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He further, in 1824, made a tour to France and England, where he continued his researches at the libraries of Paris and Cambridge. In 1828, when he was at the age of seventy, his Dictionary finally appeared, at New York, in two volumes quarto. Twenty-five hundred were printed in America and three thousand in England, where the publication was superintended by E. H. Barker, the editor of Stephens's Greek Thesaurus.

Some fears had been entertained of Webster's well known disposition to tamper with the established orthography. An expression of them is recorded in the Jay correspondence. A letter which Webster wrote in 1813 to John Jay, who had probably read the Essay on the American Tongue, drew from that prudent statesman a hint on the character of his labors: "It is not improbable that doubts prevail respecting the design and tendency of the work you have in hand. The literary productions of Britain and America being interesting to each other, many are of opinion, and I concur in it, that the English language and its orthography should be the same in both countries. Apprehensions have been entertained that your dictionary would tend to impair that sameness; and those apprehensions may, to a certain extent, have had an unfavorable influence."* To which Webster responded: "It is not improbable that some ill-founded apprehensions that I might attempt changes of orthography have had their effect in preventing subscriptions; but there are several other causes. On the subject of orthography gentlemen might have been easy, as any considerable changes must prevent the sale and use of a work of the sort, and they might rationally conclude that I would not put myself to an immense trouble and expense to write a book which would not find purchasers. My plan is different from anything before attempted. I have examined and collated the radical words in twenty languages, including the seven Asiatic languages, or rather dialects, of the Assyrian stock. This will enable me to present many things in the English language which have hitherto been obscure. Indeed, this research has opened a field entirely new, and it is probable will lead to many important discoveries, not only in the origin and affinity of languages, but in history sacred and profane."

In 1821, he writes again to Jay of his "synopsis of radical words in more than twenty languages," which has occupied him ten years, and regrets that "I did not begin my studies early enough. I am now sixty-three years of age, and after this age a small portion only of active life remains. I have thought, that after submitting my MSS. to able judges, if they should think the work to have merit enough to command a sale in England, I may visit that country, and attempt to sell the copy there first; and, indeed, revise the work at Oxford." t

The work was well received on its appearance, and merited the attention by the new words added which had come into use, by the increased number of definitions marking new uses of the language, and by its labors in the wide field of

Letter, Bedford, May 31, 1818. Life and Writings, ii. 357. + Letter, Amherst, Mass., November, 1821. Jay's Life, &c., 11. 421.

etymology. Something, it was felt, was due to the single-handed perseverance of the Yankee schoolmaster, now recognised as a successful worker in the field where Dr. Johnson had gained his most imposing laurels. Had Webster, with his perseverance and energy, possessed a like degree of sound judgment, his reputation would have been unassailed. As it was, he was regarded with suspicion, and frequently openly opposed: for his well known views as a reformer of the language laid him particularly open to attack; since speech being common property, every one was bound more or less to question his proceedings. Though the dictionary bearing Webster's name is now in very general use, it has secured this result by the number of its words, and particularly the extent of its scientific terms and the accuracy of their definitions, in spite of the peculiar Websterisms of orthography. His mistake, as the compiler of a dictionary, at the outset was, in seeking to amend the language, while his duty was simply to record the use of words by the best authors. In the attempt to impose new conditions, and with his American innovations, he placed himself beyond the recognition of the highest authorities of the language in the universities of England and the colleges of America.

