Ohio History Journal

A Rebuttal to Mrs. Trollope:

Harriet Martineau in Cincinnati

 

By WILLIAM R. SEAT, JR.*

 

 

 

AMERICA WAS ACQUAINTED with Harriet Martineau be-

fore she arrived in this country. When she landed at New

York City in the fall of 1834, she was already a recognized

author, a writer of authority who was perhaps the most

influential woman in England. Her recently published Illus-

trations of Political Economy had demonstrated to Americans

that sympathy with the democratic ideal and concern for the

welfare of the masses were motivating forces in her life.

American theologians knew her as the prophetess of Unitari-

anism; abolitionists had seen in her "Demerara" a powerful

protest against slavery; statesmen had heard of her influence

with the great English leaders; literary men knew her as a

poetess, essayist, and writer of fiction; workmen had heard

of her as the champion of the common man. America was

delighted to entertain the visiting Englishwoman, and news-

papers heralded her arrival with unanimous enthusiasm. Sev-

eral went so far as to hope that Miss Martineau would cor-

rect misconceptions propagated by previous British visitors

by writing of her experiences in America.

Mrs. Trollope came to America in search of financial gain;

Thomas Hamilton arrived with the intention of noting the

failure of democracy in America. Harriet Martineau's mo-

tives were different from those of her predecessors: she

wanted to see America, and while she was traveling she pro-

 

* William R. Seat, Jr., is associate professor of English at Northern Illinois

University.

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A REBUTTAL TO MRS. TROLLOPE          277

posed to make a constructive examination of the extent to

which democracy in America was succeeding. And so, a

week after she disembarked, she began her journey through

the United States. Her itinerary was essentially the same

as that followed by de Tocqueville in 1831-32. In March 1835

she began a tour of the South, which included visits to Rich-

mond, Charleston, Montgomery, New Orleans, Nashville, and

Lexington. By June she had reached Cincinnati, sailing down

the Ohio River from Maysville, Kentucky.

The river steamer Henry Clay docked at Cincinnati late on

the night of June 15, 1835, and Miss Martineau was conducted

immediately to the Broadway Hotel.¹ The next morning,

June 16, she rose early and prepared to engage in the usual

flurry of activities which a Martineau visit precipitated. She

arrived in the city at an extremely interesting period. The

population had increased by leaps and bounds since Mrs.

Trollope's stay in the city five years before. New homes and

industries were rapidly occupying the rolling hills on which

Cincinnati was situated; the river front was crowded with

boats. In addition, the young city was astir over the Ohio-

Michigan territorial dispute. Miss Martineau's friends in

Cincinnati informed her that the state had appropriated funds

in order to raise an army to contest Michigan's claims. Ex-

citement was high, and there was talk of war.

It was with great anticipation that Miss Martineau arose

on the morning of June 16. She noted with pleasure that a

Negro woman was sitting in the midst of the group gathered

at the breakfast table. Immediately after the meal, visitors

began presenting themselves. They had had ample opportu-

nity to follow the Martineau tour in the newspapers, and to

familiarize themselves with the essential facts of her life.

In fact, as early as January 18, eight months before she

landed in America, the Cincinnati Mirror and Western Ga-

zette of Literature and Science had printed a short autobiog-

 

1 The framework of Miss Martineau's visit to Cincinnati is found in her

Retrospect of Western Travel (London, 1838), II, 35-56.

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278   THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

raphical sketch of Harriet Martineau.² Immediately after

her arrival in the city, newspapers announced the fact. The

Cincinnati Daily Gazette said, "This lady, upon a visit of

observation to our country, and distinguished for a very

intelligent treatise on political economy, and for other useful

works, arrived in Cincinnati on Monday."³ The Cincinnati

Daily Whig and Commercial Intelligencer said, "Miss Mar-

tineau, of considerable celebrity as an English authoress,

arrived in this city on Monday evening, and took lodgings at

the Broadway Hotel";4 the Daily Cincinnati Republican and

Commercial Register was the last to print the news. On Fri-

day, June 19, its subscribers read, "Miss Martineau, a dis-

tinguished English authoress, is now in this city; she arrived

last Monday on her return from a southwestern tour."⁵

Another periodical, the Liberty Hall and Cincinnati Gazette,

told of Miss Martineau's itinerary before she reached Cincin-

nati.⁶

Among Miss Martineau's first visitors was Dr. Daniel

Drake, the leading physician in Cincinnati and one of the

most prominent citizens of the city. A long-time resident,

in 1819 he had founded the Medical College of Ohio, a school

which later was absorbed by the medical college of the Uni-

versity of Cincinnati. Dr. Drake proposed that he and his

daughter call for Miss Martineau in the afternoon to take

her on a tour of the city.⁷ The next visitor was Catharine

Esther Beecher, eldest daughter of the Rev. Lyman Beecher.

