The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1892-02-23
JAMES RUSSELL LOWELL
Hanpy tho Bard in That He Was
Born on Washington's
Birthday.
Brilliant Grafton on His Life and
Character by George Will
lam Curtis,


lam Curtis.
Loyal to the Lofty Spirit of the Firs
Observation-Disclosures His Passion
At st. James.
BROOKLYN, Feb 22-Brooklyn lnstitut
was crowded to-niRht with u brilliant sud
enos to listen to an Grafton by George vii
liam Curtis on James Russell Lowell. Th
address was a masterpiece of litcrar
work, bsftting in every wal the inspire
subject and rejecting added hoAera On tn
speaker.
After the ~applaufs which greeted him ha'
ceased Mr.. Curtis said: The birthday o
Warrington not only recalls a great historic
figure, but it reminds as of the quality o
great citizenship. His career 10 at once GU
inspiration and rebaks. Whatever il lofty
fair and patriotic in public conduct. in
stinctively We call by his name; whatever il
base. selfish. and unworthy, ID shamed BY
the lustrs of his life. Like the flaming
sword turning every way that guarded the
cate Of Paradise, Washington's example il
the beacon shining at the opening of oul
annals and lighting the path of our national
life. XIX
But the service that makes great citizen
ship il a. various a. genius and tsmpsra-
msnt. Waahington's conduct Of the wa,
wal mot more valuable to the country than
his organization of the government, and II
was mot his special talent but his character
that made botk Of those services possible.
In public affairs the Rlamor Of arms il al
ways dazzling. It is the laurels Of Milti-
ades, not those Of Homer, or Phidias, or
D~enosthsnss, which disturb and inspire
the Young Thsmistoclss. But while mill
tary glory stirs the popular heart it 10 the
traditions Of national grandeur, the force
OF noble character, immortal works OF lit
eraturs and art which flourish the senti-
msnt that makes Alsn patriots and heroes.
Tbs sloqusace Of Denosthenss aroused de-
cadsnt Greece at least to strike for indie
pendsncs. The song Of Kosrner fred the
resistlesn charge of Lutzow'a cavalry. "A
pamphlet of our revolution revived tho
pickering flame of colonial patriotism. The
spesch. the song, she written word, ara
doeds NO less than the clash of arms at
Chsronsa, and Yorktown. and Gsttysburg.
Il il not only Washington the soldier and
the statesman, but Washington the citizen,
whom We ohietiy remember. Americans
ara accused of making an e1cellent and
patriotic Virginia gentleman q mythology
ical here and demi-god. But what myth
illogical hero or demi-Rodl is 4 figure so talrI
We say nothing Of hia to-day that was not
said bv those who saw and knew him., and
in phrases more glowing than ours, and the
concentrated light of 3 hundred years dis
closes nothing to mar the nobility OF the
incompatible man.
1t was while the personal recollsctlons
and Impressions of him were still fresh,
while az Lowell said. Boston was net yet
a city and Cambridge was still . country
village that Lowell was born in Cam
bridge, seventy-thres years ago to-day. His
birth on Washington's birthday seems to
me a happy coincidsncs, because each ID so
admirable an illustration of the two forces
whose union has made America. Massa-
ehusetts and Virginia, although of very
different origin and character, were the
two colonial leaders. In Virginia poll
tics an is the aristocratie salons of
Paris on tho svs of the French revolution
there was always a theoretical democracy;
but the spirit of the state was essentially
aristocratie and conservative. Virginia
was the cavalier Of the colonies, Massa-
chusetts was the puritan. And when John
Adams, New England p%ersoniisd, said in
the continental congress that Washington
ought to be general. ths puritan and cava-
lier olasped honda. The union of Massa-
chusetts and Virginia for that emergency
foretold the final union of the states, after
q mighty travail of difference, indeed, and
long years of strife.
The higher spirit of conservatism, its
reverence for antiquity, its susceptibility
to the romance of tradition, its instinct for
continuity and development, aud its an
tipathy to violent rupture; the grace and
charm and courtesy of established social
order. in a word the feminine element in
national life, however far from actual en-
bodinent in Virginia or IN any colony, was
to blend with the masculine force and
creative energy of tho puritan spirit and
produce ali that We moan by American. This
was the contamination which thu cont
nental congress did not see, but which was
none the less forecast when John Adams
summoned Washington to the chief rsvolu-
tiOnary command. It is this vision which
still inspires tho life and crowns tho hope
of every generous American, and 1t has had
no truer interpreter and poet than Lowell.
Well was he born on the anniversary of
Washincton's birth, for no American was
ever moro loyal to the lofty spirit, the
grandeur of purpose, the patriotic integ-
rity. none ever felt more deeply the scorn
of ignoble and canting Americanism which
invest tho name of Washington with i'm
perishable glory.
Mr.. Curtis thon skstehed at length Low
ell's life and work, the development of his
literary genius. his many lasting contribu-
tions to American literature, his services in
the cause Of human freedom and good GOV
srnment. Continuing, he said:
Literature wax Nils pursuit, but patriot
lam Was his passion. His love of country
WAS that OF 4 lover for his mistress, He
ideal America, and nothing was finer than
his instructive scorn for tho p%inchbeck pat
riotisn which brags and boasts and swas-
gers, insisting that bisnass IL greatness and
vulgatity simplicity, and the will of 4 mn-
jorlty the moral law. No man perceived
mora shrewdly the American readiness of
resource, tho Yankee good nature, and the
national Iectituds. But he waa not aatis-
fed with an easy standard. To him tho
best, not the thrift1est, was msst truly
American. Lowell held that of all mon the
American should be master of his bound
less material resources, not their slave,
worthy of his unequalled opportunities, not
the ~zycophant of HIS fellow Americans nor
the victim of national conceit. No man
rsjolcad more deeply over our preat
achievements or celebrated them with
ampler or prouder praise. He delighted
with Yankee elee in our inyentiy. asnius
and restless enterprise, but he knew that
We did not invent the great muniments of
liberty. trial by jury. the habeas corpus,
constitutional restraint, the common
school, Of which We were common heirs
with civilized Christsndon. He knew that
we have Niagara, and tbs prairieg and
the great lakes, and the majestic