REPORT OF PROCEEDINGS AT SIXTH ANNUAL MEETING OF THE AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION. By HERBERT B. ADAMS, Secretary. The American Historical Association was organized at Saratoga in 1884, with only forty members, for the promotion of historical studies. In six years this society has grown, by a process of historical selection, to a membership of six hundred and twenty, with one hundred life members. At the sixth annual meeting, which was held in Washington, D. C., from the 28th to the 31st of December, 1889, there were present eighty-seven members, the largest attendance in the history of the Association. The following is an alphabetical list of members present: Charles Kendall Adams, president. Prof. Simeon E. Baldwin, New Ha ven. Prof. Howard W. Caldwell, Univer- General Henry B. Carrington, of Judge Mellen Chamberlain, of Bos ton. Rev. Thomas S. Childs, D. D., Wash- A. Howard Clark, U. S. National Dr. Frederic Bancroft, librarian of Mendes Cohen, secretary of the the State Department. Hon. George Bancroft, ex-president of the association. General William Birney, Washington. Prof. Edward S. Bourne, Adelbert College, Cleveland. Henry E. Bourne, Norwich Acad- Dr. Clarence W. Bowen, New York. S. Mis. 170-1 Maryland Historical Society. Prof. R. H. Dabney, University of General Charles W. Darling, secre- Llewellyn Deane, Washington. Paul Leicester Ford, Brooklyn. 1 Mrs. Olivia M. Ford, Washington. Dr. E. M. Gallaudet, president National Deaf-Mute College. General Rufus Saxton, Washington. Dr. Walter B. Scaife, Baltimore. James Schouler, Boston. Dr. G. Brown Goode, Assistant Sec- | Prof. Austin Scott, Rutgers Colretary of the Smithsonian Institution. A. A. Graham, State Historical Society, Columbus. Judge Alexander B. Hagner, Washington. Charles H. Haskins, Baltimore. Prof. Paul Haupt, Baltimore. General Joseph R. Hawley, United States Senate. Col. John Hay, Washington. Hon. Willam Wirt Henry, Richmond, vice-president of the Association. Hon. George F. Hoar, United States Senate. Prof. F. H. Hodder, Cornell Univer sity. Roswell Randall Hoes, U. S. Navy. Hon. John Jay, vice president of the Association. Rear-Admiral Thornton A. Jenkins, U. S. Navy, Washington. Miss Elizabeth Bryant Johnston, Washington. Hon. Horatio King, Washington. John A. King, president New York Historical Society. Mrs. Martha J. Lamb, editor of Mag azine of American History. Edward G. Mason, president Chicago Historical Society. lege. William Henry Smith, president A. R. Spofford, Library of Congress. Dr. Charles J. Stillé, Philadelphia. Dr. Joseph Meredith Toner, Library of Congress. Prof. William P. Trent, Univers of the South. President Lyon G. Tyler, William and Mary College. John Martin Vincent, Johns Hopkins University. Mrs. Ellen Harden Walworth, Washington. President Ethelbert D. Warfield, Miami University. J. E. Watkins, U. S. National Mu seum. William B. Weeden, president Historical Association, Brown University. President James C. Welling, Columbian University. Prof. O. T. Mason, U. S. National Ex-president Andrew D. White, Museum. John H. T. McPherson, Baltimore. Prof. John Pollard, Richmond. Cornell University. W. W. Willoughby, Johns Hopkins University. General James Grant Wilson, New York. Prof. Thomas Wilson, U. S. National Museum. Dr. Justin Winsor, librarian Harvard University. James A. Woodburn, Johns Hopkins University. General Marcus J. Wright, War Records Office, Washington. The headquarters of the Association in Washington were at the Arlington Hotel. Three morning sessions, Saturday, Monday, and Tuesday, were held from 10.30 to 1 o'clock at the National Museum by permission of the Regents of the Smithsonian Institution, and three evening sessions on the same days from 8 to 10 p. m., in the large lecture hall of the Columbian University by invitation of President James C. Welling. Sunday and the afternoon hours were free for social purposes. On Monday, from 4 to 7 o'clock, a tea was given to the members of the Association and their friends by Mr. and Mrs. Horatio King, 707 H street, and on Tuesday afternoon, at the same hours, Mrs. Walworth extended to the Association a like courtesy at her new home, 1300 L street. By invitation of the board of managers our members enjoyed the privileges of the Cosmos Club during the four days' sojourn in Washington. Every evening after adjournment of the formal session of the Association at the Columbian University there was a social reunion at the Cosmos Club. On Monday afternoon and on Tuesday morning by invitation of the librarian, Dr. Bancroft, parties of historical students and specialists visited the State Department for an examination of the interesting archives there preserved. The convention opened Saturday morning, December 28, in the large lecture hall of the National Museum. The walls were decorated with the Catlin collection of Indian portraits, with pictures of Pueblos and Cliff dwellers, and with the busts of American statesmen. The room was admirably suited to the purposes of the Association. The curators of the Museum had introduced a number of cases for the display of interesting historical relics, books, manuscripts, etc., which attracted great attention on the part of the members as they entered or left the hall. The first paper presented at the morning session was by Prof. George L. Burr, of Cornell University, who has in his immediate charge the excellent historical