The Beechers had moved to Cincinnati in 1832 after Dr.

Beecher had been appointed the first president of Lane Theo-

logical Seminary and pastor of the Second Presbyteriar

Church in the city. Catharine Beecher, a pioneer in highei

education for women, had founded the Western Female Insti

tute soon after she arrived in Cincinnati. Several other prom

 

2 III (1833-34), 108.

³ June 17, 1835.

4 June 17, 1835.

⁵ June 19, 1835.

6 June 17, 1835.

7 See Retrospect of Western Travel, II, 39.

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A REBUTTAL TO MRS. TROLLOPE         279

inent citizens presented themselves on this first morning,

among them some of the leading merchants of the city. After

dinner Dr. Drake and his daughter called for Miss Martineau

and conducted her on a carriage trip around the city. As they

saw various points of interest, Dr. Drake discussed the history

of the city. Miss Martineau took particular notice of the

slaughter houses on Deer Creek, although she did not make

the usual tourist's trip through the processing plants because

of her aversion to the sight of blood. On the way to Dr.

Drake's home, where they were to take tea, the sight-

seers passed Lane Seminary so that the doctor could make

a call upon a patient. They encountered Dr. Beecher and his

daughters there, and Miss Martineau accepted an invitation

to visit them the next week.

At the time Miss Martineau was in Cincinnati, Dr. Beecher

was under fire from two directions. The local presbytery dis-

agreed with his interpretation of the Westminster Confession,

and he was on trial for heresy. More important, however,

was the recent controversy which had shaken Lane Seminary

to its foundation. Early in 1834 the students had voted over-

whelmingly in favor of the immediate emancipation of all

slaves in America. As a result, they had begun working with

the Negroes of Cincinnati, organizing schools and clubs, and

constantly preaching abolition. Fearful of retaliation by the

citizenry, the trustees of Lane ordered the cessation of aboli-

tionist activities at the institution. Under the leadership of

Theodore Weld forty students and two professors withdrew

from the school; many of these matriculated at Oberlin and

aided in the spread of the abolition movement in the West.

Even though Miss Martineau was not an abolitionist at the

time, she disagreed with Dr. Beecher and his principles on

two points. He had opposed the action of the trustees of

Lane, but his stand had not been a strong one. Miss Mar-

tineau upheld the students' actions: "The good cause has

gained even more than the seminary has lost by the absurd

tyranny practised against the students."⁸ A second point of

8 Ibid., 44.

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280   THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

disagreement was Dr. Beecher's stand against Roman Catholi-

cism. When he was preaching in Boston, he delivered three

anti-Catholic sermons which had partly motivated the burn-

ing of a convent. Miss Martineau was concerned because

this "ostentatious and virulent foe of the Catholics" had

moved to Cincinnati, thus effecting the introduction of reli-

gious prejudice in the vigorous western city, which was

already troubled by racial prejudice.

His daughters, however, made a somewhat more favorable

impression on the English visitor. Catharine Beecher, Miss

Martineau thought "a lady eminent for learning and talents,

and for her zeal in the cause of education."⁹ Her younger

sister, Harriet Elizabeth, who was teaching in the Western

Female Institute, made little impression on the visitor. Miss

Martineau, however, was interested in meeting and convers-

ing with the older sister, who had made a name for herself in

the field of education. The visitor records having met the

other members of the Beecher family, but there is no mention

of Harriet Elizabeth, who was twenty-four years old at the

time. Years later, when Harriet Beecher Stowe became

famous as the author of Uncle Tom's Cabin, she corresponded

with Harriet Martineau. In one letter, which Miss Mar-

tineau wrote acknowledging her receipt of Mrs. Stowe's new

book Dred, she reminisces, "Did I see you (in white frock and

black silk apron) when I was in Ohio in 1835? Your sister

I knew well, and I have a clear recollection of your father.

