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[[page from newspaper]] ^[[2 3]] 6 (38) THE INDEPENDENT |January 9, 1890. Justices. There is no use denying that the Senators were ahead of time, and their too early presence caused some embarrassment and confusion. The program gave the first time to the foreign visitors, the second to all of the courts, including the District, and the third to Senators and Representatives in Congress. Heretofore the United States legislators had entered close on the heels of the United States Supreme Court Justices, and their prompt appearance now was evidence that they preferred the old time to the new. The Army and Naval officers brought in bright color again; but after the first hour the glitter of uniforms had vanished, and the dreary weather began to show itself, in the processions of civil bodies marching through the rain. The crowd of ladies in reception toilets, asked to assist back of the line thinned out, the line itself dwindled away; and when the public reception began at 12:30 the Blue Room had changed from a scene of warmth and brilliancy, to one of coldness and half desertion. When the people stand patiently in the rain for hours that they may pay respects to the President, the President could receive no greater compliment, than their good wishes on New Year's Day. But the deserted Blue Room was no return for the peoples compliment. And it must be added that it was in marked contrast to the consideration shown the people under the last Administration, when President Cleveland's personal request was a command to his assistants to remain through the public reception. And what of the Vice-President's wife? the first Vice-President's wife in the White House on New Year's Day since twenty years. But more, a woman of handsome presence, graceful assurance, magnetism, and, above all, a tact amounting to finished diplomacy. "Mrs. Morton," said a visitor looking on, "makes the place; the place does not make Mrs. Morton." So it seemed, when little short of the first hour the Vice-President's wife withdrew to go home, where she held a reception during the afternoon, that was even more brilliant than the official part of the White House line. The Vice-President's official program was similar to that of the President's, except that Senators and Representatives and the Army and Navy were given precedence over District of Columbia officials. From 12 till 2 was given to official visitors, and from 2 till 3 to a public reception. Mrs. Morton received in the superb gown she wore at the White House, and she was assisted by at least a dozen attractive women in handsome toilets. The Vice-President's house has one of the most beautiful interiors in Washington, the new dining-room especially being spacious, and on New Year's Day opened to visitors. And now how will it all end? What will be the sequel of the President's and the Vice-President's first New Year's reception? Are we to have two "Courts" at the Capital? It would have been a graceful and gracious courtesy had the President's wife asked the Vice-President's wife to be her representative at the White House, people say. But she did not - and now why should not the Vice-President's wife hold her own little court? Why indeed, should she not? In the mean time official society is holding its breath while awaiting results. THE NATIONAL HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. BY HERBERT B. ADAMS, PH.D., SECRETARY OF THE ASSOCIATION AND PROFESSOR OF HISTORY IN JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY. THE AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION was organized at Saratoga, in 1884, with only forty members, for the promotion of historical studies. In six years this society has grown by a process of historical selection to a membership of 620 with one hundred life members. At the sixth annual meeting which was held in Washington, D.C., from the 28th to the 31st of December, 1889, there were present eight-nine members, the largest attendance in the history of the Association. The following is an alphabetical list of members present: Charles Kendall Adams, President; Herbert B. Adams, Secretary; Prof. H.C. Adams, Ann Arbor; Dr. Cyrus Adler, of Baltimore; Miss Maria Weed Alden, New York; Dr. Charles M. Andrews, Bryn Mawr; Dr. W.G. Andrews, Guilford, Conn; Dr. E.M. Avery, Cleveland; Prof. Simeon E. Baldwin, New Haven; Dr. Frederick A. Bancroft, Librarian of the State Department; George Bancroft, ex-President of the Association; Gen. William Birney, Washington; Prof. Edward S. Bourne, Adelbert College, Cleveland Henry E Bourne, Norwich Academy; Dr. Clarence