1852, having enjoyed particular opportunities as his private secretary of acquaintance with the great statesman, Mr. Lanman published a volume of much anecdotical interest, Private Life of Daniel Webster (New York, Harpers). This was succeeded in 1856 by Adventures in the Wilds of America (2 vols. 8vo, Phila., J. M. Moore), a work which enjoyed the commendation of Washington Irving, and was republished in England.

In 1849, Mr. Lanman was appointed librarian of the War Department at Washington; of the copyright bureau of the State Department in 1857; of the Interior Department, in 1857, and of the House of Representatives in 1860. In 1859 he published in an octavo volume Dictionary of the United States Congress, a useful work of biography, which has been adopted by the Government as a public document.

HENRY WILSON.

This energetic and successful statesman was born in Farmington, New Hampshire, on the 16th day of February, 1812, and is most emphatically a self-made man. His parents being poor, he was early apprenticed to a neighboring farmer by the name of Knight, and his hand and heart were early brought to battle with hardship and adversity. Mr. Wilson's educational advantages were as limited as those of Abraham Lincoln; but, like him, he made amends for this in spending his evenings in poring over useful books. He most fortunately had access to the well-stored library of a sister of the late Judge Woodbury; and so well did he make use of it, that on reaching the age of one-and-twenty, he had read, and sometimes re-read, nearly a thousand volumes of English and American history, together with the then published numbers of the North American Review. On completing his minority, Mr. Wilson came to Boston, and thence to Natick, Massachusetts, where he began to work at making shoes, occupying every leisure moment, however, in storing his retentive memory with the legislative history of the country, for even then "coming events cast their shadows before." In 1838 he visited Washington, and observing there the sale of some slaves at auction, swore eternal hostility to the peculiar institution of the South. This is the whole secret of his political life, and to this every thought and word and deed of it have been most true. On returning home, Mr. Wilson attended school some time in New Hampshire, where he studied rhetoric, mental philosophy, and Euclid; but his means becoming exhausted through the failure of a friend, he returned to Natick, taught a "winter school," and then, in 1838, commenced the manufacture of shoes for the Southern market, in which business he continued for ten successive years.

In 1840 he began his political career, as a public speaker in the Harrison campaign, during which he made more than sixty addresses, most of which were of telling effect against his opponents. On his election to a seat in the Massachusetts Legislature, the same year, Mr. Wilson gave his attention at once to the rules of parliamentary practice, and to the questions before the House; and by unwearied devotion to busi

ness, soon came to stand in the front rank of the advocates of freedom and a liberal policy. Three years later, he was elected to the State Senate; and in the House, two years after, made one of the ablest speeches against slavery ever heard by that body. In 1848 he purchased the Boston Republican, which he conducted with signal ability for twenty-seven months. The next year, 1849, he was made chairman of the Freesoil State Committee, and became the acknowledged leader of that party. He was speaker of the State Senate in 1850 and 1851; he was nominated for Congress and defeated in 1852; and in the ensuing year he was sent as a delegate, by the towns of Natick and Berlin, to the State Constitutional Convention, where he made about one hundred and fifty speeches, and was absent from his seat but once--and that to attend the funeral of a friend-during the whole of the protracted session. In 1855, Mr. Wilson was elected to serve, during the unexpired term of Edward Everett, as United States Senator; and in the summer and autumn of this year, he visited thirteen of the States, addressing many large audiences on the questions then at issue. The year following, he delivered his important Kansas speech, in the Senate, but made a higher record even in his admirable reply to a challenge from Preston S. Brooks, of South Carolina. Re-elected almost unanimously to the Senate in 1859, he made, in March of that year, in answer to Mr. Hammond, his celebrated speech in defence of Northern labor, than which nothing more effective had been given on the subject since Webster's masterly reply to Colonel Hayne. But though never idle, it was not until the opening of the great drama of the rebellion that Mr. Wilson fairly began to set himself at work. He introduced the acts for the employment of five hundred thousand volunteers; for the purchase of arms and ordnance; for increasing the pay of privates, &c., &c. In view of his untiring industry and effective labor in this national crisis, Mr. Cameron said of him, in 1862: "No man, in my opinion, in the whole country, has done more to aid the War Department in preparing the mighty army now under arins." Some idea of the care and responsibility of his position may be inferred from the fact that as many as ten thousand eight hundred and ninety-one military nominations came before him for decision during the war. In addition to his senatorial duties, he enlisted two thousand three hundred men in the autumn of 1861, organized the Massachusetts Twenty-second Regiment, and, as its colonel, conducted it to Washington. But during these incessant labors, Mr. Wilson did not for a moment lose sight of the great question to which his political life had been consecrated. In 1861 he introduced the bill for the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia; in 1862, the bill for the employment of the colored soldiers; in 1864, the bill for paying them, and also that for freeing their wives and children.

