The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1901-04-20
ROmanticism in American History.
BY Maurice NJ. Mnton.
DOWNRIGHT 1901


1t would be difficult to believe that
Americans can be found who are not
proud Of the nation which has never en-
gagged in war and not dictated the terms
of peace at the close of hostilties. The
Stars and Stripes is the one unconquered
banner. No one of the great world pow
ers of to-day can truthfully claim so glo-
rious a distinction for it's standard.
And yet the nation is in it's infancy; the
flag as emblem of progressive people.
But of the history of that people what
does the average American know? In
the turmoil of a busy life, in the multi
plicty of divers emusements, the minds
of our young people absorb a rule only
the chronicled events of the day. Our
high schools, colleges and universities
graduate young students of both sexes
who have acquired only an idea, in the
merest skeleton form, of our national life
Readers of history, and they have grown
few since the library lamp and the wax
taper have given place TO the gas jet
and the electric light, prefer pages de-
voted to France and England. Indeed it
is safe to say that the average American
reader knows more of the history of
European countries than he does of his
own.
1t is pertinent to inquire into the cause
of this condition. Some persons will reply,
If questioned that American history is
dry, others that the romantic and inter-
esting crops up on every page of French
history and to less degree in the Eng
fish, and not at all In American. No idea
is more wholly false, and yet more wholly
universal. The real fact is that Ameri-
can historians, in their practical way, re-
no nf IL
can mind, have recorded facts in chron-
! illogical sequence and eXpurgated all incl
| dents of a romantic or sentimental char
! acter. Bancrofts admirable work is direct
and practical, yet 1t is easy to believe that
! the ordinary reader will close the volumes
with a sigh of relief that a self-imposed
| task has been accomplished. But let the
same reader open Parkmann's delightful
narratives of the Indians. and what
a vista of almost medieval
history spreads before the view. What a
picture is presented of Quebec. of Mon
treal of the red man, of the Jesuits. What
romances are more quaint, picturesque
and enhancing? Even Bancroft has al
lowed thrilling sensation to come to
his readers in recording the events Of
April 10. l776 but 1t was left to Long
fellow to cause the mind to glow with
the patriotic fever by relating the ride
| of Paul Revere, and to Emerson to de-
scribe the battle of Concord Bridge.
when the embattled farmers fired the
shot heard round the world"
| The history of Massachusetts from the
! day the weary seafarers OF the Mayf1ow-
er placed foot on Plymouth Rock is re-
plete with the most dramatic incidents.
! the most romantic episodes. the most de-
hghtful scenes and situations that can
be recorded in the pages of history
| Equally true is this of New York of
| Pennsylvania, of Maryland, of Virginia.
of the Carolinas. In marvellous contrast
to one another stands each colony. dis
tinctive in its own life. one affords a
| contrast TO the other. Habits, customs.
thoughts, religious beliefs social IDEAS
were all in bold relief one against the
other. Picture in the minds eye the Puri-
tan of Boston. the Hollander of The Meth
| erlands, the Quaker of Pennsylvania, the
! Catholic of Maryland, the Cavalier or Nir-
| ginla and the Presbyterian Of North Car
| olina, all In the new world introducing
the old world ideas. Again, the banlsh-
ment OF the peasants from Acadia aud
the advent OF Creoles OF Louisiana. what
| pictures come to the mind. Behind this
| transplanted life, placed between the al
most saliess sea and the impossible for
ests the savage tribes alarmed and eN-
! cited 20 resistance hy the cncrOachmcnts
/ Of the pale-fsccd race.
Yet the conditions are scarcely suggest
81 by our American historians. Would
Macaulay or even Glbbon have destroy ed
with hard hand. the very spirit Of history
! itr romanuclsm2 What our nation lacks
/ Do lts historian. The genius who can
/ with artistic hand paint thc people wifh
Z tfufh ana with eKHctnWr, and SEE pre-
servo fhr sentiment ana romance ~ no
b pioneer rolenlfs.
Thst nur people desire. nay. wall Tor
I rurh historian Do proven Dy fhs rrrrp-
flou l.nnFfsiioH'H "EfHuFrllne' aUd
"Mylrr afahaiFH" received nnd by ur
7 HniYfffHl appreciation of nnH thornf' E
rImprlf Of hfH lrF.Hn1 lft faDrf
feDHflaua faifr. Hnd Nlfr0n churDbill q
pfiHIt N colonel hn M M.ft auf.
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.nmfH oaf ieunH mfn Hn1 aHmrn rnouIa
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