W. Bowen, New York; Dr. Jeffrey R. Brackett, Baltimore; Prof. George L. Burr, Cornell University; Prof. Howard W. Caldwell, University of Nebraska; Gen. Henry B. Carrington, of Boston; Judge Mellen Chamberlain, of Boston; the Ref. Thomas S. Childs, D.D., Washington; A. Howard Clark, National Museum; Mendes Cohen, Secretary of the Maryland Historical Society; W.V. Cox, U.S. National Museum; Major-Gen. George W. Cullum, U.S.A., New York; Prof. R.H. Darling, Secretary of the Oneida Historical Society; Llewellyn Deane, Washington; Dr. Wm. A. Dunning, Columbia College; Paul Leicester Ford, Brooklyn; Mrs. Olivia M. Ford, Washington; George Fox, Hopkins Grammar School, New Haven; Dr. E.M. Gallaudet, President National Deaf-Mute College; Dr. G. Brown Goode, Assistant Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution; A.A. Graham, State Historical Society, Columbus; Judge Alexander B. Hagner, Washington; Charles H. Haskins, Baltimore; Prof. Paul Haupt, Baltimore; Gen. Joseph Hawley, U.S. Senate; Col. John Hay, Washington; Hon. Wm. Wirt Henry, Richmond, Vice-President of the Association; Hon. George F. Hoar, U.S. Senate; Prof. F.H. Hodder, Cornell University; Roswell Randall Hoes, U.S.N.; Hon. John Jay, Vice-President of the Association; Rear-Admiral Thornton A. Jenkins, U.S. Navy, Washington; Miss Elizabeth Bryant Johnston, Washington; Hon. Horatio King, Washington; John A. King, President New York Historical Society; Mrs. Martha J. Lamb, Editor of Magazine of American History; Edward G. Mason, President Chicago Historical Society; Prof. O.T. Mason, U.S. National Museum; John H.T. McPherson, Baltimore; Gen. R.D. Mussey, Washington; Judge Charles A. Peabody, New York; Prof. John Pollard, Richmond; Dr. William F. Poole, Librarian Newberry Library, Chicago; the Rev. J.E. Rankin, D.D., President Howard University; James F. Rhodes, Esq., Cleveland, Theodore Roosevelt, Civil Service Commission, Washington; Gen. Rufus Saxton, Washington; Dr. Walter B. Scaife, Baltimore; James Schouler, Esq., Boston; Prof. Austin Scott, Rutgers College; Wm. Henry Smith, President Associated Press, New York; Dr. Freeman Snow, Harvard University; A.R. Spofford, Library of Congress; Dr. Charles J. Stille, Philadelphia; Henry Stockbridge, Esq. Baltimore; George H. Stone, Esq., Cleveland; Henry Strong, Esq., Washington; John Osborne Sumner, Harvard University; Dr. William C. Teichmann, Washington; Dr. Joseph Meredith Toner, Library of Congress; Prof. Wm. P. Trent, University of the South; President Lyon G. Gyler, William and Mary College; John Martin Vincent, Johns Hopkins University; Mrs. Ellen Harden Walworth, Washington; Pres. Ethelbert D. Warfield, Miami University; J.E. Watkins, U.S. National Museum; Wm. B. Weeded, President Historical Association, Brown University; Pres. James C. Welling, Columbian University; ex-President Andrew D. White, Cornell University; W.W. Whilloughby, Johns Hopkins University; Gen. James Grant Wilson, New York; Prof. Thomas Wilson, U.S. National Museum; James A. Woodburn, Johns Hopkins University; Gen. Marcus J. Wright, War Records Office, Washington. The headquarters of the Association in Washington were at the Arlington Hotel. Three morning sessions, Saturday, Monday and Tuesday, were held from 10:30 to 1 o'clock at the National Museum by permission of the Regents of the Smithsonian Institution and three evening sessions on the same days, from 8 to 10 P.M. in the large lecture hall of the Columbian University, by invitation of Pres. James C. Welling. Sunday and the afternoon hours were free for social purposes. On Monday, from 4 to 7 o'clock, a tea was given to the members of the Association and their friends by Mr. and Mrs. Horatio King, 707 H Street, and on Tuesday afternoon, at the same hours, Mrs. Walworth extended to the Association a like courtesy at her new home 1300 L Street. By invitation of the board of management our members enjoyed the privileges of the Cosmos Club during the four days sojourn in Washington. Every evening after adjournment of the formal session of the Association at the Columbian University there was a social re-union at the Cosmos Club. On Monday afternoon and Tuesday morning, by invitation of the librarian, Dr. Bancroft, parties of historical students and specialists visited the State Department for an examination of the interesting archives there preserved. The Convention opened Saturday morning, December 28th, in the large lecture hall of the National Museum. The walls were decorated with the Catlin collection of Indian portraits, with pictures of Pueblos and Cliff dwellers, and with the busts of American statesmen. The room