Whitman and "Marquesan Melville" in the ALBANY ARGUS

Johannes Hevelius (28 January 1611 – 28 January 1687)
Scanned by Torsten Bronger, 4 April 2003., Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

But a week or so ago there passed from earth a strong, virile and poetic mind that met nothing but contempt in America for years.

Notwithstanding the borrowed title "Marquesan Melville," the 1892 article transcribed herein begins with high praise for the late Walt Whitman as "a strong, virile and poetic mind." (Whitman died on March 26, 1892; Herman Melville passed the year before on September 28, 1891.) Previously unrecorded? Not in the Walt Whitman Archive, anyhow. This dual tribute to Whitman and Melville appeared on page 4 of the Albany NY Argus for Sunday morning, April 10, 1892. As indicated in the article, the heading and extensive quotations are taken from Henry S. Salt's long, lavish memorial of "Marquesan Melville" in the March 1892 issue of The Gentleman's Magazine. 

Herman Melville, despite embarrassing nationwide neglect of his writings, was "a man well known personally" in the Albany area. Nonetheless, criticism of Melville's supposedly ruinous descent into transcendentalism and mysticism follows Salt on "Marquesan Melville." Also from Salt, the cite of John Marr and Other Sailors as privately printed "story" and the closing quotation from Robert Buchanan's poem Socrates in Camden. 

But the comparison of Melville to The Farthing Poet Richard Hengist Horne, author of Orion: An Epic Poem, seems different and distinctive. Elizabeth Shaw Melville gave Herman's copy of Horne's Exposition of the False Medium and Barriers Excluding Men of Genius to Edmund Clarence Stedman. With markings by Horne and Melville, whereabouts unknown; Horne's Exposition is Sealts Number 284 in the catalog at Melville's Marginalia Online. Number 285 is a volume of three tragedies by Horne, owned by Stedman and borrowed by Melville. Shared interest in Whitman and Horne suggests that E. C. Stedman might have written or otherwise influenced the writing of "Marquesan Melville" as revisited in the Albany Argus.

MARQUESAN MELVILLE.

It is generally conceded that leading traits in the American character are self-esteem and assertiveness. One of the reasons the race has advanced so rapidly and now holds such high place is because of its thorough belief and confidence in itself. We know that our institutions are admirable, and that our natural resources are unlimited. We are certain that our destiny is as grand as that of any of the sons of man. We feel that our past stands in need of no apology. We are tenacious of our repute in the arts and sciences, and proclaim upon the housetops the undying fame of our writers. These general facts standing unchallenged, it is very peculiar that a single one of our master-minds should lack full recognition and appreciation in his own country. But a week or so ago there passed from earth a strong, virile and poetic mind that met nothing but contempt in America for years. It is true that at the last we were shamed into a tardy acceptance of the splendid gifts of Walt Whitman by the generous encouragement of the English people. Without attempting to understand the charm of his utterances, we admitted his genius and soothed his dying bed with sympathy. There were laid upon his bier some eloquent tributes from his countrymen, but these were rather the outpourings of love and sympathy than critical appreciation. It was England that recognized that a strong and original singer had left the earthly choir.

A case very similar to this was that of Herman Melville, a man well known personally in this vicinity. The difference between the two was that Melville had a measure of transient popularity during his early productive period, while at his death he was almost completely forgotten. His very name was unknown to the younger generation of American readers, and the rather perfunctory tributes in a few newspapers, when he died a number of months ago, were read with a mild interest not unmixed with astonishment. Here, again, England had an eye for genius when we were blind. It will surprise many here, even among those who would be critical, to learn that Robert Buchanan classes him as "the one great imaginative writer fit to stand shoulder to shoulder with Whitman on that continent," and that William Morris, Theodore Watts, Robert Louis Stevenson and W. Clark Russell, enroll themselves among the number of his enthusiastic admirers. It may be doubted whether the name of Melville is included among those that figure in the handbooks of American literature. it is certain, at any rate, that he has no following of readers here.

It is not to our credit that the first critical estimate of Melville should appear in England, and yet such is the case. Mr. Henry S. Salt writes an appreciative, discriminating and sympathetic sketch of the writer in the Gentleman's Magazine. He makes no allusion to the fact that Melville was so sadly lacking in appreciation from his own countrymen, and his article has a ring of triumphant admiration with no trace of apology nor pleading. It is impossible to summarize Mr. Salt's estimate, but we can quote a few detached passages. He declares that Melville was a genuine child of nature, a sort of nautical George Borrow, to whom he likens him more than once. Of "Typee," his masterpiece, he says: "Alike in the calm beauty of its descriptive passages and in the intense vividness of its character sketches, it was, and is, and must ever be, a most powerful and fascinating work--indeed, I think I speak within the mark in saying that nothing better of its kind is to be found in English literature, so firm and clear is it in outline, yet so dreamily suggestive in the dim, mystic atmosphere which pervades it." Then turning to his later work, Mr. Melville [rather, Mr. Salt] says: "As 'Typee' is the best production of the earlier and simpler phase of Melville's authorship, so undoubtedly is 'The Whale' the crown and glory of the later phase; less shapely and artistic than 'Typee,' it far surpasses it in immensity of scope and triumphant energy of execution. It is in 'The Whale' that we see Melville casting to the winds all conventional restrictions, and rioting in the prodigality of his imaginative vigor. It is the supreme production of a master mind; let no one presume to pass judgment on American literature until he has read, and re-read, and wonderingly pondered the three mighty volumes of 'The Whale.'"

One more brief quotation may be permitted: "His narratives are as racy and vigorous as those of Defoe, or Smollett, or Marryat; his character sketches are such as only a man of keen observation and as keen a sense of humor could have realized and depicted."

The man was well nigh as interesting as the author. Herman Melville, who, by the way, was a relative of leading Albany families, resided for years in Pittsfield. Here he was the near neighbor of Hawthorne, whose home was at  Lenox. He soon became a transcendentalist, and his beliefs strongly colored his writings. We have noted above the change between his earlier works, as exemplified in "Typee," and his later, as shown in "The Whale." As the mood grew upon him, his style became turgid and his books were filled with mysticism. It was the death blow to his popularity, and the fickleness of the public reacted strongly upon his nature. He became almost a recluse. He would do nothing to keep his name before the public, and in a spirit akin to that which led Hengist Horne to issue his grand epic "Orion" at a farthing, he limited one of the most beautiful of his later stories to twenty-five copies.

It is pleasant to know that the widow of the novelist has just sold the copyrights of her husband's works to an enterprising publisher, and that new editions of them all are to be brought out in America and England. An opportunity will be given us to atone for our neglect of this genius, of whom Buchanan, in his tribute to Whitman, wrote--

"The sea compelling man,
Before whose wand Leviathan
Rose hoary-white upon the deep,
With awful sounds that stirred its sleep;
Melville, whose magic drew Typee,
Radiant as Venus, from the sea."

-- Albany Argus, April 10, 1892. Found on fultonhistory.com; images are also accessible courtesy of New York State Library via NYS Historic Newspapers.

