobler field. But in time the nobler field was opened, and it proved that George io INTRODUCTION.

Washington had been gaining that knowledge of men, and of the way to handle men, which was all-important for his country when he entered upon his great career. Of every person whose life is described here, the same could be said. They were " faithful in a few things," and because they were faithful there was given them the rule of great things. Henry Clay, with a marvelous gift of eloquence and with a careful preparation for the bar, had at the same time made the larger study of the American people. He knew what it was and what it was not. He knew what it needed, and he forecast its destiny. Precisely because he understood this people better than did most of the older men who were around him, he became, one may say, their idol, and he was able to render service to his country which no closet-student, trained simply in the methods of older dynasties, could ever have done. In an entirely different line of life, the same is true of Andrew Jackson. Precisely because he did not trammel himself with precedent or conditions, which even to a well-trained lawyer may have seemed important, — because, on the other hand, in the difficulties of frontier warfare he had accustomed himself to look at the national life, from a broad and at the same time practical point of view, — he saved the constitution when the constitution was really endangered.

This book will fall into the hands of clubs and schools, for study more careful than is involved in one superficial reading. In introducing it to readers who study it, I make one suggestion, of which I hope they will try the value ; they will find similar suggestions made, with some detail of illustration, more than once in Miss Edgeworth's admirable suggestions for education. Let any group of readers cultivate the habit of impersonating, if they please, the characters whose lives interest them in American history, and bringing these people together for imaginary conversations, for common action, in such scenes and at such times as history will justify. Imaginary conversations, such as Madame de Genlis suggests ; imaginary correspondence, such as even classical writers were amused with, will prove not only amusing but of permanent value in giving a vivid sense of the life of older times. Better yet, perhaps, for the purpose of maintaining the life and interest of a club or society of readers, would be the dramatic representation, in a parlor or a school-room, of scenes such as bright pupils would imagine, which shall introduce several of the great men or women of whom they read.

Thus, there is a curious home letter from a private soldier in Braddock's army, which makes it well-nigh certain that Franklin, at the age of forty-nine, met Washington when he was but twenty-three, as Braddock's army advanced toward its ruin. It would be easy, in some parlor theatricals, to represent the scene, to bring in these two men who were unconscious of their future greatness,

INTRODUCTION. u

to surround them with such figures as those of Braddock and Gage and Morris, and in dialogue or in pantomime to interest the whole company. A date thus fixed, a transaction thus made real, take their places in memory, and, as an old friend says, "give something to knit upon " as one works out his own fabric of history.

When the Revolutionary War began, every rencontre between the soldiers of England and those of America brought people together in such dramatic fashion. When Gage addressed Washington and Washington replied to him, parted only by the Charles River, it was with recollections of the time when they sat at the same mess-table, when they copied the same despatch, as they both served on the staff of Braddock. When Franklin met Lord Howe, in 1776, it was to recall the memory of how they had played chess together in London. When Clinton sailed into New York, after his repulse at Charleston, it was to show to the younger officers the streets and homes of the town where he had spent his boyhood, in which, probably, he was more at home than he was in London. Perhaps, indeed, when he passed the burial-ground by King's Chapel in Boston some one took pains to point out to him the grave of his relative, Isaac Johnson, Arbella Johnson's husband, who had come from the family home in England, which Clinton must have remembered well. Indeed, an accurate reader could bring together Jefferson, Jay, and Adams, in more than one imaginary colloquy, which would fix in the memory of all who saw those characters well presented the various contributions which such men made, for weal or for woe, to the progress of the nation. The contrast of the fanfaronade and love of glory of Paul Jones, against the drollery and simplicity of Franklin, and the half-concealed annoyance of John Adams, might make a very amusing scene in such a performance as I have suggested. It is not so easy to imagine Henry Clay in London, arranging with George Peabody how he may draw for money. But such men never met but that each of them affected the life of the other.

I venture to recommend to all clubs or societies of young people who read this book together, that they try some such impersonations, which will bring history in visible form before them. The preparations will be in some regards more difficult, in some more easy, than they think at first. But it may well be that they shall find, in many instances, that they are working up some detail of the local history of the place in which they live, which would otherwise have been neglected and eventually forgotten. And such students should remember that there is many an attic which is yet to give up its store of old papers of great value in the working out of our history.

