Triumphs and Wonders of the 19th Century: The True Mirror of a Phenomenal Era / A volume of original, entertaining and instructive historic and descriptive writings, showing the many and marvellous achievements which distinguish an hundred years of material, intellectual, social and moral progress

by James P. Boyd

THOMAS B. MACAULAY.

Henry Thomas Buckle, of England (b. November 24, 1822; d. May 29, 1862) is a conspicuous type of the patient and learned historian. His principal donation to modern progress is “The History of Civilization in England,” a work whose novel theories created an epoch in the philosophy of history, and called forth much controversy. According to him, civilization was due not so much to moral or religious influence as to material causes,—soil, climate, food, atmosphere, etc.

George Bancroft (b. October 3, 1800; d. January 17, 1891) was equally renowned as statesman and historian. As a member of President Polk’s cabinet, he was instrumental in founding the Naval Academy at Annapolis and the Naval Observatory at Washington. As minister to Prussia he negotiated several foreign treaties, and ably conducted the settlement of the “Northwest Boundary” question. But his great life-work was his “History of the United States,” on which he labored untiringly till his death. It is the most exhaustive, philosophic, and inspiring of our national histories.

Richard Hildreth (b. June 28, 1807; d. June 11, 1865) was one of the century’s valuable contributors to the welfare of the United States by his “History of Banks,” his many works on morals and politics, and chiefly by his great life-work, “The History of the United States,” a production of great labor and masterly detail, but somewhat heavily written.

Thomas Babington Macaulay, of England (b. October 25, 1800; d. December 28, 1859), was noted as essayist and statesman. But his genius lay especially in history, in which line he was enabled to furnish the world with his great life-work, that most remarkable and valuable “History of England,” which quickly attained a circulation never before equaled by any similar publication. Though at times partisan and partial, he was still fortunate in throwing his great strength on the side of right.

Editors.—Horace Greeley (b. February 3, 1811; d. November 29, 1872) was founder of the “New York Tribune.” He took rank as one of the ablest editors of his day, and stood the foremost political advocate and controversialist of his time in America. He made of his paper a splendid property, and through it exercised an influence that reached far down among the masses. He lost much of his popularity by his advocacy of universal amnesty and impartial suffrage, after the close of the Civil War, and gradually drifted into the Liberal Republican party. This party, in alliance with the Democrats, placed him on the presidential ticket in 1872. He was disastrously defeated, and died from the effects of hard campaign work and grief.

James Gordon Bennett (b. September 1, 1795; d. June 1, 1872), founder of the “New York Herald,” was the most spirited and daring of those pioneers who revolutionized the journalism of the century. In his paper he broke away from high prices and prosaic methods, and inaugurated the era of cheap prices, racy news, and independent expression. He practically developed the present organization of newsboys, the use of the telegraph in securing news, and the American system of European and war correspondence.

William Cullen Bryant (b. November 3, 1794; d. June 12, 1878) united the scholarship of the general literature and the grace of a poet with the genius of a high-toned and brilliant editor. He gave to his paper, the “New York Evening Post,” a rank and influence seldom attained in journalism, especially when it is considered that its patrons were chiefly of the educated and higher business classes. He represented the cleanest and most intellectual journalism of the century.

John W. Forney (b. September 20, 1817; d. December 9, 1881) was founder and owner of “The Philadelphia Press.” The journalism of the century can boast no more indefatigable and brilliant pen than his, nor did any journal of his day occupy a more commanding place amid the discussions incident to the Civil War and subsequent periods of reconstruction. He was also editor and owner of the Washington, D. C., “Chronicle.”

Charles Anderson Dana (b. August 8, 1819; d. October 17, 1897) is an instance of a scholar and publicist who found a true, though late, outlet for his genius in the realm of independent journalism. Under his editorship and management the “New York Sun” became the model news medium of the country, and its editorial, financial, and other departments were conducted with an ability and conscientiousness that commanded the widest confidence. He was associate editor of “The New American Cyclopædia,” and compiler of the admirable “Household Book of Poetry.”