His first dictionary, published in 1806, was virtually ignored by himself, and his principles of orthography must be gathered from his later publications. In view of the disturbance created in the literary world by his innovations since 1828, it would be natural to suppose that these innovations were very numerous; but such is not the fact. The changes were few in number; but, being applied to words in common use, they gained a factitious importance by frequent repetition. His present system-carried out so inconsistently as scarcely to deserve the name, however-may be thus briefly stated: I. Finding that many words of French origin terminating in re had been in adoption transposed to er, as cider, chamber, etc., he decided that all words so adopted should be so transposed; and, accordingly, changed spectre, theatre, etc., into specter and theater, not reflecting that the changes previously made had been confined to words which did not require re-transposition in their derivatives; and Webster's inconsistency here was, that while he wrote theater he also wrote theatrical. II. He expunged the second l from traveller, libeller, etc., because he deemed it superfluous; and he added a second to foretel, distil, etc., because the second was wanted in the derivatives, foretelling, etc. telling, etc. In this latter change he laid down the principle, that the spelling of the derivative must govern the spelling of the primitive; and yet, although in conformity to this rule, he also changed defence, pretence, and offence, into defense pretense, and offense, he omitted to change such words as consequence, inference, sentence, etc., while he retained the correct spelling of their derivatives, consequential, sententious, etc. III. He changed ton to tun, and did not change won to wun; he changed mould and moult to mold and molt, and did not change court to cort; and he changed practise, the verb, to practice. . This, substantially, is Webster's orthographical reform.*

* Radicalism in Orthography, a series of articles from the

In 1833, Noah Webster published his revised edition of the Bible, with what he considered improvements of the language.* It was a rash and unnecessary attempt, and was not successful. His design is thus expressed by himself in the preface: "In my own view of this subject, a version of the Scriptures for popular use should consist of words expressing the sense which is most common in popular usage, so that the first idea suggested to the reader should be the true meaning of such words, according to the original languages. That many words in the present version fail to do this is certain. My principal aim is to remedy this evil." This principle is enlarged upon: "I have been careful to avoid unnecessary innovations, and to retain the general character of the style. The principal alterations are comprised in three classes:

"I. The substitution of words and phrases now in good use for such as are wholly obsolete, or deemed below the dignity and solemnity of the subject.

"II. The correction of errors in grammar.

"III. The insertion of euphumisms [sic], words and phrases which are not very offensive to delicacy, in the place of such as cannot with propriety be uttered before a promiscuous audience.

"A few errors in the translation which are admitted on all hands to be obvious have been cor* * rected. *

"To avoid giving offence to any denomination of Christians, I have not knowingly made any alteration in the passages of the present version on which the different denominations rely for the support of their tenets."

An enumeration of the "principal alterations" is made in an Introduction. From this it appears that who is substituted for which when it refers to persons; its is substituted for his when it refers to plants and things without life; why is substituted for wherefore when inquiry is made; my and thy are generally substituted for mine and thine when used as adjectives; assemble, collect, or convene for what Webster is pleased to call "the tautological words" gather together; know or knew for wist, wit, and wot; sixty for three score, and eighty for four score. It would be a melancholy task to continue the list. As such attempts, however, may be made again, though it is to be trusted with like ill-success, it is a matter of duty to point out the radical defect of mind which led to these rash suggestions. They argue an essentially common, prosaic intellect, deficient in taste, feeling, imagination; wanting in a knowledge of the subtle philosophical links of association which have long attached the English-speaking world by a power which equally holds heart and mind to the standard version of the Holy Scriptures. When Webster substitutes sixty for three score he says, "it appears to him most eligible to retain but one mode of specifying numbers," and adds his favorite maxim, that "uniformity is preferable to diversity"-a most

pen of Edward S. Gould, Literary World, iv. 200, 270, 355, 457. Senator Beekman's Minority Report in N. Y. Legislature, July 7, 1851, ib. ix. 67.

The Holy Bible, containing the Old and New Testaments in the Common Version. With amendments of the language by Noah Webster, LL.D. New Haven: published by Durrie & Peck. Sold by Hezekiah Howe & Co. and A. H. Maltby, New Haven, and by N. & J. White, New York, 1883.

