Part 12

'THE TIMES THAT TRIED MEN'S SOULS.'--'Advance, ye future generations! We would hail you, as you rise in your long succession, to fill the places which we now fill, and to taste the blessings of existence, where we are passing, and soon shall have passed, our own human duration!' Such appeared to be the sentiment of a benevolent-looking revolutionary veteran, the well-known Mr. ALLAIRE, of this city, as he sat upon the deck of the Charleston and New-York Steam-Packet 'NEPTUNE,' on the occasion of her recent launch, and surveyed the faces of the gay and light-hearted group around him. As the noble craft glided gracefully and almost imperceptibly into the water, and shot far over toward the Brooklyn shore, the 'old man eloquent' remarked: 'Well, I remember Brooklyn, when there were but eight houses in it. Now look at it!' added he, with a gesture of pride, that he had lived to see its present prosperity. 'And New-York, too,' he continued, 'I remember New-York when there was not a house above the hospital. I recollect, when they were digging down Catharine-street, how they disinterred the feet of the Hessians, in the side-banks, where they had been hastily buried, many years before. I read the Declaration of Independence,' continued the venerable patriot, 'for the first time, at a sudden and enthusiastic gathering at Tarrytown, before three thousand people. I heard the shouts of applause from the true American spirits, and saw the tories open their mouths, and _pretend_ to hurrah, yet no voice came from their false lips. But they were forced, in such an assemblage, to make a demonstration, to avoid suspicion.' And thus the old veteran went on, a true exemplification of 'garrulous eld.'

At the sumptuous entertainment which succeeded, at the residence of that true sailor and accomplished gentleman, Capt. PENNOYER, commander of the 'Neptune,' we could not take our eyes from the aged soldier of the revolution, who occupied a place of honor, nor cease to think of the changes which he had seen in his day and generation. He lived _through_ 'the times that tried men's souls,' and which gave birth to the freedom of our noble republic. We could look at the picture in the glowing light of the present, and the gorgeous hues that robe the future; but, to adopt the beautiful thought of SCOTT, _he_ could turn the tapestry, and see the blood-stained warp and woof which bore the ground colors, and composed the prominent objects.

While upon the subject of revolutionary times, it will not be inappropriate to introduce here two letters of GENERAL WASHINGTON, which have never before been published. They were recently copied by the junior publisher of this Magazine, from the originals in the possession of his grandfather, to whom they were addressed. This gentleman was President of a Massachusetts 'Council of Safety,' and was high in the esteem and confidence of the Pater Patria. Nothing can be more characteristic than the deliberation, the close scrutiny into consequences, which these letters evince; compelled, as the writer was, to guard against the cavils of the disaffected or the envious, who had neither candor to suppose good meanings, nor discernment to distinguish true ones, in the announcement of his projects:

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_Cambridge, August 22, 1775._

'SIR: In answer to your favor of yesterday, I must inform you that I have often been told of the advantages of Point Alderton, with respect to its command of the shipping going in and out of Boston harbor; and that it has, before now, been the object of my particular inquiry. I find the accounts differ exceedingly in regard to the distance of the ship-channel, and that there is a passage on the other side of the Light-House Island for all vessels except ships of the first rate. My knowledge of this matter would not have rested upon inquiry only, if I had found myself, at any one time since I came to this place, in a condition to have taken such a post. But it becomes my duty to consider not only what place is advantageous, but what number of men are necessary to defend it; how they can be supported, in case of an attack; how they may retreat, if they cannot be supported, and what stock of ammunition we are provided with, for the purposes of self-defence, or annoyance of the enemy. In respect to the first, I conceive our defence must be proportioned to the attack of General GATES' whole force, leaving him just enough to man his lines on Charlestown Neck and Roxbury; and with regard to the second and most important object, we have only one hundred and eighty-four barrels of powder in all, which is not sufficient to give thirty musket-cartridges a man, and scarce enough to serve the artillery, in any brisk action, a single day.

'Would it be prudent, then, in me, under these circumstances, to take a post thirty miles distant from this place, when we already have a line of circumvallation at least ten miles in extent, and any part of which may be attacked (if the enemy would keep their own counsel,) without our having one hour's previous notice of it? Or is it prudent, to attempt a measure which would necessarily bring on a consumption of all the ammunition we have, thereby leaving the army at the mercy of the enemy, or to disperse, and the country to be ravaged, and laid waste at discretion? To you, Sir, who are a well-wisher to the cause, and can reason upon the effect of such a conduct, I may open myself with freedom, because no improper discoveries will be made of our situation; but I cannot expose my weakness to the enemy, (though I believe they are pretty well informed of every thing that passes,) by telling this and that man, who are daily pointing out this, that, and the other place, of all the motives which govern my actions. Notwithstanding, I know what will be the consequences of not doing it, namely: that I shall be accused of inattention to the public service, and perhaps with want of spirit to prosecute it. But this shall have no effect upon my conduct. I will steadily (as far as my judgment will assist me,) pursue such measures as I think most conducive to the interest of the cause, and rest satisfied under any obloquy that shall be thrown, conscious of having discharged my duty to the best of my abilities.