Oration by Oran G. Otis on the centennial anniversary of George Washington's birthday

As pointed out in Melvilliana posts on the Centennial of Washington's Birthday and Peter Gansevoort's 1832 address to the Albany Republican Artillery company, New York State Assemblyman Oran G. Otis of Saratoga was selected to give the big speech for the celebration of George Washington's 100th birthday in Albany. Otis spoke at the North Dutch Church after a procession of state and local dignitaries led by Major General Stephen Van Rensselaer IV "who officiated as marshal of the day" (Albany Argus, February 28, 1832). According to newspaper reports the featured speaker had been physically unwell for some time, but Otis soldiered through his well-received performance. 

Albany Argus - February 28, 1832
via GenealogyBank

"In the church, after an impressive and appropriate prayer by the Rev. Mr. Ferris, an oration was pronounced by the Hon. O. G. OTIS, of the Assembly. Of this eloquent and classic effort, it is not too much to say that it was worthy of the occasion and of the subject, and of the high reputation of the orator; notwithstanding it was prepared and delivered under the effects of severe indisposition. The approbation of the numerous auditory,--for every part of the church was crowded,--was manifested by reiterated bursts of applause, which neither the place nor the occasion could restrain, and which broke out, at the termination, in three distinct rounds. The exercises were concluded by a benediction by the Rev. Dr. Sprague." 

-- "The Birth-Day Celebration," Albany Argus, February 28, 1832.

Later printed as No. 306 in Documents of the Assembly of the State of New York, 55th session, Volume 4 (Albany, 1832), the oration by Oran G. Otis is transcribed in full below. 

 

ORATION.

FELLOW-CITIZENS !

We have come together, not to mourn the death of an illustrious individual, but to rejoice, in the opportunity of his birth, the felicity of his life, and the immortality of his fame. His dust has gone to dust, by the common law of our being, but the nobler portion still remains, uninjured by the accidents of mortality, and unimpaired by the lesions of time. The truth of his principles, the power of his name, and the splendor of his career, are still in full life and action, elevating and improving, not only, our condition, but the condition of the world — illustrating not only the dignity of his own character, but that of his species.

The event we celebrate, has had and will have its influence on the general destiny, and not only shall we rejoice, but nations yet unborn, shall bless the hour that gave him to mankind. Strong and fervid as are the feelings of gratitude and admiration which now swell our bosoms in the contemplation of the virtues, the genius, and the achievements of him whom we have met to honor, they are not exclusively ours — millions in other climes not blessed like this, are offering up their love, their homage and their hopes, to the final results of that course, of which he was the great pioneer. And the time will yet come, when all the nations of the earth, in the undisturbed enjoyment of their natural rights, shall hail him as a brother, and bless him as a father.

He was born for the world — not for us merely, but for the family of mankind. The action of his life was laid amidst the scenes of this new discovered land, this remote covert of the world; but the denouements of his career, were to affect the oldest dynasties of the earth, and annihilate their most ancient prescriptions. His efforts were confined to three millions of people — scarcely a fraction of the human race, but the consequences of these efforts were to be acknowledged, in the final emancipation of the world. The fervor of the love for liberty which he excited and controlled, was, like the small lump of leaven, eventually, to pervade the whole mass. Like the sun in the sky, though fixed in its sphere, its effulgence is unstinted, is shed over all, and kindles to life wherever a ray of it rests.

The occurrence of his birth, was appointed to take place, during the embryon of those events, which were to change the face of society and reorganize the world. The political condition of the nations, was well nigh, as peculiar and full of omen at the time of his entrance into life, as their moral, at the advent of Him who was at once the model and the Saviour of the human race. For nearly six thousand years, had the old world in vain essayed the discovery of the true principles of the social compact,— Though like the mysteries of the true religion, they were seen in dim and distant prospect by a favored few; their full revelation was delayed, until the discovery and settlement of this new portion of the world.

In the dreamy abstractions of philosophy, the possible existence of a free community, had been fancied — where good laws might be made by the wisdom of the whole, and enforced by the general consent, — where the only distinctions were those of merit, and the only rewards those of the public esteem, — where the over reaching few might be held in check by the force of law and opinion, and individual freedom be restrained only by the limits of the moral code. But the vision was apparently too beautiful for truth, though too noble for fiction — too remote for experiment, though full of desire. The monitions of the past took away hope from the future, and left only the evils of oppression as a solid expectation to mankind.

Even the advancement of society had not explained the principles or developed the means of liberty. In countries famed for their policy, their prowess and their power, the slavery of ages remained in its strength untouched by the improvements gathering around it. And the towers of despotism rose on their deep and dark foundations among the people, frowning from summits encircled by the blaze of science and the glory of the arts. The natural advantages of the people over their enemies, were made to operate against themselves, and the very power which could have crushed their oppressors was used to enforce their own degradation. The order of nature seemed reversed — the weak ruled the strong — the few overcame the many, and the true possessors of sovereign power truckled to the bauble ensigns of authority, and yielded up their energies, a timid oblation, to the knaves and fools, who luxurated upon their credulity.

The destiny of the world seemed fixed, beyond the hope of better change. So firmly established was the doctrine of passive obedience, and so unquestionably divine the authority to enslave, that saving here and there an intestine commotion, an occasional shaking of their chains, the nations of the earth lay still in their apathy, and tamely submitted to the lash of their oppressors.

It is true, that in a few instances, the general tenor of the history of mankind was broken in upon. High and noble efforts had been made to assert the dignity of our common nature, and shew that man was not necessarily a slave. Greece and Rome successively undertook the experiment, and sought to falsify the experience of all previous time, by exhibiting in their own example, the evidence of their capacity, to govern themselves. For a time the splendor of their course seemed likely to illustrate the destiny of our race. But time eventually proved the fallacy of the means they used for success. The glory of their career was extinguished in their own essential grossness, and the tyrannies which after wards arose, scorned the folly of their attempts, and laughed at the fanaticism which could believe in their practicability. Their light, like that of the borealis, adorned the night, but did not overcome it. Their institutions did not define the difference between liberty and licentiousness, and left alike unguarded, the ambition of their popular chiefs and the aberrations of the popular will. Excess of liberty, vibrated to the extremes of anarchy, and constraint ended in tyranny.

They had not devised a system, where all were the guarantors of the rights of each and each, the guardian of the rights of all — where the interests of the many were protected against the encroachments of the few, and where the welfare of the state was consulted in the happiness of the citizen.

From these ancient times, down to the discovery of this continent, the evidence of whose existence, like that of Atlantis, was only in fable, the history of the world is but one record of its oppressions. One common thrall spread over the nations, and the gilded oppressor, every where sat on the neck of the slave. 

Passing by the other governments of the old world, we find even that England, who on this point was in advance of her species, had not been able to secure the prize. She had warred with her nobles, dethroned her kings, and bathed her soil in the blood of her children — but in vain. She only triumphed over some of the rougher and more prominent obstacles to her freedom, which the dark crudities of a former age had entailed upon her, leaving an overbearing aristocracy, hereditary offices, a union of church and state, intolerance of religious opinion, and the smothered voice of a disfranchised people, to degrade and curse her institutions.

Such had been the history of mankind, and such its unhappiness, when WASHINGTON was born. But a new era was beginning to dawn — a new order of events was coming upon the world — a new dispensation among the polities of the earth. Never before, had that peculiar conjuncture of affairs existed, to which his birth and life — his genius and his principles — would have been so opportune and so peculiarly conformed. The existence of this continent had then only been known for 240 years. In the Providence of ages, it had been preserved until then, a virgin spot — an unpolluted land — the Bethlehem of the world — free from the arts and the arms, the usages and customs — the trammels and the crimes, by which the old world was enslaved.

