LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. Chap. Shelf PRESENTED BY \ C_* . UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. .^ ' Wts^utt/,, /X^a^ Cbe 189$ Prize Book •/ HAMILTON COLLEGE, CLINTON, N. Y. COLLECTED BY MELVIN GILBERT J30DGE Librarian CLINTON, N. Y. Zhe IKtrfelanfc press 1899 V r> \' 29805 The purpose of this volume is to put into permanent and convenient form the Hamilton College Prize Essays and Orations of the year '97-8. The book is a natural continuation of the Clark Prize Book, the Head Prize Book, and the Kirkland Prize Book. M. G. D. 29805 Contents Clark Prize Orations The Power of the Moslem . . 3 Allan Pepper ell Ames, '98. James Russell Lowell's Americanism . 9 "Bertrand Whit comb "Babcoch, '98. The Power of the Moslem . . is John Robert "Babcock, '98. Gustavus Adolphus and Wallenstein in the Thirty Years' War ... 22 Henry Kendall Booth, '98. Schopenhauer the Pessimist . . 29 Henry White, '98. Dante as the Interpreter of the Middle Ages }6 Edward Reynolds Wright, '98. Pruyn Medal Oration Moral Laziness the Foe to Municipal Reform 43 John Robert Babcock, '98. Head Prize Oration The Indebtedness of New York State to Alexander Hamilton . . 48 Allan Pepper ell zAmes, '98. Kirkland Prize Oration The Mosaic Law , . . 53 Charles Gideon Empie, '98, vi Contents Soper Prize Thesis The Tariff Question in America down to 1846 . . . . 59 Charles Gideon Empie, ' g8. Darling Prize Thesis The History of Paper Currency during the Colonial Period _. . 93 %alph Smith Minor, 'g8. Junior Prize Essays Conscience in the Greek Tragedy . 13s Curtis OAiller, Jr., 'gg. The Character of Henry V as shown in Shakespeare's King Henry IV and King Henry V . . .145 Charles Latimer Mosher, 'gg. Sophomore Prize Essays The Ideals of Whitman and of Whittier 1 so William Grant IDecker, '00. Joan of Arc in History and in Literature 16s Herscbel IDorsey Spencer, '00. Freshman Prize Essays Michael Faraday . . . 172 Howard Irving 'Davenport, } oi . Arctic Exploration . . . 181 Albert Houghton Pratt, '01. Clark H>rt3e ©rations THE POWER OF THE MOSLEM BY ALLAN PEPPERELL AMES, '98 In men and in habits of thought, the East and the West are as different as two worlds. The difference is that of the old and the new, of the past and the future, of idealism and materialism, of servitude and freedom. The Oriental lives with his thoughts turned back- ward upon the past or inward upon his soul. He is the slave of custom and superstition and of his own passions. It is then but natural that the leading force in the East always has been religious, and that the birthplaces of the two great world-beliefs are there — Christianity in Judea, Mahometanism in Arabia. Like the Jews the Arabs were zealous wor- shipers. They were the ideal people for the propagation of a new faith. Intense, imagina- tive, courageous, enduring, they were at once poets and warriors. For ages they had lived unnoticed by the world, a mighty force dor- mant. Then arose a man who read their com- plex natures like an open book. He was Ma- homet, the Prophet. He kindled the spark that loosed the pent-up fire of fanaticism. Across Arabia it swept, welding Jew and Chris- 4 Glarfe Pri3e ©rations tian and pagan into a thunderbolt of passion, faith, and frenzy. Never before or since has there been such a weapon. It was launched eastward, and in less than a century the call of the muezzin sounded from the minarets of Del- hi. It was launched westward, and the flames of conquest rolled along the shore of the Med- iterranean and leaped the strait of Gibraltar, to be subdued at last only by the iron hand of Charles Martel. It was launched northward, and it hurled before it the hosts of Christen- dom until the cry, "Allah Akbar ! " rang from the walls of Constantinople, and the crescent drove the cross from the tower of St. Sophia. It was launched southward, across the sands of Sahara, and today into the darkest corners of Africa, where Christianity can gain no foothold, the faith of Islam has penetrated, proclaiming that there is no god but God and Mahomet is his prophet. Against this overwhelming power for centur- ies Western civilization fought for its life. When at last the tide rolled back, when Boab- dil had sailed from the shores of Granada and Sobieski for the last time had flung the Turk from Vienna, Europe paused to take breath; and men began to study the power of the Mos- lem and to seek the cause of its rapid growth. " The never-ending struggle of the human mind is to comprehend its relation to the mind divine. The finite strains to touch the infinite. ftbe power of tbe ZlRoslem 5 " O, tell us the secret; unveil the mystery of soul," has been the cry of humanity since the world began. To this prayer of man, thrilling his very heart's core comes the answer of Islam: "There is but one God, Allah. There is but one who knows his will, Mahomet his prophet. Accept the word of Allah which Mahomet has revealed and submit to it your will. Whatever befalls you, be it sorrow, or sickness, or death, or worse than death, is the will of God. Think not in your little mind to judge the infinite wisdom. God's will is the law of necessity; it is the river of time steady and resistless as fate ; it is fate itself. Do not weary yourself to death struggling against the stream ; but throw away the oars, cast loose the rudder, trust yourself to the current, and it will carry you at last straight through the gates of Paradise to the home of the true believers." How simple it is ! The burden is always the same : "Submit, submit, submit." To the na- tions of the East, weary of strife and doubt, it came like a cooling breeze after the scorching heat of the simoon. It satisfied all their ques- tions and filled every want of their deeply re- ligious natures. The secret of the power of the Moslem lies in the unreserved acceptance of this appeal and the blind obedience to its commands. Why had Mahomet more followers than Christ ? Because the creed he preached 6 Clark ffi>ri3c ©rations reaches every side of human nature. The word of the Nazarene is heard only by man's better self. Christianity sets up an ideal far beyond our reach and says: "Though you can never reach it this side of the grave, yet strive to come as near as you can." Islam takes man as it finds him and entwines itself with every fibre of mind and body. To the Moslem, the Koran is like the voice of his own soul ; for it gives form to the vague impulses which he feels but cannot understand. The truth is there, but not the whole truth. Error is there, but not all is error. As the artist mixes his colors to produce the wonderful hues of a sunset, so Mahomet blended truth and false- hood and painted a picture before which millions fall in adoration — a picture of victor- ious battle and all-embracing empire in this world, and a paradise of delights in the next ; and underneath he wrote : All this and more is the reward of those who submit. Why has the Moslem been the greatest con- queror of history ? Because his faith did not make him fold his hands in apathy, but roused his warlike instincts. Fatalism is not a bed of down but a spur to desperate energy. It is not : "What is the use ? Kismet !" but, " Kis- met ! no matter." Victory and life lie in God's hands. He will give and he will take away at the appointed time. " Fight and kill in the name of the Prophet and fear not," says the ftbe power of tbe rtlboslem 7 Koran, "for the sword is the key of Heaven." There is no force like fatalism to drive men to deeds of reckless daring. It strips from the Mahometan soldier every trace of fear, every thought of self. What are ambition and pa- triotism beside the irresistible power which swept the Turkish hordes up and over the walls of Constantinople on that fatal day when the last of the Caesars iell ; and which four cen- turies later flung the Mahdi's dervish army on the bayonets of British squares ! The battle-cry of Islam has come thundering down the ages : " For the faith, for the faith, vic- tory to Mahomet." What wonder that for so many years the victory was to Mahomet ; and that that wild cry rose and swelled until it rocked the foundations of Christendom ! What wonder if today we thank God that the " trag- edy of the East " is not the tragedy of the West ! The "tragedy of the East !" — sad spectacle of the decline of a once keen and noble race ! In the place of Othman, the " Bone-breaker," Abdul Hamid II lolls on his cushions and writes an order for the butchery of defenseless Armenians. Better the old scenes of battle carnage than a sight like this. Yet the sleep of the Eastern nations today shows the strength of Islam no less than their awakening thirteen centuries ago. Mahometanism has met the advance of modern civilization and driven it back. The light which streamed from 8 Clark TprijC ©rations Arabia shines no longer red and angry through the dust of battle, but steady and brilliant as the noonday sun; but its beams "blind to the light of modern advancement " one hundred and eighty million souls. "To them all prog- ress is apostacy from the truth of God." The law of Mahomet is the final law ; it brought men one step forward, but forbade another step. This is the problem which Islam pre- sents to the world — a problem which looms, a constant menace, on the horizon of European politics. Europe has not yet forgotten that first mad rush of hordes drunk with religious frenzy. Has the sword of the Prophet grown dull ? Ask the Russians who fought at Plevna. Ask the veterans of the Soudan. Ask the men of humiliated Greece. But Islam no longer is spread by the sword. No longer can the power of the Moslem be met in the field and held in check by the mailed hand. It must be attacked in its stronghold, the human heart. The word of Mahomet must be supplanted by the word of Christ. The whole-truths of the Bible must drive out the half-truths of Koran. Then only will the shackles of tradition and superstition slip off; and the old, old East, like a little child, will reach out its hands to the young West for guidance ; and the Arab, and the Turk, and the Moor will join the march of the Christian nations toward the realization of the great Ideal. JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL'S AMERICANISM BY BERTRAND WHITCOMB BABCOCK, '98 It was a memorable scene that August day at Ashfield when George William Curtis paid his tender tribute to the memory of a dead poet. Those who thrilled under the spell of that lofty eloquence have never forgotten his defense of the Americanism of James Russell Lowell. He doubtless needed no defense in that notable gathering of scholars and states- men. But there had come whispers from the outside world —a world of political scheming, of men who could not conceive of loyalty to country in one who dared to be independent of party — one who dared to speak of America as he wished her to be, dared to rebuke with keen and cutting words. Because Eng- land recognized in him not only the poet and seer, the man of letters, but the gentle- man, one who found it, as he once said of Tho- reau, " as easy to be natural in a salon as in a swamp," with a culture as broad and deep as the best ; because England honored him while ambassador as America would have honored Tennyson or R.obert Browning, had either been sent to represent his country at Washington, the ward politician felt that this was dangerous and questioned his loyalty. io Clark 8>ct3e ©cations It was fitting that one of those who had known him best and loved him truest should defend him against the charge that he was not a good American. It is equally fitting that we, who today have caught the echo of that far cry, should accept it as a challenge to seek in the utterances of the poet and scholar and politi- cian his right to the eulogy then spoken of him, and to atone in some slight degree for the neg- lect of the grave at Mount Auburn. If it is true, as Milton said, that books are not dead things ; if " they do preserve as in a vial the purest efficacy and extraction of that living intellect that bred them," the question of the patriotism of Lowell can be answered over and over affirmatively. His life is before us in his books ; we can reconstruct the char- acter, can trace the influence that moulded him " from the time he first drew in New England air " to the youth writing of fatherland and feeling intensely that all men are brothers. We see him chosen first editor of the Atlantic that the venture might have a distinguishing American flavor. His splendid appreciation of the workers, in the times that tried the hearts of men, as shown in the sonnets to Wen- dell Phillips and Garrison, his counsel to Joshua R. Giddings " to fear nothing and to hope all things as the Right alone may do securely," stir the blood of a younger generation of men. Such utterances could come only from one Xovvell's Bmerfcantsm n who sympathized intensely. If " great truths are portions of the soul," then Lowell writing his poem, "The Present Crisis," was filled with love of country as devout as Warren's at Bunker Hill, as devout as Abraham Lincoln's in those dark hours when he sat at midnight with the solemn thought of emancipation for his companion. For " Life may be given in many ways, And loyalty to truth be sealed As bravely in the closet as the field, So generous is Fate." There are single lines and phrases from the " Biglow Papers," from the " Commemoration Ode," and from some of the sublime sonnets which, in anti-slavery days and during the civil war, moved men to deeds of difficult valor. That these are great and universal truths of lofty patriotism, not suited to one time alone, is amply proved by the use made of them to- day by political writers and editors of both parties. It was love of country that animated them, that gave them enduring life. " I love my country," said Lowell, " so as only they who love a mother fit to die for may." He spoke of her as one who " lifts up the manhood of the poor With room about her hearth for all mankind. What words divine of lover or of poet Could tell our love and make thee know it ? Among the nations bright beyond compare ! " 12 Clark pri3e ©rations Men and women quoted as if an oracle had spoken : " Once to every man and nation comes the moment to decide In the strife of truth with falsehood for the good or evil side." A last best test of love is supplied by a study of the later essays and addresses. Lowell's faith was great in the ultimate working out of the real problem of America, the assimilation of all nationalities. He believed that America would free every slave finally, that breathing the fine air of freedom would work miracles. He believed in her common-school system and praised the wisdom which planted the log schoolhouses " like Martello towers " along the coast of New England. He felt deeply the truth that " by no better way could a whole be made of our discordant parts than by opening a common door " to the best education possible. His faith was equally great in her literature. In the address given in New York, in com- memoration of the hundredth anniversary of Washington's inauguration, he said: "I be- lieve that he who stands a hundred years hence where I now stand, conscious that he speaks to the most powerful and prosperous commu- nity ever devised or developed by man, will speak of our literature with the assurance of one who beholds what we hope for and aspire after become a reality and possession forever." TLowelVs Bmevicanism 13 In every published address of his, in London at the memorial service for Garfield, in Bir- mingham to the workingmen, as well as in New York and Cambridge, there is an unmis- takable note of fervent devotion to his native land. "An American," said he on one of these occasions, "can no more find another country than a second mother." Again he said, " I am not a believer in perpetual motion in politics any more than in mechanics, but I have an im- perturbable faith in the honesty, the intelli- gence, and the good sense of the American people and in the destiny of the American republic." When inaugurated president of the Birming- ham and Midland Institute, he addressed that body of men on the subject always dear to him of " Democracy." He said : " We have taken from Europe the poorest, the most ignorant, the most turbulent of her people and have made them over into good citizens, who are ready to die in defense of a country, and of in- stitutions which they i-:now to be worth dying for." Here was no Anglomania. It was Jon- athan to John as truly as when he wrote : " The South says, ' Poor folks down,' John, An' ' All men up,' say we." If the day shall ever come when the youth of this country are in danger of valuing lightly what has cost so much, wise men will counsel them to study the works of James Russell 14 Clarfe ft>rf3e ©rations Lowell. Within these volumes a history of the intellectual and moral life of this nation is found, transmuted by genius into letters of fire that need no Daniel to decipher. Of Lowell may be said what he has said of others : " The world is only so many great men old." " The wise years decide " it was an epoch in American life when he was born. In the ode written for the Fourth of July, 1876, he speaks finally with pathos of his coun- try as " Founded on faith in man, therefore sure to last. For, O, my country, touched by thee, The gray hairs gather back their gold ; Thy thought sets all my pulses free ; The heart refuses to be old. Not to thy natal-day belong Time's prudent doubt or age's wrong, But gifts of gratitude and song : For all that thou hast been to me ! " THE POWER OF THE MOSLEM BY JOHN ROBERT BABCOCK, '98 In the year six hundred ten, at the Arabian city of Mecca, a shrewd, successful, though un- lettered merchant proclaimed the sublime truth that "there is no god but God." For twelve years he preached it to paganism and polytheism. He met opposition and en- dured oppression. Persecution and prejudice finally drove him and his little band of follow- ers, fleeing to the shelter of the mountains of Medina, and Mohammed had failed. But his flight and failure marked an epoch in human history more momentous than the fate of bat- tles, for the power of the Moslem was begun. Henceforth the prophet was to be a political chief ; and his weapon, the sword, was to hang like a blazing flame of destruction over the nations. The sudden rise of the power of the Moslem with its rapid and brilliant conquests, is a won- der of history. On the instant error was added to its teaching the faith of Islam spread like wild-fire ; and within ten years after the as- sumption of the sword by Mohammed, Mecca had been conquered and the new creed estab- lished over all Arabia. There is nothing in history which presents a 16 Clark ffi»vi3c ©rations full parallel to that outburst of human energy, which, inspired by genius and nerved by faith, transformed the brutal, despised, idolatrous Arabians, into the finest soldiers and the most brilliant rulers. But these princely men of the desert were great ; great in physical courage, great in the quickness of the Eastern intellect and great in their simplicity of life and man- ners. These heroes-born broke their limits and trod the open world, spurred on by the stimu- lus of fanaticism, and who could resist their power ? Their first outbreak from the regions where they had been confined so long was terrible. The two powers of the East, the Byzantine and Persian empires, had been ruling in fancied security, little dreaming that the Moslem power, growing in secret, was destined to destroy them both. On the Byzantine empire the storm first fell and its fairest provinces bowed before the Moslem ; Palestine, Syria, and Egypt ac- cepted the yoke and their chief cities were wiped out. Constantinople itself, though twice besieged, with difficulty weathered the storm of the seventh century. The Roman empire fell and northern Africa quickly shared its doom. Crossing to Spain in 711 they over- threw the kingdom of the Goths, planted them- selves in Aquitaine, and before two years had passed, the name of Mohammed was invoked under the shadow of the Pyrenees. Gbe lpower of tbe Moslem 17 They threatened to make fair France their own and with it all western Europe ; but at Tours the proud wave of their victories was stayed, and Charles Martel with his gathered chivalry dealt the faith of Islam such a crush- ing blow that for centuries it ceased its aggres- sive pressure in the West. In the East, however, their conquests did not stop. They won their way along the coast of Africa as far as the pillars of Hercules ; they blotted out the Grecian phalanx, and the ban- ners of the Moslem floated over the proudest battlements of ancient Roman grandeur. Although defeated at Tours and although the conquests in Europe were stayed for more than six centuries, the Moslem prestige suffered nothing and invasions of Europe by Moslem conquerors in subsequent years added glory to the Moslem arms. Think of the millions of European soldiers of the crusades who followed their leaders to Palestine and Egypt and melted like snow on the battle-plains of Moslem countries, and some conception of the Moslem power in the eleventh and twelfth centuries can be gained. The Seljuk Turks were conquered during this period and the victorious sultans began their march westward, and in 1453 Constantinople fell. For more than a hundred years following the Moslem power held sway in a blaze of glory. Until 1566 there had been no step backward ; 1 8 Clark fl>rf3e ©rations their power in arms and conquest was at its zenith and had no worthy rival. The dread crescent appeared a crescent still. But here Mohammedanism laid down the sword and for three centuries it has used only its power of amalgamating conquered and con- verted peoples; and that power of binding and welding its subjects into one united whole is the secret of its continuance. How shall we explain these extraordinary successes ? How explain the power which en- abled the Moslem to stamp deeply his man- ners, his customs, and his religion, on a large part of human kind ? There are many considerations which help to explain the rapid and widespread triumph of Islam, but they do not account for it. Be- neath and beyond all lies the source of tran- scendent power, the vertebrate column of force on which all auxiliary forces depend — the proclamation of the one living and true God. The absolute subservience of the Moslem to the grand idea of the Oneness of God is unpar- alleled in history. No nation or group of na- tions have ever stood by their faith as the Mos- lems do by theirs ; they live by it, fight for it, die with it, and front time and eternity with its power of truth. Out of this faith there came to the Moslem the power of utter fanaticism and fatalism. Fanaticism born of the Oriental character was Sbe ipowev of tbe /Dboslem 19 a power in itself. Heredity of a thousand years had strengthened the valor of the Arab warrior. He was accustomed to the saddle from his infancy. He was trained to the use of arms. His whole activity, his all-absorbing interest was in hostile foray. He knew no fear; he had no scruples, and so the fanaticism of the Moslem conquests was that of warriors. But fatalism was also a great source of power. The Moslem hosts went forth in the confidence of a mission from heaven. They felt them- selves to be the scourge of God, and wild with the passion to do, though doing were dying, they were utterly indifferent to the sufferings of any who stood in the way of the dissemination of truth. The faith of Islam taught them that whoever draws the sword in its defense, whether he fall or conquer, will receive a glorious reward, and at death will be transported to Paradise to revel in eternal pleasures. Thus on the field of battle they were absolutely fearless ; as careless of wounds and death as the Christian martyr in the arena. Their unity of purpose lay in a com- mon antagonism to paganism, and their con- quest had no compassion; their humiliation no tears. Their warfare was as pitiless as death; their onset as resistless as the winds of their desert home. The faith of Islam bound with a knot of steel the Kingdom of God and the Kingdom of the Sword. As a religion it has realized all that it 20 Clark ipti3e ©rations was meant to be, but in it are found the ele- ments of weakness as well as of strength; of strength because it teaches the yielding of self to God; of weakness, in that the surrender is but the surrender of the weak to the strong. In the Moslem heart as deep-rooted as error itself was the truth that "Power belongeth to God," but the followers of the merchant of Mecca missed the truth that this absolute power is wielded by perfect love. We must not think that the power of the Moslem has passed into history; it not only was but is. The power of conquest is in part gone but the strength of union still remains. You have but to make the call to " the faithful " and two hundred millions of Mohammedans will rush to arms with blazing enthusiasm. It is but yesterday that through the crowded bazaars of Indian cities the Moslem dervishes ran crying: " Kill ! kill ! in the name of Mohammed, kill ! " and the dark record of the Great Indian Mutiny shows how " the faithful " answered the appeal. Even now the dervishes of the Soudan strive to stay the advance of General Kitchner's force to Khartoum; filled with the same fanatic fatal- ism that but a few years ago flung itself to cer- tain death on the British squares, from the Wells of Abu Klea to Metemneh on the Nile. Today the active Moslem missionaries in India are making ten converts to Christianity's one. Today we see the Moslem pressing upon Ebe power of tbe Moslem 21 Christian Greece and hunting defenseless Ar- menians like wild beasts among the mountains. Today all the Orient still trembles at the sound of his battle-cry, and the end is not yet. His religion still holds sway, a mighty power and passion in the lives of millions of our fellow men. The power of the Moslem is that of truth over humanity; but it is the power of a half- truth over brutalized humanity. By the God who is the whole-truth, and by humanity spirit- ual and Godlike, it shall fail in its time. The power of the Moslem, as all false pow- ers and half-powers, shall go down before the power of God and His revelation through His Son. GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS AND WALLENSTEIN IN THE THIRTY YEARS' WAR BY HENRY KENDALL BOOTH, '98 A century had passed over Germany since Martin Luther nailed his theses to the door of the church in Wittenberg ; a century that saw Protestantism spread from the sunny slopes of the Rhine to the stormy shores of the Baltic ; a century that almost made Protestantism the religion of the whole German race. But the strife between Lutheran and Calvinist was full as bitter as that greater conflict between the followers of Protestantism and the adher- ents of Rome. Torn by dissensions, divided by jealousy, racked by feud, the power of the Protestant Union was daily on the wane; while desperation and a common enemy welded like steel the forces of the Catholic League. Such were the mighty foes whose Titanic struggle made Germany for thirty years the scene of terrible warfare; warfare actuated by religious dissensions, fed by religious hatred, marked by irreligious cruelty and crime; war- fare involving the greatest nations of Europe; warfare making fruitful Germany a barren wilderness of horror. The war broke out in Bohemia. Ferdinand II, good Catholic, ardent Jesuit, foolishly tried (Sustavua anD 7KHaUenstefn 23 to force the religion of Rome upon a sturdy Protestant people. He was met by instant and angry revolt. The Protestant Estates swept all before them, dictating terms to the frightened emperor in his very palace. Sud- denly their power ceased. Maximilian and Tilly at the head of the Catholic League, drove them from the Palatinate and set the standard of Ferdinand triumphant throughout broad Bohemia. Desperate, disunited, the Protes- tant Union besought the aid of their brothers in Europe. In the North only was their cry heard or heeded. Christian IV of Denmark, impelled more by fear of Catholic than love of Protestant, hurried to their rescue with a mighty army. To Ferdinand, the Dane was a terrible men- ace. Bankrupt, friendless, the tool of the Catholic League, he was powerless to move. But a new actor appears on the scene; a man of intense fatalism, tireless energy, iron will, and insatiable ambition — Albrecht von Wallenstein, Duke of Friedland. His offer of assistance is eagerly accepted by the despair- ing king. Gathering a powerful army, Wal- lenstein forces the "Winter King" to flee for his life, drives Mansfeld and Christian from German soil, subdues all Germany, and carries the terror of his name from the Palatinate to the Peninsula. As Wallenstein's power increases the power 24 Clark fl>rf3e ©rations of Ferdinand wanes. The Catholic League behold this with alarm. Saved from utter ruin by the tyranny of the sword, they yet rebel against the tyrant. By false accusations, by lying reports, by all the finesse of Jesuit cun- ning, they compel the priest-ridden Ferdinand to dismiss the man who saved his throne, his very life. Again are Catholic arms victorious. The sandaled foot of the Jesuit is on his enemy's neck; the power of the pope supreme in Ger- many. Is Protestantism crushed ? Is that faith dead for which Luther braved the thun- ders of the Vatican, and Huss died triumphant at the strike ? No ! From the fabled North help comes once more. It was the great Gustavus Vasa who planted in the frozen soil of Sweden the precious seeds of Luther's faith. But it was the greater Gus- tavus Adolphus, the " Lion of the North," who strode forth like valiant knight at the last ap- peal of dying Protestantism. A little fleet sailed from Elfsknaben amid the prayers and tears of the whole Swedish nation. It carried fifteen thousand men. Only fifteen thousand Swedes, to fight for their despairing brothers in the South, to face the giant power of the House of Hapsburg, the withering anathemas of the Vatican, and the intrigues of Madrid ? Only fifteen thousand Swedes — and Gustavus Adolphus. rf3e ©cations