OHIO STATE ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND
HISTORICAL
SOCIETY
REVIEWS, NOTES AND COMMENTS
BY THE EDITOR
DR. THOMAS CORWIN MENDENHALL
Dr. Thomas Corwin Mendenhall died at
his home
in Ravenna Saturday, March 22. He was a
member
of the first faculty of the Ohio State
University and a
life member of the Ohio State
Archaeological and His-
torical Society. A brief sketch of his
life was pub-
lished in the QUARTERLY of the
Society for October,
1921. He delivered the annual address
at the meet-
ing of the Society on September 19,
1923. This appears
in the October QUARTERLY for that year.
Dr. Mendenhall was one of the leading
educators of
Ohio. His reputation was international.
He lived to
the ripe age of more than eighty-two
years. He was
born at New Garden, Columbiana County,
Ohio, October
4, 1821. He was intellectually alert
and active almost
to the last day of his life.
We hope in a future issue to publish an
extended
sketch of Dr. Mendenhall that will
place before the
readers of the QUARTERLY the
personality and achieve-
ments of this eminent educator and
scientist and most
worthy and respected Ohioan.
(215)
216 Ohio Arch. and Hist.
Society Publications
REV. PURLEY A. BAKER
On March 30 Rev. P. A. Baker died at
his home in
Westerville, Ohio. He was born in
Jackson County,
Ohio, April 10, 1858. He was
prominently identified
with the work of the Anti-saloon League
almost from
its beginning. This organization like
many other move-
ments, began in Ohio in 1893 and
extended to every
state of the Union. Its founder was
Rev. Howard H.
Russell who is still living in
Westerville. Rev. P. A.
Baker was in charge of the Cleveland
district of the
League in 1896. He became its state
superintendent in
1897 and in 1903 he was chosen general
superintendent
of the Anti-saloon League of America, a
position that
he held to the date of his death.
Soon after he became prominently
identified with the
League his ability as an organizer and
an executive was
recognized and felt. During his
administration amend-
ments prohibiting the manufacture and
sale of intoxi-
cating liquors were added to the
constitutions of a
number of states and finally became a
part of the con-
stitution of the United States.
There have been and still are
differences of opinion
in regard to prohibition. Some citizens consider it
still in the experimental stage. There
can be no ques-
tion, however, in regard to the
magnitude and progress
of the movement in the United States,
and if it achieves
even approximately what its friends
with confidence
claim for it, Rev. Baker will in the
future be accorded
high rank among the reformers of his
generation.
Reviews, Notes and Comments 217
A LATE ESTIMATE OF JOHN BROWN
The time will never come, perhaps, when
there will
not be conflicting opinions in regard
to John Brown
and his mission. It is remarkable,
however, how well,
without any special advocate, his
character stands the
test of time. In spite of the critical
portions of the
biography written by Oswald Garrison
Villard and the
severe attack, occupying an entire
volume, by Hill
Peebles Wilson, written for a
consideration said to have
been $5,000, the fame of the old
anti-slavery warrior
survives. In a carefully written survey
of his life by
Gamaliel Bradford, in his recent volume
entitled
Damaged Souls, after considering all the evidence to
date, the author concludes with this
interesting estimate:
Something magnetic in his obsession
touched men of the
most diverse temperaments and powers,
roused them to think
and feel and work as he did.
Take his immediate followers, take that
group of boys, or
little more than boys, who gathered
about him with unquestioning
loyalty in the last desperate venture.
They were not especially
religious. Even Brown's own sons did
not adopt his orthodox
interpretation of the Bible. But every
man of the company had
imbibed the spirit of sacrifice, every
man was ready to give his
life for the cause their leader had
preached to them, every man
believed that what he said should be
done must be done. "They
perfectly worshiped the ground the old
fellow trod on," said a
Southern observer who had no sympathy
with them except in the
admiration of splendid courage.
Nor was it only over those who came
under his immediate
command that Brown exercised the
magnetism of inspiration and
stimulus. After his capture and during
his imprisonment he
was surrounded by bitter enemies. But
they grew to respect
him and some apparently to have a
personal regard for him.
Even when they condemned his cause,
they esteemed his spirit
of sacrifice and his superb singleness
of purpose. In the years
before the crisis came he met some of
the keenest and most
intelligent men in the United States
and they saw and felt in
him a man of power, a man of will, a man of ideals
above and
218 Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications
beyond the common average and level of
trivial earthliness.
