The Wilmingtonian. (Wilmington, Del.) 1882-188?, 1884-06-28
OUR DEAD HISTORIAN.

MANHOOD, WOnlu nave lett Two very ulHefeIJ
impressions on the page of Delaware his
tory Not necessarily because the interme-
dale years were filled with good deeds and
the records of industrious, patient and self
sacrificing 5oil, but because Mr. Vincent was
permitted to live to see recognized most of
those ideas which in the young man would
have passed for wild chimeras, the mere
effervescence Of frolicsome imagination.
II has been truly said that the world
knows nothing of its greatest men, and while
Francis Vincent lived the light of his fine
intellect was hid under bushel, from a
commercial point of view. Mon of far, far
inferior attainments have strutted impor-
family before the people Of Delaware for the
past half century, and column after column
of newspaper type has been devoted to their
actions while Fr,nCis Vincent was tUiling
in comparative obscurity to complete the
second volume of his History of Delaware
Had he been place-mongerirg politician
or grasping, speculative, and not over
scrupulous manufacturer; had he been even
jackal to some political lion of another
State, or lent the influence of his name and
the talents he possessed to some great scheme
of robbery and jobbery-in each or any of
these cases he might have gone down to his
grave amid the garrulous sympathy of thou
sands, and been honored by the presence of
statesmen at his tomb.
We know, however, that Mr.. Vincent was
not man of this Older. His was simpler,
a far higher, a far nobler worth. His schemes
were not laid for the furtherance of personal
aggrandzement; they embraced in their phil
anthropic amplitude the whole human race,
and took no account of governmental or of
geographical limitations. He lived on the
high plateau of thought, and surveyed all
that was developing on the plain. At a time
when negro emancipation seemed hopeless
delusion, he not only foresaw its accomplish
ment, but recognized the manner of its eyo-
luton, the causes by which its consumma-
tion would be attained.
And yet he was no cold necessitarian; no
mere passive spectator Of the events that
were passing around him. Humbly, trust
fully-to the best Of ability which the
Almighty had given him-he labored tc
advance those measures which appeared tc
him beneficial in their fruits; steadfastly
unfalteringly, he opposed the dangerous limo
vations into which young republic was toe
ready to enter.
Journalism, as we have it in the present day
is a very different profession. from that t.
which Mr.. Vincent consecrated his tai emit
when he published the Blue HENS 0hiekel
thirty years ago. There was far moreofrefec
tion, of solid thought, of real, hard earnest
composition, than we can discern in the heat
ed hurried writing of the present day. Hal
| the space of our State journals is now devoted
| TO the squabbles of Office seeking politicians
| Editorials are scratched off in half an hour
grain of thought in bushel OF chaff;a a few
fragmentary ideas floating helplessly abou
in sea OF synonyms; and as rule bes
described by the title of Shakspeare's play
"Much ado about nothing" Few editorial
nowadays repay the winnowing; on tn
threshing-locr men seek in vain for til
grain which is not there. In Francis Viz
cents best days the editorial represented tn
sowing of the grain, the tending of the plant
the fertilising of the soil, the garnering {
the crop, and the careful thrcshing by stead
brain and plodding hand, that men migt
derive immediate profit from the result.
is because of these things that Francis Vii
cent and his fellow workers have left yoit
which so few can hope to fill.
The"Hstory of Delaware''is an uniinishe
work; who will stand up to-day and unde
take its completion? Undoubtedly there a
men who have the ability, individually
unitedIy, to take up the task and to cola
and publish the manuscripts which Mr.. vi
cent has left For the credit of the, State this
a work which should not be left undone. M
Vincent admits all the imperlections al
: shortcomings of his first volume. He poin
. out, without any suspicion of self-comme
t dation, that the task Of gathering the sea
tered records of Delaware's colonial histo
r is a peculiarly difficult one; he sho'
plainly how some of these records have be'
carried back to Sweden, others removed
Holland, and many others seized a
destroyed by the British in the War Of Inc
pendence. That he should have succeed
in evolving anything like a congrud
whole from the scattered leaves Of De
y ware history reflects the highest pra
e on his ability and patient industry.
4 complete the work, even after the materi
for the second volume have been gathered
IF the dead mans hands, will involve i
" spirit of self-sacriflce, of absence of greed
,t the part of the compiler. He cannot h,
,e for reward in his generation. But WI
Is Scharf has done for Maryland, an emerge
r. and able man may do for Delaware,
j. it be set up as a lasting and most fit
= monument to the honored memory of Fl