Famous Americans of Recent Times By: James Parton (1822-1891)
First Page: FAMOUS AMERICANS OF RECENT TIMES By JAMES PARTON Author of "Life of Andrew Jackson," "Life and Times of Aaron Burr," "Life and Times of Benjamin Franklin," etc. 1867 [Illustration: J.C. Calhoun] CONTENTS HENRY CLAY DANIEL WEBSTER JOHN C. CALHOUN JOHN RANDOLPH STEPHEN GIRARD AND HIS COLLEGE JAMES GORDON BENNETT AND THE NEW YORK HERALD CHARLES GOODYEAR HENRY WARD BEECHER AND HIS CHURCH COMMODORE VANDERBILT THEODOSIA BURR JOHN JACOB ASTOR NOTE The papers contained in this volume were originally published in the North American Review , with four exceptions. Those upon THEODOSIA BURR and JOHN JACOB ASTOR first appeared in Harper's Magazine ; that upon COMMODORE VANDERBILT, in the New York Ledger ; and that upon HENRY WARD BEECHER AND HIS CHURCH, in the Atlantic Monthly . HENRY CLAY. The close of the war removes the period preceding it to a great distance from us, so that we can judge its public men as though we were the "posterity" to whom they sometimes appealed. James Buchanan still haunts the neighborhood of Lancaster, a living man, giving and receiving dinners, paying his taxes, and taking his accustomed exercise; but as an historical figure he is as complete as Bolingbroke or Walpole. It is not merely that his work is done, nor that the results of his work are apparent; but the thing upon which he wrought, by their relation to which he and his contemporaries are to be estimated, has perished. The statesmen of his day, we can all now plainly see, inherited from the founders of the Republic a problem impossible of solution, with which some of them wrestled manfully, others meanly, some wisely, others foolishly. If the workmen have not all passed away, the work is at once finished and destroyed, like the Russian ice palace, laboriously built, then melted in the sun. We can now have the requisite sympathy with those late doctors of the body politic, who came to the consultation pledged not to attempt to remove the thorn from its flesh, and trained to regard it as the spear head in the side of Epaminondas, extract it, and the patient dies. In the writhings of the sufferer the barb has fallen out, and lo! he lives and is getting well. We can now forgive most of those blind healers, and even admire such of them as were honest and not cowards; for, in truth, it was an impossibility with which they had to grapple, and it was not one of their creating. Of our public men of the sixty years preceding the war, Henry Clay was certainly the most shining figure. Was there ever a public man, not at the head of a state, so beloved as he? Who ever heard such cheers, so hearty, distinct, and ringing, as those which his name evoked? Men shed tears at his defeat, and women went to bed sick from pure sympathy with his disappointment. He could not travel during the last thirty years of his life, but only make progresses. When he left his home the public seized him and bore him along over the land, the committee of one State passing him on to the committee of another, and the hurrahs of one town dying away as those of the next caught his ear. The country seemed to place all its resources at his disposal; all commodities sought his acceptance. Passing through Newark once, he thoughtlessly ordered a carriage of a certain pattern: the same evening the carriage was at the door of his hotel in New York, the gift of a few Newark friends. It was so everywhere and with everything. His house became at last a museum of curious gifts. There was the counterpane made for him by a lady ninety three years of age, and Washington's camp goblet given him by a lady of eighty; there were pistols, rifles, and fowling pieces enough to defend a citadel; and, among a bundle of walking sticks, was one cut for him from a tree that shaded Cicero's grave. There were gorgeous prayer books, and Bibles of exceeding magnitude and splendor, and silver ware in great profusion. On one occasion there arrived at Ashland the substantial present of twenty three barrels of salt... Continue reading book >>

Famous Americans of Recent Times By: James Parton (1822-1891)

First Page:

FAMOUS AMERICANS OF RECENT TIMES

JAMES PARTON

Author of "Life of Andrew Jackson," "Life and Times of Aaron Burr," "Life and Times of Benjamin Franklin," etc.

1867

[Illustration: J.C. Calhoun]

CONTENTS

HENRY CLAY

DANIEL WEBSTER

JOHN C. CALHOUN

JOHN RANDOLPH

STEPHEN GIRARD AND HIS COLLEGE

JAMES GORDON BENNETT AND THE NEW YORK HERALD

CHARLES GOODYEAR

HENRY WARD BEECHER AND HIS CHURCH

COMMODORE VANDERBILT

THEODOSIA BURR

JOHN JACOB ASTOR

NOTE

The papers contained in this volume were originally published in the North American Review , with four exceptions. Those upon THEODOSIA BURR and JOHN JACOB ASTOR first appeared in Harper's Magazine ; that upon COMMODORE VANDERBILT, in the New York Ledger ; and that upon HENRY WARD BEECHER AND HIS CHURCH, in the Atlantic Monthly .

HENRY CLAY.

The close of the war removes the period preceding it to a great distance from us, so that we can judge its public men as though we were the "posterity" to whom they sometimes appealed. James Buchanan still haunts the neighborhood of Lancaster, a living man, giving and receiving dinners, paying his taxes, and taking his accustomed exercise; but as an historical figure he is as complete as Bolingbroke or Walpole. It is not merely that his work is done, nor that the results of his work are apparent; but the thing upon which he wrought, by their relation to which he and his contemporaries are to be estimated, has perished. The statesmen of his day, we can all now plainly see, inherited from the founders of the Republic a problem impossible of solution, with which some of them wrestled manfully, others meanly, some wisely, others foolishly. If the workmen have not all passed away, the work is at once finished and destroyed, like the Russian ice palace, laboriously built, then melted in the sun. We can now have the requisite sympathy with those late doctors of the body politic, who came to the consultation pledged not to attempt to remove the thorn from its flesh, and trained to regard it as the spear head in the side of Epaminondas, extract it, and the patient dies. In the writhings of the sufferer the barb has fallen out, and lo! he lives and is getting well. We can now forgive most of those blind healers, and even admire such of them as were honest and not cowards; for, in truth, it was an impossibility with which they had to grapple, and it was not one of their creating.

Of our public men of the sixty years preceding the war, Henry Clay was certainly the most shining figure. Was there ever a public man, not at the head of a state, so beloved as he? Who ever heard such cheers, so hearty, distinct, and ringing, as those which his name evoked? Men shed tears at his defeat, and women went to bed sick from pure sympathy with his disappointment. He could not travel during the last thirty years of his life, but only make progresses. When he left his home the public seized him and bore him along over the land, the committee of one State passing him on to the committee of another, and the hurrahs of one town dying away as those of the next caught his ear. The country seemed to place all its resources at his disposal; all commodities sought his acceptance. Passing through Newark once, he thoughtlessly ordered a carriage of a certain pattern: the same evening the carriage was at the door of his hotel in New York, the gift of a few Newark friends. It was so everywhere and with everything. His house became at last a museum of curious gifts. There was the counterpane made for him by a lady ninety three years of age, and Washington's camp goblet given him by a lady of eighty; there were pistols, rifles, and fowling pieces enough to defend a citadel; and, among a bundle of walking sticks, was one cut for him from a tree that shaded Cicero's grave. There were gorgeous prayer books, and Bibles of exceeding magnitude and splendor, and silver ware in great profusion. On one occasion there arrived at Ashland the substantial present of twenty three barrels of salt... Continue reading book >>

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