University of Kansas Publications

Google

This is a digital copy of a book that was preserved for generations on library shelves before it was carefully scanned by Google as part of a project

to make the world's books discoverable online.

It has survived long enough for the copyright to expire and the book to enter the public domain. A public domain book is one that was never subject

to copyright or whose legal copyright term has expired. Whether a book is in the public domain may vary country to country. Public domain books

are our gateways to the past, representing a wealth of history, culture and knowledge that's often difficult to discover.

Marks, notations and other maiginalia present in the original volume will appear in this file - a reminder of this book's long journey from the

publisher to a library and finally to you.

Usage guidelines

Google is proud to partner with libraries to digitize public domain materials and make them widely accessible. Public domain books belong to the
public and we are merely their custodians. Nevertheless, this work is expensive, so in order to keep providing tliis resource, we liave taken steps to
prevent abuse by commercial parties, including placing technical restrictions on automated querying.
We also ask that you:

+ Make non-commercial use of the files We designed Google Book Search for use by individuals, and we request that you use these files for
personal, non-commercial purposes.

+ Refrain fivm automated querying Do not send automated queries of any sort to Google's system: If you are conducting research on machine
translation, optical character recognition or other areas where access to a large amount of text is helpful, please contact us. We encourage the
use of public domain materials for these purposes and may be able to help.

+ Maintain attributionTht GoogXt "watermark" you see on each file is essential for in forming people about this project and helping them find
additional materials through Google Book Search. Please do not remove it.

+ Keep it legal Whatever your use, remember that you are responsible for ensuring that what you are doing is legal. Do not assume that just
because we believe a book is in the public domain for users in the United States, that the work is also in the public domain for users in other
countries. Whether a book is still in copyright varies from country to country, and we can't offer guidance on whether any specific use of
any specific book is allowed. Please do not assume that a book's appearance in Google Book Search means it can be used in any manner
anywhere in the world. Copyright infringement liabili^ can be quite severe.

About Google Book Search

Google's mission is to organize the world's information and to make it universally accessible and useful. Google Book Search helps readers
discover the world's books while helping authors and publishers reach new audiences. You can search through the full text of this book on the web

at |http: //books .google .com/I

7(76;

) "J

t f "•

4 ^•r'***

BULLETIN OF THE UNIVERSmr OP JltANSAS^ KX-,\.k.^ ^k\ '• « - *^

Vol. xvn

May 1, 1916

No. 9

Fablithod iMal-mimtliiy fnuD Jumafy to Joae and moodUr from inly to
DcMmbar, iaehisi¥«. by the Uahrcnfey of Kuimm

HUMANISTIC STUDIES

Vol. 11, No. 1

ORIENTAL DICTION AND THEME
IN ENGLISH VERSE, 1740-1840

BY

' * » '

EDNA OSBORNE, A. M.
F§lkm'9U€t te EnttUk, Tk§ Vmivetsity #/ Kam$^^

LAWRENCE, MAY, 1916

BnUrod •■ teeondkokts oiatter December 29, 1910, et the poitoffiee it
LewroBce, Kentei, under the eot of the July 16, 1894

THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS

I
f

GOMMITTBS ON HUMANISTIC STUDIES

nUNK HMYWOpD BODDSM BDWIN MOMTiMSM HOmNS

nUkNK WtLSON BLACKMAM AKTHVR TAPPAN WAL$BM

SBLDBN UNCOIN WHiTCOMB, Biifr

The University of Kansas Homanistic Studies
are offered in exchange for similar publications
by learned societies and by universities and
otiier academic institutions. All inquiries and
all matt^ sent in exchange should be addressed
to the liibTary of the University of Kansas,
Lawrence, Kansas.

Volume I

Number 1. StuOies in the Work of Colley
Gibber, by DeWitt 0. Croissant. October, 191^.
Seventy pages. Fifty cents.

Number 2. StudieB in Bergaon's PkUoeophy,
by Arthur Mitchell, ilanuary, 1914. Oiie hunf
dred and fifteen pages. Seventy-five cents.

Number 3. Browning and Italian Art and
Artieta, by Pearl Hogreze. Mpty, 1914. Seventy-
seven pages. Fifty cents.

Number ,4. The Semantics of -mentum,
-buhLm^ and -ciUum, by fidmund. D. Cressman.
January, 1915. Fifty-six pages. Fifty cents.

Volume II.

Number 1. Oriental Diction and Theme tti
English Verse, 17J^0-18j^O, by Edna Osborne.
May, 1916. One hundred and fortyK>ne pagesi
Seventyrflve cents.

BULLETIN OP THB UNIVBR8ITY OP KANSAS
HUMANISTIC STUDIBS

■ I ■« » ■ ■ ■ ■ ' . !■ » I II ■ ■ I » I I I I »l ll> » ■ ^ ■ ■! I ■ I I 1.

VeLII MAY, 1916 Ne. i

Oriemfal Didien end Theme ia, Emglish Verts, 1740-1840 ,h Bdma Oaksrne

Sevemty'fipe Ceutt

BULLETIN OF THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS

HUMANISTIC STUDIES

Vol. 2 May 1, 1916 No. 1

ORIENTAL DICTION AND THEME
IN ENGLISH VERSE, 1740-1840

■T

EDNA OSBORNE, A. M.
Felhw-thct to Erngtak, Tlu UtUvnUy tf Kmumt

• • « * *

LAWKI-.NCB. MAY. 1916
PUBLISHED BY THE UNIVERSITY

• • •

*

• •

PREFACE

The writer's interest in Orientalism in English literature began
at the University of Illinois in 1911, when Professor H. 6. Paul, in
a lecture on the Romantic poets, emphasized Byron's Oriental
coloring and suggested that its study would make a good thesis. A
little later this interest took form in a master's thesis on The
Orientalism of Byron^ which was accepted by the English Depart-
ment of the University of Kansas in 1914. This preliminary study
opened up a field which seemed boundless, and which offered very
attractive appeals to the student of foreign influences on English
literature.

One does not need to be acquainted with Oriental languages or
Oriental literature to trace with some profit the effects of Oriental
interests on English verse and prose. It has been impossible to
examine all the English verse from 1740 to 1840; but the chief
poets have been reviewed with a good deal of care, and many of
the minor ones. The Oriental drama offers a field by itself, and
only a few dramas have been included in the present survey. It is
hoped that all the main characteristics of Oriental diction and
theme in the period have been recognized and given some attention
in this paper. There has been no effort at a microscopic examina-
tion, at inclusion of every possible poet, passage, or term. It is
hoped and presumed that such values as the present study yields
wiU prove sound in and for themselves.

The writer wishes to thank Dr. C. G. Dunlap, Head of the Eng-
lish Department, and Miss Carrie Watson, University Librarian,
and her assistants for courtesies extended; and also Dr. E. D.
Cressman, of the Latin Department, for assistance in matters
relating directly to Greek, Latin, and Sanskrit. To Professor
S. L. Whitcomb, the editor of this series of Studies, the writer
is especially grateful for constant assistance during the past year
— assistance as generous as it was helpful. Without it this paper
could hardly have been brought to completion at the present
time.

Edna Osborne.
The University of Kansas,
June 28, 1916.

CONTENTS

Chapter I
Introduction: Orientalism in English Verse 7

Chapter II
Oriental Vocabulary 21

Chapter III
Oriental Phrase and Figure , 81

Chapter IV
Oriental Passage and Poem 4S

Chapter V
The East and the West 56

Chapter VI
The Orient Itself 69

Chapter VII
Poetic Values in English Orientalism 88

Appendix

I. Bibliographical Notes.

A. Poems and Passages 98

B. Collections of Poems 129

C. General Bibliographical Notes 180

II. Notes on the Oriental Vocabulary.

A. Oriental Vocabulary in Sir William Jones 184

B. English Words of Oriental Derivation 186

C. Oriental Vocabulary in the King James Version

of the Bible 188

Index 189

Oriental Diction and Theme in
English Verse, 1740-1840

CHAPTER I

Introduction : Orientalism in English Verse

This study aims to present within brief compass the general
character of the Oriental diction and the Oriental theme in English
verse between 1740 and 1840.

Every noteworthy fashion, manner, or school in the history of
English poetry has a vocabulary and a phrasing that are char-
acteristic and reveal something of the spirit beyond the words.
Pastoralism is not merely a matter of certain themes and certain
moods, but, almost of necessity, of certain verbal tendencies.
One who reviews the Oriental poetry of England for the century
after the publication of Collin's Eclogues soon becomes familiar
with a characteristic diction and its relation to mental and moral
states. In some Oriental poems there is little Oriental quality in
the diction; the Orientalism may be confined chiefly to the setting,
to a character or characters, or to a general theme. On the other
hand, there are passages and poems whose exotic character is
mainly in the language. The ideal poem is one which expresses
Eastern life or Eastern feeling in Orientalized diction.

In the present study^ the term "Orientalism'* is somewhat
broadly interpreted. It includes, first, the presentation of life in
the Orient and of Oriental objects, ideas, or persons in the West;
second, the treatment of any theme in a style Oriental or supposed
to be Oriental. The first interpretation covers the Englishman in
India as well as the native, and the gypsy and the elephant in
England as well as in their original homes. The second type of
Orientalism would, in a lax application of the idea, be found in all
poems of a peculiarly rich, luxurious, and figurative fancy and

8 University of Kansas Humanistic Studies

decorative style. This second conception, however, is too vague
to furnish a safe guidance in such a study as this. There is too
much in common between Orientalism so interpreted and the
neo-Italianate manner so much in vogue during the latter part of
our period. The emphasis must be laid upon the first interpre-
tation, which is logically more distinct and historically more
tangible.

""The Orient" in this paper includes not only all of Asia and all
of Africa, with the neighboring blands, but Russia, Poland, Lap-
land, Zembla, Bohemia, Turkey in Europe, and some of the
Balkan states. Literary criticism usually recognizes a certain
Asiatic element in Russian literature, and the racial character or
the political history of the other countries mentioned allies them,
to a certain degree at least, with the Orient. Mohammedan
Africa is certainly Oriental so far as the English poets of our
period are concerned. Partly as a manner of convenience and part-
ly in recognition of the poetic treatment it receives — often very
similar in general tone to that given to Arabia or Persia — ^all the
rest of the continent may be included. Even the negro in America
may appear and does sometimes appear as a genuine Oriental
subject. Spain in itself does not belong to the world of Eastern
poetry, but many of the poems of the i)eriod dealing with Spain
are concerned largely with the Moors or with the relations of the
Spaniard to the Moor.

Martha Pike Conant has faced the problem of separating the
Hebraic element from the OrienUlt for critical purposes.^ I'he
distinction often seems somewhat arbitrary. One remembers
Carlyle's interpretation of the Book of Job—Biblical at least if
not fully Hebraic — in the "Hero as Prophet". The Eling James
version of the Bible contains many words which belong to the
Oriental vocabulary of English poetry.^ Furthermore, our poets
often take a character, a subject, or a situation from the Bible and
elaborate and expand it in Oriental instead of strictly Biblical
fashion. It seems sound criticism to call Byron's Destruction of
Sennacherib an Oriental poem though it is one of the Hebrew
Melodies; Wells' Joseph and His Brethren has passages of marked
Oriental quality. In The Christian Year there are a few poems.

1. The Oriental Tale in England, p. XVI.

2. See Appendix, II, O.

Osborne: Oriental Diction and Theme 9

theoretically on Biblical subjects^ decidedly akin to the general
Oriental tone of the period.

A conception of Oriental diction may be based on that of Orient-
alism as just given. Not all words of Oriental derivation, however,
belong to the poetical vocabulary. "Algebra", "zero", and other
scientific terms from the Orient do not belong to English Oriental
style. " Check "y though derived from the Persian, is surely less
akin to the Oriental vocabulary of English poetry than "glitter-
ing", which happens to be of Scandinavian origin. Such are the
complications in the relations of language and feeling in English
Orientalism. Much of the general subject belongs to the philolo-
gist, rather than to the historian of style.

So little has been done in the field of Orientalism in English
verse, that a brief historical survey may not be amiss.

There is no Orientalism in Beowulf; but it is a long path from
Beowulf to Kipling. Prior to Chaucer, in the verse romances and
in the medieval drama, many terms of Oriental place and person
are introduced. Mohammedanism, the Crusades, and pilgrimage
to the Holy Land are favorite topics. Herod, in the Coventry
Shearmen and Taylors, declares that the "whole Orent ys under
mjm obbeydeance". He swears several times "Be Mahownd",
and compares his own "triumphant fame" to that of "most
myght Mahownd". In the same play there is what might by
courtesy be called a brief Oriental passage. The angel is sent to
the—

"Kyng of Tawnis, Sir Jespar,
Kyng of Arraby, Sir Balthasar,
Melchor, Kyng of Aginare. "

In the Play of the Sacrament, the merchant has traveled quite
extensively in the Orient, as has Jonathan the Jew. The real
business of the latter is to be converted by a miracle. Before
conversion, he prays to "Almighty Machoniet", and thanks him
tor his gifts. The list of these treasures resembles many an
Oriental passage in later poetry, and includes "gold, silver, and
precious stones" — amethysts, emeralds, sapphires, rubies, pearls,
etc. ; spices ' 'both great and small " — ginger, licorice, pomegranate,
pepper, cloves; and other Eastern products — rice, almonds, dates,
and figs.
There are no strictly Oriental poems in Chaucer, unless we con-

10 University of Kansas Humanistic Studies

sider the Man of Taiw*s Tale and the Prioresses Tale as such.
Chaucer, however, mentions a number of Oriental countries and
products, and he speaks of Eastern idols, magic, and sorcery.
His Oriental diction is distinct, if not very extensive, including
such words as carbuncle, crystal, date-tree, figs, nutmegs, peacock,
ruby, spicery, etc. In both Chaucer and The Pearl there is ref-
erence to the **Fenyx of Arraby ". The third and fourth lines of
this poem are:

"Oute of Oryent, I hardyly saye,
Ne proued I neuer her precios pere. "

The Fall of Constantinople in 1453 probably had some effect on
the English interest in the Orient, as well as on the general progress
of humanism in Europe. The relation of Spain to England in the
Tudor period has been ably considered by Dr. Underbill.' No
great body of Orientalized English verse, however, resulted from
these influences. Yet from Surrey to Milton, that is in the Eliza-
bethan period in the broadest possible interpretation. Orientalism
in diction and theme is a richer and more varied subject tlian in
earlier English literature.

The early English secular drama shows many traces of Oriental
influence, though few or no plays strictly Oriental. Cambises may
perhaps be called the first Oriental drama in England, though
aside from its setting and, in diction, a few proper names, it has
little Eastern quality. The word ** elephant" is about all to
represent Oriental diction in Rdster Doister. In Gorboduc, the
theme of English descent from a Trojan is of course really classical,
in source and significance. In The Foure PP, the pardoner has on
exhibition an **eye-toth of the Great Turke", the palmer has of
course been in the Holy Land, and the apothecary's store includes
a few Eastern drugs, one being "cassy" — said to be the oldest
drug known to medicine.

The Orientalism in Shakespeare is somwhat diffuse or uncertain
in tone. OI)eron is from '* the farthest steppe of India, '* and there
are many brief references here and there to the Turks, Ethiopians,
Tartars, the Nile, etc. The Moor appears in Titus Andronicus as
well as in OtheUo.

Antony and Cleopatra has not only an Oriental setting, but, in

3. Spanith Literature in the England of the Tudor $.

Osborne: Oriental Diction and Thenie 11

spite of its general Roman character as a play, passages of true
Eastern character. In David and Bethaabe and in Campaspe the
coloring in part is clearly of the Oriental type. But it is in Tarn-
burlaine that we find a true and extensive treatment of Oriental
themes expressed in Oriental diction; so far, at least, as certain
motifs — luxury, tyranny, excess — are concerned. In this play is
much that suggests the general character of the later Oriental
drama in England.

Surrey's Sardanapalus is a good early example of an English
subject Orientalized ; and is an introduction to an Eastern character
destined to receive more extended consideration in English poetry.
Several pages at least could be given to the Oriental element in
Spenser. It is rich in diction and fairly so in theme; but is nowhere
concentrated into an Oriental poem or extended passage. An
examination of Dr. Bradshaw's Concordance sho\is a liberal use
of Oriental diction in Milton. Professor Beers quotes a number of
phrases from Milton to prove that he *'had more of the East in
his imagination than any of his successors".^

Before the publication of Paradise Lost, the Siege of Rhodes and
the first work of Waller had appeared, and English poetry was
treading the path toward pseudo-classicism. The Siege of Rhodes
is the forerunner of a long line of plays set in the Orient and having
at least some Eastern characters and some Eastern language, if
little of true Oriental coloring. Many of the scenes in the heroic
tragedies are laid in Asia, Africa, or the Mohammedan regions of
Europe. This was an easy task, as it was to include a considerable
number of names for the characters smacking at least of something
non-English. A few striking foreign customs or objects — such as
the Chinese Wall — ^were also easy of access; but few playwrights
attempted to escape entirely their home training and mode of
thought. "Fancy you have two hours in Turkey been", directs
the epilogue of The Conspiracy. Through The Mourning Bride
and The Siege of Damascus this type of drama flourishes, till in
Zara it almost reaches the opening of our period, and in Miller's
Mahomet actually passes into the period.

Waller's Orientalism consists mainly of a number of poems
dealing with the political and military activity of the Turks, and
of a sprinkling of such Oriental terms as Moor, Persian, Soldan,

4. History of BnglUh RomarUicism in the Eighteenth Century, p. 45.

IS University of Kansas Humanistic Studies

Bassa, the East, and such conventional phrases as Cross and
Crescent, Arabia's spices, Afric's shore, ''from India to the frozen
north", etc. In Pope we have the same general tradition, more
liberaliy represented however. Dr. H. S. Canby has written a
paper on Congreve as a Romanticist} A study could be made of
the pseudo-Oriental element in Pope, but that phase of his work,
like some others, lies mainly on the surface. Lines 93-118 in The
Temple of Fame might be considered an Oriental passage; and here
and there in his verse there is the use of Oriental diction for effects
of glittering sensuous richness.

All studies of English verse between 1740 and 1840 must recog-
nize the gradual waning of the pseudo-classical taste and the grad-
ual triumph of its successors — by whatever name we call them.
Orientalism, as a stylistic manner of English poetry, is either
pseudo-classical or romantic. It, like pastoralism, made its
appeal to the old-fashioned among the English poets, and to the
innovators, when they arrived on the scene. The history of Eng-
lish poetry proves that the Orient was capable of making a deeper,
more emotional or more imaginative effect on English poets than
it made on Waller or Pope. The present study should indicate,
without a strenuous effort, the shifting of values between the
middle of the Eighteenth Century and the opening of the Victorian
Era. The old died hard. There are traces of the conventional
early Eighteenth Century manner even in Shelley and Keats;
even in Coleridge and Wordsworth.

The exact date with which our period opens is chosen as a matter
of convenience. There is of course no absolute break in the con-
tinuity of English Orientalism between The Fair Circassian
(1720) and Lady Montagu's residence in Turkey (1718) and the
poems of Sir William Jones. Already in Croxall we have a con-
scious use of Orientalism in opposition to the "dry and insipid
stuff" of the pseudo-classicists. His phrase "a whole piece of rich
glowing scarlet" sounds very much like Jones and some of the
other later Orientalists.* These items of chronology may, however,
be worth noting:

5. Pu^licaHons of the Modern Language Association of America. New Series,
Vol. XXIV: I, pp. 1-23.

6. For the signiflcance of Croxall. see Oosse. p. 138; Phelps, p. 30. and Beers,
Eighteenth Century, p. 84.

Osborne: Oriental Diction and Theme 13

1742. Collins: Persian Eclogues.

1744. The death of Pope.

1746. The birth of Sir William Jones.

1763. Lady Montagu's Letters published.

At the close of our period we are at the threshold of the Victorian
period. This study includes the work of a number of poets who \
lived and wrote after 1840; but is concerned only with their earlier /
verse. It omits Tennyson, Browning, and Bulwer Lytton, as on (
the whole to be considered Victorians. There are probably no new \
Oriental ''notes", of importance, so far as poetry is concerned^
between Byron and Sohrab and Rtuttum (1853).

The pseudo-classical phases of Oriental verse are essentially the
same from Pope to Byron. These include the practical, didactic
treatment of Eastern life; the satirical manner, and especially a
purely literary, stylistic interest — limitative, and characterised by
conventional ideas and diction which present few signs of im-
aginative and emotional processes. The satirical manner of Byron
is not notably different from that of Butler or Pope; the didacti-
cism of Southey, at its worst, resembles that of Young or Johnson;
Mangan's fiction of translation from Oriental sources follows the
model of Collins. Crabbe's heroic couplets, in his Oriental pas-
sages as elsewhere, are not suggestive of any great renovation in
English versification. If Byron wrote from personal observation
in the Orient, so did Lady Montagu. Moore was far less of an Ori-
entalist than Sir William Jones, though the former embodied more
of his knowledge of the East in verse than did the latter. In the
Oriental verse of both Moore and Southey, the reader feels a
certain artificiality, a striving for effect, as in much of the work of
the Augustans. In both poets the results of carefully selected
themes, of extended literary preparation, of laborious composition,
are all too much in evidence.

Yet much in the Orientalism of our period is allied with the new
spirit. As a phase of the Romautic Movement, Orientalism devel-
oped, no doubt by more faltering stages, and ^ith less extensive
results, side by side with the new Gothic and Celtic tastes, and in
association with sentimentalism, with the humanitarian and rev-
olutionary spirit. It has far less kinship with the '* return to
nature", as Romanticism imderstood it, or with that medievalism
which Professor Beers chooses to select as the central conception
in his studies of English Romanticism. 4bove all, in its deepest

H University of Kansas Humanistic Studies

poetic significance, Orientalism represents that craving for free
range of the imagination, that craving to escape the local, the
practical, the *' regular", that at times almost terrible appetite for
the unknown and the limitless, which Paul Elmer More rebukes
so firmly in his Drift of Romanticism. The hostility of the classicist
to Oriental art itself is apparent in such a critic as John Foster,
loving the simple.^ Of the general strangeness of the Orient to
the English mind, of the general ignorance of that mind as to
Eastern life — except its picturesque surface — ^there are many
records in English prose during the latter part of our period. It
was, in part, just this strangeness, just this sense of the unknown
and the unmeasured, that attracted many of the poets. To some
of them, as Orientalists, one might venture to apply an expression
in one of Keble's lyrics —

"Thy tranced yet open gaze
Fixed on the desert haze."^

In our period the word "Gothic" (often capitalized) occurs with
more frequency than "Oriental ". So far as simple phrases go, the
relation of the two tastes is rather neatly indicated by these
citations. Lloyd places in an English garden a 'temple, Gothic
or Chinese*. Armstrong actually carries the Germanic word into
the regions of the East. He writes that the "cheerless Tanais"
flows through a "Grothic solitude"." Both the Orient and the
(jothic North were adapted to produce certain emotional or sen-
sational effects of remoteness and wildness; both were rich in the
evidences of the decay of human achievements. The ruins of the
temples of the East and of the castles of the North were both ruins;
both registered the frailty of the conventional pride and purpose
of man. Both, under easy conditions, could satisfy the romantic
craving for silence and solitude.

As to the Celtic taste, only the lighter element in Eastern
mythology harmonized with it. But this lighter element was
present — in the peris and houris, in the milder characters among
the genii. The more grim elements could be neglected at the will
of the |K>et. Something of that charming wilfulness of feminine
nature, of that irresponsible caprice and sudden change in narra-

7. See his review of Oriental Scenery; and his other essays listed in the Appen^
diz. I. C. 2.
S. The Chrittian Year; Second Sunday after Easter.
9. The Art Of PreserHng Health : II. U. 364-5.

Osborne: Oriental Dictum and Theme 15

tion, oJ that delicate charm in lyric expression which are asso-
ciated with Celtic genius, are found at times in English Oriental
verse. This may be said without reference to the (jossible remote
historical kinship of Celtic and Oriental poetry.

As to Occidentalism, the following pages will note more than one
connection of this interest — comparatively new in the Romantic
period, and given large attention — ^with the taste for matters
Eastward. Many a poet's fancy travelled indiflFerently, in the
phrase of Keats, "Or in Orient or in West". Both regions were
generously oi)en to fresh, untrammelled poetic treatment. Both,
gave abundant opportunity to introduce novel words, strange/
stories, and characters far more nearly * elemental men * than the
average residents of London. Bums actually bade farewell to his
friends, ready for Jamaica, but he also wrote one poem imaginingj
himself in India. Moore, Campbell, Mrs. Hemans, and many
other poets wrote at some length on both East and West. With
both regions, as time passed, the practical relations of England
became so pressing, the information of Englishmen became so
much larger concerning both, that it became difficult to summon
the old motifs of the wild and intangible. Today it would be
almost impossible for an English poet to dream in the early Nine-
teenth Century romantic manner of the St. Lawrence and the
American 'Forest Sanctuary'; almost impossible, probably, to
think of the Ganges and the Euphrates as streams of fancy
unfettered by prosaic facts.

Sentimentalism may perhaps lurk in Arabian and Persian poetry. .
However that may be, the English sentimental taste — ^not destroyed .
by an>' number of parodies, or by resolute opponents among the (
playwrights — ^found something to satisfy it in Orientalized verse. J
Persia and even Africa became pastoral countries, companions if
not rivals of Sicily and Arcadia. Sentimentality is one of the
varied notes in Sir William Jones himself. If "'earth's melancholy
map" lay open to the sombre imagination of Edward Young, Mrs.
Hemans found it jK)ssible to carr^^ the sentiments of a sensitive
nature into many of the remote regions of the globe, including the
East. There are many sentimental passages in The Bride of
Abydos as well as in LaUa Rookh. Long before these works were
published Collins had written, in the preface of the first edition of
the Edogues^ that "our geniuses are as much too cold for the enter-

r

16 University of Kansas Humanistic Studies

tainment of such [Eastern] sentiments, as our climate is for their
fruits and spices".

Perhaps the deepest interpretation of the Orient, in the verse of
our period, was made by English poets moved by the varying
humanitarian, reform, and revolutionary interests of the day.
There are a host of poems on African slavery written, most of
them, from the point of view of the social reformer. The con-
templation of the tyrannies of the East aroused vigorous protest;
the enslavement of Eastern peoples to cruel or superstitious cus-
toms and creeds — such at least to English thought — called forth
severe criticism, and praises of the mission of England in the East,
in politics and religion. The dominion of the proud Turk in
Greece, while it cost the life of only one English poet, exdted
poetical protests from many pens. In Lalla Rookh even, the
struggle for liberty is one of the themes, and Smollett looked with
admiration upon the Arabs and the Tartars as peoples conspicuous
for their love of freedom. Though the "brotherhood of man", in
a Twentieth Century sense, is hardly in evidence, many of the
English poets spoke against tyranny in any form, and showed at
least poetic sympathy with the oppressed sons of man, in the East
as well as in the West. In the decline of great Eastern tyrannies,
they often found a direct lesson for Europe. Ozymandias has its
sermon. The Orient is more than once caUed as a witness against
French pride. Shakespeare and Marlowe felt a certain enthusi-
asm for the tyrant, provided he was sufficiently great and successful
in his tyranny; but the times changed — after the English poets
had known Napoleon.

After our period, many of the traditions of Orientalism are car-
ried on with little essential change into the Victorian and post- Vic-
torian eras. Different poets continued to express different phases
of this large subject.

