CHAPTER XV AMERICAN LITERATURE THE AMERICAN SPIRIT The United States is a very young nation. The brief period of its independent existence-less than a hundred and fifty yearsmakes it a mere infant as compared with almost all the other nations whose literature has been reviewed in this book. Those nations have certain more or less clearly defined national traits, which color their literature and give it something of an individual tone. Perhaps it is too much to expect any such thing as a distinctive national quality to be developed in so short a period of national existence. A national spirit is the gradual result of ages upon ages of history and settled habitation. In the first place, we were a transplanted people; in the second place, we have become an amazingly composite people as viewed from the standpoints of nationality and race; and in the third place, we have undergone rapid and profound changes, geographically, industrially, and socially. All these things naturally interfere with the formation of a national spirit. Many attempts have been made to define the American spirit, or idea. It has been declared to reside in our political principles, in our buoyant hopefulness, in our devotion to liberty, in our rough-and-ready coping with frontier conditions, in our restless energy and enterprise. But these qualities are not peculiar to the American people, though some of them may be present in us in a more intense degree than in other peoples. As a matter of fact, it is extremely difficult, in spite of our boasted independence, for the most careful student to find in our literature any really distinctive quality that sets it off, let us say, from English literature, as in the case of the best writings of Ireland. Of course, with respect to subject matter our literature is American in a very definite sense. But can we say that we have yet achieved a distinguishing form or spirit? Has the great American play or novel yet been written? We must be content in this chapter merely to record the most striking manifestations of our literature as it stands. A few more generations may perhaps see evolved in the United States a typically American literature. THE BEGINNINGS The Colonial period. The earliest settlers in this country had little time to devote to letters, and no idea of themselves as other than loyal Englishmen devoted to their king and to the land from which they had come. They followed the literary fashions prevailing in England. Down to the middle of the eighteenth century there is little to record. In the South virtually the only piece of writing worthy of mention is Colonel William Byrd's "History of the Dividing Line" (between Virginia and North Carolina). It is an interesting and well-written account of the wilderness and of the social life of his times among all classes. In the Middle States the name of Thomas Godfrey stands out as a versifier of some note. His "Prince of Parthia" is a creditable poetic tragedy modeled closely on the Elizabethan and Restoration plays of England. The New England writers were more prolific. Their work was very largely religious and controversial in tone, even when not so in subject matter. The journal of Bradford and Winslow and the later "History of Plymouth Plantation" by Bradford lay no claim to literary style, but present a vivid account of the trials and triumphs of the early days of Plymouth Colony, colored throughout by a profound conviction of God's guiding providence. The godly Roger Williams preached absolute religious tolerance, in tracts which make very dreary reading, but which show a spirit much in advance of his times. And the ungodly Thomas Morton, by his hilarious colony of revelers at Merrymount, scandalized the Puritans of Boston. He satirized them also in his "New English Canaan," a volume of mingled fair and unfair criticism, which exerted a corrective influence. The most popular piece of verse-writing of these early days was Wigglesworth's "Day of Doom." It presented in jingling rime a vivid account of the judgment of God upon all lost souls, including unregenerate infants, who, however, are allotted the "easiest room in hell." The verse of Anne Bradstreet is of a distinctly higher order. Among her "Contemplations" are certain short pieces which show a sincere feeling for nature and some real poetic power in expressing it. Among the many notable preachers whose sermons and related writings constituted the bulk of the literary product of the times, we may single out the two greatest, Cotton Mather and Jonathan Edwards. Mather's most important work was his "Magnalia Christi," a Church history of New England. In a learned and laborious style he recounts a great mass of events, many of them based on evident hearsay or mere superstition, and traces in them all the marvelous providence of God. Edwards was a preacher of singular purity and sweetness of nature combined with the most unyielding religious dogma. We must not forget that his sermon on "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" is to be set over against many another on the love and grace of God, presented in most appealing language. The diary of Samuel Sewall, covering the period from 1674 to 1729, is a refreshing account of the daily comings and goings of a person of importance, a fine piece of frank self-revelation and of comment on the times. Madame Knight's account of her journey from Boston to New York in 1704 is a delightful narrative of thoroughly human, good-humored reaction to the varied experiences she encountered. The Revolutionary period. From 1750 on, colonial history is filled with the stirrings of a discontent against the rule of the mother country, a discontent which gradually increased in bitterness and culminated in the separation of the colonies from England. Religious and didactic works continued to be written, but the outstanding form taken by the literature of the period was that of the political pamphlet, state paper, and oration. We are all familiar with the fact of Jefferson's authorship of the Declara tion of Independence; but we are not so fully aware that in his numerous other writings he revealed a similar largeness of political wisdom which is only at this late day beginning to be fully appreciated. The writings of Washington, including his famous Farewell Address, are couched in a stately and dignified style. The great orators of the Revolution were Patrick Henry and James Otis. The untiring Samuel Adams, in his innumerable addresses and pamphlets, performed a work quite as important as that of the orators. Another writer of invaluable service, especially during the war, was Thomas Paine. The ill-judged attacks upon his “infidelity" have become a mere echo of long ago. His two pamphlets entitled "Common Sense" and "The Crisis" won to the American cause thousands of adherents in a peculiarly discouraging period of the war. One of the most enduring products of the times is the series of political essays known as "The Federalist," the joint work of Hamilton, Madison, and John Jay. It is a very penetrating analysis of the fundamental principles of government, written in a clear and logical style, and it had much to do with securing the adoption of the Constitution. The writings of the Loyalists, a group sincerely opposed to separation from England and subjected to much persecution for their views, must not be overlooked. Most of the poetry of the period, with the single exception of that of Philip Freneau, has long since been deservedly forgotten. The best of Freneau's poetry, however, notably such fine lyrics as "The Indian Burying Ground," "The Wild Honeysuckle," and "The Catydid," has a permanent poetic value. The poetry inspired by the war was vast in amount, but Trumbull's “M'Fingal,” a spirited satire on the Tories, is almost the only noteworthy production. Deserving of special mention is the journal of John Woolman, bookkeeper, tailor, and itinerant Quaker preacher. The journal was edited many years later by Whittier, who calls it "a classic of the inner life." It is a quiet, modest, self-effacing narrative— "the sweetest and purest autobiography in the English language,” says Channing. Woolman emphasizes the inherent goodness of the human heart. His ministry was one of kindly but fearless utterance of the truth. He was uncompromising, though not bitter or rancorous, in his opposition to slavery. The notable series of "Letters from an American Farmer" by St. John Crèvecœur, a Frenchman who had settled in New Jersey, is full of Thoreau's enthusiasm for contact with the soil and, indeed, often reminds one of Thoreau in language and sentiment. Standing head and shoulders above all the other writers of the Revolutionary period,however, is Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790). We can mention only in brief review some of the varied activities of his long and eminently useful life. He was printer, writer, scientific investigator, founder of the University of Pennsylvania, colonial agent for Pennsylvania and several of the other colonies, member of the Continental Congress, minister to France during the war, and member of the Constitutional Convention. He was a BENJAMIN FRANKLIN deist in religion, and what in our day might well be called a pragmatist in philosophy, centering his attention on the socially useful aspects of life rather than on the speculations of theology and metaphysics. He was always the counselor of prudence. There is little idealism in Franklin, there is no poetry, and there are no lofty flights of imagination. He is the practical man of affairs, with a due reverence for God but with a constant insistence upon the thought that God will help only those who help themselves. |