Taking leave of M. Choteau and his family, the visitors and their escort proceeded to the Mansion House, then the leading public-house of the city, situated on the northeast corner of Third and Market Streets, where they attended a magnificent banquet and ball, at which the beauty and chivalry of the "Old French City" did their utmost to contribute to the pleasure of their guest and his party. Later in the evening Lafayette and his son visited Missouri Lodge No. 1 of Ancient, Free and Accepted Masons, to which order they both belonged, where they were received by about sixty brethren and welcomed by the late Archibald Gamble, and were both elected honorary members of that Lodge. This Lodge is still in existence, and distinguished as being the oldest and strongest lodge in Missouri. The following morning the General was escorted to his boat by a large concourse of citizens, who demonstrated their regard for him and their appreciation of his visit by wild bursts of enthusiasm, continuing to send up cheer after cheer as the boat left the shore to bear its distinguished passenger on his journey to Kaskaskia. From Kaskaskia General Lafayette proceeded to Washington; and Congress, then in session, placed at his disposal the frigate Brandywine, an elegant new vessel, to bear him back to his home in France. Circumstances made this a pleasing compliment to him, as the vessel had been named in honor of the river on whose banks he fought his first battle, September 11, 1777, and was wounded in the cause of liberty. Dr. William Carr Lane, who was mayor of St. Louis at the time of Lafayette's visit, was a gentleman of rare gifts and accomplishments, and a most indefatigable worker in any enterprise he undertook, and to him, and his four or five administrations as chief officer of the city, does St. Louis owe much of her high commercial and social position of to-day; and Missouri is also in a great measure indebted to his wisdom for her early development, and enviable rank among her sister States. KINGSTON, MISSOURI. William A. Hood MINOR TOPICS THE VALUE OF HISTORICAL STUDY Rev. Dr. R. S. Storrs, in his recent brilliant address at Amherst College, said: The mind is always expanded and liberalized by what puts distant lands and times, with the exacting and disciplinary experiences of one's own ancestors or of other peoples, distinctly before it. To a certain extent foreign travel does this, as it sets the immeasurably wider expanses, filled with energetic and laborious life, in contrast with the narrower scenes with which one before had been familiar. But history, when carefully studied-studied as it should be, with maps, topographic plans, careful itineraries, photographs of monuments or of sights-does the same thing for the home-keeping student, and does it in some important respects in a yet freer and bolder fashion. The centuries of the past present themselves in perspective. We see the vast cosmical movements from which States have been born, in which subsequent civilizations took rise and in which the devout mind discovers the silent procedures of Providence. We learn how far removed from us were initial influences that are now only flowering into results, and how our life is affected at this hour by political combinations and military collisions which preceded by ages the invasion of England by the Normans or the splendid schemes of Charlemagne. It is quite impossible that one who reads with comprehensive attention till this immense and vital picture is in a measure opened before him should not be consciously broadened in thought, expanded even in mental power; that he should not freshly and deeply feel how limited is his individual sphere; how local, although so multiplied by endowments from the past, are his personal opportunities; what a vast scheme it is which is being evolved through stir of discussion, rush of emigration, competitions of industry, crash of conflict, by the Power which gives its unity to history and which is perpetually educing great harmonies out of whatever seeming discords. Not merely a general expansion of thought, and, one may say, of the compass of the mind comes with this outreaching study of history. It trains directly, with vigorous force, in fine proportion, each chief intellectual faculty. I am satisfied that in either of the professions, in journalism, in educational work, or in the simply private life of an educated citizen, the effect will appear; that one accustomed to wide and searching historical inquiries will be more expert in judging even of practical questions presented to-day and will have a more discerning apprehension of the forces working to modify legislation and mold society-forces which are often more formidable or more replete with victorious energy, because subtle and occult. We may wait years, or we may journey thousands of miles, to meet in the present the special spirit whose office it is, and whose sovereign prerogative, to kindle and ennoble ours. It is but to step to the library shelf, to come face to face with such in the past, if we know where to find them. Nay, it is but to let the thought go backward, over what has become distinct in our minds, and the silent company is around us; the communion of rejoicing and consecrated souls, the illustrious fellowships, in the presence of whom our meanness is rebuked, our cowardice is shamed, and we become the freer children of God and of the truth. Not only the romance of the world is in history, but influences so high in source and in force as to be even sacred descend through it. Benedictory, sacramental is its touch upon responsive souls. We become comparatively careless of circumstances; aware of kinship, in whatsoever heroic element may be in us, with the choice transcendent spirits; regardless of the criticism, or snarling scoffs, which may here surround us, if only conscious of deeper and of more generous correspondence with those whose elate and unsubduable temper remains among the treasures of mankind. I think that to our times, especially, the careful and large study of history is among the most essential sources of moral inspiration. The cultivation of it, in ever larger and richer measure, is one of the best and noblest exercises proposed to young minds. The importance of individual life and effort is magnified by it, instead of being diminished or disguised, as men sometimes fancy; since one is continually reminded afresh of the power which belongs to those spiritual forces which all may assist, in animating and molding civilization. Of course, an imperfect study of history, however rapid and rudimental, shows how often the individual decision and the restraining or inspiring action of great personalities have furnished the pivots on which the multitudinous consequences have turned; how, even after long intervals of time, the effects of such have made themselves evident, in changed conditions and tendencies of peoples; and so it reminds us, with incessant iteration, of the vital interlocking of every energetic personal life with the series of lives which unconsciously depend upon it, of the reach of its influence upon the great complex of historical progress, and of the service which each capable or eminent spirit may render to