Mathew Arnold felt the fatalism of the East. This conception,
together with local color which he obtained from Sir John Mal-
colm's History of Persia^ he wove into Sohrab and Riuium. But
Southey also dealt with the fatalistic element in the thought of the
East. Eklwin Arnold gave sympathetic interpretation of the
religions of the Orient in The Light of the World and The Light of
Asia — though, perhaps, in no more scholarly manner than Sir
William Jones. It might be interesting to compare the diction
and the themes in two such different poems as Sohrab and Rustum

Osborne: Oriental Diction and Theme 17

and The Light of Asia, In general tone the latter bears some
resemblance to the Oriental poetry of Emerson and not a little to
' that of Southey. Elaborate and modem as it is, it can hardly be
said to mark a new departure in the same degree as do the poems
of Browning and Kipling. Sohrab and Rustum is one of the noblest ^
Oriental poems in English literature. The central theme, certainly,
is not peculiar to the Orient, nor are the mental and moral tones
of the poem. The spirit of the poem is largely Greek. Sohrab and
Rustum is one example of that mingling of varied and even oppos-
ing styles which is so characteristic of English poetry. The
settings of the poem, however, general and specific, are Eastern;
the Oriental diction is adequate and of memorable quality. In
beauty and depth this poem is superior to most English Oriental ^
poems, earlier or later.

Browning brings into Oriental poetry a more manly humanity,
a more generous, deeper morality than most of his English fellow
poets. Miss Conant has discussed the moral tale of the Eighteenth
Century and all students know the didactic emphasis of that
period; but Browning's didacticism, as well as his optimism,
belongs to himself alone. He was much interested, along with
other masters, in the ethics, the wisdom, the mysticism, the
religion, and the hot-headed emotions of the Oriental peoples.
These themes and others he expressed with dramatic force and with
his usual psychological insight in many poems — Ferishtah's Fancies^
Ben Karshook^s Wisdom^ The Epistle of KarshisK Rabbi ben Ezra^
A Death in the Desert, Luria, The Return of the Druses, Solomon
and Balkis, Through the Metidja, and others. In Muleykeh the
vigor of such phrases as 'Hhe thunderous heels" and ^'Buheyseh
is mad with hope" are in striking contrast with the languorous
tone of much Eighteenth Century Oriental verse. The Russian
element, in whatsoever form, rarely appears in the verse of the
English Romantic Movement. Ivan Ivanovitch is one of the first
important embodiments of an interest which develops thn)ugh the
remainder of the Nineteenth Century and into the Twentieth.
Clioe is almost an authority on its subject.
r Tennyson's Orient alism is considerable, but it is less forceful and
"^less original than that oi Browning. It is mainly, if not entirely, •
in the Romantic manner. Tennyson reveals a love of Eastern
story inherited from his bo^^hood reading and a mature English-
man's interest in the relations of the Orient to his own country.

18 University of Kansas Humanistic Studies

In his RecoUedians of the Arabian Nights, he has chosen a theme
found in several poets of our period. In the Defense of Lucknom,
Montenegro, and other poems, he treats that military struggle
between the East and the West which, in other forms, was an
important subject in The Siege of Rhodes, in Hoole's translation of
Jerusalem Delivered, and in many a lesser poem of our period. The
Cup is his nearest approach to an Oriental drama. In Akbar^s
Dream Tennyson shows less of the mystical and phantasmagoric
quality associated with the Orient than appears in Kuhla Khan;
more of the ethical.

Fitzgerald is, of course, a figure of great importance in a sketch
of English Oriental verse. The first edition of his Rvbaiyai appear-
ed in 1859, the second in 1872, and the third in 1879. The neatness
and comparative independence of the single quatrain, the concise
and exotic imagery, the love of happiness and the half-worldly,
half-mystical philosophy have given the work a wide and an
enduring popularity. Omar's denunciation of the inexorable fate
which dooms to slow decay or sudden oblivion all that is charming
and beautiful in this world resembles the lament of many a poet
of the Romantic Movement. Much of the Oriental diction in
Fitzgerald is similiar to that in English verse prior to 1840. The
naturalism of the Rvbaiyai is of a somewhat different type from
that appearing in the Oriental verse of Byron, Southey, or any of
their contemporaries.

In Kipling, it would be no more difficult to find some of the old
Oriental motifs and language than it would be to trace the English
ballad traditions in his form and subjects. The Englishman in
India is not a new theme, nor is that of the heat in the East. What
affects us in Kipling is the large number of his Oriental poems, his
extensive realistic and dialectic vocabulary, and the general realism,
modernism, and anti-academic quality of his work. Though he
sounds more loudly than his predecessors the note of imperialism,
it is far from being an absolutely new note in English poetry. Yet
Kipling, on the whole, is new. Sir William Jones was a scholar; he
knew East Indian life in ways unknown to Kipling; but he could
not have expressed the tragic shiver and the mournful music of
Oriental experience in Danny Deever and Gunga Din, or the humor
and irony in such poems as Fuzzy-Wuzzy and Oonts. The Dove
of Dacca relates an old Bengal legend, not in the scholarly manner
of Sir William Jones or the erudite manner of Southey, but with

Osborne: Oriented Diction and Theme 19

a touch of Moore's sentimentalism» Rofute Marchin* and many
other poems are in Kipling's own style,

The further story of Orientalism in English verse from 1840 to
the present time is a long one, which cannot even be outlined here.
It includes many poets, many themes, many moods. James
Thomson, like Byron and Crabbe and Wordsworth in our period,
like Tennyson, was influenced by his early reading of Arabian
Nights, His City of the Dreadftd Night in some respects suggests
the Oriental poems of Southey. Rossetti reverts to the theme of
ruined grandeur in his stately Burden of Nineveh. Charles Mac-
kay, a somewhat voluminious poet probably little read in this
country, tells a legend of AustraUa in The Lump of Ootd^ and em-
bodies the mysticism of the Orient proper in The Prayer of the
Priest of Isis. He joins his voice to that chorus of singers for
liberty which is prominent in the period of our study. He writes
of the aboUUon of slavery, and in The Brotherhood of Nations
records of words breathing the spirit of international comrade-
ship —

"From the cold Norland to the sunny South —
From East to West, they warmed the heart of man. *'

Sydney Dobell enters the field of Orientalism in Czar Nicholas and
A Musing on a Victory. Andrew Lang unites the traditional
theme of the golden East, the tradition of Ophir, with the modem
exploitation of the wealth of Africa in his Zimbabwe. Edmund
Gosse— cosmopolitan in his verse as in his criticism — goes back to
the Persian sources in his rather long poem on Firdausiin Exile.
The deeper note in much recent Oriental verse, in contrast with
much of that examined for this study, may be seen by a comparison
of Mathilde Blind's sonnet on Nirvana with the brief fragment on
that theme in Miss Baillie's Bride.^^

In The Madras House of Granville Barker we have a drama par-
tially OrientaUzed, with a view of Mohammedanism in striking
contrast with that in medieval English, Elizabethan, or Eight-
eenth Centuiy tragedies.

Orientalism in American literature has a somewhat different
tendency at present from that in English literature; owing in part
to our greater distance from Turkey and Persia eastward, and our

10. Act I. clooe of Scene 2,

£0 University of Kansas Humanistic Studies

much closer neighborhood to China and Japan westward. In the
early periods of American literature the conventional themes and
diction of English Orientalism, like most conventions of English
literature, are in evidence. Even in Emerson, one finds the old
phrases — ^the "mummied East", "Africa's torrid plains", the
"grave divan"; and his Oriental vocabulary includes many words
worn by time — "Giaours", "caravan", "Allah", "dervish",
"crocodile", "siroc", and many others. Yet in Emerson there is
much language more fresh than these citations indicate; as well as
an unusual appreciation of the mysticism of the East, — ^not a
mere matter of literary fashion, but rooted in the nature of his
imaginative and reUgious life. His Oriental poems include The
Romany Girl, the Bohemian Hymn, Brahma, (parodied by Andrew
Lang in a poem of the same name), Saadi, several of the Quatrains
and most of the Translations. The recent cult of Eastern religions,
and the vogue of Tagore may be barely mentioned.

The relations of America to the Orient based on the War of
1898, on the large number of Orientals in this countiy, and on our
present commercial and diplomatic problems, have been more or
less distinctly recorded in verse or imaginative prose. Such
dramatic pieces as Madame Butterfly and The Bird of Paradise may
perhaps be insignificant as literature, but they are nevertheless
poetic renderings of the modem relations of the East and the West.
The contrast in ethical and emotional nature between the soul of
Eastern peoples and the soul of Western peoples appears in both
these plays. It is an old theme, prominent in the verse and prose
of England a century ago; but here showing new forms under new
conditions. In Omar the Tentmdker, the playwright gives careful
attention to Eastern coloring in the characterization, in the diction,
and especially in the stage settings. By weaving into the text some
of the lines of Fitzgerald, the author helps to bind together the
American Orientalism of today with the English Orientalism of
the early Victorian period, and so with an interest which may be
traced back to Chaucer himself.

What the effect of the present world crisis may be on this special
phase of English poetry, one does not venture to prophesy. One
sees today new and startling intermingling of Eastern and Western
life — ^and death. In the era soon to be, who can tell what new
themes, what undreamed inspirations of hope or what terrifying
despair may come to English poets out of the East?

CHAPTER II
Oriental Vocabulary

Between 1740 and 1840 extensive additions were made to the
English poetic vocabulary. Some critics have considered the
enriching of language in England and on the continent as one of
the most important results of the Romantic Movement. EngUsh
poets enlarged the scope of their diction by a revival of medieval
and Elizabethan terms, and they also went abroad into fairly fresh
fields. They found new words as well as new ideas and new images
from Celtic, Scandinavian, Occidental, and Oriental sources. The
fresh Celtic vocabulary is f amiUar in Bums, Macpherson, Collins,
and other poets. A striking Scandinavian diction is found in
Motherwell, ^^ as well as in his more famous predecessor. Gray.
Among the poets who introduced geographical or cultural terms,
new to many of their readers, from the New World are Bowles,
Grainger, Mrs. Hemans, Thomas Moore, James Montgomery, and
Southey . Not rarely a poet resorts to two or more of these sources.
Mrs. Hemans writes The Forest Sanctuary^ as well as The Caravan
in the Desert; the Oriental diction of Lalla Rookh accompanies
diction drawn from Moore's travel in Canada and the States;
Southey wrote A Tale of Paraguay as well as The Curse of Kehama.

In poem after poem of the period these exotic words are of such
character as to require, or at least receive, explanation in foot-
notes; sometimes in glossary. The poets did not assume that
their readers would be f amiUar with " bigging ", " kraken ", "pixie ",
"quaigh", "Tomgarsuck", or "sea-grape"; nor with "dallim",
"kellas", and "Swerga". The scenes of Bowles' Missionary are
in South America, and the author explains quite a number of
words used in the text, including, Almagro, Chilian, chrysomel,
cogul, Guecubu, ichella, opossum, Ulmen, and sea-blossom.

During our period some few poems Oriental entirely or in part

11. See his Battle-Flag of Sigurd, Wooing Song of Jarl Egill Skallagrim, and
other poems. Note also the two Daniih Odes "attributed" to John Logan.

fit

^i^ University of Kansas Humanistic Studies

were written in Greek or in Latin. Probably the best examples of
the Oriental poem in Greek are Praed's Pyramides JEgyptia^^ae and
In Obitum .... Thomce Fanshawe Middleton. It is interesting to
note that the latter poem is indebted to The Curse of Kehama^ and
that it presents the theme of the suttee among other Oriental
subjects. Among the distinctly Oriental lines of In Obitum are,

*^<i Xwjrpd FladdXwvoi auXd",

and,

*'^eu NtaXXiva' ^Xoepdv yap aydtt^T

Sir William Jones wrote a number of Oriental poems in Latin.
From his Elegia Arabica one may select these lines as examples of
the Eastern tone or theme in the academic tongue:

*'An roseas nudat Leila pudica genas?"

*'Nardus an Hageri, an spirant violaria Meccae,
Candida odoriferis an venit Azza comis?"

There are Oriental passages of somewhat didactic quality in John-
son's Septem States and in Browne's De Animi ImmxyrtalUate. In
the first poem is this line:

"Imperium qua Turca ferox exercet iniquum;*'

and in the second poem this:

"Aspice quas Ganges interluit Indicus oras."

The English form of certain geographical words is identical with
the Latin form, as, for example, in the case of Africa, Byzantium,
Euphrates, Libya, and Tigris. Occasionally the Latin form is used
in place of the English, for poetical or metrical purposes. " Nilus "
is a common substitute for "Nile".

The extent of the English Oriental vocabulary proper will of
course depend on the definition of ** Oriental". Words derived
directly or indirectly from Oriental tongues would probably num-
ber several hundred. Other words, of whatever linguistic origin,
are naturally and habitually associated with the East. Then
follows a third class of words, large and indeterminate, borrowed
from the general vocabulary to express such Oriental motifs as
luxury, remoteness, etc. A complete study of Oriental style would

Osborne: Oriental Diction and Theme 2S

consider words of this third class as worthy of close attention,
though it is somewhat diflScult to reduce them to law and order.

There are practically no words in the verse of our period appear-
ing in the characters of Oriental alphabets.^^ The nearest approach
to true Eastern word-form is found in transliteration. In the verse
of Jones there are several hundred transliterations, largely proper
names, of which only a few have even yet found assured place in
the standard English dictionaries.^' After Jones had established
the method in English verse (for in some sense he may be said to
have introduced it), it was followed by later Oriental poets, such
as John Scott, Byron, Southey, and Mangan. In the following
twenty lines from Jones' Enchanted Fruit, there are thirteen
examples of transliteration; ''nargal" ("narghile") being the only
word among them found in the New International Dictionary of
1910.

''Here marked we purest basons fraught
With sacred cream and famed joghrat;
Nor saw we not rich bowls contain
The chawla's light nutritious grain.
Some virgin-like in native pride.
And some with strong haldea dyed;
Some tasteful to dull palates made
If merich lend his fervent aid,
Or langa shaped like od*rous nails,
Whose scent o'er groves of spice prevails.
Or adda breathing gentle heat.
Or joutery both warm and sweet.
Supiary next (in pana chewed,
And catha with strong powers endued.
Mixed with elachy's glowing seeds.
Which some remoter climate breeds,)
Near jeifel sate, like jeifel framed,
Thou^ not for equal fragrance named:
Last, nargal whom all ranks esteem,
Poured in full cups his dulcet stream. "

A partial list of English words of Oriental derivation is given in
the Appendix.^^ It is clear that many of these do not belong to
the poetic vocabulary. Others are of rare occurence in the verse
of our period. Of those that remain, some are very Oriental in

12. Byrom introduces words in Hebrew characters (in BpUtle III to the Bet.
Mr. L — .), a practice, it will be remembered, of whlcli Browning was rather fond.

13. See the Appendix, II. A.

14. See II. B.

^4 University of Kansas Humanistic Studies

suggestive value» while some are of rather indifferent quality in
this respect. The following table arranges according to source a
few of the words of genuine Oriental import which are in more or
less common use in the verse of our period. (In a few examples
the derivation is problematic.)

Arabic : alcove — amber — ^atabal — caliph — ^f akir — gazelle —

giraffe — ^harem — houri — ^Koran — ^Mohammedan — ^minaret-
monsoon — ^Moslem — ^mosque — muezzin — ^mufti — nabob —
saffron — ^Saracen — sheik — simoom — sirocco — sultan —
temarind— vizier.

Avestan: paradise.

Egyptian: gum.

Malay : bamboo — ^lory — ^proa.

"Oriental": peacock.

Persian : attar — ^azure — ^bazaar — caravan — caravansary —

dervish — divan — ^firman — ^jackal — ^jasmine — ^khan — lemon —
lilac — ^Magi — Mogul—musk — orange — ^pagoda — ^peri —
saraband — scarlet — scimitar — shah — tiger.

Russian: Cossack.

Sanskrit : avatar — ^banyan — ^beryl — Brahman — camphor —
champac — crimson — ^jungle — ^rajah — ^rice — sandal-wood —
Veda.

Tatar: horde.

Turkish : coffee — dey — ^giaour — Janizary — ^kiosk — ^pasha —
tulip — ^turban.

The list in the Appendix shows a remarkable preponderance of
nouns over the other parts of speech. This fact is of interest from
the poetic as well as the linguistic point of view. Only two verbs
are given — "chouse" and "garble" — , neither of any poetic value.
The words which may be considered pure adjectives are only five:
azure, crimson, saccharine, Sanskrit, and scarlet. Words which
by the average reader are probably conceived as having some
adjective quality are more numerous: — bamboo. Bedouin, bril-
liant, calico, gamboge, Moslem, Mohammedan, mammoth, orange,
Ottoman, rattan, saffron, shagreen, silk, and Tartar. There
remain some two hundred and thirty nouns. It is clear that Eng-

Osborne: Oriental Didicn and Theme 26

lish Oriental verse must depend on words from non-Oriental
sources for its rapid narration, its analysis of psychic process — or
else omit such matters altogether.

A brief note on words of Hebrew derivation may not be amiss.
Skeat gives a list of about eighty-five such words, a list which is
somewhat altered by the New International. Some of these words
belong, in the verse of our period, quite as much to the Oriental
vocabulary as to the Biblical in a narrow sense. Among them may
be named, balm, balsam, camel, cassia, cinnamon, ebony, elephant,
hyssop, sapphire, and teraphim.^^ There are many other words in
the King James version of the Bible, of various derivation, which
belong to the Oriental vocabulary.^*

Our Oriental poets paid considerable attention to propriety in
their diction. Byron distinguishes the Italian form of "'giaour"
from the more Eastern form. Montgomery accompanies the
phrase ""medzin's cry" with a footnote explaining that the proper
form of the word is '^muedhin". Yet the ideal of embodying
Oriental theme in purely Oriental language was at times curiously
neglected, and at all times except for brief passages practically
impossible. One does not find "cromlech" or "Woden" intro-
duced into an Oriental context; but there are a number of refer-
ences to a "glen" in Lalla Rookhy and to Bowles the Tartar society
is composed of "clans". "Glittering" and other words from the
same Scandinavian root are of frequent service in Jones and his
followers. The term "pastoral" seems at first reading
strangely applied to Madagascar (Mickle's Lueiad)^ or to Gara-
mant (Shelley). To American readers a "canoe" may probably
seem a strange boat for the east coast of Africa; but the etymolog-
ical authorities tell us the word is probably of African origin.
"Cacique", however, occasionally found in Oriental context, is
an importation from the West.

An interesting example of varied appeal in different words for
the same object is found in the pseudo-classical "Philomela", the
English "nightingale", and the Oriental "bulbul". In the early
part of our period, especially, the evidences of pseudo-classical
diction are all too numerous, and conventional diction of regulation
Eighteenth Century type blurs the Oriental quality of many a

16. Soathey uses the singular * *teraph*\ in The Cur$e of Kehama, In strictly
Orients! context.

16. See the Appendix, II. C.

£6 University of Kansas Humanistic Studies

passage. In the Oriental life of Jones' verse love is a *' smart"; in
this or that passage of other poets we find the '* Armenian knight",
the "Syrian dames", and "Asia's fair".

Among the most common Oriental words in the English verse of
our period are proper names, geographical and personal. This is
true in a degree of Persian, Arabian, Turkish, and East Indian
passages, but is especially marked for such outlying regions as
central Africa, Siberia, and Lapland, whence, at the time in ques-
tion, comparatively few native words other than proper names had
entered the English language. The exotic quality in the diction
of Coleridge's Lapland passage in the Destiny of Nations depends
mainly on some half dozen strange place-names. Coleridge in this
respect ha^s made no progress beyond Thomson, who in the north-
eastern passage in Winter, while relying mainly on geographical
names, introduced "caravan", "sable", and "reindeer".

Consultation of maps or books of travel is an easy process, and
not a few poets introduce geographical words rare if found at all
in the verse of other poets. Among such words are Bojador, Bom-
bay, Cormandel, Madras, Molucca, Oka, Pekin and Sumatra, in
Dyer; Bassora,^^ in Collins; Benares and £j (a river), in Jones;
Dahomay, in Walter Scott; Beder and Hoangho, in Southey;
Istakar, Liakura, and Ukraine, in Byron; Carmanian and Choras-
mian, in Shelley. There are rare words in each of the two passages
compared just above; in Thomson, Niemi, Tenglio, and Tomea;
in Coleridge, Balda Zhiok, Lieule-Oaive, Niemi, and Solfar-
kapper.

Among the most common words of this class are Arabia, Atlas,
Africa, Assyria, Babylon, Egypt, Ethiopia, Euphrates, Ganges,
Libya, Persia, Russia, Scythia, Tartary, and Tigris. The words in
the following tabulation are of more or less frequent occurence;
and are examples from a much longer list that could be given:*'

Abyssinia Bengal Cairo

Algiers Bengala Calcutta

Bactria Bokhara Cashmere

Bagdad Bosphorus Cathay

Balbec Byzantium Caucasus

Barbary Caffraria Ceylon

17. Found in Emerson's Hermione-, doubtless in other English poets.

18. The spelling is often very various, and antiquated, as in the case of
"Sahara", and "Tahiti."

Osborne: Oriental Diction and Theme

e?

Chilminar

Lahore

Samarcand

China

Lapland

Senegal

Damascus

Moscow

Shiraz

Danube

Nineveh

Siam

Fez

Nubia

Susa

Golconda

Numidia

Tahiti

Japan

Onnus

Tibet

Java

Sahara

Volga

Kamchatka

The proper names for persons include those of Oriental gods, of
historical or legendary characters, and of the dramaiie personae of
tale, drama, or lyric. If the Gothic revival emphasized such names
as Woden, Balder and Valkyrie, Oriental taste responded with i^s
Allah, Buddha, Brahma, Isis, Osiris, NealUny, and Vishnu. One
could readily make a longer reckoning than this from the verse of
Jones alone. Among the historical or legendary names are Con-
fucius, Ghengis IGian, Hafiz, Mahomet, Osman, Sadi, Sardanap-
alus, Semiramis, and Zenobia. The names of contemporary
celebrities in the East are comparatively rare. Oriental fiction has
its Leila, Abdallah and Hassan, who take their places beside the
Daphnis and Chloe of pastoral poetry, and the Laura, Lesbia and
Delia of love lyrics. It is not often that such a splendid name is
discovered as that which Shelley gives us in ''Ozymandias".

The word "Orient'* itself is not uncommon, but is in less fre-
quent use than ''The East", which occurs in a multitude of
phrases — "the golden East", "the burning East", "the soft
luxurious East", "Venice and the East", "the East for riches
famed", etc. The adjective "Oriental" seems less frequent in
verse than in prose; and, again, "Eastern" is often a substitute.
It may be noted in passing that "Occident" and " Occidental " are
of rather infrequent occurence. If one accepts a liberal interpre-
tation of "Oriental", one must reckon with "South" as often
significant of much the same poetic qualities as were associated
with the Orient proper. In fact the contrast between England
and Persia or Arabia sometimes takes the form of a 'North and
South* phrase. There are, of course, more general expressions,
such as 'Moslem lands', 'paynim countries', etc.

Special poetic forms for familiar words are frequent. The rather
bewildering variety in spelling is of slight literary interest, except

£8 University of Kansas Humanistic Studies

in cases where the phonetic or rhythmical value of the word is
essentially altered. So far as literary meaning goes» Bramin»
Brachman, Brahmin, and Brahman may probably be considered
identical. The exigencies of rhyme, meter or rhythm, or the
effort to fashion poetic diction, however, produce some interesting
variants. Thus one finds Airic, Bengala, Bombaya, Buddh,
Byzance, Bazantion, Calicut, Ganga, and, very frequently, Ind.

Words created by English poets after Oriental models are not of
great significance. '^Ozymandias" — ^if the word is a product of
Shelley's imagination — may be taken as perhaps the best of its
class. Many another proper name is coined, due attention being
given to certain characteristic consonants. Search in the verse of
Blake would probably discover some Orientalized words used for
the purposes of the mystic. For humorous effects, one may note
the **Crocodilople" of Southey, and the long list of ** outlandish"
Russian names in his March to Moscow, Moore passes beyond
Southey, however, in daring if not in humor, in his burlesque
Russian word of twenty-eight letters — "Wintztschitstopschin-
zoudhoff"!!*

The compounds found in Oriental verse are of no little interest.
Some are transliterations; some are fashioned from words of Ori-
ental derivation; some, of whatever etymology, express a char-
acteristically Oriental conception, image, or poetic tone. While
the formation of compounds is no special privilege of the Romantic
poets, the best examples are probably found in the later poets of
our period, especially in Byron, Moore, and Shelley. Others, how-
ever, sometimes of high poetical quality, are scattered through a
thousand pages of a hundred other poets. Only a few examples, of
special Oriental value, can be given here:

Allah-illa-AUah Desert-wearied (Keble)

Atar-gul Fire-god

Aullay-horse (Southey) Fur-clad Russ (Cowper)

Camel-driver Gem-emblazoned (Peacock)

Citron-dram Hunter-founder (i. e., Nimrod)

Cobra-di-capel (Shelley) Million-peopled (Shelley)

Date-season Minaret-crier

Desert-circle Mosque-like

19. In The Twopenny Poet Bag: Letter V.

Osborne: Oriental Diction and Theme 29

Mosque-work Seraglio-guard

Mother-land of all the arts Seven-headed idol

(of Egypt, Southey) Spice-time

Mummy-king Sun-idolater

Musk-wind (Moore, Mangan) Swer-god (Southey)

Nile-bird Turban-forms

Prophet-chief (i. e., Mahomet) Vapor-belted (of the Pyra-
Razeka-idol (Southey) mids, Shelley)

River-dragon (i. e., crocodile) Widow-burning

Sand-waves Wul-wulleh

Scymetar-petals (of the lily, Zemzem-well

Mangan)

A distinct though slight service of Oriental diction to English
verse is found in the matter of rhyme. No examples are found in
the Persian Edogiies, but a half century later this detail of tech-
nique is quite conspicuous; in The Bride of Abydos^ and Ldla
Rookh^ among other poems. In The Bride of Abydos ''divan",
''Carasman", and "Galiongee" are used twice in rhyming posi-
tion; and fifteen other words, including Oglou, Ottoman, sherbet,
scimetar, etc., are so used. In LaUa Rookh we find about thirty-
six Oriental words at the end of the verses; Cashmere, Bendemeer,
Chilminar, Nile, and Samarcand, each twice, Araby three times,
Nourmahal seven times. Among the other rhyming words of this
poem are Amberabad, Candahar, cinnamon, Caliphat, Isfahan,
Jamshid, Kathay, kiosk, Malay, myrrh, Saracen, Sultana, Shad-
kiam. Zenana, and ziraleets. Mrs. Hemans rhymes "scimetar"
with "bear", and with "war". Praed uses "Bengal" some four or
five times as a rhyming word.

Many words of this Oriental vocabulary, the vocabulary of the
"soft, luxuriant East", have a phonetic beauty and delicacy.
Perhaps none can equal those words of gliding vowels which
Stevenson discovered and praised in the islands of the South, but
those word melodies do not belong to the main body of English
verse. A true poet could scarcely use any of the following words
without some sense of charm in the mere sound : Araby, Arabia,
Arabian, azure, cinnabar, Chilminar, cassia, gazelle, Leila, Mala-
bar, spicy, Siberia. These are chosen from a very considerable
vocabulary offering similar values.

On the other hand, for moods more strenuous, there are Oriental

so University of Kansas Humanistic Studies

words of suflScient consonantal friction — ^words like a hiss or a
blow, suggesting spirited action, though they are nouns. With
such a value, at least to the imaginative reader, appear Caucasus,
Cossack, Ganges, giaour, Janizary, Juggernaut, muezzin, sheik,
vizier, and many others. Something of the effect of ferocious
attack in Motherwell's Ouglou*s Onslaught, A Turkish Battle Song
is surely gained by an apt use of Oriental diction — ^in these lines,
for example:

"Tchassan Ouglou is on!
Tchassan Ouglou is on!

For the flesh of the Giaour
Shriek the vultures of heaven.

Bismillah! Bisnullah!

Through the dark strife of Death
Bursts the gallant Pacha."