I believe and hope you were the young lady in the black silk

apron."10

As the days passed, Miss Martineau met many more of the

prominent citizens of Cincinnati. She visited the studio of

James Henry Beard, a young painter whose works pleased

her "more than those of any other American artist."¹¹ Nicho-

las Longworth, millionaire lawyer and horticulturist, invited

her to his splendid home. She saw his vineyards, his gardens,

9 Ibid., 39.

10 Annie Fields, ed., Life and Letters of Harriet Stowe (Boston and New York

1897), 233. The letter is dated June 1, 1857.

11 Retrospect of Western Travel, II, 46.

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A REBUTTAL TO MRS. TROLLOPE             281

and his conservatory. Among the other guests at the party

which Longworth gave in her honor were a supreme court

judge, a member of congress, and most of the leading pro-

fessional people of the city. It was here that Miss Martineau

met Judge James Hall, editor of the Western Monthly Maga-

zine and author of Letters from the West.

On June 19, her fourth day in Cincinnati, Miss Martineau

observed the festival which celebrated the anniversary of the

opening of the common schools of the city. She listened

patiently to the orations of self-conscious schoolboys and

watched the awarding of prizes. The ceremony closed with

an address by a gentleman whom she does not identify. In

the address, "the children were exhorted to trust their teachers

entirely; to be assured that their friends would do by them

what was kindest." These were superfluous words, Miss Mar-

tineau felt, because "if they are properly trained, they will

unavoidably have this trust and confidence, and the less that

is said about it the better."¹² The speaker was Ephraim

Peabody, a young Unitarian pastor who had just moved to

Cincinnati from Meadville, Pennsylvania. Perhaps the reason

Miss Martineau does not identify the author of the speech

which she criticizes is the fact that later in her visit she

became acquainted with Peabody, and respected him as a man

of integrity and ability. In a letter to James Freeman

Clarke, written from Cincinnati, she says:

 

I do wish Mr. Holland¹³ had come any other Sunday. . . . He has

taken complete and unscrupulous possession today of Mr. Peabody's

pulpit. We have staid here over Sunday on purpose to hear Mr. P, and

have not been in a Unit?? church since we left Georgia, and shall not be

for three Sundays to come. It is trying is it not? . . . I rather think Mr.

Peabody is inspired, by what I have heard in private. I must hear him

preach somewhere.14

 

 

12 Ibid., 53.

13 Perhaps Frederick West Holland, a young Unitarian minister.

14 The letter, dated June 21, 1835, is now in the Houghton Library, Harvard

University. The excerpt here quoted is included by special permission.

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282    THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

Peabody was the only citizen of Cincinnati whom she spe-

cifically described in Retrospect of Western Travel:

 

He was from New England; and, till he spoke, he might have been

taken for one of the old Puritans risen from an early grave to walk the

earth for a while. He was tall, gaunt, and severe-looking, with rather

long black hair and very large black eyes. When he spoke all the severity

vanished; his countenance and voice expressed gentleness, and his quiet

fun showed that the inward man was no Puritan. His conversation was

peculiar. His voice was somewhat hollow, and not quite manageable,

and he was wont to express himself with schoolboy abruptness and awk-

wardness of phrase, letting drop gems of truth and flowers of beauty

without being in the least aware of the inequality of his conversation, or,

perhaps, that he was conversing at all. . . . He was a man who fixed

the attention at once, and could not, after a single interview, be ever

forgotten.15

 

He had been appointed to read a poem before the Phi Beta

Kappa Society during Harvard College commencement week

the following August. Miss Martineau was present at the

occasion, but the poem was read by a substitute; the author

was too ill to be present.

