In the heroic years which made up so large a part of the experience of all men in the United States from 1861 to 1865, Mr. Lowell’s part was as efficient as that of many a general on the battle field. When the era of peace and reconciliation came, he maintained the same lofty principles which had prompted all his former actions and words. The spirit which dictated “The Present Crisis” so long ago as 1845, also dictated the “Fourth of July Ode” in 1876. But how different the tone of these two impassioned lyrics! The one a vigorous, manly, resistless protest against the
“Sons of brutish Force and Darkness
Who have drenched the earth with blood,”
The other, a sublime thanksgiving for the salvation of
“The Land to Human Nature dear.”
It is in the light of these strenuous outbursts of the unconquered spirit of independence that his words spoken in lighter vein are to be read and considered. Everywhere is the same faith and hope:—only, in these later speeches, they find expression in words fitted for social pleasantry and genial intercourse.
Nowhere do after-dinner speeches—which, with us, are usually momentary and evanescent in effect—carry so much weight as in England. There often a public dinner is an event. Questions of peace or war: of party policy: of methods of administration: of national destiny, are often decided or directed by words spoken at the dinner table. Therefore, these speeches of Mr. Lowell have a much greater significance than if made on similar occasions with us. In every one is to be found an earnest endeavor, first to secure a higher appreciation of his country than he found prevailing among that insular and self-contained people:—and next to encourage and stimulate the formation of a real and sincere friendship between the mother country and her over-grown child. He gained these ends by the exercise of unfailing tact, courtesy and courage, which first disarmed criticism; and then by presenting considerations which commanded respect and carried conviction. Even his American humor gained the appreciation of these lovers of Punch.
The first of the speeches which are here given was made in 1880—the last in 1888. One invariable note is struck in them all. Beginning with that at Edinburgh, he claims—what we all conceive to be true—that the traditions of English freedom and English civilization have not only been maintained, but also extended, among us: and he refers, with evident and just pride, to the quick and intelligent appreciation of Carlyle in America, long before he won recognition in his own England. And, in his last speech, on the eve of leaving Liverpool to return home, he dwells with great earnestness on the duty laid on English-speaking races everywhere to carry with them the great lessons of liberty combined with order.
In all these evidently unstudied and spontaneous expressions of his permanent feeling and conviction, Mr. Lowell claims our hearty consideration. His voice is everywhere and always loyal to his native land, which he loved and honored: to freedom, which he held above all price: to that liberty and civilization which it is the joint mission of England and America to maintain to the uttermost. Difference of methods between the two countries there may be: but the end to be reached is the same. To help reach this, Mr. Lowell gave his best energies. His words had a power beyond what he could have thought possible. If there is now, in England, a clearer appreciation of American ideas: less of that condescension which was once so evident in foreigners: more readiness to see and to seek the best rather than the worst in our modes of life and thought: a clearer understanding that, at heart, we are one people—a very large share of that improved condition is due to James Russell Lowell. The method of securing that better understanding was—not by denying or ignoring certain manifest short-comings or over-doings:—but by constantly holding up to the world the best we had done, or striven to do:—and, more than all, by illustrating it in his own person:—so that even our enemies were compelled to confess that there must be some good in our land, if such men as he were the
“New birth of our new soil.”