While there was a lively interest in Oriental words on the part of
many of the poets of our period, it is doubtful if many of them paid
as close attention to root meanings as the English poet is expected
to pay in the case of classical or native vocabulary. Often the
ultimate meaning of the words used was probably unknown.
Jones gives his readers some careful notes on the etymological
significance of the names of certain Indian deities. Probably some
poets imaged black eyes when they wrote "houri", and felt the
effect of the root meaning "poison" when they referred to the
simoom.^** But it is only a great poet or a great scholar who can
be trusted to consider words habitually as the records of remote
experience or fancy in the lives of men; and many of the authors
of our study were essentially verse writers rather than artists.

20. The word "Jungle" Is an interesting example of wandering from the ancient
root meaning, which Skeat gives thus: "Skt. jangala, adj. dry, desert".

CHAPTER III

Oriental Phrase and Figure

For present purposes by "'phrase" is meant any simple combi-
nation of words, coherent when isolated, a line or less in length.
Even the adjective-noun form indicates much concerning the
general character of Oriental diction. This paper should prove,
if proof were needed, that the English Oriental poets are not mere
phrasemongers; yet a good deal of the novelty and of the special
value of the Oriental taste is shown by examination of the simpler
elements of its language.

There are many titles clearly Oriental in diction; others give no
clue to the Eastern quality of the poems. On a Beautiful East-
Indian^ The Moorish MaiderCa VigUj The King of the Crocodiles^
The Enchanted Fruit; or^ The Hindoo Wife^ The Caravan in the
Desert^ and many others*^ are in themselves interesting phrases.
Persian Eclogues is as suggestive as Danish Odes, The Trav-
eller at the Source of the NUe is almost a poem in itself, as is The
Wail of the Three Khalendeers.

The refrain is often found, sometimes with genuine Oriental
value, sometimes without. It is used by Collins in his third
Eclogue^ in LaUa Rookh/ and, late in our period, by Mangan.
'*Karaman" is found as a complete line twenty-three times in
Mangan's Karamanian Exile, Tendency of the Romantic
Movement to favor the refrain is apparent in the verse we are
studying, though it may perhaps yield no such striking examples
as the refrains of The Lady of Shalott, Sister Helen — or of Pre-
Raphaelite poetry in general. Few if any such lines as Tennyson
repeats in the body of the verse in the Idylls of the King —

Trom the great deep to the great deep he goes ",
Clothed in white samite, mystic, wonderful," —

<«-

it,

21. See Appendix, I. A.

SI

3£ University of Kansas Humanistic Studies

appear in the Oriental poetry. The most dynamic Oriental
refrains are transliterations, such as Motherwell's "Allah, il
allah," and ''Bismillah! Bismillah!"

The purely Oriental phrases, composed of words derived from
Eastern languages or of strictly Eastern connotation, are not
numerous, and, from the nature of the English language, they are
brief. A few examples are PoUok's "Tartar horde", Southey's
"Moorish horde", Thomson's "horde on horde". Smart's "tur-
baned Turk", Harte's "Moorish sarabands", and Chatterton's
"scarlet jasmines". Other examples could be found in personal
names and in passages of geographical description.

Geographical phrases are among the most conspicuous. Many
of them are what may be called "spatial phrases", in which the
sense of distance is expressed. Such phrases, when of two terms,
may have both in the Orient, or one in the Orient and the other
elsewhere. A model for the first class is found in the first verse of
the Book of Esther — "From India even unto Ethiopia". A simple
example of the second class is found in the familiar "From China
to Peru". As most of these geographical phrases are of the same
general character, not many citations need be given. In a few of
the following the idea of contrast is expressed. The first example
is of a familiar type, in which a mere list of geographical units is
given.

Blake: China and India and Siberia.

Burns: From Indus to Savannah.

Cunningham: From Zembla to the torrid s&one.

Harte: 'Midst Abyssinian flames or Zembla's frost.

Jeny ns : From frozen Lapland to Peru .

Keats : Or in Orient or in west.

Langhome: From Bactria's vales to Britain's shore.

From Ganges to the golden Thame.

Ly ttelton : From Atlas to the Pole.

Mickle's Lusiad.: From Calpe's summit to the Caspian shore.

Peacock : From northern seas to India's coast.

Pollok: From Persia to the Red Sea Coast.

Pollok and Wordsworth: From Agra to Lahore.

Praed: Arabia's sands or Zembla's snows.

Mrs. Radcliffe : From Lapland's plains to India's steeps.

Shelley: From the Andes to Atlas.

Wilkie: From Zembla to the burning zone.

Osborne: Oriental Dictum and Theme S3

An example of this type with some special interest is found in
the common 'either Ind\ or 'both the Indies'. At times this
phrase refers undoubtedly to the West Indies and the East Indies,
but the reference is sometimes obscure. In the following citation
its strictly Eastern range is clear:

"Either India next is seen
With the Ganges stretched between."^

But Southey writes,

''In Eastern and in Occidental Ind."

In compiling a considerable number of simple phrases in which
"east" ("East") or "eastern" ("Eastern") is the basal word, one
perhaps trespasses somewhat on the study of Oriental themes, but
it seems convenient to consider the matter here. While during
our period the word " Gothic" is in frequent service, one questions
whether it would be as easy to gather as many examples of phrases
with that word as it was to collect the following. Certainly one
could read far and wide before as numerous examples as those
below could be found for phrases with "West", "W^estem", or
"Occidental".

Among the nouns to which "eastern" (or "Eastern") is prefixed
in our verse are: Arab — bards — beauty — bower — calm —
caste — clan — diamond — evening — fire — gems — gold —
grandeur — heart — hunt — isles — jewels — kings — lands —
legend — Magi — magician — minds — monarchs — moonstone —
nabobs — Nile — opal — opulence — oppression — pageantry —
parliament — patriarchs — pearls — pomp — queens — rajah ■—
ruby — ruins — satrap — star — story — tales — talisman —
warfare. Among the phrases with "east" or "East", in addition
in addition to those previously given, are: the liberal East, the
wondrous East, the slumberous East, the East wrought by magic,
the Imperial City of the East, etc.

There are almost innumerable examples of phrases formed by
lists of items in the same category — ^the names of persons, deities,
flowers, animals, etc. These may be given simply to r^resent
the type:

Byrom : Sophy, Sultan, and Czar.

92. JaoMi Montgomery: A Vo^mge Houfi4 tfu Wwl4.

34 University of Kansas Humanistic Studies

Cawthom: Of Isis, Ibis, Lotus, Nile.

Harte: Moloch and Mammon, Chiun, Dagon, Baal.

Hoole's Orlando Furioso: Moors, Turks, and Tartars.

Mangan: Guebre, Heathen, Jew and Gentoo.

Montgomery : Jews, and Turks and Pagans.

Smollett: Jews, Turks, and Pagans.
Such series in Oriental verse rarely have the beauty of the list of
feminine names in The Blessed Damozel; nor have they received,
in all probability, such severe criticism as Nordau, in Degeneration,
gave to Rossetti's passage.

Certain items given above have suggested the imitative and
conventional element in the phrasing of the Oriental poets. Such
results are due in part to inheritance of pseudo-classical tenden-
cies; in part, to the nature of Oriental themes, and particularly to
their novelty in English verse. A study of conventionalized
phrase is of value for its indication of the social mind of the era.
Occasionally an individual poet will write the same phrase several
times. Milton's "'Araby the blest" occurs three times in the ob-
scure verse of Thompson. Boyse responds with a thrice-used
'' Zembla's icy coast ". There are a number of natural associations
of ideas or images which lead to association of words in the phrase.
Thus we often find named together the Cross and the Crescent,
the Turk and his turban, the rose and the nightingale, the Chaldean
and the stars, Mahomet and Allah, Zembla and frost, snow, or ice.
''Harut" and ''Marut" are as naturally members of a single
phrase as Damon and Pythias, or Roland and Oliver. Perhaps no
better example could be given of a strictly stereotyped phrase than
"Tyrian dye", though even this is varied to "Tyrian purple".
One or the other of these last expressions is found in poet after
poet, minor and major.

The epithetical phrase proper is also very frequent, and is the
result of the same influences that shaped the conventional phrase.
The pseudo-classical facility in phrases of this type is impressed
on every reader of Waller. To that poet it is natural to say that
a trumpet is "loud", that a noise is "powerful". Is it WaUer or
one of his followers who is responsible for "watery sea"? Some
of these epithetical phrases are taken from Greek and Latin poetry
and have therefore a certain historical dignity. Others are due to
lack of imagination or imaginative effort on the part of the poet;
others as clearly give emphasis to certain characteristics in On-

<«
««

Osborne: Oriental Diction and Theme 35

ental matters which attract the fancy. The Ganges is often
sacred", the Nile often "seven-mouthed", sometimes "oozy",
slimy ", frequently "fertile" or "overflowing". To many writers
the pyramids are simply "tall" or "old" or even "Egyptian".
Shelley's fine "vapor-belted" stands out in clear rdief. To
one poet the Danube is "huge", to Campbell, "dark-rolling".
The crocodile is "armed", or "scaly"; the desert variously "burn-
ing", "dry", "scorching", "vast", or even "sandy" and "un-
fruitful ". The effect of a rather slight variation — ^looking almost
like a printer's error — ^is seen in the comparison of "wandering
Arab's tent", and "Arab's wandering tent".

WhUe the elephant is found in Chaucer, probably the first
serious efforts of English poets to give it adequate description
date from our period. In Langhome this quadruped is "pon-
derous", in Thomson, "huge", in Jago, "unwieldy", in Shen-
stone, "tusky ". Hoole, in his translation of Jerusalem Delivered^
fashions a phrase with two of these adjectives and the idea of a
third — "The huge elephant's unwieldy weight". Epithetical, no
doubt, but more poetic are the compounds "castle-crowned", and
** tower-crowned ". Shelley makes a good phrase out of very simple
elements in the "wise and fearless elephant".''

A good example of a phrase at once conventional, epithetical,
and of Oriental etymology, is "Tartar horde".

Yirhat may be called the "formal poetic phrase" has some kin-
ship with the epithetical phrase, but in characteristic form appears
in somewhat longer expressions. Such phrases may be lyrical in
quality, but are perhaps more likely to be epic or merely descrip-
tive. They are often cheapened by reliance upon such details as
capitalisation and alliteration, and particularly by overuse; but
at their best add something to the Oriental values of the verse.
This is particularly true when they are virtualy translations of
Oriental conceptions; as in Moore's "Apricots, Seed of the Sun",
or Thomson's "stony girdle of the world", which he explains as an
English rendering of the Russian "WeUki Camenypoys" — ^a
name for the Riphean Mountains. "God and The Prophet",
"Mahomet b His Prophet" are other examples of phrasing shaped
in the East. Or the English expression may be credited to some

23. Shelley
flrost" heeno
mow-detf rodn'

r if not always abore foUowing leu poeMe Dredeoenora. His "Bejtldaii
oristnalltT: we flnd ''Scythian tnows" in Ferguason. and "Scythia's

36 University of Kamae Humanistic Studies

foreign western poet: "Imperial Calicut" occurs several times in
Mickle's Lusiad. Whatever its origin^ ''Mountains of the Moon "
is found several times in the verse of James Montgomery, and is
once used by Thomson. Sometimes the poet plays variations on
his linguistic theme, as later Tennyson varied ''Holy Grail" with
"Holy Thing", "Holy Vessel", "Holy Cup", etc. Southey pre-
sents the l^morg as the "Ancient Simorg", the "Ancient Bird",
and the "Bird of Ages".

This formal type of phrase is much more frequent in some poets
than in others. It is characteristic of the Oriental verse of Southey,
Moore, and, probably to a less extent, of Byron and MangaQ*
While based in part on pseudo-classical methods, it belongs in
large part to what might be called pseudo-romanticism. Yet in
its formal, decorative, frequently figurative qualities, it may often
be a true sign of Oriental style. Its general type is familiar to any
reader of the Apocalypse; and it is probably found in all literatures
of peoples who love ceremony. The values of the following ex-
amples will be readily perceived:

Akenside: The Python of the Nile.

Blair: The mighty troublers of the earth.

Bowles: The City of the Sun.

The Chambers of the dead.
The God of silence.

Byron : Blest — as the Muezzin's strain from Mecca's wall.
With Maugrabee and Mamaluke.

Macaulay : The Palace of the golden stairs.

The city of the thousand towers.

Mangan : The Flower of Flowers.

The Old House with the Ebon Gates (t. e., the earth).
Scales and Bridge.
The Shadow of God.
The Time of the Roses.

Moore: The Feast of Roses.
For God and Iran.
The Isles of Perfume.
The land of Myrrh.
The Light of the Harem.

Osborne: Oriental Diction and Theme S7

People of the Rock.

Prophet of the Veil.

Province of the Sun.

The Spirit of Fragrance.

Yizd's eternal Mansion of the Fire.

The Moon of Love.

The Queen of Slaves.

Southey : Bowers of Paradise.

Guardian of the Garden.
Icy Wind of Death.
Master of the Powerful Ring.
Prince of the Morning.
Servant of the Prophet.
Sorceress of the Silver Ixx;ks.
Spirit of the Sepulchre.

After reading a thousand such expressions as '*Afric's burning
sands'*, "the wealth of all the Indies", and ''spicy Arabian gales";
after familiarity with such prosaic expressions as ''late-discovered
Tibet" and "the long canals of China"; after noting the fre-
quency of such phrases as those just given; after realizing the
cheaper phases of the Oriental diction — one is glad to discover
fresh and vigorous language in this field, whether it takes the form
of humor, or of genuine individual imagination. There are, to
use a figure surely appropriate in this connection, not a few oases
in the "sandy waste". In a mood of distaste for the trite ex-
pressioas, even "flat-nosed China" seems a welcome phrase; and
one is glad to read of the

'land of muslin and nankeening,

the land of slaves and paUnkeening;*

glad to try to realize the simple but surely Oriental conception in
"some tiger-tamer to a nabob", to listen to Mason's "pigmy
chanticleer of Bantam", or pass into the reception room to greet
that "Chinese nymph of tears, green tea". Such a phrase as
"snorting camels" helps one to believe the camel was sometimes
a real animal to the imagination of the English poet.

In biverbal phrase or longer, as a matter mainly of diction or
mainly of imagery, many expressions are found, of more elevated
type than those just given, which add something to the beauty or

S8 University of Kansas Humanistic Studies

dignity of English verse. The Lapland witch is a conventional
idea, but Wordsworth gives us ''Lapland roses", and Shelley the
simile, ''Lovely as a Lapland night". It is Shelley, also, who
writes "the swart tribes of Garamant and Fez", "the sins of
Islam", "the million-peopled city vast", "the rose-ensanguined
ivory". Among the more decorative phrases of Byron are "a
Koran of illumined dyes", "fragrant beads of amber", "lamp of
fretted gold", and "Sheeraz' tribute of perfume". I^ndor, for
all his classicism, occasionally falls into the luxuriant style of
Oriental verse, as in

"Arabian gold enchanted the crystal roof",
and,

"Myrrh, nard and cassia from three golden urns".

The tendency is of course toward such decorative expressions.
Wordsworthian taste found little to satisfy it in genuine Oriental
style. Yet there are themes within the wide range of Oriental
taste that could be expressed with a noble simplicity, and at some-
what rare intervals were so expressed. Wordsworth himself
writes the line,

"Mindful of Him who in the Orient bom",

and Hawker has a similar line —

"Therefore the Orient is the home of God".

Crabbe image? Egypt as a "far land of crocodiles and apes", and
Montgomery notes, simply enough for the nonce, how "terribly
beautiful the serpent lay ". Cowper has this line in Expostulation :

"The fervor and the force of Indian skies. "

Beddoes in general is over-ornate and often vague; but he is
capable of such lines as these, even in Oriental passages:

"The skull of some old king of Nile. "

"Under the shadow of a pyramid. "

One might suppose the thought of the desert would lead to some
dear, restrained expressions. Perhaps these selections from Rogers,
Beddoes, Bowles and Keble, in the order named, may be credited
as such:

Osborne: Oriental Dictwn and Theme S9

"Every wild cry of the desert."
"A spectre of the desert deep."
"The earners shadow on the sand."
"The dry unfathomed deep of sands."

Peacock is hardly less severe in the line,

"O'er deserts where the Siroc raves."

Yet one must return again and again to the more characteristic
style, as "flowery" as the plain of Zabran and the vale of Aly in
Collins' fourth Edogue. Much was written in the prose of our
period concerning the figurative nature of Eastern style; and this
nature of course appears in the English Oriental and Orientalired
verse. In the preface to the 1 772 edition of his poems, Sir William
Jones asks the reader to "compare the manner of the Asiatic poets
with that of the Italians, many of whom have written in the true
spirit of the Easterns. " In his text he includes a number of son-
nets and portions of sonnets from Petrarch, in the original and
translated into English, that the reader may make the comparison
suggested in the preface. In his essay On the Poetry of the Eaetem
Nations he gives in transliteration an ode of Hafiz, and translates
it into English thus — according to his statement, "word for word " :
"O sweet gale, thou bearest the fragrant scent of my beloved;
thence it is that thou hast this musky odour. Beware! do not
steal: what hast thou to do with her tresses? O rose, what art
thou, to be compared with her bright face? She is fresh, and thou
art rough with thorns. O narcissus, what art thou in comparison
of her languishing eye? Her eye is only sleepy, but thou art sick
and faint. O pine, compared with her graceful stature, what
honour hast thou in the garden? O wisdom, what wouldst thou
choose, if to choose were in thy power, in preference to her love?
O sweet basil, what art thou, to be compared with her fresh cheeks?
They are perfect musk, but thou art soon withered. O Hafez, thou
wilt one day attain the object of thy desire, if thou canst but
support thy pain with patience. " This surely is to some degree
comparable with the "conceits" of the Elizabethan Muse, in-
toxicated by the wine of Petrarchism. It also suggests some
Oriental passages in Byron, and much in the style of LaUa Rookh.

The .Arabians also make many figurative comparisons in their
poetry. They compare the foreheads of their mistresses to the

40 Univ&rsiiy of Kansas HumanisHe Si^iits

morning, their locks to the night; their faces to the Sun, the Moon,
or to blossoms of jasmine; their straight form to a pine-tree or a
javelin, etc.

It is natural to expect some attention to this characteristic of
Eastern poetry in the Oriental poems of Byron and Moore, and
the reader is not disappointed. Both in the text and in the usual
footnotes of the period, specific examples are given of the results
of Arabian or Persian imagination in the form of simile or metaphor.
This passage in The Giaour, is, according to Byron, an "Oriental
simile":

"On her fair cheek's unfading hue
The young pomegranate's blossoms strew
Their blobm in blushes ever new. "

From Moore's annotation of Lalla Rookh we learn that "the two
black standards borne before the Caliphs of the House of Abbas
were called, allegorically, the Night and the Shadow". Furthert
that the mandrake is the Devil's candle; that falling stars are the
firebrands good angeb use to drive away the bad; that fingers
tinted with henna are like the tips of coral branches; that the
Malays call the tube-rose the "Mistress of the Night", and that
in their language one word serves for "women" and "flowers'*.

Other English poets are perhaps not quite so much inclined to
follow Eastern style in its figurative aspects. In certain passages,
either in verse or prose, one occasionally notices a tendency to
apologisse for an over-decorative quality, according to the ancient
formula of Chaucer in another mattei* — ^it was so put down in ' my
author'. Jeffrey opens his rather elaborate and on the whole
enthusiastic review of Lalla Rookh^* with some approval and some
disapproval of the general glamour of its style. "The beauteous
forms, the dazzling splendours, the breathing odours of the East,
seem at last to have found a kindred ]>oet in that green isle of the
West; whose Genius has long been suspected to be derived from a
warmer clime, and now wantons and luxuriates in those volup-
tuous regions, as if it felt that it had at length regained its native

elem^it There is not, in the volume now before us, a

simile or description, a name, a trait of history, or allusion of
romance which belongs to European experience; or does not
indicate an entire familiarity with the life, the dead nature, and

24. Ill the Edinburgh Review, November. 1S17.

Osborne: Oriental Diction and Thefne 41

the learning of the East. Nor are these barbaric ornaments thinly
scattered to make up a show. They are showered lavishly over aJl
the work; and form, pertiaps too much, the staple of the poetry —
and the riches of that which is chiefly distinguished for its richness."
But the critic adds: ''we rather think we speak the sense of most
readers . . . that the effect of the whole is to mingle a certain

feeling of disappointment with that of admiration! to

dazzle, more than to enchant — and, in the end, more frequently
to startle the fancy, and fatigue the attention, by the constant
succession of glittering images and high-strained emotions, than
to maintain a rising interest, or win a growing sympathy, by a less
profuse or more systematic display of attractions. "

Such unfavorable opinion of the highly colored style of Oriental
poetry, or of poetry Orientalized in England, did not begin with
Jeffrey. At the opening of our period Collins wrote, apparently
with the idea of defense in mind," of the "rich and figurative"
style of the Arabian and Persian poetry in contrast with the
"strong and nervous" style of his countrymen. Shortly before
Jeffrey's review appeared, John Foster had occasion to review a
translation of the RamayunaJ^ He opened his remarks thus:
"Scarcely so much as a third part of a century has passed away,
since a large proportion of the wise men of here in Europe were
found looking, with a devout and almost trembling reverence,
toward the awful mysteries of Sanscrit literature." The dis-
appointment of the sturdy soul of Foster when the "mysteries"
arrived in the form of the translated masterpiece is evident
throughout his review. He writes of the Ramayuna^ it is "a
formless jumble .... [it] will encounter utter contempt in
Europe .... The lingo in whicJb these feats are narrated, defies

all imitation An insurmountable obstacle to the popularity

of this sort of reading in Europe . . . would be the vast number of
names by which each of the gods or heroes is designated", etc.

It is well, perhaps, that in most of our Orientalized verse the
rich coloring is not emphasized, that the sparkling similes and
metaphors are often a mere passing adornment of some more or
less simple En^ish conception, in some cases quite practical, even

25. See the original preface of his Eclogues. Professor Phelps' statement In The
English Romantic Moeement (p. 05) that OolUns "apologized" for the florid
manner of Abdallah of Tauris seems a little too strong.

26. See his paper on Sanscrit Literature; listed In Appendix, I. C. 2.

^ University of Kansas Humanistic Studies

didactic. The foUowing examples may indicate the quality and
range of such figures. Few poets of our period attained the sim-
plicity of style found in Sohrab and Rustum^ but in style Arnold's
poem is hardly Oriental.

Blake : ** Black as marble of Egypt. '*

Campbell: "As easily as the Arab reins his steed. "

*

"That Upas-tree of power."
"Sultan of the sky." (For the eagle.)

Chatterton : " Swift as the elk. "

Hartley Coleridge: "Keener than the Tartar's arrow."

Keble : " The tresses of the palm . "

Lloyd : " In curves and angles twists about
like Chinese railing, in and out. "
(Of the prosody of the Pindaric ode.)

Montgomery: "Mad as a Libyan wilderness by night

With all its lions up, in chase or fight. "

Praed: "Swift as . . . the flight of a shaft from Tartar string. "

Procter: " Witching as the nightingale first heard
Beneath the Arabian heavens."

"Wild as a creature in the forest bom
That springs on Asian sands."

Shelley : " A Babylon of crags and aged trees. "

"Rose like the crest of cobra-di-capel. "

Southey : "Proud as a Turk at Constantinople. "

Wilson: "... lovely as the western sky

To the wrapt Persian worshipping the sun. "

Beddoes shapes a common metaphor into the phrase, "tears of
crocodile coinage". Another e3q>ression of his is "the hieroglyphic
human soul"; still another, unhappy perhaps but forceful in its
Way, "whole Niles of wine". That he can attain directness and
simplicity even in his metaphors is shown by this selection:

<<

all the minutes of my life

Are sands of a great desert. "

CHAPTER IV
Oriental Passage and Poem

Orientalism in English verse appears in the word, the phrase, the
passage, the poem, and group of poems. In this chapter some
discussion is given to the last three of these units of structure.

The passage varies in length from one line to a hundred lines or
more. As a matter of significance in the histoiy of English poetry,
Orientalism is concerned in large part with these thousands of
passages, of varied tone, on varied themes, scattered through the
most diverse poems by poets of widely different schools, from
Chaucer to Kipling.

As examples of the couplet passage, we may take the following,
the first from Praed's Atistralasia^ the second from Newman's
Solitvde:

On thee, on thee I gaze, as Moslems look

To the blest Islan£ of their Prophet's Book. "

By this the Arab's kindling thoughts expand.
When circling skies inclose the desert sand. "

«

Occasionally one finds an Oriental stanza as weU unified, as
distinct from the context, as some of the best known stanzas of
The Fairy Queen or The Castle of Indolence. A few stanzas of this
type occur in some of the poems of The Christian Year. In William
Thompson's Hymn to May^ the thirteenth stanza is almost a
poem in itself; if not a poem of very high quality:

*'A11 as the phenix, in Arabian skies.
New-burnished from his spicy funeral pyres.
At large, in roseal undulation, flies;
His plumage dazzles and the gazer tires;
Around their king the plumy nations wait.
Attend his triumph, and augment his state:
He, towering, daps his wings and wins th'ethereal
height."

h9

4( University of Kansas Humanistic Studies

Poems which may be caUed Oriental in their entirety often
contain passages of heightened Oriental value, either in diction or
in presentation of sharply deBned theme; just as in pastoral poems
there are frequent passages of pastoralism par excellence. The
Bride of Miss Baillie, for example, is Oriental as a whole, but the
Nirvana passage at the dose of I, 2» and the palanquin, elephant,
and monkey passages in the opening of the next scene, stand out
in rather high relief.

There are in our period numerous poems of a type which natur-
ally includes Oriental reference. For convenience we may call
this type the ** world-poem". In poems of this class the poet
passes from eountiy to country, eith^ for the mere delight of
wandering, or for the purpose of tracing the history or inresent
status of some idea, some social ccmdition, or some phase of nature.
Without attempting a complete enumeration, the following
poems of this type or closely allied with it may be named:

Akenside: The Pleasures of the Imagination.
Armstrong: The Art of Preserving Health.
Blair: The Grave.

Bowles : The Spirit of Discovery by Sea.
The Spirit of Navigation.

Campbell: The Pleasures of Hope.

Cawthom: The Vanity of Human Enjoyments.

Coleridge: The Destiny of Nations.

Dyer: The Fleece.

Langhome: Fables of Flora.

Mallet : The Excursion.

James Montgomeiy: A Voyage Round the World.

Pollok: The Course of Time.

Rogers: Ode to Superstition.

Smollett: Ode to Independence.

Joseph Warton : Fashion : A Satire.

Ode to Liberty.

Young: Night Thoughts.

These all contain Oriental passages. For present purposes
Montgomery's poem of imaginary travel is one of the best. It
opens with the stanza:

Osborne: Oriental Diction and Theme 45

"'Emblem of eternity,
Unb^^mningy endless sea!
Let me launch my soul on thee. "

We first touch earth in Greenland — a favorite country with this
author; then pass to Labrador, Canada, New England, Pennsyl-
vania, the West Indies, across South America; to begin the Oriental
portion of the trip in **pale Siberia's deserts".

