THREE AMERICAN HISTORIANS THE PRESCOTT BANCROFT - MOTLEY HE phrase "historical perspective" means no more than this, - that there must be sufficient remoteness of the events discussed to permit of the collection of all possible testimony concerning them; to enable us to see the relations between things that have not before been thought of together; and to allow of an examination into causes and conditions without bias from interest or passion. When we reflect that our total population only two centuries ago was less than that of some of our second-rate cities to-day, we may see that history, so far as it has to do with our own country and its people, must confine itself within limits that are relatively narrow. American history, in the true sense, is, in fact, restricted to the colonial, the revolutionary, and the early constitutional periods. Two of the most distinguished of American historians - Prescott and Motley, from whose works selections are here made— have accordingly found, in other lands and earlier times, themes most congenial to their peculiar aptitudes and talents. With one exception, that of Draper, in his "Intellectual Development of Europe," - all other notable American historians have directed their researches and studies to the history of our own country. The principal works that are devoted to the colonial period are the histories of New England by Palfrey and Fiske. Dealing specially with the wars with England are Lossing's two "Field Books," Cooper's "Naval History," and Fiske's "American Revolution." General and comprehensive histories of the United States are those of Bancroft, Hildreth, and McMaster. Still more detailed and exhaustive of the general subject is the "Narrative and Critical History of the United States," edited and compiled by Mr. Justin Winsor, of Cambridge. Two political memoirs — those of Benton and Blaine afford interesting and valuable historical materials. Of the many works called forth by the events and results of the Civil War, permanent value must attach to the volumes of Davis upon the Southern side, and of Grant upon the part of the North, though both were actors in the struggle, and wrote under the limitations which that fact involved. Biographies of leaders in public affairs have a value that is mainly historical. From the letters, diaries, and reported conversations of such men a deeper insight into the causes of things can be got than from the records of public transactions. Thus the "Autobiography" of Jefferson, John Adams's "Letters to his Wife," and the correspondence of Franklin, together with the last part of his 'Autobiography," give not only the best idea of the men who wrote them, but the fullest knowledge of the affairs they took part in. 66 American history owes much to the biographies of Washington by Irving, Henry C. Lodge, and Chief-Justice Marshall; of Franklin by James Parton and Jared Sparks; of Jefferson by Parton and H. S. Randall; of Hamilton by Lodge and John T. Morse; of Samuel Adams by J. K. Hosmer; and of Gouverneur Morris by Theodore Roosevelt. Lives of Patrick Henry, Benedict Arnold, and Lafayette are contained in Sparks's series of "American Biographies." PRESCOTT 1796-1859 WILLIAM HICKLING PRESCOTT, grandson of Colonel William Prescott, commander of the patriot troops at the battle of Bunker Hill, was born at Salem, Mass., in 1796, and died in 1859. He graduated from Harvard in 1814, having won distinction by his attainments in the classics. An accident at college occasioned injuries which resulted finally in almost total blindness. He spent two years in Europe, and returned with the purpose of devoting himself to historical labors. His first work, "The History of Ferdinand and Isabella," was published in 1838, and was reprinted in France, Germany, and Spain. The author was soon afterwards elected a member of the Spanish Royal Academy of History. In 1843 he gave to the world his "History of the Conquest of Mexico," and in 1847 the "History of the Conquest of Peru." In 1850 Prescott visited Europe, traveling in Great Britain and on the Continent. Five years later the first two volumes, and in 1858 the third, of the "History of the Reign of Philip the Second of Spain" were issued; but he did not live to complete the work. In addition to the histories named above, Prescott contributed to our literature a volume of "Biographical and Critical Miscellanies,” which includes a valuable essay on Spanish Literature. His style is well suited to historical composition, presenting a happy compound of loftiness, brilliancy, and elegance. His unfinished work, "The History of Philip the Second,” is generally accounted his best. Prescott's success is due in part to his genius and indomitable industry, and in part to the steady concentration of his powers on his several arduous undertakings. Many of his narrative passages are as enthralling as any romance, vet their author never allows himself to forget that he is writing history. THE VALLEY AND CITY OF MEXICO1 THE troops, refreshed by a night's rest, succeeded, early on the following day, in gaining the crest of the sierra of Ahualco, which stretches like a curtain between the two great mountains on the north and south. Their progress was now comparatively easy, and they marched forward with a buoyant step as they felt they were treading the soil of Montezuma.2 They had not advanced far, when, turning an angle of the sierra, they suddenly came on a view which more than compensated the toils of the preceding day. It was that of the Valley of Mexico, or Tenochtitlan, as more commonly called by the natives; which, with its picturesque assemblage of water, woodland, and cultivated plains, its shining cities and shadowy hills, was spread out like some gay and gorgeous panorama before them. In the highly rarefied atmosphere of these upper regions, even remote objects have a brilliancy of coloring and a distinctness of outline which seem to annihilate distance. Stretching far away at their feet were seen noble forests of oak, sycamore, and cedar, and beyond, yellow fields of maize and the towering maguey, intermingled with orchards and blooming gardens; for 1 from "The Conquest of Mexico" 2 The Montezumas were the Aztec, or native, rulers of Mexico. They built fine cities and temples, and were able and powerful monarchs. In 1519 Cortez with an army of Spaniards invaded the country and conquered it. flowers, in such demand for their religious festivals, were even more abundant in this populous valley than in other parts of Anahuac. In the center of the great basin were beheld the lakes, occupying then a much larger portion of its surface than at present; their borders thickly studded with towns and hamlets, and, in the midst, like some Indian empress with her coronal of pearls, the fair city of Mexico, with her white towers and pyramidal temples, reposing, as it were, on the bosom of the waters, the far-famed "Venice of the Aztecs." High over all rose the royal hill of Chapultepec, the residence of the Mexican monarchs, crowned with the same grove of gigantic cypresses which at this day fling their broad shadows over the land. the distance beyond the blue waters of the lake, and nearly screened by intervening foliage, was seen a shining speck, the rival capital of Tezcuco, and still farther on, the dark belt of porphyry, girdling the valley around, like a rich setting which Nature had devised for the fairest of her jewels. In Such was the beautiful vision which broke on the eyes of the Conquerors. And even now, when so sad a change has come over the scene; when the stately forests have been laid low, and the soil, unsheltered from the fierce radiance of a tropical sun, is in many places abandoned to sterility; when the waters have retired, leaving a broad and ghastly margin white with the incrustation of salts, while the cities and hamlets on their borders have moldered into ruins, even now that desolation broods over the landscape, so indestructible are the lines of beauty which Nature has traced on its features, that no traveler, however cold, can gaze on them with any other emotions than those of astonishment and rapture. - What, then, must have been the emotions of the Spaniards when, after working their toilsome way into the upper air, the cloudy tabernacle parted before their eyes, and they beheld these fair scenes in all their pristine magnificence and beauty? It was like the spectacle which greeted the eyes of Moses from the summit of Pisgah, and, in the warm glow of their feelings, they cried out, "It is the promised land!" |