Wednesday, DecemberⒶtextual note 5, 1906
“A Yankee at the Court of King Arthur” written to contrast English life of the Middle Ages with modern civilization—Arraignment of King Leopold II—His character contrasted with character of lawyer who cared for John Marshall Monument Fund.
From Susy’s Biography. Ⓐtextual note
Feb. 22 ’86.
Yesterday evening papa read to us the beginning of his new book, in manuscript, and we enjoyed it very much, it was founded on a New Englanders visit to England in the time of King Arthur and his round table.
That book was an attempt to imagine, and, after a fashion, set forth, the hard conditions of life for the laboring and defenceless poor in bygone times in England, and, incidentally, contrast these conditions with those under which the civil and ecclesiastical [begin page 307] pets of privilege and high fortune lived in those times. I think I was purposing to contrast that English life—not just the English life of Arthur’s day, but the English life of the whole of the Middle Ages—with the life of modern Christendom and modern civilization—to the advantage of the latter, of course. That advantage is still claimable, and does creditablyⒶtextual note and handsomely exist everywhere in Christendom—if we leave out RussiaⒶtextual note and the royal palace of Belgium. The royal palace of Belgium is still what it has been for fourteen years—the den of a wild beast—King Leopold IIⒶtextual note—who for money’s sake mutilates, murders, and starves, half a million of friendless and helpless poor natives in the Congo State every year, and does it by the silent consent of all the Christian powers except England; none of them lifting a hand or a voice to stop these atrocities, although thirteen of them are by solemn treaty pledged to the protecting and uplifting of those wretched natives. In fourteen years, Leopold has deliberately destroyed more lives than have suffered death on all the battle-fieldsⒶtextual note of this planet for the past thousand years. In this vast statement I am well within the mark—several millions of lives within the mark. It is curious that the most advanced and most enlightened century of all the centuries the sun has looked upon, should have the ghastly distinction of having produced this mouldy and piety-mouthing hypocrite; this bloody monster whose mate is not findable in human history anywhere, and whose personality will surely shame hell itself when he arrives there—which will be soon, let us hope and trust.
The conditions under which the poor lived in the Middle Ages were hard enough, but those conditions were heaven itself as compared with those which have obtained in the Congo State for these past fourteen years. I have mentioned Russia. Cruel and pitiful as was life throughout Christendom in the Middle Ages, it was not soⒶtextual note cruel, not soⒶtextual note pitiful, as is life in Russia to-day. In Russia, for three centuries, the vast population has been ground under the heels, and for the sole and sordid advantageⒶtextual note of,Ⓐtextual note a procession of crowned assassins and robbers who have all deserved the gallows. Russia’s hundred and thirty millions of miserable subjects are much worse off, to-day, than were the poor of the Middle Ages whom we so pity. We are accustomed, now, to speak of Russia as mediaeval, and as standing still in the Middle Ages, but that is flattery. Russia is ’wayⒶtextual note back of the Middle Ages; the Middle Ages are a long way in front of her, and she is not likely to catch up with them so long as the Czardom continues to existⒺexplanatory note.
To-day’s news from that horrible country moves me to blush for having said hard and harsh things about the life of the poor in the Middle Ages, in the book called “A Connecticut Yankee at the Court of King Arthur.”
SELLING WIVES FOR BREADⒺexplanatory note.
Horrors of Famine in Russian Provinces Along the Volga.
Special Cable Despatch to The Sun.
St. Petersburg, Dec. 4.—The newspapers are publishing terrible accounts of the famine in the Volga governments, in seven of which millions of people are said to be dying of starvation. The Tartars are said to be suffering equally with the Russians.
[begin page 308]In the village of Tetyusehi eight Tartar maidens have been sold to dealers in white slaves from the Caucasus at prices that ranged from $34 to $92. Russian peasants near Astrakhan are taking their wives to that city and compelling them to enter the brothels, the husbands receiving about $14 in each case.
I must stop, now, and consult a note-book or two, and find something complimentary to the human race to take this unpleasant taste out of my mouth. John CadwaladerⒶtextual note, a distinguished lawyer of Philadelphia, furnished me such a noteⒺexplanatory note, four or five years ago. I don’t know where to look for it, but I can furnish its chief details from memory.
