Chapter 11

“Que dans le cours d’un règne florissant,Rome soit toujours libre, et César tout-puissant.”

“Que dans le cours d’un règne florissant,Rome soit toujours libre, et César tout-puissant.”

“Que dans le cours d’un règne florissant,

Rome soit toujours libre, et César tout-puissant.”

Other works followed: “Essays in the Style of those of Montaigne”; and the “Journal and Memoirs,” in nine volumes, published tardily. There still remain in manuscript: “Remarks while Reading”; “Memoirs of State”; “Foreign Affairs, containing Memoirs of my Ministry”; “Thoughts since my Leaving the Ministry”; and especially, “Thoughts on the Reformation of the State.” In all these there is a communicativeness like that of Saint-Simonin his “Memoirs,” and of Rousseau in his “Confessions,” without the wonderful talent of either. The advanced ideas of the author are constantly conspicuous, making him foremost among contemporaries in discerning the questions of the future. Even of marriage he writes in the spirit of some modern reformers: “It is necessary to press the people to marriage,waiting for something better.”[325]This is an instance. His reforms embraced nothing less than the suppression of feudal privileges and of the right of primogeniture, uniformity of weights and measures, judges irremovable and salaried by the State, the dismissal of foreign troops, and the residence of the king and his ministers in the capital embellished by vast squares, pierced by broad streets, “with theBois de Boulognefor country.” This is the Paris of latter days. Add to this the suppression of cemeteries, hospitals, and slaughter-houses in the interior of Paris,—and many other things, not omitting omnibuses, and even including balloons. “Here is something,” he records, “which will be treated as folly. I am persuaded that one of the first famous discoveries to make, and reserved perhaps for our age, is to find the art of flying in the air.” And he proceeds to describe the balloon.[326]

His large nature is manifest in cosmopolitan ideas, and the inquiry if it were not well to consider one’s self “as citizen of the world” more than is the usage. Here his soul glows:—

“What a small corner Europe occupies on the round earth! How many lands remain to be inhabited! See this immense extent of three parts of the world, and of undiscovered landsat the North and South! If people went there with other views than that tiresome exclusive property, all these lands would be inhabited in two centuries. We shall not see this, but it will come.”[327]

“What a small corner Europe occupies on the round earth! How many lands remain to be inhabited! See this immense extent of three parts of the world, and of undiscovered landsat the North and South! If people went there with other views than that tiresome exclusive property, all these lands would be inhabited in two centuries. We shall not see this, but it will come.”[327]

And then, after coupling morals and well-being, he announces the true rule: “An individual who shall do well will succeed, and who shall do ill will fail:it is the same with nations.”[328]This is just and lofty. In such a spirit he cherished plans of political reconstruction in foreign nations, especially in Italy. The old Italian cry was his: “The Barbarians must be driven from Italy”; and he contemplated “a republic or eternal association of the Italian powers, as there was a German, a Dutch, an Helvetic,” and he called this “the greatest affair that had been treated in Europe for a long time.” The entry of Italy was to be closed to the Emperor; and he adds: “For ourselves what a happy privation, if we are excluded forever from the necessity of sending thither our armies to triumph, but to perish!”[329]

The intelligence that saw Italy so clearly saw France also, and her exigencies, marking out “a national senate composed equally of all the orders of the state, and which, on questions of peace and war, would hold the kings in check by the necessity of obtaining supplies”; also saw the approaching decay of Turkey, and wished to make Greece flourishing once more, to acquire possession of the holy places, to overcome the barbarians of Northern Africa by a union of Christian powers, which,“once well united in a kind of Christian Republic, according to the project of Henry the Fourth detailed by the Abbé Saint-Pierre, would have something better to do than fighting to destroy each other as they now do.”[330]Naturally this singular precocious intelligence reached across the Atlantic, and here he became one of our prophets:—

“Another great event to arrive upon the round earth is this. The English have in North America domains great, strong, rich, well regulated. There are in New England a parliament, governors, troops, white inhabitants in abundance, riches, and, what is worse, a marine.“I say that some fine morning these dominions may separate from England, rise and erect themselves into an independent republic.“What will happen then? Do people think of this? A country civilized by the arts of Europe, in a condition to communicate with it by the present perfection of its marine, and which will thus appropriate our arts in proportion to their improvement,—patience! such a country in several centuries will make great progress in population and in refinement; such a country in a short time will render itself master of America, and especially of the gold-mines.”

“Another great event to arrive upon the round earth is this. The English have in North America domains great, strong, rich, well regulated. There are in New England a parliament, governors, troops, white inhabitants in abundance, riches, and, what is worse, a marine.

“I say that some fine morning these dominions may separate from England, rise and erect themselves into an independent republic.

“What will happen then? Do people think of this? A country civilized by the arts of Europe, in a condition to communicate with it by the present perfection of its marine, and which will thus appropriate our arts in proportion to their improvement,—patience! such a country in several centuries will make great progress in population and in refinement; such a country in a short time will render itself master of America, and especially of the gold-mines.”