'I am much obliged to you, as I shall be to every gentleman, for pointing out any measure which is thought conducive to the public good, and cheerfully follow any advice which is not inconsistent with, but correspondent to, the general plan in view, and practicable, under such particular circumstances as govern in all cases of the like kind. In respect to Point Alderton, I was no longer than Monday last talking to General THOMAS on this head, and proposing to send Colonel PUTNAM down, to take distances, etc., but considered it could answer no end but to alarm, and make the enemy more vigilant. Unless we were in a condition to possess the post to effect, I thought it as well to postpone the matter awhile.

'I am, Sir,

'Your Very Humble Servant,

'GEO: WASHINGTON.'

'HON. J. PALMER, Watertown, Mass.'

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Mark the just policy and far-reaching sagacity which the subjoined letter evinces, nor lose sight of the numerous difficulties and dangers which environed the writer, and threatened his plans:

_Cambridge, August 7, 1775._

'SIR: Your favor of yesterday came duly to my hands. As I did not consider local appointments as having any operation upon the general one, I had partly engaged (at least in my own mind) the office of Quarter Master General, before your favor was presented to me. In truth, Sir, I think it sound policy to bestow offices, indiscriminately, among gentlemen of the different governments, so far as to bear a proportionable part toward the expense of this war. If no gentleman out of these four governments come in for any share of the appointments, it may be apt to create jealousies, which will in the end give disgust. For this reason, I would earnestly recommend it to your board to provide for some of the volunteers who are come from Philadelphia, with my warm recommendations, though they are strangers to me.

'In respect to the boats from Salem, I doubt, in the first place, whether they could be brought over by land. In the second place, I am sure nothing could ever be executed here by surprise, as I am well convinced, that nothing is transacted in our camp or lines, but what is known in Boston in less than twenty-four hours. Indeed, circumstanced as we are, it is scarcely possible to be otherwise, unless we were to stop the communication between the country and our camp and lines; in which case, we should render our supplies of milk, vegetables, etc., difficult and precarious. We are now building a kind of floating battery; when that is done, and the utility of it discovered, I may possibly apply for timber to build more, as circumstances shall require.

'I remain, with great esteem, Sir,

'Your most Obedient and Humble Servant,

'GEO: WASHINGTON.'

'HON'BLE J. PALMER, Watertown, Mass.'

We shall hereafter present an original and characteristic letter from General WARREN, written the night before the battle of Bunker-Hill.

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IN justice to the writer of the ensuing defence, which has been in our possession since its date, it is proper to say, that we have received, from various and most reputable sources, the strongest testimony in relation to his personal character. He is represented to us as a gentleman of untiring industry and perseverance, who, often under circumstances of adversity and affliction, has labored diligently and successfully, for a long series of years, in an arduous avocation, and whose reputation for probity, and honorable and generous acts, is alike unimpeachable and undeniable. Of the merits of his works, having never examined them, we are unable to form an opinion, farther than may be gathered from the almost unexampled extent of their sale.

EDS. KNICKERBOCKER.

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TO THE EDITORS OF THE KNICKERBOCKER.

GENTLEMEN: In the June number of the KNICKERBOCKER, I have seen an 'extract' purporting to be taken from the 'Introduction' of a yet unpublished work upon English grammar, by GOOLD BROWN, which extract seems to be a sort of criticism levelled at me and my works, but more especially at my Grammar. Judging from the fury of this assault, one would be inclined to think, that my antagonist believed his very existence as an author depended upon his annihilation of me, and that my future popularity and success are dependant upon _his_ opinion of me and my works! My Grammar, gentlemen, has been attacked by abler writers than Goold Brown, and has passed through the ordeal of their criticisms unscathed. It is not to be expected, therefore, that I should care a groat whether this self-constituted philological umpire likes the work or not. Indeed, I would rather he would _not_ like it; for sure I am, that if he liked it, few others would; a clear proof of which we have, in a dull book on grammar, which he himself produced, some twelve or fifteen years ago, on a plan and in a style exactly suited to his own peculiar liking. Since then, it never entered into my scheme to write a grammar to suit the taste of my jealous rivals, but to please myself and the public. Having gained the latter point, I can very complacently bear all the futile abuse which may be heaped upon me.