Seventy-one years ago, in my birth year, 1835, the illustrious John Marshall, Chief-Justice of the United States Supreme Court, died in Philadelphia. A meeting of the bar was called, and a committee was appointed to solicit subscriptions for a monument to commemorate the eventⒺexplanatory note. The honor of subscribing was to be restricted to the legal profession; all the lawyers in America were to be asked to subscribe, and all subscriptions were to be limited to one dollar. A young lawyer of the time—whose name I cannot now recall—was appointed to receive the subscriptions and receipt for them. The dollars began presently to flow in from all about the Union. Then the thing happened which always happens:Ⓐtextual note a prodigious new event of some kind or other suddenly absorbed the interest and attention of the whole nation and drove the matter of the monument out of everybody’s mind. When this happened, the dollars stopped coming, and the stoppage came so early that only a trifling sum had by that time been accumulated—somewhere in the neighborhood of three thousand dollars.
Fifty years afterward, the young subscription-gatherer already mentioned died in the harness, a plodding, honest, aged, and undistinguished lawyerⒺexplanatory note. In his will he had named John CadwaladerⒶtextual note as one of the executors. CadwaladerⒶtextual note found the dead man’s papers in perfect order, and so clearly and painstakingly classified, indexed, and labeled, that they afforded an accurate and exhaustive view of the old man’s affairs. Among these papers was one which noted the investment of the Monument Fund, dating from the time that the fund had been received, fifty years before. The investment had been made in interest-bearing, gilt-edged securities; presently these had been sold and the result reinvested in the same safe kind of securities. This selling and reinvesting had gone on from year to year for fifty years; in all cases the securities were named, and the interest, and theⒶtextual note old bank where the accumulation was deposited was also named. The footing-upⒶtextual note showed that there now stood to the credit of the Chief-Justice Marshall Monument Fund in that bank money and securities exceeding the sum of fifty thousand dollars. CadwaladerⒶtextual note was so astonished that he rather doubted the evidence of his eyes, and was afraid that he had been beguiling himself with a fairy-tale. He went to the bank and asked if the Monument Fund really had a credit there of above fifty thousand dollars, and was told that the sum was there, and subject at any time to the draft of the Monument Fund.
CadwaladerⒶtextual note hastened from the place, for his presence was due at the annual meeting of the Philadelphia bar. He arrived there excited, and full of his great news. He immediately rose to furnish it, but at the same moment Philadelphia’s most revered, beloved, [begin page 309] and illustrious old lawyer, Daniel O’DoghertyⒺexplanatory note, rose to speak. CadwaladerⒶtextual note really had the floor, but bowed, gave precedence to O’Dogherty, and sat down. Then a curious and striking thing happened.
O’Dogherty reminded the bar of a great event which had occurred in Philadelphia half a century before—the death of John Marshall, Chief-Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. He said it was a reproach to the bar of Philadelphia that this event had not long ago been signalized in some way. Then he moved that now, and on the spot, the bar sponge out that reproach; that before any other business was entered upon, or even mentioned, measures be taken to raise fifty thousand dollars for a monument to John Marshall. He supported his motion in a moving and eloquent speech which roused great enthusiasm, and when he sat down there were cries of “Motion!Ⓐtextual note motion!”Ⓐtextual note from all over the house. The chairman proceeded to put the motion; it was seconded; then CadwaladerⒶtextual note got up as if to speak to it, and began by saying,
“To take measures, sir, to raise this fifty thousand dollars is happily not necessary—it is already raised!Ⓐtextual note Ⓔexplanatory note”
Then he went on and told the charmed and astonished house the story which I have just narrated. It takes the bitter taste out of my mouth to recall that beautiful incident.
The resulting Marshall monument is in the Capitol grounds at WashingtonⒺexplanatory note.Ⓐtextual note
not so cruel, not so pitiful, as is life in Russia to-day . . . so long as the Czardom continues to exist] Clemens published the bitter “Czar’s Soliloquy” in 1905 and expressed similar sentiments about the “insane and intolerable slavery” of the Russian people and the tsar’s “medieval barbarisms” in a public protest the same year (SLC 1905c; see AutoMT1 , 648 nn. 462.36–37, 463.2).