Then, dwelling on the extension of commercial freedom and the improvement of the means of communication, he exclaims, with lyrical outburst:—

“And you will then see how beautiful the earth will be! what culture! what new arts and new sciences! what safety for commerce! Navigation will precipitate all nations towards each other. A day will come when one will go aboutin a populous and orderly city of California as one goes in the stage-coach of Meaux.”[331]

“And you will then see how beautiful the earth will be! what culture! what new arts and new sciences! what safety for commerce! Navigation will precipitate all nations towards each other. A day will come when one will go aboutin a populous and orderly city of California as one goes in the stage-coach of Meaux.”[331]

The published works of D’Argenson do not enable us to fix the precise date of these remarkable words. They are from the “Thoughts on the Reformation of the State,” and the first three paragraphs appear to have been written as early at least as 1733, while his intimacy with the Abbé Saint-Pierre was at its height; the fourth somewhat later;[332]but all preceding Turgot and John Adams. Each, however, spoke from his own soul, and without prompting.

Among the illustrious names of France few equal that of Turgot. He was a philosopher among ministers, and a minister among philosophers. Malesherbes said of him, that he had the heart of L’Hôpital and the head of Bacon. Such a person in public affairs was an epoch for his country and for the human race. Had his spirit prevailed, the bloody drama of the French Revolution would not have occurred, or it would at least have been postponed: I think it could not have occurred. He was a good man, who sought to carry into government the rules of goodness. His career from beginning to end was one continuous beneficence. Such a nature was essentially prophetic, for he discerned the natural laws by which the future is governed.

He was of an ancient Norman family, whose name suggests the god Thor. He was born at Paris, 1727, anddied, 1781. Being a younger son, he was destined for the Church, and began his studies as an ecclesiastic at the ancient Sorbonne. Before registering an irrevocable vow, he announced his repugnance to the profession, and turned aside to other pursuits. Law, literature, science, humanity, government, now engaged his attention. He associated himself with the authors of the “Encyclopédie,” and became one of its contributors. In other writings he vindicated especially the virtue of Toleration. Not merely a theorist, he soon arrived at the high post of Intendant of Limoges, where he developed talent for administration and sympathy with the people. The potato came into Limousin through him. But he continued to employ his pen, particularly on questions of political economy, which he treated as a master. On the accession of Louis the Sixteenth he was called to the Cabinet as Minister of the Marine, and shortly afterwards gave up this place to be the head of the Finances. Here he began a system of rigid economy, founded on curtailment of expenses and enlargement of resources. The latter was obtained especially by removal of disabilities from trade, whether at home or abroad, and the substitution of a single tax on land for a complex multiplicity of taxes. The enemies of progress were too strong at that time, and the King dismissed the reformer. Good men in France became anxious for the future; Voltaire, in his distant retreat, gave a shriek of despair, and addressed to Turgot remarkable verses entitled “Épître à un Homme.” Worse still, the good edicts of the minister were rescinded, and society was put back.

The discarded minister gave himself to science, literature, and friendship. He welcomed Franklin toFrance and to immortality in a Latin verse of marvellous felicity. He was already the companion of the liberal spirits who were doing so much for knowledge and for reform. By writing and by conversation he exercised a constant influence. His “ideas” seem to illumine the time. We may be content to follow him in saying, “The glory of arms cannot compare with the happiness of living in peace.”[333]He anticipated our definition of a republic, when he said “it was founded uponthe equality of all the citizens,”[334]—good words, not yet practically verified in all our States. Such a government he, living under a monarchy, bravely pronounced “the best of all”; but he added, that he “never had known a constitution truly republican.”[335]With similar plainness he announced that “the destruction of the Ottoman Empire would be a real good for all the nations of Europe,” and he added, still further, for humanity also, because it would involve the abolition of negro slavery, and because “to despoil an oppressor is not to attack, but to vindicate, the common rights of humanity.”[336]With such thoughts and aspirations the prophet died.

But I have no purpose of writing a biography, or even a character. All that I intend is an introduction to Turgot’s prophetic words. When only twenty-three years of age, while still an ecclesiastic at the Sorbonne, the future minister delivered a discourse on the Progress of the Human Mind, in which, after describingthe commercial triumphs of the ancient Phœnicians, covering the coasts of Greece and Asia with their colonies, he lets drop these remarkable words:—

“Les colonies sont comme des fruits qui ne tiennent à l’arbre que jusqu’à leur maturité: devenues suffisantes à elles-mêmes, elles firent ce que fit depuis Carthage,—ce que fera un jour l’Amérique.”“Colonies are like fruits, which hold to the tree only until their maturity: when sufficient for themselves, they did that which Carthage afterwards did,—that which some day America will do.”[337]

“Les colonies sont comme des fruits qui ne tiennent à l’arbre que jusqu’à leur maturité: devenues suffisantes à elles-mêmes, elles firent ce que fit depuis Carthage,—ce que fera un jour l’Amérique.”

“Colonies are like fruits, which hold to the tree only until their maturity: when sufficient for themselves, they did that which Carthage afterwards did,—that which some day America will do.”[337]

On this most suggestive declaration, Dupont de Nemours, the editor of Turgot’s works in 1808, remarks in a note:—

“It was in 1750 that M. Turgot, being then only twenty-three years old, and devoted in a seminary to the study of theology, divined, foresaw, the revolution which has formed the United States,—which has detached them from the European power apparently the most capable of retaining its colonies under its dominion.”

“It was in 1750 that M. Turgot, being then only twenty-three years old, and devoted in a seminary to the study of theology, divined, foresaw, the revolution which has formed the United States,—which has detached them from the European power apparently the most capable of retaining its colonies under its dominion.”

