Reminiscences, 1819-1899

Julia Ward Howe

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• Publié par: soeb
• Publié le: 08 décembre 2010
• Nombre de lectures: 45
• Langue: English

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The Project Gutenberg EBook of Reminiscences, 1819-1899, by Julia Ward Howe This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org Title: Reminiscences, 1819-1899 Author: Julia Ward Howe Release Date: May 30, 2010 [EBook #32603] Language: English Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 *** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK REMINISCENCES, 1819-1899 *** Produced by Juliet Sutherland and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net Julia Ward Howe. FROM SUNSET RIDGE: Poems Old and New. 12mo, $1.50. REMINISCENCES. With many Portraits and other Illustrations. Crown 8vo, $2.50. IS POLITE SOCIETY POLITE? and other Essays. With a Portrait of Mrs. Howe. Square 8vo, $1.50. HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN & CO. BOSTON AND NEW YORK. REMINISCENCES 1819-1899 BY JULIA WARD HOWE WITH PORTRAITS AND OTHER ILLUSTRATIONS BOSTON AND NEW YORK HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY The Riverside Press, Cambridge 1899 COPYRIGHT, 1899, BY JULIA WARD HOWE ALL RIGHTS RESERVED CONTENTS CHAPTER I. BIRTH, PARENTAGE, CHILDHOOD II. LITERARY NEW YORK III. NEW YORK SOCIETY IV. HOME LIFE: M Y FATHER V. M Y STUDIES VI. SAMUEL WARD AND THE ASTORS VII. M ARRIAGE: TOUR IN EUROPE VIII. FIRST YEARS IN BOSTON IX. SECOND VISIT TO EUROPE X. A CHAPTER ABOUT M YSELF XI. ANTI-SLAVERY ATTITUDE: LITERARY WORK: TRIP TO CUBA XII. THE CHURCH OF THE DISCIPLES: IN WAR TIME XIII. THE BOSTON RADICAL CLUB: DR. F. H. HEDGE XIV. M EN AND M OVEMENTS IN THE SIXTIES XV. A WOMAN'S PEACE CRUSADE XVI. VISITS TO SANTO DOMINGO XVII. THE WOMAN SUFFRAGE M OVEMENT XVIII. CERTAIN CLUBS PAGE 1 21 29 43 56 64 81 144 188 205 218 244 281 304 327 345 372 400 XIX. ANOTHER EUROPEAN TRIP XX. FRIENDS AND WORTHIES: SOCIAL SUCCESSES 410 428 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS PAGE Julia Ward Howe From a photograph by Hardy, 1897. Frontispiece 4 8 12 46 68 138 152 158 166 176 230 246 254 262 270 Sarah Mitchell, Niece of General Francis Marion and Grandmother of Mrs. Howe From a painting by Waldo and Jewett. From a miniature by Anne Hall. From a miniature by Anne Hall. From a miniature by Anne Hall. Julia Ward and her Brothers, Samuel and Henry Julia Cutler Ward, Mother of Mrs. Howe Samuel Ward, Father of Mrs. Howe Samuel Ward, Jr From a painting by Baron Vogel. Florence Nightingale From a photograph. The South Boston Home of Mr. and Mrs. Howe From a painting in the possession of M. Anagnos. Wendell Phillips, at the Age of 48 Theodore Parker From a photograph lent by Francis J. Garrison, Boston. From a photograph by J. J. Hawes. Julia Ward Howe From a painting (1847) by Joseph Ames. Samuel Gridley Howe, M. D. James Freeman Clarke John Brown From a photograph by Black, about 1859. From a photograph by the Notman Photographic Company. From a photograph (about 1857) lent by Francis J. Garrison, Boston. John A. Andrew From a photograph by Black. Julia Ward Howe From a photograph by J. J. Hawes, about 1861. Facsimile of the First Draft of the Battle Hymn of the Republic From the original MS. in the possession of Mrs. E. P. Whipple, Boston. 276 Ralph Waldo Emerson 292 From a photograph by Black. 292 302 328 376 386 406 432 440 Frederic Henry Hedge, D. D. Samuel Gridley Howe, M. D. From a photograph lent by his daughter, Charlotte A. Hedge. From a photograph by A. Marshall (1870), in the possession of the Massachusetts Club. Lucy Stone From a photograph by the Notman Photographic Company. Maria Mitchell From a photograph. The Newport Home of Mr. and Mrs. Howe From a photograph by Briskham and Davidson. Thomas Gold Appleton From a photograph lent by Mrs. John Murray Forbes. Julia Romana Anagnos From a photograph. REMINISCENCES CHAPTER I BIRTH, PARENTAGE, CHILDHOOD I have been urgently asked to put together my reminiscences. I could wish that I had begun to do so at an earlier period of my life, because at this time of writing the lines of the past are somewhat confused in my memory. Yet, with God's help, I shall endeavor to do justice to the individuals whom I have known, and to the events of which I have had some personal knowledge. Let me say at the very beginning that I esteem this century, now near its close, to have eminently deserved a record among those which have been great landmarks in human history. It has seen the culmination of prophecies, the birth of new hopes, and a marvelous multiplication both of the ideas which promote human happiness and of the resources which enable man to make himself master of the world. Napoleon is said to have forbidden his subordinates to tell him that any order of his was impossible of fulfillment. One might think that the genius of this age must have uttered a like injunction. To attain instantaneous communication with our friends across oceans and through every