Main currents in American thought An interpretation of American literature from the beginnings to 1920
III. Alexander H. Stephens--Constitutionalist: The man--passion
for freedom under law. His localism expressed
in states rights. A confirmed liberal--fear of extra-legal
powers. His _Constitutional View of the War
between the States_. Theory of the terminable nature of
compact--doctrine of good will. A political thinker,
rather than economic. Position on slavery 82
IV. Francis Lieber--A New-Modeled Federalism: A German
liberal influenced by English constitutional
practice and the common law. His doctrine of historical
evolution. Liberty founded in institutional self-government.
A _laissez-faire_ conception of the political state 93
III. The Dream of a Greek Democracy
I. Difficulty of the southern position. A reply to northern
industrialism--civilization and labor exploitation.
Contrast between wage-slavery and black slavery--certain
advantages of the latter. Southern replies to
_Uncle Tom’s Cabin_ 99
II. William J. Grayson: _The Hireling and the Slave_ as a
southern document. A contrast: the wretchedness
of the wage-slave in industrial centers; the contentment
of the black slave on the plantation. His attack
on Abolitionists 103
IV. Adventures in _Belles-Lettres_
I. Old Charleston: The capital of the planters--aristocratic,
Puritan, Victorian. Traditional home of Federalism.
Culture old-fashioned. A distinguished
society 109
II. William Crafts--Charleston Wit: A southern Robert
Treat Paine, seeking to domesticate Boston culture
in Charleston. His work 112
III. Hugh Swinton Legaré--Intellectual: A southern
Puritan. His career. A legal scholar, interpreting
politics in terms of the common law. A lexolater,
contemptuous of political philosophers. A juridical
romantic. Accepted the economics of _laissez faire_
and capitalism. Pessimistic in regard to the South.
Hostile to Nullification and Calhoun. The weakness
of slavery 114
IV. William Gilmore Simms: A plebeian snubbed by
Charleston, yet loyal to the Charleston parochialisms.
A realist hampered by the current romanticisms.
The most virile figure of the old South. A rich
and generous nature--likeness to Fielding. The
picaresque note in his work. Reasons for his exploitation
of “blood-pudding.” Lieutenant Porgy. His
two major themes: his special frontier compared with
Cooper’s; his revolutionary tales. His treatment of
the Indian. _The Yemassee_, compared with Cooper.
Later life 125
Part III
The Romance of the West
I. New Worlds
I. The Inland Empire and Jeffersonianism. Romance and
social change. Rise of the middle class, and clash of
philosophies. Economic origins of western Whiggery 137
II. Henry Clay: The embodiment of Whiggery. Reason
for his shift from Jeffersonianism. His theory of
paternalism 141
II. Two Spokesmen of the West
I. Andrew Jackson--Agrarian Liberal: The rise of western
equalitarianism. Federalist contempt for a Democrat.
Jackson our first great popular leader. Characteristics.
Early drift towards middle-class position;
reaction to agrarianism. Repudiation of Whiggery.
Hatred of aristocracy. His attitude toward the Bank
a return to the economics of John Taylor. His attitude
towards the state a modified Jeffersonianism. His
influence on American democracy. Effect on later
Whig strategy 145
II. Lincoln--Free-Soil Liberal: Liberalism and the Declaration
of Independence. A Jeffersonian who came to
the defense of natural rights. Equalitarianism and
_laissez faire_. The problem of free soil--a realist
seeking to reconcile them. His “divided house”
position an appeal to political realism. Good will
versus coercive sovereignty. The prose of his speeches.
Lincoln and the myth-makers 152
III. The Frontier in Letters: Romance and the Inland
Empire. Two main conceptions: Boone and the
Dark and Bloody Ground; Crockett and frontier
humor 161
I. The Romantic Frontier 162
II. The Realistic Frontier
(1) Augustus Longstreet and the Georgia Frontier:
The native realism of Georgia life. A frontier
plebeian who developed middle-class qualities.
A follower of Calhoun, but at bottom a Jeffersonian
agrarian. With the rise of Abolitionism abandoned
natural-rights philosophy. _Georgia Scenes_--the
note of realism 166
(2) The Davy Crockett Myth: The popular appeal of
the _Narrative_ and the rise of the Crockett myth.
Origin at Washington. Three stages: frontier
waggery; anti-Jackson spleen; the Alamo adventure.
A Whig attempt to catch the coonskin
vote--a by-product of Jacksonian methods. The
beginnings in _Sketches and Eccentricities_. Effect
on Davy. _The Tour_ and the _Life of Martin
Van Buren_. Conjectural authorship. How Davy
was made a Whig. The _Exploits and Adventures_.
