Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1883-01-01


Judgment, had he been able TO map Ameri
ca as accurately IS we can do today, had
he been divine instead, rs he claimed, oaly
divinely appointed, with myIiads OF at.
tendaat ministers. his achievements would
| have been more the greater; from the IN
firmities Of his nature sprang the nobility
of Bfusus, from the weakness of Columbus
was compounded ms strength. lid 234-
In depicting the traits OF the great
sailor, Mr. Bancroft displays remarkable
ability as CT analyst of character
'sWhile thus obliged to view all his
achievements through the atmosphere OF
creative mysticism, in weighing his mani
| fold qualities it is well always to remem.
| Der that there were achievements, and
| those of the very highest order. His mys-
ticism was the mysticism of fractional life
rather than of inactive idealisy. His re-
| ligion was of value tohim in giving definite
ness TO energy otherwise vague aud fitful.
! His ll.potential spiritual m.ndedness sub.
ordinate to one idea, cratic and incoherent
aspiration. 1t gave his life fxedness of
purpose which lust. avarice, and every ap.
petite combined could not have given with
out it; so that while he brooded with
| misanthropic wistfulness he did not shirk
any fancied duty, even when attended By
pain and misfortune. His was not an idle
fancy, but an overwhelmingly active en-
thusiasm. Fl ID, 235.
Mr.. Bancroft, while bestowiDg high eu-
logy on the writings of his two American
predecessors Irving and Prescott-in this
portion of the history, takes occasion to
criticise them for undue coloring
HISTORICAL CRITICISM.
| "Half century ago it was deemed
necessary, particularly by writers of Sc
lected epochs of history, in order to clothe
| their narrative with dramatic effect equal
to fiction, to intensity characters and
events. The good qualities of good men
were made to stand out in bold relief, not
against their own bad qualities, but against
| the bad qualities of bad men, whose wick.
edness was portrayed in such black colors
as TO overshadow whatever of good they
| might possess. Thus historical episodes were
endowed SO far as possible without too great
discoloration of truth; like a theatrical
! performance, each with a perfected hero
and finished villain. With what ex-
| auisite grace, with what tender solicitude
and motherly blindness to faults Mr. Irving
defends the reputation of Columbus Is
the Genoese a pirate, then is piracy
almost legalized ! is he slave.maker,
the customs of the times are pleaded"
Our author will none of this. He OBJ.
| iects to such exaggeration and deception in
historians
sBut in these days of rational reflection,
| wherein romance and reality are fairly
separated, celestial fiction and mundane
fact being made to pass under the same
experimentum crucis mind becoming so
| mechanical that it introverts and analyses
not only its own mechanism, but the
mechanism of its maker. In
days like these native manhood becomes
impatient of the Santa Claus or other fcti-
| tious Imagery, from which the infant mind
| derives much comfort, and prefers, If
necessary, the torrents of truth to the
elysium of fable. Il is no longer valid
logic that if the hero stoops to triokery,
| his biographer should stoop to triokery to
cover it. For once undertake to shape the
atiff clay Of material facts into the artistic
| form of fiction, and the result is neither
history nor romance.
He also takes up the cudgel against hssty
detractors of native culture
cit is a matter OF profound indifference
to me what these or those are proven to be,
whether angels OF light or devils of dark
ness. 1t is matter of lively apprehension
with me that I should estimate men and
nations at their value, and deduct only
truth from statements fair or false.
The Indians are presented as human
beings, deserving Of more consideration
than is generally accorded them. Mr..
Bancroft says that it has become custom
to willfully misapply terms. If tribe
resist an injury, it is called an outbreak
if successful, it is an outbreak if success
full in single combat, it is a murder. 1t is
enough that we have exterminated this
people, without attempting to malign then
and exalt our own baseness.
The historian develops the curious fac
that for long time the Spanish sovereignI
and Spanish home Government were strong
friends of the natives, and did all they
could to assure them just treatment /; ye
their inability to secure even an approx
imation to an Observance OF their wishe
by their representatives in America, at
fords one of the most striking illustration
in history of the inherent weakness of {
despotic Government.
SPANISH ADMINISTRATION.