The West needed Schopenhauer. The ener- getic Teuton, fighting against odds for his daily bread, could not postulate a "twilight Hades." In his hopefulness he did not stop short of a Valhalla of feast and war. Plagues which swept death over Europe, wars which were chronicled by decades instead of years and which left few homes without mourners, were soon forgotten in bright expectations. On the other hand the learned and luxurious East had long since trampled hope and had flockedto thefeetof Buddha. Gleaning instinct- ively from Eastern fields, Schopenhauer spent his treasure in the West. The disciple of the Eastern mystics, he became the apostle of the Western cynics. In a rigid philosophical system he gave voice to men's unexpressed despair. Irresistibly the sinister Fates urged him to this philosophy. The only son of a well-to-do merchant his legacy was, not wealth and posi- tion, but a morbid nature. The child of a gifted and society-loving mother, he hated society. At his father's wish he became a merchant only to deal in unhappy thoughts. Not content in business he studied in the great universities, there delving deep for a philos- ophy of hateful conclusions. A linguist, he read in many languages the same woe of men. A philosopher, he elaborated a whole system out of the injustices of men. Pessimism was his Scbopenbauer tbe pessimist 31 birthright. Hateful heritage it may have been in the light of Christianity ! Wonderful part it has played in the advance of right. Intol- erant religion unveiled truth before his search- ing glance. Shallow optimism withered and died under his curse. A true philosopher, rising above the world out of himself, he saw, as in a bird's-eye view, humanity. . And how dreary the outlook. In the bloom and hope of spring he thought only of the chill and icy blasts of winter. When winter had smothered the flowers beneath her snowy blanket he had no thoughts of the fruitful summer. Let us look upon this old world with this pessimist's eye. Life is sad and short. "A fleeting mirage." No warmth of love is in it. It is below the freezing-point. "Things are in the saddle and ride mankind." Vice and greed stalk over the land in their cruel might, crushing out the lives of innocents; and there is none to say them nay. Dreaded war and terri- ble pestilencedragfamineand affliction over the earth; and civilization makes it more awful. See religion bound hand and foot by foolish custom ! Behold the pall of ignorance cover- ing heathen millions ! Think of pulpit, politics, the press, serfs of wickedness ! Think and say whether we may not impeach life in the name of truth. But strong men in health laugh and say : This world is good. They are untried 32 Clark f>r(3e ©rations children. Let affliction seize them with its grimy hands; let them wither under disease or writhe with a cripple's anguish, and full soon they will cry: For what end is life? Why this suffering? Youth grows to age, struggles, dies. " Each time a man is born the clock is wound up again to play the same hackneyed tune, bar for bar, measure for measure, with unimportant variations." Is there then no explanation? There is but one answer. We live for the race. This is the goal. There is no immortality. What means this more than Russian despotism galling the neck of humanity? Who holds the sceptre that rules the world? The great pessimist answers: Not love, not intelligence, but in- stinctive will. The inexplicable caprice of life is deeper than reason, mightier than love. The irresistible force of nature's will controls not only matter, but men, the helpless tools and puppets of remorseless necessity. Wouldst thou know thyself? Study nature or its image — art. There in its restlessness is the simple will. Thou art part of that. Wouldst thou attain happiness? Seek it in negation of the will. Blot out existence ! The boon of man is self-emancipation. What abject hopeless- ness ! Oh, bottomless pit, oh weary tragedy — life! Always striving, never attaining. The heart throbbing only that it may throb again. Strange irony of fate! Blind impulse working Scbopenbauct tbe ipessfmfst 33 out a salvation which at the end is — naught ! Man's destiny, the voiceless night. Such is the pessimism of Schopenhauer. Against it is raised the strong white arm of the Christian faith, which scatters the bitter gloom of death and conquers the galling tyranny of life. In the presence of a religion of blessing, a religion of curses can not stand. Demand an immortality of life, postulate a knowing and loving God, and these damp fogs lift before the rays of an eternal sun. Above his head Schopenhauer holds a smoking torch. In the dark it shines. Under the sunlight of the Christian faith there appears only a sooty stick. Peering with the pessimist's light one sees wierd shadows assuming horrid shapes, the forms of demons, dancing at the doom of men; uncertainty everywhere; but let fall upon the world the radiance of the Cross and dark caverns become crystal palaces, distorted shapes assume forms of beauty; straight and purposeful is the path of life. A striking commentary on Schopenhauer the pessimist, is Schopenhauer the man. Lu- gubrious philosopher, sadder man. Passionate, arrogant, egotistical, he went through life, de- spising and despised, almost without friends. His servants, his disciples, his mother; he loved not one. "Great men," he said, "have few friends. Like the eagles they build their nests on dizzy heights, alone." And yet oddly 34 Glarft Prf3e ©rations enough, as Childe Harold, leaving without sor- row friends and native land, thought tenderly but of his dog; so Schopenhauer, disdaining men, loved the dumb brute. The philosopher who announced the gospel of compassion for all that is doomed to live, lacked the kindly sympathy for men. None has denounced more scathingly than he cruelty to our dumb fellow creatures; none has been more lacking than he in the truer kindness of action. Schopenhauer the man disproves Schopenhauer the pessimist. His philosophy, strangely impressive, holds peculiar sway over the minds of his country- men, working sad havoc in their lives. With hope gone, where shall men turn but to anarchy and license? Gloomy day when he was born! Sad the world that must needs buy truth at the price of such a doctrine. What a contrast between this pessimist and his great countryman, Beethoven ! Spurned by men, his philosophy unnoticed, Schopen- hauer became a despondent old man chained by his tormenting pessimism to the rock of despair. The great musician, racked by fear- ful pains, oppressed by as gloomy forebodings, yet struggled up, cleared the slough, grasped the truth, saw the light. And men catch in his wonderful music today something of the fire and hope which tells of victory. Like a lighthouse on northern shores, Schopenhauer shall stand in history warning Scbopenbauer tfoe ipesstmtst 35 men away from treacherous rocks, disclosing the cold and troubled sea. Though he lived and died unknown; a stranger in his native land; a prophet without honor; the philos- opher of , the half and bitter truth; yet today he lives in the thought and philosophy of the German people as no other philosopher, con- trolling their views of life, denying all hope beyond the grave, deifying human passion — the bitterest enemy of society and moral living that the world has ever known. Schopenhauer was a pessimist in both intel- lect and heart — the embodiment of the saddest views of life ever conceived by a great mind; and his philosophy will live on as long as the human intellect can doubt, the human heart suffer. He was the great negator. His mes- sage, despair. DANTE AS THE INTERPRETER OF THE MIDDLE AGES BY EDWARD REYNOLDS WRIGHT, '98 Happy is the nation that has a national poet. His is the duty to write in immortal words, the hopes and aspirations of his age. Such was the duty of Dante, " the interpreter of the middle ages," " the voice often silent centuries." As a statesman, without an equal; the first reformer who dared openly to attack the papacy; a patriot who gave his life for his country's good; the first, yes, and the last poet of the middle ages; the poet who made Chris- tianity the theme of the greatest epic since Homer sang the glories of ancient Greece; Dante, grand and solitary, stands guard over the mighty past. He dared to voice the hopes and aspirations of the age in which he lived. He placed before himself an ideal, both political and religious, and sought to attain this ideal. For this he was driven from his native city under penalty of death; friendless and alone he become a wanderer upon the face of the earth, believing in his convictions to the last. Is it then to be wondered that he became silent and morose, implacable toward his enemies, pursuing them to the very depths of hell? Dante, Interpreter of /JlMoole Sges 37 " Woe to the man on whom this traveler turned the inscrutable glare of his eyes." But Dante's exile and suffering bore rich fruit, and the centuries coming after reaped an abundant harvest. Sorrowful and resentful by nature, " his love was as transcendent as his soul." Hating and despising the world which he sought to elevate, he lived solitary and alone in its very midst. He was a pro- found philosopher and theologian, yet some- thing more than genius and great learning was needed to write the Divine Comedy. There was needed an ennobling passion, the outburst of a torn and bleeding heart. This passion Dante had, and it found utterance in his ideal- ized love and reverential admiration for Beatrice. Of Beatrice, Dante says : " If it please Him through whom all things come, that my life be spared, I hope to tell such things of her as never before have been seen by any one." How well he fulfils his sacred promise, the Divine Comedy attests in undying words. In the figure of the ideal Beatrice he has immortalized all that was good and noble in middle-age chivalry. To her he dedicated his " marvelous, mystic, unfathomable song, in which he sang his sorrows and his joys, re- vealed his visions, and recorded the passions and sentiments of his age." The age of Dante was an age when the end of all things was thought to be near at hand, 38 Clark ff»rt3e ©rations and the wonders of the invisible world had laid fast hold on the imaginations of men. More than one man had descended from the world of light into eternal darkness and re- turned to relate his fearful journey; but Dante is the one "authorized topographer" of the medieval hell. From all ages he took his material; from the Jews, their Old Testa- ment traditions; from the pagans, Minos the relentless judge, Cerberus the three-headed monster, and Charon, hateful ferryman of the Styx. All this he mingled with the scholastic notions of his own age. Yet this picture of hell would have been of no effect. It was when he peopled hell with popes hardly buried, kings just driven from their thrones, Guelfs and Ghibellines only yesterday engaged in deadly strife, that the picture became a living reality. This was hell separated from the earth by a gulf barred to no sinful soul. This it was that gave to the middle ages their dark and gloomy aspect. Dante's description was only a natu- ral outgrowth of that age of superstition, love and hatred. In itself this was a hopeless picture. With- out purgatory and paradise, hell would not have been a reality. With no hope of future blessedness, men could not have lived in those centuries when witches wove their destructive webs and the spirits of the dead groaned in their graves. Purgatory, to the people of that Dante, Interpreter of /IIMoole "Bqcs 39 age, was a place of transition. There, was the earthly paradise; there, men were purified of the sins of the flesh; there, the souls, not yet condemned to the hopelessness of eternal suf- fering, received their just punishment; there, constantly buoyed up by the hope of attaining the heavenly paradise, they struggled and toiled up the steep slope of the mount of pur- gatory until they stood on the banks of the Lethe. Into this they plunged and were puri- fied. Rising from the waters they beheld the dazzling light of paradise. There, the triune God, Father, Son and Holy Ghost, sat en- throned in the heaven of heavens, encircled by the angels and archangels. All was one mys- tical, dazzling splendor, unfathomable as the endless space. Such is this great poem in which is immor- talized all the good, yes, and the evil of those centuries of darkness. But Dante did not give all his attention to religious meditation. He took an active part in political life, fought in the battle of Cam- paldino, was present at the taking of Caprona, and became the ruler of Florence, the city of his birth. He stood on the threshold of a new era. Scarcely fifty years before Pope Innocent III had made the nations of the earth bow down in homage; yet Dante lived to see the papal bull burned in the streets of Paris and 40 Clarft fl>ri3e ©rations Boniface VIII dragged in his princely robes through the gutters of Anagni. Italy was a house divided against itself. For centuries it had been the battle-field for the nations of the North. Guelfs and Ghibel- lines; Neri and Bianchi; egged on by pope and emperor, kept up the terrible contest. Italy had seen the pope triumphant; she had seen him degraded; she had seen two popes in rivalry, one at Avignon, the other at Rome, each claiming divine succession. As a natural result men began first to doubt, then to think for themselves. They divided into parties and factions, one supporting the supremacy of the pope, the other of the emperor: the church universal — world empire, which should be supreme? Here was planted the germ of Italian unity, not destined to be realized until the present century. But still an interpreter was needed, one who would give form to the vague hopes and longings. Such a man was Dante. To Italy "he was the thirteenth century." The social and moral condition of Italy, with the corruptions of state and church, he depicted with a noble indignation, which in later years became the key-note of the Reformation. Giving voice to the secret hope of every true Italian, he set forth a complete system of world empire, both temporal and spiritual with the emperor as the supreme head, owing 2>ante, Unterpreter of rtlMDDle %qcs rt3e ©ratfon opinion set in favor of the plan of national government. Delegate after delegate of the State Convention was won over. The contro- versy waxed hot as it drew to a close and the issue was still in doubt. It was the eloquence of Hamilton that carried the day. He pictured "the awful spectacle of a nation without a national government"; he showed the helpless- ness of New York if out of the Union; by the memory of the martyrs of the Revolution, he called upon the Convention to act wisely. The final vote was taken; the Constitution was ratified by a majority of three; and Hamilton had won. He had saved New York from her- self, saved her to the Union. From that twenty- fifth of July, 1788, dates the prosperity of the Empire State. Today New York is imperial not only in pop- ulation, natural resources, and industrial pros- perity, but also in educational progress. Every year, from scores of colleges thousands of young men and women are graduated. From the time that they enter the high school and academy until they stand upon the commence- ment stage the State is their alma mater. In broad minds there is room at the same time for more than one great plan. Even while laboring with the problems of the Constitution, Hamilton formulated and put into operation a scheme of public education that bears compar- ison with those which in Europe have been the results of long experience and successive acts Ble^anOer Damilton 51 of imperial legislation. The University of the State since its establishment in 1784 had been nothing but a name. In 1787 Hamilton intro- duced into the Assembly a resolution repeal- ing theiormer law and incorporating the body which flourishes today under the name of the "Regents of the University." His design "fore- cast in the sphere of education the political organization, which, in the Constitutional Con- vention of the same year, he applied to the union of the States." Centralization of gov- ernment was the fundamental idea of both. The Regents are the only official body elected by partisan vote yet independent of party. No department of State-service has been more ef- ficiently and economically administered. Dur- ing a life of over a century the names of the illustrious men of New York have stood upon its rolls: such names as Clinton, Jay, Schuyler, Lansing, Curtis, Upson. For one hundred and ten years its aim has been, to give each branch of knowledge its place and value, to provide for the cultivation of every variety of talent, to lay a broad foundation of common educa- tion for the support of the whole moral and political frame of society. This is what Alexander Hamilton did for his State: he brought her into the Union; he gave her a noble system of education. What man has done more? What statesman has looked further into the future? What student of so- ciology has shown more extensive learning? 52 f>eafc pri^e ©ration Let his enemies point to his overpowering per- sonal ambition; for these deeds there was but one motive — purest patriotism. But these are not all. As treasurer of the " treasureless treasury," as representative at the national capitol, as a private citizen in his law office at Albany he did not cease to direct the political affairs of New York. What Washington was to the nation, Hamilton was to the State. The curtain rises upon the last act of the drama. Into the foreground moves the dark figure of the man who enabled Hamilton to perform his last signal service to his State. Aaron Burr had grown to be a dangerous power in politics, when, in 1804, he became candidate for governor of New York. In twenty years of rivalry Hamilton had learned Burr's unscrupulous and treacherous character. He saw the peril that threatened the State with such a man as its chief executive; and the same patriotism that led him to preserve New York to the Union urged him now to guard her against the ambition of the demagogue. He knew what bitter enmity his opposition would arouse; it may be even that his pro- phetic vision beheld the fatal meeting on the field of honor; but he did not hesitate. Into the conflict he threw all his political power and personal influence, and Burr was defeated. The world knows the rest: the deadly hatred of Burr, the challenge, the duel, the grief of a nation for a faithful servant, of a State for a loving- son. Ikirfclanb fP>ri3e Oration THE MOSAIC LAW BY CHARLES GIDEON EMPIE, '98 A wonderful law, given to a wonderful peo- ple. A legislation at once universal and par- ticular; temporal, and yet for all time. A sys- tem so sublime in its conception; and so effect- ive and lasting in its results that, compared with it, other laws of early times seem short- sighted and trivial. Great truths were indeed taught, and wise laws enacted by other sages of olden time, but they made no deep and lasting impression. They were of pure gold; but they needed the divine stamp to make them current and effect- ive in every-day life. The sprinkling-pot can never equal the rain which comes down from heaven; nor water poured from a vessel of clay equal that coming from the fountain of life. "Thus saith Solon," can never have the force of " thus saith the Lord." We may admire the laws of other men; but we live under those of Moses. Like the stream which rapt Ezekiel, with prophetic vis- ion, saw issuing from beneath the temple door, the stream of Mosaic law has poured its heal- ing and life-giving flood through every civi- 54 HtfrMano ff>rt3e ©ration lized land; and is destined to bless the whole world. The Mosaic legislation bears throughout, the impress of its great giver. He was no mere mouthpiece or echo, but the mould into which the divine truth was poured. Deep in wisdom; lofty in aspiration; and strong in character, he used his God-given powers — and used them well. During his enforced exile among the moun- tains of Midian, he was unconsciously being fitted for his life's work. Here he learned the great lessons of trust and patience. Yet, as he mused the fire burned; and the flame of Horeb's bush was equaled by the flame of love and zeal which burned in his heart until the close of his life of self-renunciation and denial. His name and personality do not lessen as the centuries creep by; and we may well say of him as has been said of Lincoln : "The hills sink as we leave them; the mountains rise." The Hebrews had come from the very home of idolatry and immorality; from a nation long civilized and long sensualized; from a people as " grey in the arts of vice, as they were in the arts of life." They erected lofty obelisks; and adored serpents; they built pyramids; and worshiped cats. To free his people from the gross and idola- trous ideas of Egypt, was one of Moses' great- est difficulties. They were like great children. IXbe /Ifcosaic 3Law 55 They must have something tangible in their worship; something for their senses to feed upon. To meet this demand, we find a system of ritualism , scarcely equaled in history. The Hebrew love for splendor and mysticism was gratified by splendid ceremonials, perpetual sacrifices, and frequent feasts. While in the wilderness, there was constantly before their eyes the bright glory of the Shekinah; and the gorgeous display of the tabernacle. The Hebrew religion was one of the present life, and so in direct contrast to that of Egypt. It was a matter of present reward and punish- ment; for to those rude children of the brick- yard and the desert, the future was hidden by the present. If they should be obedient they would prosper in freedom and peace. If they turned their backs upon God, he would send upon them famine and pestilence and sword. It was not a lofty appeal, but it was the high- est they could understand. Second in importance only to the law itself was the manner in which it was given. The display of God's power and grandeur at Sinai was never forgotten. Here was kindled the poetic genius and imagination of the Hebrew people. At Sinai, the principle of the dignity and importance of the individual was first an- nounced, and was even a condition of the cov- enant oath. Here the stamp of nobility was 56 ftitftland 1P113C ©ration placed on labor, which dignified it until the Master crowned it by his toil at his father's bench. They had come to Sinai trembling, but turbulent, slaves; they departed, a nation of priests, a people of God, his peculiar treas- ure and care. Though theocratic in form the Hebrew pol- ity was democratic in spirit. The assembly of the people chose the magistrates, and adopted the constitution. Freedom first spoke with certain voice from Sinai's summit; and there was formed the first great republic. Much has been said about the severity of the Mosaic law. But we must keep in mind the time and condition under which the law was enacted. Given a wilderness and a host of escaped slaves, and it is readily seen that only strict martial law could have any effect. Moses was not a visionary theorist legislating for an ideal state; but with an insight that was foresight, he saw the needs of the time and met them well. The law was not perfect any more than Moses was perfect. There were many things in it, which, judged by modern standards, seem crude, cruel, and useless. But we must remember that an enforced law can never be greatly above the popular will and sentiment. God does nothing in a hurry. But, " without haste and without rest," he works out his plans for man's development and perfection. True Judaism lived for Christianity, and died £be /Hbosaic Xaw 57 at the birth of it. The shell of the ceremonial and symbolic fell away when the precious fruit was ripe. Moses was but the pioneer of Christ. He was at once a prophecy and a portent. As the light from Moses paled and sank; and as the shadows lengthened over the national life of the Jews, those same shadows pointed toward the east where soon the more glorious Son of Righteousness was to arise and shine upon a waiting world. The religion of type and shadow gave way to one of substance and reality. That which was negative and incom- plete in the Old Testament became positive and perfect in the New. The law was a stern schoolmaster; but it led us to Christ; and the Decalogue bore as its perfect fruit the Sermon on the Mount. It was a glorious ending to a great beginning. Long after the pyramids of Egypt shall have crumbled to dust, the name and work of the great law-giver and leader of the Hebrews, will thunder down through the ages, filling all the earth with their greatness and glory. As Heine well puts it, " Moses erected human pyramids." Horace could boast, "I have erected a monument more enduring than brass." But Moses erected a monument for time and eternity. As we study this great law we constantly discover new beauties and virtues. We are 58 IkirMano Pri3e ©ration thrilled by the same spirit which filled the soul of the poet-king of Israel, upon whose life had fallen both the shadow from Mount Ebal, and the light from Gerizim; and with him we are led to exclaim: "Open thou mine eyes that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law." Soper prise £besis THE TARIFF QUESTION IN AMERICA DOWN TO 1846 BY CHARLES GIDEON EMPIE, '98 The tariff question has ever been an impor- tant and engrossing one in American history. It has been inseparably bound up with our so- cial and economic progress. Though the sub- ject is so important today, to our forefathers it was still more vital; for to them it was a matter concerning financial integrity, and national exist- ence, and honor. The tariff question is older than the Constitu- tion. The various colonies, while yet under British rule, had their own tariff rules and rates. There was no uniformity or general system, "but each for itself as against the others." British subjects paid but two and one-half per cent., while foreigners paid five per cent. The duties were both specific and ad valorem. In the South there was an export duty on tobacco, and an import duty on slaves ; while throughout the colonies import duties were laid on sugar, molasses, liquors, wines, and dyes. This colonial tariff, however, was simply for 6o Soper IPrise ftbesis revenue; and had no direct influence upon later tariff legislation. It ceased upon the outbreak of hostilities with England. So for several years we had no import laws; and, in fact, needed none, for during the struggle for inde- pendence our foreign trade well-nigh ceased. Also, there was a strong feeling against any re- straint on commerce, as savoring of British mis- rule and tyranny. In 1776, Adam Smith published his Wealth of Nations. This book, together with the Declaration of Independence, marked a new era in political and economic science; a revolt against the old- time mercantile system of political economy. Men began to doubt if one nation's is another's gain ; if but one party could be the gainer by ex- change; whether the possession of money was the great object of trade; and if this alone con- stituted true wealth. The British treatment of the colonies was due to these old-time views. The colony should be the feeder of the mother country. This had been the purpose of the colony and this should be its end. So the "colonial system" was en- forced and the rights of the colonies ignored. We were to be kept an agricultural people ; and so, dependent upon Great Britain for all manu- factured articles, she sold to us at her own price. To manufacture necessary articles for ourselves was a serious and finable offence. Parliament declared a hat factory a nuisance; nor could hats be exported from one colony to another. Gbe tariff Question 61 Officers were sent over to see that no mills or factories were operated or built. England's policy was summed up in the declaration of Lord Chat- ham that he would not permit the colonies to make as much as a hobnail, or a horseshoe for them- selves. In 1765, the emigration of skilled labor- ers to this country was forbidden; and later laws were passed forbidding the exportation of cotton, woolen, and steel-making machinery. During the colonial period, a brisk and profit- able trade had sprung up with the West Indies. The Revolution brought this trade to a close, as well as our commerce with Europe. There were no foreign markets for our agricultural products ; and from sheer necessity, the colonies began to manufacture articles necessary for peace and for war. The importing of goods from England was forbidden and Congress urged upon the col- onies the need of manufacturing industries. Bounties were offered for the manufacture of munitions of war and upon clothing. Home- spun became fashionable. Iron was made and was formed into various utensils. But no sooner had hostilities ceased than the tide of English goods set to our shores. British productions of excellent quality and at low price glutted our markets. As a result, ruin threat- ened our new industries, while our coin poured steadily into British coffers. Specie was abun- dant, for great quantities had been sent over from England and France, to support the army and navy during the war. So trade was brisk ; we 62 Soper pr(3e Gbesis bought more than we could sell or exchange, and soon we were almost without coin or credit. During 1784 - 1790 inclusive, the excess of im- ports over exports was over $50,000,000. England had no intention of losing her grip up- on the colonies, or of abandoning her old policy. It was now a battle of industries ; and it was fought no less rigorously because the yardstick had taken the place of the sword. What could not be done by power of arms should be done by the ''tyrannous power of capital." Nearly a quarter of a century passed before we proved victorious, and became as free in fact as we were in name. Commercially we were worse off than before the war; for by the " Orders in Council " in 1783 we lost the West Indian trade. Here again was seen the short-sighted policy of England ; for by turning the colonial energies to home production and development, she caused