I know it is mortifying for an author to fail, especially a conceited one. I admit that it is hard for him to write eleven years for nine hundred dollars,[7] even though his labors may not have been worth to the public one-half that sum. It is natural, too, for such writers, after having ascertained that nobody will _purchase_ their bantlings, to turn philosophers, and become very disinterested, and affect to despise the idea of connecting _emolument_ with the labors of their mighty pens. Doubtless, also, it is sufficiently provoking, and especially mortifying to a discomfitted author's vanity, to learn that the works of a much younger writer, and one upon whom he once affected to look down as his inferior, should go off by _thousands_, while his own precious productions are with difficulty shoved off by _tens_. That such an author should find nothing to praise in a work so much more popular than his own, is not at all singular; yet, when a conceited charlatan, himself a professed author, (and a pretended _Quaker_, withal!) so far departs from the dignity and decency of manly feeling, as to attempt, by gross misrepresentations and low trickery, to destroy the hard-earned and honest fame of a more successful fellow-laborer, for purposes of private malice, a decent respect for the dignity of true criticism and the rights of authorship, no less than a proper regard for the cause of learning, requires that he should be held up to public detestation.

Had Goold Brown merely dipped his pen in gall to assail my _work_, so little do I regard his criticism, so great is my aversion to contention, and so thorough my contempt for mere mousing word-catching, that he might have gone on and vented his spleen unheeded; but since he has seen fit thus wantonly to assail my private character, and to impeach my motives, and since he has attempted to sustain himself in this unjustifiable attack, by misapplying my language and distorting my meaning, I conceive myself called upon to expose his duplicity and baseness. That he is utterly incapable of discovering any thing in the grammatical works of others, but faults and defects, I need not show, for the article in question saves me the trouble; but that his assault upon me savors strongly of malevolence and dishonesty, I shall presently _prove_. He has, nevertheless, stated some facts in relation to my Grammar, although, as it appears, quite unintentionally; and, as far as facts stated by _him_ can have any influence with the public, they will do me good. On the other hand, he has made many statements concerning me and my works, which are _not_ founded upon facts. Most of these, however, so clearly show the evil design of the critic, that they need no reply. As they carry with them their own antidote, I have nothing to apprehend from their poison. But some of these misstatements are more adroitly managed, and are calculated to mislead the unsuspecting reader. I allude to his charges brought against both my personal and my grammatical character, which he has attempted to support by garbling, torturing, misquoting, misconstruing, and misapplying my language, and thereby _perverting_ my meaning. In order, therefore, that the public may be disabused on these points, I shall proceed to take them up in order.

After denouncing me as a 'bad writer,'and as wanting in 'scholarship,' and insinuating that I would 'bribe the critics and reviewers,' my liberal and _pious_ censor all at once discovers, through his rusty spectacles, not only that I am so unprincipled as totally to disregard 'accuracy' and usefulness in authorship, but that my 'principal business is to turn my publication to profit;' that I am, in short, a real worshipper of Midas; and, in order to prove himself correct in this marvellous discovery, the _honest_ man presents his readers with the following passage:

'Murray,' says he, 'simply intended to do good, and good which might descend to posterity. This intention goes far to excuse even his errors. But Kirkham says, 'My pretensions reach not so far. _To the present generation only_ I present my claims.' _Elocution_, p. 364. His whole design is, therefore, a paltry scheme of present income.'

The injustice and roguery of this passage, it is impossible for the casual reader fully to conceive. After forming a postulate to fit his own purpose, the critic ransacks my works to garble a passage that, by contortion and misapplication, shall fit it in such a manner as to make me utter a _libel_ against my own moral character! My pen falters while I expose the duplicity of this transaction. 'Murray simply intended to do good.' Kirkham says, 'My pretensions reach not so far.' So far as what? As to _do good_, of course. This is undoubtedly the meaning INTENDED to be conveyed by the wily critic. But let us look at the meaning of the passage, when taken in its original connexion, as it stands in my Elocution. It occurs at the close of that work, in some eulogistic remarks made upon Dr. JAMES RUSH, the distinguished author of the 'Philosophy of the Human Voice.' The whole passage reads thus:

'Dr. Rush, in his 'Philosophy of the Human Voice,' boldly addresses _posterity_. This is manly; and I hazard little in prophesying, that posterity will gladly give him a hearing. My pretensions reach not so far. To the present generation only I present my claims. Should it lend me a listening ear, and grant me its suffrages, the height of my ambition will be attained. Though unwilling to be a mere _time-server_, yet I know not that I have any thing on which to rest my claims upon generations to come.'

Now instead of saying in this passage that 'my pretensions reach not so far as _to do good_,' I simply say, that they reach not so far _as those of Dr. Rush_!--and the passage is so free from ambiguity as to render it impossible for my opponent to have mistaken my meaning. Mistaken it, indeed! He very well KNEW, when he penned this slanderous paragraph, that my professed object in writing school-books WAS to 'do good;' and yet he has the hardihood to hoax his readers into the belief that I openly disavow any such intention! Comment is unnecessary. And yet this is the modest man who has the effrontery to call in question the _motives_ of him whom he traduces; to lecture him upon the principles of morality and justice; and cantingly to quote scripture _at_ him! He intimates that I have not the moral courage to 'dare to do right.' I have the courage to dare to _tell the truth_.