In one or another poem with the world-view, we find the roll-
call of great rivers, as in Peacock's Geniue of the Thames^ of
famous cities, of lands and of peoples. Probably there are no
stranger Oriental passages in any English poet than some of those
in Blake; yet in the first quotation below we have a bare simplicity,
suggesting some of the American catalogues of Wliitman, which
is in striking contrast with the mysticism of the second passage:

'* France, Spain, Italy, Germany, Poland, Russia,

Sweden, Turkey,
Arabia, Palestine, Persia, Hindostan, China, Tar-

tary, Siberia,
Egypt, Lybia, Ethiopia, Guinea, Caffraria, Negro*

land, Morocco,
Congo, Zaara, Canada, Greenland, Carolina, Mexico,
Peru, Patagonia, Amazonia, Brazil, — ^Thirty-two

Nations. **^

'"Egypt is the eif^t steps within, Ethiopia supports

his pillars,
Lybia and the Lands unknown are the ascent without:
Within is Asia and Greece, ornamented with exquisite art;
Persia and Media are his halls, his inmost hall is

Great Tartary;
China and India and Siberia are his temples for

entertainment. "*•

A form of simple geographical concept is found in what may be
called the '"compass-passage". It often has obvious affinity with
the ** China to Peru " phrase noticed in Chapter III. '* Simple " in
general, for in Blake, again, the cardinal points of the compass are
given mystical meaning.

As suggested by some of the titles given above, this or that poet
traces poetiy, superstition, liberty, commerce, disease or death

27. J«niMlem. Cbapterlll (72).
2S. /Mtf .. Cbapter III (68) .

46 University of Kansas Humanistic Studies

around the globe, and for all these themes and others the Orient
offers its contpbution. Thus in Fashion : A Satire^ Joseph Warton
selects from the East a curious custom of the Tartar, and of the
Chinese, and his India is a land,

** Where sainted Brachmans, sick of life, retire.
To die spontaneous on the spicy pyre. "

Such travels of fancy are not new in our period. It will be remem-
bered that Thomson journeys far and wide to find appropriate
examples of the heat and fructifying power of summer, and the
storms and desolation of winter; not forgetting to visit tlie Orient
in both seasons.

A special interest attaches to Oriental passages in poems of
Celtic, Gothic, Occidental, and Biblical quality; largely by way of
contrast. Brief touches that might be considered Oriental are
found in Miss Baillie's WiUiam Wallace;^^ Hogg, in his poem on
the same hero, introduces a couplet on the ''great Tartar".
In Montgomery's Greenland we find this passage of unmistakable
Eastern flavor:

** Unwearied as the camel, day by day.
Tracks through unwatered wilds his doleful way.
Yet in his breast a cherished draught retains.
To cool the fervid current in his veins.
While from the sun's meridian reafans he brings
The gold and gems of Ethiopian kings."'®

Miss Baillie's Christopher Cclumbas contains at least a mention of
the Moors, while in Rogers' poem on Columbus there is a passage
of six lines given to the Oriental desert.'^ No more interesting
example of contrast could be found than this passage from Rogers'
Human Life^ though the poem as a whole is English or vague in
setting:

«

At night, when all, assembling round the fire.

Closer and closer draw till they retire,

A tale is told of India or Japan,

Of merchants from Golcond or Astracan,

What time wild Nature revelled unrestrained.

And Sinbad voyaged and the Caliphs reigned :-

Of some Norwegian, while the icy gale

29. strophes 58 and 91.

30. Canto I.
81. Canto VIII.

Osborne: Oriented Diction and Theme 47

Rings in her shrouds and beats her iron sail.
Among the snowy Alps of Polar seas
Immovable — forever there to freeze!
Or some great caravan, from well to well
Winding as darkness on the desert fell,
In their long march, such as the Prophet bids»
To Mecca from the land of Pyramids,
And in an instant lost — a hollow wave
Of burning sand their everlasting grave!"

Whether we include Wells' Joseph and His Brethren among
Oriental poems or not is a matter of definition. Its source is in
the Old Testament and its coloring partly Hebraic, but against
the general background there are several passages of the clearest
Oriental value; especially the Prologue of Act II, and in I, 8, II, 8
and m, 8. In III, 8, in the midst of a rich Oriental context we
have this excellent example of a brief faunal passage:

''The supple panther and white elephant,
The hoaiy lion with his ivory fangs.
The barrM tiger with his savage eye.
The imtamed zebra, beasts from foreign lands," etc.

Campbell's Gertrude of Wyoming is an interesting poem, showing
several distinct historical influences. Written largely in Spen-
serian stanza, with scenes and characters of the new world, and
'entirely Germanized in style', it is not without its Oriental
touch, slight though it be. Stanza U of Part II closes with the
lines.

And more than the wealth that loads the breeze
When Coromandel's ships return from Indian seas.

It is interesting to remember that the word ** Indian " is of frequent
occurrence in the poem, but outside this passage refers to the red
man of America.

Many other examples could be given of Oriental passages in a
context which gives them a certain strangeness or at least a cer-
tain relief. Such are the references to the Eastern life, even if
generaUy rather prosaic, in Crabbe's realistic, novelistic tales; the
numerous citation of Oriental standards for the sake of comparing
Engtish values in Wordsworth's Prelude; and the ''parable" of
Eastern type introduced into Lamb's Wife's Trial to help unravel
complexities at the end of the story.

The Oriental passage sometimes serves to point a moral, some-

48 University of Kansas Humanistic Studies

times to give a bit of strange, foreign quality to commonplace
characters or situation. It often appears in the form of simile or
metaphor. As to theme, it varies from a general conception of the
Orient, or of some large section of it, to very specific subjects.
The Oriental theme in general is discussed in the two following
chapters. Among the common subjects of concrete nature are
the car of Juggernaut, the caravan, the camel, the elephant, the
rich natural products of the Orient, the hidden sources of the Nile,
the ruins of Babylon, Palmyra, or other cities, the return of a
traveller from the East, the tyranny of the Turk, the cold of
Siberia, the gypsies in England, memories of Arabian Nights^ etc.
We have previously noted the general geographical passage.
There are, however, several types of passage which may be given
a further word here. One of these presents the flower theme;
another the jewel theme.

A botanical passage in English verse is not necessarily Oriental,
but in many cases it is partly Orientalized. We find examples in
Collins' third Eclogue^ in Mason's English Garden^ in John Scott's
F]jnstleSf and elsewhere. Probably for Oriental if not for poetic
quality no passage could surpass this from Jones' Enchanted
Fruit:

''light-pinioned gales, to charm the sense.
Their odorif'rous breath dispense;
From belas pearl'd, or pointed, bloom.
And malty rich, they steal perfume:
There honey-scented singarhar.
And juhy, like a rising star.
Strong diempa, darted by camdew.
And mulsery of paler hue,
Cayora, which the ranies wear
In tangles of their silken hair.
Round babul-flow'rs and gulachein
Pyed like the shell of beauty's queen.
Sweet mindy press'd for crimson stains, ' ^

And sacred tulsy pride of plains.
With sewty, small unblushing rose.
Their odoiu^ mix, their tints disclose. "

The flower passage may be Orientalized; the jewel passage in
our period is naturally Oriental in general, for obvious reasons.
The jewels themselves and in many cases their names, came from
the East. In the Bible there are three distinct passages of this
type; in Exodus XXVIII, 17.«0, Ezekiel XXVIII, 18, and Reve-

Osborne: Oriental Diction and Theme 49

lations XXI, ld-20. All three passages, though written at long
intervals, include, besides gold, the beryl, emerald, jasper, sapphire,
sardius and topaz. In two passages we find amethyst, carbuncle,
diamond, onyx, and sardonyx; while the following are found in
only one passage: agate, chalcedony, chrysoprasus, chrysolyte,
jacinth, and pearls. The jewel passage in Thomson's Summer —
introduced as evidence of the beneficent power of the sun,
** Parent of Seasons" — names only the amethyst, diamond,
emerald, opal, ruby, sapphire, and topaz, but with the descriptions
given occupies twenty lines. Later passages of this type are found
in Hoole's translations of Ariosto and Tasso, in Brooke, Crabbe,
Harte, Procter, Shenstone, and other poets. Harte's passage'^ is
interesting in this point : for all the jewels — a standard list — except
the turquoise he gives a Biblical reference; for the jewel named a
reference to an authority stating that ''The true oriental tur-
quoise comes out of the old rock in the mountains of Piriskua,
about eighty miles from the town of Moscheda."

The Oriental poem, as we have seen, may occasionally be written
in Greek or Latin; but such poems are rare. In length it varies
from a few lines to epic proportions. Montgomery's Parrot con-
tains only thirty-three words; his Pelican said Ostrich being slightly
longer. Jones* To Lady Jones contains less than one hundred
words. There may perhaps be some epigrams or epitaphs of
couplet length that could be called Oriental, but they do not seem
at all frequent; nor do we find the quatrain, later made so famous
by Fitzgerald, popular in our period.

Some poems with Oriental title and setting prove to contain a
veiy slight element of Oriental diction or real Oriental color. The
only word which could in any sense be called Oriental in Jones'
Chinese Ode Paraphrased is ''ivory". In the same poet's Song
from the Persian^ "lily", "cypress", and "rose" must serve for
Eastern terms. There is doubtless conveyed to most readers,
something of a vaguely "Indian" atmosphere by Shelley's Sere-
nade. Yet it contains but a single word of genuine Oriental
quality. That word, though found in other English poems, is
habitually associated by many readers, one may imagine, with
this particular poem. In Kubla Khan^ the per cent of Oriental
words is two or three; in Mangan's Karamunian Exile^ on account

32. Id Tftofiuu a Kempis: A Vision; beglnniog "The Gold of Opblr."

60 University of Kansas Humanistic Studies

of the repetition of the word ^'Karaman", the proportion rises to
some fifteen or sixteen per cent. For much higher proportions than
this we must go, not to the poem, but to the phrase or line; at
most to the brief passage.

The Orientalism of our period is not to any remarkable degree
expressed by novel or characteristic verse forms. A large number
of the Eastern poems are written in a versification which served
English poets of various tastes — ^in heroic couplets, octosyllabics,
blanl; verse, Spenserian stanza, ottava rima, and varied lyric
stanzas, mostly of simple type. As to rhythm, there is some use
of humorous anapestics, some of more serious triple movement,
as in Byron's Destruction of Sennacherib. There seems littie or
nothing so characteristic of this taste as the short lines with rugged
rhythm and alliterative tendency were characteristic of the
Gothic taste.

That is not the whole story of Orientalized verse, however.
Jones gives us at least one ghazel, in transliteration, not transla-
tion; and one at least is written by Mangan. Another is found in
Moore's Twopenny Post Bag^ Letter VI.^ Jones writes under the
titles of several of his poems 'in the measure of the original', and
in a few cases rewrites in more regular English verse to bring
out the difference. To one unacquainted with Eastern prosody,
there is nothing very distinctive of the Orient in such lines as

"With cheeks where eternal paradise bloomed.
Sweet Laili the soul of Kais had consumed. "

There is something strange, for the period, however, in the ver-
sification of the Ode of J ami:

"How sweet the gale of morning breathes! Sweet
news of my ddighJt he brings:
News, that the rose will soon approach the tuneful
bird of night he brings."

There is perhaps fully as much interest in the rendition of A
Turkish Ode of Mesihi into paragraphs of poetic prose. Jones, who
was a translator of Pindar, writes the Hymn to Durga in the form
of a regular Pindaric ode; and it seems likely that the extensive
use of this form in the Eighteenth Century had its effect on the

33. This form is found among the burlesque poems of Thackeray.

Osborne: Oriental Diction and Theme 51

Oriental verse of other poets, including, perhaps, Southey. All
of the poets after the Lyrical Ballads^ with few exceptions, were
interested in experiments in English verse, and Southey carried
into the composition of The Curse of Kehama and Thalaba a
definite purpose to embody his Orientalism in appropriate versi*
fication. To say the least, Oriental verse from Jones to Mangan
showed the general tendency to substitute anything and every-
thing for the conventional heroic coupleL As a detail, the fre-
quency of the refrain, from Collins' Eclogues to Lalla Rookh may
be mentioned.

While Orientalism, so far as noted, produced no sonnet sequences,
it has given a number of typical and worthy poems in sonnet form.
One may recall again that the Sardanapalus of Surrey is both a
sonnet and an Oriental poem. We could not afford to lose from
our poetry the Crocodile of Beddoes, the Ozymandias of Shelley,
or the sonnets of Keats and Shelley on the Nile. Simply as poems,
these, with Kubla Khan, are among the best products of Oriental
taste during our period.

The titles of some of our poems are flat or without specific
Oriental quality. On the other hand, one has only to remember
Lalla Rookh, The Curse of Kehama, Kubla Khan, Asia, as well as
among poems of minor fame. Juggernaut, Palmyra, The Caravan
in the Desert, and a host of others. The Wail of the Three Khalen-
deers seems as good as Mandalay. If one wishes something in
lighter vein, he may choose The King of the Crocodiles, from
Southey; or Vm Going to Bombay, and The Kangaroos: A Fable,
from Hood.

The miscellaneous character of the verse forms of Oriental
poetry is suggestive of the variety in the poetic types themselves.
The list of these types is long; the roll of forms distinctly Oriental,
much shorter. We find poetic types ranging from the dirge to the
epic, and including the love lyric, vers de soci6t6, epithalamium,
fable, eclogue, ode, ballad, fictitious epistle, allegory, battle song,
hymn, tale, parody, inscription, serenade, drama, and other forms.
The proverb, so familiar in Old Testament literature, seems rare,
even in passages; but Southey opens his Sonnet XI with

<• <

Beware a speedy friend ! ' the Arabian said. "

Among the poetic types which seem characteristic of the Orient,
or at least of the Oriental taste in England, are the fable, the tale.

6i University of Kansas Humanistic Studies

the drama, and the eclogue. The tale has been considered at
length, for the earlier part of the Eighteenth Century, by Miss
Conant. A word may be given here to the drama, the eclogue,
and the translation. The ''ballad" and the ''ode" are often
falsely so named in the poetry of the earlier part of our period.

A complete account of the Oriental drama from 1740 to 1840
would require a separate paper. The type is as old as the Eliza-
bethan era, and there are signs of it in the medieval epoch. Ori-
ental plays of the same general character as those of the Restora-
tion period continued to be produced in England until the Romantic
Movement was triumphant. Hughes' Siege of Damascus appeared
in 1720, Aaron Hill's Zara in 1736. The influence of Voltaire's
Orientalism is to be traced in Zara and in later plays. Among the
plays of our own period, we may name Miss Baillie's Bride and
Constantine Paleologus; Miller's Mahomet the Imposter; Irene;
Hellas; and Sardanapalus. It is interesting to note some Oriental
elements in two "oratorios" of the period, both Biblical in subject
and general treatment — ^Brooke's Ruih^ and Jago's Adam. Many
plays not entirely Eastern include some Oriental elements. Miss
Baillie's Martyr has as a prominent character, Orceres, a Parthian;
Brown's Barbarossa is Algerian in setting; Coleman's Mountaineers
is Moorish in part. Wells' Joseph and His Brethren was noted a
few pages above. For prologues, we may name Wells' again, and
add Goldsmith's Prologue to Zobeide. This couplet from Young's
Epistle to Lord Lansdowne is of interest:

'Then with a sigh returns our audience home
From Venice, Egypt, Persia, Greece, or Rome.

To return for a moment to Constantine Paleologus. The settings
include Mahomet's camp near Constantinople; the interior of St.
Sophia; a view of the city in the background, "seen in the dimness
of cloudy moonlight"; and this — ^which perhaps has a slight sug-
gestion of Vathek: "a large sombre room, with mystical figures
and strange characters painted upon the walls, and lighted only by
one lamp, burning upon a table near the front of the stage". At
the opening of Act III, Mahomet is discovered "sitting alone in
the eastern manner ". At the opening of Act I, Scene S, of Beddoes'
Death's Jest-Book we read this stage direction: "The African
Coast: a woody solitude near the sea. In the back ground ruins
overshadowed by the characteristic vegetation of the Oriental

Osbome: Oriental Diction and Theme 63

regions". The chief Oriental element in Dodsley's brief Rex et
PonHfex is in the stage directions. Among those who attempted
Oriental ope» were Dodsl^, Lewis, and Miss Mitford.

In the Eighteenth Centuiy the writing of eclogues was a habit
of English poets. One finds 'Amoebean Eclogues', 'Moral Eclo-
gues', 'Sacred Eclogues', 'Town Eclogues', and even 'English
Eclogues'. It is not strange that we should also find eclogues
African, Arabian, Chinese, East Indian, Persian; and a group
devoted to life at Botany Bay. Some of these have considerable
Oriental color; others have comparatively little. The shepherd
life is no doubt correctly associated with certain parts of the
Orient, but one often feels that the pastoralism of these pieces is
pseudo-Latin rather than vitally Eastern. Collins' mature view of
his success in his pastoral venture was not favorable. The life of the
caravan and the harem seems more distinctly Oriental than the
keeping of the flocks — as the conventional poetic shepherd kept
them — or making love to a pastoral mistress.

Real translation of Oriental poems is found in Mrs. Montagu —
with the aid of other wits — ^and in Jones. Pseudo-translation and
paraphrase seem far more characteristic of the English Orientalism
of the Eighteenth Century. It is the period of Chatterton, Ireland,
and Macpherson. Why should not Collins tell his readers that his
Eclogues were written by 'Abdallah, a native of Tauris'? He
closes the preface of the first edition with the reflection, "the

works of orientals contain many peculiarities, and

through defect of language, few European translators can do
them justice". Mangan, at the end of our period, announces that
his Hundred-Leafed Rose is "By Mohammed ben Ali Nakkash,
called Lamii, or. The Dazzling". Pseudo-translations appear
from the Arabic, Chinese, Persian, and Turkish. None from the
Japanese have been noted. The real translations of the period, in
the main, were from the old familiar sources — Greek, I^atin,
Italian, French; and from the newly-discovered Germanic or
Celtic literatures. For the reception of one real translation, see
above, page 41. Among other translators of note were Sir John
Bowring, Joshua Marshman, and Sir Charles Wilkins.

The tendency in translation and in paraphrase seems to be to
expand, as was the case in earlier periods — in the rendering of the
Psalms, for example. Jones' paraphrase of the Chinese Ode in
twenty-four lines is followed by a "verbal translation" in only

54 University of Kansas Humanistic Studies

nine lines. His translation of A Persian Song of Hafiz is written in
fifty-four lines; the transliteration occupies thirty-six.

The setting of the Oriental poem is as various as its form or
theme. It may appear in a real letter (Mrs. Montagu), in an essay
(Jones), in prose fiction (Mrs. Radcliffe and Walter Scott), or in a
prose frame {Lalla Rookh). As a lyric it appears in the long narra-
tive poem, Childe Haroldy for example; or in the drama. The Brides
for example. It can be found as a member of a group of Oriental
poems, as in the EdogiLes of Collins and John Scott; or in non-
Oriental groups, as in Mrs. Hemans' Lays of Many Lands and
Songs of Spain, Keble's Christian Year and Moore's National Airs.
The Oriental poems under the last title, as well as poems by Bums
and Byron, are among those written, in imagination at least, for
Eastern tunes.

The number of Oriental poems written in England from the
death of Pope to the opening of the Victorian era will depend
on the definition of the vital adjective. In the Appendix^ we
have listed about 870 poems. Many of these would doubtless be
rejected by a more exact critical method. Many others would be
added by a more sweeping examination of the verse of the period.
The number as well as the variety of the poems, in any case, is
sufficient to indicate a wide-spread vogue, however artificial in
part; a vogue much more extensive in this period than before, and
destined to live and develop, in some respects with more satisfac-
tory poetic results, in the Victorian era, and in the Twentieth
Century.

No English poet of any note has devoted himself entirely to the
Orient. Our review has made it clear that in many poets Oriental-
ism is simply one poetic experiment among several. The Oriental
poet is usually an eclectic poet. Even Jones, leader in the move-
ment, is a Grecian and a Latinist. In such poets as Chatterton,
Moore, Montgomery, Southey, and Mrs. Hemans, the Eastern
element is accompanied by elements offering the greatest contrast.
In spite of Lalla Rookh and Byron's Turkish tales, there seems to
be in our period no poet, with the exception of Jones, whose name
is so intimately associated with Orientalized poetry as are the
names of Fitzgerald, Edwin Arnold, and Kipling.

The experiments of the early Romantic Movement, and of its

34. See the phgea under I. A.

Osborne: Oriental Diction and Theme 66

era of triumph, were subject to that attack of the parodist which
awaits most conspicuous novelties. The Rebuilding, imitating the
diction and prosody of The Curse of Kehama, is one of the best
poems in Rejected Addresses. Among favorites for the parodist
were Kubla Khan and that oldtime delight of youthful elocution-
ists, Casabianca. For further results of this aftermath of the
Oriental taste, one may examine the pages edited by Jerrold
and Leonard, Hamilton, and Henry Morley.

CHAPTER V

The East and the West

In this chapter we shall consider some of the common themes of
English Oriental verse which are concerned with the relations of
the East to England or other western lands. The subjects are so
numerous that only some of the more prominent or the more
significant, for one reason or another, can be mentioned.

Our poetry records many objects which came into England
from the East as a matter of course, not under stimulus of any
special Oriental taste. The catalogue of these would be a long one,
and doubtless a dry one, of commercial and prosaic value rather
than poetic. Here belong the drugs and spices, including coffee,
various kinds of tea, cinnamon, nutmegs; articles of dress; house-
hold pets such as the canary bird — ^if we credit that to the Orient —
and the parrot; the animals of the menagerie; jewels; gold acquired
in Eastern residence, and even stocks in Eastern commercial
ventures; and the mummy of public or private collection. This
couplet in Young is a fair sample of much of the verse which
presents this material:

"Cold Russia costly furs from far.
Hot China sends her painted jar. "^

"Chunee", London elephant of the early Nineteenth Century, is
immortalized in Rejected Addresses^ and in Hood's Address to Mr.
Crossy of Exeter Change. Hood's Ode to the Cameleopard is one of
the best humorous Oriental poems of the period. Cawthoi*^, j^
The Antiquarians, pictures a dispute over a coin, in which on
enthusiast gives his view thus:

«« «

It came, ' says he, *or I will be whipt.
From Memphis in the Lower Egypt'."

Z5. Imperium Pelagi: Strain I.
30. See Playhotise Musings.

66

Osborne: Oriental Diction and Theme 67

Young writes of an imaginaiy zealous book-collector:

'*So high the generous ardor of the man
For Romans, Greeks, and Orientals ran. *'"

Cowper has occasion to note that linen is imported from India;
and from the same countiy comes the cane for his sofa.

A passage of higher imaginative quality than those just given is
found in Pollok's sombre Course of Time, In Book VII, his
vision of the wonders of the resurrection day includes this some-
what startling conception:

*'The Memphian mummy, that from age to age,
Descending, bought and sold a thousand times.
In hall of curious antiquary stowed.
Wrapped in mysterious weeds, the wondrous theme
Of many an erring tale, shook off its rags;
And the brown son of Egypt stood beside
The European, his last purchaser. "

Some of the trees of England and some of the flowers are either
of Oriental origin or have Eastern associations recognized by the
poets. The laurel is a 'daughter of the East"; Langhome in the
Fables of Flora tells the reader of the Bactrian origin of the crown
imperial.

There is not much evidence in the verse of our period of the
presence of real Oriental persons of public note in England. Fol-
lowing the method used in such prose as The Citizen of the Worlds
this or that poet introduces a fictitious gentleman from the East
reporting his observations to the home-land. Probably Moore's
fictitious letter From AbdaUahy in Londony to Mohassany in Ispa-
han** is one of the best pieces of this type. Among the more
obscure real figures are the negro boxer in Moore, and the rope-
dancer "Mahomet", ''said to be a Turk", in Samuel Johnson.
Southey addresses an ode to a visiting dignitary from Russia, and
if we include the Pelew Islands in the Orient, Bowles' poem Abba
Thvle^s Lament for His Son Prince Le Boo may be mentioned. We
are told that the Cashmerian heroine and the hero of Shelley's
unpublished Zeinab and Kathema arrive in London during the
story. Moore has a poem on a "beautiful East-Indian", and
Lovibond writes a series of love-lyrics, of little poetic merit, to

37. Lowe of Fame: Satire II,

88. In The Twopenny Poet Bag; Letter VL

68 University of Kansas Humanistic Studies

''an Asiatic lady" in England — a lady who causes some distur-
bance in the mind of an English woman friend of the poet.

The gypsy in England is a theme in poetry both romantic and
realistic, appearing in "Christopher North", Crabbe, Words-
worth, The Gypsy* s Malison of Lamb, The Gypsy* s Dirge of Walter
Scott, and in many other poets and poems. Sometimes a pictur-
esque figure about the camp-fire at night, at other times the gypsy
is a sly and tattered trickster among the young people of an Eng-
lish village, or a vagrant brought before the local representative
of English law.

There are many examples of the theme, ''the Englishman home
from the Orient". Various are the gifts they bring back from the
East. One returns with ill health, one with memories of cap-
tivity, many, of course, in poems of the middle ages, with the
battle scars of the Crusades. A character in Praed's Arrivals at a
Watering-Place is "always talking of Bengal". Crabbe's realistic
picture of provincial English society presents several gentlemen
returned from the Orient. One was a Captain who "rich from
India came", bringing pearls, diamonds, costly silks and other
treasures, which his will left to a feminine relative who loved to
hear them praised.^* In another passage in Crabbe^® appears a
"sick tall figure" of a man who has returned from India with
wealth gained and health and spirits destroyed; who moves rest-
lessly from place to place in his native land without gaining happi-
ness. It will be remembered that in The Fatal Curiosity it is the
hoard of gold and jewels Young Wilmot brings from the East
which is the immediate cause of the tragedy.

The Oriental taste in England is shown in many ways in the
verse of the period. Horses or other domestic pets are named
"Sultan" or "Sultana"; decorations in the drawing-room and
fanciful structures in garden or park are built in Oriental manner.
In Threnodia AugvMalis, Goldsmith described a place on the
Thames where novelty

"From China borrows aid to deck the scene."

There are various other references to similar matters; the fence
irregular as the metrical form of the Pindaric ode, the summerhouse
•—kiosk, pagoda, or of fashion ' Gothic or Chinese '. In one of the balls

39. The Parish Register: Burials.

40. The Borough; Letter IX.

Osborne: Oriental Dictum and Theme 69

Praed describes, several characters are dressed in Oriental costume,
and in Peacock's prose farce, The Dilettanti^ at the opening of
Act I, Scene 4, "'Miss Comfit, as a Sultana, advances to the front
of the stage", and Tactic enters "as a Turk". In humorous
spirit Moore 'Turkifies' current politics or politicians in England;
or pictures Grimaldi grimacing before the Mandarins in China/^

In deeper manner, the Oriental taste is revealed with reference
to the literature of the East, and the English literature modeled
thereon. Orientalism throughout our period was not an accident
or an unconscious result. Much comment is made upon the cult
in prose criticism — ^f rom which a few notes may be taken — ^and in
the verse itself.

We are told that Collins wrote his Eclogues when seventeen
years old, after reading the description of Persia in Salmon's
Modem History, In later years he spoke disdainfully of the
pieces, called them his "" Irish Eclogues", and affirmed that "they
had not in them one spark of orientalism"." An early critic,
however. Dr. Langhome, speaks as follows of the second eclogue:
** All the advantages that any species of poetry can derive from the
novelty of the subject and scenery, this eclogue possesses. The
route of a camel-driver is a scene that scarce could exist in the
imagination of an European, and of its attendant distress he could
have no idea. "" Nearly a century later Mangan wrote pseudo-
Oriental translations because "Hafiz was more acceptable to
editors than Mangan".^ Between Collins and Mangan there is
sufficient and varied evidence of the English taste for Orientalized
verse. John Scott, himself an Oriental poet, gives this view in his
poem On the Ingenums Mr. Joneses Elegant Translations:

a

The Asian Muse, a stranger fair!
Becomes at length Britannia's care;
And Hafiz' lays, and Sadi's strains.
Resound along our Thames's plains.
They sing not all of streams and bowers.
Or banquet scenes, or social hours;
Nor all of Beauty's blooming charms.
Or War's rude fields, or feats of arms;
But Freedom's lofty notes sincere.