the rapid growth of manufacturing interests, the very thing she wished to prevent. War debts, difficulty in collecting direct taxes, and need of revenue, forced most of the States to reimpose taxes on imports. But, as before, there was no uniformity or concert in their action. Rivalry and jealousy were strong. The bond of a common danger was removed ; and a de- structive and suicidal course followed. Each State sought to fix its duties so as to draw to it- self the commerce of foreign nations ; as a result none prospered. £be {Tariff Question 63 The central government was weak ; and an object of contempt at home and abroad. Congress could "declare everything and do nothing." In vain had Congress asked the States for power to levy a uniform impost of five per cent, to pay the national debt. Nor would the States levy such an impost themselves. They would not even permit Congress to pass laws discriminating against such nations as would not form commercial treaties with us. The nation seemed to have passed through the dangers of war, only to fall a prey to internal dissension and financial ruin. Everywhere arose the demand for a stronger central government, which should have power to levy taxes and to regulate commerce. From every port of the country arose the cry for proper restriction of foreign competition in behalf of our newly developed in- dustries. Our early industries did not have the confi- dence of the people. Trade had to be diverted from English channels, workingmen had to be trained, and improved machinery had to be pro- cured or made. This was not an easy matter for capital was not so easily diverted as it is to- day. People were more conservative and had not that confidence which comes with experi- ence and success. Nearly all the " Fathers of the Republic " were in favor of free commerce. They had looked to the ideal rather than to the real and present. As Madison said, "A perfect freedom is the system t>4 Soper pri3e Gbests which would be my choice. But before such a system would be eligible, perhaps, for the United States, they must be out of debt ; before it will be attainable, all other nations must concur in it." This was the common idea. They neither thought it possible nor desirable that we should become a great manufacturing people for many years. We were to furnish raw material to Europe in exchange for manufactured products. Again, New England's commercial interests would be favored by free trade, while England was sup- posed to stand ready to unite with us, in form- ing such an unrestricted system of exchange. The dream was soon rudely dispelled. Our statesmen began to understand that "a con- dition, not a theory. " confronted them ; that, as Frederick List puts it, "The best book on political economy in this new country is the volume of life." The narrow and grasping poli- cy was soon evident ; and Adams, Madison, and Jefferson were soon foremost in urging re- taliatory and restrictive measures. Hamilton, with keener insight and surer knowledge, had early declared in favor of pro- tection to our industries. He maintained that manufactures were both possible and desirable ; and urged restrictive measures, not so much for retaliation as for the encouragement of home in- dustries. Thus for one reason or another, our early leaders were, by 1785, unitedly in favor of a uniform restriction of foreign commerce. State needs were finally overcoming State jeal- Gbe {Tariff Question 6? ousies. Then, too, a spirit of nationality ; a feel- ing of common interest was beginning to be felt. Men began to see the possibility of a broader de- velopment ; and that our industries might easily be strengthened and made permanent. The in- tolerable condition of internal commerce led to the conference of States, in 1786, at Annapolis. The object of this convention was "To consider how far a uniform system in their commercial relations" might "be necessary to their com- mon interests." It was seen that only by a com- plete revision of the Articles of Confederation could any adequate relief be afforded. There- fore, a recommendation was made by the con- vention to Congress, that another convention be called for that purpose. Congress could resist no longer, and resolved to call a convention which should revise the Articles of Confederation and make such alterations and provisions as "should make the federal government equal to the exigen- cies of government and the preservation of the Union." The convention met at Philadelphia the following year; and our present Constitution was the result. Thus the desire for internal har- mony and for commercial restriction, for the purpose of revenue and protection, brought about the framing and adopting of the Constitu- tion. As Daniel Webster said in his speech at Buffalo, in 1833, "The protection of American labor against the injurious competition of foreign labor, so far at least as respects general handi- craft productions, is known historically to have 66 Soper ff>ri3e Zhceis been one designed to be obtained by establishing the Constitution." No sooner had Congress met in 1789, under the new Constitution than the question of Ways and Means was introduced as the most pertinent and pressing subject to be considered. Revenue was necessary both to meet the expenses of the government, and to pay the principal and interest of the rapidly maturing national debts. Those must be met, or our national honor and integrity would be gone forever. There was little or no thought as to direct tax- ation. This, the jealousy of the States towards the government made well-nigh impossible. Be- sides, if the Union was to endure it must press but lightly upon the people. For the same rea- son internal revenue was not thought an advisable means of raising funds. Therefore "taxation followed the line of least resistance " ; and cus- tom duties were decided to be the best means of raising revenue. This was the European meth- od ; and it had in its favor that indirectness which caused it to be little felt. Another motive for adopting this system was the spirit of nationality, which was so necessary to our true development. By means of a tariff on imports, and by the use of domestic products, it was hoped to weld the States into a strong Union. Home markets and home industries were to draw the States by bonds of mutal de- pendence and advantage. No more could we be called "a nation without a national govern- Gbe tariff Question 07 ment. " Thus our protective system was the result of a strong political purpose ; combined with the manufacturing and trade interests of the nation. Sectional interest was to give way to national interest ; and all were to reap the advantages gained by common concessions. No sooner had Congress assembled than the petitions began to pour in from the North and South, alike, asking Congress, by proper legisla- tion, to protect the country in its new manufact- uring industries ; and to encourage the rise of still others. The tariff had not yet entered pol- itics ; so there was little prejudice felt ; while, in addition, the South thought a development of manufacturing interests would furnish a market in the North for their new materials. The nation was passing from the agricultural stage to the manufacturing stage ; and the war with England had hastened the change. In 1789 it was estimated that nine-tenths of the popula- tion were engaged in agricultural pursuits. But our population was becoming more dense, and labor more abundant, and so more easily diverted into new channels. Also the injury we had suffered in the Revolution from the lack of nec- essary war supplies and munitions had aroused a strong sentiment in favor of more diversified industry and production. It was felt that the three great industries, v/ithin the state, agricult- ure, manufactures, and commerce, should be in a balanced development in order to secure proper growth and stability as a nation. That 68 Sopec lPriK Cbesi* the farmer and the artisan should be near each other. That agriculture and manufactures were each necessary to the other. To bring about this proper harmony and bal- ance in our industral life ; to adjust popular pro- duction to national demands, was and is one of the great purposes of our protective policy. Prof. Thompson well defines protection as "The policy of a nation that believes in its own unde- veloped resources and looks to the future." It aims to equalize conditions to our own pro- ducers ; to develop such industries as will se- cure to us industrial and commerical independ- ence. Abnormal development should no more be sought by a nation than by the individual. It is the "all around development" which gives vi- tality and health to a man or to a nation. As the old adage goes, "It is a foolish man who puts all his eggs into a single basket." Free com- petition has an enticing sound. But true com- petition can exist only between rivals approxi- mately equal. A fully developed industry in one nation, may easily destroy a similar " infant in- dustry " in another, unless prevented, even though the younger would have the greater power when grown. Such was the condition of our manufacturing interests immediately after the war with England. There must be aid at once or our rising industries must yield to the superior capital, experience, and skill, of English manufactures, which were aided by the improved £be Garitf (Question 69 machinery and cheap labor of that nation. The first tariff bill was introduced by Mr. Madison ; and was the first measure discussed by the first Congress. It was merely for revenue; and was to be a temporary affair, lasting only until a more comprehensive system could be arranged. During the discussion, Mr. Fitzsim- mons of Pennsylvania moved that thebill be so modified as "To encourage the productions of our country and to protect our infant industries." This caused a long discussion. Massachu- setts wanted a duty on rum. Pennsylvania wanted a duty on steel. But to this the agri- cultural South objected ; and in turn, asked for a duty on hemp. To this the manufacturing and shipping interests of the North objected. Finally a compromise was effected. The manufacturing and shipping interests yielded to the agricultural, since the latter had submitted to be taxed for the promotion of manufactures. The law as finally approved was very simple. There was a list of specific duties, and five classes of goods imposed with ad valorem rates. A short free list was added, which included wool, cotton, dyes, copper, and furs. All articles not mentioned were to receive a duty of 5 per cent. ad valorem ; while the highest ad valorem duty was 15 per cent. Provision was made for the repayment of all duties upon goods exported again within a year. A discrimination of 10 per cent, was also made in favor of commodities im- ported in vessels built and owned by citizens of 70 Soper prise Gbesis the United States. To others, advantages were equal. The rates were very low, the average duty being equivalent to 8 1-2 per cent, ad va- lorem. Neither woolen, iron, nor cotton manu- factures were protected; and in consequence, the Hartford woolen mill, which supplied General Washington with his inaugural suit, was sold out by the sheriff, during his second administration. As this act formed the very foundation of our tariff system, it was of great importance. At that time there was no question as to the right of Congress to impose protective duties. The States no longer possessed such powers and if Congress did not have it, then it did not exist. Congress had power " (1) to regulate commerce ; (2) to provide for the general welfare." And our forefathers believed they were working to these ends, when they framed and passed the tariff of 1789. The " Fathers of the Constitu- tion " were also the framers and advocates of the tariff, and surely must have known their legit- imate powers and acted within them. The law was plainly a protective measure and the pre- amble read, "Whereas it is necessary for the support of the government, for the discharge of the debts of United States, and the encour- agement of the protection of manufactures, that duties be levied on goods, wares, and merchan- dise imported." Certainly this has no "uncer- tain sound." As yet our manufactures were not extensive or important. They were mostly of a simple Gbe XEarftt Question 71 nature ; for neither skill nor capital was suffi- cient for advanced manufactures. Shipbuilding, however, was an important industry ; and many ships were exported to Europe each year. Before the Revolution, one-third of British ship- ping was of American construction. Next to agriculture, commerce was the lead- ing occupation. But, after 1783, owing to the "Orders in Council" and other British restrictions, our commerce suffered ; and in the case of the West Indian trade, nearly ceased. Gradually, the capital invested in shipping interests was transferred to manufacturing interests, and in bringing this about, the tariff of 1789 played no mean part. Yet no marked change occurred un- til 1808 when our commerce almost ceased and our manufactures rapidly increased. The revenue from the tariff of 1789 proving insufficient, the rates were slightly raised in 1790. Again in 1792, in accordance with the desires and plans of Hamilton, as expressed in his famous "Report on Manufactures," there was a further increase of duties. The "Report on Manufactures" contained the earliest and dearest formulation of protective principles ever given in our legislative history. Ever since it has been the arsenal for arguments in favor of protection. It had been prepared in accordance with a resolution of the House of Representatives that Hamilton draw up and report a plan "for the encouragement and pro- motion of such ' manufactures as will tend to 12 Soper lprt3e Gbesis render the United States independent of other nations, for essential, particularly military sup- plies." In it he argued for a home market ; for diversification of industries ; and for industrial independence. He declared import duties to be a proper means of encouraging our manufactures ; and also suggested bounties, premiums, exemp- tions of raw materials from duty, and drawbacks as further means of encouragement. He declared that emigration would be increased by the build- ing up of manufactures ; and that a steady de- mand for native products would be established in domestic markets. He did not ignore or undervalue the importance of agriculture and commerce, but emphasized the importance and advantage of manufactures, and answered the pleas brought against their establishment. Never did the " let alone " policy receive a more vigorous criticism ; and never did the great prin- ciples of protection receive more earnest approv- al, than from the pen of this great statesman and financier, who "with an insight that was fore- sight " saw the present and future needs and possibilities of his country. None knew better than he that our struggle for national existence had now become one for national prosperity and permanence. He clearly realized that the temple of our national industry would soon totter to its fall if the pillar of manufactures were removed. The immediate effect of this report was not great. But the good seed was not lost. From Zbz tariff Question 73 it sprung the protectionist policy and the so- called "American system" of Clay. This re- port completed the financial policy of Hamilton which had so successfully carried us through the perilous times of our early history ; and which secured to us our national honor and exist- ence, by enabling us to pay our honest debts. The slow advance of manufactures, prior to 1808 was largely due to the influence of the European wars. To us as the principal neutral power, fell the carrying trade of Europe. Also a ready and profitable market was furnished for all our agricultural products. In return, we re- ceived large quantities of manufactured goods at low prices. So there was little inducement to produce such articles at home. Still, there was a constant, though slow, increase in our manu- factures ; and from time to time, a slight advance was made in the tariff rates, as more revenue or protection was needed. In addition, a direct tax, and an internal revenue tax on spirits were laid. But these proved so unpopular that they were repealed under Jefferson, in 1802. Be- tween 1789 and 18 12 thirteen tariff laws were passed, which, in general, increased both duties and the number of dutiable articles. Yet, with the possible exception of salt, no imported article was thought too heavily taxed. It was no longer a mere question of dollars and cents; it was a matter of patriotism, of nationalism, and also of retaliation against Great Britain. Our specie was no longer abundant ; or our credit 74 Sopet iprijc Cbeste good. People were ashamed of their folly and extravagance in buying such quantities of Eng- lish goods directly after the war. The policy of protection was fast becoming a settled thing. There was little discussion about it ; for it was an accepted fact. People began to see and ap- preciate the fact that the foreign manufacturer did not want their produce, either raw material or provision ; while the home manufacturer wanted both. Meanwhile our commerce was involving us in difficulties. England saw with concern and even alarm, that we bid fair to become the chief com- mercial power of the world. This was to be prevented at any cost. Nor were we to be al- lowed to remain neutral in the great struggle of Europe. England and France in their efforts to injure each other, sought to destroy our com- merce, and well-nigh succeeded. Acts were passed which were a gross violation of interna- tional laws. In 1805 an act was passed by Congress pro- hibiting the importation of British manufactures. This was done to force England to cease her impressment outrages against our seamen. In 1808 the Embargo Act was laid by Congress upon American vessels, to meet the Berlin and Milan decrees of Napoleon ; and the English "Orders in Council," which had virtually closed to us all European ports. The embargo was un- popular ; and was followed in 1809 by the Non- intercourse Act, which applied only to England XLbe tariff (Question 75 and France. This action of Congress was like " cutting off a leg to cure a corn." By it our farmers were nearly ruined, and our commerce crippled. England suffered much but we suf- fered more. Capital also was diverted into new channels, notably manufactures. This, though a good thing in itself, was too hostilely done and at a great loss of harmony and capital. Those acts, together with the war which fol- lowed, furnished almost complete protection to our industries. Soon after war was declared, a law was passed by which all duties were doub- led and English imports prohibited. We were sadly in need of revenue and of war supplies, and it was hoped by this increase of duty to en- courage the growth of manufactures. In this particular, the hopes of Congress were realized ; but the increase of duty brought no increase of revenue. Our commerce fell rapidly away, and from sheer necessity, manufacturing soon became a leading industry. The nation began to realize its latent powers and abilities. Estab- lishments for the manufacture of cottons and woolens, of iron, glass, pottery, and like articles sprang up everywhere. For it was not only a matter of need and of profit but also of patriot- ism. Again England had overreached herself in her selfish greed, and we were forced to become self-reliant and self-sufficient. We learned how to make our own machinery, and how to use it ; and England's laws forbidding the exporting of textile machinery but aided the growth of 76 Sopec C>ri3e Gbesis our manufactures. In 1810, 10,000 bales of cot- ton were manufactured in the United States. Five years later, 90,000 bales were used; and cotton began to be a power in shaping our pol- icy and legislation. The capital invested in cot- ton and woolen manufactures in 181 5 was near- ly $50,000,000. Nor were our iron industries far behind ; for but 3,000 tons of iron in manu- factures were needed from abroad. Our glass also rivaled that of Europe in price and quality. In May, 181 5, all discriminating duties and ton- nage taxes were repealed in favor of any nation which should take similar action in regard to our vessels and productions. Here was an early act of reciprocity only preceded by the one of 1778 with France. No sooner was peace declared than the pent up stream of English goods poured into our markets. England did not intend to give up her American markets without a struggle. Soon the imports were out of all proportion to the exports or the needs of the country. Even the war duties could not stay the flood. The policy of England was summed up by Lord Brougham when he said, "It is well worth while to incur a loss upon the first exportation, in order by the glut to stifle in the cradle those arising manufactures in the United States which the war has forced into existence." It would not be true to ascribe to this one motive the great exportation of English goods to this coun- try, for the English manufactures in order to ilbe tlariff Question 77 meet their obligations to continue their produc- tions, must sell at almost any price. The cry for protection to our new industries went up over the whole land ; and it was heard. The lessons of the late war were not forgotten. During the war we had neither been able to purchase nor to sell, and the folly of depending on foreign markets and supplies was plain to the dullest mind. " Home produc- tion and home consumption" became the watch- word of the nation. Not only was protection demanded for manufactures, but from the Western States came a call for the protection of their newly developed flax and hemp industries. The Southern States also began to realize the importance of a home market for their rapidly increasing cotton output, which the invention of the cotton gin had made both possible and profitable. In December, 18 16, Secretary of the Treasury Dallos reported to Congress in favor of protec- tive duties ; and soon the tariff bill of 1816 was reported by Mr. Lowndes of South Carolina. As Mr. Calhoun, representing the cotton interest, also strongly favored the measure, it was called a Southern bill. Though intended for a protec- tive tariff, it failed to protect our industries as was hoped ; and so the effect was almost that of a free trade tariff. The bill aroused much discus- sion. Mr. Clay appeared for the first time as the advocate of " a thorough and decided protection to home manufactures by ample duties." But 78 Soper Pri3e tlbcsis his friend, Mr. Ingham of Pennsylvania, de- clared the aim was mainly protection, and revenue but incidental. The opposition came mainly from Mr. Webster, who represented the commercial interest of New England ; and from Mr. Randolph of Virginia, who now began the cry of sectional legislation. The bill passed by a large majority. It was to be a temporary measure. The average rate of duties was sixteen per cent, ad valorem. Duties virtually prohibitory were imposed on foreign articles, of which a domestic supply could be readily produced. A duty of twenty per cent, was laid on those articles which could not be entirely supplied at home ; while on articles of consumption chiefly produced abroad the duties were so arranged as to raise the greatest income. There was no increase of duty upon articles charged with specific. Perhaps the best feature of the bill was the "minimum principle." Under it we soon made cheaper and better cottons than India had sup- plied before. The minimum principle provided that no duty on cottons or woolens should be less than 6 1-4 cents per yard. The effect was almost a prohibition of cheap cloths; and, natu- rally, this feature of the bill was opposed by commercial New England. The purpose and policy of the measure was given by Jefferson when he said, "We must now place the manu- facturer by the side of the agriculturalist." Also the argument of possible future war had great Gbe {Tariff Question 79 force, and was strongly urged by Mr. Calhoun. No decided change was produced by the tariff of 1 8 16. For some time our markets were glutted with English goods, sold by auction at or near cost price in England. Our war debt was heavy; European harvests were plenty; and the English corn laws had begun to have their effect. Prices fell rapidly; and in 18 19, there was a financial crisis, largely due to the collapse of the paper currency system. The iron and hemp industries were nearly crushed by British competition; also the woolen interests of the country suffered greatly. Therefore an increased duty was laid in 1818, on iron and copper, and on cotton and woolen goods. An- other bill providing for general increase of duties was brought forward in 1820, and lacked but a single vote of passing. Another attempt in 1824 was more success- ful. New England had accepted the inevitable; and was gradually increasing its manufacturing interests. The Western vote was strongly in favor of protection; but a change had come over the South, and its vote was almost unani- mously opposed to the tariff bill of 1824. How- ever, the combined and Western States, aided by a part of New England, gave the necessary majority. This was the first distinctively and strongly protective tariff. Henry Clay declared the object of the bill was "to create a home market and to lay the foundation of a genuine American So Sopec pnjic Sbesfs policy. " The average rate of duties was nearly 38 per cent, ad valorem. By its provisions, duties were increased on metals like iron and lead: and on agricultural products like wool and hemp. Little change was made in duties on cotton and woolen goods. Cotton had been fixed at 25 per cent, by the bill of 1816; and this was still thought sufficient, so no change w as made. The worst detect of the law of 1824 was in regard to wool and woolens. The in- tention was to encourage both the growth of wool, and also woolen manufactures. But the duty on wool was too high in proportion to the duty on woolen goods. So the demand for wool fell off. since the manufacturers could not engage in the business with profit, owing to the high price of wool. To this disadvantage was added the large importation of foreign woolens, which for want of a regular market, were dis- posed of by the auction sales so prevalent at this time and which had so greatly injured our home manufactures. The free trade opposition first became organ- ized during the discussion of this law of 1824. The South and North no longer saw their inter- ests to be in common, and the South lent a ready ear to English arguments and promises, which aimed at the securing of the coveted Southern cotton and Southern markets. The improve- ment in the quality of Southern cotton, had led England to remove all discriminations against its importation. So the South was no longer de- £be CaritE Question 81 pendent upon Northern markets. The South had hoped to manufacture equally with the North. It was that closeness to cotton supply and cheap slave labor which made this possible. But the slave was found unfitted and incompetent; nor would the poor whites work while slavery lasted. So the Southern States were obliged to remain agricultural. England h;id now become strong and prosper- ous under her protective system; and now felt no fear of competition. She now discovered that all restrictions between America and herself were either useless or harmful. She could manufacture cheaper than we could. On the other hand we could raise raw materials cheaper than she could hope to. Why should we not do that for which we were best adapted and then exchange productions and receive mutual benefit ? Free trade was in the air; and the South lent a ready ear to those specious pleas, those argu- ments with half the facts left out. The opinion began to prevail in the South that the cheap and abundant labor of England could be competed against; that greater prices and returns could be gotten in England than at home. Also that manufactured articles could be obtained cheaper abroad than at home. So Southern votes united to overthrow the policy under which the Union had become great and prosperous. To Southern eyes a penny near by seemed greater than a dollar in the distance. All things were to be reckoned on a financial S2 Soper TPrise Gbeste basis, looking to the present rather than to the future. Then began that union of Southern planter and English manufacturer, which was bro- ken only by the civil war, which at least in part, was brought about by this sad estrangement of Northern and Southern interests. For no sooner did mutual dependence cease, than ceased mutual respect and confidence. The law of 1824 did not furnish sufficient pro- tection to some of our most important industries. Therefore in 1827 the friends of protection met at Harrisburg to consider the situation, to get at the facts and to agree to a tariff which should be equal in its benefits and burdens, to all parts of the Union. The convention was made up of farmers and manufacturers, and the woolen interest was well represented and had much in- fluence. A mutual compromise was finally agreed upon, and a tariff arranged, which after- ward came before the people as the tariff of 1828; the so-called "Tariff of abominations." The tariff question had already begun to be a sectional one. It now became a political question as well. In the campaign of 1828, both candidates were in favor of protection. But there was some doubt as to Adams' loyalty, while Jackson had ever been a firm supporter of the protective system. Jackson's election not only was a sign of the popular feeling as to protection, but also was a victory of democracy over tradition. The tariff of 1828 was the most thoroughly protective measure yet passed. Although much ftbe tariff Question 83 opposed and vilified, the financial and industrial effects of the bill were good ; and the years im- mediately following were years of success and progress. The South solidly opposed the bill, while New England largely favored it. Mr. Webster, the former opponent of protection, now voted in its favor. His