In addition to a vast number of speeches, of which the most remarkable are Personalities and Aggressions of Mr. Butler (1856); Defence of the Republican Party (1856); Are WorkingSlaves? (1858); The Pacific Railroad

men

PARKE GODWIN.

[Vol. II, pp. 628, 629.)

Mr. Godwin published in 1858 a volume of Political Essays from contributions to Putnam's Magazine, to which we have already made allusion. Since the discontinuance of that periodical he has been employed in the preparation of a History of France, the first volume of which, treating of "Ancient Gaul," appeared in the spring of 1860. The author's plan contemplates, he informs us in the preface, a narrative of the principal events in French history, from the earliest recorded times to the outbreak of the great Revolution of 1789. That a work to be published at intervals may possess a certain unity in the several portions, it is to be divided into periodsnamely, Ancient Gaul, terminating with the era of Charlemagne; Feudal France, closing with St. Louis; France during the national, civil, and religious wars; France under the great ministers (Sully, Mazarin, Richelieu); the Reign of Louis XIV.; and the Eighteenth Century. In the preparation of the first portion the author has found ample materials in the publications of the Benedictines and the late eminent French historians, of which he has availed himself with tact and industry. Fortunately," he says, "the reproach addressed to America by the late Justice Story, I believe, that it contained no library in which a student might verify the notes of Gibbon, is no longer deserved. There are now many libraries here, both public and private, in which this could be done, and, chief among them, the Astor Library of New York, to which the scholarship of our country owes a debt of endless gratitude." The style of Mr. Godwin's work is eminently picturesque and animated. It is written in a philosophic spirit, with minute attention to details in the illustration of all that is important in the progress of a nation from barbarisın to civilization.

66

At present (1865) Mr. Godwin is again associated with Mr. Bryant in the editorship of the New York Evening Post.

AUGUSTUS K. GARDNER.

[Vol. II., p. 103.]

Dr. Gardner contributed, for many years, various literary articles to the newspapers and magazines of the day, including the Newark Daily Advertiser, New World, Literary World, The Knickerbocker Magazine, &c. He soon, however, became engrossed by his medical practice, and his later writings have been generally of a professional character. He has edited, with important additions, The Modern Practice of Midwifery, by Tyler Smith; has translated from the French A Practical Treatise on the Diseases of the Sexual Organs of Women, by Scanzoni, and has published several original essays on kindred subjects. In 1861, he delivered before the New York MedicoChirurgical College an obituary eulogy on his friend, Dr. John W. Francis, and in 1862, before the New York Academy of Medicine, a similar eulogy on Dr. Richard S. Kissam. He has also published several works on hygiene, including elaborate reports on Still Milk, The Meat of New York, and The Hygiene of the Sewing Machine, read before the Academy of Medicine.

He has read, before the New York Historical Society, papers on the History of the Flags that have waved over New York, and the History of the Ships and Shipbuilders of New York. The former has been published in a condensed form in Valentine's Manual for 1863; the latter the author is now preparing for the press.

HENRY THEODORE TUCKERMAN.

[Vol. II., pp. 5825–86.]