Only one hundred and twenty-five years before his birth, was this consecrated spot permitted to the tread of the pioneers of the coming liberties of the world. A glorious band of brothers, of whom all the institutions of the earth were unworthy, seizing their little all, shook the dust from off their feet against persecuting England, and with their wives and children in their arms and their hopes in Heaven, launched their frail bark upon the waves of an uncertain sea. It was a crisis in the destiny of nations. Like the ark of Noah, it bore in its bosom, the elite of the old world and the noble founders of the new. And as their ill-appointed vessel tossed on the wave, and trembled to the gale, how would the hearts of unconscious millions have throbbed, in agony, had they but known that it bore in its bosom the priceless pearl of freedom. For a time, the hope of the world hung trembling on the billow and wavered in the blast. But the steady eye and unblenched heart were there, and favoring Heaven. These dangers were happily overpast, and the foot of the white man — the child of civilization — touched for the first time, these wild, but consecrated shores.  

The die was cast — a new order of things began, and the future history of the world was changed.

They had abandoned all to escape oppression — had sacrificed all for the attainment of freedom. But neither was their purpose nor their judgment mistaken. In their new situation, notwithstanding the hardships of an unknown climate — the dangers of a wilderness of savages — the poor extremity of their means, and the want of political organization, they found their condition was improved. They found that their interest and happiness were united, that equal rights were not inconsistent with equal duties, and that the general will secured the general weal. They ascertained the truth and practicability of free principles, by their own experience, and therefore neither doubts of the future, nor precedents of the past, could overcome their convictions. No excess of wealth corrupted their principles — no luxury enfeebled their judgment or enervated their will — no want of the necessaries of life impaired their physical energies, and no successful tyranny made them obsequious to power.

Such were the people and such the morale of their condition, among whom and of whom WASHINGTON was born. He was the master spirit of this condition of society: the embodied representative of the temper and principles of this new organization; and the first true exemplar of the system which secures the freedom of mankind. In no other state of society could he have been produced or sustained. He was alike the consequence of liberty enjoyed and the cause of liberty to come, and the existence of both was concerned in his. 

It is only one hundred years ago this day, since the occurrence we celebrate was numbered in the calendar of human events. Then we were a colony, a poor, unknown people, scarcely noted in the concerns of nations. The achievements of a century had not then shed their light upon the American name; nor the success of our institutions excited the fear of tyrants, nor won the admiration of mankind. How deeply sensible ought we to be of the wisdom of those designs, the merit of those actions, which have poured such a lustre upon the recent obscurity of our fame. And to whom, under Providence, but Washington and his immortal compeers, are we indebted for those ripe and honorable distinctions, which separate us from the herd of nations. They won the battles that secured our independence; they gave form and impress to all our institutions, and set thereon the seal of immortality. If even now, in the infancy of our existence, these United States were torn from all their strong foundations, and blotted from the earth, the light of their example would shine through all succeeding ages, with a glory above all Greek, all Roman, above all human fame.

In WASHINGTON seemed combined all the elements to constitute a man in the highest meaning of the term. His form was of the finest specimens of manly beauty, and his carriage full of grace and dignity. His constitution, both physical and mental, of the happiest mould. In power of mind he stood at the head of the human intellect. His perception of truth, in the vast and various concerns with which his life was charged, seemed to indicate the intuition of a superior being; the unrivalled accuracy of his judgment was demonstrated in the extraordinary success of his wide and eventful range of action. His brightness was not indeed the glare of the meteor, but the steady light of the sun: it was not the brilliancy of a single act, but the finished series of his life: the combined results of all his action. The uniformity of his character marks the prevalence and constancy and purity of his motives; the high objects he pursued and attained, the morality of the means he used, clearly shew, that right and truth alone, were influential upon him. He knew the power of truth, and felt the strength that came from being right. His was not the cunning that invents and forges means of its own, because it is unable to discover any other mode of success; but the wisdom that, perceiving the true relation of things, avails itself of existing causes, with a certainty of their consequences. Hence the firmness of his resolution and the courage of his temper. Hence he shrunk not in the field of battle or the moral conflict; and conscious of the right, never trembled for the issue. Unlike the desperate few, who have achieved a bad eminence by indiscriminate means, he sought no results which virtue did not sanction; used no appliances which honesty did not advise. His character is unique, and stands alone on an eminence, unapproached — I had almost said inaccessible. Its union of goodness and greatness, of moral beauty and intellectual strength, adorned by services of inappreciable value to the human race, furnishes an instance of the sublime in morals, such as no human example has presented. It has changed the general idea of greatness, and shewn that the most enviable talent must find assistance in the aids of virtue.

He was fortunate beyond all the past, in the position which he held in the affairs of the world. The presiding genius at the birth of the first free nation — the daring leader of the first successful struggle for the principles of freedom — the idol of a young nation, yet to increase as the sands of the sea-shore — the grand agitator of the change, yet to come over all the governments of the earth, his fame will increase with ages and the multiplication of his race. He stood at the head of a new country — at the beginning of a new civil polity — at the source and fountain of that stream of liberty which was yet to overflow the earth, and like the deluge of old, to swallow up every vestige of the wrongs which had passed. In the whole range of time, in the wide variety of human affairs, there has been no era so felicitous for his existence as that in which he was born and lived; at no other point, could equal virtue have met with equal success — no other career could have secured the like train and splendor of consequences.

In his life, fortunate and happy above all other example — with out a spot or blemish to mar his private fame, he was covered with glory in his public career; through all the round of action — through all the change and casualty of life, he stood a model and exemplar to the human race. In the purity of his motives, in the nobleness of his designs, and in the extent and success of his course, he stands without a rival or an equal — ornatus Dei.

But he was not alone, in the great contest which he waged for the welfare of mankind. In the dark hour of our cause, a band of brothers gathered round him — such as the world had never seen, and may never see again. The pressure of the time reached every heart, and strengthened every hand. True to the call of WASHINGTON, and the high exigency of the times, obscure and unknown patriots, touched by the spirit of their cause, were roused and rallied to his aid. Of all the remnants of that heroic band that I have ever seen, there were none but had something peculiar in their character, shewing they had studied in the school and triumphed in the field with WASHINGTON. The very fact, that they were reached and acted on by the reasons of such a controversy, proves their nobility. I have always thought the character of the Revolutionary soldier one of unparalleled beauty. He fought not for fame, for he was too humble to expect it; he fought not for money, for he could have supported himself; nor from native turbulence of spirit, for he was a peaceable man at home; nor from envy of superior rank, for he knew little of it and cared less about it. But with a distinct apprehension of the value of personal liberty — with a disbelief in the rights of hereditary power, and a strong opinion that superior merit should alone confer authority, he repelled from principle, the invasion of his just rights; he despised from feeling, the extravagant pretensions which England would enforce; and from unalloyed love of freedom, fought for himself, his country, and the common rights of man. The page of history will record no character so disinterested, so devoted, so firm and so mild, so enthusiastic and yet so rational, so sublime and yet so mere a display of the real dignity of human nature. 