action was due to the fact of New England's rapid increase in manufactures. Here protection had been the cause; manufactures the result of such legisla- tion. The West favored the bill, in order to obtain a higher duty on wool and hemp. The bill intro- duced the principle that the raw materials of manufactures should be given a high duty. There was a marked advance in the rates on iron, wool, and hemp. Wool was raised from 30 per cent, to 40 percent. ; and hemp was raised from $35 to §60 a ton. This was done in spite of the opposition of Adams' adherents. The bill was called a "complex of compromises." Certainly there were many inconsistencies in the measure; but these came from the efforts of the Southern free-trade members who, by putting in duties out of proper proportion to need, tried to kill Adams, politically, by the bill, and then in turn to kill the bill. It was not thought that New England would vote for the law as it stood. But the general advantage of the bill was such, that it passed in spite of the "abominations" insisted upon by the Southern members. The South had played a dangerous political game and had lost. The bill was truly not helpful to Southern 84 Soper lpvise £besis interests ; but this was due to their own action. The passage of this bill intensified the feeling already existing in the cotton States. Already the act of 1824 had been denounced as an act of despotism ; now, this measure increased their grievances. Only the hope of favorable action held back the Southern States. The national debt was nearly paid, and there was a surplus in the Treasury. A reduction of the tariff was therefore expected. But Jackson strongly be- lieved in the necessity of national industrial in- dependence ; and so while advising a reduction in duties, in order to decrease the revenue, he still upheld the principle of protection. He de- clared that duties on war necessities should not be reduced; and that all articles which could be produced with advantage at home, should not be subject to such a reduction of tariff rates as to destroy fair competition. Moreover, he declared a protective tariff to be both wise and constitu- tional. He virtually anticipated Clay's "Amer- ican system." It now became evident that the chief reduction would be on teas and coffees and like articles. Great was the disappointment of the South. Violent threats were heard. The bill was declared by South Carolina to be "un- constitutional, oppressive, and unjust." In 1830, Mr. Clay submitted a resolution that "existing duties upon articles imported from for- eign countries, and not coming in competition with similar articles made or produced in the United £be tariff (Question 85 States, ought to be forthwith abolished, except the duties on wines and silks." A warm de- bate followed; but the matter was not finally de- cided until two years later. In January, 1832, Mr. Clay introduced his famous resolution for "making the tariff upon articles coming into competition with home man- ufactures a system of permanent high duties ; and for abolishing, or greatly reducing, the duties upon all other articles." This marked a new era in the tariff history and system. Up to this time, the protection of manufactures had been regarded as a temporary policy. Now it was to become the permanent policy of the nation; the "American system," as Mr. Clay called it in his great speech of explanation and defence. As a result of this resolution, two opposing tariff bills were soon introduced. One by Mr. Adams in favor of protection ; the other, by Mr. McDuffie, of South Carolina, which favored a decided reduction in tariff rates. Mr. Adams' measure was adopted. There was to be a slight reduction in the existing tariff, though the prin- ciple of protection still remained in force. It proposed the immediate abolition of the minimum system ; for it had led to constant evasions, un- dervaluations, and disputes. The duty on coarse wools was to be entirely removed. There was also a slight reduction of duties on fine wool and woolen fabrics. Throughout the bill was seen the strong desire of the North to make some concession to the growing opposition of 86 Soper pri3e Gbesfs the South. Nearly all those features which the South had called "abominations" were either modified or removed. Already in 1830 the mo- lasses abomination was removed by reducing the duty from ten cents a gallon to five cents. At the same time, duties on tea, coffee, and cocoa were lowered, in order to reduce the revenue. The result of the tariff of 1832 was to put the protective system, in the main, where it stood in 1824. The duties on pig and bar iron were made the same as in that year. By the law of 1828 the duty on hemp and flax had been raised to $60 a ton. Now, the duty on hemp was fixed at $40; while flax was put on the free list. Even these concessions did not satisfy the South, for the hated principle of protection was still retained. The passing of this bill was immediate pre- text for the nullification of South Carolina. Mr. Calhoun had given, in 1831, his opinion as to State rights ; and now a convention was called in 1832 to consider the late action of Congress. The tariff of 1828 and its amendment of 1832 were declared null and void. It was asserted that if any attempt were made to enforce them, South Carolina would separate herself from the Union. President Jackson was firm in his deter- mination to enforce the law; and the future looked dark, when Henry Clay came to the res- cue with his compromise bill of 1833. This provided for a gradual reduction of duties; Gbe (Tariff (Stuestton 87 though still retaining the protective system. As Mr. Clay said, the purpose of the bill was twofold. First, to save the principle of protec- tion, and second, to allow South Carolina to withdraw with dignity from her rash position. Calhoun favored the bill ; and it passed by a large majority, though not without much debate and some concessions. It was based on the tariff of 1832. All rates exceeding twenty per cent, ad valorem should be reduced by one-tenth of that excess on the first of January, in each al- ternate year until 1841. Then, one-half of the remaining excess should betaken off; and in the following year, there should be a uniform duty of twenty per cent, on all articles. The free list was also increased; and duties were to be paid in cash. To the friends of protection, this bill came like a bolt from a clear sky. The champion of protection, for the sake of peace and union now set aside the policy so long and ardently cherished. Together with Calhoun, the champion of free trade and "apostle of nullifica- tion," he had brought forth a measure leading to a horizontal tariff, thus striking at the very heart of protection. The first object of the measure was attained. South Carolina repealed her nullification ordi- nance; and in general, the tariff was well re- ceived. For Mr. Clay argued, that by this means, he had saved our protected manufactures from worse treatment, at the hands of Congress in the near future. But the trouble was only soothed 88 Sopet Pri3c Gbests not settled. Deeper and more potent for mis- chief than any tariff issue, was the question of slavery. The tariff but furnished a pretext for a course of action already thought necessary for the furtherance of the slave system, so essential to their cotton interests. For the next ten years but slight changes were made in the tariff rates. The act of 1833 was certainly a very crude and unsatisfactory piece of legislation; but it was the best the friends of protection could obtain. It was a "going down the back stairs, instead of being thrown out of the window," as some termed it. There was a loosing down of the protective system, the evil effects of which were to come later. At the time of its passage times were prosperous. Henry Clay declared the seven years following the tariff of 1824 to be the most prosperous of our history. The national debt was extinguished near the close of Jackson's administration. But troublous times were in store for the country. Foreign markets were glutted by the abundant crops of Europe; while at home our manufactures were falling away. The revenue had decreased under the act of 1833; and only the income from the public lands kept the gov- ernment in sufficient funds. Soon came the panic of 1837, followed by the bank crash of 1839, with its ensuing ruin and misery. A deranged currency system, and a mania for excessive, and often foolish, internal improvements had wrought Gbe Garitf (Question 89 their work. Early in Van Buren's administration the rev- enue did not meet expenditures. A demand arose for increased tariff duties, for purposes of revenue and protection. But President Van Buren thought no change could be made until the hori- zontal scale of twenty per cent, was reached. Moreover, the cotton interest was now a strong factor in politics, and almost our greatest indus- try. And to King Cotton, President Van Buren paid humble court. When Harrison became President, he found a country impaired, industries well-nigh ruined, and a people impoverished. A special session of Congress was called to revise the tariff so as to increase revenue and aid our industries. Presi- dent Harrison died before Congress could assemble. His successor held to the views of Van Buren, as to the possibility of a new tariff law. Still, revenue must be had, and two tariff bills were passed by Congress; but were vetoed by Tyler, because of an attendant provision for repealing the limitation upon the annual distri- bution of the proceeds arising from the sale of public lands. The limitation was that such dis- tribution should be made only when the tariff rates were not in excess of twenty per cent. A third bill, without the obnoxious provision, was then passed and became the tariff of 1842. This was a thoroughly protective measure; and immediate relief followed its passage. The rev- enue from customs duties was nearly doubled. 9o Soper ffi»ri3e ^Ibesis Confidence was restored, and our industrial in- terests took on a new life. By this law, further reduction of rates under the compromise of 1833 was stopped. A general tariff revision was made with an increase of rates, the tariff of 1833 being closely followed. In many cases also ad valorem rates were changed to specific duties. Our cotton consumption was nearly doubled at once. In 1842, we produced a little more than 200,000 tons of iron. In four years, under the protective tariff of 1842, our iron production had increased fourfold. Even the return of prosperity could not satisfy those opposed to the principle of protection. The agitation against the English corn laws affected our country also. When the corn laws were repealed in 1846, it was thought that the door of prosperity was then opened to us. Western votes, joined to Southern votes, brought about the law of 1846. This was a horizontal tariff; and was passed by a party vote, in open defiance of pledges given by the party then in power, during the Presidential campaign. Many had voted for Polk, thinking they were aiding the cause of national development and industrial independence. They were soon to find out their mistake. Never were " words used to con- ceal ideas " more skilfully than by Mr. Polk in his celebrated "Kane letter" ; while Mr. Dallas, who was an avowed protectionist, and was elected as such, gave his casting vote in the Senate in favor of the free trade measure of 1846. With Gbe tariff Question 91 this bill begins a new period in our tariff history. Free trade was now to become the policy of the nation. We have given a brief sketch of our tariff history ; and have tried to show the good effects of a protective tariff, in developing our resources and in making us self-reliant and prosperous. Protection has never sought to develop unnatural industries, but has aimed at the production of those articles which are necessary to our prosper- ity. Protection is not a "cure-all," but a "sure specific for the evil of a defective home produc- tion in some line." It is not opposed to com- merce; for in a country as broad and diversified as ours commerce is not restricted to foreign trade. With us inland exchange is most truly commerce. Also, if the " workingman plea " was little used in our early tariff discussions it was because he did not exist, until the protect- ive policy of our forefathers made his existence possible. There has been no shift of ground. That protection has not done more is largely due to the readjustments necessary to progress and to changed industrial conditions. But above all there remains the element of uncertainty, which keeps capital from entering our manufacturing industries, for fear lest a change of party may mean a change of policy. Let us hope and work that the tariff question may be taken from mere party politics and that it may become a national matter. In the bright future, perhaps the Golden Rule will be the rule 92 Soper Iprt3e Gbests of nations in their commerce. But until then let us protect and sustain our own national interest and integrity. In the words of Speaker Reed, " Nationality is a fact; brotherhood is a hope. Perhaps if we live up to our fact, that may be the best way to arrive at our hope." Starling pn$e Zbeste THE HISTORY OF PAPER CURRENCY DURING THE COLONIAL PERIOD BY RALPH SMITH MINOR, '98 A very natural division of the colonies sepa- rates them into three groups: New England, the Middle Colonies, and the South. In the following history of paper currency during the colonial period this division is assumed and Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and South Carolina are taken as representative of the group to which each belongs, whlie the other colonies are mentioned as their history gives point to particular features in colonial currency. The early colonists and their followers brought some hard money with them but it was not sufficient to furnish them with a medium of ex- change. Accordingly we find New England using corn, cattle, and wampum as currency, while the Southern colonies used tobacco and rice. As they became more prosperous some money came to them through trade with the West Indies, but this was all drawn off by remittances home. They attempted to detain their coin by making its legal value greater than its bullion value, but this attempt failed. "The impossibility of 94 Darling B>rf3e Gbesfs maintaining metallic currency in a state of col- onial dependence," says Mr. Bancroft, "was as- sumed as undeniable." Yet notwithstanding the scarcity of money and their difficulty in securing a medium of ex- change, the immediate occasion of the first bills of credit in most of the colonies was not the scarcity of money, but rather the fact that they could not wait to colled it. In 1690 Massachusetts fitted out an expedition against Canada. It was expected that the booty would pay the expenses of the campaign, but the expedition was a failure and the soldiers having returned home could not be put off until taxes were collected; so ,£7,000 in bills of credit were issued, secured by taxes and rev- enues. The bills were receivable for taxes and were to be reissued as soon as redeemed. There was some difficulty in getting these first bills into circulation. They depreciated at first at least a third, although Sir William Phipps tried to keep up their value by exchanging large quantities of coin for them. Measures were soon taken to restore their credit. ^10,000 then in the treasury were burned, their issue was limited to ^40,000; while an advance of five per cent, over coin was allowed when received at the treasury in payment of taxes. Thus cared for, their value remained at par for nearly twenty years. This was the first of the colonial paper cur- rency. Barter currency ceased for a while, and Ibistorv? of paper Currency 95 although paper was now issued from time to time to pay the current expenses of the govern- ment it was soon drawn in by taxes and did not circulate far. Thus we find them forced by the pressure of circumstances to take the first step, but having made the venture it was only natural that they did not desire to return to the inconven- iences of the old method. A second expedition against Canada was pro- posed in 1709. New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, and New Jersey, all joined with Massachusetts, and their first bills were issued to pay the expenses of this campaign. Massachusetts bore the greater share of the burden, her issues for this purpose amounting to £ so, 000. In 1709 the time set for the redemption of the bills had been four years, but in 1710 it was made five years and in 1711, six years. This failure to redeem the bills when due, coupled with the issue of paper money in the other colonies and the increasing prevalence of coun- terfeit bills, no doubt accounts for the depreciation which soon began. The colonists were plainly disappointed at this for they had hoped to main- tain their value by forced legal tender. With the beginning of depreciation we find the currency a question of great public interest in Massachusetts. Three parties can be clearly dis- tinguished. There were those whose motto was, zJ^/l utile quod 11011 honestum, and they wanted all paper currency retired; others wanted to see 96 2>arlinxi$e vlbesi^ a private bank based on real estate ; while a third class favored the system of government loan first tried in South Carolina in 17 12. The plan last mentioned was simply a public loan at a low rate of interest, secured by mortgages on property. The interest constituting it was boasted "revenue without taxation." To carry on this loan a loan office was usually established composed of a certain number of trustees whose duty it was to let out the money, take charge of the mortgages, and colled the interest. An issue of bills through the loan office constituted what was called in colonial days "Bank." As the contest continued the loan bank party grew in strength. Governor Shute advised that they consider well the fate of the South Carolina bills which had depreciated one-third the first year and one-half the second, yet on account of the heavy debt incurred in the French and Indian war, the low state of trade, and the general complaint of scarcity of money, he allowed ^100- 000 to be issued (17 16) on loan. These were for ten years and were secured by mortgages of double value, the interest at five per cent, and one-sixteenth of the principal payable annually. The bills were distributed among the coun- ties who elected trustees to loan it out. The cry "more bills" is again heard in 1720. This appeal coming every four or five years shows how an increase in the circulating medium is followed, under the influence of speculation. •foiston? of paper Currency 97 by more than proportional rise in prices, it is the paradox of really having less money although the quantity has been doubled. Depreciation, the inevitable result of over- issue, was found to bring great suffering to the clergy, widows, and orphans, and all whose salaries were fixed. The common recognition of this evil led to the appointment of commissioners by Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut, who were to see what could be done about the bills of credit. They reported to their several governments, that no more bills should be issued on loan; that the annual issue should be only enough for the uses of the government; and that all bills should be redeemed when due. These reports, however, met with a very cold reception and no action was taken. Further issues were occasionally made, but the five per cent, advance over coin when received for taxes was no longer allowed. Royal instructions now forbade the governor to permit further issues and a struggle began between the assembly and the governor which lasted twenty years. In 1727 an issue of ,£50,000 is permitted by Governor Dummer, but only with the distinct understanding that it will be used to redeem the issue of 1716. With this issue we note that the interest on the loans is reduced to four per cent. The orders from England to the governor to redeem the outstanding bills and to restrict 98 Darling $>ri3e Z bests further issues become more imperative. The contest over single measures settles into a standing quarrel. During the time of Governors Burnet and Belcher the struggle was most in- tense. True lo his instructions the governor vetoed all money bills, the assembly retaliated by refusing supplies. Burnet withstood as long as his resources lasted and then granted an issue of ;£ 50,000. A further concession of ,-£76,500 was made in 1733 when the year 1741 was set as the terminus for all outstanding bills. Governor Belcher, although he strongly urged the with- drawal of the bills, was compelled to make similar concessions. The effect of this restriction of the issue of provincial bills was a flood of bills from the other colonies. Soon there follows the establish- ment of private banks in opposition. Rhode Island having made an issue of ,£100,000 the merchants of Boston agree not to receive them, and themselves issue £ 110,000 called the "Merchants' Bank." These bills were pay- able in silver one-tenth yearly and were not to be reissued. The Rhode Island bills soon fell to four and one-half and the merchants' notes were hoarded ; an illustration of that fundamental law of money, that only the worst kinds stay in circulation. These notes having failed to supply the defi- ciency the "Land Bank" or " Manufactory Scheme" was established in 1739 " in order," says a contemporary, "to redress the existing IbtetotB of paper Currency 99 circumstances which the trade of this province suf- fers for lack of a medium. " A large number of land owners formed a company and mortgaged their estates to it for notes of which _£ 150,000 were issued. These had a wide circulation. Three per cent, interest and five per cent, of the principal was to be paid annually in produce. The "Specie Bank " or " Silver Scheme " was organized in opposition to the Land Bank. It is- sued jQ 120,000 in notes redeemable in silver in fifteen years. Governor Belcher opposed both these schemes. He removed military and civil officers when found receiving or passing these notes. His action aroused a vigorous protest from many who considered it an infringement on personal liberty. When Parliament in 1740 'declared the Joint Stock Company act ( passed after the South Sea Bubble, which was to the effect that "No in- corporate body of more than six shall do business as a bank") was applicable to the colonies, both banks were compelled to close. The Land Bank continued through intrigue for a time, ,£35,582 in notes being then in circulation, and its accounts were not finally closed until thirty years later. The loss to the holders of the notes was very great. The champions of these banking schemes by misrepresentation in England were successful in securing Governor Belcher's recall, but he was soon after appointed governor of New Jersey. We have noted that the year 1741 was set as the time for the redemption of all outstanding ioo Darling lpri3e Gbesfe bills, but as this time approached this was found to be impracticable and the time was extended to 1743. Thus by continual failure to redeem the bills public confidence was destroyed. Whenever the depreciation became considerable the bills were allowed to pass at current rates. Commissioners were appointed to find what these rates were and publish them. Debts and contracts were then settled according to these rates. This process of repudiation was carried on year after year. In order to distinguish the different issues they were called "tenors"; the last issue, new tenor, the previous one middle tenor, then old tenor and so on. Subsequent issues were called new tenor first, new tenor second and so on. At one time Massachusetts had four "tenors in circulation, while Rhode Island had an indefinite number of tenors like a succession of manure heaps in different degrees of rottenness." In 1743 Massachusetts again proposed to the other New England colonies that commissioners be appointed to make arrangements for the retiring of all the bills of credit, but as before they refused to take any decisive action. In 1748 the colonies joined in a reckless ex- pedition against Louisburg. Bills were issued to prepare for it. Historians are agreed that it was only by a succession of strange accidents that the expedition succeeded, but it did succeed. By a treaty however England gave Cape Breton and Louisburg back to France and voted to recompense the colonies for their trouble. Mas- Ibfstorg ot paper Currency 101 sachusetts received ^" 1 38,649. This at the ruling rate of exchange would nearly cancel the bills. The proposal to retire the paper money met with considerable opposition, but under the energetic leadership of Hutchinson the more conservative party won, and it was finally agreed that the money should be sent over in silver and copper coin, The shock which some feared from this sudden change was felt in Rhode Island and New Hampshire, who found their trade going suddenly to the "silver colony" and their paper currency depreciated. The West Indies trade done largely through Newport was now at Salem and Boston. Trade hitherto stagnant steadily and rapidly revived, and for twenty-five years Massachusetts enjoyed the benefit of a sound currency. It was found that the expectation of having the bills paid in specie led to their being hoarded and so the time set for their redemption had to be extended, but the last were redeemed before I754- Massachusetts was the first to issue notes; she was also the first to redeem them; but we find no change in her attitude toward the underlying principles of inconvertible paper money. In 175 1 forgetting her former scruples she helped secure the passage of an act prohibiting New England assemblies from issuing bills of credit unless their redemption should be provided for by taxes due within a year or four years in case of war. But this act, it will be noted, permits bills under Starling Pri.se Cbcst* certain conditions and these conditions are the very ones under which most of the Massachusetts bills were issued. After the resumption of a specie basis in Massachusetts many measures were passed in their attempt to shut out other colonial bills but these were not altogether successful. The following table shows the rate of exchange on England for ^"ioo sterling, also for one ounce silver : icd. 3d. 1702 135 6s. 1700 135 7S. 1713 ISO 8s. 1716 17s OS. 1717 22s 12s. 1722 270 14s. 1728 340 1 8s. 1730 380 20s. 1737 soo 26s. 1741 sso 28s. 1749 1100 60s. The most noticable rise is between 1741 and 1749. This was due to the large issues at the time of the Louisburg expedition. Massachusetts thus freed herself from this evil, yet treasury-certificates, bearing interest, were systematically issued without prejudice to public interests until the outbreak of the Revolu- tion. The paper currency of New Hampshire was similar in all respects to that of Massachusetts. Her first bills were issued for the Canada expedi- tbtetoig of paper Currency 103 tion of 1709. In the strife between the governor and the assembly in this colony one fact of inter- est is the refusal of the assembly for five succes- sive years, to vote any supplies. Dr. Douglas, writing in 1739, says: "The public bills of New Hampshire, a province of small trade and credit, are so much counterfeited they scarce obtain a currency (the governor's in- struction is also a bar ), hence it is that at present their outstanding bills of credit, some on funds of taxes, some on loans, do not exceed £ 12,000 gradually to be cancelled by December, 1742." After 1743 however the issues were largely in- creased and the bills suffered a corresponding de- preciation. The history of the paper currency of Vermont is brief and satisfactory. Bills of credit were is- sued but once, these suffered no depreciation and were soon redeemed by taxes. Rhode Island plunged more recklessly into paper currency than any other New England colony. The history of her colonial currency shows most clearly the dangers of inconvertible paper money in a democratic community. The loan bank scheme was tried to its bitter end. Indulgence in repeated issues created an over- mastering passion for paper money. No restric- tions were tolerated and her unwillingness to give up her independent right to issue bills has been considered the principal cause of her absence from the constitutional convention of 1787. The scarcity of silver and the cost of the ex- io4 2>arling prije Gbeste pedition against Port Royal led to the first is- sue in 1 710. From time to time she issued, as did the other colonies, small sums to supply the treasury, but the important feature in her currency was the so-called " Banks." The use of the word "bank" in the colonial period was peculiar. As we have intimated, a bank was a large sum of paper money, issued not for government use but to be loaned to the public on mortgage se- curity for a term of years for the purpose of helping trade and commerce. The first bank was in 1715- ,£40,000 were is- sued for ten years with five per cent, interest pay- able yearly in flax and hemp. One-tenth of the principal was to be paid annually without interest after the tenth year. The bills were secured by mortgages of double value, the interest being se- cured by bonds. A second bank was issued in 1 72 1 for five years, one-half the annual interest to be divided among the towns. These early bills were extensively counterfeited and soon replaced by others. When the bills of these banks were about to come due it was argued that the trade and com- merce of the province would be injured by re- moving suddenly such a large amount from circulation. The cry of the debtors was heeded and the time of redemption put at thirteen years. We note that here, as in Massachusetts, depreciation soon followed this breach of faith. Depreciation having once begun the slightest pretext served for the issue of a new bank. 1biston> of paper Cuxiencv 105 " The colony was in debt, the fort out of repair, or a new jail or court-house was to be built. And when the specie had been driven away by the increase of paper money, then the 'scarcity of silver' was a fresh excuse for further issues." The decay of trade and commerce was a frequent pretext, and for this reason the interest on the bank of 1731 was to furnish a bounty on flax, hemp, whale-oil, whalebone, and codfish. One- half the interest of the bank of 1733 was to be divided ratably among the towns. The intensity of the strife after more and more paper soon developed party lines and governors were elected and turned out according as the dif- ferent interests happened to prevail. The gov- ernor guided by instructions from England, the merchants and business men, together with the more intelligent in the community composed the opposition; while members of the assembly, de- siring popular favor and more often their own interests, with debtors in all classes, heartily sup- ported such measures. The better element was outvoted. It soon became for a man's advantage to re- main in debt, the longer he waited the less he would owe. Money could be borrowed on mortgages and debts incurred, when they came due the money being depreciated was easily obtained. Each new bank depreciated the bills already in circulation. In 1738 a bank of ^100,000 was issued, new precautions being taken to secure the interest. to6 ©arlinci prtjC Cbests Two years later ^£"20,000 were issued in order to fit out a privateer against the Spaniards. These bills were declared to be equal to a certain quantity of gold or silver. This mere assertion like the legal-tender laws failed to hinder depre- ciation. Some idea of the extent of the depreciation in Rhode Island may be gained from the follow- ing statement : in 1749 there was in circulation. jQ 1 10,444 m Mis issued for the expenses of the government, valued at ^35,445 sterling ; £,2\o- 000 from the banks, valued at ^1,040 sterling. The ninth and last bank was £2^,000 issued in 175 1. It was supposed to be for the purpose of giving a bounty on flax, manufactured wool, whale and cod fisheries, but the bounty on wool was displeasing to England and the others were ineffective so they were soon removed. August, 1750, marks the beginning of Rhode Island's attempt to settle the loans. ,£4,000 sterling received from England two years later were used to redeem the bills last issued. The legislature frequently passed measures deter- mining the rate of depreciation and from time to time the different emissions were called in and replaced bv treasury notes. Rhode Island, completely controlled by the debtor class, continued her issues almost to the complete destruction of trade and commerce. Her unlimited issues were but a step removed from unlimited repudiation. Of all the New England colonies, excepting tXstorg of paper Currency 107 Vermont, Connecticut managed her early emis- sions of paper money with the greatest caution and judgment. This was due in great measure to her desire to retain her charter. Like the early bills of Massachusetts her bills were receivable at the treasury at an advance of five per cent, over coin. But in Connecticut, neither this paper nor that of any other colony was made legal tender, although all remedy was taken away from the creditor in case the bills were tendered. The issues in Connecticut were made at first wholly for the expenses of government, ample taxes being levied at the same time for their redemption. And payments were never put off in the manner common in Massachusetts and Rhode Island. But the common circulation of the paper of the New England colonies soon deprived Con- necticut of the benefit of this self-restraint. De- preciation gradually increased. The value of an ounce of silver went from eight shillings in 17 10 to twenty-eight shillings in 1740 when Connecti- cut undertook to redeem her credit. .