New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1876-03-28

|
the work-"I greet you at the beginning OF
"great career. X. w. Emerson" This ap-
parent Endorsement of all the volume con-
taiped. by 80 great an authority, certainly
increased the sale, but it was source OF just
modification to Mr.. Emerson to find that lnno-
cent purchasers had been led by his name to
take home to their families something lmpOs-
sible to be read aloud under the evening lamp
II il. in fact, difficult to see how any literary
work can ever bring much reputation or prOlt
! To its author, when it must be hidden away III
the dark corner allotted to the Extra Vol
"umes.y or kept under lock and key from the
| eyes of woman and youth.
We will give another and final specimen Oh
Mr.. Buchanans highfalutin
As Christ had His crown Of thorns Il make the COM
parIson I'm all reverence and Socrates had his hem
| lock cup 80 Walt Whitman has his final glory ana DOOM
even though II come mseraby In the shape OF literary
outlawry and official persecution. Meantime whie TIC
birds of the faow chirpng and examining he leaves
rs certainly least the second OF these DIVINE sur
| fercrs, living scripture to the world
The charges of "scOrn," "Ofliclal persecu-
"tion," etc, are simply preposterous. When
Walt Whitman lost his cerkship in the De-
partment of the Interior, by order of the I'M
maculate Secretary Harlan, the general feeling
of Indignation at the dismissal was strong
enough to procure him another and better APP
| pointment in the AttOrneyGenerars Office.
| The fine humanity and integrity OF his nature
were always heartily recognized in Washing
ton aud his services to our sick and wounded
soldiers during the war were never forgotten,
| whatever might be the estimate placed upon
his literary work.
Mr.. Buchanan's screech provoked the follow
ing answer in The London Daily Ners Of the
18th inst:
SIR: You cannot am sure have foresaen the proba-
BILE consequences OF publishing Mr.. Robert Buchanahs
letter. We Americans are known to be thin skinned
race, and do not how can possibly survive the
expression Mr. Robert Bu,hsnans opinion of u.s. True.
Mr. Robert Buchanan's tame is unknown in America; but
The Do,ty Mere is well known there-known ms journal
usually friendly TO andalways rs civil as circumstances
permit &c. when learn from your columns that we
must henceforth those claims to distinction IN
literature which have lately been told were our best
title to respect think Of nothing 50 likely to occur
in the States rs general happy-dspatch. What pub
Usher can value life being called by Mr.. Robert
buchanan a shark What Yankee editor" when
he Is told that all men know OF what pudding DIS
brains are made" will not hasten to blow them out
What verse writer will take flight to better world
10 escape being catalogued in choir OF hedSerow
warblers Z" With "A spendor OF archaeological erudtion
cannot sufficiently admire Mr.. Robert Buchanan likens
our American poets TO snow-bnnnSs, whlp-poof-whs'
and looms and carbon They are creatures
who have lived and fattencd by picking the brains oi
British bards" Whether Mr. Robert Buchanan means to
complain that his brains have gone 10 furnish the
empty skulls Lowell and Lonsfellow. do not know,
any more than know whether he himself expects mnor-
aity British Bard under the name OF Robert Buchanan
or a. scotch Reviewer under that Of Thomas Maitland His
American victims may find some slight comfort III tEe
fact that no one has yet been accused OF singing
his own praises under fictitious signature As to Mr.
Wal; whtmans claims, for the pushing OF which mr.
Robert Buchanan has strvcn to insult every other
Amerlca ritter living dead, do not care TO express
an opinion know the English public well enough 10
believe that Mr. Whitman will be Judged on bis merits,
and that they will second Mr. Buchanans efforts To
raise new idol on the ruins Of old rcputa IONS Nor,
ON tho other hand. ought Dir. Whitman to suner be-
cause he incurred Mr.. Robert BuchananS praise
| am Sir, your Obedient servant,
AN OBSCURE AMERICAN.
In the same number of The Ners appears
letter from Mr.. w. NJ. Rossetti, in which he
| states that he has received from Walt Whit
| man the assurance that the statement IN Ihe
Vest Jersey Press Is entirely true; and closes
by asking, "Will his own cOuntrymen yet cx-
"bibt the fruits of a late repentancc9" Repent
ance for WHAT we might well ask. Walt
lencc have never been questioned We infer,
therefore, that taste or Judgment IN literature,
when it does not coincide with that OF MIR.
| Rossettl, is high crime and mlsdemeanOr.
| Tho "Obscure American" finally, has called
| forth n second letter from MIR. Robert Bu-
cbanan, i'm which he awkwardy rctractS his
| insult TO American authors at least so far as
| LongfcllOw and Lowell are concerned
The prevalent estimate of Walt Whitman's
pOsition in literature (Omitting the element Of
| indelicacy to which we have alludeD has never
vet been so clearly and succinctly stated, as in
| The Ne,rs's leading article Oh the subject:
II II is in the nature things possible to believe In
| the existence Of person who might and could have
been poet, for not, then We might
| think OF Mr. whitman Of such d marred or incom-
pleted being. block OF marble might under certain
conditions have become noble statue but the POSSIBLE
| ity Is not we suppose for lump Of dough- Walt Whit
man appears to to have some Mt least OF tho ma
| teral OF fancy insight, and emotion, out OF which,
under betting conditions. poetry might have been
| wrought Some OF his smaller and less pretentiols
compositions indeed full OF poetic feeling and
moving even to a sort OF melody. But We fail to dis
cover any particular revelation which his
works bring to tho world matter how indugenty we
read Them
Whether or not this Judgment is fair, there
is do doubt of it's existence. And for an au-
thor, or his enthusiastic disciples, to call it
scorn," insult" or martyrdom," is as
stupid as it is unmanly. Here, again, the edi-
tor of The Ne,cs speaks the one word Of good
sense, which Messrs. Buchanan and Rossett
might rs well practically adopt, and be silent ::
eff he is martyr, rs some of his admirers
"say, he is probably the martyr of theory.
I" 1t is for those who upheld the theory to sus-