Of these, Washington was the glorious and unenvied chief and patron. Their love of him was as that of children to a father; amidst the hardships of the camp, the dangers of battle , the alter nations of victory and defeat, and all the vicissitude of a military life, they reposed with most confiding faith in his skill and courage, his power and fortune. The little frailties of their conduct found shelter in the mildness of his virtues; but the outbreakings of vice, their exposure and repression in the firmness of his principles.

Such was his knowledge of the human heart, and his acquaintance with men, that he rarely found himself in error in his choice of agents. He was enabled thus, not only to exert his own energies with success, but to secure the full amount of results from the ability that surrounded him. The leader and the led were touched by a common impulse, and moved on to the accomplishment of a common end. Thus it was in that appalling fight with a veteran nation, boasting of her strength and triumphing in her victories, that we were enabled to withstand the onset which was directed for our destruction.

Without having been bred to the science of war, he assumed the command of our armies, and for seven long years, with every disparity of means, baffled the skill and paralyzed the genius of the most celebrated soldiers. Without experience, he fought like a veteran; nearly without means, he still found resources; and sometimes, almost without an army, he held the enemy at bay by the vigor of his enterprizes. This struggle for the mastery was long held in doubt, but the star of his fortune at length prevailed against the ostent of the times. He conquered, not for fame, but for freedom; not for ambition, but for his country. How well and how greatly, let the present condition of the happy vallies and sunny mountains of freedom make answer.

But not even yet had be filled the full measure of his fame. In the pride of victory, in the flush of success, with a devoted soldiery, accustomed to execute his wishes, instead of stooping to the mean ambition of a tyrant, in ruining his country, to elevate himself, he plucked the warrior's plume from his brow, and cast it with his sword at the feet of his country. Oh ! how mean and little are the names of Alexander, of Cæsar, of Napoleon, when seen in the light of such a deed as this! Instead of being an effort of his virtue, it was its natural result. Instead of being produced by ambition, it sprung from his ordinary sense of duty. What, to the most gifted, had proved an impracticable virtue, was to him, of facile performance. In no act was he governed by the narrowness of private interest. One general feeling of philanthropy seemed to inspire him, and he continually sought the welfare of his country, with a zeal and assiduity he never exhibited for his own. It is true, he could not have enslaved his country, had he cherished the design. The heroic band he led, would sooner have perished than yielded their assent. But in him, they saw the great example of patriot love; from him they caught the spirit which knew no submission, and held all enemies alike who would injure their country.

He retired to private life, unambitious of further distinction, and well pleased to escape the din and turmoil of his former days. In the seclusion of his retreat he cultivated the quiet arts of peace, without a regret for the past or a sigh for the future. But fame found him here. The privacy of his condition did not obscure its glory, and again his country called him to her aid. The freedom we had won by valor must be preserved by wisdom. Though national independence was secured by the revolution, our political organization was imperfect. We had the materials of freedom, but not its system — the power of self-government, without being well aware of the best means of using it. We had achieved the privilege of self-government, but history furnished no precedent to aid in its exercise. And we stood a people, free indeed, but wanting the ascertained means of self-preservation. The sages and soldiers of the revolution, with the illustrious WASHINGTON at their head, again came forward to meet the high exigency; they were successful. In a council combining more experience, more patriotism and more intellectual power than the history of ages could shew, they devised a system of government, unique in its character and original in its design, which has answered the high behests of freedom, and stands a beacon light to all the nations of the earth. A numerous people now repose in peace and happiness beneath its power, encouraging by precept and example the diffusion of the benign principles of liberty.

WASHINGTON, without his own desire, was placed at the head of the new organization, by the voluntary suffrage of the people, and again became charged with the political destiny of his country. His life had been spent in the field, and his achievements were those of a soldier. But such was the nature of the Revolutionary contest, that the most eminent political merit, could alone have given efficiency to the most consummate military skill. — It was a war of opinion — its prosecution and success depended, not upon the coercion of an organized and arbitrary government, but on the voluntary judgment of the people. It was a high school for the civilian as well as the soldier — and admirably was WASHINGTON prepared by it, as well for the duties of the cabinet as the exigencies of the field. He assumed the responsibilities of his new and unprecedented station, and placed himself by the vigor and wisdom of his policy, upon the most enviable heights of political renown. If his success as a military chieftain had won the admiration of the world, his wisdom as a statesman secured its highest applause. Having given an impulse and direction to the untried institutions of his country, which will influence their destiny through all coming time, he voluntarily left the lofty station he had filled, and closed his career amidst the peace and happiness of that country he had assisted to elevate and redeem. The fabric of his character was then completed — then was the model, designed by Heaven for the imitation of mankind, brought to its final perfection. Then was the complete idea of freedom exemplified and explained. The mission for which he was sent, was accomplished — and the wide earth may now rejoice in the eventual fulfillment of those purposes of liberty to which his life was consecrated. 

Boston Liberator - May 12, 1832 - page 76

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BATTLE-PIECES in Albany

This brief 1866 notice of Battle-Pieces and Aspects of the War is not in Herman Melville: The Contemporary Reviews, edited by Brian Higgins and Hershel Parker (Cambridge University Press, 1995).

Albany Argus - September 21, 1866
via Genealogy Bank

BATTLE PIECES -- By Herman Mellville. New York. Harper & Brothers.

The author of this volume of War Poetry has won a reputation as the author of "Typee" and "Omoo," and now tries his hand in a volume of martial lyrics. Many of the pieces are good, and all of them are free from the objectionable references to men who have striven on the battlefield to prevent a dissolution of the Union. The author closes the work with an appendix in prose, which proves that he has an appreciation of the times in which he lives and writes.

For sale by S. R. GRAY.  -- The Argus (Albany, New York), September 21, 1866.

Redburn notice, Albany Argus

Daily Albany Argus - November 21, 1849 via GenealogyBank

This brief notice of Redburn in the Albany Argus (November 21, 1849) is listed but not transcribed in Herman Melville: The Contemporary Reviews, edited by Brian Higgins and Hershel Parker (Cambridge University Press, 1995; paperback 2009), at page 291. In the Argus, this item appears with other notices of  "New Publications" in a column signed, "W."  Found on GenealogyBank among articles added "within 1 week":

REDBURN: HIS FIRST VOYAGE. By Herman Melville.

We have looked into this book enough to see that it bears the characteristic marks of its author's genius, and has so much of the simplicity of nature, and so many bright and beautiful passages scattered through it, that it will not be likely to want for readers.

W.

The Albany Argus was then conducted by Edwin Croswell, in partnership with his cousin Sherman Croswell and Samuel M. Shaw, formerly a printer in Schenectady.

London news from Gansevoort Melville

Portrait of Sir Robert Peel

Henry William Pickersgill, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

As revealed in Gansevoort Melville's 1846 London Journal, edited by Hershel Parker (New York Public Library, 1966), Herman Melville's older brother wrote many letters home to family members and friends including Edwin Croswell, editor of the Albany Argus. Gansevoort Melville's letters to Croswell evidently supplied material for at least one article of London news in the Argus during the first months of 1846.