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absurd statement in a world beneficently provided with diversity on all sides. When he substitutes O that for would God, he is at the pains to destroy the force of expression, as in the undying sound of the lament of David, "O, my son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom! would God I had died for thee, O, Absalom, my son, my son!" which he profanely alters to "O that I had died for thee," stating, as a reason for the change, that "the insertion of the phrases in the version has given countenance to the practice of introducing them into discourses and public speeches with a levity that is incompatible with a due veneration for the name of God." For the same reason there would be no religion at all, since infidels have caricatured all that is sacred. The same remarks apply to the unhappy substitution of By no means, for God forbid. In the Sermon on the Mount, Noah Webster alters "Therefore take no thought, saying, what shall we eat," into "Therefore be not anxious," seeking to justify his meddlesome change by the plea that he is giving more force to the expression. Such a remark as this might be expected to proceed from a schoolboy or a foreigner who had yet his acquaintance to make with the language, rather than from a man who had professedly passed his life in its study. Other alterations of archaisms, such as putting male child for man child; falsehood for leasing; boiled for sodden; creeping animal for creeping thing (a creeping thing, he tells us, being "more properly a creeping-plant than a reptile "); advanced for stricken in age, and the like, on the ground of accommodating the language to the use of the day, show a similar unconsciousness of the moral relations of the subject, and the advantage of the Bible in providing a store-house of words and securing the permanency of the language. In the few cases in which the words of the translation have grown obsolete, it is rather an advantage than a disadvantage that there are special terms set apart from common uses as especially biblical. The imagination is affected by them; the sense of sanctity and awe is enhanced by them. The poverty of mind which begets such attempts leads so soon to indecorum and what must be fain considered irreverence, that it would be perhaps unwise here to pursue the subject further. A great literary and moral interest is involved in it.

In 1840, a new edition of the Dictionary appeared, with several thousand new words added and improvements in the scientific definitions, and the introduction of phrases from foreign lan

guages.

Early in 1843, the last year of his life, he gave his attention to a revision of the appendix of his Dictionary, adding several hundred words. He had given thirty-six years to the work.

In 1843 he published, at New York, A Collection of Papers on Political, Literary, and Moral Subjects. Its chief contents are a republication of his tracts on the French Revolution, the Right of Search, the British Treaty, the Copyright Question, and a number of papers on topics of politics and education.

This was at the close of a long life spent with unwearied activity in the pursuit of knowledge. With his faculties unimpaired, in the cheerful retrospect of a life of happy employment, and

with the consolations of religion, he expired, after a brief illness, at New Haven, May 28, 1843, in his eighty-fifth year.*

Of Webster's plain habits of living, and of his time given to study, there is a quaint account in a letter from his pen, dated November 21, 1836, addressed to Dr. Thomas Miner, in answer to an inquiry as to his mode of life, in which he says:

I have never been a hard student, unless a few years may be excepted; but I have been a steady, persevering student. I have rarely used lamp or candle light, except once, when reading law, and then I paid dear for my imprudence, for I injured my eyes. My practice has usually been to rise about half an hour before the sun, and make use of all the light of that luminary. But I have never or rarely been in a hurry. When I first undertook the business of supporting General Washington's administration, I labored too hard in writing or translating from the French papers for my paper, or in composing pamphlets. In two instances I was so exhausted that I expected to die, for I could not perceive any pulsation in the radial artery; but I recovered. While engaged in composing my Dictionary, I was often so much excited by the discoveries I made, that my pulse, whose ordinary action is scarcely 60 beats to the minute, was accelerated to

80 or 85.

My exercise has not been violent nor regular. While I was in Amherst I cultivated a little land, and used to work at making hay, and formerly I worked in my garden, which I cannot now do. Until within a few years, I used to make my fires in the morning, but I never or rarely walked before breakfast. My exercise is now limited to walking about the city to purchase supplies for my family. For a part of my life, the last forty years, I have had a horse of my own, but I never rode merely for health; and a part of the time, more than half, I have not been able to keep a horse. My eyes have, from a child, been subject to a slight inflammation, but the sight has been good. I began to use spectacles when fifty years of age, or a little more, and that was the time when I began to study and prepare materials for my Dictionary. I had had the subject in contemplation some years before, and had made memorandums on the margin of Johnson's Dictionary, but I did not set myself to the work till I wore spectacles.