"No matter how inconsistent,
impossible, and desperate a thing
might appear to others, if John Brown
said he would do it, he
was sure to be believed. His words were
never taken for empty
bravado," wrote Frederick
Douglass. That enthusiasts like
Gerrit Smith should be carried away was
perhaps natural. But
Emerson was not an enthusiast, Thoreau
was not, Theodore
Parker was not. All these men spoke of
Brown as one gifted
for some divine purpose beyond
mortality. All of them thanked
the humble farmer and shepherd for that
thrill of exaltation
which is one of the greatest forces that
can touch the heart.
No one will call John A. Andrew an
enthusiast. He was a
practical man of the world, versed in
the hard conduct of every-
day affairs. Yet Andrew said:
"Whatever might be thought of
john Brown's acts, John Brown himself
was right."
And the influence of such a man and such
a life and such
a death flowed out and on beyond the men
who obeyed him,
beyond the men who met him, to those who
never knew, him
and had hardly even heard of him, to the
whole country, to the
wide world. The song that carries his
name inspired millions
throughout the great Civil War, it has
inspired millions since,
and John Brown's soul and sacrifice were
back of the song. That
is what Brown meant when he said,
"I am worth inconceivably
more to hang than for any other
purpose." That is what men
of his type achieve by their fierce
struggle and their bitter self-
denial and their ardent sacrifice. They
make others, long years
after, others who barely know their
names and nothing of their
history, achieve also some little or
mighty sacrifice, accomplish
some vast and far-reaching self-denial,
that so the world, through
all its doubts and complications and
perplexities, may be lifted
just a little towards ideal felicity.
Whatever their limitations,
their errors, whatever taint of earthly
damage has infected their
souls, it may justly be said that
"these men, in teaching us how
to die, have at the same time taught us
how to live."
MYTHICAL EXPOSITION OF A
"MYTH"
We not infrequently hear from those
"who speak
with authority" that history is not
written as in former
years; that the old method of placing
before the reader
the record of the past has materially
changed; that the
productions in this department bearing
dates a decade
Reviews, Notes and Comments 219
or two antecedent to our own time have
been consigned
to the discard by competent critics of
today; that a new
school has arisen with its canons to
which all must
subscribe who would presume to
contribute even a
modest monograph devoted to an episode
or event of
the past.
Any contribution, therefore, written by
a disciple
of the modern school fully equipped for
his work is
worthy of more than passing attention.
We have before us a contribution
entitled The John
Brown Myth by Leland H. Jenks. By reference to a
biographical note accompanying this
contribution to
The American Mercury of March, we find that Mr.
Jenks is associate professor of history
at Amherst. We
are told that "he is a Kansan and
is a graduate of
Columbia;" that "for three
years he was Amherst
Memorial Fellow in London."
Assuredly with such an equipment of
nativity and
the learning of the schools Mr. Jenks
should be able
to handle his subject with authority
and according to
the latest approved form of historical
literature.
In reading his contribution casually
the eye lingers
on a number of assumptions set forth as
unquestioned
facts. Here is one:
Thomas Wentworth Higginson, Samuel Howe,
who invented
the sewing-machine, the sweat-shop and
philanthropy, and Theo-
dore Parker, a pulpit orator with an
obsession for blood, were
among the amateurs haute politique whom
Brown met.
These are spoken of as a "sort of
Board of Direc-
tors to back his (John Brown's)
enterprises."
The sentence that we have quoted, all
will agree,
is not without merit. The climax,
"the sewing-machine,
220
Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications
the sweat-shop and philanthropy" has a beautiful
cynical incongruity that arrests
attention with all the
pleasing effect of a carefully
constructed paradox; while
the expression haute politique gives
it a scholarly set
off that is an earnest for the learning
of the author.
It may be a little diverting, however,
to some readers
of the old school to see the statement
that Samuel Howe
invented the "sewing-machine, the
sweat-shop and
philanthropy." The man who actually invented the
sewing-machine was Elias Howe, who was
something
of a philanthropist as was Samuel G.
Howe, the friend
of John Brown. It is not recorded, however, that
Elias had anything to do with the
so-called "board of
directors" that backed the
enterprises of John Brown.
