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Rhode Island (Rhode Island, United States) (search for this): chapter 1
the history of the United States. But to the student of early American literature all such generalizations are of limited value. He is dealing with individual men, not with Cavalier or Roundhead as such. He has learned from recent historians to distrust any such facile classification of the first colonists. He knows by this time that there were aristocrats in Massachusetts and commoners in Virginia; that the Pilgrims of Plymouth were more tolerant than the Puritans of Boston, and that Rhode Island was more tolerant than either. Yet useful as these general statements may be, the interpreter of men of letters must always go back of the racial type or the social system to the individual person. He recognizes, as a truth for him, that theory of creative evolution which holds that in the ascending progress of the race each thinking person becomes a species by himself. While something is gained, then, by remembering that the racial instincts and traditions of the first colonists we
United States (United States) (search for this): chapter 1
Chapter 1: the pioneers The United States of America has been from the beginning in a perpetual change. The physical al changes now in progress are serving to show that the United States has its full share of the anxieties which beset all humterest to the student of the literature produced in the United States. Is this literature American, or is it English literatFederal Union, in particular, the books produced in the United States have tended to exhibit certain characteristics which di Our historians have taught us that the history of the United States is an evolution towards political unity. The separati The first book written on the soil of what is now the United States was Captain John Smith's True Relation of the planting or potential Americanism which existed long before the United States came into being. Now that our political unity has becocalism which has written itself into the history of the United States. But to the student of early American literature all s
Plymouth (United Kingdom) (search for this): chapter 1
become a fact, the predisposition is certain to be regarded by our own and by future generations as evidence of a state of mind which made our separate national life inevitable. Yet to Thomas Hutchinson, a sound historian and honest man, the last Royal Governor of Massachusetts, a separate national life seemed in 1770 an unspeakable error and calamity. The seventeenth-century colonists were predominantly English, in blood, in traditions, and in impulses. Whether we look at Virginia or Plymouth or at the other colonies that were planted in swift succession along the seaboard, it is clear that we are dealing primarily with men of the English race. Most of them would have declared, with as much emphasis as Francis Hopkinson a century later, We of America are in all respects Englishmen. Professor Edward Channing thinks that it took a century of exposure to colonial conditions to force the English in America away from the traditions and ideals of those who continued to live in the
Massachusetts (Massachusetts, United States) (search for this): chapter 1
ate national life inevitable. Yet to Thomas Hutchinson, a sound historian and honest man, the last Royal Governor of Massachusetts, a separate national life seemed in 1770 an unspeakable error and calamity. The seventeenth-century colonists weredistrust any such facile classification of the first colonists. He knows by this time that there were aristocrats in Massachusetts and commoners in Virginia; that the Pilgrims of Plymouth were more tolerant than the Puritans of Boston, and that Rhorably true of the Pilgrims of Plymouth, about whom she was writing. But the far more important Puritan emigration to Massachusetts under Winthrop aimed not so much at freedom as at the establishment of a theocracy according to the Scriptures. Thesho when he was doing his Master's work would put a king into his pocket. So he led the famous migration of 1636 from Massachusetts to Hartford, and there helped to create a federation of independent towns which made their own constitution without m
Massachusetts Bay (Massachusetts, United States) (search for this): chapter 1
he thousands of Englishmen who emigrated or even thought of emigrating to this country, those who possessed the genuine heart and sinew of the permanent settler. Oliver Cromwell, for instance, is said to have thought of emigrating hither in 1637. If he had joined his friends John Cotton and Roger Williams in New England, who can doubt that the personal characteristics of my brave Oliver would today be identified with the American qualities which we discover in 1637 on the shores of Massachusetts Bay? And what an American settler Cromwell would have made! If we turn from physical and moral daring to the field of theological and political speculation, it is easy today to select, among the writings of the earliest colonists, certain radical utterances which seem to presage the very temper of the late eighteenth century. Pastor John Robinson's farewell address to the Pilgrims at Leyden in 1620 contained the famous words: The Lord has more truth yet to break forth out of His holy
Europe (search for this): chapter 1
