Personal Memoirs of a Residence of Thirty Years with the Indian Tribes on the American Frontiers. Henry Rowe Schoolcraft

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СКАЧАТЬ Chicago, horses having been sent, for this purpose, from Chicago to meet us. There was not a house from Peoria to John Craft's, four miles from Chicago. I searched for, and found, the fossil tree, reported to lie in the rocks in the bed of the river Des Plaines. The sight of Lake Michigan, on nearing Chicago, was like the ocean. We found an immense number of Indians assembled. The Potawattomies, in their gay dresses and on horseback, gave the scene an air of Eastern magnificence. Here we were joined by Judge Solomon Sibley, the other commissioner from Detroit, whence he had crossed the peninsula on horseback, and we remained in negotiation with the Indians during fifteen consecutive days. A treaty was finally signed by them on the 24th of August, by which, for a valuable consideration in annuities and goods, they ceded to the United States about five millions of acres of choice lands.

      Before this negotiation was finished, I was seized with bilious fever, and consequently did not sign the treaty. It was of the worst bilious type, and acute in its character. I did not, indeed, ever expect to make another entry in a human journal. But a vigorous constitution at length prevailed, and weeks after all the party had left the ground, I was permitted to embark in a vessel called the Decatur on the 23d of September for Detroit. We reached Michilimackinack the seventh day of our voyage, and returned to Detroit on the 6th of October. The incidents and observations of this journey have been given to the public under the title "Travels in the Central Portions of the Mississippi Valley" (1 vol. pp. 459, 8vo.: New York).

      I still felt the effects of my illness on reaching Detroit, where I remained a few days before setting out for New York. On reaching Oneida County, where I stopped to recruit my strength, I learned that some envious persons, who shielded themselves under the name of "Trio," had attacked my Narrative Journal, in one of the papers during my absence. The attack was not of a character to demand a very grave notice, and was happily exposed by Mr. Carter, in some remarks in the columns of the Statesman, which first called my attention to the subject.

      "A trio of writers," he observes, in his paper of 17th August, "in the Daily Advertiser of Wednesday, have commenced an attack on the Narrative Journal of Mr. Schoolcraft, lately published in this city. We should feel excessively mortified for the literary reputation of our country, if it took any three of our writers to produce such a specimen of criticism as the article alluded to; and 'for charity's sweet sake,' we will suppose that by a typographical error the signature is printed Trio instead of Tyro. At any rate, the essay, notwithstanding all its wes and ours, bears the marks of being the effort of one smatterer, rather than the joint production of three critics, as the name imports."

      The Trio (if we admit there are tria juncta in uno, in this knot of savans) pretend to be governed by patriotic motives in attacking Mr. Schoolcraft. 'In what we have said, our object has been to expose error, and to shield ourselves from the imputation which would justly be thrown upon ourselves.' The construction of this sentence reminds us of the exordium of Deacon Strong's speech at Stonington--'the generality of mankind in general endeavor to try to take the disadvantage of the generality of mankind in general.' But not to indulge in levities on so grave a subject, we are happy in the belief that the reputation of our country does not demand the condemnation of Schoolcraft's Journal, as a proof of our taste, nor need such a shield as the trio have interposed, to protect it from the attacks of foreign reviewers:--

      'Non tali auxilio, nec defensoribus istis

       Tempus eget.'

      It affords us great pleasure to relieve the anxiety of the Trio on the subject of shielding 'ourselves from the imputation which would be justly thrown upon ourselves,' by stating that one of the most scientific gentlemen in the United States wrote to the publishers of Schoolcraft's Journal, not a week since, for a copy of the work to send to Paris, adding to his request, the work is so valuable that I doubt not it would be honorably noticed.

      "We have not taken the trouble to examine the passages to which the Trio have referred; for, admitting that a trifling error has been detected in an arithmetical calculation--that a few plants (or vegetables, as this botanist calls them) have been described as new, which were before known--and that in the haste of composition some verbal errors may have escaped the author, yet these slight defects do not detract essentially from the merit of the work, or prove that it has improperly been denominated a scientific, valuable, and interesting volume. Our sage critics are not aware how many and whom they include in the denunciation of 'a few men who pretend to all the knowledge, all the wisdom of the country;' if by a few they mean all who have spoken in the most favorable terms of Mr. Schoolcraft's book.

      "One word in respect to the 'candor' of the Trio, and we have done. It would seem to have been more candid, and the disavowal of 'an intention to injure' would have been more plausible, if the attack had been commenced when the author was present to defend himself, and not when he is in the depth of a wilderness, remote from his assailants and ignorant of their criticisms. But we trust he has left many friends behind who will promptly and cheerfully defend his reputation till his return."

      On reading the pieces, I found them to be based in a petty spirit of fault-finding, uncandid, illiberal, and without wit, science, or learning. It is said in a book, which my critics did not seem to have caught the spirit of--"Should not the multitude of words be answered, and should a man fall if talk be justified? Should thy lies make men hold their peace, and when thou mockest shall no man make thee ashamed?" (Job xi. 2, 3.) My blood boiled. I could have accepted and approved candid and learned and scientific criticism. I replied in the papers, pointing out the gross illiberality of the attack, and tried to provoke a discovery of the authors. But they were still as death; the mask that had been assumed to shield envy, hypercriticism, and falsehood, there was neither elevation of moral purpose, courage, nor honor, to lay aside.

      In the mean time, all my correspondents and friends sustained me. Men of the highest standing in science and letters wrote to me. A friend of high standing, in a note from Washington (Oct. 24th) congratulating me on my recovery from the fever at Chicago, makes the following allusion to this concealed and spiteful effort: "When in Albany I procured from Mr. Webster copies of them (the pieces), with a view to say something in the papers, had it been necessary. But, from their character and effect, this would have been wholly unnecessary. They have fallen still-born from the press."

      Mr. Carter (Oct. 28th) says: "G. C. was at my room, and spoke of the numbers with the utmost contempt, and thought they were not worth noticing. The same opinion is entertained by everyone whom I have heard speak on the subject. Chancellor Kent told me that your book is the most interesting he has ever read, and that the attack on it amounts to nothing. Others have paid it the same compliment, and I think your fame is in no danger of being injured by the Trio."

      Mr. Baldwin, a legal gentleman of high worth and standing, made the following observations in one of the city papers, under the signature of "Albanian":--

      "True criticism is a liberal and humane art, and teaches no less to point out and admire what is deserving of applause, than to detect and expose blemishes and defects. If this be a correct definition of criticism, and 'Trio' were capable of filling the office he has assumed, I am of opinion that a different judgment would have been pronounced upon Mr. Schoolcraft's book of travels; and that they would have been justly eulogized, and held up for the perusal of every person at all anxious about acquiring an intimate knowledge of the interesting country through which he traveled, and which he so ably and beautifully described. It is certainly true, that we abound in snarling critics, whose chief delight is in finding fault with works of native production; and though it is not my business to tread upon their corns, I could wish they might ever receive that castigation and contempt which they merit from a liberal and enlightened public. In the first article which appeared in your useful paper, over the signature of 'Trio,' I thought I discovered only the effervescence of a pedantic and caviling disposition; but, when I find that writer making false and erroneous statements, and drawing deductions therefrom unfavorable to Mr. Schoolcraft, СКАЧАТЬ