was admirably suited to the purposes of the Association. The curators of the Museum had introduced a number of cases for the display of interesting historical relics, books, manuscripts, etc., which attracted great attention on the part of the members as they entered or left the hall. The first paper presented at the morning session was by Prof. George L. Burr, of Cornell University, who has in his immediate charge the excellent historical library of ex-President Andrew D. White. The subject of Mr. Burr's paper was the Literature of Witchcraft, for the illustration of which ample materials had been found in Mr. White's library. The Literature of Witchcraft includes perhaps a thousand volumes. The earliest were written in the fifteenth century and their authors were Dominicans of the Inquisition. They regarded the subject as an old one. Indeed, the Church had always fought against magic. She had taught that the gods of the pagans were devils and that those who worshiped them were sorcerers. The belief in Satan was developed by medieval monks and the Church fathers, reinforced by Byzantine speculation. Belief in the Devil's activity in this world was elaborated by scholasticism into a system, of which the whole literature of witchcraft is but a broken reflection. To detect and punish the servants of Satan was the work of the Inquisition and the persecutors of witchcraft in England and New England. The second paper of Saturday morning's session was a Catechism of Political Reaction, by ex-President Andrew D. White. In his preface to this paper Mr. White called attention to the fact that while studies of the French Revolution in Europe have been developed to an enormous extent, there has been no corresponding treatment, indeed no adequate study of the reaction after the various revolutions. Mr. White's paper was a contribution to such a history. His essay was based upon a very rare and curious little book which he obtained at Sorrento three years ago. The book was a wonderfully well-argued and well written catechism by the Archbishop of Sorrento, who was placed by the King of the two Sicilies, about 1850, at the head of the Department of Public Instruction at Naples, and also made the tutor of the young prince. It contains the most amazing declarations of war against modern civilization, and indeed against nearly everything moral, political, or social, which the nineteenth century regards as a landmark of progress. It argues with wonderful force that the King is not bound by any oath that he may have sworn to maintain a constitution, and urges with extreme cleverness all the arguments in support of absolute government. Mr. White took up several chapters of this remarkable catechism and gave in detail the argument in each. The third paper was by Herbert Elmer Mills, Instructor in History, Cornell University, on the French Revolution in San Domingo. In 1789, San Domingo was by far the most important of the colonies of France. Commercially it was prosperous, but its population was divided into the Creole planters, the free "people of color," and the slaves, by far the most numerous class. Government was in the hands of the French Minister of Marine, and was administered by a Governor and an Intendant. The people had no political privileges, and this fact had long irritated the Creoles. At the first announcement of the approaching meeting of the States-General in France, the people in San Domingo took measures to secure representation, hoping thereby to win for themselves the control of the island. Delegates were chosen, but a careful study shows that the assemblies which elected them were widely scattered and by no means represented the entire body of the planters. At first the representatives were given a seat but not a voice among the Third Estate; but before the end of 1789 they had won recognition as entitled to six votes in the National Assembly. Meantime the free people of color in San Domingo had not been idle. Their representatives also appeared at the National Assembly and claimed seats. It has been assumed by historians that these representatives were actually elected in the Island and sent to Paris, but the truth is that they were chosen merely by members of this caste who were residents of Paris. No place was granted them in the National Assembly. Of course neither emancipation nor representation of the servile class was thought of either by the whites or the free people of color in San Domingo. The last paper of the morning session was read by Clarence W. Bowen on a newly discovered manuscript called Reminiscences of the American War of Independence, by Ludwig Baron