On March 24, 1846, the Albany Argus published "extracts from a letter from an American gentleman, in London, whose position and character, give weight to his opinions." Although unnamed in print, the "American gentleman" was surely editor Croswell's friend Gansevoort Melville, then employed in the authoritative "position" of Secretary to the American Legation in London. The letter excerpted in the Argus is dated March 2, 1846. On March 4th Gansevoort had sent 13 letters by steamer including one to Croswell (1846 London Journal page 63, 45-46 in Parker's edition).

As noted in his journal (February 3, 1846), Gansevoort had sent Lemuel Shaw and others printed copies of the prime minister's speech on repeal of the Corn Laws, which Gansevoort called "Sir Robt Peel's great speech on his scheme of commercial policy." (On the same day, Gansevoort also sent one "long letter," now lost, to his brother Herman Melville, and others to New York friends about Typee.) Gansevoort's journal entry for February 9th records his witnessing the House of Commons debate on "Sir Robert Peel's scheme of commercial policy." Gansevoort's repeated phrase, "scheme of commercial policy," is also used by Edwin Croswell's "American gentleman" in connection with ongoing debates that Gansevoort had personally witnessed in visits to both Houses of the British Parliament.

Gansevoort often saw Louis McClane, the American Minister to Great Britain, when McLane was ill and bedridden. On February 19th Gansevoort observed that "Mr. McLane sat up to-day for the first time in 9 or 10 days." Gansevoort found him "gradually improving in health" on February 24th, but "still feeble" on March 2, 1846, the date of the letter from Croswell's "American gentleman" describing McLane as "now better, but much enfeebled."

Like Gansevoort Melville, the American gentleman in London had been "recently at Court." Gansevoort's journal entry for January 22nd depicts Queen Victoria as "very short fat & bloated in the face & neck." Gansevoort's private impression or something to that effect is implied in the superficially kinder assurance by Croswell's London correspondent that "The Queen is much flattered by all the pictures of her which I have seen." (Parker notes that "Victoria's appearance probably owed something to her being several months pregnant.") The cleverly worded, implied comparison of the Queen's actual appearance to flattering portraits was deleted when the Argus column was reprinted in the Washington Daily Union on March 25, 1846.

The final paragraph in the quoted letter from Croswell's "American gentleman" conveys the essential matter of Gansevoort's journal entry on February 16, 1846:

AMERICAN GENTLEMAN

 "Mr. WHEATON has been here. He will return to the U. S. in May, and expects to be succeeded by Major DONELSON, who is a sound, judicious man."

GANSEVOORT MELVILLE

9-- about 9 we left. I saw Mr Wheaton home--bade him good bye. He tells me that he will return home in May. A J Donelson is to succeed him -- a good appointment.

--Gansevoort Melville's 1846 London Journal, page 39 in Hershel Parker's edition.

Elsewhere in the 1846 journal Gansevoort describes Henry Wheaton, the retiring U. S. minister to Prussia, as "a cold selfish, and somewhat sordid man." Wheaton's better-liked successor is the subject of a recent biography by Richard Douglas Spence, Andrew Jackson Donelson: Jacksonian and Unionist (Vanderbilt University Press, 2017).

Albany Argus - March 24, 1846 via GenealogyBank

FROM LONDON -- REPEAL OF THE CORN LAWS, &c.

The following are extracts from a letter from an American gentleman, in London, whose position and character, give weight to his opinions:

LONDON, March 2, 1846.

"The intense interest felt in the fate of Sir ROBERT PEEL'S great scheme of commercial policy, has for the last few weeks overshadowed the Oregon question in the attention of the public; but now that the triumphant majority of 97 in the Commons has declared itself in favor of the measure as submitted, it is generally conceded that the Lords will not dare to offer serious opposition to its passage through the House, and the large number who take this view of the case consider the Corn Laws virtually repealed by the heavy majority in favor of their demolition in the more popular and powerful branch of the national legislature. I have been present frequently during the debate, and have had the advantage of hearing, on a great topic, nearly all the first political names of England. The successful accomplishment of this great revolutionary movement, is, in my humble view, more a tribute to the power of popular agitation and a concession to the necessity of the case, than a homage to the principles of Free Trade.

"Sir ROBERT PEEL looks pale and careworn.-- He and the Home Secretary, Sir JAMES GRAHAM, were compelled, during a protracted debate of twelve nights, to endure a kind of political martyrdom. Their speeches, their pledges, the promises on which they obtained office, were all cast into their teeth. HANSARD [reports] was ransacked to delectate their ears with their own staunch arguments for the validity of principles, which are now sought to be overturned, not temporarily but for ever, by the very men who rode into power, as all believed, for the express purpose of maintaining inviolate that which they now will themselves destroy. 

"Mr. McLANE has been very sick, and for 10 or 11 days was confined to his bed. He is now better, but much enfeebled in body by the severity of the attack to which he has been exposed. I was recently at Court. The Queen is much flattered by all the pictures of her which I have seen. As a spectacle, the coup d'oell [coup d'oeil] was magnificent.  

"Mr. WHEATON has been here. He will return to the U. S. in May, and expects to be succeeded by Major DONELSON, who is a sound, judicious man."

-- Albany Argus, March 24, 1846. Reprinted in the Madison Observer (Morrisville, New York) on March 25, 1846; and the Washington Daily Union, also on March 25, 1846.

The Washington Daily Union censored Gansevoort's impolite allusion to the Queen's personal appearance:

Washington [D. C.] Daily Union - March 25, 1846

"Mr. McLane has been very sick, and for ten or eleven days was confined to his bed. He is now better, but much enfeebled in body by the severity of the attack to which he has been exposed. I was recently at Court. As a spectacle, the coup d'oeil was magnificent."

Alongside the latest from London, the March 24, 1846 issue of the Albany Argus printed news of the recent "Great Battle in India" with two different narratives by Sir Hugh Gough as Commander-in-Chief, India. Most likely, these accounts were also supplied by Gansevoort Melville. On February 24, 1846 Gansevoort

"wrote Mr Croswell a short letter on the war with the Sikhs accompanying papers contg the late intelligence of Sir Hugh Gough's two battles this side the Sutlej."

 --Gansevoort Melville's 1846 London Journal, page 42 in Parker's edition.

Edwin Croswell
Brady-Handy photograph collection, Library of Congress

The Lightning-Rod Man, reprinted from Putnam's in the Albany Evening Journal and elsewhere

Cyclopædia of Wit and Humor

Originally published in the August 1854 issue of Putnam's Monthly Magazine, Melville's comic sketch "The Lightning-Rod Man" was reprinted in several contemporary newspapers, including the Albany Evening Journal (August 5, 1854). As customary, Putnam's magazine did not credit Melville for the story. Likewise the newspaper versions reprinted from Putnam's contain no byline or other identification of the author. Eventually the story would appear with "Benito Cereno" and other of Melville's magazine pieces in The Piazza Tales (New York: Dix & Edwards, 1856).

No newspaper printing of "The Lightning-Rod Man" is cited in the Northwestern-Newberry edition of The Piazza Tales and Other Prose Pieces, 1839-1860.