Elias Howe was considered a patriotic
and useful
citizen as well as inventor, when
patriotism had not
fallen victim to the modern scholarly
sneer. He en-
listed in the Union army, in spite of
the great wealth
that he acquired from his invention,
and insisted upon
serving as a private. It is said on
authority that has
not been questioned that he made a good
soldier. Of
course we have now reached the time
when it is seriously
questioned whether there is or ever was
such a thing
as a "good soldier."
Again, in a previous paragraph, in
which some
sturdy blows are delivered at the
"myth," we run across
this illuminating sentence:
This is the Brown whose effigy a
grateful legislature has
caused to be shrined in the Hall of
Atrocities at Washington as
one of the two great Kansans.
From the biographical note already
quoted we learn
that Professor Jenks is himself a
Kansan. It is as-
Reviews, Notes and Comments 221
sumed of course that he knows all about
Kansas and
that he knows who represent that state
in the Hall of
Statuary at Washington, which he with
brilliant and
withering ascription denominates the
"Hall of Atro-
cities."
Now as a matter of fact the state of
Kansas is
represented in the hall of statuary by
the "effigies" of
Honorable George W. Glick, who served
Kansas as
governor, and Honorable John J.
Ingalls, who acquired
fame as a distinguished United States
senator from
that state. By the way, in passing it
may be worthy
of note that Senator Ingalls, in a
public address on the
struggle for the abolition of slavery,
said:
The three men of this era who will loom
forever against
the remotest horizon of time, as the
pyramids above the voiceless
desert, or mountain peaks over the
subordinate plains are
Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses S. Grant and
Old John Brown of
Ossawatomie.
Of course Ingalls is to be excused for
this statement
because he did not have the opportunity
to read "The
John Brown Myth." The sentence quoted from this,
while in error as to the actual
presence of the "effigy"
of John Brown in our national capitol,
has a pleasing
literary tang that is attractive to the
modern reader
who enjoys things iconoclastic and
flings at vulnerable
statuary.
Other quotations might be made to show
that the
author of "The John Brown
Myth" is not concerned
about such trivial matters as
old-fashioned facts. He
tells us that "one doubts indeed
that Brown knew fact
from fiction, truth from falsehood,
actuality from hal-
lucination." After reading his
contribution one can
222 Ohio Arch. and Hist.
Society Publications
hardly think that Professor Jenks would
find serious
fault with old John Brown because he
did not know
"fact from fiction." It is
assumed of course that Mr.
Jenks discriminates carefully between
the two but the
quotations already made show that he
does not care to
be bound by anything so annoying as
facts. Indeed
we may assume that what he says about
"The John
Brown Myth" is intended as
literature rather than
history -- a work of the creative
imagination which is
the mark of true genius.
Mr. Jenks delights in referring to John
Brown as
a horse thief. Here is his testimony on
this branch
of the "Myth:"
Brown led a raid from Kansas into
Missouri, stole eleven
negro slaves from several plantations
and seized ten head of
horses, three yoke of oxen, eleven
mules, bedding, clothing,
provisions, "in short, all the loot
available and portable. He took
the negroes to Canada, where they were
put to work, and sold
the swag to pay the expenses of the
trip."
Although John Brown is accused of horse
stealing
more than once the author states in
another paragraph
that "as a horse thief it must be
confessed his (Brown's)
operations were not extensive; they did
not attract much
attention in eastern Kansas."
Mr. Jenks is probably in error as to
the net results
of the raid into Missouri, but
historians are agreed
that Brown took the negroes and some of
the property
belonging to their masters, including
horses. He did
this openly and stated that he took the
property because
it had been earned by the slaves whom
he was liberat-
ing. There was an addition to this
"stolen property"
as Old Brown proceeded northward. A
river filled
Reviews, Notes and Comments 223
with floating ice impeded his progress.
A posse headed
by one Dr. Wood of Lecompton pursued
Brown for
the purpose of arresting him and his
band. Reinforced
by a number of men from Atchison, the
posse, now ag-
gregating sixty or seventy persons all
told, advanced
upon Brown's company encamped near the
river. To
their surprise, the old captain and his
men emerged
from the woods and opened fire. Panic
spread among
the ranks of the company sent to
capture him and they
departed as rapidly as their horses
could carry them.
Brown captured a few of the men and a
number of their
horses and proceeded on his northward
journey. Later
he permitted the prisoners to return
but kept the horses.