At the time Turgot wrote, Canada was a French possession; but his words are as applicable to this colony as to the United States. When will the fruit be ripe?

In contrast with this precise prediction, and yet in harmony with it, are the words of Montesquieu, in his ingenious work, which saw the light in 1748, two years before the discourse of Turgot. In the famous chapter, “How the laws contribute to form the manners, customs, and character of a nation,” we have a much-admiredpicture of “a free nation” “inhabiting an island,” where, without naming England, it is easy to recognize her greatness and glory. And here we meet a Delphic passage, also without a name, pointing to the British Colonies:—

“If this nation sent out colonies, it would do so more to extend its commerce than its dominion.“As people like to establish elsewhere what is found established at home, it would give to the people of its colonies its own form of government; and this government carrying with it prosperity,we should see great peoples formed in the very forests which it should send to inhabit.”[338]

“If this nation sent out colonies, it would do so more to extend its commerce than its dominion.

“As people like to establish elsewhere what is found established at home, it would give to the people of its colonies its own form of government; and this government carrying with it prosperity,we should see great peoples formed in the very forests which it should send to inhabit.”[338]

The future greatness of the Colonies is insinuated rather than foretold, and here the prophetic voice is silent. Nothing is said of the impending separation, and the beginning of a new nation; so that, plainly, Montesquieu saw our future less than Turgot.

The youthful prophet did not lose his penetrating vision with years. In the same spirit and with immense vigor he wrote to the English philosopher, Josiah Tucker, September 12, 1770:—

“As a citizen of the world, I see with joy the approach of an event which, more than all the books of the philosophers, will dissipate the phantom of commercial jealousy.I speak of the separation of your colonies from the mother country,which will soon be followed by that of all America from Europe. It is then that the discovery of this part of the world will become truly useful to us. It is then that it will multiply our enjoyments much more abundantly than when we purchased them with torrents of blood. The English, the French, the Spaniards, etc., will use sugar, coffee,indigo, and will sell their products, precisely as the Swiss do to-day; and they will also, like the Swiss people, have the advantage, that this sugar, this coffee, this indigo will no longer serve as a pretext for intriguers to precipitate their nation into ruinous wars and to oppress them with taxes.”[339]

“As a citizen of the world, I see with joy the approach of an event which, more than all the books of the philosophers, will dissipate the phantom of commercial jealousy.I speak of the separation of your colonies from the mother country,which will soon be followed by that of all America from Europe. It is then that the discovery of this part of the world will become truly useful to us. It is then that it will multiply our enjoyments much more abundantly than when we purchased them with torrents of blood. The English, the French, the Spaniards, etc., will use sugar, coffee,indigo, and will sell their products, precisely as the Swiss do to-day; and they will also, like the Swiss people, have the advantage, that this sugar, this coffee, this indigo will no longer serve as a pretext for intriguers to precipitate their nation into ruinous wars and to oppress them with taxes.”[339]

It is impossible not to feel in this passage the sure grasp of our American destiny. How clearly and courageously he announces the inevitable future! But the French philosopher-statesman again took the tripod.

This was in the discharge of his duties as minister of the Crown, and in reply to a special application. His noble opinion is dated 6th April, 1776. Its character appears in a few sentences:—

“The present war will probably end in the absolute independence of the Colonies, and that event will certainly bethe epoch of the greatest revolution in the commerce and politics, not of England only, but of all Europe.… When the English themselves shall recognize the independence of their colonies,every mother country will be forcedin like manner to exchange its dominion over its colonies for bonds of friendship and fraternity.… Whenthe total separation of Americashall have cured the European nations of commercial jealousy, there will exist among men one great cause of war the less; and it is very difficult not to desire an event which is to accomplish this good for the human race.”[340]

“The present war will probably end in the absolute independence of the Colonies, and that event will certainly bethe epoch of the greatest revolution in the commerce and politics, not of England only, but of all Europe.… When the English themselves shall recognize the independence of their colonies,every mother country will be forcedin like manner to exchange its dominion over its colonies for bonds of friendship and fraternity.… Whenthe total separation of Americashall have cured the European nations of commercial jealousy, there will exist among men one great cause of war the less; and it is very difficult not to desire an event which is to accomplish this good for the human race.”[340]

His letter to the English Dr. Price, on the American Constitutions, abounds in profound observations and in prophecy. It was written just at the time when France openly joined against England in our War of Independence, and is dated March 22, 1778, but did not see thelight until 1784, some years after the death of the author, when it was published by Dr. Price.[341]Its criticism of the American Constitutions aroused John Adams to his elaborate work in their “Defence.”[342]

Of our Union before the adoption of the National Constitution he writes:—

“In the general union of the provinces among themselves I do not see a coalition, a fusion of all the parts, making but one body, one and homogeneous. It is only an aggregation of parts always too much separated, and preserving always a tendency to division, by the diversity of their laws, their manners, their opinions,—by the inequality of their actual forces,—still more by the inequality of their ulterior progress. It is only a copy of the Dutch Republic: but this Republic had not to fear, as the American Republic has, the possible enlargement of some of its provinces. This whole edifice has been supported hitherto on the false basis of the very ancient and very vulgar policy: on the prejudice that nations and provinces, as bodies, can have interests other than that which individuals have to be free and to defend their property against brigands and conquerors; a pretended interest to carry on more commerce than others,—not to buy the merchandise of the foreigner, but to force the foreigner to consume their productions and their manufactures; a pretended interest to have a vaster territory, to acquire such or such a province, such or such an island, such or such a village; an interest to inspire fear in other nations; an interest to surpass them in the glory of arms, and in that of arts and sciences.”[343]

