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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.