ed forth the strength of a great variety of individuals. Some of these men have proved to be peculiarly fitted for a specific service, irrespective of the question of their general intellectual powers, or their rank as judged by the standard of European performance in the same field. Thus the battle of New Orleans, in European eyes a mere bit of frontier fighting, made Andrew Jackson a hero as indubitably as if he had defeated Napoleon at Waterloo. It gave him the Presidency. The analogy hEuropean eyes a mere bit of frontier fighting, made Andrew Jackson a hero as indubitably as if he had defeated Napoleon at Waterloo. It gave him the Presidency. The analogy holds in literature. Certain expressions of American sentiment or conviction have served to summarize or to clarify the spirit of the nation. The authors of these productions have frequently won the recognition and affection of their contemporaries by means of prose and verse quite unsuited to sustain the test of severe critical standards. Neither Longfellow's Excelsior nor Poe's Bells nor Whittier's Maud Muller is among the best poems of the three writers in question, yet there was something
Lincolnshire (United Kingdom) (search for this): chapter 1
ning of their novel experience they were doubtless unaware of any alteration in their theories. But they were facing a new situation, and that new situation became an immense factor in their unconscious growth. Their intellectual and moral problems shifted, as a boat shifts her ballast when the wind blows' from a new quarter. The John Cotton preaching in a shed in the new Boston had come to suffer a sea-change from the John Cotton who had been rector of St. Botolph's splendid church in Lincolnshire. The church without a bishop and the state without a king became a different church and state from the old, however loyally the ancient forms and phrases were retained. If the political problems of equality which were latent in Calvinism now began to take on a different meaning under the democratic conditions of pioneer life, the inner, spiritual problems of that amazing creed were intensified. Fallen human nature remained the same, whether in the crowded cosmopolitan streets of Hol
Waterloo, Ala. (Alabama, United States) (search for this): chapter 1
of its purpose and ideals are tasks which have called forth the strength of a great variety of individuals. Some of these men have proved to be peculiarly fitted for a specific service, irrespective of the question of their general intellectual powers, or their rank as judged by the standard of European performance in the same field. Thus the battle of New Orleans, in European eyes a mere bit of frontier fighting, made Andrew Jackson a hero as indubitably as if he had defeated Napoleon at Waterloo. It gave him the Presidency. The analogy holds in literature. Certain expressions of American sentiment or conviction have served to summarize or to clarify the spirit of the nation. The authors of these productions have frequently won the recognition and affection of their contemporaries by means of prose and verse quite unsuited to sustain the test of severe critical standards. Neither Longfellow's Excelsior nor Poe's Bells nor Whittier's Maud Muller is among the best poems of the
Leydon (Massachusetts, United States) (search for this): chapter 1
oday be identified with the American qualities which we discover in 1637 on the shores of Massachusetts Bay? And what an American settler Cromwell would have made! If we turn from physical and moral daring to the field of theological and political speculation, it is easy today to select, among the writings of the earliest colonists, certain radical utterances which seem to presage the very temper of the late eighteenth century. Pastor John Robinson's farewell address to the Pilgrims at Leyden in 1620 contained the famous words: The Lord has more truth yet to break forth out of His holy Word. I cannot sufficiently bewail the condition of the reformed churches, who are come to a period in religion. . . . Luther and Calvin were great and shining lights in their times, yet they penetrated not into the whole counsel of God. Now John Robinson, like Oliver Cromwell, never set foot on American soil, but he is identified, none the less, with the spirit of American liberalism in religion
England (United Kingdom) (search for this): chapter 1
Adams insisted that the principles and feelings which produced the Revolution ought to be traced back for two hundred years, and sought in the history of the country from the first plantations in America. I have always laughed, he declared in an earlier letter, at the affectation of representing American independence as a novel idea, as a modern discovery, as a late invention. The idea of it as a possible thing, as a probable event, nay as a necessary and unavoidable measure, in case Great Britain should assume an unconstitutional authority over us, has been familiar to Americans from the first settlement of the country. There is, then, a predisposition, a latent or potential Americanism which existed long before the United States came into being. Now that our political unity has become a fact, the predisposition is certain to be regarded by our own and by future generations as evidence of a state of mind which made our separate national life inevitable. Yet to Thomas Hutchin
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