41. See The Twopenny Post Bag, LeUer II, and The Fudge Family in Paris,
Ifftjer IX,

42. Page 10 of the edition of CoUinB dted in the Appendix.

43. /Md.. p. 181.

44. Miles, vol. III. p. 456.

60 University of Kansas Humanistic Stvdies

And Virtue's moral lore severe.
But ah ! they sing for us no more !
The scarcely-tasted pleasure's o'er!
For he, the bard whose tuneful art
Can best their vary'd themes impart —
For he, alas! the task declines;
And Taste, at loss irreparable, repines.

Churchill, not so much moved by Gothicism, sentimentalism»
or Orientalism, as many of his contemporaries, does not give so
favorable an account in the opening lines of The Farewell:

''Farewell to Europe, and at once farewell
To all the follies which in Europe dwell;
To Eastern India now, a richer clime.
Richer, alas! in everything but rhyme.
The Muses steer their course; and, fond of change,
At large, in other worlds, desire to range;
Resolved, at least, since they the fool must play.
To do it in a different place, and way. "

Englishmen did not need to wait till Tennyson's day to read
verses on Recollections of the Arabian Nights. The passage on this
subject in Wordsworth's Prelude is familiar. In Silford Hall
Crabbe tells his readers that before Sir Walter wrote there were

" . . . . fictions wild that please the boy.
Which men, too, read, condemn, reject, enjoy. "

Of the library he is describing in the same poem, he says :

''Arabian Nights, and Persian Tales were there.
One volume eadi, and both the worse for wear. "

He returns to this theme in Master William:

"Arabian Nights, and Persian Tales, he read.
And his pure mind with brilliant wonders fed.
The long romances, wild Adventures fired
His stirring thoughts: he felt like Boy inspired.
The cruel fight, the constant love, the art
Of vile magicians, thrilled his inmost heart. "

Southey apparently has the English Oriental verse in mind
when he writes in The Retrospect^ in a spirit of reaction, perhaps —

Osbomi: OriefUal Diction and Theme 61

*'0h, while well pleased the lettered traveUer roams
Among old temples, palaces* and domes;
Strays with the Arab o'er the wreck of time»
Where erst Palmyra's towers arose sublime;
Or marks the lazy Turk's lethargic pride.
And Grecian slaveiy on Uyssus' side, —
Oh, be it mine, aloof from public strife,
To mark the dianges of domestic life.
The altered scenes where once I bore a part.
Where eveiy change at fortune strikes tne heart!"

It is curious to note how many times Wordsworth in The Prdude
uses an Oriental standard to estimate the value of native English
delights. Thus he says, that there was a time in his youth when
all the glories of Eastern histoiy or fiction ''fell short, far short.

Of what my fond simplicity believed
And thought of London."

In his boyhood, the dramatic performances in the country bam
pleased him more than Genii in a ''dazzUng cavern of romance".
The natural surroundings of his early days were ''more exquisitely
fair" than the magnificent gardens — ^which he describes in true,
luxuriant Oriental style — shaped for the delight of the Tartarian
dynasty. At Rydal Mount he records that the English mountain
spring furnished water which might have been envied by Persian
kings. It almost seems that Wordsworth, having determined to
devote his imagination to simple and native life, fought against
the Oriental taste of the day, thereby revealing its power perhaps.

When we turn to the Oriental element in western life outside of
England, we find probably a less varied account than that we have
just surv^ed; but one rich in interest. Cooper's Ver-Vert is an
amusing record of an East Indian parrot among the nuns of
France. In Grainger's Sugar-Cane and a score of other poems the
character and life of the negro in the West Indies or in the United
States are pictured. . We have referred before to the Parthian
Prince who moves amid Roman scenes, in the days of Nero, in Miss
Baillie's The Martyr. There is a brief and quite different allusion
to Eastern visitors in Italy in Rogers' account of life at Venice.
"Who flocked not thither", the poet asks, —

6B University of Kansas Humanistic Studies

"To celebrate her Nuptials with the Sea?
To wear the mask, and mingle in the crowd
With Greek, Armenian, Persian. "^

A volume could doubtless be written on the English poetic
treatment of the Moors in Spain. This is a frequent theme in our
period, and is found in drama, lyric, and narrative. The Alhambra,
the wars between Moors and Spaniards, including the achieve-
ments of the Cid, the loves between man of one race and maiden
of the other, the Moorish dance and song, the relation of the
Mohammedans in Spain to those in Africa, are among the specific
subjects. In most poets such themes suggested a romantic inter-
pretation; and in such a poetess as Mrs. Hemans they were among
the resources of the sentimental muse. Some of the diction of
Oriental derivation appearing in the verse of our period, reached
England through Spain.

The Englishman of our period was a traveller, either in fancy or
in the flesh; for purposes of pleasure, culture, business or religion.
In Rhyrnes on the Road^ Moore names Egypt, Carolina, and China*
as regions where his fellow countrymen might be found, and
generalizes thus:

"Go where we may — ^rest where we will.
Eternal London haunts us still. "

It is not strange that English verse should contain many refer-
ences to Englishmen in the Orient. The group is a motley one,
including sailor and soldier, painter and priest, bishop and society
belle.

Of the Oriental poets themselves, several visited one part or an-
other of the Orient. Before our period began, Mrs. Montagu pro-
duced Verses Written in the Chiosk of the British Palace^ at Pera,
Overlooking the City of Constaniinojde. Jones subscribed several
of his poems as written in India, and in Plassey-Plain he made
amusing reference to his wife's ignorance of the native language.
Byron in the East is too familiar a subject to require notice;
Heber is mentioned elsewhere in this paper. "L. E. L.'*, living
all her life in London, "had always cherished dreams of Africa '\
and had the dubious satisfaction of dying there.^ But it was only

45. Italy; XIII, St. Mark's Place.

46. Miles, vol. VII, p. 108.

Osborne: Oriental Diction and Theme 63

in imagination that Bums, White, Montgomery, Coleridge, Keats,
Shelley, and the great majority of English poets, ever vLsited the
Orient.

In two interesting pieces of vers de sociiti*^ Hood writes of young
women on the eve of their departure for India. John Logan
writes of a woman whose lover "'to Indian climes had roved".
The Oriental travels of the hero of ^/o^for are of more serious im-
portance in English poetry. Perhaps the best example presenting
sailors in the East, aside from translations, is found in The Ship-
wreck, Paul Whitehead, in An Occasional Song (spoken by a
stage sergeant) follows the victorious English soldier from Cape
Breton to "Guardelupe" and Senegal. Praed refers to a judge in
Bengal, and a character who is "rich in Canton". In Surly Hall
this i>oet expresses approval .of the painter Hamilton,

"Whether his sportive canvass shows
Arabia's sands or Zembla's snows. "

John Scott, in his Essay on Painting, places English artists, real or
imaginary, in Jamaica, by the rocks of Ulitea, and by "Nile's vast
flood on Egypt's level." White of Selbome discussed the hiberna-
tion of swallows in English mud, but John Cunningham's bird of
the air is

"Winged for Memphis or the Nile. "*^

Still more fanciful is Lovibond's account of the flight of the festival
spirit, weary of Europe, into the Orient; in The Tears of Old May-
Day.

In the earlier part of our period there are in English verse a
score, perhaps a hundred, references to the unknown sources of
the Nile. Such reference was among the conventional items in
passages on the great river. It is interesting, therefore, to note
more than one later allusion to Bruce, as the discoverer of these
sources. In Crabbe's Adventures of Richard,*^ the stay-at-home
George inquires of his much-traveled brother Richard,

"Say, hast thou, Bruce-like, knelt upon the bed
Where the young Nile uplifts his branchy head?"

47. Lines to a Lady on Her Departure for India, and /*m Ooing to Bombay,

48. In Ode XXXIII: To the Swallow,

49. Tales of the HaU\ Book IV.

64 University of Kansas Humanistic Studies

And it is the same dry, stem realist who writes in Clubs and Social
Meetings:

''When Bruce, that dauntless traveller, thought he stood
On Nile's first rise, the fountain of the flood,
And drank exulting in the sacred spring.
The critics told him it was no such thing;
That springs unnumbered round the countiy ran,
But none could show him where the first began. "*®

Far more romantic, and with as much genuine insight into human
nature, is Mrs. Heman's fanciful record of The Traveller at the
Source of the Nile.

Captain Cook is another English hero whose journeys into far
Eastern — or Southern — ^regions are rather frequently recorded in
verse. Frere is one poet who mentions him, and in his second
Epietle John Scott has a passage of eight lines, beginning

"Such, hapless Cook! amid the southern main.
Rose thy Taheiti's peaks and floweiy plain. "

Both Nelson and Casabianca at the battle of the Nile are subjects
of poetic praise.

The account of the early Protestant missionary efforts of Eng-
land is found chiefly in prose; but enters verse here and there.
Something of the poetic quality that literature has associated with
the Jesuit fathers in the wilds of America is to be credited to this
or that servant of Anglicanism or Dissent. In Grahame's Sabbath
we have a general picture of an imaginaiy missionary in the islands
of the South; Praed's Greek poem translated into English under
the title Hindostan is a tribute to the work of Thomas Fanshawe
Middleton, Bishop of Calcutta. Heber left his own records of the
East in prose and verse. Among the poems on the man or his
work are Mrs. Hem&ns' To the Menuory of Hebery and Southey*s
Ode on the Portrait of Bishop Heber. The first of these two pieces
is religious and reverential in spirit, scarcely Oriental; the second
contains a few such lines as,'

"The Malabar, the Moor, and the Cingalese,'"

and,

"Ram boweth down,
Creeshna and Seeva stoop;
The Arabian Moon must wane to wax no more. **

60. The Borough; Letter X.

Osborne: OrietUal Diction and Theme 63

It is not appropriate to our puri)ose to consider the verse of
Protestant missions in general, or of Catholic, — ^as in Bowles' Mis-
sionary^ with its resonant Latin line,

**Etemam pacem dona, Domine.**

James Montgomery is perhaps the poet of any note who gives
this subject most attention. His Greenland is a missionaiy poem;
his Cry from South Africa is an evangelical poem, and the mission-
ary for whom the Farewell was written may, for aught the reader
knows, have been bound for the Orient. Montgomery's Daisy in
India is a sincere and simple poem on exile and home memories in
the East, and is concerned with the Baptist missionary. Dr.
William Carey. Patriotism is perhaps associated with religion.
If that is true, we may well note here Walter Scott's prologue to
The Family Legend^ which tells us that the wild tales of *' romantic
Caledon" stir the heart of the exiled Scotchman,

'* Whether on India's burning coasts he toil.
Or till Acadia's winter-fettered soil."

England's dead who rest in the Seven Seas make a great com-
pany. England's dead in the Orient are for the most part unre-
corded in English verse, but here and there a group or an individual
is memorialized by the poet — and for the poet an imaginaiy
character may create pathos as well as a real character. Words-
worth's Liberty is addressed to a woman friend who died, after the
piece was written, "on her way from Shalapore to Bombay,
deeply lamented by all who knew her". John Wilson's Widow is
scarcely an Oriental poem, but the husband for whom the woman
mourns perished in the East: —

**For the bayonet is red with gore.
And he, the beautiful and brave.
Now sleeps in Egypt's sand. "

Among the numerous poems of Mrs. Hemans on death, the funeral,
and the grave, is one inspired by these lines of "Christopher
North " — The Burial in the Desert. This poem is far more Oriental-
ized than the one which suggested it, and contains the recurring
line,

"In the shadow of the Pyramid. "
Though not in verse, Macaulay's Latin epitaphs on servants of

66 - University of Kansas Humanistic Studies

England who died in India may be mentioned, as, in a sense,
" poetic efforts ".

Our present account of the English in the Orient is scant indeed
in comparison with the actual historical activities. But if all of
life were described in poetry, or all of English prose transformed
into verse, the special function of poetry itself would probably be
unfulfilled. Before it becomes a subject for poetry, says Words-
worth in the famous Prefacej science must become ''familiar",
and its relations contemplated as ''manifestly and palpably
material to us as enjoying and suffering beings". Jones did not
attempt to versify any large portion of his knowledge of the
Orient. Sir James Mackintosh in his Discourse Read at the Opening
of the Literary Society of Bombay y (November 26, 1804), said of
Sir William: "He was among the distinguished persons who
adorned one of the brightest periods of English literature". Per-
haps " English scholarship " might have been better. The speaker
then proceeded to propose a program of study for the Englishman
in India, including botany, zoology, mineralogy and political
economy. The address closed with these words: "On a future
occasion I may have the honour to lay before 3'ou my thoughts on
the principal objects of inquiry into the geography, ancient and
modem, the languages, the literature, the necessary and elegant
arts, the religion, the authentic history and the antiquities of In-
dia", etc. However it may be with English science and scholar-
ship, it is safe to say that English poetry has not yet completed
this program of 1804.

The English are not the only people of western Europe to appear
in the Orient in English poetry. If we include the translations of
Camoens, Tasso, and Ariosto made during our period, we have a
host of individuals, historical or fictitious, and of epic groups,
from Spain, Italy, France, and northern Europe. They are
occupied in sailing about Africa, to visit and conquer India; in
various Asiatic or East-European travels for pleasure or military
adventure; in warring with the assembled hosts of the Saracens
to rescue "iZ gran Sepolcro*\ with mention of which the Oerusa-
lemme Liberata opens and closes. If these works are not products
of English imagination, they belong to English poetiy, in a liberal
view, in verse and diction. Camoens and Vasco da Gama both

Osborne: Oriental Diction and Theme 67

appear in English lyric poetry, the former in The Last Song of
Camoens^ by Bowles; the latter (along with Albuquerk and others)
in Afickle's Almada HiU. To the themes of epic breadth, we may
add that of the Napoleonic armies in Russia.

The relations of Venice to the Orient are barely suggested in the
opening line of a familiar Wordsworthian sonnet: —

** Once did She hold the gorgeous east in fee. "

So far as commercial relations between Venice and the Eastern
Mediterranean region are concerned, perhaps no more Oriental
passage could be found than this from Rogers' Italy:

"Who met not the Venetian? — ^now in Cairo;
Ere yet the Calif a came, listening to hear
Its bells approaching from the Red-Sea coast;
Now on the Euxine, on the Sea of Azoph,
In converse with the Persian, with the Russ,
The Tartar; on his lowly dedc receiving
Pearls from the Gulf of Ormus, gems from Bagdad,
Eyes brighter yet, that shed the light of love.
From Georgia, from Circassia. Wandering round.
When in the rich bazaar he saw displayed.
Treasures from unknown climes, away he went.
And, travelling slowly upward, drew ere-long
From the well-head, supplying all below;
Making the Imperial City of the East,
Herself, his tributary.""

In Fallot, Goethe symbolized, by the marriage of Faust with
Helen, the union of Gothic genius with the classical Greek. Though
we have in English poetry one book of a long narrative poem
dedicated to the " Genius of Afric",'' there is perhaps no poem or
passage which transcends the usual contrast between the East and
the West by any thought or imageiy of mystic harmony between
the two. A suggestion in this direction, however, may be found,
without too fanciful interpretation, in The Bridal of Triemiain,
In the third canto there is a dream of fair maidens in processional —
maidens of Asia, Africa, Europe, and America. For each region
there is some appropriate imageiy and diction. A comparison of
Scott and Blake seems strange, but in this assembling of the
continents for the high purposes of poetry, there seems something

51. Itaiy: Pmrt I. XI.

68. Onmger't Sugat'^ane; Book IV.

68 University of Kansas Humanistic Studies

akin to the method of Blake in his geographic symbolism. First
come the 'Tour Maids whom Afric bore", singing in the Moorish
tongue of the ruins of Carthage, the Siroc of Sahara, and the spell
of Dahomay. Then follow maidens of *' dark-red dye", bearing
palmetto baskets, and singing of the perished glory of Peru. Next
enter the maidens whose faces have been tinted by the *' suns of
Candahar", whose Eastern pomp is aided by hennah and sumah,
who are clad in the costumes of a sensuous land. Finally, appear,
each representative of her native lalid, the daughters of France,
Spain, Germany, and "'merry England", — ^the last dressed ''like
ancient British Druidess". So harmonize for once, in a poet's
fancy, the Celtic, Occidental, Germanic* and Oriental tones of
the Romantic Movement.

CHAPTER VI.

The Orient Itself

Our poets sometimes consider "The Orient" or "The East" as
a unit, without definite boundaries. Again, Asia or Africa is often
presented as a unit, in a single thought or image. Sometimes
Oriental reference is made in very vague manner, without any
specific geographical term or terms. Yet in the body of verse as a
whole, the reader is not left without abundant, if scarcely coherent,
details in the poetical map of the East.

This map reaches from Sarmatia and Zembla on the north —
with lines extended to the Pole — to the Cape of Good Hope and
New Zealand on the south; from northeast to southwest it reaches
(according to the definition for this study) from Kamchatka to
Senegal and the Canary Islands. It embraces a hundred countries,
almost innumerable "coasts" and islands; seas, lakes, and interiors
remote from ordinary travel — ^from Caffraria to the Desert of
Gobi. The portions drawn in clearest design are of course the
more familiar sections — ^Arabia, India, Egypt, the Sahara, Turkey,
etc. But in one passage or another this or that poet sketches in^
at least in outline or in name, Sumatra, Tahiti, Siam, Madagascar,
Tartary, and many another region. During our period China and
Japan are relatively neglected."

In the entire region about the Eastern Mediterranean the poets
often follow the traditions of Biblical or classical literature; yet
much of this region is modernized, given a fresh and more strictly
Oriental value. The Palestine of the Crusades, the Egypt of
Bruce and Nelson, are not Biblical. The isles of Greece as seen by
Byron and, earlier, by the sailors of The Shiptoreck, are not quite

53. Otains aeema more freauently mentioned than Japan. Boyse has the follow-
ing lines in The Triumphs of Nature. He is speaking of a pond in " the magnificent
gardens at Stowe. in Buckinghamshire*'.

** In which, of form OhinesOt a structure lies.
Where all her wild grotesques display surprise.
Within Japan her guttering treasure yields.
And ships of amber sail on golden fields. "

There are of course many other references dealing more directly with China and
with Japan, but they are usually rather brief.

69

70 University of Kansas Humanistic Studies

those of Homer or Pindar; the Greece that bows beneath the Turk
is not the Greece of Thucydides.

If might be of some interest, but it would be a long task, to
trace out the geography, history, the social and the natural life,
of each country as English verse presents it. Many sections are
usually mentioned in simple and repeated formulas, suggesting
our study of conventional phrases in Chapter III. Circassia is
often associated with feminine beauty; Siberia with cold and wild-
ness, though one poet describes its slow-moving caravans. The
witches and the reindeer are frequent items for Lapland. Literary
Russia hardly appears; or the Russia of serfs and bureaucracy.
The poetic Russia of the period is that of Catherine or Peter, of
cold and bears, of the Napoleonic invasion, of the conflict with the
Turk, or the Russia known through its political relations with
England. This statement, however, omits the work of Sir John
Bowring, late in our period.^

The climate of the Orient, in the large sense adopted for this
study, of course has little unity. To consider merely temperature,
the poets give much attention to extreme cold and extreme heat,
often by way of antithesis. *From Zembla's cold to Afric's heat '
is a typical phrase form. In the more southerly sections, the
Caucasian Mountains or perhaps Atlas serve as symbols of cold.
The emphasis, on the whole, is apparently on the heat. Such words
as hot, torrid, burning, scorching, sunburnt, are frequent in
descriptions of various parts of Asia and of Africa. In The Fatal
Curiosity we read of the "eternal sultry summer" of India, and
one poet writes of the "eternal dog-star" of Africa. The East in
general is "the land of the sun". Associated in part with this
emphasis on heat are the ideas of disease and of fertility. "Fever-
ish " is not a rare word; pestilence as well as drouth are often men-
tioned. It was a "land of births", writes James Montgomery of
a Southern region; and in a score of poets we read of the prolific
life in various parts of the South or the East — of the multitudes of
strange creatures that haunt the jungles, creep along the banks of
the Nile, or fly above the coral-islands.

In topographical features, there is frequent reference, probably
not always appropriate, to "groves" and to "plains"; with the

54. In prooe. a tranolatlon of Karamzine's Poor Li8a appeared in London about
1806 (7). A review of the French translation of bia Russia is found in the MUceUa^
neous Bssays of Archibald Aliaon.

Oshome: Oriental Diction and Theme 71

addition of many valleys and occasional *' glens". The Gulf of
Ormus, the Black Sea, and the Caspian Sea are often named, The
great rivers of the East proper and of Africa are introduced in
hundreds of passages — the Euphrates and the Tigris, the Ganges*
the Nile, the Niger and the Gambia, the Danube and the Volga.
The mountains which receive most attention are the Himalayas,
the Caucasian, Atlas, and the Mountains of the Moon.

Of all the types of Eastern scenery, perhaps none is more fasci-
nating to the imagination of the poets than the desert. It is some-
times Arabian, sometimes the Sahara, sometimes simply the
generic desert. It is a region of " sand-spouts " and '* sand-waves " ;
of drouth and staggering sunshine; of the pelican and the camel; of
weary caravan, of mocking mirage and restful oasis; of the ''red
wing of the fierce Monsoon",^ and again and again of death.
Mrs. Hemans writes separate poems on its Flower, its Caravan, and -
its Burial. James Montgomery describes the mirage in these
lines — praising a chieftain hero of his story:

''Nor less benign his influence than fresh showers
Upon the fainting wilderness, where bands
Of pilgrims, bound for Mecca, with their camels,
I«ie down to die together in despair.
When the deceitful mirage^ that appeared
A pool of water trembling in the sun.
Hath vanished from the bloodshot eye of thirst. "^

Sir John Bowring pictures the mirage of the Sahara in one of his
religious lyrics. Better no doubt, as poetry, than most of the more
elaborate descriptions is Shelley's simple if alliterative vision: —

*' . . . boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away. "

Bemardin de St. Pierre was not the only European author of the
period to turn a study of plant life to imaginative purposes. Among
the English poets, Crabbe followed botany as a diversion, as Cow-
ley had done before him, and with some poetic result. Mason's
English Garden and Langhorne's Fables ofFlora^ as well as Darwin's
Loves of the Plants are among the titles suggestive of this taste.
In the Oriental verse there are many references to Eastern flowers
and trees. Among the favorite trees are the cypress, tamarind*

56. Klrke White: Sonnet IX.

56. The Pelican J eland: Canto IX.

72 University of Kansas Humanistic Studies

date, fig, palm, and banyan. The malignant ''poison-tree" of
Java exercises a kind of charm over several poets. Darwin gives
it considerable space in one of his poems. Among the flowers most
often mentioned are the jasmine and the rose^^. Mrs. Hemans*
Flower of the Desert probably pleased some readers all the more
because it was given no name, though, in the author's fancy, it
had a '' purple bell '*. There is perhaps nothing in the Orientalized
verse to compare with the To a Snowdrop of Wordsworth, or with
The Yellow Violet of Bryant. Dr. Langhome gives a curious bit
of criticism on the fourth Eclogue of Collins. "Nevertheless", he
writes, ''in this delightful landscape there is an obvious fault:
there is no distinction between the plain of Zabran, and the vale
of Aly : they are hoihjlowery, and consequently undiversified ... it
had not occured to [the poet] that he had employed the epithet
flowery twice within so short a compass".** In the third Edogue^
however, Collins names the " gay-motley ed pinks and sweet
jonquils", the violet and the rose, with the usual footnote to sup-
port his choice. Campbell's flowers of Numidia, in The Dead
EaglCj are the alasum, bugloss, fennel, tulips, sunflowers, and
asphodel.

The animal life introduced ranges from the coral worm, described
at some length in Montgomery's Pelican Island, through butter-
flies, bats, birds, and reptiles, to the large quadrupeds — the camel,
the giraffe, and the elephant. The gazelle, the antelope, the lion
and the tiger are favorites, while the hyena occasionally appears.
The "pard" is a quadruped of the East in the verse of Miss
Baillie, Keats, and others. Keats has this simile in Otho the Great:
"Hunted me as the Tartar does the boar". The Russian bear
enters the scene at rather long intervals. The kangaroo appears
in a Fable by Hood and its " sad note " is heard in Southey 's Botany
Bay Eclogues. The giraffe is described in one passage by Mont-
gomery, and is the chief figure in one of Hood's poems.** The
gazelle of Lalla Roolch will be remembered. The zebra appears in
Keats and in Wells; and Shelley places the llama in India. To
Crabbe, as we have seen, a portion of the East is the "far land of
crocodiles and apes"; but in general the near relatives of man do
not receive much attention. Perhaps for historical reasons, the

67. See alao supra, p. 48.

68. Bditlon of OoUlns named in the Appendix, I, A; p. 137.
r> ). Ode to the Cameleopard.

Osborne: Oriental Diction and Theme 73

words "baboon", '^chimpanzee'*, ''gorilla" and the like are rare
words, if found at all, in the English verse of our period. This
passage from Miss Baillie may be considered rather exceptional:

" 'Twill be as though a troop of mowing monkeys.
With antic mimic motions of defiance.
Should front the brindled tiger and his brood. ""®

Among the birds given most attention are the "locust-bird",
the crocodile bird, the vulture, and in particular, the pelican, the
ostrich, the bird of paradise, and the nightingale. The "desert
pelican" is a phrase of Keble's, and this species is given much
attention not only in Montgomery's poem, but also in Thalaba.
The albatross is doubtless nowhere else so emphasized as in The
Ancient Mariner^ but it is found in this or that poem in a setting
more strictly Oriental. In Lalla Rookh, among the birds are the
blue pigeons of Mecca, the "thrush of Indostan", and the Indian
grosbeak.

Shelley seems somewhat fond of the word "snake", and he
introduces a poetic word in "cobra-di-capel". Hood reminds the
lady departing for India that in that country,

"... the serpent dangerously coileth.
Or lies at full length like a tree."

The crocodile of the English poets is the "river-dragon", or the
"devil-beast". He is king in Southey's fancied city of Croco-
dilople. Beddoes devoted a sonnet to it, and places the humming-
bird safely in its "iron jaws". One poet honors our country by
naming the "American crocodile". Associated also with the
Nile is a serpent in Wells' Joseph and His Brethren. Among the
curses wherewith Phraxanor curses Joseph is this:

" . . . . May the huge snake
That worships on the Nile, enring and crush thee!"*^

A review of the numerous passages on the camel and the ele-
phant would show many interesting details of imaginative treat-
ment. The 'snort' of the camel is probably one of the strangest
animal sounds to be found in the verse we are studying. Jones, in
Solimay makes the camels 'bound o'er the lawn like the sportful
fawn'. In the play just referred to they are found "dreaming in

60. The Bride, I. 8.

61. II. 3.

7^ University of Kansas Humanistic Studies

the sun'*. The following somewhat curious passage may be
quoted from an obscure poem :

''The hungry traveller in the dreary waste
From the slain camel shares a rich repast:
While parched with thirst, he hails the plenteous well.
Found in the stomach's deep ci^acious cell. "^^

The elephant in London was briefly noticed in Chapter V. In
his native regions he is presented in a variety of ways. Hood's
young lady who is going to Bombay remarks that '' elephants are
horses there ". In Miss Baillie's The Bride there are two references
to the human body trampled under an elephant's feet, as well as
a vigorous description of the clearing of a path through the forest
by an elephant's supple trunk. One of the most original images
is found in Montgomery, with reference to the dead body of the
great beast: —

''Bees in the ample hollow of his skull
Piled their wax-citadels and stored their honey. "•'

For the sake of comparison of passages on the same theme,
these two quotations may be given, the first from Montgomery, the
second from Milman:

"The enormous elephant obeyed their will.
And, tamed to cruelty with direst skill.
Roared for the battle, when he felt the goad.
And his proud lord his sinewy neck bestrode,
Throuj^ crashing ranks resistless havoc bore.
And writhed his trunk, and bathed his tusks in gore. "^

** As in the Oriental wars where meet
Sultan and Omrah, under his broad tower
Moves stately the huge Elephant, a shaft
Haply casts down his friendly rider, wont
To lead him to the tank, whose children shared
With him their feast of fruits: awhile he droops
Affectionate his loose and moaning trunk;
Then in his grief and vengeance bursts, and bears
In his feet's trampling rout and disarray
To either army, ranks give way, and troops
Scatter, while, swaying on his heaving back
His tottering tower, he shakes the sandy plain. "^

62. Cambridge: The Scribleriad; Book I.

63. The Pelican Island; Canto VI. The whole passage is interesting.

64. The World before the Flood; Canto VII.

65. Samor, Lord of th€ Bright City; Book XI.

Osborne: OrienM Diction and Theme 76

The last selection is from a poem of Saxon England, the *' Bright
City" of the title being Gloucester.