When I finished my copy I was sitting at my table in Cambridge, England, January, 1825. When I arrived at the last word, I was seized with a tremor that made it difficult to proceed. I, however, summoned up strength to finish the work, and then walking about the room I soon recovered.†

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the war, he wrote over a quantity of white birch bark. In 1778, according to the primitive usage of an agricultural and thinly peopled region, and the old Puritan religious ideas of the family, he purchased of his father the remainder of his minority,* and left for Plymouth. In 1782 he removed to Thornton, where he was a preacher from 1786 to 1810. He had commenced his career as a writer with a controversial letter to the Rev. John Murray, on his sermon on the "Origin of Evil." In 1810 he published his Unitarian essay, which he entitled Bible News of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, in a series of letters, in four parts. This work brought upon him much opposition, to mitigate which he wrote his letters to Trinitarians in favor of tolerance and personal kindness among those who differed in religious opinions. He wrote at this time for the journals: for the Theological Magazine, in New York, a series of papers, The Variety; in a periodical at Concord, and in the newspapers.

In 1813 he removed to Brighton, near Boston; his friends, Dr Channing, Dr. Lowell, Dr. Tuckerman, and the Rev. S. C. Thacher, having made provision for him as editor of the Christian Disciple, which grew afterwards into the present Christian Examiner. It was a monthly periodical, "for the promotion of spiritual and moral improvement." It was conducted by him to the close of 1818. He here uttered his ideas on the Peace Question, which he had publicly stated in the war of 1812, in a sermon on the pacific conduct of Abraham and Lot, in avoiding hostilities between their herdsmen, delivered on the day appointed by Madison for a national fast. 1814 he published his tract, A Solemn Review of the Custom of War. The Massachusetts Peace Society was founded in the following year. In pursuance of his views he began the publication of The Friend of Peace in 1819, and continued it, in quarterly numbers, for ten years. It was mostly written by himself. In 1829 he resumed his theological publications with a small volume,

Nooh Worster

In

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The Atoning Sacrifice, a display of Love not of Wrath; and, in 1831, a small book on The Causes and Evils of Contentions among Christians. In 1833 he published a volume, Last Thoughts on

*Memoirs by the Rev. Henry Ware, p. 9.

Important Subjects; in three parts. 1. Man's Liability to Sin; 2. Supplemental Illustrations; 3. Man's Capacity to Obey. He was now at the extreme period of life, in the enjoyment of a happy, tranquil old age. Channing, who has celebrated his career in his noble eulogy entitled the Philanthropist, speaks of the serenity of his life, in the midst of his reformatory opinions and controversial writings, and of the "sufficiency of his mind to its own happiness."* His personal appearance was remarkable, of a large frame and benign expression. He died at Brighton, Massachusetts, October 31, 1837, aged 79.

His chief reputation rests on his Peace Efforts, and his position in the transition stage of Puritanism to Unitarianism.

JOHN ARMSTRONG,

THE author of the "Newburgh Letters" and the historian of the second war with England, was a native of Pennsylvania, born at Carlisle, Nov. 25, 1758. His father was an officer of distinction in the war with France in 1755. On the breaking out of the Revolution young Armstrong, then a student at the college of New Jersey, joined the camp as a volunteer at the age of eighteen. He was appointed aide-de-camp to General Mercer, who was borne in his arms, fatally wounded, from the field at the battle of Princeton. He was next invited to become aide to General Gates, and served with him through the campaign which closed at Saratoga. In 1780, he was appointed Adjutant General of the Southern army, but retired from this service in consequence of illness before the battle of Camden, resuming his position with General Gates, as aide, with the rank of Major.

When the war was ended he had an opportunity to give proof of his ability with the pen in his authorship of the celebrated Newburgh Letters, dated from the camp at that place. The design of these addresses was to arouse the army to a vigorous assertion of their claims, which in the imperfect organization of the general government it was necessary should be loudly urged to obtain a hearing. There were two of these "addresses," one dated in the camp at Newburgh, the 10th March, 1783, inviting a meeting of officers for the consideration of measures to redress the army grievances, in the neglect of pay by Congress, which employed this bold language:

