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Browsing named entities in a specific section of Cambridge History of American Literature: volume 2 (ed. Trent, William Peterfield, 1862-1939., Erskine, John, 1879-1951., Sherman, Stuart Pratt, 1881-1926., Van Doren, Carl, 1885-1950.). Search the whole document.

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Henry Clay (search for this): chapter 1.7
lways in the back of his mind lay the plan of a great documentary history of the Revolution. While preparing the edition of Washington he learned from President John Quincy Adams that in 1818 Congress had appropriated money to publish the foreign correspondence of the Continental Congress during the Revolution. Adams was then too busy to give the matter his attention, and nothing was done about it. Sparks caught at the suggestion that he should take it up, and he made an agreement with Secretary Clay by which he was to print and sell to Congress one thousand copies of this correspondence at $2.12 1/2 a copy and to have $400 a volume for copying and editing. The work was done in eighteen months and for the entire set of twelve volumes the editor received $30,300. As his chief expense was for printing and translations, his net earnings must have been considerable. In the following year (1830), he proposed to Secretary Van Buren that the work be continued through the period of the Con
Shays (search for this): chapter 1.7
84-92), which is of the first rank in our historical compositions. Had its theme been more extended, it would have become a household memory in the country. Benjamin Trumbull's (1735-1820) History of Connecticut (2 vols., 1818) and Robert Proud's (1728-1813) History of Pennsylvania (2 vols., 1797-98) were of scholarly standards but heavy in style. George Richards Minot (1758– 1802), a brilliant Massachusetts lawyer, wrote a History of the Insurrection in Massachusetts (1788), dealing with Shays' Rebellion, and followed it by a continuation of Hutchinson's History of Massachusetts (2 vols., 1798-1803). The books were well written and have maintained their credit. Here should be mentioned Henry M. Brackenridge's (1786-1871) History of the Western Insurrection (1817), a fair-minded narrative of the Whisky Insurrection, which was very popular and ran through several editions. Three Southern books which may here be spoken of are hardly up to the standard of the state histories. Dr. R
Thomas Hutchinson (search for this): chapter 1.7
d to these impulses were, perhaps, less cultured than the best of the old historians. It was long before there appeared among them one who could be ranked with Hutchinson, though some of them wrote well and displayed great industry. The stream was wider than formerly, but it was not so deep. Of those who wrote about the Revolbrilliant Massachusetts lawyer, wrote a History of the Insurrection in Massachusetts (1788), dealing with Shays' Rebellion, and followed it by a continuation of Hutchinson's History of Massachusetts (2 vols., 1798-1803). The books were well written and have maintained their credit. Here should be mentioned Henry M. Brackenridge'she men who did this work are not to be forgotten; they were as truly servants of the historic muse as those who held her stylus. Of the efforts of Prince and Hutchinson as early collectors of documents mention has already been made. See Book I, Chap. II. After the Revolution the first activity of that kind was due to the in
English America (search for this): chapter 1.7
istorians was those who undertook to write general histories of the United States. They were inspired with the spirit of nationality, whatever their views of the new Union. They wished to depict the relations of the colonies to one another and their struggle against Britain's policy of strict control. The first histories presenting a general account of the colonies came from England, where as early as 1708 John Oldmixon, in his British Empire in America, made a sorry attempt to treat English America as a whole. In 1780 George Chalmers published his Political annals of the Present United colonies, followed in 1782 by another work called Introduction to the history of the revolt of the American colonies. Chalmers was an able writer and gave at least continuity to his subject. He was, however, strongly British in sympathy, and his work was not esteemed in the United States. It stimulated more than one American to write what he considered a true history of the rise and progress of
Buren (search for this): chapter 1.7
n that he should take it up, and he made an agreement with Secretary Clay by which he was to print and sell to Congress one thousand copies of this correspondence at $2.12 1/2 a copy and to have $400 a volume for copying and editing. The work was done in eighteen months and for the entire set of twelve volumes the editor received $30,300. As his chief expense was for printing and translations, his net earnings must have been considerable. In the following year (1830), he proposed to Secretary Van Buren that the work be continued through the period of the Continental Congress. Van Buren agreed, and Congress passed the necessary act, but at the last moment the new secretary of state, Edward Livingston, made the contract with Frank P. Blair. Livingston blandly admitted that Sparks should have had the appointment but said that Blair's selection was demanded by the politicians. The writings of Washington now occupied Sparks's time, but before they began to appear he brought out The