Anthropological details are not to be expected in this period,
even if they could be given with poetic result. For the most part
the poets confine themselves to color and to general characteristics
of hair and eyes. One does not read of 'little yellow people',
though Walter Scott writes of the hue of ''golden glow" caused
by the "suns of Candahar".^ But such terms as sable, sooty,
black, swart, swarthy, and dark-skinned are in frequent use. Mac-
auley gives us the phrase, "Syria's dark-browed daughters ".•'
The idea of the special beauty of the Oriental women, as well as
of the houris and peris is not rarely introduced. Lloyd has a four-
line passage on the feet of the Chinese ladies, ill adapted for
pedestrianism,*^ but Moore, in The Veiled Prophet^ refers more
courteously to "the small, half -shut glances of Kathay".

Among social groups most often noticed, are bands of thieves
and pirates, the women of the harem, the members of the caravan,
the Chaldean star-watchers, the crowds about the car of Jugger-
naut, the priests and people in the temple, shepherds, merchants,
armies on battlefield or in camp. In a larger sweep, one finds as
groups unified by imagination, the "children of Brama", and the
inhabitants of all the Moslem world. The idea of extensive pop-
ulations is frequently met. Johnson actually gives some figures
for a number of regions, in his Septeni jEiates. Such expressions
as thousands, tens of thousands, myriads, "million-peopled", as
well as horde, tribe, clan, etc., do not seem accidental in the Ori-
ental verse. These social groups, larger or smaller, are headed by
"Sophy, Sultan, and Czar", by Pharaohs, caliphs, satraps, omrahs,
kings and queens. Not very many historical persons of note step
forth from the masses. The list includes Attila, Semiramis, Zen-
obia, the False Prophet and some of his successors, Confucius,"' a
few Persian poets, and other names found in Greek, Latin, or Bibli-
cal records. Harte mentions Mesva, "an Arabian physician well
skilled in botany ";^^ and Crabbe mentions Fasil and Michael as

66. See supra, p. 66.

67. In The Battle of the Lake ReQillus.

68. The Cobbler of CripplegaU*s Letter.

69. The asgodatlon of names in this couplet firom Boyse's On the Death of Sir
John James, Bart, is interesting:

"To practice more than Epictetiu tausht.
Or Cato acted, or Ck>nfuciu8 thought.^*

70. In Bulogius; or. The Charitable Mason.

76 University of Kansas Humanistic Studies

evil Abyssinians of his own day. Kosciusko belongs to the roll of
heroes in English poetry, along with William Tell and George
Washington.

The social life is, except for a few longer poems like Lalla Rookht
represented in fragments, not very easily brought together to
fashion a clear picture. Much is said of war, of worship, of com-
mercial life. Something is given of life on the sea, in the forest, in
city streets. In the period which produced Walter Scott and
Planch^ it is natural to find no little attention given to Oriental
costume. Southward, we find the nearly nude barbarians of
Africa, and the " haik " of the Algerians. Farther North and East,
we learn something of capote, turban, shawl, horse-tails, sheep-
skin caps, and various priestly robes. Many rich costumes are
described; of silk, perhaps, and decorated with "'gems fit for a
Sultan's diadem'*. The henna of feminine toilet is rather often
mentioned, and occasionally the sumah. There are references to
the veils of the Turkish women, and to the black masks of the
Arabian women. As to military armor and tactics, the work of
the elephant is perhaps the most characteristic novelty. Lance
and sword seem to be carried into Oriental warfare by the imagina-
tion of English poets, and the Parthian bow and arrow, along with
some other weapons, are to be credited to the traditions of Biblical
or classical literature rather than to modem knowledge of the East.
The scimitar is a favorite of the poets, however, and the jerrid
and the ataghan are among the weapons honored by footnotes.
The great Eastern hunt, in which game of various species is driven
gradually into the waiting corral by a circle of hunters, is described
in several passages.^' The Moorish dances of Spain and some of
the dances of the East itself are noticed in this or that passage.

The life of the home is not prominent, though domestic life of
one type or another is presented in The Curse of Kehama^ Thalabay
Lalla Rookhy and other poems. The relation of father and daughter
in the two chief Oriental poems of Southey is presumably modeled
on the good old English standards in large degree. In Byron,
there is probably a closer approach to the actual conditions of the
East. There are comparatively few descriptions of the interiors
of private homes. Life in the tent, by soldier, merchant or exile,
may be viewed to some extent as a substitute for the life of parlor

71. See, for example. The Prelude, Book X.

Osborne: Oriental Diction and Theme 77

and kitchen. At least it was less familiar to the majority of Eng-
lish readers. It is interesting to note that the '^ black tents" of
Sohrab and Rustum are not the first of their kind to appear in
English verse; for we find the ''sable tents" of the Arabians in
John Scott's Zerad.

The art of the Orient may be noted chiefly with respect to
language, literature, and architecture, with very brief mention of
music and painting.

So far as romantic interest is concerned, the ancient symbolic
characters of Eastern language may correspond with the runes of
the North — both are poetic subjects in our period. These lines of
Montgomery, like various early passages on the hidden sources of
the Nile, emphasize recent progress in our knowledge of the Orient :

''Eg3rpt's grey piles of hieroglyphic grandeur.
That have survived the language which they speak.
Preserving its dead emblems to the eye.
Yet hiding from the mind what these reveal. "'*

Perhaps no Oriental language receives such tribute as Jonson gave
to 'Tjatin, queen of tongues",^ or Milton to Italian at the close of
one of his sonnets : —

«

Questa i lingua di cui si vanta Amore. "

Jones gives an amusing account, in Plaesey-Plainj of Lady Jones'
experience in learning the native tongue or tongues in India. The
el^hants and perroquets were sympathetic with her, the poem
states, but knew no western language; and as for the ''patient
dromedaries", "Arabic was all they talked". Mrs. Montagu,
according to her own account, was in somewhat the same linguistic
isolation in Turkey. On March 16, 1718, she wrote from Constan-
tinople, "The memory can retain but a certain number of images;
and 'tis as impossible for one human creature to be master of ten
different languages, as to have in perfect subjection ten different
kingdoms ... in Pera they speak Turkish, Greek, Hebrew, Ar-
menian, Arabic, Persian, Russian, Sclavonian, Wallachian, Ger-
man, Dutch, French, English, Italian, Hungarian; and what is
worse, there are ten of these languages spoken in my own family".
Cotton — himself a doctor— -speaking of a medical prescription.

72. The Pelican Island: Canto II.

73. A Fit of Rhyme Offainit Rhyme.

78 University of Kansas Humanistic Studies

says that 'it was Arabic to you and me*. For the advantages of
knowing Arabic when among the Arabians, one may turn to
Orlando's account in Hoole's translation of Ariosto.^^

Some of the OrienUl writers mentioned in EngUsh verse are
fictitious. Omar Khayyam, it seems, was scarcely known in Eng-
land during the earlier part of our period. Hafiz, Saadi, and a few
other Eastern poets are mentioned. The works attributed to
Confucius are rarely noticed in our verse, though an English trans-
lation by Joshua Marshman appeared in 1809. The chief emphasis
is probably upon the Koran^ from which various ideas are wrought
into English verse, and on Arabian Nights. The Vedcuf are
occasionally mentioned, and a number of translations from the
Sanskrit, or related Indian languages, were made by Jones and
others. Some passages referring to the Arabian Nights have already
been noted. One more may be added, though it is not in very
poetic language: —

''It minds one of that famous Arab tale
(First to expand the struggling notions
Of my child-brain) in whidi the bold poor man
Was checked for lack of 'Open Sesame'."^*

A very important art of the Orient, according to our poets, is
architecture. There are in our period no Oriental poems to rival
the Ode on a Grecian Urn or On Seeing the Elgin Marbles; none like
Rossetti's Burden of Nineveh; but there are many passages and at
least one poem of some note on the pyramids. Orientalized poetry
is full of temples, fanes, domes, mosques, minarets, pagodas,
kiosks, and palaces. These structures are in general to the Oriental
taste what the medieval castle was to Gothic taste^* or the "druid-
ical circle" to the Celtic. Now in the background, now in the
foreground, is the gigantic car of Juggernaut, wreathed with
flowers, crushing its victims to death. In the temples are grim
forms of huge, misshapen idols. On the desert sands are the
prostrate statue of the tyrant and the crumbled walls of palaces.
The Alhambra receives a genuine Oriental description in Mrs.
Hemans' Abencerrage. Elsewhere one finds reference to the great
temple at Mecca, to the sacred stone and !Zemzem-well. There

74. Book XXIII. Pmo 199 of the edition dted in Appendix.
76. Arthur Haliam: Meditative Fragments, VI.

76. Yet in The Bride, out of fifteen acenes we have eight in or before a castle.
There are two castles in this play; that of Rasinga and that of Samaricoon.

Osborne: Oriental Diction and Theme 79

are several brief references to the great wall of China. Hardly any
type of Oriental passage is more frequent than that which exhibits
the pathos of the great Eastern ruins — ^the ruins of Babylon, Pal-
myra, Memphis, Carthage, or Eastern ruins in general. Sometimes
there is a definite didactic touch, as in this line from Boyse's
Retirement: —

"And what Palmyra is, — Versailles may be. "

Oriental painting, so far as our verse notices it, seems to be done
largely by Englishmen. That the art of the Chinese painters was
not always fully appreciated is clear from this line of Young's : —

"The point they aim at is deformity."^

The hanging gardens of Babylon are sometimes noted, and minor
" grove " and even " lawn " apj>ear now and then. Lovers of Kubla
Khan will remember the

"... gardens bright with sinuous rills
Where blossomed many an incense-bearing tree;"

by the borders of Alph. Wordsworth in The Prelude''^ has a much
more elaborate description of the gardens of Gchol, fashioned for
the delight of the Tartarian dynasty.

Among musical instruments are the timbrel and the psaltery,
suggesting the Biblical influence. The lute is in Oriental verse as
well as in the Elizabethan lyric. More strictly Oriental are the
favorite atabal, the "gong-peal and cymbal-clank*', the rebeck
(though this is found in U Allegro) y and the bells upon the dancer's
ankles.^' Various more or less musical chants, battle-cries, and
lamentations of mourners are introduced; the "tecbir" is heard
in quite a number of poems. In The Bride of Abydoe one finds the
"OUahs", the call of the muezzin, the "wul-wuUeh", and the
"hymn of fate" by the Koran-chanters. The fact that a number
of poems are written, or announced as written, for Eastern "airs"
may indicate some interest in Oriental music. Moore paid con-
siderable attention to musical matters in Lalla Rookh; not neglect-
ing the customary explanations of footnotes. One learns from him
something of the pastoral reed and the Abyssinian trumpet; of

77. Lo9e of Fame, the Universal PastUm; Satire VI.

78. Book VlII.

79. All the instruments named in this sentence are found in The Vision of Don
Roderick, stansas 19 and 25.

80 Unwersily of Kansas Humanistic Studies

''kema'* and ^'syrinda"; of the bells on the waists or ankles of the
dancers. He tells us (quoting, as often) that "'The Easterns used
to set out on their longer voyages with music". The song of
Zelica sung to the lute is like that of the dying bulbul. "There's
a bower of roses " is sung

<<

In the pathetic mode of Isfahan. *'

The mythology of the Eastern peoples appeals to the imagina-
tion of the English poets; their religions awake the fancy of some,
arouse the missionary zeal and the sense of English rectitude and
sanity in others. A religious element enters into some of the wars
and racial antagonisms considered in our verse. In his review of
Lalla RookhfJettrey has this to say of the ethics of the great world
lying beyond the borders of Europe: ''It may seem a harsh and
presumptuous sentence, to some of our Cosmopolite readers; but
from all we have been able to gather from history or recent obser-
vation, we should be inclined to say that there was no sound sense,
firmness of purpose, or principled goodness, except among the
natives of Europe, and their genuine descendants".

The time was not ripe for a study of comparative religion, or
for a World's Congress of Religions. Yet in Shelley and others we
have ideas far more progressive than that just given from the
famous critic. If Shelley is somewhat disdainful of social religion
in general, he limits his disdain to no one particular embodiment
of it. He writes in one line of

"Seeva, Buddh, Foh, Jehovah, God, or Lord."*®

In another poem he wrote:

'*And Oromaze, Joshua, and Mahomet,
Moses, and Buddh, Zerdusht, and Brahm, and Foh."*^

Southey, while professing in his prefaces the orthodox hostility to
Oriental religions, reveals considerable beauty in some aspects of
them. In many poems, however, it is the horrible that is empha-
sized.

The Asiatic and African religions are often considered in a very
general way, under such conceptions as superstition, heathendom,
idolatry, paganism, and the like. More specifically, the chief

so. Queen Aiab; VII.

81. The Revolt of Islam; X. 31.

. Odbame: Oriental Diction and Theme 81

faiths introduced are sun-worship, the Egyptian worship of ani*
mals, Buddhism, and Mohammedanism. Confucianism receives
little attention in the verse of our period, and it is doubtful if
Shinto is even mentioned. Certain Egyptian gods are often
named — ^Apis, Anubis, Isis, and Osiris. The gods of India to whom
Jones writes hynms include Bhavani, Camdeo, Durga, Ganga,
Indra, Lacshmi, Narayena, Sereswaty, and Surya. The East
Indian ascetics are introduced in a number of passages, and the
'Mevoted Bride of the fierce Nile" appears in LaUa Rookh. In
many poems the car of Juggernaut is pictured, and the suttee
rebuked or pitied. Much that is poetically delightful in Eastern
religion, however, is given to English readers. The peris, houris,
and glendoveers are perhaps as pleasing as the fairies of Celtic lore,
and certainly less grim than Woden, Thor, and the Valkyries, made
familiar by the poets of the Gothic Renaissance.

Apart from Southey and Moore, the chief emphasis is probably
upon Mohammedanism — as a subject for English verse, less novel
than the ancient faiths of Persia, Egypt, and India. Mohammed
is the ''false prophet". Much is taken from the Koran; ridicule
or poetic approval is given to the Mohammedan paradise. Polyg-
amy, sensuality, the vow of temperance, the cruelty of the bigot,
are among the themes. ''The Turk" was often a term in an ex-
pression of reproach including the Papist and the Jew. In a
moment of satirical humor an English poet might write in such
fashion as this:

«<

The sage Maliometans have ever paid
Distinguished honours to the fool and mad";^*

or this:

"That every Mussulman was killed in battle,
A fate most proper for such heathen cattle.
Who do not pray to God our way."*'

To return a moment to the farther East, and, once more, to Miss
Baillie's Bride. In that dramatic poem we find these interesting
passages; on idolatry in general, on transmigration (not an un-
common theme), and on Nirvana, a rather rare theme in our
period: —

82. Cambridge: The 5er<M#H«<(; Book I.

83. Wolcott: Peter's Pension.

8t University of Kansas Humanistic Studies

€*

«

Like a dressed idol in its carved alcove,

A thing of silk and gems and cold repose."*^

''When in the form of antelope or loorie
She wends her way to Booahoo. ""

Even like Niwane» when the virtuous soul

Hath run, through many a change, its troubled course. "**

Hood's humor does not fail him when he chances to write of the
suttee: —

"Go where the Suttee in her own soot broileth. *'•'

One finds a much more sombre treatment of this theme in these
passages, from Montgomery and Bowles respectively:

"The pyre, that bums the aged Bramin's bones
Runs cold in blood, and issues living groans.
When the whole Haram with the husband dies.
And demons dance around the sacrifice. '*'^

". . . . on Ganges' banks
Still superstition hails the flame of death.
Behold, gay dressed, as in her bridal tire,
The self-devoted beauteous victim slow
Ascend the pile where her dead husband lies:
She kisses his cold cheeks, inclines her breast
On his, and lights herself the fatal pile
That shall consume them both!*'^'

84. Th€ Bride: I. 1.

86. /Md.; III. 2.

86. /Mtf.; I. 2.

87. Line9 to a Lady on Uer Departure for India.

88. Verses to the Memory of ihe Late Richard Reynolds; III.

89. The Spirit of Discovery; Book V.

CHAPTER VII.

Poetic Values In English Orientalism

This chapter attempts to give a brief summary of the chief
psychological and aesthetic reactions of English poetry in our
period upon the Orient and the Oriental taste. In part, the chapter
may serve as a review of the preceding pages. First may be noted
some values which represent, in the main, the characteristic spirit
of the Eighteenth Century; and secondly, those which represent,
on the whole, the spirit of the Romantic Movement.

Among the signs of the Eighteenth Century spirit are satire,
parody, emphasis on common sense and reason, artificiality, and
didacticism. In the earlier part of our period, a satirical spirit
which touches Oriental matters at times is found in Cambridge's
ScrMeriad and in the verse of "Peter Pindar". A humorous
treatment of Warren Hastings appears in The RoUiad. Parody of
Orientalized verse is found in Rejected Addresses^ The Anti-Jacobin,
and in many detached poems. Among the individual poems paro-
died by one humorist or another were The Curse of Kehama, KuUa
Khan, Lalla Rookh, The Giaour, The Destruction of Sennacherib,
Casabianca, and Abou ben Adhem.

An interest in novel information is apparent in the formidable
array of footnotes which accompany the longer Oriental poems, in
prefaces, introductions, and in numerous essays. The early Nine-
teenth Century essayists — Jeffrey, Macaulay, Mackintosh, Tal-
fourd, Sydney Smith, and others — ^gave considerable attention to
the natural and social conditions in the Orient proper, and in
Africa and Australia. A semi-scientific interest in the natural
history of the Ea.st appears in the verse of Erasmus Darwin and
others. The Eighteenth Century poets were fond of writing on
such abstract themes as Disease, Health, Superstition, Commerce,
Navigation, Taste, Liberty, etc., and it is not surprising to find
them again and again drawing upon the Orient for some of their

8S

84 University of Kansas Humanistic Studies

material. Reflections on current European conditions or on life
in general were sometimes emphasized by lessons taken from the
E^t. Lyttelton attempts to arouse England to battle for the
liberties of Europe with the warning,

"Lo! Prance, as Persia once, o'er every land
Prepares to stretch her all-oppressing hand."*®

If the elephant was an interesting theme for romantic observation,
it could also be utilized for didactic purposes, as this passage
(antedating our period) from Thomson's Summer indicates:

"O truly wise! with gentle might endowed.
Though powerful, not destructive. Here he sees
Revolving ages sweep the changeful earth.
And empires rise and fall; regardless he
Of what the never-resting race of men
Project: thrice happy! could he 'scape their guile.
Who mine, from cruel avarice, his steps;
Or with the towery grandeiu* swell their state.
The pride of kings! or else his strength pervert,
And bid him rage amid the tnortal fray,
Astonished at the madness of mankind."

The Romantic enthusiasm for the remote was to some extent
chilled by the home-loving patriotism of the English character and
by a realistic suspicion that not all is gold that glitters — ^in the
distance. There are various poems and passages expressing the
home-sickness of one whom fate has carried far over seas. Gold-
smith's emigrants in The Deserted Village are not the only ones who
leave the British Isles with a sense of loss. In The Sabbath^ Grahame
writes thus of the Scotchman exiled in the Southern seas:

''What strong mysterious links enchain the heart
To regions where the mom of life is spent !
In foreign lands, though happier be Uie clime.
Though round our board smile all the friends We love.
The face of nature wears a stranger's look. "

At the end of his imaginary Voyage Round the Worlds Montgomery
returns home with no little rejoicing: —

"Now to thee, to thee, I fly.
Fairest isle, beneath the sky.
To my heart, as in mine eye.

90. To Mr. Qloter: On His Poem of Leonidas. (1734.)

Osborne,: Oriental Diction and Theme 86

I have seen them» one by one»
Every shore beneath the sun»
And my voyage now is done.

While I bid them all be blest,

Britain is my home, my rest;

— ^Mine own land! I love thee best."

If the sturdy, persistent realism of Crabbe sees much that is sordid
in the English village, it is not deceived by the poetic praises of
distant regions. Witness this passage in Edward Shore:

** 'Tis thus a sanguine reader loves to trace
The Nile forth rushing on his glorious race;
Calm and secure the fancied traveller goes.
Through sterile deserts and by threat 'ning foes;
He thinks not then of Af ric's scorching sands,
Th' Arabian sea, the Abyssinian bands;
Fasils and Michaels, and the robbers all.
Whom we politely chiefs and heroes call:
He of success alone delights to think,
He views that fount, he stands upon the brink.
And drinks a fancied draught, eating so to drink. "

The common sense of GifiFord rebels against the obscure and arti-
ficial style in which some reports of foreign lands are given to the
English stay-at-home, in an interesting passage opening with the
lines,

*'Lo! Beaufoy tells of Afric's barren sand
In all the flowery phrase of fairy land*',

and closing with the line,

''And call for Mandeville, to ease my head. **^^

We have already indicated John Foster's opinion of the Rama-
yuna.^ His disapproval of Indian architecture was equally em-
phatic. The buildings of Hindostan are ''fantastic, elaborate, and
decorated to infinity .... there is device, and detail, and ramifi-
cation, and conceit, and fantasy, to the absolute stupifaction of
the beholder. '* The standards by whidi he condemns this ccm-
f used Eastern architecture are found not in English but in Gredaa
architecture, with its "harmonious simplicity".**

91. r^ BaHad,

92. Supra, p. 41.

93. Review of DanieU'a Oriental Scenery,

86 University of Kansas Humanistic Studies

The Romantic poet, at least in his Romantic moods, spoke
otherwise. The Orient, like the Occident, and with some advan-
tages over the latter, offered him that escape from the local, the
familiar, the prosaic, that flight into the remote and the unknown
which his heart desired. The Romantic critic understood the
situation. *' Passion is lord of infinite space ", wrote Hazlitt, " and
distant objects please because they border on its confines, and

are moulded by its touch Distance of time has much the

same effect as distance of place ".'^ To Kirke White, *' The distant
prospect always seems more fair."*^ Keats sings,

"Ever let the Fancy roam.
Pleasure never is at home. '*••

Coleridge gives us this couplet in Christabd:

"She was most beautiful to see.
Like a lady of a far countrfc. *'•'

Moore voices somewhat the same conception in quite a different
manner in these lines sent home from the new world:

"Oh, Lady! these are miracles, which man,
Caged in the bounds of Europe's pigmy plan.
Can scarcely dream of; which liis eyes must see.
To know how beautiful this world can be!"*^

The sense of space and of change may be gained by rapid move-
ment; and it seems no accident that in the longer Oriental narra-
tives there is found something of the "Glory of Motion" — a
restless passing to and fro in place of the stable abiding supposed
to represent the typical English character. Southey did not travel
very extensively, and he never saw the banks of the Susquehanna
of which he dreamed; but in Thalaba his imagination produced an
almost constant and phantasmagoric shifting of scenes. Mrs..
Shelley records that she and her husband were very fond of travel-
ing, and would have travelled much more extensively than they
did if circumstances had permitted. But following his hero in
Alastor, Shelley was "on the go" through most of the poem.
Simple little journeys to France or Spain or Italy did not satisfy

M. Table Talk: Why DUtant ObjecU Please.

96. From a Fragmeni ("The western gale." etc.)>
IM. To Fancy.

97. Chriiiabel: Part I.

99. BpUtU IX .... From the Banks of the River St. Lawrence.

Otbome: OrierUal Dictum and Theme 87

the craving for change in the true poet of the Romantic Movement*
An example of this restlessness of fancy, almost morbid in this
case perhaps, is found in the dreams Kirke White had of his final
resting place. In a mood of quiet English feeling he could write
of a commonplace English burial-ground,

"Here would I wish to sleep. — This is the spot
Which I have long marked out to lay my bones in;

Beneath this yew I would be sepulchred.
It is a lovely spot!" etc.**

At another time the Gothic taste assails him, and he answers its
demand thus:

"Lay me in the Gothic tomb.
In whose solemn fretted gloom
I may lie in mouldering state.
With all the grandeur of the great. "^®®

Once again, his craving for something more remote, more un-
familiar, more wild, finds expression in these lines:

"Or that my corse should, on some desert strand.
Lie stretched beneath the Simoom's blasting hand."^®^

"Distance of time has much the same effect as distance of place.**
Occasionally the antiquity of South American civilization is
expressed in English verse of our period; but it is to the Orient
that the poet naturally turned to find remoteness of space and
remoteness of time combined. So far as poetry was concerned,
Asia was the cradle of the human race; and the ruins of Egypt were
far older than the medieval castle, Roman road, or the druidical
circle of England. In the diction of the Orientalized verse
terms of antiquity are common. There are numerous such phrases
as "shattered with age", "antique marble", and "ancient lore".
Egypt is "old** and "hushed", "ancient", "eldest** and "dead**;
she is the " motherland of all the arts ", and the " land of memory'*.
One poet at least writes definitely of "India's memories". It is
not only human culture that is old — ^the astronomy of Chaldea,
the commerce of Phoenicia, the pyramids and hieroglyphics of
Egypt, the mythology of India — ^but even nature herself seems to

99. Lines WHUen in Wilford Churchward,

100. Thanatos.

101. CHftan Oro9e.

88 University of Kansas Humanistic Studies

imagination older in a land humanly old. One reads of the *'old
Ganges '^ the ''old Euphrates**. Beside the charm of the merely
remote, in space or in time, the Romantic poet voiced the appeal
of the immeasurable, the inaccessible, the unmastered. That
element of the formless and the void in Oriental life which so
offended Foster was often a source of delight to Shelley, to Byron,
and to many lesser poets. To note the diction again, such words
as vast, vasty, enormous, sumless, horde, cloud, (for a group of
people), host, millions, are frequent. Among the Miltonic nega-
tives characteristic of this mood are "impenetrable", "inmieas-
ureable", "invisible", "insatiate". It is largely this aspect of the
Romantic Movement which finds such severe condemnation in
Paul Elmer More. His judgment is that "Romanticism is a
radical confusion of the unlimited desires and the infinite inner
check. In its essential manifestation it is thus a morbid and
restless intensification of the personal emotions".*®*

There was a charm for many English imaginations in the very
horrors, the very evils, strange and brutal and vast, which a
knowledge of the East revealed. If one chooses to select such
matters from English Oriental verse and combine them, one may
witness a weird procession of terrible images. There pass before
the reader, mutes and eunuchs, captives and crowds of half -naked
slaves; the car of Juggernaut, crushing human bodies beneath it:

"Beneath the creaking axle the red flood
Gushes unceasing; scattered on the stones
lie crushed and mangled bones;
Through slaughter and through blood

The chariot of the god — the dark god — creels;
And laughter — shnU unnatural laughter — brings
As each mad victim springs
To meet the murderous wheels. "*•*

In the background are seen the ugly form of the poison-tree, the
bodies of those who died from thirst in the desert, and a swarm of

"Afric's black, lascivious, slothful breed. "*^

The scene changes to the abodes of evil beyond death, and amid
terrifying li^^ts, an infernal storm of meteors and hailstones, the

102. The Drift of Ramantieism; p. 270.

103. Praed: Htndoatan.

104. Young: Imperium Pelagi; Strain V.

Osborne: Oriental Diction and Theme 99

stench of sulphurous clouds and the din of lash and hammer, rises
the vague» malignant form of Azyoruca, with her thousand grasp-
ing arms.^^

There is» according to Ruskin, "a strange connection between
the reinless play of the imagination, and a sense of the presence
of evil.'**"* " Southern Asia, in general ", wrote De Quincey in his
Confessions, *'is the seat of awful images and associations". Not
only the terrors of Asia, but the African crocodile, and the Malay,
affecting the abnormal dreams of De Quincey, affected English
literature. Perhaps nothing in the verse of our period can rival
his prose imagery of Oriental horrors.