£30,000 new tenor bills were to be issued, of which sum £8,000 were to be used in cancelling the depre- ciated bills. But the threatening attitude of the royal government checked further emissions for four years. At the outbreak of the war with France, however, bills to the amount of £131,000 were issued; But this new issue instead of bene- fitting the currency as they hoped, caused a still io8 HJarlins Prf3e Gbests heavier depreciation in the bills then in circula- tion. In 1 75 1 Connecticut made some attempt to fol- low out the act of Parliament and offered one ounce silver for fifty-eight shillings, but before the entire amount could be cancelled war again broke out (1755) and the remainder sank to eighty-eight shillings to the ounce. Accounts now began to be kept in proclama- tion money. War expenses were provided for by the issue of notes for two and five years, bearing five per cent, interest, secured by taxes. These notes, however did not enter very largely into circulation. Between the years 1771 and 1774, .£39,000 in bills were issued, to be current two years with- out interest. These were issued for the expenses of the government, but being covered by suffi- cient taxes and not being in excess of the needs of the province, they did not depreciate. Turning to the Middle Colonies, we find that the history of their paper currency, although showing that the same tendencies were present, is marked by fewer instances of over-issue and excessive depreciation. The stubbornness of their governors, who in- sisted more successfully than did those of New England, upon carrying out their instructions from the Lords of Trade and the position of the colonies themselves in reference both to their friends and foes ; these two things exerted a retaining influ- ence and thus gave stability to their currency. trtstorg of paper Gurrencg 109 Says Mr. Bancroft, "The central colonies scarcely knew of war. New England and South Carolina did all the fighting and alone were involved in the direct evils of war." The direct evils of war in New England and South Carolina were debt and large and frequent issues of paper money. All the colonies save one adopted the maxim that it is the function of government to furnish a circulating medium for commerce. The first issue of paper money in Pennsylvania was in rec- ognition of this principle. Like the other colonies Pennsylvania suffered from the lack of a good medium of exchange, and as the needs of the colony multiplied com- plaints about the "scarcity of money" cor- respondingly increased. Yet when paper money was suggested as a remedy for this evil, the proposal occasioned considerable debate. The majority favored it but the more solid men of the community, among whom were James Logan and Isaac Norris, mindful of the fate of the notes issued by New England and the Carolinas, held back fearing depreciation. Both parties were agreed however that the notes issued should be solely to answer the purpose of a circulating medium and not to scale down debts. A measure was soon passed authorizing an issue of ^15,000 in bills of credit. These were to be let out on loan at five per cent, on land security or plate of treble value ; the interest and one-eighth of the principal to be paid each year. The benefits seemed immediate and a second issue was made of ;£ 30,000 to be current twelve and one-half years. The Lords of Trade objected to this issue of paper money and would have repealed the acts had not the bills already found a wide circula- tion. The governor was ordered to consent to no further emissions under pain of its dis- allowance. Very soon they came to consider the restric- tions under which the first bills had been issued as too stringent, and the loan system as finally adopted in Pennsylvan a was as follows : the trustees of the loan office were to loan out the bills on security of at least double the value for a term of sixteen years, with interest and one-six- teenth of the principal payable yearly. The in- terest was to go for public revenue, while the one-sixteenth of the principal was to be loaned out again to new borrowers who were to have the loan for the remaining time, repaying in fewer and proportionally larger installments. During the last six years the sums paid in were not to be reloaned but were to be burned so that the whole should be paid in and accounts settled at the end of the sixteenth year. The first issue in accordance with this plan was for ^30,000. It may be interesting to note that Franklin was a supporter of this scheme. He wrote a pamphlet defending it entitled, "A Modest Enquiry into the Nature and Necessity of a Paper Currency," which set forth the argu- ments so convincingly that he was given the Mfstovg of paper Currency 1 1 1 lucrative job of printing the bills. When the time came to withdraw the bills first issued from circulation, there was raised the cry, which was prevalent in Rhode Island on a similar occasion, that the withdrawal of this large sum from circulation would injure trade; if it were all redeemed and no more issued they would be again without a currency. The governor considered that the needs of the province justified him in his adion and although it was in dirett opposition to his instructions from the Lords of Trade, he sanctioned the renewal of the previous issues. The imposition of the death penalty for coun- terfeiting may be rioted in the year 1739, together with another increase in the currency. Thus far the notes of Pennsylvania, having ample provision for their ultimate extinction, circulated freely at their value and were superior to the notes of the other colonies. The only evil felt thus far was the demand of the proprietaries who asked in payment of the quit-rents the dif- ference of exchange on London and an annuity °f ^'3° during the currency of their notes. This demand aroused much hatred and sowed seed for further strife between the province and the governors, their representatives. Soon the governor is further instructed to per- mit the passage of no act authorizing an increase of paper money unless it contains a clause sus- pending its operation until the king's pleasure is known. ii2 Darling pil3e XLhcsis The conflict between the governor, represent- ing the proprietaries, and the assembly, repre- senting the people, gradually grew more intense, although up to 1755 nothing was accomplished save the continuance, of the existing currency. In this year the assembly took a determined stand. They passed resolutions to the effecl that the paper money, of this province should be reemitted ; that there is need of an addition ; and that more is also needed to replace the torn and ragged bills. But the various measures proposed from time to time were so changed by the governor as to become repulsive, until in 1755 he consented to an issue of „£i 0,000 to replace old and torn bills ; but with these bills a new system was inaugurated. Up to 1746, then, the issue of paper money was based on reliable securities. Imports had increased. Trade had prospered, the notes were eagerly sought for in other colonies. Public im- provements, houses, and stores had been erected on these loans, the terms of which were much more favorable than could be obtained from private individuals. This cautious policy had been approved of by England, who had exempted Pennsylvania in an act passed in 1751 to restrain the colonies from issuing bills of credit. Of the loan system Governor Pownall says : " 1 will venture to say, that there never was a wiser, better measure, never one better calculated to serve the interests of our increasing country ; that there never was a measure more steadily HMstoris of paper Currency 1 13 pursued or more faithfully executed than the loan office in Pennsylvania founded and administered by the assembly of that province." Yet not- withstanding the high regard in which this system was held, and the fact that in its early days it was more successful than any other colonial attempt at paper money, we find that even this system was not altogether incompatible with depreciation, for since the introduction of paper, exchange had risen seventy per cent, by 1738, and between eighty and ninety per cent. ten years later. And still, if the early conservatism could have been continued the loss by depreciation would have been slight. But large sums were now re- quired for instant use. No means was at hand save the anticipation of future revenues and so bills were emitted, to be redeemed by taxation within a definite period. This taxation was a great cause of strife, because the lands of the proprietaries were taxed v/ith the others. They made strenuous objections, they forbade the gov- ernor to sanction the enaction of such laws, but here as in the other colonies we find that in the end the people were successful. After the defeat of General Braddock in 1756 the alarm felt in the province caused ,£60,000 to be issued for the king's use, to be redeemed by taxa- tion ; while at this time another loan was also made. Public exigencies and the alarming situation of the colonies caused the continued approval of such laws, although all the evils of overissue 1 14 Darling pri^e XTbesis were present and plainly recognized. Thus we find that Pennsylvania, who alone of all the col- onies made her first issues after careful considera- tion and without the pressure of any sudden emergency, when these crises came, followed a course differing in no particular from that of the others, the conditions being the same. During the next thirteen years no less than ,£475,000 in bills of credit were issued. By act of Parlaiment in 1764 the issue of bills of credit as legal tender or the extension of the legal-tender quality of those then in circulation beyond their period of redemption was pro- hibited in the colonies. Any governor who should assent to further emissions was liable to dismissal from office and incapacity for further service. This act stopping for a time the issue of provincial bills, an association of merchants in Philadelphia, in order to supply the deficiency, issued .£20,000 in £*, notes payable on demand with five per cent, interest. But they were soon compelled to call them in, the assembly declar- ing that their circulation injured the credit of the provincial currency. There were two issues of ,£60,000 in 1769, the bills being so worded as to evade the law and yet pass as legal tender. The first of these was exten- sively counterfeited and had to be soon called in. Again in 1771, fearing war, ;£i 5,000 were or- dered to defend Philadelphia. Not being needed for that purpose however the money was used to pave the streets. Ibtstorg of paper Currency 1 15 The temptation to overcome instant want by means of large sums payable in the future still existed, and later we find bills issued to pay the expenses of the government ; for the support of a lighthouse at Cape Henlopen ; for the placing of buoys in the Delaware River and Bay ; and for the erection of a jail in Philadelphia. We note also an attempt made to revive the loan-office system in 1773, but times had changed several of the bills and trustees failed to act and the plan fell through. The early issues of Pennsylvania kept their credit well. They were for small sums and were carefully secured. The history of the later issues is significant. It shows the increasing- power of the people and their successful at- tempt to tax the public domain and the private estates of the proprietaries. It shows that the great danger in paper money comes from yield- ing to sudden calls by issuing large sums not well secured. None of the colonies, if the temp- tation came to them, were able to withstand it. We note that here as in Massachusetts restriction on provincial bills led to private enterprises in banking. The difference in Pennsylvania was one of degree more than of kind. The conditions calling forth large issues in other colonies did not exist here until later, but when they came the results were similar. New York issued her first bills of credit to prepare for the expedition against Canada in 1 709. These bills at first bore interest ; they were 1 1 6 Darling I>ri3e Gbesis founded on taxes and were to be cancelled as paid in. The next year the interest was taken off upon the "pretence that it occasioned them to be hoarded as bonds and did frustrate their currency." During the first ten years less than £60,000 were issued, these being mainly for the expenses of the government. They were founded on taxes and excise and we find that trade and navi- gation were favorably affected. The early bills of New York were twenty-five per cent, to thirty per cent, better than those of New England. They were equal to silver and in some provinces fifty per cent, better. Small issues were subsequently made partly of new bills and partly to replace the old and worn ones. In 1734 the governor fearing a rupture between France and England asked an emission of ;£ 12,000 for the defense of the colony. This issue was to be current for twenty-two years and cancelled by a duty on goods and a tax on slaves. The revenues intended for the redemption of the bills were used for other purposes, and it was soon found that many were unredeemed although long past due. The governor asked the assembly for ,£48,350. It was refused and he then dissolved the body. The new assembly on the last day of the session passed the measure but voted that henceforth supplies would be granted for one year at a time, instead of five. A loan office was now established and the greater part of the issue just voted was let out to the dif- 1Di6tocs of paper Gui'rencE 1 1 7 ferent counties for twelve years at five per cent. Douglas, writing in 1739, says that some of the early bills of New York were issued before the consent of the Lords of Trade had been obtained. Finding that the bills were in circulation they did not have them recalled, "Lest many persons who had bona fide received them for valuable considerations, might suffer by their being sup- pressed. Which indulgence this government has abused by never waiting for the royal con- sent in their future emissions." Some of the early bills soon falling due (1738) the governor intimated that he would not con- sent to an extension of time unless supplies were granted for five years. This they refused to do and the body was dissolved. The new assembly at their first meeting voted to support their paper currency and the governor prorogued them for a week. But as he wished to take advantage of this meeting of the assembly, in order to put the colony in a better state of defense, and as he had already been compelled to sell some of his estates for the support of the government, he soon yielded to their demands. He reported to the Lords of Trade that his action had secured quieter times than there had been for forty years. During the French and Indian war which soon followed ,£81,000 were issued, all secured by taxes, but as yet the New York bills suffered no great depreciation. i is Darling pr(3C Zbcsie The struggle between the governor and the assembly which continued through the next dec- ade, differed from the one in Pennsylvania in this: in Pennsylvania the contention was concerning the propriety of issuing bills of credit at all; in New York the question was, "Who shall spend this money?" The assembly in New York as- sumed the right to judge the necessities of the province and the demands and necessities of the governor, and in the future all grants were put into the hands of special commissioners. The governor tried to reinstitutethe granting of supplies for five years. The British merchants suffered severely from the paper money in the colonies and at their request the crown often endeavored to ascertain the state of the currency in America. Reports were sel- dom accurately made and it may be noted that at one time the treasurer in New York refused to give the governor a statement of the bills of credit then in circulation, the governor then desiring to respond to such a demand frmo the crown. The peace existing between England and France from 1748 to 1752 was soon broken by a war in which the colonies had little success. Under the tremendous pressure of war, New York, like Pennsylvania, made large and frequent additions to her currency. This materially af- fected their value. Unable to cancel them when due, they were extended. To further se- cure them duties were now laid on paper and imported teas. "IbfstorE of paper Currency 1 19 The mother country now joined with the col- onies and the French were defeated. During the struggle New York was heavily drawn upon, her issues for this purpose amounting in 1760 to ,£410,000. Depreciation now increased with great rapidity. The act concerning legal-tender paper money in the colonies was passed by Parliament in 1764. As the bills in circulation in New York would mature in 1768, Governor Morris asked what re- lief he would be allowed to give, since if all the paper were withdrawn New York would have no legal-tender currency, coin being very scarce. ,£250,000 were allowed, but the legal-tender restrictions were not removed. The assembly then passed a bill making gold and silver legal tender at current rates, specifying none. This v/as vetoed, as Queen Ann's proclamation act had made the Spanish silver dollar in the colo- nies legal tender at six shillings. They then passed an act authorizing an issue of £ 120,000 on loan, for fourteen years at five per cent, to be receivable for public dues but not legal tender. The Lords of Trade decided that this also con- flicted with the proclamation. Lieutenant Gov- ernor Colden in 1770 assented to another act of this kind, but he was severely reprimanded and the act disallowed. After considerable delay, however, a special act of Parliament was passed authorizing the colony to issue ,£120,000 non- legal tender, receivable for public dues. These bills were outstanding at the opening of the Revolution. i2o Darling f>ri3c Hbesie The whole amount issued by New York was not large and the special and repeated methods of taxation adopted for its extinction were successfully carried out as the resources of the province would allow. Here as in the other colonies we find the strife with the governors, and the people coming out ahead ; we find large issues called out by the immediate demands of war ; we also find that depreciation follows such overissues and is intensified by the removal of the safeguards, which here as elsewhere were put around the first bills. New Jersey like New York issued her first bills of credit to raise and equip troops for the expedi- tion against Canada in 1709. ,£8,000 were is- sued for this purpose. Bills of credit seemed then the only way to raise money quickly. Although the need of a medium of exchange was sorely felt there was no suggestion as yet of paper money as a permanent currency. In 1716 the governor presented a bill approving an issue of ,£4,670. Besides this there were at this time only ,£1,700 of the former issues in circula- tion. The need of a better medium daily became more urgent; petitions were circulated asking for some sort of currency. The peculiar position of New Jersey occasioned additional trouble. Her prod- uce went to New York and Pennsylvania where it was exchanged for notes which neither the creditors of persons residing in Jersey nor the public treasury, would receive. Consequently ttistorE of iPaper Currency 1 2 1 taxes were often paid in broken earrings, jewelry, and plate. Finally under Governor Burnet, after a careful examination, the loan system of Penn- sylvania was adopted and a bank of .£40,000 issued (1723) for twelve years at five per cent. The annual interest was to be for a sinking-fund and the expenses of the governments These notes were extensively counterfeited and in 1727 were called in, an issue of ,£26,760 replacing them for the remainder of the period. A sec- ond bank of ,£25,000 for sixteen years was is- sued in 1730 and three years later a third for ,£40,000. These with an issue of ,£2,000 at the request of the home government for men and supplies for the West Indies, completed the experience of New Jersey with the loan-office system. "The Jersey bills kept their credit better than those of New York and Pennsylvania for two reasons : first, the New York bills not being cur- rent in Pennsylvania and the Pennsylvania bills not being current in New York, but Jersey bills being current in both, all payments between New York and Pennsylvania are made in Jersey bills; second, in the Jersey's, failure of the loan payments at the day appointed was confessing judgment, and thereafter only thirty days re- demption of the mortgage is allowed." After the close of the loan office, only such bills were allowed as were non-legal tender, redeemable in a short time by specific taxation, and the laws authorizing them were held over laa Barliini pii^c TEbeste until the king's pleasure was known. The Lords of Trade gave as the reason of their refusals their fear of injury to commerce which would result from other bills. The real reason no doubt lay in the fad that the assembly reserved to itself the disposition of the money. Conse- quently the cost of expeditions for the mother country could be secured only by issuing war notes redeemable by heavy direct taxation. In the interval between 1740 and 17SS nearly ,£200.000 in such notes were issued; and on these exchange rose to 180 on £ 100 sterling. The struggle between the prerogatives of the crown and the privileges of the people continued. A loan office was again urged, it being said that the annual interest in the case of the mortgages went toward the payment of the war debt. But the Lords of Trade refused to sanction it and for three reasons : because the bills were to be legal tender; because the assembly reserved the right dispose of the money thus created; and third. the very reason they had urged, because the sur- plus of the interest was to be applied to the re- demption of the bills instead of taxation for that purpose. In 1769 New Jersey ceased to issue bills of credit, and taxation was to be her only resource. Of the £947, =;oo issued for the king's use, £, iqo,ooo then outstanding were soon with- drawn and redeemed by taxation. The paper money of New Jersey issued with the same caution and foresight which character- "BMstors of paper Currency 125 ized the early bills of Pennsylvania never suffered excessive depreciation. Of the Southern colonies, Maryland and Virginia were by far the most conservative in is- suing bills of credit. Disturbed only by rumors of war and with few actual conflicts during the greater part of their colonial history, and having a larger export trade with England than did the other colonies as well as a barter currency which excelled any then in existence, the need of a better medium of exchange was not so impera- tively felt. The Carolinas, however, harassed by continual warfare and soon blinded by the passion for new issues which their own system soon created, is- sued paper money with a reckless indulgence greater even than that of New England. An ill-judged expedition against St. Augustine in 1702 plunged South Carolina into debt and was the occasion of her first bills of credit. ,£8,000 were issued to be sunk in three years by duties on liquors, furs, and skins. These notes, thus carefully secured, as were the notes in all the colonies, kept their value for five or six years. To defray the cost of an expedition against the Tuscaroras and also in order to facilitate domestic trade the legislature in 1712 established the lirst loan bank. We have already noted the adoption of this system in the other colonies, for, says Mr. Bancroft, " from this example the pas- sion for borrowing spread like flame on a dry prairie." Bank after bank was issued in quick i24 Darling f>ri3e Gbesis succession in South Carolina and the depreciation was excessive. The struggle which soon arose between the assembly and the governor was similar in nature to that in the other colonies. True to his instructions the governor restricted further issues ; in 1719 the colonists secured his recail on this ac- count and the king connived at it hoping thereby to gain favor with the people. At one time later in the struggle the assembly adjourned for three years, having made no provision for the support of the government. In 1729 the colony was bought from the pro- prietaries. The new assembly at its first session voted to suspend the payment of the outstanding bills and issued ,£104,000 to pay the expenses of the last four years. Almost any pretext served as the occasion of a new bank. In 1736 the assembly voted to is- sue ^"210,000; of this, ;£ 1 00, 000 were to replace old and worn bills, the remainder to be loaned at five per cent. Five-eighths of the interest was to produce an accumulating fund forthe redemption of the bills, two-eighths was for the " assistance of poor Protestants who shall arrive in the prov- ince and settle in the new townships, "one-eighth was for the expenses of the government. A contemporary writer brings the charge of bad faith against the Carolinas of his time. " Their legislatures have been most notoriously guilty of breach of public faith in not cancelling their bills. Besides emissions for the ordinary HMstorE of paper Currency 125 charges of government and their expeditions against the Indians, they have large sums upon loans. They may have at present outstanding about ^250,000 in province bills, whereof above ,£100,000 are without fund or period." " The whole amount issued in bills of credit by provincial South Carolina, " says Mr. Ramsey, the historian of the State, " in the sixty-eight years which intervened between the first and last emissions of paper, was ,£605,000, of which, more than two-thirds was secured by mortgaged property." The following table shows the depreciation of the South Carolina bills. The figures are cur- rency for x^ioo sterling. 1712 .... 100 1715 .... 150 1 7 14 . . . . 200 1731 . . . . 