library of ex-President Andrew D. White. The subject of Mr. Burr's paper was "The Literature of Witchcraft," for the illustration of which ample materials had been found in Mr. White's library. The literature of witchcraft includes perhaps a thousand volumes. The earliest was written in the fifteenth century, and their authors were Dominicans of the Inquisition. They regarded the subject as an old one. Indeed, the Church had always fought against magic. She had taught that the gods of the pagans were devils and those who worshipped them were sorcerers. The belief in Satan was developed by mediæval monks and the Church fathers, re-enforced by Byzantine speculation. Belief in the Devil's activity in this world was elaborated by scholasticism into a system, of which the whole literature of witchcraft is but a broken reflection. To detect and punish the servants of Satan was the work of the Inquisition and the persecutors of witchcraft in England and New England. The second paper of Saturday morning's session was "A Catechism of Political Reaction," by ex-President Andrew D. White. In his preface to this paper Mr. White called attention to the fact that while studies of the French Revolution in Europe have been developed to an enormous extent there has been no corresponding treatment, indeed no adequate study of the reaction after the various revolutions. Mr. White's paper was a contribution to such a history. His essay was based upon a very rare and curious little book which he obtained at Sorrento three years ago. The book was a wonderfully wellargued and well-written catechism by the Archbishop of Sorrento, who was placed by the King of the Two Sicilies, about 1850, at the head of the department of public instruction at Naples, and also made the tutor of the young prince. It contains the most amazing declarations of war against modern civilization, and indeed against nearly everything moral, political, or social which the nineteeth century regards as a landmark of progress. It argues with wonderful force that the king is not bound by any oath that he may have sworn to maintain a constitution, and urges with extreme cleverness all the arguments in support of absolute government. Mr. White took up several chapters of this remarkable catechism and gave in detail the argument in each. The third paper was by Herbert Elmer Mills, Instructor in History, Cornell University, on "The French Revolution in San Domingo." In 1789, San Domingo was by far the most important of the colonies of France. Commercially it was prosperous, but its population was divided into the Creole planters, the free "people of color," and the slaves, by far the most numerous class. Government was in the hands of the French minister of marine, and was administered by a governor and an intendant. The people had no political privileges, and this fact had long irritated the Creoles. At the first announcement of the approaching meeting of the States-General in France, the people of San Domingo took measures to secure representation, hoping thereby to win for themselves the control of the island. Delegates were chosen, but a careful study shows that the assemblies which elected them were widely scattered and by no means represented the entire body of the planters. At first the representatives were given a seat, but not a voice among the Third Estate; but before the end of 1789 they had won recognition as entitled to six votes in the National Assembly. Meantime the free people of color in San Domingo had not been idle. Their representatives also appeared at the National Assembly and claimed seats. It has been assumed by historians that these representatives were actually elected in the island and sent to Paris, but the truth is that they were chosen merely by members of this caste who were residents of Paris. No place was granted them in the National Assembly. Of course neither emancipation nor representation of the servile class was thought of either by the whites or free people of color in San Domingo. The last paper of the morning session was read by Clarence W. Bowen on a newly discovered manuscript called Reminiscences of the American War of Independence, by Ludwig Baron von Closen, Aid to Count de Rochambeau. This manuscript was found in the early part of the year 1889 among the archives of the Von Closen family in their castle in Bavaria. A translation was sent to Mr. Bowen, who read brief extracts. Ludwig Baron von Closen, the author, was born August 14, 1755, and in his early years entered the French military service. On the arrival of the French expedition in Newport, R. I., in 1780, he was made Aid to Count de Rochambeau, commander of the expedition. Previously he had been captain in the regiment Royal Deux Ponts. On returning to France in 1783, Von Closen received from Louis XVI. the Order of Legion of Honor, and the Order for Merit, and in 1792 was informed of his election, with the permission of the King of France, to the Order of the Cincinnati. He died in 1830. In his reminiscences he speaks of his visits to John Hancock of Massachusetts, Jonathan Trumbull of Connecticut, and Thomas Jefferson of Virginia. He conducted Washington from the Hudson River to Rochambeau at Newport. He reports the conferences between Washington, Rochambeau. La Fayette, and De Grasse near Yorktown. His visit to Mrs. Washington at Mount Vernon, a ball he gave at Baltimore, and visits to other |