He Certainly Did More Than Paint

The Dish

by Matthew Sitman

In a long review of threerecentbooks about John Quincy Adams and his wife, Louisa Catherine, Susan Dunn considers the accomplishments of his post-presidential career, which saw Adams return to public life as a member of the House of Representative and take up the abolitionist cause:

Though launched anew upon what he called “the faithless wave of politics,” Adams had a guiding star, a clear path forward: the battle against American slavery. In 1831 and again in 1832, he dined with an impressive young Frenchman who queried him about the culture of democracy in America. “Do you look on slavery as a great plague for the United States?” asked Alexis de Tocqueville. “Yes, certainly,” Adams replied. “That is the root of almost all the troubles of the present and fears for the future.”

Ending slavery became Adams’s great mission. But because he understood that slavery was…

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May 26 1814: Byron Consumes More Lobsters

On May 26 1814. John Cam Hobhouse has a full day reading Madamede Staël’s Lettres sur les écrits et le caractère de Rousseau, and ends the day supping with Byron and Thomas Moore on lobster at the Stevens Coffee House, where, he writes, “neither of us in great spirits”. Byron seems to have a thing for lobsters during this time. Hobhouse writes in his diary:

May 25 1814: Crush the American “Reptiles”

On May 25 1814, the London Times carries the following editorial.

The latest private accounts which we have received from Paris leads us to believe, that the great work of pacific negociation will not be brought to an end so soon as has for some time past been expected. The chief basis, and indeed all the principal points in the treaty are understood to have been long since agreed upon, and the outline to be nearly the same as that which appeared in the Moniteur; but the settling the boundaries of the new slates, and weighing put the various indemnities, are works of nicety, requiring no small portion or time and debate. It is now understood that these mailers will not be settled at a congress but by commissioners named by the late belligerents. Our correspondent writes that between 30 and 40,000 of the British troops are to be embarked in the Garonne for Ireland and a large body for America. We trust that the latter will be sufficiently numerous to terminate the war properly.

May 24 1814: Hobhouse Learns to Waltz

Tuesday May 24th 1814: I spent the day fooling, dancing, and trying to parody Madame de Staël’s style without success. She says a great many commonplaces in a roundabout, flash, antithetical style – but to imitate her one must be too serious to be capable of raising a laugh.

I taught myself to waltz this day.

— John Cam Hobhouse writes on his diary on May 24 1814.

May 23 1814: Premier of Beethoven’s Opera “Fidelio”

On May 23 1814, Beethoven’s only opera Fidelio, after almost a decade of rewriting, has its premiere at Vienna’s Kärtnertortheater to great applause. The opera was first performed on November 20 1805 in a Vienna occupied by the French. It was a flop then. Beethoven rewrote it over the next ten years, until it became a success in 1814. He conducted at the premier, but because of his deafness, the musicians usually looked to the Kapellmeister behind him for direction. The crowd cheered after each act, and Beethoven was called onto the stage after each of the two acts.

The Punishing 18th Century

The Dish

by Tracy R. Walsh

Reviewing Leo Damrosch’s Jonathan Swift: His Life and His World, James Ward considers the misanthropic writer as a product of his times:

This [biography’s] dual perspective helps avoid a pathologizing mode, something which is very easy to slip into when writing about Swift: if some features of the life look unusually mordant or morbid by our standards, they were not out of place in that world. A Modest Proposal’s baby-eating humor still has the capacity to shock, but in the week of its publication, one Dublin shop made a window display of a mummified corpse to attract passers-by, likening the skin’s texture to a freshly-baked cake of puff pastry. On a similarly gruesome note, Damrosch informs us that the original of the Tale’s flayed woman may have been the desiccated corpse of a convict displayed under glass in the library of Trinity College during the time Swift studied there. When its…

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May 22 1814: Andrew Jackson Gets a Promotion

 

On May 22 1814, Secretary of War John Armstrong writes to Andrew Jackson, advising him of his appointment as “Brigadier General in the army of the United States, and by brevet has the honorary rank of Major General” with command of the 7th Military District.

Sir: The vacancy produced by General Hampton’s resignation, not having been filled during the late session of the Senate, cannot be supplied constitutionally, during the recess of that body. All therefore that can be done at present, in reward for your able and gallant conduct during the campaign, and in testimony of the public respect these have obtained, is to make you a Brigadier of the line, with the Brevet of Major General, and to invest you with command of the 7th Military District. Commissions of this character will be immediately prepared and forwarded–and I cannot but hope but that they will be acceptable and accepted, & that it will not be inconvenient for you to assume this new command without loss of time.

I avail myself of this occasion to offer you my great respect and best wishes.
J. A.

Why They Fought

The Dish

by Tracy R. Walsh

In a review of Paul Jankowski’s Verdun: The Longest Battle of the Great War, Robert Zaretsky considers what kept soldiers from deserting the trenches:

Why did they accept being fodder for cannons when they saw through the official justifications for the hecatomb, when there seemed no end in sight, when the only winner was the battle itself?  The reasons were complex. … In the end, it was neither military constraint nor fear of punishment that kept men in the trenches. Nor was it patriotism or republicanism, even though Jankowski suggests that many soldiers absorbed the dehumanizing propaganda aimed at “les boches.” Instead, what mostly kept the men going – the fuel to a Beckettian “I can’t go on, I will go on” – were the bonds to family and fellow poilus.

Perhaps the most astonishing statistic of the war, and not just Verdun, is that more than 10 billion letters were sent…

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May 21 1814: “Vigorous War With America!”

On May 21 1814, the Courier in London ran the following article:

We were glad to find in the palace-yard meeting of yesterday, a true British feeling in respect to America. When major Cartwright moved a resolution that “in consequence of the discontinuance of the war with France, the prolongation of the war with America was become unnecessary,” there was a loud cry of – “Vigorous war with America. Withdraw the resolution.”

May 20 1814: A Corpulent Napoleon Captures Pia Nosa

May 20. To an island, Pia Nosa, which Napoleon took possession of as a dependency of Elba. He carried two horses with him, and rode out at two different times to examine every part of the island. We dined altogether on the grass under a sail, he at one extremity, seated at a small table with his hat on.

In returning he visited a small rock about musket-shot from the harbour of Pia Nosa. He was informed that the ‘Sea-Horse ‘ frigate, when she attacked this place, had mounted two guns upon the summit. He attempted to ascend it, but after getting up half-way, although assisted occasionally both by the lieutenant of the Navy and myself, was obliged to desist. Indefatigable as he is, his corpulency prevents him from walking much, and he is obliged to take the arm of some person on rough roads.

— Lieutenancy Neil Campbell, a British Officer in the Island of Elba, records in his diary for May 20 1814