700 The last rate they kept for nearly forty years, there being at times a slight increase. North Carolina was the least commercial of all the colonies, and what little trading was done was with New England. Joining with South Carolina in the war against the Tuscaroras, she is- sued her first bills of credit ^800 in 17 12. After this, issues were continually made, some for war expenses, others in the hope of benefiting trade. In 1739, Douglas says concerning this colony: "North Carolina, an inconsiderable colony scarce capable of any fund for paper emissions, has notwithstanding ,£40,000 upon loan and i26 Sterling IP1I3C JLbceie ^12,500 upon funds of taxes." The issues of North Carolina were so much out of proportion to the requirements of the colony that exchange on London rose, in 1740, to 1400 - 100. The methods employed here to gain permis- sion to increase the currency were as remarkable as those prevalent in other colonies. One issue was granted on condition that a part of it be used to build the governor a house. Later, in the French war, when the governor of Virginia called for aid, the temporary adminstration of the province was held by Michael Rowan, who availed himself of the opportunity to consent to a new issue of paper money. In the Carolinas we find depreciation and re- pudiation prevalent sooner and proceeding to a greater extent than in any of the other col- onies. In Maryland silver continued at proclamation value until 1734, with considerable use of tobacco as a medium of exchange. "They then emitted bills payable to the possessors in sterling well secured, but the sum being too large, and the periods too long, viz. : three partial payments of fifteen-year periods each ; exchange immediately rose from thirty-three to one hundred per cent." Virginia issued no bills of credit before the French war, the reason very probably being that, in tobacco, she possessed a medium of ex- change which was remarkably stable in value. Tobacco warehouses were built under the direction of public authorities. Inspectors were appointed t)istovg of Paper Currency 127 who examined the quality of all tobacco; if found satisfactory, a receipt was given. This receipt passed through many hands often, before reach- ing a merchant who wanted it for exportation. These receipts representing a commodity of high intrinsic value supplemented rather than sup- planted coin, and proved to be a safe circulating- medium and were the only paper in circulation until 1755. In that year "in order to prevent his majesty's subjects from the encroachments and insults of the French " the colonial treasurer was author- ized to issue not over ,£20,000 in treasury notes due in one year, bearing five per cent, interest. These were to be legal tender for all debts. The death penalty was imposed for counterfeiting. They soon attempted a second issue in order to pay the bounties offered for Indian scalps, but this the governor refused — it being contrary to his instructions. The notes issued after 1757 and all then in circulation as Well, were not to bear interest. In order to force their accept- ance an additional penalty of twenty per cent, of the value of the commodity was inflicted on those who refused to accept the notes at their nominal value. In the years following various issues were granted, some for government expenses and some for bounties, amounting in all to £21 1,000. These were at first for some definite period but the time was frequently extended. The issue of 1 771 is noticable from the fact that it was for the ia8 Darling B>ri3C Gbesis sufferers from a severe flood which had devas- tated the public tobacco warehouses. The notes of Virginia like those of the other colonies were often and successfully counter- feited, although many special precautions were taken to prevent it. In Maryland and Virginia depreciation was the least. This was not due to their superior knowledge of the theory and workings of paper money but was rather because with a good barter currency and a comparatively large export trade they had a good medium of exchange. The ex- penses of the war, the most prolific cause of over- issue, bringing an immediate demand for large sums, these colonies escaped until a late period. The first paper money in Georgia were bills of exchange in small sums payable at sight drawn on the trustees in London. These bills, prior to the surrender of the charter by the trustees in 1752, had been mostly paid and money was then lodged to meet those outstanding at par — a rare incident in the history of paper money. The new assembly met in 1755 and proposed a paper loan of ^5,000 but this was rejected by the Lords of Trade and the first issue under the new government did not take place until 1760. The history of paper money in Georgia from this time up to the Revolution shows no features of particular interest, the bills issued following much the same career as did those in the other colonies. The following table giving the rate of exchange History of paper Currency 129 on London for ^"ioo sterling is of interest, giv- ing some idea of the relative value of the paper money of the different colonies. 1740 1748 New England . . 525 . 1,100 New York . . . 160 . 190 New Jersey . . . 160 . 180-190 Pennsylvania . . 170 . 180 Maryland . . . 200 . 200 North Carolina . . 1,400 . 1,000 South Carolina . . 800 . 750 Virginia . . . . .120-125 The history of colonial paper currency reveals inconvertible paper money in great variety ; there is that which is based on taxes, that secured by mortgages on land, and that representing the pure authority of the government. Bills were issued to pay the expenses of the war, for the annual needs of the government, to furnish a circulating medium, and as loans at a low rate of interest for the purpose of encour- aging trade and industry. The bills issued were of different kinds as re- gards legal-tender qualities, but the tendency was plainly toward non-interest-bearing notes which were legal tender for all purposes. The facts presented clearly show that the de- preciation which these notes suffered was due, not so much to large increase in quantity, as to the fact that the safeguards which at first were put around them were gradually withdrawn. The taxes authorized were not collected, the time limit 1 30 Sterling 1f>rl3e tlbesis extended, bills were not redeemed when due, or being redeemed were reissued without security. "It is hard for an empty bag to stand upright." When the restrictions were removed the bills became mere waste paper. The colonists assumed that they must have a depreciated currency. A committee of the Rhode Island assembly in 1749 announced as the basis of their action respecting paper money: " This will always be the case with infant countries that do not raise so much as they con- sume ; either to have no money, or if they have it, it must be worse than that of their rich neighbors in order to have it stay with them." This conclusion was in part forced on them. The great point of antagonism between England and the colonies lay in the mercantile system and its results. The paper currency of the col- onial period came as a result of this system, the alternative was barter currency, which though safer, was inconvenient and was discarded by all the colonies when once paper had been tried. The legislation of England respecting the col- onial paper and the instructions of the Lords of Trade were beneficial to the colonies. They saved the colonies from themselves. Yet this restraint was not imposed because England thought that inconvertible paper money was bad, for the restrictions allowed it for war expenses and often for the ordinary needs of government; but these restrictions were imposed because English merchants suffered and the proprietaries Kistorg of Ipaper Currency 131 wanted no reduction in the value of their quit-rents, and because the right to issue money being con- ceded the colonies soon demanded the right to determine how it should be spent. The legisla- tion was more for the purpose of checking the growing power of the people than for the estab- lishment of a sound currency. Says Mr. Bancroft : "The policy itself was not repudiated. The statesmen of England never proposed or de- sired to raise the domestic currency of the colo- nies to an equality with that of the great commercial world; and the system which Franklin advocated found an apologist in Pownall and was defended by Burke, except that Burke, instead of a currency of depreciated paper, proposed an emission of base coin." The history of colonial paper currency shows very plainly the inefficacy of all legal-tender laws. The proclamation of Queen Ann was of no avail, money is not made by act of Parliament, it exists under different laws. Nowhere is this truth more clearly shown than in colonial history. The forcing laws never did any good while they made it legally possible that many should be outrageously robbed. The desire for credit and for money when they had none was as natural for the colonies as it is for individuals, but the only way for a country to have plenty of money is to produce in abundance those things which other countries desire and for which they will pay. All legal-tender laws are a demand for a cheap money, which means in the end the adoption of 132 Darling ©rise Zbeete rates of depreciation in order to legalize robbery. The paper money issued during the civil war is the only example we have where a people have been saved from the last step which ends in unlimited repudiation. Guided by the experiences of the colonies and the more recent as well as the more disastrous experiment with the Continental money, it was decided that no State had the right to issue bills of credit and make them legal tender. This action furnishes good ground for the statement that it was also tacitly assumed that the central govern- ment as well had no right to do this. Nowhere can we find better examples of the fundamental law of money, that a depreciated currency drives out the better, than in the his- tory of colonial paper money. Nearly every col- ony learned in the school of experience that paper added on account of the lack of coin makes coin more scarce, that overissue cre- ates an artificial deficiency, for whenever there is a large increase in the quantity of money the rise in price is more than proportional to this on account of the uncertainty which then prevails. New England and the South alike went to ex- tremes in the issuing of paper money, while the Middle colonies, trying the same experiment, were more conservative. Rhode Island is the best example (with the Carolinas a close second) of the dangers which lie in paper money, and the history of this colony shows most conclu- sively "that a popular government when once MtetotE of fl>aper Currency 133 started after the ignis fatuus of paper money cannot stop itself." The history of Connecticut emphasizes this truth, for here we behold work- ing the influence of bad examples. Although she started with paper money issued only for the expenses of the government, carefully se- cured and promptly redeemed, the promiscuous currency of the New England colonies soon de- prived her of the due reward of this restraint, and made her careless of her credit. The Middle colonies likewise add their testimony. Pennsylvania, careful, judicious, knowing the results in the other colonies and seeking to avoid them, under the magic influence of paper money and the demand of special crises, is soon led astray. In New York and New Jersey it is true their first issues were for war expenses, but their caution and conservative manner in which they took up the loan system is strong evidence that it was done only after careful reflection. The history of their paper money was much like that of Pennsylvania. Virginia and Mary- land, both conservative, began their issues of paper money at a later period only because the special calls which had come so often and so imperatively to the others came later to them. In all the colonies we find that unlimited emis- sion tends toward unlimited repudiation and the proportion is a true one at every step. It can not be denied that the first issues in most of the colonies were made in good faith. How then can we view the results save as the normal develop- i34 H>arltn0 ©rise Gbeste ment of the inherent tendencies of paper money ? Considering the great need which most of the colonies had for large sums of money for im- mediate use, and acknowledging what seemed to be their inabilty to get it in any other way, we might justify their first emissions of paper ; but when we consider the sum total of the results, we must condemn as fundamentally bad a sys- tem which destroys trade and industry, hinders the formation of capital, undermines the whole social fabric, makes debt desired and even honor- able, puts a premium on dishonesty, and brings about a distribution of land and property in which the main element is chance and justice has no part. [ Throughout the manuscript copy of the above Darling Thesis frequent reference is made on each page to authorities consulted in its preparation.] 3un!or prise lEssaps CONSCIENCE IN THE GREEK TRAGEDY BY CURTIS MILLER, JR. It was supposed that the palace of the Caesar's, which was built strong with masonry and heavy with stone, could be destroyed only by an earthquake that would make tremble the seven hills; but the tiny vines fostered by the gentle wind and warm sun of an Italian summer struck root between the huge blocks of granite and marble and tossed them from their foundations. So through Greek tragedy there runs a slender vine, nurtured by the poet's realization of the ideal — a vine, which removing earth, Olympus and all the trappings of paganism showed the in- ner, spontaneous nature of man — conscience, that moral faculty under whose guiding and directing power man is ever turned toward the right. The Greek was super-religious, hypo-ethical. He trusted too much to fate and destiny, too little to the heart and the conscience. His main- spring of action was on Olympus, rather than in his own soul. His religion was aesthetic, im- aginative, poetical. It possessed few pure, prac- tical, personal qualities. Hence matter was higher than mind ; and conscience was smoth- 136 Junior lPri3e Bssa^s ered somewhat in wrappings of earthly ideas. Its silent, ever-present voice had become hoarse through the long cold ages of polytheism ; and its utterances broke forth only now and again in feeble whispers. The Greek stage was the great pulpit. It taught mythology, history, and ethics. It pleaded the cause of justice, virtue, and honor. It de- picted fate, the Furies, and the avenging de- ities. Pure and inspiring as were often the songs of the chorus, noble and lofty as were often the soliloquies of the characters, swift and sure as were the punishments for wrong, yet grand as it all was the Greek tragedy failed to show clearly the power, the nature, and the workings of conscience. Here is one great con- trast between the Greek and Christian religions. With the Christian, if man obeys God, he is one with God, if he is one with God, God's laws become his laws, and he obeys only his in- most soul, his conscience. With the Greek, man was ever the creature of fate, ever sub- servient to the counsel of the gods, ever a target for the wrath of the Furies. The Christian religion then, as taught by the Bible, is a relation of man's conscience ; the Greek religion, as taught by the tragedy, is a religion of man's fate. One internal, the other external. As the moon on a dark night appears re- splendent with soft-reflected light which fades only at the first break of dawn, so conscience in the Greek tragedy shone in the darkness of pag- Conscience in (Sreeft £rageoE 137 anism and faded into insignificance only at the dawn of glory, the rising of the sun of light. Feeble however as conscience may seem in the Greek tragedy when viewed by the light of the Bible, yet it would be impossible not to see its workings in almost every page of the great masterpieces. /Eschylus, Sophocles, and Eurip- ides all portayed to some extent the silent voice, the guiding hand, the pang-causing tongue of conscience. y^schylus was the theological poet. He practi- cally created the tragedy ; and in it moulded into definite form the Greek's conception of religion — a religion, beautiful in its interpretation of nature, mighty in the absolute attributes of the gods, awful in the never-propitiated wrath of the Furies. He unveiled the human heart, sought out the passions and traced them through their labyrinth of intricate windings. He grasped the conscience ; put it into the balance and weighed it ; put it into the crucible and tested it ; tossed it to the winds and sifted it, and pictured it an active force in the character of Promethus. The story of Promethus is based on an old fable. In the war of the gods Promethus aided Jupiter in casting Saturn from the throne of heaven. No sooner does Jupiter become ruler of the universe than he begins to show his tyrannical nature in depriving men of food and fire. Promethus, in the pity for mankind and in defiance of the tyrant, steals fire from heaven and bears it to the abodes of men. Enraged at thisjupiter condemns 138 Junior lpri3e Bssa^s him to be bound to a rock on Mount Caucasus, there to expiate his crime. Here the tragedy begins. Force and Violence, allegorical deities, with heavy chains, bind Promethus to the rocks. With taciturn bravery the old hero suffers these injuries and insults and utters not a word. But when all had departed, he loudly laments over his unjust punishment. This brings a chorus of sea nymphs who, like the friends of Job, come to solace him in his trouble. Next, Ocean appears on the scene and he, too, holds a dialogue with Promethus strikingly similar in tone to that between Job and Zophar. Then, lo enters. Promethus foretells with poetic beauty, the long wanderings through which he must pass, the many trials which he must suffer, and tells to her of the downfall of Jupiter, and hints that he alone knows the means by which the catastrophe may be averted. Last of all Mercury appears, and tries to rend from Promethus by violence the secret of so vital importance. Promethus, in the nobleness and might of his character hurls open defiance, stringing invective, and biting sarcasm, at this envoy of despotic Jove. He frankly admits his knowledge of the fatal facts and firmly as- serts his determination not to reveal it until his chains are lessened. Let Jove hurl his thunder- bolts as he will. The thunderbolts are hurled ; the heavens grow dark ; the rock whereon he is fastened trembles and plunges bearing with it its prisoner, into the depths of the infernal re- gions. The picture reminds us of the awful Conscience in ©reel? TLxagebv no convulsions of nature at the crucifixion on Calvary. Where is the grandeur, the pathos, the ethics of the poem ? "In the benevolence that refines, and in the sublimity that elevates the soul of men ; in the consciousness of rectitude that reposes on itself independent of fortune ; in the glorious en- ergy of spirit that resists oppression though armed with omnipotence and in the fortitude that rises superior to unmerited sufferings"; in the character of Promethus, an upright man, whose conscience escheweth evil. Sophocles was the dramatic poet. " He painted men as they ought to be." He dealt more with the passions, less with the supernatural elements. He taught men to fear when it was meet to fear, and'to be brave when bravery was required. While /Eschylus holds us high in the mystic regions above our heads, or deep in the darkness of fatalism beneath our feet ; Sophocles bears us more into the inner regions of the human heart. He exhibits the vicissitudes of life — "Whatsoever has passion or admiration in all the changes of that which is called fortune from without or the wily subtleties and reflections of man's thoughts from within." Hence, we find in the tragedies of Sophocles a more perfectly developed conscience than in those of Eschylus and Euripides. In Antigone, Sophocles has breathed out his conception of the most beautiful of women, an ideal Greek woman, she who carries "us beyond the region of hereditary disaster into the more uni- mo 3-uniov IPri3e Essays versal sphere of ethical casuistry." Who shall say that she who was willing to face death that her brother might not lie unburied on the Theban plain, she who obeyed the 'higher law' rather than the lower, she who submitted not to kings, but to God alone — who shall say that she had no conscience? The whole tragedy of Antigone hinges on this one question, Shall a king, an earthly power, or conscience, a divine revelation, guide human conduct. The pathetic scene be- tween the two sisters at the opening of the play; Antigone pouring the libation and sprinkling the dust over the body of her dead brother ; the frank avowal of her intended disobedience before King Creon ; the march to her living grave, w ile she bewails sadly yet grandly her untimely death, all are golden settings to make resplendent with a dazzling light the gem of her conscience void of offence. Like a statue by one of the old Greek sculptors, perfect in symmetry, clear in outline, beautiful almost beyond naturalness, the inner soul of this noble maiden stands out a masterpiece of art, a fit dwelling-place for conscience. In the tragedy of Electra there is presented to us in Clytemnestra a woman almost void of con- science, the very antithesis of Antigone. She ex- ults in the slaying of her own husband, Agamem- non, while she joins with /Egisthus in celebra- ting with revelry and offerings to the gods the anniversary of the murder. She fain would also have murdered her own son Orestes that he Conscience in Greek tlrage&s 141 might not avenge his father ; and when the report of his death comes she drinks in the tale with joyous satisfaction. She casts her own daughter, Electra, into degradation ; and gives her the lowest place in the palace of which she should have been queen. In all this, the con- science of this murderess, adulteress, devilish woman smites her not. She is worse than the beasts of the field. Time goes on ; and one night she sees a vision and dreams a dream. Aga- in em non stands before her returned to life. He ta kes his ancient sceptre from the hands of JEgis- thus and plants it firmly in the earth. Instantly it grows into a mighty tree whose broad-spreading branches overshadow the whole land of Mycenae. Terror fills her soul. She trembles; becomes con- scious for a moment of her own wickedness. Thus in the dark hours of the night when sleep had placed the demons at disadvantage, conscience steeled, smothered, seared, by the long, long years of wickedness, arises, weak as it is, girds on its old armor and deals her a blow which was the begin- ing of the end. It knocked for the first time at the tenth hour, but she opened not the door. It was to her like a ship that passed in the night, in the morn she saw it no more. Euripides was the rhetorical poet. He appealed to the emotions as the source of his ethics. He chose stout-heartedness, steadfast endurance as cardinal virtues and around these he wove a thread of romance which touches and soothes the heart. He was more of a philosopher than a theologist ; 142 Junior P1I3C JBsaags hence conscience, that ever-present deity seemed to act a minor part on the tragedic stage of Euripides. Let us view a scene in Hecuba. Troy is fallen. The ghost of Achilles appears by night and demands the sacrifice of Polyxena, the daughter of Priam. Odysseus is sent to inform Hecuba that her daughter must die to propitiate the shades of the great hero. Hecuba reminds Odysseus of the former days when she had dis- covered him a disguised spy in Troy and at his earnest entreaty had saved his life. In return for this she now asks the life of her daughter. Odys- seus, stern, wily, void of conscience, answers, " True, lady, a life for a life. You saved mine, I will do something to save yours ; but your daughter is quite another person. I have not the pleasure of having received benefits from her. I must trouble her to follow me." Cold words, coming from a heart unwarmed by conscience. But mark Polyxena's answer. "I will arise and follow thee, driven by strong need, yea, and nothing loth to die." She remembers that she is daughter of a king and is ready to die as befits her noble birth. And see! on yon plain the Argian host are assembled to see the princess sacri- ficed. On her knees, throwing back her mantle, she says to Achilles' son, " Lo ! here my throat is ready for your sword ! He willing not but willing, pity stirred In sorrow for the maiden, with the blade Severed the channels of her breath ; blood flowed ; And she, though dying, still had thought to fall Conscience in ©reefe Grageog 143 In seemly wise hiding what eyes should see not. But when she breathed her life out from the blow Then was the Argive host in diverse way Of service parted ; for some bringing leaves, Strewed them upon the corpse ; some piled the pyre Dragging pine trunks and boughs, and he who bore none Heard from the Bearers many a bitter word : 1 Standest thou villain ? Hast thou then no robe, No funeral honors for the maid to bring ? Wilt thou not go and get for her who died Most nobly, bravest soul, some gift? ' " A most beautiful picture whose background is tinted with the glorious colors of conscience — tints beyond the power of human eye to dis- tinguish, beyond the power of mind to interpret. In this short passage there is summed up in less than a score of verses all the attributes and phases, the sadness and the pathos, the grandeur and sublimity of conscience with which Euripides colors his pictures. The ancient tragedians made a distinction in their estimation of human conduct. Some actions they characterized as right, others as wrong. They formulated a doctrine of theology based on a well-defined conception of divine government and "a well-considered theory of human respon- sibility." They maintained that fate was sure, inevitable, all-powerful, but that man had a part in moulding his own fate. They grasped some- thing of the idea, "Work out your own salva- tion." And conscience was the pilot which guided men along the river of fatal destiny. Without that guiding power he might run upon 1 44 junior fl>ri3e Bssags the shoals of worldliness, or into the bayous of physical, mental, and moral stagnation, or upon the sharp-edged reefs where dwelt the Furies. This dual idea was an electromotive force in the targedies of /Eschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides, compelling and guiding human conduct. We look with admiration upon the massive strength of the Greek language ; we fix our attention upon theunapproachable beauty of Greek art ; we wonder at the awful magnitude of their polytheistic religion ; and amid all this, we are apt to overlook that, without which all would be meaningless, the spiritual life of the Greek wrought in coloring of conscience. Conscience, that "spark of celestial fire," which is the in- terpreter of the Greek tragedy ! THE CHARACTER OF HENRY V AS SHOWN IN SHAKESPEARE'S KING HEV^R Y IV AND KING HE^R Y V BY CHARLES LATIMER MOSHER, '99 It is in the capacity of follower and friend that I have endeavored to set forth here, the true character of King Henry V. Perhaps as a friend I have not made his fauits appear as gross as they really were ; perhaps my great respect has magnified his virtues. As a follower I have tried to show him as I saw him. In all things I have tried to be just. Sir Thomas Erpingham. I did not know overmuch about Prince Henry, nor was over-interested in him, until it happened that I heard the king lament the life and habits of his son. The occasion was a report which he received of Percy Hotspur's victory over Douglas, the mighty Scot, which did enumerate in some completeness, the many prisoners which he then had taken. I saw the king turn from the joy of this news, and heard him answer those who queried at his sadness, that 'twas because the thought had come to him, that this was Percy who had done this thing, and that it should have been Prince Henry. 1 heard him wish that some night fairy had exchanged these two while yet in cradle, that now he rightfully might claim 146 junior ff>rf3e Bssags a gallant warrior for his son and let the base- turned prince go on his way. Then I began to wonder at this prince, and not much later pri- vately began to watch him, for I had hope that the king, his father, might be wrong in his harsh estimate. I had heard more than once, the method of the king, in giving to his son no work of state or interest in the realm, severly critisized, and knowing the influences of an idle life, I thought it more than probable that this young prince's frowardness was but the fault of his position, and that, on good occasion offering, he'd show true mettle. I do confess that when I first saw Falstaff and found out that royalty had gone so low to find its consorts, I was sorely troubled. Yet on closer look the case improved ; for I saw that the prince did treat this bunch of vices, not as in any way his equal, but used him as a foil, played with him. And often did I hear Prince Henry rail at this man, call him bad names, show forth the hugeness of his appetite for food and other things, and then laugh in his sleeve at the thin subterfuges with which this butt would answer him. Prince Henry did not revel in filth and rot- tenness of life but found some pleasure in the wit and bold abandon of those who did. And yet I would not have you take him for a saint ; and if you meet with any who would tell you that he never touched the cup, or gleaned the pleasures of "ambrosial sin, " give them the lie, ibenrE D in Sbaftespeare 147 for there's no doubt he did. Yet I would change no whit from my position, that his chiefest pleasure was not in the following of his all too buoyant passions, but in studying others. 1 have seen it stated by some unworthy miscreant, that as a youth this prince was devoid of all honor, was a cutthroat and a thief as well as a frequenter of low places. I will narrate one of the instances on which these claims are based, and show you that they offer no foundation for such stories, save by perversion. 