When she was not receiving Cincinnati society, Miss Mar-

tineau occupied her days with visits to various points of inter-

est in and around the city. She found the Western Museum

especially interesting. Although the wax figures seemed

crude to her, the cases of geological and entomological speci-

mens and the collection of American currency held her atten-

tion for a considerable time. On another occasion she went

to the store of Alexander Flash, Cincinnati's leading book-

seller, where she examined many volumes and found them

well selected and cheap. In a conversation with Flash, she

heard "good accounts of the improved and improving literary

taste of the place, shown in the increasing number of book so-

cieties and the superior character of the works supplied to

their orders."¹⁶ Flash and his partner pleased the copyright-

conscious Miss Martineau by telling her that they were com-

 

15 Retrospect of Western Travel, II, 59-60.

16 Ibid., 46.

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A REBUTTAL TO MRS. TROLLOPE             283

pletely in favor of the protection of foreign literary property.

Miss Martineau undoubtedly saw and examined several of her

volumes at the store, for Flash had in stock eight tales from

her Illustrations of Political Economy. On Thursday, June

18, only two days after Miss Martineau had reached Cincin-

nati, the following advertisement was inserted in the Cincin-

nati Daily Whig and Commercial Intelligencer by the oppor-

tunistic Flash:

Miss Martineau's Works

The following Illustrations of Political Economy

Life in the Wilds

Ella of Garveloch

A Manchester Strike

The Charmed Sea

The Hill and the Valley

Weal and Woe in Garveloch

Homes Abroad

The Loom and the Lugger

For Sale by Alexander Flash

Third Street near the Post Office¹⁷

The identical advertisement continued to be run, usually on

the front page, until July 26, 1836, long after Miss Martineau

had left the United States. The presence of the authoress in

the city must have accelerated sale of her books considerably

to warrant advertising them for such a protracted period of

time. On the other hand, Flash may have ordered an over-

supply of Miss Martineau's works in anticipation of her visit.

Another spot of interest which Miss Martineau was anxious

to see was Mrs. Trollope's Bazaar. On her first day in the

city she received tickets to a concert which was to be held

there, and so on the evening of June 19 she was one of the

large crowd which waited eagerly for the "first concert ever

offered to them." The Bazaar, she says,

 

17 The tales listed are numbers 1, 2, 5, 6, 7, 10, 13, and 17-18. It is interesting

that number 4, the controversial "Demerara," is not listed.

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284    THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

 

is the great deformity of the city. Happily, it is not very conspicuous,

being squatted down among houses nearly as lofty as the summit of its

dome. From my window at the boarding-house, however, it was only

too distinctly visible. It is built of brick, and has Gothic windows, Gre-

cian pillars, and a Turkish dome, and it was originally ornamented with

Egyptian devices, which have, however, all disappeared under the brush

of the whitewasher.18

The concert itself was rewarding. There were twenty-five

instrumental performers, a chorus, and several vocal soloists.

Miss Martineau, as she listened, thought of how far she was

from home, and how strange it was to hear Mozart in a place

which a few years before had been silent except for the growls

of wild beasts.

It is almost certain that the citizens of Cincinnati were still

squirming from   Mrs. Trollope's Domestic Manners of the

Americans, which had appeared three years before. And it

is equally certain that Mrs. Trollope's name was mentioned in

conversations in which Miss Martineau took part. And yet

nowhere in her Retrospect of Western Travel or in her So-

ciety in America is there a direct reference to Mrs. Trollope

or to the reception of her books in America. Professor Smal-

ley has pointed out a possible indirect slap at Mrs. Trollope

in Society in America, Volume III, pages 135-136, where

Miss Martineau calls attention to the difficulties encountered

by certain English ladies in their attempts to obtain servants.¹⁹

Miss Martineau contends that the ladies deserved their treat-

ment by the servants. In Domestic Manners, Mrs. Trollope

had lamented the fact that she was unable to find faithful,

efficient servants during her stay in America. Upon her

return to England, Harriet Martineau was asked about Mrs.

Trollope's position in America. The reply appears in her

Autobiography:

 

Mrs. Trollope had no opportunity of knowing what good society was

in America, generally speaking. I added that I intended to say this, as

18 Retrospect of Western Travel, II, 54.

19 Mrs. Frances Trollope, Domestic Manners of the Americans, edited by Don-

ald Smalley (New York, 1949), 53n.