It is generally said, and it is true, that thus far America has not developed, or at least has not shown, much power in the writing of entertaining memoirs. For the history of the Revolution the most vivid local color is supplied by those bright, accomplished young Frenchmen, to whom everything was a surprise, and who, therefore, wrote down what our own fathers thought a matter of course and left for forgetfulness. The gaps in our history, which are left by the inability of the fathers to write entertaining memoirs, must be supplied now from their ledgers and day-books and from the old correspondence, when by good fortune it has been preserved. What the artists call "local color," and the vividness which is given by what they call "broken lights," may often improve our historical picture, if contributed by some antiquarian student who works with imagination. I cannot but hope that, by the wide circulation of this very book, there may be roused up some young Parkman or Prescott or Bancroft, who shall be tempted to make the researches which will bring to light memoranda of use, because of interest, in the construction of the history of the republic.

Edward Everett Hale.

MONUMENT TO COLUMBUS AT GENOA.

LIST OF CHAPTERS AND SUBJECTS.

BOOK I. GEORGE WASHINGTON, PAGE Father and Founder of the Republic, 33

Greatness of Washington's character — Virginia two centuries ago — Augustine Washington — George's early days — His mother — The young surveyor — A perilous journey — Braddock's expedition — Washington's heroism — Marriage- — Outbreak of the Revolution — Bombardment of Boston — Battle of Long Island — " How long shall we fly ?" — Newjerseycampaign — A Christmas surprise — Aid from France — Lafayette — Valley Forge — Monmouth — Dark Days — Arnold's treason — The war in the South— Washington's descent upon Yorktown — Surrender of Cornwallis — Farewell to the army — Constitutional Convention — First President of the Republic — Anecdotes of Washington — Last days at Mount Vernon — The closing scene.

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, The Inventor, Philosopher, and Statesman, 59

A self-made man — Franklin's autobiography — His character as a boy — His love of books — The young vegetarian — Writing for the newspaper — Journey to Philadelphia — First sight of his future wife — Employment as a printer — Journey to England — A temperance missionary — Another start in business — The Junto — The secret of his success — He marries Miss Read — " Poor Richard's Almanack " — Defense of the Colonies — Franklin in demand — Postmaster-General — The War with France — How Franklin secured wagons— His mission to England — The Stamp Act — How to lose revenue and gain ill-will — A sum in arithmetic — The Continental Congress— Signing the Declaration of Independence — A grim joke — Franklin at Paris — His humane efforts to lessen the horrors of war — The Treaty of Peace — Return to Philadelphia — Letter to Thomas Paine— Franklin's death and burial — His epitaph.

The Revolutionary Patriot and Statesman, 75

The great men of the Revolution — The pre-eminence of Adams — Boyhood and education — The young lawyer — Marriage — Aggressions of the British — The birth of American Independence — The Boston Massacre — Adams defends the soldiers — Delegate to the Continental Congress — Friendship with Jefferson — Drafting the Declaration of Independence — Adams's prophetic letter — Sent to Frante to secure aid — Contrast with Franklin — Adams not popular — His blunt manners — Negotiating the Treaty of Peace — Adams's success with the Dutch Government — His sickness in Paris — Terrible winter journey — Minister to England — His presentation at Court — An awkward moment — Return to America — The Constitutional Convention — Adams's dislike of France— Election to the Presidency — His failure to make friends — Retirement from public* life — Adams in old age — His son's election to the presidency — Nearing the end — July 4, 1826, death of Adams and Jefferson.

I4 LIST OF CHAPTERS AND SUBJECTS.

The First Chief Justice of the United States, 93

Jay's French Ancestry— Different kinds of heroism— Life in college— Refuses to be an informer— Studying law— Member of the Continental Congress— Address to the people of Great Britain— President of Congress — Chosen Minister to Spain— Trials of his new position— Begging and borrowing for America— The Treaty of Paris— Return to America— Secretary of State— The Constitutional Convention— Jay's important part — "The Federalist" — Its masterly ability — Washington's testimony to Jay's ability — The first Chief Justice — His opposition to slavery — Special mission to England— Jay's ability as a diplomatist—Lord Sheffield's opinion— " The impolitic treaty of 1794"— Jay's return to America— Governor of New York— Retirement from public life— His death in 1829— Jay's spotless character.

The Architect of the Federal System, 101

What a West India hurricane did for Hamilton — Goes to the United States for an education — Stories of his life at college — Excitement over British exactions — Hamilton's first speech — Aid-de-camp to Washington — His literary ability — Financial studies — Marriage — Retirement from the army — The Constitutional Convention — The great men who composed it — -Hamilton's pre-eminence — Opposition to the Constitution — Hamilton's able advocacy — Suspense in New York — Success at last — Hamilton first Secretary of the Treasury — His able administration — Talleyrand's anecdote — Retirement — Political disputes — The fatal duel.