Albany Evening Journal - August 5, 1854

 "The Lightning-Rod Man" was also reprinted anonymously in these newspapers:

•  Sandusky Commercial Register (in two parts), August 12, 1854 and August 14, 1854

• Yates County Whig [Pen Yan, New York], August 17, 1854
  http://nyshistoricnewspapers.org/lccn/sn83031797/1854-08-17/ed-1/seq-1/

"The Lightning-Rod Man" in Yates County Whig - August 17, 1854
via New York Historic Newspapers

• "From Putnam's Monthly" in the Oneida [New York] Sachem, August 19, 1854

• "FROM 'THE PIAZZA TALES.' BY HERMAN MELVILLE." in the Columbus Gazette (Columbus, Ohio) November 27, 1857.

• Albany Atlas & Argus, May 14, 1859

• Goshen Democrat (Goshen, Orange County, New York) May 27, 1859

• Geneva Gazette (Geneva, New York) May 20, 1859.

• New Orleans Republican, Sunday, September 6, 1874

• Omaha Daily Bee, September 17 and 18, 1874

• The McCook Tribune (McCook, Nebraska), October 30, 1884
  http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn94056414/1884-10-30/ed-1/seq-6/
• North Nebraska Eagle (Dakota City, Nebraska) October 30, 1884
• Wahoo, Nebraska Independent, October 30, 1884
• Oakdale, Nebraska Journal, October 31, 1884
  
• Plum Creek, Nebraska Gazette, November 5, 1884

Links:

• Story of the Week: The Lightning-Rod Man
  excellent article with text of Melville's story via Library of America
• The Lightning-Rod Man text via University of Adelaide

Related posts:

• The Apple-Tree Table, reprinted from Putnam's magazine
•  Poor Man's Pudding and Rich Man's Crumbs in The Independent Democrat (Concord, New Hampshire)

Notice of White-Jacket in the Albany Argus

Albany Argus - April 13, 1850
found at Fulton History

Included in the "Checklist of Additional Reviews" (page 349) in Herman Melville: The Contemporary Reviews, but not there transcribed.

WHITE JACKET, OR THE WORLD IN A MAN OF WAR. By Herman Melville.

This work purports to be the record of the writer's personal experiences on board a man-of-war. He has no doubt, in writing his book, made large drafts upon his imagination, while yet a general air of truthfulness certainly pervades it. It is the product of an uncommonly bright and active mind.  --Albany Argus, Saturday, April 13, 1850; found at Fulton History.

This one is brief but interesting for the writer's skepticism ("purports") about Melville's facts, and the claimed insight into Melville's creative process.  

Henry Russell in Melville's Albany

Henry Russell
Robert Street, 1796-1865, lithographer. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

English singer and composer Henry Russell (1813-1900) was the father of Herman Melville's friend W. Clark Russell, to whom Melville dedicated John Marr and other Sailors in 1888. You can find the electronic text with other of Melville's dedications here. In print, the Northwestern-Newberry edition of Melville's Published Poems has the edited text of Melville's dedication to W. Clark Russell. The facsimile edition of John Marr and Other Sailors, edited by Douglas Robillard, is published by the Kent State University Press.

In the dedication to John Marr Melville notes the fact of WCR's birth in New York City, but does not name his famous and flamboyant sire Henry Russell. Melville would have known of Henry Russell (he wrote the music for Woodman! Spare that Tree! and A Life on the Ocean Wave) from the popular singer's time in Albany, where another son was born in 1837. Russell had first gone to Canada around 1833-4, then made his way eventually from Toronto to Rochester, New York. Russell did not stay long. He continued to tour America in 1837-1841 and then returned to England.

In February 1837, Albany newspapers reported and welcomed the rumor of Russell's decision to become a permanent resident:

"We have great pleasure in announcing the arrival in this city of Mr. HENRY RUSSELL, the justly celebrated composer and vocalist. We understand it is his intention to become a resident, and to establish a musical institution amongst us, which shall be worthy of his reputation, and of the capital of the state.” --Albany Daily Advertiser (February 23, 1837), quoted approvingly in the Albany Argus, Friday, February 24, 1837.

The Albany Female Academy sponsored Russell, after Trustees

“resolved to appropriate the Chapel of their Academy, at such times as it may not be required for the ordinary exercises of the institution, to the use of a school, or ACADEMY OF MUSIC, and have guaranteed to Mr. Russell such compensation for his services as has induced him to determine to remain with us, in the full confidence that they will be sustained by their fellow citizens in this enterprize, and that they shall be suffered to sustain no pecuniary loss.”  --Albany Argus, February 1837

As announced in the Argus, Russell ("with whose rich melody our citizens are always charmed") gave a concert on the Fourth of July, 1837 "at the Female Academy, North pearl-street." Herman Melville's sister Augusta Melville was enrolled that year in the Second Department of the Albany Female Academy. Herman himself was in and out of Albany that year, working over the summer at his uncle's farm in Pittsfield, then teaching for a term in the Sikes District School. The proposed Academy of Music was never realized, as recalled in the Albany Evening Journal, December 23, 1837.

In September 1837 one reviewer in Albany criticized Russell for the "idle comic songs" in his repertoire.

Mr. RUSSELL’S Concert, last evening, went off admirably. The large hall of the Institute was filled with a highly fashionable audience. The interest produced by Mr. R’s singing is as fresh and exciting as when he first appeared among us. On this occasion, he was assisted by Professor ANDREWS and Mr. UNDERNER, whose Violin and Flute solos were delightfully executed. Mr. RUSSELL was himself in fine voice and gave several of his best pieces with the happiest effect. He is indeed a most gifted singer. Few melodists, like him, have the power, for a whole evening, to keep an audience entranced with emotion and delight.

But Mr. R., in our judgment, is acquiring one injurious habit. His comic songs are in bad taste. He destroys the effect and mars the beauty of his great powers, by descending from the touching sweetness of “The Old English Gentleman,” the rich, rolling melody of “The Bare Old Oak,” the thrilling interest of the “Wind of the Winter’s Night,” and above all, the sublimity of the “Sceptic’s Lament,” down to the light, vapid, senseless nothings which he too frequently introduces. These idle comic songs are unworthy of Mr. R.’s voice and powers. And besides, we can hear them better sung at the Theatres, the Circus and the Museum.

To mistake its forte, however, is one of the infirmities of genius. GARRICK, the soul of comedy, always had a passion for the tragic muse.— JOHN QUINCY ADAMS, the ablest prose writer in America, runs into the folly of perpetrating doggerels which all but disgrace him. Mr. RUSSELL, in the kindest manner, volunteered several songs last Evening, but they were all calculated to undervalue his genius. His admirers are from the intellectual classes, and cannot be interested with trifles and frivolity. They want the gold without the dross. --Albany Evening Journal, Wednesday, September 13, 1837

The closing aesthetic judgement of John Quincy Adams and his weakness for "perpetrating doggerels" sheds light on Melville's marginal comment in his Milton volume. Annotating Milton's reference to Caesar's abandoned tragedy of Ajax in the preface to Samson Agonistes, Melville wrote

 "J. Q. A. might have followed his example."  --Melville's Marginalia Online

As the unsigned review of Henry Russell's concert shows, JQA's "folly" of versifying was already a staple of cultural criticism in Melville's Albany by September 1837.