“In the general union of the provinces among themselves I do not see a coalition, a fusion of all the parts, making but one body, one and homogeneous. It is only an aggregation of parts always too much separated, and preserving always a tendency to division, by the diversity of their laws, their manners, their opinions,—by the inequality of their actual forces,—still more by the inequality of their ulterior progress. It is only a copy of the Dutch Republic: but this Republic had not to fear, as the American Republic has, the possible enlargement of some of its provinces. This whole edifice has been supported hitherto on the false basis of the very ancient and very vulgar policy: on the prejudice that nations and provinces, as bodies, can have interests other than that which individuals have to be free and to defend their property against brigands and conquerors; a pretended interest to carry on more commerce than others,—not to buy the merchandise of the foreigner, but to force the foreigner to consume their productions and their manufactures; a pretended interest to have a vaster territory, to acquire such or such a province, such or such an island, such or such a village; an interest to inspire fear in other nations; an interest to surpass them in the glory of arms, and in that of arts and sciences.”[343]

Among the evils to be overcome are, in the SouthernColonies, too great an inequality of fortunes, and especially the large number of black slaves, whose slavery is incompatible with a good political constitution, and who, even when restored to liberty, will cause embarrassment by forming two nations in the same State. In all the Colonies he deprecates prejudice, attachment to established forms, a habit of certain taxes, fear of those which it might be necessary to substitute, the vanity of the Colonies who deem themselves most powerful, and the wretched beginning of national pride. Happily he adds: “I think the Americans destined to aggrandizement, not by war, but by husbandry.”[344]And he then proceeds to his aspirations:—

“It is impossible not to desire earnestly that this people may attain to all the prosperity of which they are capable. They are the hope of the human race. They can become its model. They are to prove to the world, by the fact, that men can be free and tranquil, and can dispense with the chains of all kinds which the tyrants and charlatans of every cloth have pretended to impose under the pretext of the public good. They are to give the example of political liberty, of religious liberty, of commercial and industrial liberty. The asylum which they open to all the oppressed of all nations is to console the earth. The facility thereby afforded for escape from a bad government will force the European governments to be just and enlightened. The rest of the world, little by little, will open their eyes to the nothingness of the illusions in which politicians have indulged. To this end it is necessary that America should guard against them, and should not again become, as your ministerial writers have so often repeated, an image of our Europe,a mass of divided powers, disputing about territory or commercial profits,and continually cementing the slavery of the peoples with their own blood.”[345]

“It is impossible not to desire earnestly that this people may attain to all the prosperity of which they are capable. They are the hope of the human race. They can become its model. They are to prove to the world, by the fact, that men can be free and tranquil, and can dispense with the chains of all kinds which the tyrants and charlatans of every cloth have pretended to impose under the pretext of the public good. They are to give the example of political liberty, of religious liberty, of commercial and industrial liberty. The asylum which they open to all the oppressed of all nations is to console the earth. The facility thereby afforded for escape from a bad government will force the European governments to be just and enlightened. The rest of the world, little by little, will open their eyes to the nothingness of the illusions in which politicians have indulged. To this end it is necessary that America should guard against them, and should not again become, as your ministerial writers have so often repeated, an image of our Europe,a mass of divided powers, disputing about territory or commercial profits,and continually cementing the slavery of the peoples with their own blood.”[345]

After these admirable thoughts, so full of wisdom and prophecy, Turgot alludes to the impending war between France and England:—

“Our two nations are going to do each other reciprocally much evil, probably without either of them obtaining any real advantage. The increase of debts and charges and the ruin of a great many citizens will be, perhaps, the only result. England seems to me even nearer to this than France. If instead of this war you had been able to yield with good grace from the first moment,—if it had been given to policy to do in advance what infallibly it will be forced to do later,—if national opinion could have permitted your Government to anticipate events,—and, supposing that it had foreseen them, it had been able to consent at once to the independence of America without making war on anybody,—I firmly believe that your nation would have lost nothing by this change. It will lose now what it has already expended, and what it shall yet expend. It will experience for some time a great falling off in its commerce, great domestic disturbances, if it is forced to bankruptcy, and, whatever may happen, a great diminution of political influence abroad. But this last matter is of very small importance to the real welfare of a people; and I am not at all of the opinion of the Abbé Raynal in your motto.[346]I do not believe that this will make you a contemptible nation, and throw you into slavery. On the contrary, your troubles will perhaps have the effect of anecessary amputation; they are perhaps the only means of saving you from the gangrene of luxury and corruption. If in your agitations you could correct your Constitution by rendering the elections annual, by apportioning the right of representation in a manner more equal and more proportioned to the interests of those represented, you would gain from this revolution as much, perhaps, as America; for your liberty would remain to you, and with this and by this your other losses would be very speedily repaired.”[347]