• 9
 

A REBUTTAL TO MRS. TROLLOPE                285

 

often as I was inquired of; for the simple reason that Mrs. Trollope had

thought proper to libel and slander a whole nation. If she had been an

ordinary discontented tourist, her adventures in America would not be

worth the trouble of discussing; but her slanderous book made such

exposures necessary.²⁰

She was then asked whether or not she was going to refute

Mrs. Trollope's charges in her own book on America. Her

answer explains why there is no mention of her predecessor in

any of the volumes: "Why,. . . you don't suppose I am going

to occupy any of my book with Mrs. Trollope! I would not

dirty my pages with her stories, even to refute them. What

have I to do with Mrs. Trollope but to say what I know when

inquired of ?"21

During her stay of ten days Miss Martineau met and talked

with many of Cincinnati's most prominent citizens; she saw

the sights of the city, and traveled through the surrounding

countryside as much as possible. Since recent rains had turned

country roads into impassable quagmires, she was unable to

penetrate far into the interior of Ohio. Despite the strenuous

nature of her schedule and the inclement weather, however,

she found her visit to Cincinnati extremely pleasant. After

she had left the city, she wrote Henry Clay:

 

We enjoyed our ten days' visit at Cincinnati very much, and found

your kind introductions of eminent service. We staid longer there than

we had intended, from finding it impossible to travel at all in the interior

of the State. A gentleman escaped out of the mud to his home, at last,

after traveling at the rate of one mile an hour--a process which does not

suit the taste or convenience of Miss Jeffery [sic] or myself. . . . I have

also been weighed; and find my ponderosity to be one hundred and six-

teen pounds.²²

Mrs. Trollope disliked Cincinnati, its institutions, people,

and cultural life. Miss Martineau's reaction was entirely

 

20 Edited by Maria Weston Chapman (Boston, 1877) I, 240.

21 Ibid., 241.

22 Henry Clay, Life, Correspondence, and Speeches, edited by Calvin Colton

(New York, 1857), IV, 390-391. The letter is dated at White Sulphur Springs,

June 30, 1835.

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286    THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

different. "Cincinnati is a glorious place," she says.²³ Its loca-

tion was the finest site for a city she had ever seen; its climate

was the most healthful in the United States; its buildings

(except for the Bazaar) were magnificent in architecture

and were splendidly furnished; its free school system was ex-

cellent; its industrial life was vigorous and progressive. Dick-

ens, who visited the city seven years later, was of the same

opinion. In American Notes he says, "Cincinnati is a beauti-

ful city; cheerful, thriving, and animated." The people, too,

pleased Miss Martineau. "I thought it a populace worthy of

such a city," she emphasizes, and goes on to amplify her

statement:

 

Its population contains contributions of almost every element that

goes to constitute society; and each in its utmost vigour. There are here

few of the arbitrary associations which exist among the members of

other societies. Young men come with their wives, in all directions, from

afar; with no parents, cousins, sects, or parties about them. Here is an

assemblage from almost every nation under heaven,--a contribution from

the resources of almost every country; and all unburdened, and ready

for natural association and vigorous action. Like takes to like, and

friendships are formed from congeniality, and not from accident or

worldly design. Yet is there a tempering of prejudices, a mutual enlight-

enment, from previous differences of education and habits,--difference

even of country or language. Great force is thus given to any principle

carried out into action by the common convictions of differing persons;

and life is deep and rapid in its course. Such is the theory of society in

Cincinnati; and such is, in some degree, its practice.²⁴

Several citizens mentioned the fact that the city was the

logical spot for the location of the capital of the United States,

and some were even debating about where the new capital

building should stand. Miss Martineau agreed that eventually

Cincinnati would be the nation's capital. She reasons:

 

It seems rather absurd to call senators and representatives to Wash.

ington from Missouri and Louisiana, while there is a place on the great

rivers which would save them half the journey, and suit almost every

 

23 Society in America (London, 1837), I, 187.

24 Ibid., 189-190.

• 11
 

A REBUTTAL TO MRS. TROLLOPE              287

 

body else just as well, and many much better. The peril to health at

Washington in the winter season is great, and the mild and equable

temperature of Cincinnati is an important circumstance in the case.²⁵

Future capital of the nation, cultural and commercial center,

a city where there was a minimum of prejudice and sectional-

ism, a place with great natural beauty and a healthful climate

--this was Cincinnati to Harriet Martineau. After her

American tour was completed, she dreamed of returning to

settle permanently in the new world. And if she had fulfilled

her dream, she would have become a citizen of Cincinnati:

"For more reasons than one I should prefer Cincinnati as a

residence to any other large city of the United States."²⁶

At noon on June 25, 1835, Miss Martineau left Cincinnati.