von Closen, Aid to Count de Rochambeau. This manuscript was found in the early part of the year 1889 among the archives of the Von Closen family in their castle in Bavaria. A translation was sent to Mr. Bowen, who read brief extracts. Ludwig Baron von Closen, the author, was born August 14th, 1755, and in his early years entered the French military service. On the arrival of the French Expedition in Newport, R.I., in 1780, he was made Aid to Count de Rochambeau, commander of the expedition. Previously he had been captain in the regiment Royal Deux Ponts. On returning to France in 1783, Von Closen received from Louis XVI the order of Legion of Honor and the Order for Merit and, in 1792, was informed of his election with the permission of the King of France to the Order of the Cincinnati. He died in 1830. In his reminiscences he speaks of his visits to John Hancock of Massachusetts, Jonathan Trumbull of Connecticut, and Thomas Jefferson of Virginia. He conducted Washington from the Hudson River to Rochambeau at Newport. He reports the conferences between Washington, Rochambeau, Lafayette, and De Grasse near Yorktown. His visit to Mrs. Washington at Mount Vernon, a ball he gave at Baltimore, and visits to other sections of the country are described by Von Closen in the most charming manner. His reminiscences are full of historical interest and are an important addition to the literature of the French in America during the Revolutionary War. The evening session on Saturday began promptly at eight o'clock at Columbian University, with the Hon. John Jay, of New York, presiding. In a brief but comprehensive sketch Mr. Jay reviewed the work of the morning session and then introduced President Adams, who delivered an interesting Inaugural Address upon the Recent Historical Work of the Universities. He said that the first distinct professorship of history was established at Harvard University in 1839 for Jared Sparks. At Yale, as at other American colleges, history was long taught by means of text-books without much real enthusiasm. A real advance was made when Andrew D. White, fresh from original studies in France and Germany, entered upon an historical professorship in 1857 at the University of Michigan. From that institution President White's influence was transmitted to Cornell University, which developed the first distinct professorship of American history. Senator Hoar, after President Adam's address, called attention to the fact that Jared Sparks's lectures at Harvard University were largely upon American subjects and were at the same time original contributions to American history. Mr. Adams reviewed the progress of historical science in the various countries of Europe, including Great Britain, Holland, Belgium, Italy, Germany and France. His conclusion was that the best advantages for historical study are now to be found in the schools of Paris, and that before the achievements of European Universities American scholars find more to encourage humility than pride. Remarks were made upon President Adams's paper by President White. Prof. Austin Scott, of Rutgers College, justly called attention to the works of the smaller colleges in America and to the services of the late Professor Allen, of the University of Wisconsin, who was one of the most critical scholars and ablest teachers of history in this country. After the Inaugural address, Mendes Cohen, Corresponding Secretary of the Maryland Historical Society, gave an interesting account of the discovery of the Calvert papers in England, and of their recent publication in Baltimore. He exhibited to the Association the first volume, which has just appeared from the press. Mr. Cohen's statement of the progress of an important work undertaken by a State Historical Society perhaps foreshadows similar reports that may be presented at future meetings by delegates from the various historical societies of the United States and of Canada. The Association re-assembled Monday morning, December 30th, at half-past ten, in the National Museum, President Adams in the chair. The first paper was on the Origin and Early History of our National Scientific Institutions, by Dr. G. Brown Goode, Assistant Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution. Dr. Goode reviewed the entire history of scientific and philosophical societies in this country, and gave special attention to the development of literary and scientific institutions in the city of Washington. He called attention to the fact that, as early as 1775, when Washington was in his camp at Cambridge, Major Blodgett said to him that a national university ought to be erected
