man to get an But it is now wall, and Hutchinson was not the impartial hearing in his lifetime. apparent that he possessed an ability shared but never fully displayed by Thomas Prince: that of accumulating, studying, and assimilating historical materials, and placing them before the reader in an orderly and intelligible form. It is this ability that makes the historian; and in the maturity and thoroughness of Hutchinson's work we find the beginning of the second and principal period of historical literature in America. More than this one cannot claim; to say less than this would be injustice. In Hutchinson's diary and miscellaneous papers are sometimes to be found a loftiness of thought and a transparency of diction which are similar to the good literary qualities of the "History." Hutchinson was an aristocrat, hence he was a political failure in New England; but his aristocracy helped him win his success as a writer, because it taught him, in a time of hurry and excitement, which followed an age of Matherian, pompous half-knowledge, to be patient, serious, and just in his historical investigations, and to try to be stately and finished in verbal expression. The charge of trickiness and double-dealing, made and believed in Hutchinson's lifetime, affects his character as a man rather than as a historian. Reduced to its lowest terms, and patiently investigated, it means that Hutchinson, always a consistent Tory, wrote some things in his English letters which, very naturally, he left unsaid at home. Noble and beneficent as were the results of the Revolution to America and the world, we are compelled to admit that, on both sides, the adaptation of means to ends was sometimes not in strict accord with the highest equity. Admitting against Hutchinson more than can be proved, his "History" remains both creditable and trustworthy, an honorable leader of an honored line. Naturally the earlier American historians selected local themes. Documents concerning foreign topics were lacking in America; libraries were few and scantily supplied; European travel or residence involved an expense impossible for writers not diplomats as well; and the novelty and attractiveness of subjects close at hand led the first historians to address themselves to their home public. They were, for the most part, employed in other than literary tasks, and gave to writing such time as could be spared from exacting daily work. Jeremy Belknap, like so many of the American writers Jeremy who were laying the foundations for a 1744-1798. future literature, was a minister. To go to college, teach school, to study divinity, to preach, and incidentally to turn out pamphlet sermons, "poetry," or more ambitious work, was almost the rule among our early writers. Belknap's career may be summarized thus: his pastorates at Dover and Boston (where he preceded Dr. Channing in the Federal Street Church) were honorable; and though his higher literary tastes were for historical study, he would hardly have been a New England minister had he not written a theological treatise or some similar production. Thus he prepared a Belknap, long-titled reply to Thomas Paine and his "Age of Reason"; wrote a life of Isaac Watts; and edited a collection of psalms and hymns, some of which were original. Verse was an occasional recreation of Belknap's; and in a story called "The Foresters " he attempted, with some success, to give a semi-humorous summary of American history, by means of a cumbersome personification, one State being John Codline, another Robert Lumber, etc. Speaking of this book and the author's other work, William Cullen Bryant* too amiably declared that Belknap was " the first to make American history attractive." "His Historical Account of those Persons who have been Distinguished in America as Adventurers, Statesmen, Philosophers, Divines, Warriors, Authors, and other Remarkable Characters, Comprehending a Recital of the Events Connected with their with their Lives and Actions"-there were titles in those days-was a useful successor of Mather's "Magnalia," and a precursor of Sparks' " American Biography." The appearance of the word "authors" at the end of Dr. Belknap's list is of interest. But the course of our narative of literary progress must not be turned aside by matters of no more than quaint or antiquarian concern. It is enough to say that Belknap, more than any other man, aided in the establishment of the Massachusetts Historical Society, and wrote a serviceable "History of New Hampshire." That this history, in accordance with the prevalent fashion, was also * Quoted in Duyckinck's "Cyclopædia of American Literature," i., 265. Abiel Holmes, 1763-1837. 66 a gazetteer, and that it does not possess literary merit, are facts which need not blind us to its significance in the provincial period of American historical writing, so soon to give place to a time of broader and more enduring work. The chief names among those who were advancing historical investigation in the United States, at the beginning of the present century, seem to me to be those of Belknap, Abiel Holmes, and Hannah Adams in New England, and Dr. David Ramsay in South Carolina. Holmes' Holmes' "American Annals, or Chronological History of America from its Discovery in MCCCCXCII to MDCCCVI," packs a large amount of well digested and conveniently arranged information within two trim volumes. Annals," perhaps the driest form of composition, Dr. Holmes actually made interesting. Hannah Hannah Adams, who wrote as many 1755-1831. religious books as if she were an orthodox Congregational minister of the day, prepared a "History of New England," which, in its way, though not an original authority, was as useful as Dr. Holmes' more ambitious work; its place in the development of woman's intellectual opportunities is obvious. Ramsay's historical labors were more extended than those of the New 1749-1815. England writers just mentioned. Born in Pennsylvania, his life was spent in South Carolina; he was twice a Congressman; and his long literary career marked the modest development of general literature in the South. By tastes and habits he closely resembled the professional au Adams, David Ramsay, thors of older and richer communities, or of later days in America. He was a voluminous writer on medical subjects; he treated of South Carolina history somewhat as Belknap had treated of that of the most northern of the old colonies; and his "History of the Revolution in South Carolina," and "History of the American Revolution," were based upon original documents and extended personal acquaintance with leading patriots. Similarly, the "Life of Washington" embodied the recollections of one who had been a friend of the great Virginia general and statesman. Ramsay's final achievement, posthumously published, was the twelve-volume work bearing the imposing title of "Universal History Americanized; or An Historical View of the World from the Earliest Records to the Nineteenth Century; with a Particular Reference to the State of Society, Literature, Religion, and Form of Government of the United States of America." History, and even language, had to be "Americanized" in those days; Noah Webster prepared an "American Dictionary of the English Language." But the triumphant patriots, at any rate, were reading; and their authors, industrious though few, were supplying them with books which, though not important as literature, were spreading popular information. If one were writing a history of intellectual progress in New England and South Carolina, perhaps the temptation to laud unduly the labors of Belknap, Holmes, Miss Adams, and Ramsay might be too strong for resistance. But as it is, |