Mr. Tuckerman published, in 1857, in a crown octavo volume of nearly five hundred pages, a series of Essays, Biographical and Critical, or Studies of Character, the selection including prominent representatives of the various classes of men who have in a particular manner influenced modern society: as, "George Washington, the Patriot," "Robert Southey, the Man of Letters," ""Francis Jeffrey, the Reviewer,” “John James Audubon, the Ornithologist," and a score of others similarly characterized. This is a species of writing in which the author excels, and he has treated the various subjects with much discrimination, various illustration, and a genial, imaginative sympathy. In 1859, Mr. Putnam published, in an elegant quarto volume, Mr. Tuckerman's essay on Washington, from the work last mentioned, with the addition of an elaborate and interesting paper on "The Portraits of Washington," by the same author, accompanied by numerous valuable illustrations. This work was sold by subscription, only one hundred and fifty-six copies of it being printed. A portion of it is published as an appendix to Mr. Irving's Life of Washington.

In 1861, at an early stage of the "War for the Union," Mr. Tuckerman published a noticeable pamphlet, entitled, The Rebellion: Its Latent Causes and True Significance. In a series of letters, addressed to a friend abroad, he reviews the incidental, social, industrial, and other influences growing out of the great political evil which alienated the two portions of the country. The essay is written in a patriotic vein, with firmness and candor, and will remain, a thoughtful memorial of the times, to be consulted by the philosophical historian. Associated with this, in its national object, we may mention a publication by the author, in 1864: A Sheaf of Verse bound for the Fair, a contribution to the great fair of the Sanitary Commission, held that year in the city of New York. It includes a selection of previously uncollected poems on Italy, memorial verses on the artist Crawford, and Irving, and other occasional productions. The same year, Mr. Tuckerman published an elaborate work, entitled, America and her Commentators, with a Critical Sketch of Travel in the United States. In this well-filled octavo volume, the various travellers who have written works of importance on the country are appropriately classified according to their several nationalities and objects, their character noticed, and their leading views presented, with their observations on the rapidly changing scenes which they in turn described. The whole subject is treated in a philosophical spirit, while its pictures of society, at different periods, present a constant succession of anecdote and topics of interest. It is an eminently instructive and entertaining

parlor-table book, from which much may be learned on every page of the progress of manners at home, the history of opinion of the country in Europe, and generally of the development of American nationality.

The latest production of Mr. Tuckerman is entitled John Wakefield Francis, a Biographical Essay, prefixed to a new edition (Widdleton, New York, 1865) of Dr. Francis's "Old New York," a memoir, in fact, of the late eminent physician, with whom the author was on the most intimate personal relation. He has drawn his friend's character in its various lights with tact and acuteness, recording a variety of anecdotes, and with no little ingenuity presenting a complete picture of the man with truthfulness and candor. A few years previously, in 1856, Mr. Tuckerman wrote a similar Memorial of the Life and Character of John W. Francis, Jr., in a Letter to his Father, which was privately printed.

JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL.

[Vol. II., pp. 659–663.]

In the winter of 1854-5, Mr. Lowell delivered, in the course at the Lowell Institute, in Boston, a series of twelve lectures on the British Poets, which were received with enthusiasm by large audiences, and doubtless had their influence in the author's appointment the same season as the successor of Professor Longfellow in the chair of the modern languages and belleslettres in Harvard College. According to custom, he passed a year in Europe in study, chiefly in Germany, to qualify himself for these new duties, returning home in the summer of 1856. In 1864, Mr. Lowell published Fireside Travels, a series of papers graphic in description and of a high vein of philosophical humor, including, "Cambridge Thirty Years Ago," "A Moosehead Journal," "Leaves from my Journal in Italy and Elsewhere." A new series, from his pen, of the Biglow Papers, published in the Atlantic Monthly during the late civil war, attracted much attention, both at home and abroad, by their wit and humor, and practical philosophy applied to the topics of the day. Mr. Lowell, in 1863, in connection with Mr. Charles E. Norton, undertook the editorship of the North American Review, to which he is now a constant contributor of political and other papers. His pen is also readily to be traced in the literary criticisms.

BAYARD TAYLOR.

[Vol. II., pp. 715–717.]

