"If we have objected to nothing in these histories," wrote Mr. W. D. Howells, in a review of Parkman's finished works, "it is because we have no fault to find with them. They appear to us the fruit of an altogether admirable motive directing indefatigable industry, and they present the evidence of thorough research and thoughtful philosophization.… Whatever may be added to his labors, they will remain undisturbed as thorough, beautiful, and true."
Constantly engaged as Mr. Parkman was in the examination of documents, letters, and archives bearing on the subject of his works, new material not at hand when the histories were first penned was at various times discovered, necessitating new editions of several of his works with important revisions and additions.
The new edition of "The Conspiracy of Pontiac and the Indian War after the Conquest of Canada," published in 1870, was enlarged to two volumes, a large amount of additional material having come to light, notably the Bouquet and Haldimand papers added to the manuscript collections of the British Museum. Although originally published prior to "France and England in North America," this work forms a sequel to that series.
The edition of "Pioneers of France in the New World" published in 1885 included the results of new documentary evidence, and a more exact knowledge of the localities connected with the French occupation of Florida, acquired from a special visit made by Mr. Parkman to that region.
A new edition of "La Salle and the Discovery of the Great West" appeared in 1878 with very important additions, derived from the Margry collection of documents relating to La Salle and the narrative of his companion Joutel. Although the new material confirmed nearly every statement made in the first edition, it added new facts and threw new light on the character of La Salle, so that the author found it desirable to rewrite the work and to add a map of the country traversed by the explorers.
A revised edition of "The Old Régime in Canada" was published in 1893. When this work was first written, the author was unable to obtain access to indispensable papers relating to the rival claimants of Acadia, La Tour and D'Aunay, and therefore deferred treating the subject. These papers afterwards came to hand, and the missing chapters, embracing fifty pages, were written and included in the new edition under the title of "The Feudal Chiefs of Acadia." This edition also contains other additional matter.
Mr. Parkman's death occurred Nov. 8, 1893, a little more than a year after the completion of his work. It is a matter of congratulation that not only did he live to finish his undertaking, but that he was able to revise or rewrite such of his earlier works as required it because of the discovery of new material.
At a special meeting held shortly after Mr. Parkman's death by the Massachusetts Historical Society, to which he gave his manuscripts and autobiography, the latter afterwards printed in The Harvard Graduates' Magazine, the following minute was adopted:—
"The members of the Massachusetts Historical Society would relieve the sadness with which they enter upon their records the loss by death of their honored and eminent associate, Francis Parkman, by assigning to him the highest awards of ability, fidelity, and signal success as an American historian. He had won at home and abroad that place of chiefest honor. The work which he has wrought was one of freshness, reserved, because it had been seeking and waiting for him. And it came to him with all its attractions and exactions, finding in him the most rare and richly combined qualities of genius, aptitude, taste, and unique sympathetic fitness, to turn its romances, heroisms, and enterprises, with the enrichments of character and grace, into history. Nor would we fail to express our respectful and admiring estimate of the impressiveness of his character, of his noble manliness, his gentle mien and ways, and the patient perseverance of his spirit in its triumphing over physical infirmities."
At the memorial services held at Sanders Theatre, Cambridge, Dec. 7, 1893, President Charles W. Eliot of Harvard University spoke as follows:—