The Pioneer of Democracy in America, 115

Jefferson's sympathy with the common people — The success of his principles — His Virginia home — The young lawyer — His opinions on slavery — Marriage to Mrs. Skelton — Sent to the Continental Congress — Writing the Declaration of Independence — Cornwallis's depredations — Jefferson's losses — End of the war — Appointment as Foreign Minister — His popularity in France — Secretary of State under Washington Stormy politics — Jefferson and Hamilton opposed — Vice-President under Adams — Washington

City in 1800 — Mrs. Adams' amusing account — The election of 1800 — Jefferson chosen President — Dismay of the Federalists — Sweeping success of Democratic principles — The purchase of Louisiana — Death of his daughter— Comfort from the Bible — Re-election— Troubles with England— Return to private life— His habits of life at home— Extensive hospitality— Jefferson's religion— Financial troubles — Gifts from friends — The last scene, July 4, 1826.

BOOK II. The Hero of the War of 181 2, and Popular President, 131

Why Jackson is remembered— His strong individuality— Wretchedness of his early life — Cruelties of the British in South Carolina— Studying law— Removal to Tennessee— Wild life on the Frontier— Marriage under peculiar circumstances— Early political life— Duels with Dickenson and Benton — War with the Indians— The Great Battle of Horse-Shoe Bend— Attacks of the British on New Orleans— Jackson's glorious defense— Awful slaughter of the British— Honors to Jackson— The Seminole War— United States Senator— Election to the Presidency in 1828— Death of his wife— His memorable administration — Sufferings of his later life — His death in 1845.

PAGE

The Second War of Independence, or the War of 1S12, 144

Meaning of the war— Its causes — Neutral rights — Impressing American sailors — Insults and outrages — The " Chesapeake " and the " Leopard " — Injury to American commerce — Paper blockades — The Orders in Council — Embargo as retaliation — Our naval glory in this war — -Failure of the campaign against Canada — Hull's surrender at Detroit — Splendid victories at sea — The " Constitution " and the " Guerncre " — The "Wasp" and the "Frolic" — Other sea-duels — American Privateers — On the Lakes — Perry's great victory — Land operations — Battle of the Thames — Wilkinson's Fiasco — The " Shannon " and the " Chesapeake " — English reinforcements — Lundy's Lane and Plattsburg — The burning of Washington — Baltimore saved — General Jackson at New Orleans— The treaty of peace.

JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, The Accomplished President, and Great Defender of the Right of Petition, . 161 Adams not a " self-made man " — His excellent equipment — To Europe at eleven years of age — At school abroad — Private Secretary to the Russian Minister — Studies at the Hague — Honors at Harvard — Studying law — Minister to the Netherlands — Washington's high praise — Love and marriage — United States Senator — Professor at Harvard — Mission to Russia — The Emperor's tact — Minister to England — Secretary of State — Elected President — Attacks on Adams — His manners contrasted with those of Jackson — Brief retirement — The ex-President goes to the House of Representatives — The right of petition — Stormy scenes in the House — " I will put the question myself" — Honors to a veteran — Mr. Adams's simple prayer — " This is the last of earth " — Death of the patriot statesman.

Popular Hero, Patriot, and Statesman, 177

Slavery — An overshadowing question — Clay's devotion to the Union — His popularity — Stories of his boyhood — -"The Mill Boy of the Slashes" — A clerk in Richmond — His personal appearance — His magnificent voice — Removal to Kentucky — Success as a lawyer — His marriage — Member of the House of Representatives — Clay's advocacy of the war of 1S12 — Goes to Europe — " I liked the Kentucky man best " — Speaker of the House — Popularity with the masses — The admission of Missouri — The Missouri Compromise — Clay's great influence — Jackson's hatred of Clay — Clay makes Adams President — Cry of corrupt bargain — Secretary of State — Returns to private life — Re-election to the Senate — The nullification troubles — Clay's compromise tariff — The panic of 1S37 — Harrison's nomination and Clay's disappointment — Grief of the Whigs — Friends discharge his debts — Clay's compromise measures of 1850 — His failing health — The country in danger — Clay's devotion — His last great speech — Denunciation of disunion — His death — The object of his public life.