Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1878-06-14

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ever relating to the party platform.
and made none to the committee. Ii the
| Advertiser had Stat: ID that there was an
expression OF want of confidence in the
Advertiser az a republican paper made in
he committee meeting, it would have
made a slatemc Mt not destitute of truth.
Death of Mr.. Bryant.
William Cullen Bryant one OF the first and of
the oldest of the highest class of American poets,
but whose claims to distinction ard consideration
were far from resting wholly upon the excellence
of his poetry, died at o'clock Wednesday morn
/ il 9 at his home in New York. in his S4th year.
The Bo,t,n Traveller has the following sketch
of his life and character and literary merits and
productions He was native Of Western Massa-
chusetts, section of New England that has pro-
vded its tall share of eminent men; and he was
born 10 Cummngton, in the old County of Hamp-
shire, on the Sd of November, 1894. His father
was physician of good rank, aud he gave to his
son the name Of one who is much respected by
the faculty; and he also devoted himself to that
sons education, with the best results The future
poet and journalist as precocous as Pope.
writing good poetry at the age of ten years At
fourteen he wrote the Embargo" and the Span
ish Revolution" which actually pas sed TO second
editions in 1909, which circumstance is in part to
be attributed to their subjects, for political feel
ing ran As Ugh seventy years since it has run
in our time. II was with fficulty that the pub.
lie could be made TO believe that these poems
were written by child. Five years later he
wrote zAanatopsis, which however, was not pub
li-hed until 1876, when it appeared in the North
American Review; an much more than half
century has not diminished the just admiration
which it excited in days when Ma son was Pres.
ident. The quotations from it have become in
corporated into common language, like those
from Shakespesre's plays. He became student
in Williams College in 1870 remaining there two
years. He selected the law for his profession,
and studied at Worhnston and Bridgewater for
three years, and subsequently followed the legal
calling at Plainfeld and Great Burlington. His
position as lawyer was good, but his heart
seems never to have been in his profession He
became connected with the North American Re-
view in 1876 His poem on the .4ges was delv.
cred at Cambridge in 1921, in which year a vol
ume of his poetry published at that place.
He took up his residence in the city of New York
in 1925, as editor of the New York Review: and
in 1926 he became associate editor of the Even.
! ing Post, newspaper. Though born a federalis.
as it were. and though his earliest writings were
devoted to sustaining federslst principles. he be
came a democrat as years went on, and an adyo
cate of democratic views of political economy.
! hv Enc nd nd
! Having become chief editor of the Evening Post
that Journal soon made itself distinguished as the
principle advocate OF free trade in this country.
and i, was the leading democratic organ in the
North, giving TO the administration of President
Jackson an unfinching support Politics did not.
however, monopol re his attention. In connec-
ton with some other literary men he edited the
Tslisman, an annual as some of our older read
ers may remember, of coed reputation in its day
To a pleasant work, entitled Tales of the Clan.
Der Spa" published by the Harpers he furnished
" rhe Skeletons Cave and "Medfeld," both
capital productions, and the latter showing a re-
markabe power in that solt of writing in which
Mr.. Hawthorne exceed.
| He had written considerable poetry since his re
moval to new York, and q complete edition of all
his poems was there published in 1882 1t was
| republished in England, under the direction of
| Mr.. Irving, and secured for the author European
reputation. Mr.. b. want was great traveller Wis
iting most parts of his own country and the hes
portions of Europe and the East. His first Europ-
can visit was made in 1884, and he renamed for
some time abb oad corresponding with his journal
second tour made in 1916 and a third in
| lS49. which he concluded by visiting Syria and
Egypt. From his various writings on these tours
| his Letters of a Traveller we're compiled and pub
| lshed. He went abroad for the fourth time in
1857 and rems med there until far into the newt
year, writing for the Evening Post letters that
were much admired, those relating to Spain be-
| ing subsequently collected into a volume He
is fairly emitted to honorable place
| among those eminent Americans who have writ
ten on Spanish subjects, - Tcknor, Prescott.
Gushing, Sands, Irving and others.
MI. Bryant's position as journalist was high
one in some respects perhaps, the highe st ever
held byan American. He was heightened, and
pure and consistent, and always adverse to person.
alities. lie supported the democratic party and is
policy down to lS4S, when he joined the free soil
ers, and opposed the election OF General Cas-. to
| the Presidency, on the ground that he had been
! too subseryient to the slave-holdng interest
! Though he returned to the democracy soon after
ward, and advocated the elect N of Gen Pierce in
! 1852, he joined the Republican party, which came
/ into existence as a consequence of the repea of
| the Missouri Compromise, in 1854; and be was
ever afterward firm supporter of that party and
| It's principles. His well known purity OF ch4rac-
| Ter gave to him no slight influence IN the political
world, though man lived who was less of
demagogue.
! Mr.. BRYANT lived in one of the highest literary
/ circles of America of which he was one of the
chief ornaments and illustrations Halleck
Sand', Verp anck, Cooper. Irving, Cole, Leagett,
and other men Of distinction, were of his most
intimate friends and associates. His discourse on.
the career and works of Mr.. Cooper is one of the
best OF nis many prose productions, and does jus.
tice TO the merits Of one whose nirm tiles of tenn
per caused him to DE somewhat unfavorably re-
| gsrded, aud whose success 10 life was not com
mensurate with his ialents. He also delivered a
funeral GRAFTON on Thomas Cole, the great land
scape painter, between whom and himself the
warme-t friendship existed. He was fond Of art
and understood it, and in his journal he devoted
much room to its encoursgement. As a prose
writer he was very powerful and his style is Of the
purest % that one regrets hat he did not devote
himself to some great work, which would have
been sure Of success.
HIS poetry, which be continued TO write To the