the cause of universal culture and peace. But those to whom our thoughts are thus turned have been for the most part signal men in their times, remarkable in power, distinguished in opportunity, intuitively discerning the needs of the age, and with peculiar competence to meet them. History is a department of study leaving, in my judgment, as distinct and salutary religious impressions as does any form of secular knowledge opened to man. Ours is a historical religion, coming to us through historical books, exhibiting its energy, through two thousand years, in the recorded advancement of mankind, which can be studied almost as distinctly in the moral and social progress of peoples under its inspiration, as in the writings of narrative and epistle, which open to our view the source and the guidance of that progress. Divine purpose in all history becomes gradually apparent to him who, with attentive thought, surveys its annals. The Bible proceeds upon the assumption of such a plan, though perhaps no one of its separated writers had a full conception of that which he was in part portraying. Back, beyond the beginnings of history, onward to the secure consummation, lovely and immortal, which prophecies prefigure, extends this plan. Parts of it are yet inscrutable to us, as parts of the heavens are still unsounded by any instrument. But the conviction becomes constantly clearer, among those to whom the records of the past unfold in a measure not contents only, but glowing portents, that a divine mind has presided over all; that every remotest people or tribe has had its part to do or to bear in the general progress; and that at last, when all is interpreted, the unity of the race, with the incessant interaction of its parts, under the control and in the concord of a divine scheme, will come distinctly into view. Mysterious movements as of the peoples who from woods and untamed wastes inundated Europe, and before whose irresistible momentum bastions and ramparts, the armies and ensigns of the Mistress of the World went hopelessly down, will be seen to have had their impulse and direction as well as their end. Great passive empires, as of China, will be found to have served some sovereign purpose; and the mind which sees the end from the beginning will be evidenced in the ultimate human development as truly as it is in the swing of suns, or in the conformation of unmeasured constellations. The British Empire a week ago was ringing and flaming with the august and brilliant ceremonies which marked the completion of fifty years in the reign of one whose name is with us, almost as generally as in her own realms, a household word. American hearts joined those of her kinsmen across the sea, around the world, in giving God thanks for the purity and piety with which the young maiden of fifty years since has borne herself, amid gladness and grief, overshadowing change and vast prosperity; and for the progress of industry and of liberty, of commerce, education, and Christian faith, by which her times have been distinguished. But something more than the wisdom of statesmen, or the valor of captains, or the silent or resonant work of man, has been involved in all this. An unseen Power has been guiding events to the fulfillment of plans wide as the world, and far more ancient than Dover Cliffs, or the narrow seas which gleam around them. The ultimate kingdom of righteousness and peace is nearer for these remarkable years. It was well to render grateful praise in church and chapel, in cathedral and abbey, in quiet homes and in great universities, to Him who has given such luster to the fame, and such success to the reign, of the wise and womanly and queenly Victoria. But as with her reign so with all that advancing history of mankind in connection with which this brilliant half-century of feminine supremacy and imperial expansion reveals its significance. It discloses the silent touch and the sweeping command of Divine forecasts. It reverberates with echoes to superlative designs. I know of no other department of study, outside of the Scriptures, more essentially or profoundly religious. A Christian college may well hold it in honoring esteem, and give it in permanence an eminent place among the studies which it proposes. In our recent country, in our times of rapid and tumultuous change, it seems to me that we specially need this, as the thoughtful among us are specially inclined to it; since it is vital to the dignity and self-poise of our national life that we feel ourselves interknit with the life of the world, from which the ocean does not divide us, that we recognize our distinctive inheritance in the opulent results of the effort and the struggle of other generations. It is a bright and encouraging indication of the best qualities of the American spirit, as well as of the vigor and vivacity of the American mind and the variety of its attainments, that such studies are eagerly prosecuted among us, and that those who have given to them, with splendid enthusiasm, laborious leivs-like Prescott, Motley, our honored Bancroft-have been among the most inspiriting of our teachers, have gained and will keep their principal places in that Republic of letters from which the Republic of political fame must always take grace and renown. HISTORICAL TREASURES Onondaga County will some day regret the loss of many things which might now be permanently secured, and this thought arose as we looked over the three large volumes containing the valuable autograph collections of Henry C. Van Schaack, Esq., of Manlius, a well-known member of some of our prominent historical societies, who has written much on the period of the Revolution, to which most of his collection relates. Collating his father's papers half a century since, he secured many valuable mementoes of that period, to which were added many documents from the Mohawk Valley and other sources, until the series is almost unequaled in the country. The arrangement has been a labor of love, each letter or autograph being securely placed in the volume, and accompanied with explanatory notes, a vast amount of printed matter, and many views and portraits. All the signers of the Declaration of Independence are represented, and Washington's familiar signature several times appears. John Hancock's sturdy stroke and Stephen Hopkins' trembling hand attract attention at once. Lafayette's neat writing is seen in several letters written in English, and Gates and the captive Burgoyne are both represented. General Greene, the able general who led Cornwallis such a chase; Hull, of Detroit notoriety; Harmar, afterward unfortunate in Indian wars; Montgomery, who fell in the assault on Quebec; Warren, of Bunker Hill fame; Sullivan, who raided the country of the Cayugas and Senecas; Philip Schuyler, to whom Burgoyne's defeat was really due; Gansevoort and Willett, the defenders of Fort Stanwix; Knox, Morgan, Lee, Moultrie, Colonel Washington, and others have prominent places. Here is seen the small, distinct writing of Aaron Burr, and of Alexander Hamilton, whom he slew; and the Livingstons, Jefferson, the Adams family, the Pinckneys, Bushrod Washington, John Jay, Arthur Lee, Boudinot, Gouverneur and Robert Morris have many memorials. |