Mr. Taylor's journeys in the East, previously noticed, furnished the material for several books of travel, published on his return: A Journey to Central Africa; The Lands of the Saracen, or Pictures of Palestine, Asia Minor, Sicily, and Spain; and A Visit to India, China, and Japan. These volumes were succeeded, in 1858, by Northern Travel, Summer and Winter Pictures of Sweden, Denmark, and Lapland, a narrative of a journey in the countries named, performed in the winter of 1856-7. Mr. Taylor has also published Travels in Greece and Russia, with an Excursion to Crete. The success of these works was immediate. The writer's talent at description, the ease and cultivation of his style, his

manly views, and a certain disposition to be pleased, which rendered him an unprejudiced observer of what he saw, received the favor of the public, and edition after edition was called for of the works we have enumerated. As a consequence of his popularity in this department of writing, Mr. Taylor was, in 1856, called upon to edit a Cyclopædia of Modern Travel, an octavo volume, published in Cincinnati, and which has had a wide circulation. In 1862, Mr. Taylor was appointed Secretary of Legation to Russia, while Mr. Cameron was Minister in that country. On his retirement from the office, the ensuing year, he published Hannah Thurston, a Story of American Life, which was succeeded, in 1865, by John Godfrey's Fortunes, related by Himself. These works are original in their material and treatment; the characters and incidents are drawn from the writer's observation and experience; they exhibit town and country life in America, with the opinions and ideas of the day, and are pervaded by a healthy natural sentiment. Mr. Taylor has also published several new volumes of poetry: Poems of the Orient; Poems of Home and Travel; and The Poet's Journal (1863). A general collection of his Poetical Works has recently been published by Messrs. Ticknor & Fields.

JOEL TYLER HEADLEY.

[Vol. II., pp. 603-605.]

In 1855, Mr. Headley was chosen Secretary of State of New York, and held the office for the ensuing two years. In 1859 he published a Life of General Havelock, and in 1861, The Chaplains and Clergy of the Revolution (12mo, pp. 402). In the latter work the author, in the words of his preface, designed "not merely to give a series of biographical sketches, but to exhibit the religious element--in other words, present the religious phase of the Revolution. Individual clergymen might have been devoted patriots, and rendered efficient service to their country, and yet the pulpit, as such, deserve no more prominent place in the struggle than the profession of law or medicine, because many of its members bore a distinguished part in it. The clergy, however, wielded a twofold power-as individuals, and as representatives of a profession which, in New England, dominated the state." Mr. Headley has illustrated this subject by numerous examples, extending through forty-six chapters. He is at present, we understand, engaged on a work of military biography, entitled Grant and Sherman, their Campaigns and Generals.

The Rev. P. C. HEADLEY, a brother of the preceding, is the author of biographies of Napoleon, the Empress Josephine, Mary Queen of Scots, and Lafayette, and a series of Boy's Lives of Heroes of the War, including Generals Grant. Mitchel, Admiral Farragut, and others.

RICHARD HENRY STODDARD.

[Vol. II., pp. 717-718]

Mr. Stoddard has published, since the previous notice, Songs of Summer (Ticknor & Fields, 1857); Town and Country, and the Voices in the Shells (Dix & Edwards, 1857); The King's Bell (New York, 1863). The last

is a narrative poem in rhyme, exhibiting with | much felicity, in a series of picturesque illustrations, the search after happiness of a monarch of the Middle Ages, in whose palace a bell was raised, to be rung only when he was perfectly happy. The usual pursuits of a sovereign are depicted in love, and war, and affairs of state; but the bell, pointing the moral of the insufficiency of life, is rung only at the last, or the hour of death. "Thus," in the words of one of the poet's critics, "the pursuit of pleasure the inward history of almost every mortal-is allegorically expressed in this poem; and not only does the author depict in this guise the aspirations and hopes of the future, but also the memory of past joys. To our mind, there is nothing in the work more touching than the king's fond remembrance of his young queen, whom, while living, he endured, but whom, when dead, he loved. Mr. Stoddard has given to the public, in the King's Bell, a series of most delicate suggestive pictures, which will cause the reader to often pause and wonder whether, after all, he, like King Felix, is not also awaiting the blissful moment when he can bid his happy bell' to sound, and whether he too will only hear its tones upon his death-bed." Mr. Stoddard has also published The Life, Travels, and Books of Alexander Von Humboldt (New York, Rudd & Carleton, 1859), published anonymously, with an introduction by Bayard Taylor; The Loves and Heroines of the Poets (New York, Derby & Jackson, royal 8vo, 1861), an illustrated holiday book, biographical, critical, and descriptive, written with a poet's appreciation of the subject; and Adventures in Fairy Land, a Book for Young People. Mr. Stoddard's latest publication is a felicitous poem in memory of President Lincoln.

