an old black coat and cocked hat, by the name of Knickerbocker," had disappeared from his lodgings in New York city. Next from week to week came other notices, setting forth that an elderly gentleman answering the description had been seen in a north-bound Albany stage; that he owed his landlord for room rent and board; that he had left behind a curious sort of written book, and that unless he returned and paid his score the manuscript would be sold to satisfy the debt. The identity of the fictitious author having thus been established, "A History of New York, by Diedrich Knickerbocker," was given to the world in 1809. Of all the books up to that time written by Americans, this was the most original. The reality which Franklin gave to the "clean old man," Poor Richard, was surpassed by the semblance of actual existence with which Irving invested the little old gentleman in black coat and knee breeches. He became the type of a great class. What the Puritan is to New England, what the Cavalier is to Virginia, and the Quaker to Pennsylvania, Father Knickerbocker has ever since been to New York. Many a reader with Dutch blood in his veins failed to see the humor of the book. One, indeed, a scholar of no mean repute, described it as a coarse caricature." But the verdict of our countrymen has pronounced it a masterpiece of humor. That literature, not law, was Irving's calling was now more apparent than ever. But a strange mental laziness overcame him, and during ten years he did nothing worthy of his powers. For a short time he edited the Analectic Magazine,* and contributed to its pages two essays,† which now appear in "The Sketch Book," some reviews of popular writers, and short biographies of naval heroes." But it was not till stern necessity drove him to it that he went seriously to work, and put forth book after book with what for him was great rapid *This magazine was published in Philadelphia, and from 1809-'12 was known as Select Reviews and Spirit of the Foreign Magazines. In January, 1813, the name was changed to the Analectic Magazine. From 1813-'14 Irving was the editor. Traits of Indian Character, and Philip of Pokanoket. R. T. Paine, Paulding, Lord Byron, E. C. Holland. 1819-28. IRVING, MARSHALL, COOPER. 293 ity. He published "The Sketch Book" in 1819, "Bracebridge Hall" in 1821, "The Tales of a Traveller" in 1824, and began seriously to contemplate a life of Washington. From this for the time being he was diverted by a visit to Spain. Irving's purpose was merely to translate a mass of historical documents extracted from the papers of Las Casas and the journals of Columbus, edited by M. Navarrete, and in course of publication at Madrid.* But, while he pored over this mass of history in the rough, his lively imagination reproduced the age of discovery and exploration with all its characters in their habit, as they lived, made him almost the contemporary of Ferdinand and Isabella, and enabled him to write the best "Life of Columbus " now extant in any tongue. "The Life of Columbus" appeared in 1828, by which time our literature had been enriched by many noble contributions. Marshall had written his "Life of Washington," Temple Franklin had published the writings of his illustrious grandfather, Sparks was doing pioneer work in the domain of history, while the people of Great Britain and the United States were eagerly reading " The Spy," "The Pilot," "The Last of the Mohicans," and "The Pioneers." Marshall's "Life of Washington" does little credit to the great chief justice. He began it against his will, completed it with unseemly haste, and produced a biography which is one long eulogy of a man who needed none, and is too Federalistic in tone to be fair. The period covered by the last fifty years of Washington's life is full of events of the deepest historical interest. It was during these years that the English settlers, long moving steadily westward up the Atlantic slope, crossed the mountains, entered the valley of of the Mississippi, came face to face with the French at the sources of the Ohio, and brought on that final struggle for possession which ended in the triumph of Great Britain, in the expulsion of France from the continent of North America, and in the enormous expansion of the dominion of the British Crown. These new * Coleccion de los viages y descubrimientos que hicieron por mar los Españoles desde fines del siglo XV, Madrid, 1824–'37, 5 vols. acquisitions made necessary a new colonial policy, which provoked the rebellion of thirteen colonies, which had long ceased to be English and had long since become American, and led step by step to the establishment of the United States. At every part of this procession of events Washington was always a conspicuous, and often the most conspicuous, figure. Rarely does the world's history present so striking a character, dealing with such dramatic incident, surrounded by such a varied company, tried by so many vicissitudes, and dying at last with every undertaking accomplished, and leaving behind no act of which posterity need be ashamed. The opportunity was a great one; but Marshall threw it away, and, unprepared, unfitted for the task, rushed through a pile of dreary papers and wrote with such rapidity that in two years' time four octavo volumes were ready for the press. The subject, the writer, the popular interest in them, all gave expectations of a great success. Thirty thousand volumes, it was thought, would be subscribed for. But the high price, and the report spread abroad by the Republicans that the work was a Federalist history of the United