Clair.Matthew St. Clair (search for this): chapter 1.7
l men least able to find another, he saw his paper run into a decline that left him without employment. Earlier than this he had made plans for publishing a great collection of documents on the American Revolution. Sparks was just bringing his Diplomatic correspondence to a successful close, and the profits of the enterprise had attracted the attention of more than one Washington editor. It seemed a favourable time to attempt the execution of Force's scheme. He found a partner in Matthew St. Clair Clarke, clerk of the House of Representatives, who had money enough to launch the enterprise and political influence enough to get it authorized by Congress. Accordingly, after some negotiations Congress on 2 March, 1833, at the very time the compromise tariff bill and the Force Bill disposed of the South Carolina crisis, passed a brief law authorizing the secretary of state to contract with Force and Clarke for the publication of a documentary history of the American Revolution, prov
Abiel Holmes (search for this): chapter 1.7
sidered a true history of the rise and progress of the Revolutionary struggle. Of the Americans who undertook to do the same thing, and to do it in a spirit more friendly to the cause of America, the first man worthy of notice here was the Rev. Abiel Holmes (1763-1837), whose American annals (2 vols., 1805) represented much accurate and careful work. It marked the author as a man of scientific mind, worthy of equal respect with his son, the delightful Autocrat. The next to take up the taskmake humanity happy: to write its history became his hope. In 1834 appeared the first volume of his History of the United States from the discovery of the American continent. At the time neither Hildreth nor Tucker had written, and only Pitkin, Holmes, and Trumbull had undertaken a task like his. They were all didactic. Bancroft produced a work of a different character. There was a lofty and sonorous sense of detachment in his sentences. To the present age they seem sheer affectation; but t
Thomas Jefferson (search for this): chapter 1.7
e have the Life of Washington (1804-07) in five volumes, a heavy book without literary style and smacking of Federalist opinions. It displeased the followers of Jefferson but had a wide circulation among those who did not agree with the great Republican leader. For posterity it has value chiefly as a solid source of information. known chiefly for the impression it made on those who held views it was intended to counteract. Tucker See also Book II, Chap. VII. wrote also a Life of Thomas Jefferson (2 vols., 1837), probably the best of the early lives of this statesman. The last of the general historians who fall within this chapter's limits is Georgic party. He was accused of doing it to obtain Federal office, but the charge was not substantiated. He was ever a defender of the doctrine of equality held by Jefferson, Jackson, and Lincoln. In America he saw organized democracy which was to make humanity happy: to write its history became his hope. In 1834 appeared the first
Soc (search for this): chapter 1.7
and confused state that but few can think steadily upon any subject. They hear of useful designs, they give you all the encouragement which can be derived from the warmest approbation of your plan, they will even promise you assistance. Politics intrude,—kick you and your designs out of their heads; and when you appear again, why they really forgot that the matter had been mentioned to them. I have been repeatedly served so with reference to my collection. The Belknap Papers, Mass. Hist. Soc. Col., 5th Ser., vol. II, p. 12. After the war came the years of constitution-making, and then a long period during which foreign affairs occupied most minds exclusively. It was a time, also, when unusual business opportunities enthralled the best intellects in the country. Thus there were few competent persons to whom the quiet task of writing history made appeal. It is not strange that Hazard had few people to encourage him. Our post-Revolutionary period has been compared with the ye
John Gorham Palfrey (search for this): chapter 1.7
from her stump, and recounting her narrative in a key adapted to our own ears. An historian who did not liberate himself entirely from patriotic bias was John Gorham Palfrey (1798-1881). Although he falls slightly without the limits of time assigned to this chapter, he was by nature and purpose a member of what has been called t irrelevant passages and issued as a Compendious history of New England in four handy volumes. So far as the mere statement of facts goes, it is safe to say that Palfrey has given us a complete and sufficient history of colonial New England. He has not been careless or slothful. But to Palfrey all that New Englanders did and thPalfrey all that New Englanders did and thought was good. He did not question the spirit of Puritanism, and he did not find its narrowness unpleasant; he accepted it as a thing of course. He was the last of the complacent defenders of the old regime in the land of Bradford and Winthrop. Before he had retired from the scene Charles Francis Adams's severe blows were begin
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