"If this then be your treatment, while the swords you wear are necessary for the defence of America, what have you to expect from peace, when your voice shall sink, and your strength dissipate by division; when those very swords, the instruments and companions of your glory, shall be taken from your sides, and no remaining mark of military distinction left but your wants, infirmities, and scars? Can you then consent to be the only sufferers by this revolution, and retiring from the field, grow old in poverty, wretchedness, and contempt? Can you consent to wade through the vile mire of dependency, and owe the miserable remnant of that life to charity, which has been hitherto spent in honor? If you can, go, and carry with you the jest of Tories and the scorn of Whigs; the ridicule, and

* Channing's Works, iv. 887.

what is worse, the pity of the world. Go starve and be forgotten. But if your spirits should revolt at this; if you have sense enough to discover and spirit sufficient to oppose tyranny, under whatever garb it may assume, whether it be the plain coat of republicanism or the splendid robe of royalty; if people and a cause, between men and principles; you have yet learned to discriminate between a awake, attend to your situation, and redress yourselves! If the present moment be lost, every future effort is in vain; and your threats will then be as empty as your entreaties now.

I would advise you, therefore, to come to some final opinion upon what you can bear, and what you will suffer. If your determination be in any proportion to your wrongs, carry your appeal from the justice to the fears of government. Change the milk-and-water style of your last memorial. Assume a bolder tone, decent, but lively, spirited, and determined; and suspect the man who would advise to more moderation and longer forbearance. Let two or three men, who can feel as well as write, be appointed to draw up your last remonstrance, for I would no longer give it the suing, soft, unsuccessful epithet of memorial. Let it represent in language that will neither dishonor you by its rudeness, nor betray you by its fears, what has been promised by Congress, and what has been performed; how long and how patiently you have suffered; how little you have asked, and how much of that little has been denied. Tell them, that though you were the first, and would wish to be last, to encounter danger, though despair itself can never drive you into dishonor, it may drive you from the field; that the wound, often irritated and never healed, may at length become incurable; and that the slightest mark of indignity from Congress now must operate like the grave, and part you for ever; that, in any political event, the army has its alternative. If peace, that nothing shall separate you from your arms but death; if war, that courting the auspices, and inviting the direction of your illustrious leader, you will retire to some unsettled country, smile in your turn," and mock when their fear cometh on." But let it represent, also, that should they comply with the request of your late memorial, it would make you more happy and them you would follow their standard into the field; and more respectable; that, while war should continue, when it came to an end, you would withdraw into the shade of private life, and give the world another subject of wonder and applause; an army victorious over its enemies, victorious over itself.

Washington, who was in camp, met this inflammatory proceeding by his general orders forbidding the meeting, and calling an assembly of officers to hear the report of the committee sent to Congress, when a second address appeared gathering. Washington overruled the threatened turning to account this apparent sanction of the embarrassment by himself attending the meeting, securing the quiet of Gates by placing him in the chair, and rallying his faithful brother officers to his support.*

Washington read an address to the officers at the meeting, in which the whole matter was treated with dignity and feeling, and in the

* Hildreth's U. S., First Series, iii. 431. Curtis's History of the Constitution, i. 168, where the style of the Newburgh Addresses is highly spoken of:-"They are written with great point and vigor of expression, and great purity of English. For the purpose for which they were designed,—a direct appeal to feeling,-they show the hand of a master."

course of which, while the arguments and proposals of "the anonymous addresser" were answered with respect, it was intimated that he was "an insidious foe-some emissary, perhaps, from New York, sowing the seeds of discord and separation between the civil and military powers

of the continent."

At the time of making this address, Washington was not acquainted with the anonymous author. He afterwards, in writing to General Armstrong, Feb. 23, 1797, expressed his confidence in the good motives which had dictated the letters, as "just, honorable, and friendly to the country, though the means suggested were certainly liable to much misunderstanding and abuse."*

After the war Armstrong held the post of Secretary of Pennsylvania, under Dickenson and Franklin. In 1787, he was elected member of Congress. In 1789, upon his marriage with a sister of Chancellor Livingston, he took up his residence in Dutchess County in the State of New York, where he occupied himself with farming. In 1800, he was elected senator of the United States, and in 1804, was appointed by Jefferson minister to France, an arduous position, which he filled till 1810, during which time he discharged the duties of a separate mission to Spain.

