Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1894-12-27
HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION
Tenth Annual Meeting Opened Last Night
at Columbian University.
History as a Science-Turning Points
I'm the American Revelation
Other Papers Read.


| Historical Association was inaugurated last
evening by a meeting in the law lecture
room of tho Columbian University, with
about fifty people present. In the absence
of President Henry Adams of this city, Mr..
Justin Windsor of Cambridge called the
meeting to order, with brief speech, in
which he voiced the regret of the members
| of the organization that the new head Of
the associa ton should not be able to attend.
| The secretary, DIR. Herbert b. Adams of
Johns Hopkins, read letter from the pres
ident, announcing his presence at this time
| in the region of Panama. The writer al
| luGed to his earnest desire to get the asso-
| citation together on new basis, and went
| on to speak of the possibility of the es-
| tablishment of history a fixed science
| The results he said, would be vastly more
violent than those which followed the pro-
| mitigation of the theories of Rousseau.
| Darwin and Adam Smith. The church ne
/ went on, will never contemplate placldly
| the institution of such a science, for his
| tory cannot recognize such a dominating
| element as Providence. A change. he be-
| iieved. has come over liberal thought since
| the middle of the century, and IL science
| Of history were established today on the
| basis of latest developments. it is to be
| feared that it would take on the tone OF
| such a pessimism as that of Paris, unless
| 1t might open up new field for human ell
|
Direct Conflict.
| History can never be converted into a
| science without coming into direct con-
hict and hostility with the great elements
| of today's civilization, labor, the church,
| the national organism, the sense of prop
erty. Such a crisis may arise, but If so
| 1t will have been caused by the breadth
| of university education.
| Those of u.s." concluded Professor
| Adams, who have reached or passed mid
| die age need not trouble ourselves very
| much about the future. We have seen one
| or two great revolutions in thought, and
we have had enough. We are not likely to
| accept any new theory that shall threaten
to disturb our repose. We should reject at
| once and probably by large majority, a
| hypothetical science that must obviously
| be incapable of proof. We should take the
\ same attitude that our fathers took toward
the theories and hypothesis Of Darwin.
| Imperial Federation.
| Professor George B. Adams of Yale Uni
versity next read a paper on the beginning
| of the idea of imperial fedora ton.
| The relation between England and her
| colonies, he said, has long been the subject
| of discussion. The burden of imperial ex-
| penses was in the last century very heavy,
and the first attempt to get the colonies to
| share in this burden led to the American
| revolution. That revolution had two effects
| on English opinlon-one, that the colonies
should be held down more strictly, an opin-
| ion that continued until the second colo
NAL rebellion In Canada in 1857. The other
was that the colonies would inevitably
become Independent in time and must be
allowed to do so. In 1S69-70 a rapid series
of events revealed to the British public
that Mr.. Gladstone's cabinet were appar-
emily on the point of carrying this opinion
into practice and of turning the colonies
adrift. 1t was in the discussion of these
events that TIE plan of imperial federation
was brought into prominence and first
discussed as practical scheme. Mr.. w. L.
roster was tho first practical statesman
to sanction the scheme in 1879, and in 1881
the Imperial Federation League was or
ganized.
The Civil War.
DR.. Rossiter Johnson of New York read
an interesting paper on the turning points
| in the American civil war. He said he
| beliey ed that in the highest sense there
was no such turning point; that the strug-
| gle must in any case have ended in the
| preservation of the Union; but that there
! were certain secondary turning points
| that determined the nature and duration
| OF the conflict. These he named as fol-
lows: First, Kentucky's refusal to secede
! which deprived the coEfederates of the
| natural line of defense along the Ohio;
| second, the battle of Bull Rum which con-
| firmed the southern people in their belief
| in their superior prowesS and certainty of
success; third, the emancipation procla-
| nation, which placed the struggle on its
| true issue; fourth, the battle OF Gettys-
| burg, which ended any hope of carrying
| the war into the north; fifth, the re-eiec-
| ton of President Lincoln, which decided
| that there should be no cessation of hos
| tiities till the confederacy ceased to ex-
! list. Had all these causes failed except
| the last, DR.. Johnson said in conclusion
| the good Judgment of the American people
| would have still SO emphatically express
ed itself that the great rebellion could
| not have ended otherwise than 1t did. The
! paper was received with hearty applause.
| Other Papers.
| The next paper was read by DR.. Adams,
| the secretary of the association, on the
| historical work of the late Prof. Herbert
| Tuttie of Cornell University.
The last paper of the evening was by
| Gen. James Grant Wilson of New York
| offering tributes to the late John Jay, Rob-
| ert c. Winthrop and James G. Yelling
all of whom died during the past year He
| spoke especially of Dr. yelling, to whose
| efforts 1t was mainly due that the Histori-
1 cal Association adopted WaShin gton as its
| permanent meeting place. OF John Jay
| the speaker said he had always expressed
| his chief wish thus Write me as one
| who loves his fellow men," Last spring
| Mr. Winthrop told the speaker that he
| had personally known, and some of them
| Intimately every one of the American
| Presidents, with the single exception Of
| Washington, who died nine years before
| he was born.