continent; to command locomotion whose swiftness changes the relations of space and time; to steal from Nature her deepest secrets, and to make disease itself the minister of cure; to compel the sun to keep for us the record of scenes and faces, of the great shows and pageants of time, of the perishable forms whose charm and beauty deserve to remain in the world's possession,—these are some of the achievements of our nineteenth century. Even more wonderful than these may we esteem the moral progress of the race; the decline of political and religious enmities, the growth of good-will and mutual understanding between nations, the waning of popular superstition, the spread of civic ideas, the recognition of the mutual obligations of classes, the advancement of woman to dignity in the household and efficiency in the state. All this our century has seen and approved. To the ages following it will hand on an inestimable legacy, an imperishable record. While my heart exults at these grandeurs of which I have seen and known something, my contribution to their history can be but of fragmentary and fitful interest. On the world's great scene, each of us can only play his little part, often with poor comprehension of the mighty drama which is going on around him. If any one of us undertakes to set this down, he should do it with the utmost truth and simplicity; not as if Seneca or Tacitus or St. Paul were speaking, but as he himself, plain Hodge or Dominie or Mrs. Grundy, is moved to speak. He should not borrow from others the sentiments which he ought to have entertained, but relate truthfully how matters appeared to him, as they and he went on. Thus much I can promise to do in these pages, and no more. I was born on May 27, 1819, in the city of New York, in Marketfield Street, near the Battery. My father was of Rhode Island birth and descent. One of his grandmothers was the beautiful Catharine Ray to whom are addressed some of Benjamin Franklin's published letters. His father attained the rank of lieutenant-colonel in the war of the Revolution, being himself the son of Governor Samuel Ward, of Rhode Island,[1] married to a daughter of Governor Greene, of the same state. My mother was grandniece to General Francis Marion, of Huguenot descent, known in the Revolution as the Swamp-fox of southern campaigns. Her father was Benjamin Clarke Cutler, whose first ancestor in this country was John De Mesmekir, of Holland. SARAH MITCHELL (MRS. HOWE'S grandmother) From a painting by Waldo and Jewett. Let me here remark that an expert in chiromancy, after making a recent examination of my hand, exclaimed, "You inherit military blood; your hand shows it." My own earliest recollections are of a fine house on the Bowling Green, a region of high fashion in those days. In the summer mornings my nurse sometimes walked abroad with me, and showed me the young girls of our neighborhood, engaged with their skipping ropes. Our favorite resort was the Battery, where the flagstaff used in the Revolution was still to be seen. The fort at Castle Garden had already been converted into a pleasure resort, where fireworks and ices might be enjoyed. We were six children in all, yet Wordsworth's little maid would have reckoned us as seven, as a sister of four years had died shortly before my birth, leaving me her name and the dignity of eldest daughter. She was always mentioned in the family as the first little Julia. My two eldest brothers, Samuel and Henry Ward, were pupils at Round Hill School. The third, Francis Marion, named for the General, was my junior by fifteen months, and continued to be my constant playmate until, at the proper age, he joined the others at Round Hill School. A few words regarding my mother may not here be out of place. Married at sixteen, she died at the age of twenty-seven, so beloved and mourned by all who knew her that my early years were full of the testimony borne by surviving friends to the beauty and charm of her character. She had been a pupil at the school of Mrs. Elizabeth Graham, of saintly memory, and had inherited from her own mother a taste for intellectual pursuits. She was especially fond of poetry and a few lovely poems of hers remain to show that she was no stranger to its sacred domain. One of these was printed in a periodical of her own time, and is preserved in Griswold's "Female Poets of America." Another set of verses is addressed to me in the days of my babyhood. All of these bear the imprint of her deeply religious character. Mrs. Margaret Armstrong Astor, of whom more will be said in these annals, remembered my mother as prominent in the society of her youth, and spoke of her as beautiful in countenance. An old lady, resident in Bordentown, N. J., where Joseph, ex-king of Spain, made his home for many years, had seen my mother arrayed for a dinner at th i s royal residence, in a white dress, probably of embroidered cambric, and a lilac turban. Her early death was a lifelong misfortune to her children, who, although tenderly bred and carefully watched, have bee