When the war of 1812 was declared, he was appointed brigadier-general in the United States army, and commanded the district including the city and harbor of New York. In 1813, he was called by Madison to the Secretaryship of War. The difficulties which he encountered in the management of attempts against Canada, and the destruction of Washington, led to his resignation in 1814. He suffered at the time the odium resulting from these disasters, which threw into the shade his undoubtedly honorable and faithful services.

In his retirement at Red Hook, where he passed the subsequent years of his life, he wrote treatises on Gardening and Agriculture, a review of Wilkinson's Memoirs, several biographical notices, and Notices of the War of 1812, the first volume of which was published in 1836, and the second in 1840. In this work he reviews the conduct of the war with a forcible and discriminating pen, sharpened by the official experiences of his own career as secretary. It possesses the interest of an original critical disquisition on a most important period of our history, and its points will continue to furnish the text for prolonged comment.

Gen. Armstrong died at his country residence on the Hudson, April 1, 1843, in his eighty-fifth year.t

GEORGE R. MINOT.

GEORGE RICHARDS, the son of Stephen Minot, a merchant of Boston, was born in that city December 22, 1758. His father's means having been impaired by unsuccessful business speculation, it was with difficulty that he secured a liberal education. He was prepared for college by the cele

*Sparks's Washington, viii. 566.

+ Encyclopædia Americana, vol. xiv. Lossing's Field Book, ii. 106. VOL. 1-31

brated Master Lovell; completed his course with the highest honors at Harvard, in 1778: and on taking the degree of Master of Arts, delivered the valedictory oration in Latin, which was much admired for its eloquence and purity of language.

Geo. R. Minot

He studied law with Fisher Ames in the office of William Tudor. Soon after commencing practice he was made, in 1781, Clerk of the House of Representatives, under the recently formed constitution; in 1782 he was appointed judge of probate for the county of Suffolk; and in 1800, of the Municipal Court in Boston. In 1783, he married Mary Speakman, of Marlboro'. In 1788, he published the History of the Rebellion in Massachusetts in 1786; a work which attracted great attention from its interest, its dispassionate tone, and the elegance and purity of its style; and in 1798, the first volume of a History of the Province of Massachusetts Bay, from 1748 to 1765, in continuation of that of Hutchinson. The second volume was printed from his manuscripts shortly after his death, which occurred after a short illness on the second of January, 1802. He was also the author of an oration on the Boston Massacre; of a highly finished and impassioned discourse on the death of Washington; and an address before the Massachusetts Charitable Society. He was one of the founders of the Massachusetts Historical Society, and edited three of the early volumes of their collections. His history is a well written, laborious, and impartial work. Its author was noted, in addition to his writings, for his fine taste, elegant personal appearance, the amiability and uprightness of his character, and the hospitality of his mansion.*

TREATMENT OF THE ACADIANS, 1755.

The French force in Nova-Scotia being thus subdued, it only remained to determine the measures which ought to be taken with respect to the inhabitants, who were about seven thousand in number, and whose character and situation were so peculiar, as to distinguish them from almost every other community, that has suffered under the scourge of war.

The allegations against them as a people, and which were undoubtedly just against many of them as individuals, were these: That being permitted to hold their lands, after the treaty of Utrecht, by which the Province was ceded to Great-Britain, upon condition of their taking the oath of allegiance, they refused to comply, excepting with this qualification, that they should not be called upon to bear arms in the defence of the Province; which qualification, though acceded to by Gen. Phillips, the British commander, was disapproved of by the king: That from this circumstance they affected the character of neutrals, yet furnished the French and Indians with intelligence, quarters, provisions and assistance in annoying the government of the Province, and three hundred of them were actually found in arms at the taking of fort Beau-sejour: That notwithstanding an offer was made, to such of them as had not been openly in arms, to be allowed to continue in possession of their land, if they would take the oath of allegiance without any qualification, they unanimously refused it.

The character of this people was mild, frugal, in

* Loring's Hundred Boston Orators, p. 146.

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