After he reached Canada and liberated
the slaves he
proceeded to Cleveland, Ohio, and sold
the horses at
auction. In offering them for sale
he stated that
legally there might be a defect in the
title to the animals
and told how he had acquired them. It
is said that in
conclusion he declared that they were
"abolition horses."
"How do you know that?" asked
someone from the
crowd.
"I know it," answered Brown,
"because I converted
them."
The horses brought a very satisfactory
price in
spite of the defective title. Now, if John
Brown was
a horse thief, it must be admitted that
his method of
disposing of the horses was somewhat
original and that
the bit of humor attributed to him in
offering them for
sale was so rare as almost to entitle
him to a place
among modern writers.
Mr. Jenks must be given full credit for
a recognition
of the mighty influence of "The
John Brown Myth"
224
Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications
in Civil War time, for he says that
"soon a hundred
thousand men were singing 'And his soul
goes marching
on.'"
It was the singing of this song by
thousands of the
boys in blue that inspired Julia Ward
Howe, the wife
of Samuel G. Howe, the financial
supporter of John
Brown, to write The Battle Hymn of
the Republic,
a poem that still has its appeal to
those who have not
come completely under the spell of
"the new literature."
The world seems to be finding it
difficult to forget
John Brown. As trains approach Harper's
Ferry the
passengers begin to talk about the
famous raid and the
old man who led it. He is the subject
of more dis-
cussions than the sanity of Hamlet, but
his name seems
destined to endure while the Blue Ridge
Mountains
stand and the Potomac rolls through
them to the sea.
GEORGE KENNAN
We regret to chronicle the death of an
Ohioan who
had attained an enviable reputation as
traveler, author,
lecturer and newspaper correspondent.
George Kennan
was born at Norwalk, Ohio, February 16,
1845. He was
the son of John and Mary Ann (Morse)
Kennan. He
was educated in the public schools of
his native town,
early manifested interest in telegraphy
and became an
operator before he reached his
majority. In 1865 he
went to northeastern Siberia as an
explorer and tele-
graph engineer where later he
superintended the con-
struction of a portion of the
Russo-American telegraph
line. In 1870 he began the exploration
of the mountain
region of eastern Caucasus and
Daghestan. Here he
spent almost two years after which he
returned to
America and devoted himself to
journalism and the
Reviews, Notes and Comments 225
lecture platform until 1877 when he
became night man-
ager of the Associated Press at
Washington, D. C. In
this position he continued eight years.
In 1885 accompanied by G. A. Frost, an
artist, he
started on a journey through Russia and
Siberia to
investigate the Russian exile system.
He visited all the
mines and prisons "between the
Ural Mountains and
the headwaters of the Amur." He
traveled 15,000
miles and published in 1891 as a result
of his observa-
tions the work that made him famous, Siberia
and the
Exile System. This had appeared serially in the Cen-
tury Magazine, 1889-1890. He lectured frequently on
the exile system in Great Britain and
the United States.
The results of his contributions on
this subject went
far toward creating a pronounced public
opinion op-
posed to the government of the Czar and
especially to
the exile system.
In 1898 during the war with Spain he
visited
Cuba and contributed interesting articles
to the Out-
look of New York.
In 1901 he went to Russia to visit
Count Tolstoy.
He was arrested by the Minister of the
Interior in
Russia and deported from the empire.
In 1902 he accompanied some American
scientists
and explored Mount Pelee, on the Island
of Martinique,
after the eruption of that volcano. In
1904 he was
correspondent of the Outlook in
the Far East through
the Russo-Japanese War including the
siege of Port
Arthur which he personally observed
with the Japanese
Army. After the close of the war he
remained about
two years in the Far East traveling
through Japan,
China, Manchuria and Korea. In
1906-1907 he was
Vol. XXXIII--15.
226 Ohio Arch. and Hist. Society Publications in California as correspondent for McClure's Magazine. In 1908 he went to England and translated from the original Russian manuscript General Kuropatkin's History of the Japanese War. Following is a list of his works that have appeared in book form: Siberia and the Exile System (1891); Campaigning in Cuba (1899); The Tragedy of Pelee (1902); Folk Tales of Napoleon (1902); Tent Life in Siberia (1910); A Russian Comedy of Errors (1915); The Chicago and Alton Case (1916); The Sal- ton Sea (1917); E. H. Harriman -- A Biography (1922). On September 25, 1879, Mr. Kennan married Em- maline Rathbone Weld of Medina, New York. He died at his home in Medina, New York, May 10, 1924. |
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