Chapter XLIII: Book II: The Mind of the Middle East

A product of two centers: Philadelphia, New York. Lack of
intellectual backgrounds 183

I. The Old Capital

I. Philadelphia the capital of the older American culture.
Its contributions to the Revolutionary debates. Its
economic prospects curtailed by topography. Its
decline with the removal of the national capital 185

II. Brockden Brown and French liberalisms--influence
of Godwin and Mary Wollstonecraft. Explanation
of their appeal. _Alcuin; A Dialogue._ _Arthur Mervyn_,
a study in Godwinianism. _Wieland_ and the “blood-pudding”
school. Influence on later fiction in America 188

III. Robert Montgomery Bird: His contributions to the
romantic drama. _Nick of the Woods_--a realistic
treatment of the Indian. A contribution to the myth
of western humor 190

II. The New Capital

I. New York an economic rather than a cultural capital.
Reasons for its rise. The older Knickerbocker world
disintegrating. Stephen Van Rensselaer and John
Jacob Astor 193

II. Intellectual backgrounds: Lack of creativeness. Political
divisions. Emergence of the boss--Martin Van
Buren and Thurlow Weed 195

III. James Kent: The last of the old Federalist school.
His political theory--a disciple of Fisher Ames. His
_Commentaries on American Law_ 197

IV. Beginnings of the renaissance: _Salmagundi_; _The Croaker
Papers_. Fitz-Greene Halleck. His views--attitude
towards the proletariat. _Connecticut_; _Fanny_. The
last of the Wits 199

III. Two Knickerbocker Romantics

I. Washington Irving: His detachment. A _flâneur_. His
years abroad. Reaction to the Reform Bill. An
incipient liberal. Rediscovery of America. The
mission to Madrid. Contrast with Cooper. Political
principles--drift towards the middle class. _A Tour
of the Prairies_, _Astoria_, _Life of Washington_. His early
and late work contrasted 203

II. James Kirke Paulding: His origins--a son of the
people, distrustful of the middle class. Defense of
America against the English critics. His idealism.
_The Backwoodsman_; _The Puritan and his Daughter_.
His rejection of English “blood-pudding” romantic.
A Jeffersonian: _Letters from the South_ an echo of John
Taylor’s agrarianism; opposed Clay’s American Plan;
satirized Clay in _Koningsmarke_. _Westward Ho!; The
Dutchman’s Fireside._ An amateur in letters 212

IV. James Fenimore Cooper--Critic: The problem of
Cooper. A barometer of his generation. Troubled by
the transition from an aristocratic to a capitalistic
order--lingered between worlds. His Tory origins--Judge
William Cooper. Abandoned Federalism yet
ill content with Democracy. Effect of his European
travels. Likeness to John Adams--hated all cant.
Two phases of his criticism: the older Federalist
theories; the fallacies of capitalism. _The Monikins_--an
attack on the stake-in-society theory. _The Redskins_--an
attack on capitalistic exploitation. A
romanticized eighteenth century his refuge against
the vulgarities of Jacksonianism and capitalism.
_Home as Found_ and _The Redskins_ as studies in social
criticism. His love of the wilderness and hatred of
the frontier. The anti-rent trilogy. Picture of the
squatter. His growing realism--_Wyandotté_. His
later political philosophy--an ethical interpretation
of sovereignty. Failure of the critics to understand
Cooper 222

V. Some Contributions of New England

I. William Cullen Bryant--Puritan Liberal: Injustice
done him by neglect of his journalistic work. An
original mind. Transition from Federalist to Democrat.
Influence of the English economists--an
English liberal. Never a Jeffersonian, but anti-Whig.
Influence of William Leggett and Parke Godwin.
Attitude towards the labor movement. Defense of
free speech. A critic of the rising capitalism 238

II. Horace Greeley--Yankee Radical: A practical man
seeking a way out of the confusions of the times. His
early life; defense of protectionism. His working
back to Jeffersonianism. Interest in Fourierism.
Champion of the farmer and the wage-earner. His
“Vote Yourself a Farm” policy. Interest in the
proletariat--interpretation
of slavery. Coöperation. An idealist 247

III. Herman Melville--Pessimist: The source of his pessimism
in life itself--effect of frustrations. His ancestry:
the Gansevoort strain; the Melville strain. Contrast
between mother and son; effect of his marriage.
Stages toward pessimism marked by _Typee_, _Mardi_,
_Moby Dick_, _Pierre_. Transcendentalism and reality.
His democracy. A critic of America. Spiritual
dissatisfactions--_Clarel_ 258

Book III: The Mind of New England

The New England renaissance the last expression in America of
eighteenth-century revolutionary thought. Given a native ethical
bias. Twin tendencies of earlier New England. Static conditions
of life--the renaissance a movement of liberalism, shaped
by the Puritan strain 271