_The Narrative_--the real Davy a wastrel 172
Book II: The Mind of the Middle East
A product of two centers: Philadelphia, New York. Lack of
intellectual backgrounds 183
I. The Old Capital
I. Philadelphia the capital of the older American culture.
Its contributions to the Revolutionary debates. Its
economic prospects curtailed by topography. Its
decline with the removal of the national capital 185
II. Brockden Brown and French liberalisms--influence
of Godwin and Mary Wollstonecraft. Explanation
of their appeal. _Alcuin; A Dialogue._ _Arthur Mervyn_,
a study in Godwinianism. _Wieland_ and the “blood-pudding”
school. Influence on later fiction in America 188
III. Robert Montgomery Bird: His contributions to the
romantic drama. _Nick of the Woods_--a realistic
treatment of the Indian. A contribution to the myth
of western humor 190
II. The New Capital
I. New York an economic rather than a cultural capital.
Reasons for its rise. The older Knickerbocker world
disintegrating. Stephen Van Rensselaer and John
Jacob Astor 193
II. Intellectual backgrounds: Lack of creativeness. Political
divisions. Emergence of the boss--Martin Van
Buren and Thurlow Weed 195
III. James Kent: The last of the old Federalist school.
His political theory--a disciple of Fisher Ames. His
_Commentaries on American Law_ 197
IV. Beginnings of the renaissance: _Salmagundi_; _The Croaker
Papers_. Fitz-Greene Halleck. His views--attitude
towards the proletariat. _Connecticut_; _Fanny_. The
last of the Wits 199
III. Two Knickerbocker Romantics
I. Washington Irving: His detachment. A _flâneur_. His
years abroad. Reaction to the Reform Bill. An
incipient liberal. Rediscovery of America. The
mission to Madrid. Contrast with Cooper. Political
principles--drift towards the middle class. _A Tour
of the Prairies_, _Astoria_, _Life of Washington_. His early
and late work contrasted 203
II. James Kirke Paulding: His origins--a son of the
people, distrustful of the middle class. Defense of
America against the English critics. His idealism.
_The Backwoodsman_; _The Puritan and his Daughter_.
His rejection of English “blood-pudding” romantic.
A Jeffersonian: _Letters from the South_ an echo of John
Taylor’s agrarianism; opposed Clay’s American Plan;
satirized Clay in _Koningsmarke_. _Westward Ho!; The
Dutchman’s Fireside._ An amateur in letters 212
IV. James Fenimore Cooper--Critic: The problem of
Cooper. A barometer of his generation. Troubled by
the transition from an aristocratic to a capitalistic
order--lingered between worlds. His Tory origins--Judge
William Cooper. Abandoned Federalism yet
ill content with Democracy. Effect of his European
travels. Likeness to John Adams--hated all cant.
Two phases of his criticism: the older Federalist
theories; the fallacies of capitalism. _The Monikins_--an
attack on the stake-in-society theory. _The Redskins_--an
attack on capitalistic exploitation. A
romanticized eighteenth century his refuge against
the vulgarities of Jacksonianism and capitalism.
_Home as Found_ and _The Redskins_ as studies in social
criticism. His love of the wilderness and hatred of
the frontier. The anti-rent trilogy. Picture of the
squatter. His growing realism--_Wyandotté_. His
later political philosophy--an ethical interpretation
of sovereignty. Failure of the critics to understand
Cooper 222
V. Some Contributions of New England
I. William Cullen Bryant--Puritan Liberal: Injustice
done him by neglect of his journalistic work. An
original mind. Transition from Federalist to Democrat.
Influence of the English economists--an
English liberal. Never a Jeffersonian, but anti-Whig.
Influence of William Leggett and Parke Godwin.
Attitude towards the labor movement. Defense of
free speech. A critic of the rising capitalism 238
II. Horace Greeley--Yankee Radical: A practical man
seeking a way out of the confusions of the times. His
early life; defense of protectionism. His working
back to Jeffersonianism. Interest in Fourierism.
Champion of the farmer and the wage-earner. His
“Vote Yourself a Farm” policy. Interest in the
proletariat--interpretation
of slavery. Coöperation. An idealist 247
III. Herman Melville--Pessimist: The source of his pessimism
in life itself--effect of frustrations. His ancestry:
the Gansevoort strain; the Melville strain. Contrast
between mother and son; effect of his marriage.
Stages toward pessimism marked by _Typee_, _Mardi_,
_Moby Dick_, _Pierre_. Transcendentalism and reality.
His democracy. A critic of America. Spiritual
dissatisfactions--_Clarel_ 258
Book III: The Mind of New England
The New England renaissance the last expression in America of
eighteenth-century revolutionary thought. Given a native ethical
bias. Twin tendencies of earlier New England. Static conditions
of life--the renaissance a movement of liberalism, shaped
by the Puritan strain 271
Part I
The Twilight of Federalism
I. The Passing of the Tie-Wig School