SELLING WIVES FOR BREAD] This dispatch appeared in the New York Sun on 5 December. The 1906 famine in Russia was one of the worst in the country’s history: an estimated twenty million people were threatened with starvation (“20,000,000 Face Famine,” New York Times, 4 Dec 1906, 4).
John Cadwalader, a distinguished lawyer of Philadelphia, furnished me such a note] John Cadwalader (1843–1925) practiced law in state and federal courts throughout his career (“John Cadwalader Dies at 81 Years,” New York Times, 13 Mar 1925, 19). Clemens heard this story from him when they dined together on 28 August 1902 (Notebook 45, TS p. 20, CU-MARK).
the illustrious John Marshall, Chief-Justice of the United States Supreme Court . . . a monument to commemorate the event] John Marshall (b. 1755) died on 6 July 1835. The following day, the Bar Association of Philadelphia met to establish the monument fund (U.S. Government Printing Office 1884, 81–82).
the young subscription-gatherer already mentioned died in the harness . . . undistinguished lawyer] Peter McCall (1809–80) was the last surviving member of the committee. After graduating from Princeton with high honors in 1826, McCall studied law under the lawyer and statesman Joseph R. Ingersoll and was admitted to the Philadelphia bar in 1830, the beginning of what was in fact a distinguished career. Among his more famous clients was Samuel Morse, whom he successfully represented in several cases regarding infringements of his telegraphic patents. A member of Philadelphia’s Select Council between 1840 and 1848, McCall served as mayor in 1844–45 (U.S. Government Printing Office 1884, 91; Wilson and Fiske 1887–89, 4:75; “Obituary. Death of Hon. Peter McCall, a Well-Known Citizen,” Philadelphia North American, 1 Nov 1880, unknown page).
Philadelphia’s most revered, beloved, and illustrious old lawyer, Daniel O’Dogherty] Daniel Dougherty (1826–92), a native of Philadelphia whose early years were spent in poverty, was admitted to the bar in 1849. He soon became celebrated not only for his courtroom appearances but for the brilliance of his oratory, often in support of political causes. He worked for Lincoln’s reelection in 1864, and gave the presidential nomination speeches for General Winfield Scott Hancock at the Democratic Convention in 1880 and for Grover Cleveland in 1888 (“Daniel Dougherty Dead,” New York Times, 6 Sept 1892, 2; Young 1892; Wilson and Fiske 1887–89, 2:210–11).
to raise this fifty thousand dollars is happily not necessary—it is already raised!] The initial $2,557 raised in 1835 from members of the bar in Pennsylvania and other localities—with the stipulation that no individual contribution should exceed $10—had grown to almost $20,000 in 1880. In 1882, “Congress, in order that the nation might join the bar in honoring the memory of the great man to whom so much was due, added another $20,000 to the lawyers’ fund” (U.S. Government Printing Office 1884, 3, 12–13, 23–25, 90).
The resulting Marshall monument is in the Capitol grounds at Washington] The bronze statue was sculpted in 1883 by William Wetmore Story (1819–95), son of Justice Joseph Story, Marshall’s friend and colleague on the Supreme Court. It was installed on the west plaza of the Capitol and formally unveiled on 10 May 1884; in 1981 it was moved to the basement of the Supreme Court building, where it remains.
Source documents.
Sun Facsimile of the New York Sun (the original clipping that Hobby transcribed is now lost), 5 December 1906, 2: ‘SELLING WIVES . . . each case.’ (307.35–308.4).TS1 ribbon Typescript, leaves numbered 1483–90, made from Hobby’s notes and the Sun and revised.
TS1 carbon Typescript carbon, leaves numbered 1483–90, revised.
TS1 ribbon was minimally revised by Clemens, who copied his revisions onto TS1 carbon and further revised it, possibly with NAR in mind; later he wrote ‘Not usable yet’ on its first page. For the text of the article from the New York Sun of 5 December 1906, we follow the original article.