These terrors appear even in the aesthetic imagination of Keats.
In Isabella the ears of the Ceylon pearl diver ''gushed blood".
More characteristic, however, for this poet, is such a mingling of
the awful with the beautiful as one finds in these lines from The
Cap and Bells (stanza 44) :

*'She was bom at midnight in an Indian wild;
Her mother's screams with the striped tiger's blent.
While the torch-bearing slaves a halloo sent
Into the jungles; and her palanquin.
Rested amid the desert's dreariment, " etc.

The name of Keats suggests another phase of Oriental verse;
that concerned with the luxury of the senses. In Keats himself
one may find such passages as these:

''Manna and dates, in argosy transferred
From Fez; and spiced dainties, every one.
From silken Samarcand to cedared Lebanon. "^^^

"I saw Osirian Egypt kneel adown
Before the vine-wreath crown!
I saw parched Abyssinia rouse and sing
To the silver pymbals' ring!
I saw the whelming vintage hotly pierce
Old Tartary the fierce!
The kings of Ind their jewel-sceptres vail
And from their treasures scatter pearled hail."^*^

The delight of the senses dominates most of the Oriental flower

106. The Cur$e of Kehama; Canto XXHI.

106. Modem PaitUer$; Port IV, ChApter 6.

107. r^ Eve of St. Agnet; Btania 30.

108. Bndymion; Book IV.

90 University of Kansas Humanistic Studies

passages, fruit passages, and jewel passages. There is appeal to
the sense of taste in the frequent mention of cinnamon, cloves,
coffee, and Persian wines. For the sense of touch there are silken
garments, soft rugs, and the hard polished surfaces of gems.
Sounds range from the tinkle of lutes to the war-shouts of Moslem
armies. For scents there are the delicate perfumes of the rose,
and of frankincense, the odors borne by winds that pass by Arabian
groves or the cedars of Lebanon, and the pungent odors from the
animals of the jungle. In the diction of Sir William Jones the
adjectives "golden", "silver*', and "silken" are in steady service.
His color vocabulary includes such words as "crimson ", " saffron ",
and " roseate ". He is fond of all that dazzles, or glows, or gleams,
or glitters, or sparkles, or blazes. In many poets one reads of the
wealth of the mines of Golconda, of the pearls of Ceylon and the
gold of Ophir, of costly copies of the Koran^ of richly decorated
armor, ofluxurious temples and palaces. These values from the
Orient are not new or newly discovered in our period. Langhome
writes of the Song of Solomon, "This beautiful and luxuriant
marriage pastoral of Solomon, is the only perfect form of the Ori-
ental eclogue that has survived the ruins of time ", etc.'®* Medieval
literature had its Oriental luxury as well as its asceticism. The
Virgin Mary is praised in extravagant terms of the senses in some
of the English religious dramas. According to the Minnesinger
Konrad of Wtirzburg, she was "exalted like the cypress in Zion
and the cedar on Lebanon; . . . her sweet fragrance is pleasanter
than balsam and musk".''® This note of sensuous and often un-
restrained luxury, sometimes passing into a "barbaric splendor",
was more or less offensive not only to the Puritan, but also to the
classicist. Perhaps there is no other note so distinctive of Orien-
talism in English poetry, if Orientalism is considered as a style^
and not as a "field".

The humanitarian interest of the early Nineteenth Century
found satisfaction in three closely related Orientalized themes —
the hatred of tyranny, the love of liberty, and the spirit of service.
The English poets often considered the East as a region of slaver3\
Superstition and the cruelty of monarchs oppressed all those weak
in mind or body. The submission of Greece to the Turk was not
only a sentimental subject, but a practical, political, and ethical

109. Edition of CoUiiiB cited In Appendir; p. 129.

110. See Hosmer; p. 101.

Osborne: Oriental Diction and Theme 91

interest. If Byron died for the cause of freedom, so, in other ways,
did some of the reformers and the servants of the Church. Poems
and passages on the horrors of the slave-trade are numerous, and
written with enthusiasm for reform. The tributes to Bishop
Heber and Bishop Middleton seem inspired by genuine affection
and approval. Of the work of Middleton in India, Praed writes,

''Soon, at his bidding. Love, the beauteous child,
Returned; rich plenty blessed the land's increase;
Staid Order, gentle Peace,
Twin-bom of Justice, smiled.""*

In many poets the love of liberty was stronger than national
patriotism. In The Warning Voice Southey claims that it was
England who began the redemption of Africa, who brought ''peace
and equity" to India; but Campbell does not hesitate to give
severe criticism of England's management in India. The tenth
avatar of Brama will occur,

"To pour redress on India's injured realm.""*

Again, Coleridge, in France: An Ode, expresses love for England
only in so far as she stood for liberty among all peoples. In an
early poem, written within our period, Tennyson gives in his
gentle manner a clear expression of the same spirit. If England
should cease to be the guardian of the nations, then,

"Tho' Power should make from land to land
The name of Britain trebly great —
Tho' every channel of the State
Should fill and choke with golden sand —

Yet waft me from the harbor-mouth.
Wild wind! I seek a warmer sky,
And I will see before I die
The palms and temples of the South. ""'

For him there was no need. The palms and temples of the South
remained mere delights of imagination. He lived to write with
pride, not even yet without the warning note of one who loved
liberty before country, of

111. HindOMtan.

112. Ttui Pleasures of Hope; Part I.

113. " You ask me why, though ill at ease.

92 University of Kansas Humanistic Studies

«

Our ocean-empire with her boundless homes
For ever-broadening England, and her throne
In our vast Orient . . ."^^*

1 14. ThB Idylh of the King: To the i^ueen.

APPENDIX

I. BlBUOORAPHICAL NOTEB

A. Poems and Passages

The following pages gives the chief data on which this study is
based. All the verse for which titles are given has been examined*
unless the title is enclosed in brackets. No attempt has been
made to cover the entire field of English verse between 1740 and
1840. Of the dramas, particularly, only a few have been reviewed.
Though Miss Conant's work is mainly concerned with prose, she
names a few poems not accessible for this study. It is believed,
however, that sufficient verse has been examined to justify the
arrangement, the proportions, and the general interpretation of
Uie foregoing chapters. Much material has been gathered which
could not be used in the present paper.

The arrangement in the pages below is as follows:

Under **V are placed bibUographical references sufficient to
indicate the sources.

Under "II" are placed such poems as are considered Oriental.
Classification is not as simple as it might seem. In addition to
poems clearly Oriental, it has been the intention to include all
those which deal, as wholes, with the gypsy, and the Westerner in
the Orient; and those in which the chief imagery is Eastern, what-
ever the theme. Poems that are merely ''Oriental "in style, in
the sense noted above on page 7 are not included, except in a
few examples.

In Kirke White's Sonnet /X, the theme is religious, but the
chief imagery is drawn from the East. In Procter's Amelia Went-
wartht the situation concerns the departure of ''Charles" for
India, but the spirit of the poem is English, as are the characters.
The Fatal Curiosity has important Oriental motivation, but the
play as a whole is famouls as an early English domestic tragedy.

93

94 University of Kansas Humanistic Studies

The value of the present study, it is hoped, lies in its emphasis
on the wide diffusion of Oriental taste during the period under
discussion. Much remains to be done in English Orientalism, even
for the Eighteenth Century. We should haVe more critical
definitions, and more adequate bibliographical and chronological
surveys.

Under ** III " are noted poems with passages which seem worthy
of record. The data given for some of the minor poets are more
complete than those for some of the masters.

Under "IV have been placed such notes as did not seem to
belong under the other numbers.

Mark Akenbide, 1721-1770.

I. Complete Poetical Works. Knight and Son, London, n. d.
III. The Pleasures of the Imagination.

Book II. — ''Doth virtue deign to inhabit" sq.
Book III.— "To Egypt therefore" sq.
The Virtuoso.— VI-VII.

John Armstrong, 1709-1779.

I. Poetical Works of Armstrong, Dyer, and Green. With
Memoirs and Critical Dissertations. The Text edited
by Charles Cowden Clarke. Edinburgh, 1868.
III. The Art of Preserving Health.

Book II. — " Girt by the burning zone, " sq.
— ^**Here from the desert" sq.
— " What does not fade? " sq.
Imitations of Shakespeare.
["Into the valleys.] And as rude hurricanes," sq.
"The glossy fleeces" sq.

Edwin Atherstone, 1788-187!^.

I. Poems in Miles, vol. II.
II. A Dramatic Sketch.
[The Fall of Nineveh.]

Joanna Baillie, 1762-1851.

I. Complete Poetical Works. Firtt American Edition.
Philadelphia, 1852.

Osborne: Oriental Diction and Theme 96

II. The Bride.

Constantine Paleologus: A Tragedy.
Lord John of the East.
Sir Maurice: a Ballad.
III. The Martyr. — Orceres, a Parthian prince» is an important
character.
William Wallace.— XCI.

Anna Letitia Barbauld, 1748-1825.

I. Poems in Frost, 1838.
III. Hymn to Content. — Stanza 6.

Very slight touches in other poems.

Richard Harris Barham» 1788-1845.

I. Ingoldsby Legends. London. (1907.)
II. The Ingoldsby Penance.
III. The Auto-da-Fe.
The Cenotaph.
The Old Woman Clothed in Gray.

William Barnes, 1801-1886.

I. Select Poems Chosen and Edited by Thomas Hardy. Lon-
don, 1908.

James Beattie, 1785-1808.

I. Poetical Works. London, n. d. Aldine Poets.

III. The Battle of the I^gmies and Cranes. — Passim.
The Minstrel.— Book I, 59.

IV. In a note to his translation of the fourth eclogue of Vergil,
Beattie speaks of the "resemblance it bears in many places
to the Oriental manner".

TnoBiAs LoYELL Beddoes, 1803-1849.

I. Poetical Works. Edited, with a Memoir, by Edmund
Gosse. London, 1890. Two vols. The Temple Library.
II. The Last Man; — ^A Crocodile.

The Romance of the lily.
III. Death's Jest-Book; or The Fool's Tragedy.
Act I. — Scenes i-4.

96 University of Kansas Humanistic Studies

Act III. — ^Scene I.

Scene 8. — Song by Isbrand; and much of the scene.

Act IV. — Scene 4. — '"Harpagus, hast thou salt'* sq,

— ^Ziba: "Come; we'll struggle/' sq.

Act V. — Scene 4. — ^Ziba: "Here's wine of Egypt," sq^
And all passages in which "Ziba; an Egyptian slave"
appears.

The Second Brother. — ^Touches; e. g.y in III, 1.

Torrismond ; I, % — ^** This wine was pressed " «g. ; and passim,

IV. Beddoes has little genuine Orientalism, except as noted
above, but much of his verse is colored by a mystical,
exotic quality which is somewhat allied with Oriental taste,
as the Romantic poets expressed it.

Thomas Blacklock, 17121-1701.

I. Poems in Chalmers, vol. XVIII.

IV. An Ode to a Young Gentleman Bound for Guinea is perhaps
about as near as this poet approaches to an Oriental poem.

Robert Blair, 1699-1746.

I. Poetical Works of Beattie, Blair, and Falconer. With
Lives, etc., by the Rev. Greorge Gilfillan. Edinburgh,
London, and Dublin, 1854.

III. The Grave. — "The tapering pyramid, " sq.

WiLUAM Blake, 1757-1828.

I. Poetical Works. Edited and Annotated by Edwin J. Ellis.
London, 1906. Two. vols.

II. The Song of Los.

Africa.

Asia.
The Little Black Boy.
The Tiger.

III. Jerusalem.

Chapter III. — " Egypt is the eight steps within, " sq. (58)

— "Europe and Asia and Africa and Amer-
ica," sq.
And numerous brief passages.

Osborne: Oriental Diction and Theme 9f

IV. Blake's peculiar symbolical treatment of the Orient gives
him a unique place among the Oriental poets. One passage
in Jerusalem^ however, is a simple geographical list of coun-
tries.

Robert Bloomfield» 1766-1823.
I. The Farmer's Boy. In Frost, 1838.

William Lisle Bowles, 1762-1852.

I. Poetical Works. With Memoir, etc., by the Rev. Geprge
GilfiUan. Edinburgh, London, and Dublin, 1855. Two
vols.
II. Abba Thule's Lament for His Son Prince Le Boo.
The Battle of the Nile.
The Dying Slave.
The Egyptian Tomb.
The Gipsy's Tent.
The Harp of Hoel.
The Last Song of Camoens.
Song of the Cid.
m. BanweUHill.

Part First. — ["The dread event they speak.] What

monuments" eq.

Part Second. — "Hosannah to the car of light!*' «g.
The Grave of Howard. — "Teach to the roving Tartar's
savage clan" sq.

Hope: An Allegorical Sketch. — Stanzas 5 and 18.
Saint John in Patmos. Part Second.— Stranger: "Was
not the hand" eq.

Saint Michael's Mount. — "Thee the Phoenician," eq.
The Spirit of Discovery by Sea.

Book I. — " He said ; and up to the unclouded hd^t" eq.

A good deal in Books II- V.
The Spirit of Navigation.

The Sylph of Summer. — ["Attendant on their march: — 1
the wild Simoom, " sq,
IV. For a study of the heavier type of reflective and didactic
verse dealing with the Orient, Bowles offers a rather sur-
prising amount of material.

98 University of Kansas Humanistic Studies

John Bowbing, 1792-1871?.

I. Matins and Vespers: With Hymns and Occasional Devo-
tional Pieces. Boston, 1844.

II. [Russian Anthology.]
[Servian Popular Poetry.]
[Specimens of the Polish Poets.]

IV. A brief passage on the mirage of Sahara in Matins and
Vespers. — ^See Dictionary of National Biography.

Samuel Boyse, 1708-1749.

I. Poems in Chalmers, vol. XIV.
II. Love and Majesty.
III. To Semanthe : Ode. — ^Last stanza.

The Triumphs of Nature. — * *In which, of form Chinese, "«g.
The Vision of Patience: An Allegorical poem. — General
theme, and stanza 24.

Henrt Brooke, 1706-1788.

I. Gustavus Vasa. In Inchbald's British Theatre^ vol. VII.

Poems in Chalmers, vol. XVII.
II. Constantia; or The Man of Law's Tale. Modernized from
Chaucer.

Jerusalem Delivered. (Translation of Books I-III.)
m. Universal Beauty. Book IV. — " Now hurried on Sarmatian
tempests roll;" sq.

John Bbown, 1715-1766

I. Barbarossa. In Inchbald's British Theatre^ vol. XV.
II. The scene of this play is in Algiers. Some Oriental char-
acters and diction.

Isaac Hawkins Bbowne, 1705-1760.

I. De Animi Immortalitate. In Chalmers, vol. XVII, p.^ 6!2!2.
III. Liber Primus. — "Quid memorem fluctu" sq.

Robert Burns, 1759-1786.

I. Works. Edited by Wm. Scott Douglas. London^ 1891.
Five vols.

Osborne: Oriental Diction and Theme 99

II. TheAuldMan.

**One Queen Artemisia."

Evan Banks.
rV. Bums states that The Avid Man was written for an ''East

Indian air". There are fragmentary touches in other

poems than those named.

John Byrom, 1691-1768.
I. Poems in Chalmers, vol. XV.

II. Epistle to J. Bl. k. n., Esq. Occasioned by a Dispute Con-
cerning the Food of John the Baptist.
III. The Country Fellows and the Ass: Spoken on the Same

Occasion. — ''In some tamed elephants" sq,
Vf. The Epistle named above is one of the numerous Biblical
poems of the period with some coloring which might be
called Oriental; though in general it is dry and didactic.

Georoe Gordon, Lord Byron, 1788-1824.
I. Poetical Works. Edited, with a Memoir, by Ernest Hartl^

Coleridge. London, 1905.
II. The Bride of Abydos: A Turkish Tale.
The Chain I Gave: From the Turkish.
Childe Harold's Pilgrimage. — Canto II.
The Corsair: A Tale.
Don Juan. — Chiefly Cantos II-X.
The Giaour: A Fragment of a Turkish Tale.
Hebrew Melodies.

The Destruction of Sennacherib.

On Jordan's Banks.

The Wild Gazelle.
The Island; or. Christian and His Comrades.
Lara: A Tale.

Maid of Athens, Ere We Part.
On This Day I Complete My Thirty-Sixth Year.
Sardanapalus: A Tragedy.
The Siege of Corinth.

Stanzas Composed During a Thunder Storm.
Stanzas : To a Hindoo Air.
Stanzas Written in Passing the Ambradan Gulf.
To Eliza.

100 University of Kansas Humanistie Studies

Translation of a Romaic Love Song.

Translation of the Famous Greek War-Song.

Translation of the Romaic Song, etc.

A Very Mournful Ballad cm the Si^e and Conquest of

Alhama.

Written after Swimming troim Sestos to Abydos.
III. Ode on Venice. — III.

Brief passages or touches in miuiy other poems.
rV. There is what might be considered Oriental coloring in Cain

and in Heaeen and Earth,

Richard Owen Cambridge^ 1717-1802.

I. Poems in Chalmers, vol. XVIII.
II. The FaJceer: A Tale.

III. Learning: A Dialogue between Dick and Ned. — *^ There,
Ned, a Brahmin may you see " sq.
The Scribleriad.— Book I.
'IV. Cambridge was interested in the study of East Indian affairs.

Thobcab CAMPBEUi, 1777-1844.

I. Complete Poe^ipal Works. Edited by J. Logic Robertson.

Oxford University Press, 1907.
II. The Dead Eagle.

Epistle from Algiers to Horace Smith,
lines on the Departure of Emigraiits for New South Wales.
Lines [on] the Day of Victory in Egypt, }809.
lines on Poland.
The Power of Russia.
The Bitter Bann.

Song of the Colonists Departing for New Zealnnd.
Song of the Greeks.
Stanzas on the Battle of Naviirino.
The Turkish Lady.
The Wounded Hussar.
III. The Pleasures of Hope. Parti. — "In Libyan groves," to
the end.

Geobge Canning, 1770-1827.
I. Poems in Morley: Parodies and Other Burlesque

0§bome: Otimlel Diction and Theme $01

• *

11. The Progress of Man. Twenty-third Canto. On Marriage.

(With EUis.)
rV. See also under Frere.

William Caret, 1761-1884.

IV. A translation of part of the Ramayuna by Car^ and Joshua
Marshman is reviewed by Foster. (See below, p. ISS, Foster,
SaneerU LUeraiure.) Carey is credited with an edition of
the Ramayuna in three volumes, 1806-1810.

Henbt Francis Cart, 1792-1844.
II. [Ode to General Kosciusko.]

James Cawthorn, 1719-1761.

I. Poems in Chalmers, vol. XIV.
III. The Antiquarians: A Tale.

— "Asserted that it came from Tyre:" «g.
— "It came! says he," eq.
The Birth and Education of Genius: A Tale. — "But, such
the fate, " eq,

life Unhappy because We Use it Improperly: A Mora!
Essay. — "Breathes it in Ceylon's'* sq.
Nobility: A Moral Essay. — "In Turkey,"^. And passim.
Of Taste.— *'0f late, •tis true," sq.

The Vanity of Human Enjoyments: An Ethic Epistle. —
"TeU me, O visier!" sq.
tV. The passage in Of Taste is one of the best of the period on
matters Oriental in English garden and parlor ornament.

Thomas Chatterton, 175^1770.

I. Poetical Works. Boston, 1879. Two vob. in one. British

Poets,
n. The Death of Nicou : An African Edogiie.
Heccar and Gaira: An African Eclogue.
Narva and Mored : An African Eclogue.
m. Englysh Metamorphosis. — ^I, 1.

rV. The Oriental element in Chatterton is intere^tiiig by way
of contrast with the work for which he is famous. It is
practically limited to the Edogues.

lOa University of Kansas Humanistic Studies

Charles Churchill, 1781-1764.

I. Poetical Works. With Memoir, etc., by the Rev. George

Gilfillan. Edinburgh, London, and Dublin, 1855.
II. The Farewell.
III. The Ghost.

Book I. — "At its first rise," sq.
Book III. — " *Sure as that cane, " sq,
Gotham. — "But whither do these grave reflections" sq>
The Times. — "Nor stop we here" sq.

Hartley Coleridge, 1796-1849.

I. Poems in Miles, vol. III.
II. Address to Certain Gold Pishes.

Samuel Taylor Coleridge, 1772-1834.

I. Complete Poetical Works. Edited by Ernest Hartley Col-
eridge. The Clarendon Press, 1912. Two vols.

II. Kubla Khan.

Lewti, or the Circassian Love-Chaunt.
Remorse: A Tragedy.

III. The Destiny of Nations: A Vision. — "As ere from Lieule*
Oaive's vapoury head" sq.

Religious Musings. — ''O fiends of superstition!" sq,

— "Fitliest depictured "«9.

IV. The Bohemian element in The Piccolomini may be noted.
There are a few very slight Oriental touches — ^by Coleridge
and Southey — ^in The FaU of Robespierre.

William Colunb, 1721-1759.

I. Poetical Works. With . . . Biographical and Critical Notes
by the Rev. Alexander Dyce. London, 1827.

II. Oriental Eclogues.

Selim; or. The Shepherd's Moral.
Hassan; or, The Camel-driver.
Abra; or. The Georgian Sultana.
Agib and Secander; or. The Fugitives.

IV. The Oriental element in Collins is of interest in contrast
with the predominant Celtic and Grecian elements.

Osborne: Oriental Diction and Theme JOS

GeOBGE COLBfiAN THE YoUNGER, 1762-1886.

I. The Iron Chest. In Inchbald's Briiieh Theatre, vol. XXI.
The Mountaineers. In the same vol.
III. The Mountaineers. — ^Moorish element passim.

John Gilbert Cooper, 17183-1769.
I. Poems in Chalmers, vol. XV.
II. Ver-Vert; or, The Nunnery Parrot. — ^Theme, and touches

passim.
in. The Power of Harmony. — ^Book I, passim.
rV. Slight touches in some other poems.

Nathaniel Cotton, 1705-1788.
I. Poems in Chalmers, vol. XVIII.

II. An Invocation of Happiness: After the Oriental Manner
of Speech.

III. Visions in Verse; for the Entertainment and Instruction of
Younger Minds. Pleasure. Vision II. — "Shall Siam's ele-
phant supply" sq.

IV. Oriental diction passim in other poems.

William Cowper, 1781-1800.
I. Works. Comprising his Poems, Correspondence, and Trans-
lations. With a life of the Author by the Editor, Robert
Southey. London, 1854. Eight vols. Bohn's Standard
Library. Verse in vols. V and VI.

Unpublished and Uncollected Poems. Edited by Thomas
Wright. London, 1900. Cameo Series.
II. Epigram. (Printed in the Northampton Mercury.)

The Ix)ve of the World Reproved; or Hypocrisy Detected.
The Morning Dream.
The Negro's Complaint.
Pity for Poor Africans.

Reciprocal Kindness the Primary Law of Nature. (Trans-
lated from Vincent Bourne.)
Sonnet to William Wilberforce, Esq.
Sweet Meat has Sour Sauce; or, The Slave-Trader in the
Dumps.
III. Adam: A Sacred Drama. Translated from the Italian of
Gio. Battista Andreini. — ^This has passages rather richly

lOi University of Kansas Humanistic Studies

colored, which might be considered ''Oriental" in style.
See especially, 11, 6; V, 1 and 5.

Anti-Thelyphthora. A Tale, in Verse.— "Ye fair Circas-
sians" sq.

Charity. — "When Cook — ^lamented" sq.
Expostulation. — "Hast thou, though suckled at fair Free-
dom's breast," sq,

Montes Gladales, in Oceano Germanico Natantes.
On Mrs. Montagu's Feather Hangings.
On the Ice Islands seen Floating in the German Ocean.
On the Platonic Idea, as It Was Understood by Aristotle.
The Task.

Books I, II, III, and V. — ^Touches.

Book VI. — "Nebaioth, and the flocks of Kedar" sq,
IV. Genuine Orientalism is very rare in Cowper. His human-
itarian interest produced a number of poems on slavery,
listed above. Many other poems contain slight fragments
of Oriental diction or reference; among them An EpisUe to
Joseph Hill^ Esq,^ The Critics Chastisedy In a Letter to the
Same (C. P., Esq.), The Progress of Error, The Retired Cat,
Table Talk, TransUUions of the Latin and Italian Poems of
MiUon, and Trutii.

George Crabbe, 1754-1832.
I. Poetical Works. With His Letters and Journals* and His

Life, by His Son. London, 1884. Eight vols.
IL The Hall of Justice.

Woman.
III. The Borough.

Letter IX. — "Lo! where on that huge anchor" $q.
Letter X. — "When Bruce, that dauntless traveller, " sq.
The Parish Register.

Part III. — "A Captain thither, rich from India came, **sq.
Posthumous Tales.
Tale I. — "But there were fictions wild" sq.
Tale XIX. — "Arabian Nights, and Persian Tales," sq.
Tales.
Tale X. — "And there a Gipsy-tribe" sq.
Tale XI. — " 'Tis thus a sanguine reader" ag.
Tale XVI.— "The Caliph Hanin" sq.

Osborne: Orieniat Diction and Theme 196

Tales of the Hall.

Book rV.— "*Thou hast sailed far, dear Brother/" eq.
The World of Dreams.— Stonzas 28-29.

George Croly, 1780-1860.
I. Poems in Frost» 1843.
II. On the Ruins of Mesolonghi.

The Song of Antar: From the Arabic.
III. Illustrations of Napoleon.

I. Napoleon at St. Helena. — " That Polar snows** eq.

Richard Cumberland, 1782-1811.
I. The Carmelite. In Inchbald's Modem Theatre, vol. V.
III. On the Crusades and the Saracen, passim.

George Darlet, 1795-1846.
I. Poems in Miles, vol. III.
III. Sylvia; or, The May Queen. — ^A slight touch or two.

Erabmub Darwin, 1781-18011.
I. Poetical Works. London, 1806. Three vob.
III. The Economy of Vegetation.

Canto I. — "Pass, where with palmy plumes'* sq.
Canto II. — "Thus cavemed round** sq.
Canto III. — " Sailing in air, ** sq.
Canto IV. — "Sylphs! your bold myriads** sq.
— "Pleased shall the Sage,*' sq.
— "So from his shell " sq.
The Loves of the Plants.
Canto I. — "Where Java's isle," sq.
Canto II. — "Papyra, throned upon the bank of Nile,"^^.

—"Two Sister-Nymphs*' sq.
Canto III. — "So, where Palmyra" sq.
— "Where seas of glass" sq.
— "So the sad mother" sq.
Canto IV. — "Amphibious Nymph," sq.

— "So, when the Nightingale" sq.
The Origin of Society.
Canto I. — ^Touches.
Canto III. — " Where Egypt *s pyramids *' sq.

106 Univernty of Kansas Humanistic Studies

Canto IV.— "Led by Volition" sq.

— "So when Arabia's Bird," sq.

BOBERT DODSLET, 1708-1764«

I. Poems in Chalmers, vol. XV.

n. Res et Pontifez. — The chief Orientalism is in the stage
directions.

