PAPERS OF THE AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION VOL. II. No. I REPORT OF THE PROCEEDINGS THIRD ANNUAL MEETING WASHINGTON, D.C., APRIL 27-29, 1886 BY HERBERT B. ADAMS NEW YORK AND LONDON G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS The Knickerbocker Press Reprint Edition by Carrollton Press, Inc. Washington, D.C. Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 5-39050 Printed in U.S.A. Cooper-Trent Division of E 172 A65 2 AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. SECRETARY'S REPORT OF THE PROCEEDINGS AT THE THIRD ANNUAL WASHINGTON, D. C., APRIL 27-29, 1886. ON the 10th of September, 1884, a little company of historical specialists and their friends assembled in Saratoga to organize an American Historical Association. Forty members were then enrolled. At its third convention the Association numbered over four hundred members, including seventy-five life-members. This body of men and women is a select body. Every one has been chosen by vote of an executive council, and no one has joined by simple application or the mere payment of a membership fee to the treasurer. A careful inspection of the list of elected members will show that the character of the American Historical Association is worthy of its name. Neither local nor provincial, it is a truly national union of the best friends of history in America. It is a striking evidence of the national aims of this growing Association, that it should so early have advanced upon Washington. Two annual meetings were held at Saratoga, where, in September, 1885, among other papers, were read descriptions of those local events which there determined our national independence. On the 27th of April, 1886, barely seven months after the Saratoga convention, this active historical society re-assembled in the nation's capital, and there discussed, among other interesting topics, the capture of Washington in 1814, and some of the campaigns of our late war, in which Washington and Richmond were the strategic centres. The campaigns of modern science are often as significant to a reflecting mind as are the events of war. Perhaps the most remarkable achievements of the Washington meeting of the Historical Association were: (1) The friendly re-union of military historians, from the North and from the South; (2) the peaceful discussion of those historic campaigns before Washington and in the valley of Virginia; (3) the historical representation of the New South and of the great Northwest, as well as of the Northern States and Canada; (4) the treatment of almost every branch of our American history, from the era of the great discoveries down through the colonial, revolutionary, and national periods to the present reconstruction of historical science; (5) the meeting of the youngest historians with the very oldestwith George Bancroft, father of American history and President of the American Historical Association; (6) the mingling of representatives, both professors and students, from various historical schools-Harvard, Yale, Cornell, Brown, Wellesley, Princeton, Rutgers, Johns Hopkins, Bryn Mawr, together with many representatives of Southern and Western colleges; (7) the presence of congressmen and visitors from different parts of the Union. It was a veritable national convention, in the political centre of the United States, for the furtherance of American history and of history in America. Beyond all question, the most notable individual feature of the Washington meeting was its presiding geniusGeorge Bancroft. Chosen at Saratoga to be the President of the American Historical Association, he attracted its members to Washington, which has long been his favorite residence and historical workshop. Dwelling within easy reach of our national archives, he has drawn American his tory from its fountain-head. More than any other American, George Brancroft is the personal embodiment of the historic spirit of these United States. It was, therefore, highly appropriate that the newly formed Historical Association should make a pilgrimage to the abode of this venerable scholar, there to seek and obtain his patriarchal blessing. MORNING SESSION. TUESDAY, April 27, 1886. At the opening session on Tuesday morning, April 27, Mr. Bancroft addressed the assembled audience of two hundred and fifty persons in the large lecture-hall of the Columbian University. There were, besides members, many guests from Washington and students from Baltimore, who wished to hear the Nestor of American history upon his chosen theme: Mr. Bancroft on Self-Government: Address of Welcome to the American Historical Association. Brothers of the American Historical Association : I welcome you to this third anniversary of your existence. You, who, in our universities, instruct the coming generation in the history of their race; you, who break from duties in Church or in State, to show your love for your fellow-men by your zeal in the study of their progress; you, who for a moment throw aside the cares of the press, the toil of authorship, or the delights of study in retirement, in the name of the Association I bid joy to you all at your renewed presence with one another. The object of our pursuit is one of the grandest that solicit the attention of man. The movement of states over the scene of ever-succeeding action is like the march of so many armies with their various civilizations for their banners: they themselves have faded away; their career, their enduring contributions to the sum of human knowledge, their men of transcendent genius, such as are vouchsafed to the race at great intervals of centuries, all come within the range of our pursuits. Moreover, we are nearest of kin to the students of moral philosophy. |