• A Life on the Ocean Wave - Biography of Henry Russell by Andrew Lamb at Amazon

• Raymond J. Walker's review of Lamb's biography 

• Online biography by Marcus Roberts at JTrails - National Anglo-Jewish Heritage Trail

• Biography in Papers of the Manchester Literary Club

• Obituary in The Musical Times 

Ads in Albany, November 4, 1833

You could see Mr. Parsons and Mrs. Greene in Macbeth at the Albany Theatre, and "striking likenesses of these celebrated Indian warriors, Black Hawk, Prophet and Son" at the Albany Museum. Last month somebody made off with a "HAIR COVERED TRUNK" full of Gansevoort Melville's fur caps. The young (almost eighteen) furrier is offering a "$20 REWARD" for return of the contents. His brother Herman, already 14 years old, still works at the bank.

Albany Argus, November 4, 1833 / found at Fulton History

Not in the old Melville Log

The earliest help wanted ad I can find transcribed in my 1951 edition of The Melville Log is the one for hat trimmers in March 1836. Here's one from 1833. In this 1833 ad, Gansevoort specifically wants female applicants: "25 girls who are experienced hands at making fur and hair caps." Published in the Albany Argus August 31, 1833:

In the extant portion of his diary Gansevoort notes on January 18, 1834 that he "went to store and paid the hands off." Now I"m wondering, were some of these "hands" recently hired "girls"?

In the same issue of the Albany Argus that carried Gansevoort's 1833 help wanted ad, the following original poem appeared over the (less than humble?) signature of "AVON BARD." Long after, a correspondent of the Argus (December 4, 1844) identified "Avon Bard" as W[illiam]. H[owe]. C[uyler] Hosmer, author of Yonnandio: "Hosmer's Indians are the real hunters of the forest, with all their faults and with all their noble traits of character...."

Born in Avon, New York, nineteen-year old Hosmer wrote a number of poems for the Albany Argus in 1833 over his pseudonym "Avon Bard." "The Indian's Death Song" does not appear in Hosmer's 1854 collection, The Poetical Works of William H. C. Hosmer.

FOR THE ARGUS. 

THE INDIAN’S DEATH-SONG

   The sun was slowly sinking to his ocean
Couch, and purple clouds were gathering in
The west. It was the hour when joyous hearts
Are filled with melancholy musings. Perched
On a mossy bough, the warbling red-breast
With the brook kept tune; the plaintive strain
A requiem seemed for dying leaves and flowers.
The Genesee his swelling banks between, bathed
In a golden flood, rolled on. Upon a rock
Which overhung his wave, an Indian stood;
On him the sculptor would have gladly
Gazed, and realized have found his dreams
Of manly beauty. The passing breeze the dark
Locks lifted from his dusky brow, on which was
Deeply traced the lines of thought. His features
Wore a sad expression; though at times, his falcon
Eye would flash, as if he mused on unrequited wrongs:
And when the sun went down, he westward
Gazed, as if his spirit panted to commence its
Flight to happy hunting-grounds. The scene,
The hour, the memory of buried joys recalled,
And the old chief, with gesture wild, thus sang:

“Thy waves, dark-rolling Genesee, still lave the flowery shore—
To gaze upon thy turbid tide, I have returned once more:
Thy glassy bosom pictures yet the sunbeam and the cloud,
Although the oak which fringed thy bank the ringing axe hath bowed;
The music of thy waters still bends with the wild bird’s song,
Although the vale is sadly changed through which you wind along;
The sun smiles on the meadow green, once shadowed by the wood,
And domes of beauty crown the hill where our rude cabin stood.
Where echoed once the hunter-shout, and blazed the council fire,
The joyous harvest-song is heard, and skyward points the spire;
The antlered monarch of the wood to distant wilds hath gone,
And velvet moss hath gathered now upon the altar stone;
The wild duck hath forsaken, too, his water-girdled nest—
Unscared, in streams far, far away, he bathes his glossy breast;
The bow of strength is broken now, from which the arrow flew,
The dusky pilot guides no more his flying bark canoe.
I visited the hallowed spot where my dead sires reposed;
But ah! The secrets of the tomb the plough-boy had disclosed:
And when I saw their bleaching bones to every eye revealed,
The long-sealed fount of childish tears was willingly unsealed.
The dark haired maid will not again, in pensive twilight hours,
To strew upon the grassy mound, bring blooming forest flowers;
The waving grain is bending there its bearded head of gold,
And strangers tread with careless foot upon their ashes cold.
The grave is rifled of the charms, by some destroying hand,
Placed there to guide their fainting steps unto the spirit land.
The waterfall, which rudely sends its murmur to my ear,
In solemn language telleth me the angry dead are near;
And when the winds sigh mournfully among the forest leaves,
Methinks for his degraded race my father’s spirit grieves.
The pale-face long since offered us the cup with poisoned brim—
Our lion hearts grew cowardly, our falcon eyes grew dim;
To join the spirits of my tribe, this is a glorious eve,
Of this dark world, forever, now I take a mournful leave.”
A sullen plunge was faintly heard, his form was seen no more—
The river lakeward glided on as calmly as before.

AVON BARD.

Hosmer's last couplet with its "sullen plunge" reminds me of similar-sounding lines about burial at sea quoted elsewhere, for example in a popular Naval Reminiscence and William Arthur's A Mission to the Mysore. There the couplet with "sullen plunge" (or "sudden plunge" as also frequently given) comes from 1829 lines on Burial at Sea by Nathaniel H. Carter. Published in more than one New York Newspaper, including the New York Observer, the New York Mirror, and  New York Evening Post.

The closing scene—the burial at sea.
From his room to the deck they brought him drest
For his funeral rites, by his own request,
With his boots, and stock, and garments on,
And naught but the breathing spirit gone;
For he wished a child might come and lay
An unstartled hand upon his clay.
   Then they wrapp'd his corse in the tarry sheet,
To the dead, as Araby's spices, sweet,
And prepared him to seek the depths below,
Where waves never beat, nor tempests blow.
No steeds with their nodding plumes were here,
No sable hearse, and no coffin'd bier,
To bear with parade and pomp away
The dead, to sleep with his kindred clay.
But the little groupe—a silent few,
His companions, mixed with the hardy crew.
Stood thoughtful around, till a prayer was said,
O'er the corse of the deaf, unconscious dead.
Then they bore his remains to the vessel's side,
And committed them safe to the dark blue tide;
One sullen plunge, and the scene is o'er,
The sea rolled on as it rolled before. 
In that classical sea, whose azure vies
With the green of its shores and the blue of its skies,
In some pearly cave—in some coral cell,
Oh! the dead shall sleep as sweetly, as well
As if shrined in the pomp of Parian tombs,
Where the east and the south breathe their rich perfumes.
   Nor forgotten shall be the humblest one,
Though he sleep in the watry wastes alone,
When the trump of the angel sounds with dread,
And the sea, like the earth, gives up its dead.  --New York Mirror, Vol 10 

 It's kind of like the Pequod voyage from beginning to end in one rhymed couplet.

"...we gave three heavy-hearted cheers, and blindly plunged like fate into the lone Atlantic."  --Moby-Dick, Merry Christmas

"... then all collapsed, and the great shroud of the sea rolled on as it rolled five thousand years ago."  --Moby-Dick, chapter 135

Clarel noticed and quoted in the Daily Albany Argus

Daily Albany [New York] Argus / July 17, 1876

This one turns up when you search the historical newspapers at Genealogy Bank for HERMAN MELLVILLE, with four L's. The notice (transcribed below) does not mention Typee or Moby-Dick, but the choice to give the lullaby sung by the Lyonese from the canto titled The Prodigal (Clarel 4.26) indicates a discerning and sympathetic reader.