'Twas Poins, I think, who broached a plan by which they should unite into a band of six, to attack and strip a party of Canterbury pilgrims, bearing rich offerings. The prince at once and with no doubtful voice refused. "Who, I rob? I, a thief? Not I, by my faith." Nor did he change his word until the nature of the prank had been explained by Poins, who turned it from a crime against the travelers, to a joke on Falstaff. For after Falstaff and his three have robbed the pilgrims the prince and Poins will rob them, and as Poins put it, "The virtue of this jest v/ill be in the incomprehensible lies that this same fat rogue will tell us when we meet at supper." This madcap scheme was just the kind to much attract our jolly prince and he ac- cepted it. They carried it out without a hitch. Falstaff and his followers robbed the pilgrims ; the prince and Poins scared them from their plunder ; and when at supper they had listened long enough to the tales of his wondrous deeds 148 junior fl>ri3e JEssa^s from this same John, they revealed their part, and asked that knight of the hacked sword how he would explain away his cowardice. The wily fellow vowed he knew " Prince Hal " and fled because he would not bout with royalty. Prince Henry paid the money back with some- thing more. I know not whether Poins would have done so, and know that Falstaff would have kept it gladly ; but the prince gave it back. 'Twas not the criminal in these low amuse- ments that attracted him, but the people, their wit, their banter ; he enjoyed mingling in the accident and danger common to their lives, but, unless he sought it, unknown to his. Though he seemed to allow great familiarity among these people toward him, I heard him call old Falstaff to a sharp account. 'Twas after the robbery when Sir John yet thought that Henry had not been there, and called him coward. "Zounds, ye fat paunch, an' ye call me coward ; by the Lord, I'll stab thee." Half banter and more perhaps, yet it showed me what Prince Henry thought of cowards and from that time I believed that he had something in him. That this young prince did understand the wrong and folly of his course I early knew ; and often he said things which told me of a coming change. One day 1 heard him talking as if in answer to the upbraidings of his father or to the prickings of his conscience. " I know these men with whom I play," he said, "and yet fbenrv tD in Sbafcespeare '4') awhile will tarry with them in their idle sports." "Herein will I imitate the sun, and having hid- den behind these clouds until that time when I am heeded, then will I break forth, and throw- ing off this loose behavior which hath covered me, will redeem myself and shine more brightly by the contrast." He reasoned that they would expect but little from such an one ; how much greater the surprise, when he should turn from low things to the highest nobleness. That a youth with such good spirit should so trouble a royal father I would not say was right. Yet note how often that same spirit which sets young heads to doing maddest deeds, has been the proof of an energy, which when guided by the experience of years, has won the greatest battles. When Prince Henry was given chance to de- fend himself and his position by his father, his first words in answer showed his feelings in the matter. He said, "So please your majesty, I would I could quit all offences with as clear ex- cuse, as well as, doubtless, I can purge myself of many I am charged withal." He saw a fault in that he was misunderstood, and sorely blamed for what was not a grievous wrong. He felt that had he been a common man he would not have been called upon to answer, what to him were harmless pranks. Never had he made his spirit recognize the duties and restrictions which his birth had placed upon him. The change that came in Harry when his aid ■ 5o Junior fl>r(3e Bssass was asked for by his father, and when he felt the weight of responsibility, showed me at once that under his careless exterior was a strong manhood. King Henry IV did most severely chide his wayward son, and told him that there was no cause for putting faith in him, and that now, with the war on, he would not think it strange to see him fighting 'gainst his father with bold Hotspur. With dignity did Harry then tell his unknowing father to await the event, and let him prove himself. Blood should wash out the shame of his unthinking years, and when he should meet this gallant Percy, then would death or victory show his honor. I think I see the noble youth, standing before that none too easy sire, and vowing that his deeds from thence shall bring no stain upon his lineage. There are the lines of a new expression in his face, as from a thoughtless boy he straight becomes an earnest man of purpose. Another time when I did note the valor of this youth, as yet untried, was when with facing armies they awaited battle ; and he, remembering in his words the common soldiers whose lives the event of clashing arms would take, offered to try single combat with Percy Hotspur, that thus the issue might be learned and the blood of all but two remain unspent. When the two armies met, with watchful care all through the struggle Prince Henry kept near by his father. His valiant spirit, showing to the full now under stress, made noble stand fbenn? ID in Sbaftespeare 151 against all comers. He sees Douglas and his father fight, and when the practiced Scot is gaining, it is Prince Henry's sword that saves his majesty and drives back Douglas. But he has hotter work to do, for here comes Hotspur, and these two, each hunting for the other, are at it to the death. They thrust and strike, they strike to kill, and this ill-thought-of prince doth wield his sword full well. He sees a chance, and Hotspur, conqueror in unnumbered combats, sinks down and dies. The honor and the prowess of Prince Henry are no longer ques- tioned. I now have shown you that our prince was brave ; that at his father's call he put away the ease of early days, and got himself the stern ex- terior of war ; that he was nothing daunted at the fierce onslaught of Harry Percy, whom his father had preferred before him. That Harry felt some shame at his too easy former life, I know from what he said on hear- ing of his father's illness. He talked but idly and showed no sorrow on his cheek. The reason why, he later did unfold to Poins. "What wouldst thou think of me if I should weep?" "That thou wert a princely hypocrite," was Poins reply. Though keenly feeling in his heart the illness of his father, he recognized that the company he had kept laid him open to the sus- picion of being but a vile fellow, wishing for his father's death on account of the gain of a king- dom which would come with it. 1 52 Junior prise Bssa^s 1 noticed too that now, his mind all filled with great and worthy projects, he was full short with Sir John Falstaff when that one accosted him. The vulgar gibe that time before had pleased our prince, passed by unnoticed, and without waste of words Sir John was frowned upon. Another time, coming on Falstaff skulking in the rear, more harshly he berated him, and showed him that the time for jest was over. But lest you should judge him as unthinking, I will tell you what he said when he came upon Sir John and took him to be dead. "I could have spared a better man." There was still in his heart a spot for that old vagabond, attractive in his great unworthiness. 'Tis seldom that good news maketh ill, but when the Earl of Westmoreland brought word that all the rebels had been overcome, his majesty from hearty health fell down into a swoon. Prince Henry had not come when this occurred, and on arriving, was led directly to his father, who lay to all appearance quite unconscious. He saw the golden crown lying on the pillow ; he bethought him of the sorrow, and the watching, the toil and anguish of which that brilliant circlet was the symbol, the sleepless nights that were its wearer's doom ; that circlet now was his, for breathless lay his father and the feather that chanced by his mouth stirred not. Prince Henry thought him dead, put on the crown and went away to weep out his sorrow for his father and his king. But Henry IV was not yet ready to leave Mennj ID in Sbafcespeare 15? his earthly kingdom ; he moved, missed his crown and called his councilors. He discovered that the prince had come, and going had taken the crown with him. How black a thing it seemed to the old king as he thought of this young prince, ready with shameful greed to snatch his father's sceptre ere his hand relaxed from it ! "Wherefore did he take away the crown ?" The awful thought that Harry's filial love was but the obedience that awaits reward turned day to night. The prince came back and they were left alone. With what sad tears the stricken Harry excused his much mistaken aclion, was afterward related to me. They heard him say, "I never thought to hear thee speak again," and the king's stern answer, "Thy wish v/as father, Harry, to that thought." The king was sorely wounded, for no doubt had he that Harry's act but served to show his undue haste ; and roundly did he give rebuke to that offending son whose choking throat forbade all explanation. At last the prince told how he had come ; had taken him for dead ; how he had blamed the crown for wearing out his father's body ; how he had taken it as being his filial duty, as the royal heir, to take up that burden as his father laid it down. Full well he plead his cause, and ere he finished the dying heart of Henry IV was filled with never-doubt- ing love, for this his son who now was proved all worthy. King Henry IV is dead. Long live King 1 54 junior iP»ri3C Essays Henry V. I have now shown you that Prince Henry was filled with dutiful regard for Henry IV. Still further would I show his worth by point- ing out his manly course as he took up his father's cares and assumed the throne of England. The Lord Chief Justice had, in Harry's youth, with boldness well becoming his high office, when that rash youth had struck him, without fear committed him to prison. He now waited anxiously to see if this young king would spitefully revenge himself or would show such largeness of heart as would be needed to forgive the acT. The princes and advisers of the court had received of late many proofs of Harry's greatness, but were scarce prepared for the good judgment that he showed them then. The noble king commended the action of the Justice, and returned him to his office with the promise that he would look to him for guidance and advice as to a father. That revelry and foolishness were to be no more connected with him, King Henry most emphatically showed by his treatment of Falstaff , Pistol, and their crowd. They came with Fal- staff in the lead thinking to fill their greedy stomachs with the king's goods. They were discomfited indeed, he would not know them, and they were sent away to mend their man- ners. Not always have great kings, when they have felt a liking to bring war upon their ftlenn? W in Sbaftespeare 155 neighbors, nicely considered the right and justice of the matter. Since the well-remembered days of that great Edward and the Black Prince, the royal line of England had cherished a strong hope of winning from the French the lands to which their lineal descent gave them some title. Among the much advice which Henry IV had given to his son, he told him that to gain peace and con- tentment in his realm at home, he should busy the complaining of his subjects with some great foreign enterprise. Thus was Henry V, by nature no poor weakling, not averse to a campaign which should win the lands to which he had a claim. Yet before he made a final settlement, whether the ex- pedition should go or not, the king ordered the archbishop to clearly set forth the right of Eng- land to the throne of France. He charged him that he bring no false unfounded arguments to bear, for it were sin, he said, for two such nations to contend without well-founded reasons. At that time Canterbury was wishing for some outer quarrel, that should turn the common minds of England from the church, which seemed to many all too rich in her possessions. He well established Henry's foreign title. "The Salique land upon whose law the French had based their firm denial of his claim, was not France, and hence did the law not apply." The prelate further showed that oft times kings of France had made their titles good, by joining to themselves in marriage some lady of the royal line ; and such an act was but to nullify the 156 Junior Ipvise Besags Salique law. Hence Edward's claim was just, and his descendant Henry did not unjustly act if he made answer to King Charles' denial of his right, with bloody war. It is as much a mark of greatness for a king to punish wrong where punishment is just, as it can be to pity and forgive where good may come of it. We must halt a moment on our way to France, that I may tell you of a foul con- spiracy against the life of England's monarch. An intercepted letter brought the king the grave intelligence that three of his most trusted councilors had sold themselves to France. More than by the danger was King Henry troub- led, that those who held his perfect faith should basely turn against him. When, in answer to his questions, they had shown no mercy for some meaner criminal, with their own words did he condemn them. But now to France ! Twas there under the trials of attack and siege, under the anxiousness which comes to leaders of great enterprises, that I saw the real worth and sterling character of this king. No lagging leader he ; in front and urging, pointing to the breach, with steady cry and with inspiring cheer he led his men. On ! Up ! They went. Whate'er the struggle and however great the odds, they conquered. To brave, resisting Harfleur he offered honor- able terms if she would but give o'er, and yield- ing, put away the horrors of a long death strug- gle. He promised that no taunt should greet 1benr£ D in Sbaftespeare 157 the fallen ; that no exultant army should dishonor them. To all who in their folly should disregard his orders 'gainst all desecration, a speedy death he promised. The conquered were treated by him with all gentleness. He had no malice. Valor in the enemy, he felt, was just as noble as among his own. When before Agincourt the danger of their position weighed on the spirits of his advisers, he told them that the fewer men the greater honor vi&ory brought, and if 'twas God's will that they die, there were enough. His trust ! it was in God and honest English hearts. Who counted numbers ? Yet even in a time of danger the spirit which engendered the wild happenings of his youth did not forsake him ; he passed unknown through his camp and talked to the men, defend- ing the king, and showing reasons for his vari- ous acts. One night I found him picking a good- natured quarrel with a common soldier, and in the morning, saw him turn over the blow which had been promised him, to old Fluellen, and enjoy with old-time humor, the little joust which came of it. There is no need for me to tell the story of Agincourt, that wondrous victory ; you know it well. It gave King Henry V a fame most enviable. It proved him great not in his courage only, but in good judgment too. When he had learned the extent of his great victory I heard him give his thanks to God as the cause and reason of it all. And then in that 158 junior pri3e JEsmye same breath that started forth his army toward the village, Agincourt, I heard him promise death to any who should boast, or fail the thanks for this most great success, to give to God. And now you know this king as I knew him, for I have tried to picture him, not magnified or lessened, but as I saw him. Judge him as ye will ; but if the love and pride of subjects, the goodwill of followers, the respect of all the nations that he knew, shall count for anything, then look upon him as a king, most truly noble. Sopbomore fl>ri3e lEsea^e THE IDEALS OF WHITMAN AND OF WHITTIER BY WILLIAM GRANT DECKER, OO The ideal has always had a wide influence as well in the real benefits that it gives to the prac- tical affairs of men as in the elevating and enno- bling literature of which it is the soul and strength. Strip art of ideals and there remains nothing but caricature. Take from the poet his ideals, and it is of little use to leave him his imagination. These United States would have had no exist- ence were it not for the conception of an ideal state in the minds of Washington and Hamilton and their associates. Religion bereft of ideals would be a mockery, and the teachings of the Christ an object of ridicule for the world of unbelievers. We could worship no god since we could conceive of nothing greater or nobler or purer than our earthly surroundings and ourselves. As the ideal plays a part of such importance in common affairs, so in literature, where its func- tion is chiefly to arouse and shape and elevate the imaginations of the people ; and especially in poetry, where are embodied the noblest and 160 Sopbomove lPri3e JEsea^s most beautiful thoughts of some of our sublimest thinkers, its influence cannot be overestimated. Through a study of Tennyson there has grown up a more catholic sympathy with the problems and phases of modern life. To Bryant we can trace a loftier life patriotism, deeper and finer emotions, a firmer and stronger religion. To Milton we are indebted for one of the grandest religious conceptions that has ever appealed to the imagination of man. In Whitman and in Whittier, more than in other poets, are incorporated ideals dear to our broadest and most liberally minded men, and destined to become stronger and more influential as the States increase in influence and in strength. The ideals of Whitman were primarily democracy and patriotism, of Whittier, humanity and religion ; of the one, what appeals most to the physical senses, of the other, what is most closely related to the soul and intellect. The origin of both was humble ; their childhood and youth were alike hampered by parental poverty. Both were born in the early days of the republic and lived through the best part of the century following its establishment. Whitman was sprung from the hardy Dutch-English stock, Whittier was de- scended from the devout Quakers of New England. Both received the education offered by the common schools of the early twenties ; both were thrown, at a tender age, upon their own resources. Each resolved in early youth to devote his life to the improvement of the condi- Wbitman anfc TMbittier 161 tion of his fellow men, and each was fitted for his purpose. Whitman spent several years in mastering the art of printing, meanwhile devoting much of his leisure to writing for local papers. He soon tired, however, of the confinement demanded by his profession, and being naturally of a roving disposition with a dislike for hard work and steady employment, left home to become a sort of journeyman printer, moving from place to place and earning only sufficient for a bare subsistence. In this way he traveled over the greater part of his own country, visited many of our principal cities, met on terms of equality all conditions of men, and became familiar with the whole. -As a result, he was enabled in later years to discuss understanding^ the needs and merits of the American people, the various phases of our democratic institutions, the beauties and phe- nomena of a most bountiful nature and the per- fect harmony, through the workings of natural laws, of all things which science and philosophy have united to make so incomprehensible. The publication of a small collection of Whit- man's poems first brought him to public atten- tion. This collection was afterwards en- larged from time to time, and with that called "Walt Whitman," comprises his best produc- tions. In ' ' Leaves of Grass " is found the general plan of all the poet's work ; his future efforts were spent in amplifying and enlarging his orig- inal theme. 1 62 Sopbomore Prl3e JE&s&ys The first principle laid down by Whitman is an ideal democracy, the equality of all men. He insists that one man is in every way the equal of every other, that even God is not of more account to one than one's self. The em- ployed is as good as his employer, the laborer as good as the . man of refinement and wealth. This principle of equality is vigorously and forci- bly set forth by Whitman, and is varied only by his treatises upon nature and her fundamental laws. With this subjeft he was thoroughly conversant, having spent the greater part of his life in the open air, and having always been sus- ceptible to impressions of the grand and the beau- tiful. Some of our finest word-pictures of beauti- ful sceneries were made by his pen, while he also did much to reconcile in the public mind the discoveries of recent years with the workings of the natural laws governing the universe. The nobility of his purpose is everywhere manifest in Whitman's works nor can it be denied that a large degree of success attended his efforts. The depth of grossness to which he sometimes descended was due in a large measure to the narrowness of his education, and not at all to his own obliquity. The most prejudiced would scarcely dare affirm that Whitman was by nature coarse, or that he would not rather have avoided subjects which must necessarily expose him to odium and contumely. Whittier, like Whitman in many ways, fol- lowed a different bent. While still a boy, he Wbitman an& 1IMbittt«r 163 gave attention to literature and contributed to the publications of his native place. Receiving en- couragement, he increased his efforts and the editorship of a country paper was his reward. Here he made a quick and brilliant success and was rapidly called to the management of various other and larger publications. Thus he continued for several years, giving his time to journalism, but inclining more and more to poetry. Mean- while William Lloyd Garrison came into promi- nence with his antislavery agitation. Whittier was at once drawn to this cause. Neglecting all else he joined the band of agitators, and very soon became their most influential editorial con- tributor. For thirty years and more he gave no thought to literature as literature, but turned his attention to succoring oppressed and suffering mankind. '"Uelenda est Carthago, Slavery must and shall be destroyed," was the watchword of the little band, and no Philippic was ever uttered more violent in its invective or more fiery in its elo- quence than the furious poems that rushed resist- less and unceasing from the pen of Whittier. He was approaching his ideal. Some of Whittier' s poems written at this time are matchless productions. Haste in preparation mars the greater part of them, but this was due rather to the urgent demands of the times than to any failing of the poet. After the close of the great struggle and the consummation of his ideal, Whittier again engaged in poetry as an io4 Sopbomore IPrf 3c Bssa^s art, and in his later works, there is a marked absence of those faults so evident in his earlier poems. All through his works, there is a religious strain, and this, in connection with his discrimination of ideas and delicacy of expression does much to leave that impression of simplicity and purity which is so distinctive of Whittier. In studying the lives and works of Whitman and of Whittier, the influence of the ideal is everywhere manifest. His great patriotism led Whitman to devote his poetical genius to mak- ing his countrymen more patriotic. His sympa- thy for mankind, and especially for the weak and oppressed, led Whittier to spend long years of untiring energy in trying to remove the curse of slavery from four million bondmen. The ideals of Whitman and of Whittier were the ruling motives of their lives, and were incorpo- rated in every bone and fibre of their being. It was not because of any mere theory that Whit- man sacrificed health and happiness to lend a helping hand in the fever-infecled hospitals of Washington during our civil war. No fine senti- ment expressed in pretty phrase induced Whittier to devote the best part of his life to a cause which for years stamped its supporters as fanatics and drove them out of society. It would have been possible for both to choose ways less harsh and steep by which to attain their ideals, but no one can deny the vast amount of good that each did in his own way. They both were forerunners of a broader, deeper, and more humane civilization, the beacon lights of a new phase of Christianity. JOAN OF ARC IN HISTORY AND IN LITERATURE BY HERSCHEL DORSEY SPENCER, OO At the present time when we see and hear so much discussion about woman's rights, woman suffrage, and the so-called "new woman," a study of the character of Joan of Arc, one of the pioneers in the broader field of woman's activity, might be both interesting and instructive. For such a study, leaving out of account tradition which must by this time have become almost worthless, we have two sources of information — history and literature. But here, too, we are apt to be struck by the contradictory statements and to be forcibly impressed with the uncertainty even of written records, for of no other part of French history, perhaps, has there been so great a diversity of accounts as of that which comprises the iife and actions of Joan of Arc. After we have exhausted these available sources of information we are led to conclude that we have been reading simply an accumulation of individual opinions and to feel that as long as it is only a matter of opinion, our opinion is as good as any. Yet as always in forming an opinion we are influenced by what we have read and by the general optimistic tendency of all human thinking. It is in forming such an 1 60 Sophomore U>it3e JBssn^s optimistic opinion that we feel the influence of the literature on Joan of Arc, and conversely, it is probably this optimistic tendency that has colored this literature. In the essential details of a life narrative, such as the date and place of birth, the chief events in the life, and the date and place of death, most his- torians agree with regard to Joan of Arc. It is only when we go deeper and seek character and motives that the discrepancy appears. Joan of Arc (in French, Jeanne d'Arc), the Maid of Orleans, properly Jeanneta Dare, was born in the village of Domremy about 141 1. Her childhood and training were not unlike that of other girls of her time. At this time there was a war with England growing out of the claims of its king, Henry the Fifth, to the French throne ; and, in this struggle, France itself be- came divided into two factions, the one support- ing the pretender and the other supporting the lawful heir Charles the Seventh. The citizens of Domremy favored the dauphin and Joan longed to see him crowned king of France. Finally when the English, aided by the Burgundians, had obtained possession of all the important strongholds with the exception of the city of Orleans and this seemed about to succumb, Joan felt herself called upon, summoned by her "voices," as she said, to go to the relief of the beleaguered city and to make possible the cus- tomary coronation. She succeeded in gaining an audience with the king, and, as all historians Joan of arc 167 agree, singled him out from among his courtiers, although he had purposely disguised himself. After much litigation a small army was given Joan with which she proceeded to Orleans, and after several slight encounters in which the Eng- lish seemed to lose all courage, raised the siege. After a few more engagements, in which she was successful, Joan persuaded Charles to be crowned at Rheims. The task she had given herself was now completed but she was prevailed upon to remain. She had no success however after the coronation and was soon captured and given over to the English. The English sur- rendered her to a church tribunal for trial, and she was convi&ed of heresy and burned at the stake, at Rouen, May 30, 1831. Thus far all historians are in accord. In the matter of character and motives, and the nature of her works and the power by which they were done, they disagree very much. In general the treatment accorded Joan of Arc by historians might be put under two heads, that granted her by French historians, and that by foreign, especially English and German. The French, as is apt to be the case with any national hero or heroine, are inclined to exaggerate the character and achievements of Joan of Arc, and some of them, perhaps the majority, would ascribe her successes to supernatural power ; would consider them as miracles. English and German historians, on the other hand, although they do not at all underrate her achievements, and consider the i-68 Sopbomore prije Basags raising of the siege of Orleans one of the most important events in French history, attach little importance to her belief in " voices " and super- natural agencies, considering it, if they consider it at all, simply as fanaticism, and treat her as a woman with a wonderful natural ability and a great force of character, the novelty of whose entrance upon the scene of conflict was largely instrumental in obtaining for her the suc- cesses she gained. Some even go further and al- most deny her very existence, claiming that she was a puppet raised up by the king and nobles to play upon the superstitions of the people and rouse their failing courage. For the most part, however, English and Germans consider Joan of Arc, or the Maid of Orleans, as she is more commonly known by them, as a girl of upright and noble character, with a wonderful tenacity of purpose, who did indeed accomplish wonderful results in a field hitherto almost unknown to woman, and further- more, they sympathize with her in the treatment which she received at the hands of an ungrateful king and a fanatic clergy. This treatment by the English and German historians explains in part the character given joan of Arc by the English and German authors and poets. Her life and the legends connected with it and the halo of mystery surrounding it and the international character of the events in which she played an important part, the very uncertainty of any records relating to her life, offer to the 3-oanotBrc 169 writer a very favorable opportunity for play of imagination and for display of genius in con- structing and depicting whatever conception he may have formed. These numerous advantages have not been at all overlooked and Joan of Arc has been made the subject of dramatic and poetical