The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1877-06-07
OBITUARY.
John L,nthrnn Motley.

| John Lothrop Motley, whose death at
London has been announced, came of an
old Boston family, and inherited a posi-
ton among the. aristocracy of New En-
gland. He was born in Dorchester,
April Is, 1914, and had all those oppor-
tunities for acquiring in early life famil-
iaIity with the best society, and a thor
ough education, that fall to the fortunate
man who is born of wealthy parents, and
within an easy drive Of Boston Common.
At the early age of IL he graduated at
Harvard College, in the class of 1881,
with Charles Sumner. Young Motley
was not dependent on his own exertions
for his daily bread, and Immediately on
leaving Harvard he spent year at each
Of the universities of Gottingen and Ber-
lin, and then spent some time in Euro
pean travel, chiefly in Italy. On return
ing to Boston he studied law, and was
admitted to the bar in 1886. but his
tastes were literary rather than legal,
and his means enabled him to consult
his tastes; he, therefore, practiced but
little. In 1889 he made his debut on
the booksellers shelves in novel en-
titled "Morton's Hope; or, The Ne
n1oirs of Young Provincial. The eff
fort was not success, and that he made
it is now pretty generally forgotten. In
1910 he was appointed Secretary Of Lee
CATION at st. Petersburg. He kept the
position eight months, and then resigned
it and returned to America. In 1849 he
made another essay in fiction, but again
without marked success. This second VEN
tare was entitled ''Merry Mount, Ro-
nance of the Massachusetts, Colony. )"
In 1856 he published his first notable
work of history, "The Rise Of the Dutch
Republic" upon which he had devoted
nearly ten years Of unremitting labor.
This was followed, in 1850, by the first
two volumes of "The History of the
United Netherlands, from the Death of
William the Silent to the Twelve
Years Truce, 16O9," the remaining
two volumes of this work being pub
Gshed in 1867. In 1861 Mr. Motley
was appointed by President Lincoln
Minister to Austria, in which position
he displayed wise and slzillfuI diplo-
macy, that won for him and the country
he represented the highest respect and
confidence. He resigned this position
in 1867, inconsequence of an offensive
letter addressed to him by Secretary
Seward. In 1869 he was appointed Min
lister to England by President Grant,
but was subsequently recalled. Since
his retirement from public life Mr..
Motley has spent part Of his time in
Holland, but most Of it in London. In
1874 he published the third of his series
of works on Holland, "phe Life and
Death Of John OF Barneveld, Advocate
of Holland; with View of the Primary
Causes Of the Thirty Years War, in two
volumes.
America has not yet produced a great
novel 1t has few poets to offer in COM
petition with the contemporary poets Of
England. But in history it has pro-
duced three authors who are the peers
of any. Of these three, Mr.. Bancroft
chose theme of comparatively little in
terest across the ocean. Mr.. Prescott
wrote at time when Englishmen were
only just learning that there was an
American literature. Mr.. Motley fol-
lowed Mr.. Prescott, and chose a subject
OF the utmost interest to European as
well Us American readers, and it may
safely be said of him that no 9TH
er man has done more, if, indeed, any
one has done as much, to vindicate the
claims of American authorship to atten-
ton on the part of the best minds across
the Atlantic.