“Our two nations are going to do each other reciprocally much evil, probably without either of them obtaining any real advantage. The increase of debts and charges and the ruin of a great many citizens will be, perhaps, the only result. England seems to me even nearer to this than France. If instead of this war you had been able to yield with good grace from the first moment,—if it had been given to policy to do in advance what infallibly it will be forced to do later,—if national opinion could have permitted your Government to anticipate events,—and, supposing that it had foreseen them, it had been able to consent at once to the independence of America without making war on anybody,—I firmly believe that your nation would have lost nothing by this change. It will lose now what it has already expended, and what it shall yet expend. It will experience for some time a great falling off in its commerce, great domestic disturbances, if it is forced to bankruptcy, and, whatever may happen, a great diminution of political influence abroad. But this last matter is of very small importance to the real welfare of a people; and I am not at all of the opinion of the Abbé Raynal in your motto.[346]I do not believe that this will make you a contemptible nation, and throw you into slavery. On the contrary, your troubles will perhaps have the effect of anecessary amputation; they are perhaps the only means of saving you from the gangrene of luxury and corruption. If in your agitations you could correct your Constitution by rendering the elections annual, by apportioning the right of representation in a manner more equal and more proportioned to the interests of those represented, you would gain from this revolution as much, perhaps, as America; for your liberty would remain to you, and with this and by this your other losses would be very speedily repaired.”[347]

Reading such words, the heart throbs and the pulse beats. Government inspired by such a spirit would become divine, nations would live at peace together, and people everywhere be happy.

Most unlike Turgot in character, but with something of the same spirit of prophecy, and associated in time, was Horace Walpole, youngest son of England’s remarkable Prime Minister, Sir Robert Walpole. With the former, life was serious always, and human improvement the perpetual passion; with the latter, there was a constant desire for amusement, and the world was little more than a curious gimcrack.

Horace Walpole was born 5th October, 1717, and died 2d March, 1797, being at his death Earl of Orford. According to his birth he was a man of fashion; for a time a member of Parliament; a man of letters always. To his various talents he added an aggregation of miscellaneous tastes, of which his house at Strawberry Hill was an illustration,—being an elegant“Old Curiosity Shop,” with pictures, books, manuscripts, prints, armor, china, historic relics, and art in all its forms, which he had collected at no small outlay of time and money. Though aristocratic in life, he boasted that his principles were not monarchical. On the two sides of his bed were hung engravings of Magna Charta and the Sentence of Charles the First, the latter with the inscription “MajorCharta.” Sleeping between two such memorials, he might be suspected of sympathy with America, although the aristocrat was never absent. His Memoirs, Journals, Anecdotes of Painting in England, and other works, are less famous than his multifarious correspondence, which is the best in English literature, and, according to French judgment, nearer than any other in our language to that of Madame de Sévigné, whom he never wearied in praising. It is free, easy, gossipy, historic, and spicy.

But I deal with him now only as a prophet. And I begin with his “Memoires of the last Ten Years of the Reign of George the Second,” where we find the record that the Colonists were seeking independence. This occurs in his description of the Duke of Newcastle as Secretary of State for the Colonies, during the long Walpole administration. Illustrating what he calls the Duke’s “mercurial inattention,” he says: “It would not be credited what reams of papers, representations, memorials, petitions from that quarter of the world [the Colonies], lay mouldering and unopened in his office”; and then, showing the Duke’s ignorance, he narrates how, when it was hinted that there should be some defence for Annapolis, he replied, with evasive, lisping hurry: “Annapolis, Annapolis! Oh, yes, Annapolis must be defended,—to be sure, Annapolisshould be defended;—where is Annapolis?” But this negligence did not prevent him from exalting the prerogative of the Crown; and here the author says:—

“The instructions to Sir Danvers Osborn, a new governor of New York, seemed better calculated for the latitude of Mexico and for a Spanish tribunal than for a free, rich British settlement, and in such opulence and of such haughtiness thatsuspicions had long been conceived of their meditating to throw off their dependence on their mother country.”[348]

“The instructions to Sir Danvers Osborn, a new governor of New York, seemed better calculated for the latitude of Mexico and for a Spanish tribunal than for a free, rich British settlement, and in such opulence and of such haughtiness thatsuspicions had long been conceived of their meditating to throw off their dependence on their mother country.”[348]

This stands in the “Memoires” under the date of 1754, and the editor in a note observes, “If, as the author asserts, this was written at the time, it is a very remarkable passage.” By direction of the author the book was “to be kept unopened and unsealed” until a certain person named should attain the age of twenty-five years. It was published in 1822. Perhaps the honesty of this entry will be better appreciated, when it is noted, that, only a few pages later, Washington, whom the author afterwards admired, is spoken of as “this brave braggart” who “learned to blush for his rodomontade.”[349]

As the difficulties with the Colonies increased, he became more sympathetic and prophetic. In a letter to Sir Horace Mann, 2d February, 1774, he wrote:—

“We have no news, public or private; but there is an ostrich-egg laid in America, where the Bostonians have canted three hundred chests of tea into the ocean; for they will not drink tea with our Parliament.… Lord Chatham talked of conquering America in Germany.I believe Englandwill be conquered some day or other in New England or Bengal.”[350]