The day was scorchingly hot, and the ladies' fans moved

continuously. Miss Martineau could not bring herself to

remain in the cabin of the steamboat. Instead, she sat on the

deck and watched the succession of pictures which the pano-

rama of the Ohio unfolded endlessly before her eyes. As the

boat moved steadily eastward up the river, her thoughts were

not of White Sulphur Springs, Virginia, the next stop on

the itinerary. Miss Martineau was enjoying the beautiful

scenery and was recalling with satisfaction her visit to the

great, new city on the Ohio. At the same time, Cincinnati

was reflecting on Miss Martineau's stay. In summation, the

Cincinnati Mirror and Chronicle said:

Miss MARTINEAU--This distinguished lady has just left Cincinnati

on her return to the east. All who saw and knew her during her stay

with us, were much pleased and surprised to find one so much an au-

thoress so little a pedant. A writer by nature no less than necessity, she

has gained more influence, and done more good by her writings than,

probably, any other woman of the time, with the exception of Miss

Edgeworth. She is at this moment swaying thousands, and that not in

matters of taste and "polite literature," but in concerns of national and

enduring import. A mind like Miss Martineau's combines the strength

and grasp of a man's, with the delicacy, feeling, and truthfulness of a

woman's. The other female writers of Great Britain are in the main

25 Retrospect of Western Travel, II, 49.

²⁶ Ibid., 56.

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288    THE OHIO HISTORICAL QUARTERLY

 

annual plants, but she will live for centuries. We presume that upon her

return to England, we shall have from her a volume upon our country,

by which we may, if we will, profit; nor have the excuse for disregard

given us, that is afforded by the Trollope and Kemble vulgarity, and the

Hall and Hamilton prejudice.²⁷

On the same day, the Cincinnati Daily Whig and Commercial

Intelligencer noted Miss Martineau's departure with this cur-

sory and succinct announcement: "Miss Martineau, who has

acquired some little celebrity as the author of a few dull

articles on 'Political Economy,' has left our city. She has

been informing us, who are the greatest men in our country."²⁸

The editor, James F. Conover, had evidently been displeased

with some of the views which the visitor had expressed. The

Mirror and Chronicle, which had published the panegyric

quoted above, sprang to Miss Martineau's defense. The fol-

lowing commentary on Conover's statement was printed in the

Saturday, July 4, issue and may be taken as a concluding

judgment of the Queen City on her famous visitor:

 

"Miss Martineau, who has acquired some little celebrity as the author

of a few dull articles on 'Political Economy,' has left our city.

She has been informing us, who are the greatest men in our country."

Epitaph Extraordinary

Here lie the remains

of

the literary reputation

of Miss Harriet Martineau:

a lady

"who had acquired some little celebrity

as the author of a few dull articles

on

'Political Economy'"

She visited our city in her usual plain and lady-like manner,

and while here remained well: but being ignorant

of our climate and our gallantry, she was injudicious

enough to indulge in a little praise,

by informing us

"who are the great men in our country."

27 IV (1834-35), 283.

²8 June 27, 1835.

• 13
 

A REBUTTAL TO MRS. TROLLOPE               289

 

An inflammation came on

in consequence,

Followed by a violent attack of

Whig and Intelligencer:

and a few days after her body departed our city,

Her literary character

Departed this life

Having died

Of excessive Major Conover.

Mourn

Ye millions of England, Scotland, Ireland, France, Spain,

Germany, and America, who listened to her with delight,

for she is damned:

Mourn

Brougham, Durham, Grey, Webster, Clay, Calhoun, and

all who supported her, for your support was in vain--

A mightier arm than any or all of

yours has laid her low.

for

"The blow by which Hercules despatched the Naemean

lion, was not more fatal to its victim, than" was

the dictum

of

James F. Conover,

to

the literary reputation

of

Harriet Martineau.²⁹

 

29 IV, 291.

• 14