George Bancroft, History of the United States from the Discovery of the American Continent, Vol. 10

[91] after,¹ to select the theme for his first tragedy from

Chap. II.}

the kindred epoch in the history of the Netherlands. But the interest of the circle in which he moved became far more lively when, in a remote part of the world,² a whole people showed signs that it would make itself free. He classed the Boston tea-party of 1773 among the prodigious events which stamp themselves most deeply on the mind of childhood.³ Like everybody around him he wished the Americans success, and the names of Franklin and Washington shone and sparkled in his heaven of politics and war.⁴ When to all this was added reform in France, he and the youth of Germany promised themselves and all their fellow-men a beautiful and even a glorious future.⁵ The thought of emigrating to America passed placidly over his imagination, leaving no more mark than the shadow of a flying cloud as it sweeps over a flower-garden.

The sale of Hessian soldiers for foreign money called from him words of disdain;⁶ but his reproof of the young Germans who volunteered to fight for the American cause, and then from faint-heartedness drew back, did not go beyond a smile at the contrast between their zeal and their deeds.⁷ He congratulated America that it was not forced to bear up the traditions of feudalism;⁸ and, writing or conversing, used only friendly words of the United States, as ‘a noble country.’⁹ During all his life coming in contact with events that were changing the world, he painted