“We have no news, public or private; but there is an ostrich-egg laid in America, where the Bostonians have canted three hundred chests of tea into the ocean; for they will not drink tea with our Parliament.… Lord Chatham talked of conquering America in Germany.I believe Englandwill be conquered some day or other in New England or Bengal.”[350]

In May, 1774, his sympathies again appear:—

“Nothing was more shocking than the King’s laughing and saying at his levee thathe had as lief fight the Bostonians as the French. It was only to be paralleled by James the Second sporting on Jeffreys’s ‘campaign in the West.’”[351]

“Nothing was more shocking than the King’s laughing and saying at his levee thathe had as lief fight the Bostonians as the French. It was only to be paralleled by James the Second sporting on Jeffreys’s ‘campaign in the West.’”[351]

And under date of 28th May, 1775, we have his record of the encounter at Lexington, with the reflection:—

“Thus was the civil war begun, and a victory the first fruits of it on the side of the Americans, whom Lord Sandwich had had the folly and rashness to proclaim cowards.”[352]

“Thus was the civil war begun, and a victory the first fruits of it on the side of the Americans, whom Lord Sandwich had had the folly and rashness to proclaim cowards.”[352]

His letters to the Countess of Ossory, written during the war, show his irrepressible sentiments. Thus, under date of 9th November, 1775:—

“I think this country undone almost beyond redemption. Victory in any war but a civil one fascinates mankind with a vision of glory. What should we gain by triumph itself? Would America laid waste, deluged with blood, plundered, enslaved, replace America flourishing, rich, and free? Do we want to reign over it, as the Spaniards over Peru, depopulated? Are desolate regions preferable to commercial cities?”[353]

“I think this country undone almost beyond redemption. Victory in any war but a civil one fascinates mankind with a vision of glory. What should we gain by triumph itself? Would America laid waste, deluged with blood, plundered, enslaved, replace America flourishing, rich, and free? Do we want to reign over it, as the Spaniards over Peru, depopulated? Are desolate regions preferable to commercial cities?”[353]

Then under date of 6th July, 1777:—

“My humble opinion is, that we shall never recover America, and that France will take care that we shall never recover ourselves.”[354]

“My humble opinion is, that we shall never recover America, and that France will take care that we shall never recover ourselves.”[354]

“Friday night, late,” 5th December, 1777, he breaks forth:—

“Send for Lord Chatham! They had better send for General Washington, Madam,—or at least for our troops back.… No, Madam, we do not want ministers that would protract our difficulties. I look on them but as beginning now, and am far from thinking that there is any man or set of men able enough to extricate us.I own there are very able Englishmen left, but they happen to be on t’other side of the Atlantic.If his Majesty hopes to find them here, I doubt he will be mistaken.”[355]

“Send for Lord Chatham! They had better send for General Washington, Madam,—or at least for our troops back.… No, Madam, we do not want ministers that would protract our difficulties. I look on them but as beginning now, and am far from thinking that there is any man or set of men able enough to extricate us.I own there are very able Englishmen left, but they happen to be on t’other side of the Atlantic.If his Majesty hopes to find them here, I doubt he will be mistaken.”[355]

“Thursday night,” 11th December, 1777, his feelings overflow in no common language:—

“Was ever proud, insolent nation sunk so low? Burke and Charles Fox told him [Lord North] the Administration thought of nothing but keeping their places; and so they will, and the members their pensions, and the nation its infamy. Were I Franklin, I would order the Cabinet Council to come to me at Paris with ropes about their necks, and then kick them back to St. James’s.“Well, Madam, as I told Lord Ossory t’other day, I am satisfied:Old England is safe,—that is, America, whither the true English retired under Charles the First: this is Nova Scotia, and I care not what becomes of it.… Adieu, Madam! I am at last not sorry you have no son; and your daughters, I hope, will be married to Americans, and not in this dirty, despicable island.”[356]

“Was ever proud, insolent nation sunk so low? Burke and Charles Fox told him [Lord North] the Administration thought of nothing but keeping their places; and so they will, and the members their pensions, and the nation its infamy. Were I Franklin, I would order the Cabinet Council to come to me at Paris with ropes about their necks, and then kick them back to St. James’s.

“Well, Madam, as I told Lord Ossory t’other day, I am satisfied:Old England is safe,—that is, America, whither the true English retired under Charles the First: this is Nova Scotia, and I care not what becomes of it.… Adieu, Madam! I am at last not sorry you have no son; and your daughters, I hope, will be married to Americans, and not in this dirty, despicable island.”[356]

All this is elevated by his letter of 17th February, 1779, where he says:—

“Liberty has still a continent to exist in. I do not care a straw who is Minister in this abandoned country. It isthe good old cause of Freedomthat I have at heart.”[357]

“Liberty has still a continent to exist in. I do not care a straw who is Minister in this abandoned country. It isthe good old cause of Freedomthat I have at heart.”[357]

Thus with constancy, where original principle was doubtless quickened by party animosity, did Horace Walpole maintain the American cause and predict a new home for Liberty.

Next in time among the prophets was John Adams, who has left on record at different dates predictions showing a second-sight of no common order. Of his life I need say nothing, except that he was born 19th October, 1735, and died 4th July, 1826. I mention the predictions in the order of utterance.