CURRENT LITERATURE. 

CLAREL: A Poem and Pilgrimage in the Holy Land, in two volumes. By Herman Mellville. New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons. Albany: E. Ellis & Co. 

This work is inscribed to the late Peter Gansevoort, of Albany, a kinsman of the author. It is the story of a student’s pilgrimage in the Holy Land, being divided into four parts, viz: I. Jerusalem. II. The Wilderness. III. Mar Saba. IV. Bethlehem. The poem is not what may be called a purely religious work, though it shows a proper appreciation of the sacred associations of the land of which it relates. As a descriptive poem it is quite meritorious, though not exactly the thing, we should say, to afford enduring fame to any author. A good idea of the writer’s talents may be gleaned from the following:

VALE OF ASHES. [Clarel 1.20] 

Beyond the city's thin resort
And northward from the Ephraim port
The Vale of Ashes keepeth place.
If stream it have which showeth face,
Thence Kedron issues when in flood:
A pathless dell men seldom trace;
The same which after many a rood
Down deepens by the city wall
Into a glen, where—if we deem
Joel's wild text no Runic dream—
An archangelic trump shall call
The nations of the dead from wreck,
Convene them in one judgment-hall
The hollow of Melchizedek. 

   That upper glade by quarries old
Reserves for weary ones a seat—
Porches of caves, stone benches cold,
Grateful in sultry clime to meet.
To this secluded spot austere,
Priests bore—Talmudic records treat—
The ashes from the altar; here
They laid them, hallowed in release,
Shielded from winds in glade of peace. 

*       *       *       *       *       *       *
“Lights of Shushan, if your urn
     Mellow shed the opal ray,
To delude one—damsels, turn,
     Wherefore tarry? Why betray ?
     Drop your garlands and away!
Leave me, phantoms that but feign:
Sting me not with inklings vain!

But, if magic none prevail,
     Mocking in untrue romance ;
Let your Paradise exhale
     Odors; and enlink the dance:
     And, ye rosy feet, advance
Till ye meet morn’s ruddy hours
Unabashed in Shushan’s bowers! ”

--Daily Albany Argus, Monday morning, July 17, 1876

Photo Credit: Vernon Wiering / The Binder's Ticket

Gansevoort Melville in Nashville, "The Dying Douglass" passage

The Battle of Chevy Chase by Edward Bird
Image Credit: The Douglas Archive

Henry Clay is a Whig Harry Hotspur in Gansevoort Melville's wild and romantic allegory. Martin Van Buren, modestly deferring to Polk in the 1844 presidential campaign, is represented as James, 2nd Earl of Douglas, heroically dying on the field of battle at Otterburn (Chevy Chase in English ballads). As Michael Paul Rogin reads the extravagant rhetoric of Herman Melville's older brother, Gansevoort

"glorified a Scottish rebel, not a loyal English prince. His Dying Douglass figure of speech not only killed Van Buren in the name of saving him; it also identified the Democratic party with usurpation."  --Subversive Genealogy

Here is the full "Dying Douglass" excerpt from the Albany Argus (September 25, 1844); found in the amazing newspaper archives at Fulton History:

Albany Argus (September 25, 1844)

Transcript

THE DYING DOUGLASS.

The last Nashville Union gives the following happy and brilliant passage from GANSEVOORT MELVILLE’S speech at the great Mass Meeting [August 15, 1844] at that place: 

After having dwelt at considerable length upon other topics of discussion, Mr. Melville, in the course of his speech, emphatically repelled the idea which the Whigs of Tennessee are so laborious in inculcating, that Mr. Van Buren is giving but a cold and insincere support to the nomination of Polk and Dallas, and after demonstrating the warm desire which he feels for the success of the Democratic candidates, spoke at length of the career, character and elevated position of Martin Van Buren in terms which drew from the auditors oft repeated and enthusiastic responses. In speaking of the magnanimity of Mr. Van Buren’s latest public act, his letter to the New York committee, Mr. Melville said: 

And here let us take from the simple page of history an illustration of kindred heroism. During the long and bloody warfare which existed between the English and Scotch for several centuries, many well contested and glorious actions were fought, but none better contested or more glorious than the battle of Otterbourne, which took place in the latter part of the fourteenth century. The opposing forces were well matched in point of numbers, bravery and discipline, and each headed by a leader of acknowledged prowess. The English rallied under the banner of the princely house of Percy, which, on that field, was represented well by the pride and hope of his ancient lineage, gallant Harry Percy—the Harry Hotspur of Shakespeare. The Scotch swarmed around a standard that bore aloft a bloody heart, the well known badge of haughty Douglass.—James, Earl of Douglass, a chieftain worthy of his heroic name, led them to the encounter. Thus equal in numbers, courage, and generalship, the battle raged for several hours, and the event was yet uncertain. The Scottish leader, in the hope of deciding the contest, gave the signal for a general charge, and, sword in hand and spur on heel, he led it gallantly. While waving his arm to his troops to invite them onward, an arrow pierced his heart. He fell from his saddle. His chiefs thronged around him. Death was perceptible on his brow. Everything near and dear to him was flitting from his grasp. His vast baronial estates, feudal honors, military fame, wife, children and friends, were to him as naught. They claimed not one single memory. He thought not of himself—his thoughts were all his country’s. But one idea occupied his mind and concentrated all his being. The life blood was oozing from his side—he felt it not. The hand of death was upon him—he heeded it not. His chiefs had raised him from the ground. Opening his glazing eyes he said: 

"I am dying. There is a tradition in our family that a dead Douglass shall win a field; and I trust that it may this day be accomplished. Advance my standard—shout my war cry and avenge my fall."

They left him there to die. They did as they were directed. They charged upon the enemy with the hurricane charge of men determined to do or die. The enemy that heretofore had maintained their ground gave way, and were driven before that charge as the chaff before the wind. The result was no longer doubtful—the victory was most decisive. Hotspur and his brother were taken prisoners. HENRY CLAY is the HARRY HOTSPUR of the whig party. (Here the speaker was broken in upon with a shout from tens of thousands of voices, that seemed to rend the very heavens.)

Mr. Melville proceeded. In this historical reminiscence let him read his fate. We have lost our favorite leader, but we remember his parting words. And in November, 1844, there will be another charge akin to that of Otterbourne—a charge of the labour and manhood of the land—the Iron legions that never quail—the serried phalanx of the unterrified democracy. The result of that charge is easily foreseen; for [i]n obedience to that great universal law of nature which bids the weaker give way to the stronger, Henry Clay and his cohorts, struggle as they may, must go down before it. That onslaught of the united democratic forces, in November next, will close the chequered political life of the great Kentucky statesman—will seal the fate of the modern Hotspur—herald the advent of the rising star of Tennessee, and vindicate the supremacy of that heaven-[born] spirit of progress, love and truth, which is one and identical with true democracy. (The cheering that followed Mr. Melville’s speech, and attended its delivery at intervals, throughout, was long, loud and enthusiastic.)

Grand Democratic Banner
via Library of Congress

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