WILLIAM ALLEN BUTLER.

[Vol. IL, pp. 718, 719.]

Since 1855, Mr. Butler has been actively engaged in the practice of his profession of the law, in New York, especially in connection with the more important mercantile interests of the city. Though almost wholly engrossed by these duties, he has yet found time, however, occasionally to contribute to the literature of the day,

and always with marked success. The poem by

which he is most widely known as an author, Nothing to Wear, originally published, anonymously, in Harper's Weekly, in February, 1857, achieved a remarkable popularity. It passed through the usual ordeal of successful anonymous works. Like Mackenzie's "Man of Feeling," the production of a lawyer in active practice, whose literary efforts were aside from his ordinary pursuits, it was made the subject of a claim which compelled the poet to the course adopted by the English novelist, the avowal of his authorship in self-defence, to prevent the appropriation by others of the productions of his pen. It was followed by numerous kindred efforts, imitating, if not adopting, its new style of versification and poetical treatment of current topics and popular ideas. The editions of the poem were more numerous in England than in the United States. Besides the handsomely

printed edition of Sampson & Co., a cheap issue had an immense circulation there, and a broad sheet, with colored cuts exhibiting the salient points of the satire, was first issued in London, and afterward reproduced in Philadelphia. It was translated into French prose by one of the Paris feuilletonists, and into German verse, somewhat paraphrased, and with adaptations to the meridian of the translator.

"Nothing to Wear" was followed by a poem of similar character, entitled Two Millions. As the former had exhibited the fashionable extravagance of the day, and its moral had been accepted by the public with the interest with which it listened to Hood's plea in "The Song of the Shirt,"* so the latter was directed against the social immoralities attendant upon the accumulation of wealth in the prevalent rapid development of material interests. "Two Millions" was written at the request of the Phi Beta Kappa Society of Yale College, and delivered before them, July 28, 1858. In 1859, Mr. Butler delivered an address before the New York Bible Society, The Bible by Itself, which was published at the request of the society (New York, Carter & Brothers, 1860, 18mo, pp. 32). In 1860, and subsequently, he published a series of papers, Real Life in New York, and other sketches, in the New York Independent. One of his articles, printed in this journal, written on the decease of President Van Buren, with whom he had been intimately acquainted, was published separately, with the title, Martin Van Buren: Lawyer, Statesman, and Man (New York, Appleton & Co., 18mo, pp. 47).

DONALD G. MITCHELL

[Vol. II., pp. 701, 702.]

During the last few years, Mr. Mitchell las varied the routine of farm life at his country seat in Connecticut, by his contributions to Harper's Magazine and the Atlantic Monthly, where his articles have constantly appeared, and the occasional publication of a volume. Several of his recent works owe their origin to his rural pursuits.

My Farm of Edgewood appeared in 1863, a book pleasantly descriptive of the adventures of a gentleman in search of a farm, and his adventures in maintaining it, re-enforced by "curious and valuable information, founded on the results of actual experience, and in wise suggestions which indicate a mind of earnest purpose and acute observation." A sequel to this, Wet Days at Edgewood (New York, 1864), is a series of sketches reviewing the poetical and other literature and past history of gentleman Seven Stories, with farming and agriculture.

Basement and Attic, is the title of another of Mr. Mitchell's recent volumes. He has at present a novel of New England life and manners, entitled Doctor Johns, in course of publication in the Atlantic Monthly.

* In London, "Nothing to Wear" was published with a statement of fashionable extravagance, taken from the procvedings of a Bankruptcy Court, and advertised with humanitarian tracts on the "Evils of the Dress-Making System." † New York Tribune, November 7, 1868.