compositions by writers of nearly every nationality. This sub- ject, moreover, has been considered worthy of treatment by the best writers of these various nationalities. Yet it is worthy of note that, in spite of its wonderful resources, no writer owes his fame to his treatment of this subject or has his fame usually been materially heightened thereby. An exception might perhaps be made in the case of Schiller and, from a literary stand- point, his Jungfrau von Orleans is probably the best production based upon this character. Schiller's conception of Joan of Arc is very lofty and noble, and in this drama, which is al- most a tragedy, he represents her as a real prophetess. His idea in writing the Jungfrau was to vindicate the character of the Maid of Orleans, which had been so rudely and so basely depicted by Voltaire in his Pucelle, and had been drawn with so much national prejudice by Shakespeare in his Henry VI. Schiller does not always follow the historical account, the most marked deviation being at the close in the manner of her death. Another important epic is the Joan of zArc of Southey. Southey was farther removed from the events and the feelings they aroused than 170 Sopbomore Prise JEsaaEs Shakespeare and his production, therefore, shows little if any prejudice or political coloring. In fact he simply treats the subject poetically, as being peculiarly fit for poetical effects. His idea of her character is that which prevails among modern historians, that she was earnest, sincere, upright and virtuous, and that she was possessed of a wonderful enthusiasm. He considers her career one of the most remarkable in history. The productions of Shakespeare, Southey, Voltaire, and Schiller are the most important poetical works upon this subject. Numerous lives of Joan of Arc have been written, a great part of which have been liberally interspersed with the original ideas of the writers. Of late many prose narratives have appeared which take her life for a subject. Some of these are humorous ; yet as a rule, they all tend to aid in drawing, with all the minute details, the noble and almost ideal conception of her character which has gradually been formed in the minds of the read- ing public. After we have let our reason dwell upon the historical account of the life of Joan of Arc, after we have allowed our feelings to be played upon by the fancies of the poets and of the writers of fiction, the final estimate which we form of this character depends largely, of course, upon the individual, upon religious and political belief and upon general intelligence. Yet as we con- sider all things more closely and more impar- tially, as we become further removed from 5oanofBrc 17' causes of prejudice, as we become more relig- iously tolerant, we are inclined to consider Joan of Arc as a great and noble woman, far in advance of her time, whose nature, though possessing noth- ing of the supernatural, was divinely human, and who, in the words of the king, was "a martyr to her religion, her country, and her king." jfresbman jprije i£s0av>$ MICHAEL FARADAY BY HOWARD IRVING DAVENPORT, 'OI In order to appreciate Faraday as a discoverer we should remember that the greater part of what the world now knows about electricity, magnetism, and the chemical phenomena relating to these, has been discovered by the investigators of the early part of this century. Before the time of these investigators, Davy, Dalton, Faraday, and their contemporaries, we find comparatively few established facts ; but a large number of undemonstrated theories, not only in regard to electricity and magnetism but in other lines as well, filled the minds of scientists. Heat, for example, was supposed to be a sub- stance ; it was afterward proved to be a physical force, a motion of particles. Electricity was thought of by some as a fluid, by others as two fluids of different sorts which, when combined, gave curious effects. Magnetism was a peculiar- ity or eccentricity of a few kinds of matter, which was able to infect other kinds by friction or by long cohabitation. Magnetism and electricity were, in a vague sort of a way, supposed to have some relation to each other. /IRicbael JFara&a^ 17? In addition to these theories not yet proved, the chemist and the physicist were at strife with each, other. The former said, "All matter which seems to us so different from some other matter, is, in reality, different." The latter said, " All matter is alike, but seen in different condi- tions and circumstances it leads us to think that there are different kinds." The chemist said, " All matter obeys a law peculiar to its class." The physicist said, " All matter obeys the same law." Thus the world might have been contending in two factions had it not been for a few philos- ophers, champions of the unity of nature. Such men were Dalton and Faraday. It was a so-called theorem of Faraday, that "The things which seem so different are the same, but under differ- ent aspects, and the forces of matter which seem so opposite are but the same force acTing under different conditions ; one matter, one force, one law, in infinite variety of development." Michael Faraday, third child of James and Mar- garet Faraday, was born at Newington Butts, September 22, 1791. His father was a poor blacksmith but Michael seems to have had no inclination to follow that profession. We do not find him working at the forge. His early educa- tion comprised a rudimentary knowledge obtained in schools near by. At the age of fourteen he was apprenticed to a bookbinder, Mr. Riebau. While thus employed he used to read the sheets given him to bind. 1 74 3F resbman IPri^e Bssa^s Treatises on electricity and chemistry especially interested him. A short time afterward an op- portunity to attend some of Sir Humphry Davy's chemical lectures was given him. Of these lectures he took notes and, having amplified them at home, sent them to Davy with a re- quest that he would assist Faraday to "escape from trade and enter into the service of science." The result was that in his twenty-third year he became the assistant of Davy in the laboratory of the Royal Institution. About ten years later, upon the retirement of Davy, Faraday was ap- pointed director of the laboratory, and in 1833 was made first Fullerian professor of chemistry, a position which he held until his death. In 1 82 1 he married Miss Sarah Barnard, a noble young woman, twenty years of age. She be- longed to the same religous sect as did he ; namely, the Sandemanian. Faraday was for a time an elder in the church and in that office frequently preached to the congregation. Unlike many men of science, he remained throughout life a steadfast Christian. At the age of forty, after he had been for seventeen years in the Royal Institution, we find him at the acme of his intellectual strength ; stored with knowledge, and full of original power. When Faraday's name was proposed for mem- bership in the Royal Society, he found that his former friend and counselor, Sir Humphry Davy, was opposed to his election. Perhaps this was /HMcbael afara&ag '75 but natural. Faraday, when he first entered the Royal Institution, was a kind of servant of Davy; and Davy, as some say, may have been jealous because his former assistant already rivaled if he did not surpass him in renown. Later, however, Faraday was elected to the fellowship of the Royal Society. He was once offered the presi- dency of the Society but declined it. In 1 84 1 his health failed and, accompanied by Mrs. Faraday and her brother, he made a tour to Switzerland, where he visited Interlaken and also the Falls of the Giessbach at the beautiful Lake Brientz. It may be said of Faraday that many were led to love science because they first loved Faraday. He was . not merely a philosopher, but even a maker of philosophers, for he used to seek out young men of science, make known their merits to the scientific world, and encourage them to persevere in the study of nature. Faraday's investigations were confined prin- cipally to the department of chemistry and electricity, and in these branches his discoveries have been exceeded in value by those of no other man. He was the greatest experimentalist the world has yet seen. He continually swerved from physics to chemistry and from chemistry to physics, obtaining grand results in each. Davy and Faraday might each have turned his science to immense commercial profit ; neither one of them did so. It was Faraday's habit to think out carefully, 176 jfresbman fl>d3e iSssags beforehand, his subject and to form an outline along which to work. His table was never left with instruments scattered about upon it in a disorderly manner and when at work no appa- ratus, save what pertained to the task at hand, was allowed on the table. While seeking for a result he never let his mind become so preoccupied that it could not discover other results than those for which he looked. Besides four groups into which the greatest and most valuable of Faraday's discoveries may be divided, there are many other discoveries less important, but which would have earned for him great fame, even without the four groups. One of the principal ones of these minor dis- coveries was that in regard to the liquefaction of gases. He succeeded in reducing to a liquid state a number of gases which until then had been deemed permanent. These important results established the fact that gases are but the vapors of liquids possessing a very low boiling-point. In 182^, he discovered benzol, a substance which, at the hands of our modern chemists, has become the basis of the beautiful aniline colors- magenta, bleu de Paris, and others. In an investigation concerning the attractive and repellent forces of gases he discovered that heat is a physical force ; that it sustains particles at a distance, and hence to heat a substance is merely to give greater motion to its particles. Faraday proved that each particle has an atti- tude peculiar to itself ; the magnetic needle, /llMcbael jfarafcaE 177 which always points to the pole, is a striking instance of this preference of an atom for an attitude. At one time he estimated the amount of elec- trical force involved in the decomposition of a single grain of water at eight hundred thousand discharges of his Leyden battery, or the equiva- lent of a very great flash of lightning ; while the chemical action of one grain of water on four grains of zinc, would yield electricity equal in quantity to a very large thunder-storm. He made other minor researches on Frictional Electricity, on the Electricity of the Gymnotus, and on the Source of Power in the Hydro-ele£tric machine. His greater discoveries, divided into four groups, are the ones on which his fame must mainly rest. The first group is his discoveries about Magneto-eleftric Induction. In this group, under the head of the Polar and Other Conditions of Diamagnetic Bodies, he shows that though a current will pass through water it will not pass through ice. This puzzled him for a time, but afterward he stated that the liquid condition would allow the molecules of water to turn around so as to place themselves in the proper line of polarization while the solid condition pro- hibited it. This polar arrangement is necessary for the passage of a current. He first described the Lines of Magnetic Force and showed that when a coil of wire is placed about a bar of steel the strength of the magnet 1 78 JFresbman Pri3e Bssa^s formed by passing a current through the coil, is proportional to the number of times the wire intercepts these Lines of Force. He also made investigations on the Extra or Induced Current, on the Revulsive Phenomena of the Magnetic Field, and on the Employment of the Induced Magneto-electric Current as a Meas- ure and Test of Magnetic Action. The second group of researches and discover- ies comprises the Chemical Phenomena of the current, and the result is the law of Definite Electro-chemical Decomposition. Faraday saw the need of a measure of voltaic electricity. This he found in the quantity of water decomposed by the current. He tested this measure in many ways to be certain that there was no error and he found that whether the battery was of two cells or fifty, whether the solution was weak or strong, whether the electrode was small or large, the quantity of gas liberated was the same and depended not on the intensity of the current, but on the quantity of the electricity. "Hence," said he, "the chem- ical action is proportional to the quantity of electricity," and on this law he based the con- struction of his celebrated voltameter. To this group belongs also his discovery regard- ing the Source of Power in the Voltaic Pile. There had been a long contest concerning the origin of this power. Volta supposed that the power re- sided simply in the contact of different metals, but he knew of no chemical phenomena. flIMcbael 3Farada£ 179 Faraday, in a paper, said that chemical action must attend electrical effects and if the former were excluded the latter could not be found. He said that the supporters of the "contact" theory assumed that a force able to overcome powerful resistance, could arise from nothing. Had the weight of this argument been under- stood it would have instantly decided the question. The third group is the Magnetization of Light, or the Illumination of the Lines of Magnetic Force. This principle was not, at first, under- stood, and Faraday wrote an article explanatory of it. The article, however, left it as vague as before. The principle is now used in many lighthouses. Another line of research resulted in the discov- ery of Diamagnetism, or the Repulsion of Matter by a Magnet. Faraday had tried steel and electro- magnets on various substances without noticing anything different from ordinary attraction or non-attraction ; but when the magnetic force was greatly increased he found that the magnet repelled some substances. Le Bailiff had proved that antimony was re- pelled ; Brugmans, that bismuth was repelled ; neither went farther. Faraday, on the contrary, subjected to the action of his magnet mineral salts, acids, alkalis, ethers, alcohols, glass, oils, and even animal tissues, and found that all were influenced by the magnet. No known solid or liquid proved insensible to magnetic in- 180 ffresbman fl>ri3e lEssa^s fluence. The tissues of the human body are all diamagnetic ; even blood, though it contains iron, is repelled ; so, if you could suspend a man between the poles of a magnet of sufficient strength, he would come to rest not axially, but equatorially, that is, at right angles to a line connecting the poles. Faraday's discoveries have proved of incalcula- ble value to the world, and more and more are his principles used in modern inventions. He obtained little or no income from his work, but he has won a name whose lustre shall increase with coming years, and shall be ranked as " One of the few, the immortal names, That were not born to die." THE HISTORY OF ARCTIC EXPLORATION BY ALBERT HOUGHTON PRATT, 'OI From early historic time the vast regions of the far north have exerted a strange influence over mankind. There is seemingly nothing at- tractive in the barren ice-fields of the Arctic zone, yet man after man, expedition after expedition, has started out, intent on reaching a higher degree of latitude north and accomplishing more than the one preceding. The first dim knowledge which the ancients had of the north polar regions was based on a re- port respecting Thule, an island in the Arctic Circle, brought back by Phytheas in the fourth century B. C. This was afterwards doubted. But in the ninth century A. D. some monks really appear to have visited Iceland, the sup- posed island of Thule. This is all the knowl- edge the ancients had of the polar regions. The Norsemen settled Iceland and planted a colony in Greenland about 1235 A. D., that date being found on a stone in a cairn. In 1347 the "black death" broke out in Nor- way ; the far-off colony was forgotten, and the settlers were attacked and destroyed by Eskimos who overran the West Bygd in 1349. From 1400 to 1448 there was some communica- tion, at long intervals, between Greenland and 1 8a jfresbman pri^e lEssa^s Iceland, but it ceased during the latter half of that century. Here the first period of polar his- tory closes. The next period, included in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, was that in which expeditions were dispatched across the Arctic Circle to discover a shorter route to India. Two routes were supposed to exist, the North- east, and Northwest Passages. The Northeast Passage is along the Siberian coast, which must be traversed in order to pass from Europe to Bering Sea. The Northwest Passage passes from the Atlantic to the Pacific along the north- ern coast of America. The first expedition to search for the Northeast Passage was made under Sir Hugh Willoughby and Richard Chancellor, of which Sebastian Cabot was the chief promoter. Its purpose was ' ' for the search and discovery of the northern parts of the world, to open a way and passage to our men, for travel to new and unknown kingdoms." Willoughby, after discovering Nova Zembla, re- solved to winter in the harbor of Lapland, where he and all his men perished of starvation and cold. Chancellor reached Archangel. He under- took a journey to Moscow, made arrangements for commercial intercourse with Russia, and returned safely. His success proved the practical utility of polar voyages. Finally after the failures of many, Professor Nordenskiold in 1875 turned his attention to the possibility of navigating the seas along the northern coast of Siberia. By a minute study of the history of former attempts 1btetor£ of Brctic Biploratton 183 and a careful consideration of all the circum- stances, the professor was convinced that the achievement of the Northeast Passage was feasible. Setting out on the fourth of July, 1 878, from Gothenburg in the Vega he found little ice, and nearly made the passage in one season. Towards the end of September the Vega was frozen in. July 18, 1879, a ^ ter having been im- prisoned by the ice two hundred and ninety-four days, she proceeded on her voyage and passed Bering Strait on the twentieth. After a lapse of three hundred and twenty-six years, the North- east Passage was at length accomplished without damage to the vessel and without loss of a single life. The Vega arrived at Yokohama on Sept- ember second, 1879. The Northwest Passage was even more sought for than the Northeast. The search was begun by Frobisher, who set out with two small ships in 1576. He established the fact that there were two or more wide openings leading to the west- ward, between latitudes sixty degrees and sixty- three degrees, on the American coast. John Davis, who made the next attempt to discover the Northwest Passage, made three voyages in three successive years. He was the first to visit Greenland after the abandonment of the Norse colonies, and discovered Gilbert's Sound. He reached an island which he called Sanderson's Hope and then returned. The East India Company sent an expedition under Captain Waymouthin 1602 to seek a pass- 1 84 jFresbman Pri3e Bssa^s age, following the route of Davis, but it had no success. Henry Hudson was one of the most success- ful of the explorers for the Passage. His first voyage was in 1607 when he discovered the most northern point of the east coast of Green- land. In his second expedition he examined the edge of the ice between Spitzbergen and Nova Zembla. In his third voyage he discovered the Hudson River. In 1610 he discovered Hudson's Strait and the great bay which bears his name. The British Parliament, seeing the great value of explorations, and wishing to encourage them, offered ,£20,000 for the discovery of the North- west Passage and ,£5,000 for reaching eighty- nine degrees north. This became a law in 1818. From 1 8 19 to 1827 Parry made three voyages and Franklin two, but they were unsuccessful as far as the Northwest Passage was concerned. In the year 1829 John Ross proceeded down Prince Regent's Inlet in hopes to find the Passage, and wintered on the eastern side of Boothia Felix. In the course of explorations he crossed the land and discovered the position of the north magnetic pole on June first, 1831. The completion of the northern coast line of America gave rise in 1845 to a fresh attempt to make the passage from Lancaster Sound to Bering Strait. The government sent an expedi- tion under Sir John Franklin in two vessels, the Erebus and the Terror, which entered Baffin Bay and were never seen afterwards. History of Brctic Biploration 185 The numerous search expeditions did not add to the knowledge of the Northwest Passage until 1850, when a Franklin search expedition under Captain McClure, passing through Bering's Strait and westward between Banks Land and Prince Albert Land, attained a point within twenty-five miles of Melville Sound, already reached from the east ; thus demonstrating the existence of a Northwest Passage, though not accomplishing the navigation of it. McClure received knighthood, and a reward of £ 10,000 was distributed among officers and crew. Nei- ther of these passages is of practical value. The achievement of them was simply the solution of a scientific problem. In the history of Arctic exploration the Franklin expedition is very important, for the disaster to his expedition led, through the vari- ous search expeditions, to seven thousand miles of coast line being discovered and a vast extent of unknown country being explored, securing a large addition to geographical knowledge. The scientific results were also considerable. After hearing nothing for two years people became anxious and a search expedition was organized under Richardson and Rae, 1848. Shortly after Sir James Ross was sent with two ships. On the return of Ross without tidings the country became thoroughly alarmed. An extensive plan of search was organized by Collison and McClure. After a long and remarkable search they returned without news of Franklin. 1 86 tfresbman tt>ri3e Bssa^s The United States was first led to take an in- terest in polar research through sympathy felt for Franklin. As a result of this the Grinnell and Kane expeditions were equipped and sent out, but found nothing. In 1854 Dr. Rae brought home tidings and relics of Franklin's expedition, gathered from the Eskimos. In 1850 Captains Ommaney and Austin discovered traces of Frank- lin at Cape Riley. The search expedition sent out by Lady Franklin under Captain McClintock discovered at last in 1858 in King William's Land, not only remains, but records of the lost expedition, learning that they were caught in the ice in Peel Sound in September, 1846 ; that Franklin died on the eleventh of the following June ; that the ships were deserted on the 22nd of April, 1848, on the northwest coast of King William's Land ; and that the survivors, one hundred and five in number, set out for the Back River. They all perished. In the year 1870 renewed activity in Arctic exploration began. The northern coasts of Asia and America had been delineated and the North- west and Northeast Passages had been found. Now the most interesting problems in the polar regions became the history and actual condition of the vast interior of Greenland. The most important inland journey until that of Peary, was by Professor Nordenskiold, 1870. He went thirty miles over the glaciers and attained a height of 2200 feet above the sea. 1bi6tor£ of Brctic Exploration 187 In 1870 the United States government sent C. F. Hall on an expedition, in the Polaris, and in North Greenland he reached the. highest point north then attained by ship, a record broken only by Nares in the Alert, and Sverdrup in the Fram. In 1873 Weyprecht and Payer, Austrians, drifted in their ice-bound ship to the southern shores, Franz Josef Land, which they discovered and explored. The English were now aroused and in 1875 the world beheld the strange sight of a great nation sending forth an expedition with orders to go to the north pole. It sailed under Nares in the Alert to North Greenland. The expedition added forty miles to the record of northern progress. In 1879 the New York Herald sent DeLong to reach the north pole, if possible. His ship, the Jeannette, was caught in the ice and drifted a long way to the westward, finally sinking. The drift of the Jeannette, together with the relics from her found two years later, gave Nansen his idea for the drifting expedition in the Fram. Twenty out of the thirty-three men on the Jean- nette perished. Lieutenant A. W. Greely was sent out in 1881 by the United States to establish one of the inter- national polar stations. Lieutenant Lockwood and Sergeant Brainard, members of this expedi- tion, by means of a sledge journey along the coast of North Greenland, established a new rec- 1 88 jfreebman Pri3e Bssa^s ord in the approach to the pole. Twenty-five out of thirty-two men perished at Cape Sabine, through the failures and inefficiency which mark the record of this country in Arctic affairs. These two disasters checked the enthusiam for Arctic exploration until, in 1888, Fridjof Nansen crossed Greenland, a brilliant feat. But it was soon surpassed by Lieutenant Robert E. Peary who, in 1892, accompanied by Astrup, a Nor- wegian, crossed Greenland a thousand miles north of Nansen's route, traveling with dogs and sledges. In 1894 he tried to cross again, but failed. But in 189s he succeeded in once more reaching Independence Bay without being able to explore the northern part of Greenland. Two European expeditions set out in 1894 to reach the pole. Neither succeeded. One was that of Walter Wellman. He tried to reach the pole by sledges and boat, using his ship as base at Spitzbergen. The ship was crushed in an ice- floe. Although the ice was very rough Wellman continued north by sledge, but was obliged to abandon the attempt at the eighty-first parallel. The other expedition was under Frederick Jack- son. He established headquarters at Cape Flora, Franz Josef Land, where he remained three years exploring parts of that region south of the eighty- first parallel. Nansen's brilliant achievement is more worthy of notice than any since Greely's. Not only did his drift theory prove correct, but leaving his ship in an effort to reach the pole, he made one IbfstotE of Brcttc ^Exploration 189 of the most interesting journeys in Arctic history, if Nansen and Johansen had not permitted their watches to run down they would have been able to come down upon the head of Franz Josef Land and explore the region Payer saw, but which has never been touched by foot of man. On July 11, 1897, S. A. Andree with two companions, set out from Dane's Island for the pole, in a balloon. The only word received from them was carried by a pigeon. The message was written by Andree two days after the ascen- sion. In the dispatch he said that all were well, and that they were making "good progress to the east ten degrees southerly." This message indicates that Andree's plan of sailing to the pole in a balloon resulted in failure. In about one- sixth the time his air-ship could, by calculation, remain afloat, he had made but small progress northward and was then being driven south of east. If Andree and his companions are still alive the chances are that they will be found next summer at Cape Flora, where Jackson left them a supply of food. There are five expeditions planned for next summer, two of which will try to reach the pole. In July Lieutenant Peary will go up the west coast of Greenland in the Windward as far north as possible, and then establish a station and an Eskimo colony. As soon as the weather permits he will throw out an advance post near Cape York, and then in the spring will attempt to reach the pole. 190 JFresbman fl>ri3e Bssage The other expedition will be under Mr. Walter Wellman. His plan is similar to Peary's except that it uses Franz Josef Land as a base of opera- tions, and employs Norwegian seal and walrus hunters instead of Eskimos. He will establish a station at Cape Flora, and with a party of six will push forward to Cape Fligely which Payer reached in 1874. The following spring he will seek the pole. He also hopes to explore the unknown parts of Franz Josef Land. The other parties are Captain Otto Sverdrup, who will take the Fram and steam along the coast of Greenland and Grinnell Land with a party of scientists. Frederick Jackson will ex- plore the unknown land which he believes to ex- ist to the west and north of Jones Sound. A Swedish expedition under Dr. A. G. Mathorst will do scientific work in the Arctic regions this summer. The expeditions of Peary and Nansen began a new era in the methods of reaching the pole. They have shown that the pole can be reached by a sledging expedition over the ice-covered polar sea, made from a base station upon the land as far north as can be established. Know- ing these things it is very probable that Peary or Wellman will reach the pole in the near future. It is not irrelevant to the subject to mention in closing why so many efforts have been made, and should continue to be made, to discover the unknown polar regions. Surrounding the north pole three million square Mietovg of arctic Biploration 191 miles of land and sea remain still unexplored. Increased knowledge of these regions is of highest importance in three distinct lines : (a) geographic explorations ; (b) scientific research; (c) commercial profit. For the past two centu- ries the Arctic regions have yielded commercial products exceeding $ 5,000,000 and the available wealth of this northern world is by no means exhausted. These advantages, however, are not the cen- tral force that will drive adventurers to the north. The restless spirit of discovery and adventure has taken up her abode in the heart of man and will never cease to goad on her subjects until the unknown disappears and known is written over all the Arctic zone. Deacidified using the Bookkeeper process Neutralizing agent: Magnesium Oxide Treatment Date: Sept. 2009 PreservationTechnologies A WORLD LEADER IN COLLECTIONS PRESERVATIOf 111 Thomson Park Drive Cranberry Township, PA 16066 (724)779-2111