But since my antagonist has maliciously attempted, by misquoting my language, to prove that I disavow any intention either to do good or to do right, perhaps I may be indulged in a few quotations, too, from my own works, merely with the view of presenting this matter in its proper light:

'In gratitude, therefore, to that public which has smiled so propitiously on his humble efforts to advance the cause of learning, he has endeavored, by unremitting attention to the _improvement_ of his work, to render it as _useful_ and as _unexceptionable_ as his time and talents would permit.' _Kirkham's Grammar_, p. 7.

'Apprehensive, however, that no explanatory effort on his part, would shield him from the imputation of arrogance, by such as are blinded by self-interest, or by those who are wedded to the doctrines and opinions of his predecessors, with _them_ he will not attempt a compromise; being, in a great measure, indifferent either to their praise or their censure. But with the candid he is willing to negotiate an amicable treaty, knowing that they are always ready to enter into it on honorable terms. In this negotiation, he asks nothing more than merely to rest the merits of his work on its _practical utility_.' _Grammar_ p. 9.

'Content to be _useful_, instead of being _brilliant_, the writer of these pages has endeavored to shun the path of those whose aim appears to have been to dazzle, rather than to instruct.' _Grammar_, pp. 9 and 10.

'He has taken the liberty _to think for himself_, to investigate the subject critically and dispassionately, and to adopt such principles only as he deemed the least objectionable, and best calculated to effect the object he had in view.' _Grammar_, p. 10.

'Should these feeble efforts prove a saving of much time and expense to those young persons who may be disposed to pursue this science with avidity, by enabling them easily to acquire a critical knowledge of a branch of education so important and desirable, _the author's fondest anticipations will be fully realized_.' _Grammar_, p. 12.

'This flattering success, then, in his first essay in authorship, (alluding to my Grammar,) has encouraged the writer to adventure upon another branch of science, which, for some years past, has particularly engaged his attention. That he is capable of doing ample justice to his present subject, he has not the vanity to imagine; but, if his knowledge, drawn from observation, and experience in teaching elocution, enable him so to treat the science as to call the attention of some to its cultivation, and induce others more capable than himself to write upon it, he will thereby contribute his mite toward rescuing from neglect a branch of learning, which, in its important bearings upon the prosperity of the free citizens of this great republic, stands second to none; and thus, in the consciousness of _having rendered a new service to his country_, he will secure the reward of his highest ambition.' _Kirkham's Elocution_, p. 8.

These examples are sufficient to show, at least as far as my own observations are concerned, by what motives I have been actuated in the production of my works. That these motives are more pure or patriotic than those of other men who have written upon the same subjects, I have never pretended; for I am ready to acknowledge that I am subject to the weaknesses and infirmities common to human nature. But it is evident, that what has so greatly annoyed my antagonist is not the defects, but the success, of my Grammar.

In the following passage, our critic attempts to prove me grossly inconsistent with myself:

'Nothing can be more radically opposite,' says he, 'than are some of the elementary doctrines which this gentleman is now teaching; nothing more strangely inconsistent than are some of his declarations and professions. For instance: 'A consonant is a letter that cannot be perfectly sounded without the help of a vowel.' _Kirkham's Grammar_, p. 19. Again: 'A consonant is not only capable of being perfectly sounded without the help of a vowel, but, moreover, of forming, like a vowel, a separate syllable.' _Kirkham's Elocution_, p. 32. Once more: Upon _his own rules_, he comments thus, and comments truly, because he had written them badly: 'But some of these rules are foolish, trifling, and unimportant.' _Elocution_, p. 97. Again: 'Rules 10 and 11, rest on a sandy foundation. They appear not to be based upon the principles of the language.' _Grammar_, p. 59. These are but specimens of his own frequent testimony against himself!'

Now, in these instances, I should be fair game, were it not for the _trifling_ difference, that I happen to present the doctrines and notions of _other writers_, and WAS my own, as stated by my learned censor. For example; in 1823, I introduced into my Grammar, as Mr. Murray's definition, the old notion, that 'A consonant is a letter that cannot be perfectly sounded without the help of a vowel.' But in 1834, I presented in my Elocution Dr. Rush's opposite opinion, and _ascribed_ it to him. If, therefore, I had become fully satisfied that Dr. Rush is correct, it would behoove me to alter the definition as it stands in my Grammar; but, inasmuch as I am yet undecided on this point, I have not thought proper to do so.