1. While teaching a school at Worcester, and when under twenty years of age, he wrote a letter to one of his youthful companions, bearing date 12th October, 1755, which is a marvel of foresight. Fifty-two years afterwards, when already much of its prophecy had been fulfilled, the original was returned to its author by the son of his early comrade and correspondent, Nathan Webb, who was at the time dead. After remarking gravely on the rise and fall of nations, with illustrations from Carthage and Rome, he proceeds:—

“England began to increase in power and magnificence, and is now the greatest nation upon the globe. Soon afterthe Reformation, a few people came over into this New World for conscience’ sake. Perhaps this apparently trivial incidentmay transfer the great seat of empire into America.It looks likely to me: for, if we can remove the turbulent Gallics, our people, according to the exactest computations, will in another century become more numerous than England itself. Should this be the case, since we have, I may say, all the naval stores of the nations in our hands, it will be easy to obtain the mastery of the seas; and then the united force of all Europe will not be able to subdue us. The only way to keep us from setting up for ourselves is to disunite us.Divide et impera.Keep us in distinct colonies, and then some great men in each colony desiring the monarchy of the whole, they will destroy each other’s influence, and keep the countryin equilibrio.[358]

“England began to increase in power and magnificence, and is now the greatest nation upon the globe. Soon afterthe Reformation, a few people came over into this New World for conscience’ sake. Perhaps this apparently trivial incidentmay transfer the great seat of empire into America.It looks likely to me: for, if we can remove the turbulent Gallics, our people, according to the exactest computations, will in another century become more numerous than England itself. Should this be the case, since we have, I may say, all the naval stores of the nations in our hands, it will be easy to obtain the mastery of the seas; and then the united force of all Europe will not be able to subdue us. The only way to keep us from setting up for ourselves is to disunite us.Divide et impera.Keep us in distinct colonies, and then some great men in each colony desiring the monarchy of the whole, they will destroy each other’s influence, and keep the countryin equilibrio.[358]

On this his son, John Quincy Adams, famous for important service and high office, remarks:—

“Had the political part of it been written by the minister of state of a European monarchy, at the close of a long life spent in the government of nations, it would have been pronounced worthy of the united penetration and experience of a Burleigh, a Sully, or an Oxenstiern.…In one bold outline he has exhibited by anticipation a long succession of prophetic history, the fulfilment of which is barely yet in progress, responding exactly hitherto to his foresight, but the full accomplishment of which is reserved for the development of after ages. The extinction of the power of France in America, the union of the British North American Colonies, the achievement of their independence, and the establishment of their ascendency in the community of civilized nations by the means of their naval power, are all foreshadowed in this letter, with a clearness of perception and a distinctness ofdelineation which time has hitherto done little more than to convert into historical fact.”[359]

“Had the political part of it been written by the minister of state of a European monarchy, at the close of a long life spent in the government of nations, it would have been pronounced worthy of the united penetration and experience of a Burleigh, a Sully, or an Oxenstiern.…In one bold outline he has exhibited by anticipation a long succession of prophetic history, the fulfilment of which is barely yet in progress, responding exactly hitherto to his foresight, but the full accomplishment of which is reserved for the development of after ages. The extinction of the power of France in America, the union of the British North American Colonies, the achievement of their independence, and the establishment of their ascendency in the community of civilized nations by the means of their naval power, are all foreshadowed in this letter, with a clearness of perception and a distinctness ofdelineation which time has hitherto done little more than to convert into historical fact.”[359]

2. Another beautiful instance followed ten years later. In the beginning of 1765, Jeremy Gridley, the eminent lawyer of Colonial days, formed a law club, or Sodality, at Boston, for the mutual improvement of its members. Here John Adams produced the original sketch of his “Dissertation on the Canon and Feudal Law,” which appeared in the “Boston Gazette” of August, 1765, was immediately and repeatedly reprinted in London, and afterwards in Philadelphia.[360]The sketch began:—

“This Sodality has given rise to the following speculation of my own, which I commit to writing as hints for future inquiries rather than as a satisfactory theory.”[361]

“This Sodality has given rise to the following speculation of my own, which I commit to writing as hints for future inquiries rather than as a satisfactory theory.”[361]

In this Dissertation, the writer dwells especially upon the settlers of British America, of whom he says:—

“After their arrival here, they began their settlement, and formed their plan, both of ecclesiastical and civil government, in direct opposition to the canon and the feudal systems.”[362]

“After their arrival here, they began their settlement, and formed their plan, both of ecclesiastical and civil government, in direct opposition to the canon and the feudal systems.”[362]

This excellent statement was followed, in the original sketch communicated to the Sodality, by this passage, which does not appear in the printed Dissertation:—

“I always consider the settlement of America with reverence and wonder, as the opening of a grand scene and design in Providence for the illumination of the ignorant and the emancipation of the slavish part of mankind all over the earth.”[363]

“I always consider the settlement of America with reverence and wonder, as the opening of a grand scene and design in Providence for the illumination of the ignorant and the emancipation of the slavish part of mankind all over the earth.”[363]

On these prophetic words, his son, John Quincy Adams, remarks:—

“This sentence was perhaps omitted from an impression that it might be thought to savor not merely of enthusiasm, but of extravagance. Who now would deny that this magnificent anticipation has been already to a great degree realized? Who does not now see that the accomplishment of this great object is already placed beyond all possibility of failure?”[364]