States, and intended chiefly to affect the presidential election * of 1804, kept down the subscriptions to eight thousand. While Jefferson and the Republicans were accusing the biographer of Washington of being a tool of the Federalists, the newspapers were asserting that the editor of Franklin's writings was a tool of Great Britain. After the death of the doctor in 1790, his papers and manuscripts passed by will to his grandson, William Temple Franklin, who promptly announced that they should be published, and issued a call for *No one held this view more fully than Jefferson. In a letter to Joel Barlow begging him to write a history of the United States, the President said: "John Marshall is writing a life of General Washington from his papers. It is intended to come out just in time to influence the next presidential election. It is written, therefore, principally with a view to electioneering purposes. It will consequently be out in time to aid you with information, as well as to point out the perversions of truth necessary to be rectified."-Jefferson to Barlow. Works, vol. iv, p. 437. In a letter to his publisher Marshall wrote: "The Democrats may say what they please, and I have expected they would say a great deal, but this is at least not intended to be a party work, nor will any candid man have cause to make this charge." 1790-1806. THE WRITINGS OF FRANKLIN. 295 the return of such as had been scattered by the vicissitudes of war. But Temple Franklin went abroad a few months later, and for seven-and-twenty years the promise was unfulfilled. Meanwhile book-makers, reviewers, and newspaper critics, weary at the delay, abused him roundly. In those days if anything went wrong in our country and the reason was not easy to find, it was customary to ascribe the evil to the action of Great Britain. Why the promised edition of Franklin's writings was not forthcoming, though a decade and more had passed since his death, was unaccountable. It must, therefore, be due to the malignity of Great Britain, to whom Temple Franklin was now openly accused of having sold himself. The charge was first made by the National Intelligencer, a Jeffersonian newspaper published in Washington. The public, said the editor, is tired with waiting for the appearance of Dr. Franklin's works. Something is wrong. An ugly rumor is afloat that the papers of the great man never will be published. It's time for his descendants to explain. No explanation was made; whereupon the National Intelligencer returned to the charge in 1804. Silence, said the editor, had given the subject increased weight. More than eight years ago assurances were given repeatedly that an edition was to appear at the same time in Europe and America. Why has it not appeared? Some say because Mr. Temple Franklin sold his copyright to a London bookseller, who in turn sold it for a much greater sum to the British Government, in order that the papers might be suppressed.* This plain statement seems to have had some effect at home, for the next year William Duane, editor of the Aurora, and husband of the widow of Benjamin Franklin Bache, advertised for subscriptions to a three-volume edition of Franklin's works. But even this dragged on for thirteen years, when, instead of three, six volumes had been issued.† The charge of suppressing once started in this country, crossed the Atlantic, and in 1806 appeared in the preface to *The same charge appears in The (Boston) Democrat, August 22, 1804. a three-volume edition of Franklin's writings, edited by his old friend, Benjamin Vaughan, at London.* When, says Vaughan, Temple Franklin thought his manuscript ready for the press, he offered it to the London printers; but his terms were too high, the printers demurred, and nothing more has been heard of the offer. "The reason is plain. The proprietor, it seems, has found a bidder of a different description in some emissary of government, whose object is to withhold the manuscripts from the world, not to benefit it by their publication, and they either passed into other hands, or the person to whom they were bequeathed received a remuneration for suppressing them." The Edinburgh Review sifted, denied, and pronounced the accusation foolish. But it again crossed the Atlantic, and was once more set afloat by the American Citizen, a newspaper published in New York. "William Temple Franklin," said the writer, "without shame, without remorse, mean and mercenary, has sold the sacred deposit committed to his care by Dr. Franklin to the British Government. Franklin's works are lost to the world forever." Idle as the story was, it would not down, but was next taken up by a Paris journal, called the Argus, or London Review," in which it is quite likely the slander for the first time reached the eyes of Temple Franklin. He promptly branded the charge as false; the editor accepted his statement as final, the London Chronicle republished it, and through this channel the denial made its way back to the United States, where respectable journals reprinted it and respectable men went on disbelieving it till Franklin began to issue his volumes in 1817. Even then there were some who remained unconvinced, and as late as 1829 it was reiterated by the publication of Jefferson's Anas. Such delay in the case of most men would have been fatal to the success of the book. But nothing could dim the popular interest in Franklin the world over. Since his death in 1790 there had been published twenty-eight editions of such of his *The preface is dated April 7, 1806. + Edinburgh Review, July, 1806. # March 28, 1807. |