“This sentence was perhaps omitted from an impression that it might be thought to savor not merely of enthusiasm, but of extravagance. Who now would deny that this magnificent anticipation has been already to a great degree realized? Who does not now see that the accomplishment of this great object is already placed beyond all possibility of failure?”[364]

His grandson, Charles Francis Adams, alluding to the changes which took place in the original sketch, says:—

“As not infrequently happens, however, in this process, one strong passage was lost by it, which at this time must be regarded as the most deserving of any to be remembered.”[365]

“As not infrequently happens, however, in this process, one strong passage was lost by it, which at this time must be regarded as the most deserving of any to be remembered.”[365]

Thus again, at an early day, did this prophet discern the future. How true it is that the mission of this Republic is “the illumination of the ignorant,” and, still further, “the emancipation of the slavish part of mankind all over the earth”! Universal enlightenment and universal emancipation! And the first great stage was National Independence.

3. The Declaration of Independence bears date 4th July, 1776, for on that day it was signed; but the vote which determined it was on the 2d July. On the 3d July, John Adams, in a letter to his wife, wrote:—

“Yesterday the greatest question was decided which ever was debated in America; and a greater, perhaps, never was nor will be decided among men.… I am surprised at thesuddenness as well as greatness of this revolution. Britain has been filled with folly, and America with wisdom. At least this is my judgment. Time must determine.It is the will of Heaven that the two countries should be sundered forever.…The day is passed. The second day of July, 1776, will be the most memorable epocha in the history of America.I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated by succeeding generations as the great anniversary festival.It ought to be commemorated, as the day of deliverance, by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires, and illuminations, from one end of this continent to the other, from this time forward, forevermore. You will think me transported with enthusiasm, but I am not. I am well aware of the toil and blood and treasure that it will cost us to maintain this Declaration, and support and defend these States.Yet, through all the gloom, I can see the rays of ravishing light and glory. I can see that the end is more than worth all the means, and that posterity will triumph in that day’s transaction, even although we should rue it, which I trust in God we shall not.”[366]

“Yesterday the greatest question was decided which ever was debated in America; and a greater, perhaps, never was nor will be decided among men.… I am surprised at thesuddenness as well as greatness of this revolution. Britain has been filled with folly, and America with wisdom. At least this is my judgment. Time must determine.It is the will of Heaven that the two countries should be sundered forever.…The day is passed. The second day of July, 1776, will be the most memorable epocha in the history of America.I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated by succeeding generations as the great anniversary festival.It ought to be commemorated, as the day of deliverance, by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires, and illuminations, from one end of this continent to the other, from this time forward, forevermore. You will think me transported with enthusiasm, but I am not. I am well aware of the toil and blood and treasure that it will cost us to maintain this Declaration, and support and defend these States.Yet, through all the gloom, I can see the rays of ravishing light and glory. I can see that the end is more than worth all the means, and that posterity will triumph in that day’s transaction, even although we should rue it, which I trust in God we shall not.”[366]

Here is a comprehensive prophecy, first, that the two countries would be separated forever; secondly, that the anniversary of Independence would be celebrated as a great annual festival; and, thirdly, that posterity would triumph in this transaction, where, through all the gloom, shone rays of ravishing light and glory: all of which has been fulfilled to the letter. Recent events give to the Declaration additional importance. For a long time its great premises, that all men are equal, and that rightful government stands only on the consent of the governed, were disowned by our country. Now that at last they are beginning to prevail, thereis increased reason to celebrate the day on which the mighty Declaration was made, and new occasion for triumph in the rays of ravishing light and glory.

4. Here is another prophetic passage, in a letter dated at Paris, 13th July, 1780, and addressed to the Comte de Vergennes of France, pleading the cause of the Colonists:—

“The United States of America are a great and powerful people, whatever European statesmen may think of them. If we take into our estimate the numbers and the character of her people, the extent, variety, and fertility of her soil, her commerce, and her skill and materials for ship-building, and her seamen, excepting France, Spain, England, Germany, and Russia, there is not a state in Europe so powerful. Breaking off such a nation as this from the English so suddenly, and uniting it so closely with France, is one of the most extraordinary events that ever happened among mankind.”[367]

“The United States of America are a great and powerful people, whatever European statesmen may think of them. If we take into our estimate the numbers and the character of her people, the extent, variety, and fertility of her soil, her commerce, and her skill and materials for ship-building, and her seamen, excepting France, Spain, England, Germany, and Russia, there is not a state in Europe so powerful. Breaking off such a nation as this from the English so suddenly, and uniting it so closely with France, is one of the most extraordinary events that ever happened among mankind.”[367]

Perhaps this may be considered statement rather than prophecy; but it illustrates the prophetic character of the writer.

5. While at Amsterdam, in 1780, Mr. Adams met a gentleman whom he calls “the giant of the law,” Mr. Calkoen. After an unsatisfactory attempt at conversation, where neither spoke the language of the other, it was arranged that the latter should propound a series of questions in writing, which the American minister undertook to answer. The questions were in Dutch, the answers in English. Among the questions was this: “Whether America in and of itself, by means of purchasing or exchanging the productions of the severalprovinces, would be able to continue the war for six, eight, or ten years, even if they were entirely deprived of the trade with Europe, or their allies, exhausted by the war and forced to make a separate peace, were to leave them?” To this question our prophet replied:—

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