Sir Francis Hastings Doyi^f, 1810-1888.
I. Poems in Miles, vol. IV.
II. The Mameluke Charge.
Mehreb Khan.
The Private of the Buffs.
The Red Thread of Honour.
IV. These poems were written prior to 1840, according to the
sketch of Doyle in Miles.

John Dyer, 1700-1758.
I. Poetical Works of Armstrong, Dyer, and Green. With
Memoirs and Critical Dissertations. The Text edited by
Charles Cowden Clarke. Edinburgh, 1868.
III. The Fleece.

Book II. — "The glossy fleeces now of prime esteem " sq.
Book III.— "Or the Cathayan's," sq.
—"Far-distant Thibet" sq.
Book IV. — "See the dark spirit of tyrannic power" sq.
Passim in other parts of the poem.
The Ruins of Rome. — Passim.

George Ellis, 1758-1815.
I. Poems in Morley: Parodies and Other Burlesque Pieces.
II. TheDukeof Benevento: A Tale.
The Power of Faith: A Tale.

III. Loves of the Triangles. — "In Afric's schools," sq.
Ode by Nathaniel Weaxall. — ^Largely Orientalized.

IV. See also under Frere.

WiLUAM Falconer, 1782-1769.
I. Poetical Works. With a Memoir by John Mitford. Lon-
don, 1895. Aldine Poets.

Osborne: Oriental Diction and Theme 107

n. The Shipwreck.

rV. This poem has its scenes in the Eastern Mediterranean
region. It has little true Oriental style or subject.

Francis Fawkeb, 1721-1777.
I. Poems in Chalmers, vol. XVI.

III. Claudian's Old Man. — One couplet.
Fragments of Menander. — ^A few touches.
Mechanical Solution of the Propagation of Yawning. —
Touches.

Robert Ferousson, 1750-1774.
I. Poetical Works. Edited by Robert Ford. Paisley, 1905.

IV. Fergusson has less Oriental element than Bums. Perhaps
Tea is about as near as he comes to an Oriental poem.

John Hookam Frere, 1769-1846.
I. Works in Verse and Prose. Now first Collected. With a
Memoir by His Nephews, W\ E. and Sir Bartle Frere. Lon-
don, 1872. Two vols.

Poems in Morley: Parodies and Other Burlesque Pieces.
II. Lines on the Death of Richard Edward Frere.
The Slavery of Greece.
Tablet in Royden Church.
Translations from the Poem of the Cid.
Translation of a Letter (in Oriental Characters) from
Bobba-Dara-Adul-Phoola, Dragoman to the Expedition, to
Neek-Awl-Aretchid-Kooes, Secretary to the Tunisian Em-
bassy. — ^With Canning, Ellis, and Gifford (?).
in. Elegy, or Dirge. — (With Canning and Ellis.)
Fragment 11.
Hexameters.

King Arthur and His Round Table.
Loves of the Triangles. (With Canning and Ellis.)

Richard Glover, 1712-1785.
I. Poems in Chalmers, vol. XVII.
HI. The Athenaid. — Passim,
Leonidas.
Book III. — "Not from the hundred brazen gates'* sq.

108 Uni/nrsUy of Karros Humtanstie Studies

Book IV.— ''The noble dames of Penia" $q.

— ^And much of the Book.
Classical Orientalism ihiovghoiit the poem.
London; or, The Progress of Commerce.
— "Beneath the Libyan skies, " fg.
— "Now solitude and silence" tq.
— " .... though Mahomet could league" fg.

OuvBR Goldsmith, 1728-1774.
I. Works. Edited by J. M. W. Gibbs. London, 18M-1907.

Five vob. Bohn's Standard Library.
11. Prologue to Zobeide.

III. The Traveller.— "The naked negro, " $q.

IV. Goldsmith's Orientalism is chiefly in his prose.

James Grahame, 1765-1811.
I. Poems in Frost, 1888.

III. The Sabbath. — "But what the loss of country" $q.

James Grainoer, 172S-1767.
I. Poems in Chalmers, vol. XIV.
III. The Sugar-Cane. — ^Extensive treatment of the Negro, and
of Africa in connection; especially in Books III and IV.
Book IV opens with an invocation to the " Genius of Afric."

IV. This poem may be considered a link between Oriental and
Occidental interests, based on real history, not mett fancy.

Thomas Gray, 1716-1771.
I. Works. Edited by Edmund Gosse. London, 1884. Four
vols.

III. The Alliance of Education and Government. — "Oft o'er
the trembling Nations" sq.

IV. Very slight touches in Hymn to Ignorance and the transla^
tion from Tasso. It is interesting to recall the Ooddental
reference in the Progress of Poesy.

Arthur H. Hallam, 1811-1888.
L Poems, etc. Edited by Richard Le Gallienne. London aild

New York, 1898.
II. Timbuctoo.

m. MediUthre Fragnraits, TL
Scene at Rome.

Wtuaam Hamilton, 1704-17A4,
I. Poems in Chalmers, vol. XV.
n. Mithridates.
rV. Touches here and there in other poems.

Walter Harts, 170»-1774.
I. Poems in Chahuers, vol. XVI.
in. Essay on Reason. — *' Midst Tartary*8 deserts,*' $q.
EulogiYis; (H*, The Charitable Mason.
The Vision of Death. — " Ynoisa, Sanchia, " 19.
IV. All three of these pieces are Difrin$ PB$m$; Biblical In gen>
eral tone.

HallHartsok, (?) -1778.
I. The Countess of Salisbury: A Tragedy. In Inchbald*ii
British Theatre, vol. XVI.
in. Brief passives in 1, 1, and IV, 1.

Robert Stephen Hawker, 1808-1870.
I. Poems in Miles, vol. III.
m. The Quest of the Sangreal. — ^Touches.

Reginald Heber, Bishop of Calcutta, 176S-18S0*
rV. Hdber is intimately connected with English Orientalism,
through his life work, and through his prose. For parodies
of his famous missionary hymn, see Hamilton : Parodiee^ etc.

Feucia Dorothea Hemanb, 17M-188tf.
I. Poetical Works. London and New York, 18»1. The Im-
perial Poets.
n. The Abeneerrage.

Attraction of the East.

The Kid's Rdease.

The Bniial in the Desert.

The Caravan in the Desert.

Casablanca.

The Crusader's Return.

110 University of Kansas Humanistic Studies

The Crusader's War-song.

The Flower of the Desert.

An Hour of Romance.

The Indian City.

Ivan the Czar.

The Last Banquet of Antony and Cleopatra.

The Last Constantine.

Marius among the Ruins of Carthage.

Moorish Bridal Song.

Moorish Gathering-Song.

The Mourner for the Barmecides.

Ode on the Defeat of King Sebastian of Portugal.

The Palm-tree.

The Rio Verde Song.

Sebastian of Portugal: A Dramatic Fragment.

Song: ''Oh! bear me to the groves of palm."

Song Founded upon an Arabian Anecdote.

Songs of the Cid.

The Suliote Mother.

To the Memory of Heber.

The Traveller at the Source of the Nile.

The Wife of Asdrubal.

The Zegri Maid.

III. The Domestic Affections. — ^Lo! through the waste/' sq.
England and Spain. — "Hail, Albion, hail! to thee has fate
denied" sq.

Modem Greece. — ^Especially XI, XII, XXXI-XXXVII»

Lxxxm.

A Tale of the Secret Tribunal. Part II. — "For, long a cap-
tive" sq,

IV. Mrs. Hemans is a prominent Oriental poet, by virtue of the
number of her poems if not by virtue of quality. She prob-
ably expresses as fully as any minor poet of the period the
sentimental values found in contemplation of the Moors
and the Crusader, the pathetic appeal of the desert, and
some other themes. Oriental words and phrases are scat-
tered through many poems not listed above.

Aaron Hill, 1685-1750.
II. [Daraxes.]

Osborne: Oriental Diction and Thenie 111

IV. For comment on this operatic piece, see Dorothy Brewster:
Aaron HiU, and Jeannette Marks: English Pastoral Drama,

James Hogo, 1770-1835.
I. Works of the Ettrick Shepherd. A New Edition. With a
Memoir of the Author by the Rev. Thomas Thomson. Lon-
don, Glasgow, and Edinburgh, 1806. Two vols.
n. ' Arabian Song.
ISI The Gypsies,
m. CaryO'Kean.

The Curse of the Laureate. — Stanzas 5 and 8.

The Descent of Love.

The Field of Waterloo.

Sacred Melodies. — Especially the Rose of Sharon.

Wallace. — One couplet.

John Home, 1722-1808.
I. Douglass: A Tragedy. In Inchbald's British Theatre^ vol.
XVI.
III. IV. 8.—" Small is the skiU " sq.

Thomas Hood, 1798-1845.
I. Poetical Works. Boston, 1880. Five vols. British Poets.
II. Address to Mr. Cross, of Exeter Change, on the Death of
the Elephant.
The Broken Dish.
The China-Mender.
I'm Going to Bombay.
The Kangaroos: A Fable.
Lines to a Lady on her Departure for India.
The Monkey-Martyr: A Fable.
Ode to the Cameleopard.
Poem from the Polish.

Remonstratory Ode from the Elephant at Exeter Change.
The Stag-eyed Lady: A Moorish Tale.
A True Stor>'. ("Whoe'er has seen. ")
HI. Miss Kilmansegg. — Slight touches passim.

John Hoole, 1727-1808.
I. Translation of Ariosto's Orlando Furioso. In Chalmers,
vol. XXI.

Jit Univernty of Kansas Humanistic Studies

Translation of Tasso's Jerusalem DeHoered. In the same vol.
IV. Many of the Oriental words and phrases in these transla-
tions follow the Italian closely; but Hoole sometimes flat-
tens, sometimes heightens the Oriental effects of the
original diction.

Richard Henrt Horne, 1808-1884.

I. Poems in Miles, vol. III.
II. Pelters of Pyramids.

James Henrt Leigh Hunt, 1784-185§.

I. Poems in Miles, vol. II.

II. Abou ben Adhem and the Angel.
The Nile.

Richard Jago, 1715-1781.

I. Poems in Chalmers, vol. XVII.
IV. Only single words and slight phrases noted.

SoAME Jenyns, 1704-1787.

I. Poems in Chalmers, vol. XVII.
III. On the Immortality of the Soul: Translated from the
Latin of I. H. Browne. Book I. — *' Why should I mention
those," sq.

Robert Jephson, 1736-1808.

I. The Count of Narbonne: A Tragedy. In Inchbald's
BriHsh Theatre, vol. XX.
III. Brief passages in II, 1, and III, 2.

Samuel Johnson, 1709-1784.

I. Works. With an Essay on His life and Genius by Arthur
Murphy. A New Edition. London, Glasgow, and Dublin,
1824. Twelve vols. Verse in vol. I.

II. Irene: A Tragedy.
III. Septem States.

Touches in Messia, and To Stella,

Osborne: Oriental Diction and Theme IIS

*

Sir William Jones, 1746-1794.
I. Poems in Chalmers, vof. XVIII.
II. A Chinese Ode.

Paraphrased.

Verbal Translation.
Elegia Arabica.

The Enchanted Fruit; or, The Hindoo Wife: An Ante-
diluvian Tale.

Ex Ferdusii Poetae Persid Poemate Heroico.
From the Persian Poem of Hatifi.

In the Measure of the Original.

Transposition.
A Hymn to Camdeo.
A Hymn to Ganga.
A Hymn to Indra.
A Hymn to Lacshmi.
A Hymn to Narayena.
A Hymn to Sereswaty.
A Hymn to Surya.
To Lady Jones : From the Arabic.
Two Hymns to Pracriti.

The Hymn to Bhavani.

The Hymn to Durga.
Ode Arabica.

An Ode of Jami : In the Persian Form and Measure.
Ode Persica.
Altera.

The Palace of Fortune: An Indian Tale.
A Persian Song of Hafiz.

Plassey-Plain : A Ballad Addressed to Lady Jones.
The Seven Fountains : An Eastern Allegory.
Solima: An Arabian Eclogue.

A Song from the Persian, Paraphrased in the Measure of
the Original.

A Turkish Ode of Mesihi.
The Same:' In Imitation of the PervUigium Veneris,

John Keats, 1795-1821.

I. Poetical Works and Other Writings. Edited by H. B. For-
man. London, 1883. Four vols.

m University of Kansas Humanistic Studies

II. The Cap and Bells.

Lamia.

Sonnet to the Nile.
III. Endymion.

Eve of St. Agnes.

Hyperion.

Isabella.

Otho the Great.
lY. There are phrases and brief passages in other poems.

John Keble, 1792-1866.
I. The Christian Year. London and New York, 1894. The

Golden Treasury Series.
II. Monday in Whitsun-Week.
III. Conversion of St. Paul. — Stanza I.
Second Sunday after Christmas.
Second Sunday after Easter.
Third Sunday in Lent. — Stanzas 3, 4.

Charles Lamb, 1775-1834.
I. Works. Edited by E. Y. Lucas. London, 1903-4. Seven

vols.
II. The Gipsy's MaUson.
Queen Oriana's Dream.
The Young Catechist.
III. The Wife's Trial. Last scene. — "The scene is laid in the
East. " sq. And passim.

JoBisi Langhorne, 1735-1779.
I. Poems in Chalmers, vol. XVI.
II. Fables of Flora.— Fable VI: The Queen of the Meadow

and the Crown Imperial.
III. The Country Justice: Introduction. — ^The Gypsy-Iifc.

Matthew Gregobt Lewis, 1775-1818.
L Life and Correspondence • . . with Many Pieces in Prose
and Verse never before Published. London, 1839. Two
vols.
II. Alatar: A Spanish Ballad.

The Angel of Mercy : An Oriental Tale.

Osborne: Oriental Diction and Theme 116

Epilogue to Barbarossa.
The Loss of Alhama: From the Spanish.
Phatyr's Song of Triumph.
The Princess and the Slave : A Tale.
The Tailor's Wife. (From the German.)
Zayde and Zayda: From the Spanish.
ni. Touches in WiUiam; or. The Sailor Boy^ Lines . . on , . C.
J, FoXy and other poems.

John Leyd£n, 1775-1811.

n. [The Arab Warrior.)

[The Fight of Praya.)

[Finland Mother's Song.]
IV. See Symons, p. 171, and Dictionary of National Biography.

George Lillo, 1698-1739.

I. The Fatal Curiosity. InlacYih^aA's British Theatre, \o\.Xl.
II. [The Christian Hero.]— "Set in Albania. '•
III. The Fatal Curiosity.— Especially I. 3; II, 3.

Robert Llotd, 1733-1754.

I. Poems in Chalmers, vol. XV.

III. The Cit's Country Box. — " Now bricklayers, carpenters and
joiners, '* sq.

The Cobbler of Cripplegate's Letter to Robert Lloyd. —
"The Chinese ladies feet" sq.

John Gibson Lockhart, 1794-1354.

I. Ancient Spanish Ballads; Historical and Romantic. A

New Edition, Revised. London, 1359.
II. Dragut, the Corsair.

The Flight from Granada.
The Moor Calaynos.
Moorish Ballads.
The Vow of Reduan.

IV. There is a Moorish element in several poems not named
above. The Orientalism of the Spanish Ballads is mainly
a matter of theme rather than diction.

116 University of Kansas Humanistic Studies

John Logan, 1748-1788.
I. Poems in Chalmers, vol. XVIII.
Ill A Tale.— Partly Oriental.

Edward Lovibond, 1724-1775.
I. Poems in Chalmers, vol. XVI.
II. On an Asiatic Lady.
Reply to Miss G — .

Song: "Hang my Lyre upon the WiDow. "
To Laura: Farewell to the Rose.

To Laura, on Her Receiving a Mysterious Letter from a
Methodist Divine.
To the Same.

To the Same: On Her Dress.
To the Same: On Politics.

III. The Tears of Old May-Day. — Last three stanzas.

George Lyttelton, 1709-1778.
I. Poems in Chalmers, vol. XTV.
m. The Progress of Love: Hope. Eclogue II. — "Ah! how, my
dear,*' sq.

IV. Lyttelton, author of Letters from a Persian in England
(1785), is Orientalized — ^very slightly — ^in Edward Moore's
Trial of Sdim.

Thomas Babington Macaulat, 1800-1859.
I. Works. London, 1898. Twelve vols.
II. The DeUverance of Vienna. Translated from Filicaja.

The Marriage of Tirzah and Ahirad.
III. Lays of Ancient Rome. — ^The Prophecy of Capys, 18, £8, 81.

Letitia Elizabeth Landon Maclean, 1802-1888.
I. Poems in Miles, vol. V.
II. The Moorish Maiden's Vigil.

WiLLLOf Maginn, 1798-1842.
I. Poems in Jerrold and Leonard.
II. The Galiongee: A Fragment of a Turkish Tale.

David Mallet, 1700-1765.
I. Poems in Chalmers, vol. XIV.
III. The Excursion. Canto I. — "From Zembla's cliffs," sq.

Osborne: Oriental Diction and Theme 117

James Clarence Mangan, 1803-1849.
I. Poems in Miles, vol. III.
II. Ghazel: The World. By Kemal-Oomi.

The Hundred-leafed Rose. By Mohammed ben Osman ben

Ali Nakkash, called Lamii, or, The Dazzling.

The Karamanian Exile. From the Ottoman.

Passage. From Hudayi II, Native of Anatolia.

The Time of the Barmecides. From the Arabic.

The Time of the Roses. From the Turkish of Mesihi.

The Wail of the Three Khalendeers. From the Ottoman.

William Mason, 1724-1797.
I. Poems. London, 1830. Two vols.

Elfrida, and Caractacus: Dramatic Poems. London, 1819.
The English Garden: A Poem. With Commentary and
Notes by W. Burgh. London, 1819.
(The above four vols, bound in one.)

III. The English Garden.

Book IL— "The Tartar tyrants," eq.

— "But now the conquering arms'* eq.
Touches elsewhere in the poem.

IV. Mason's Orientalism is interesting by way of contrast to
the strong Celtic and Greek aspects of his dramatic poems.

William Juuub Mickle, 1734-1788.
I. Translation of Camoens' Lusiad, In Chalmers, vol. XXI.

Poems in Chalmers, vol. XVII.
II. The Lusiad.

Sonnet to Vasco da Gama: From Tasso.
III. AlmadaHill. — "But turn we now" *g.

— "The naval pride of those bright days" eg.
Liberty: An Elegy. — Stanzas 16-19.

James Miller, 1708-1744.
I. Mahomet, the Imposter. In Inchbald's British Theatre,

vol. XIII.
II. This is an Oriental tragedy, adapted from Voltaire.

Henrt Hart Milman, 1791-1868.
I. Poems in Frost, 1848.
II. [Mahabharata. (From the Sanskrit.)]

118 Universiiy of Kansas Humanistic Studies

III. Samor. Book XI. — "As in the Oriental wars" sq.

Mart Rubsell Mitford, 1787-1855.
II. [Christina, or The Maid of the South Seas.]
[Sadak and Kalasrade.]

Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, 1689-1762.

I. Letters and Works. Edited by Lord Whamcliffe. With

Additions, etc. by W. Moy Thomas. New Edition, revised.

London, 1887. Two vols. Bohn's Standard Library.

11. "Now Philomel renews her tender strain. " (Vol. I, p. 182.)

Verses Written in the Chiosk of the British Palace at Pera.

III. An Epistle to The Earl of Burlington. — "Thus on the sands''
sq.

IV. The Verses are perhaps the first English poem of note
written in the Orient. (1717.)

James Montgomery, 1771-1854.
I. Poetical Works. Boston, 1881. Five vols, in two. British

Poets.
II. Abdallah and Sabat.

The Battle of Alexandria.
Birds.

The Bird of Paradise.

The Canary.

The Ostrich.

The Pelican.
The Bramin.
The Cast-away Ship.
The Sequel.
China Evangelized.
The Christians' Call to the Gipsies.
A Cry from South Africa.
The Daisy in India.
A Deed of Darkness.
For a Congregation of Negroes.
The Loss of the Locks.
The Pelican Island.

Songs on the Abolition of Negro Slavery in the British
Colonies.

Osborne: Oriental Diction and Theme 119

Sonnet ... on the Siege of Famagusta.
Thoughts on Wheels. — ^No. II. The Car of Juggernaut.
To My Friend, George Bennet, Esq.
The Voyage of the Blind.
III. Greenland.

Canto I. — "Unwearied as the camel, " eq.

Canto IV. — ^From Asia's fertile womb, " sq.
The Ocean. — "Thus the pestilent Upas, " eq. And passim.
Verses to the Memory of . . Richard Reynolds. III. —
First four lines.
A Voyage Round the World.

The West Indies. — ^Treatment of Africa or the Negro
throughout the poem.

The World before the Flood. — ^Biblical; with some Oriental
element.

Edward Moore, 1712-1757.
I. Poems in Chalmers, vol. XIV.

Poems, Fables and Plays. London, 1756.
II. Solomon: A Serenata.

The Trial of Selim, the Persian. (See above, under Lyttel-
ton.)

Thomas Moore, 1779-1852.
I. Poetical Works. Boston, 1879. Six vols, in three.
II. The East-Indian.

Fables for the Holy Alliance.

Fable III.

Fable V.
The Fudge Family in Paris. Letter IX. — September 6th.
From the High Priest of Apollo to a Virgin of Delhi.
Fum and Hum.
Lalla Rookh.
National Airs.

Cashmerian.

Hungarian.

Indian.

Mahratta.

Russian.
Ode to the Sublime Porte.

l^ University of Kansas Humanistic Studies

On a Beautiful East-Indian.
To My Mother.

The Twopenny Post Bag. — ^Letter VI.
A Vision of Philosophy.
III. Epistle IX. — Opening lines, and passim.
The Fudge Family in Paris. Letter X.
News for Country Cousins.
Rhymes on the Road. — ^Extract IV.
The Twopenny Post Bag. — ^Letter II.

William Motherwell, 1797-1835.
I. Poetical Works. With Memoir "by James M'Conechy

New Edition, Enlarged. Boston, 1847.
II. The Crusader's Farewell.

Ouglou's Onslaught: A Turkish Battle Song.
Zara.

Carolina Oliphant, Lady Nairne, 1766-1845.
I. Life Songs of the Baroness Nairne. Edited by Charles
Rogers. Edinburgh, 1905.

John Henry, Cardinal Newman, 1801-1890.
I, Verses on Various Occasions. London and New York, 1889.
III. Heathen Greece. — ^Touches.
Solitude. — ^Touches.

Thomas Love Peacock, 1785-1866.
I. The Genius of the Thames, Palmyra, and Other Poems.

Second Edition. London and Edinburgh, 181S.
11. Palmyra.
III. The Genius of the Thames.

Part I. — "Where Tigris runs, " sq.
Part II.— "Thus fair, of old, " sq.
And passim.

Robert Pollok, 1799-1827.
I. The Course of Time. Sixteenth Edition. Edinburgh and
London, 1841.
III. Book V. — " Desire of every land V^ sq.

Book VII. — "The Memphian mummy, " sq.

— "Athens, and Rome, and Babylon," sq.

Osborne: Oriental Diction and Theme 191

Book VIII. — Opening lines.

— "He could not trust the word of heaven, " sq,

WiNTHBOP Mackworth Praed, 1802-1889.
I. Poems. With a Memoir by the Rev. Derwent Coleridge.

Second Edition. London, 1864. Two vols.
II. Australasia.
Hindostan.

In Obitum . . . T. F. Middleton, Episcopi Calcuttensis.'
Pyramides ^gyptiacae.
The Pyramids of Egypt.

III. Athens. — "Again long years of darkness " sq.

The County Ball. — "I come to ye a stranger guest,*' 9q,
The Fancy Ball. — Passim,
Lidian's Love.— XXIII-XXVII.

IV. Touches in Surly Hall^ Arrivals at a Watering-Place, etc.

Thomas Pringle, 1789-1834.
II. [African Sketches.]

Bryan Waller Procter, 1790-1874.
I. Poems in Frost, 1848.
II. Gyges.

Julian the Apostate.
The Return of Mark Antony.
III. Amelia Wentworth.
Marcian Colonna.
Part I.— 1.
Part III.— 18 and 17.
rV. Slight touches or brief passages in The Falcon, Ludorico
Sforza, Tartarus, and Werner,

Ann Radcliffe, 1864-1823.
I. The Romance of the Forest, Interspersed with Some Pieces
of Poetry. London, 1806. Three vols.
The Mysteries of Udolpho: A Romance. With an Intro-
duction by D. Murray Rose. London, 1008.
II. The Mysteries of Udolpho. Chapter XVII. — Stanzas.
in. The Romance of the Forest.

Chapter XI. — Song of a Spirit. One line.
Chapter XVIII. — ^Moming, On the Sea-shore.

1S2 University of Kansas Humanistic Studies

John Hamilton Retnoij)8, 1796-1852.
II. [Safie: An Eastern Tale.]

Samuel Rogers, 1763-1855.

I. Poetical Works. John W. Lovell Company, New York, n, d.
II. An Inscription.

Ode to Superstition. — I, 3; II, 2.
III. Italy.

Part I, 2. — "And whence the talisman" sq.
Part II, 22. — "And that yet greater scourge," sq.
— Closing passage.
Human Life. — "A tale is told" sq.
The Pleasures of Memory.
Part I. — "Down by yon hazel copse, " sq.
Part II. — "From Guinea's coasts" sq.
The Voyage of Columbus. — "Such to their grateful ear" sq.

William Stewart Rose, 1795-1845.
II. [Translation of Orlando Furioso.]

John Scott, 1730-1783.

I. Poems in Chalmers, vol. XVII.

II. On the Ingenious Mr. Jones's Elegant Translations and
Imitations of Eastern Poetry.
Oriental Eclogues.
Li-Po; or, the Good Governor: A Chinese Eclogue.
Serim; or, The Artificial Famine: An East-Indian Eclo-
gue.

Zerad; or. The Absent Lover: An Arabian Eclogue.
ni. Elegy III.— "Ask Grecia," sq.

Epistle II: Winter Amusements in the Country. — "Such,
hapless Cook!" sq.

An Essay on Painting. — "Now his pleased step" sq.
Ode XXIII.

Walter Sc?ott, 1771-1832.

I. Poetical Works. Boston, 1881. Ten vols, in five. British

Poets.
II. Ahriman. (From The Talisman, Chapter III.)

Osborne: Oriental Diction and Theme liS

"Canny moment, lucky fit" (From Guy Mannering^ Chap-
ter III.)

The Crusader's Return. (From Ivanhoe^ Chapter XVIII.)
The Fire-King.

The Search after Happiness; or. The Quest of the Sultaun
Solimaun.

" Twist ye, twine ye ! " (From Guy Mannering, Chapter IV.)
Verses ... to the Grand-Duke Nicholas of Russia.
"Wasted, weary, wherefore stay. " (From Guy Mannering^
Chapter XXVII.)
III. The Bridal of Triermain. Canto III.— 20-24 and 30-31.

Percy Btsbhe Shellet, 1792-1822.

I. Complete Poetical Works. Edited by G. E. Woodbeny.

Boston, 1894. Four vols.
II. Alastor.

Bigotry's Victim.

Fragments of an Unfinished Drama.

From the Arabic: An Imitation.

HeUas.

[Henry and Louisa. — ^Part II.]

The Indian Serenade.

Prometheus Unbound.

The Revolt of Islam.

Sonnet: Ozymandias.

Sonnet: To the Nile.

The Witch of Atlas.

[Zeinab and Kathema.]

III. Ode to liberty.— III.
Queen Mab.

II. — "Beside the eternal Nile" aq.
Vn.— "The name of God" sq.
IX. — "Even Time, the conqueror," eq.
And passim.

IV. Many phrases and brief passages in other poems.

William Shenstone, 1714-1768.

I. Poetical Works. With Life, etc., by the Rev. George Gil-
fillan. Edinburgh, London, and Dublin, 1854.

Iti University of Kansas Humanistic Studies

m. Elegy XIV.— Stanzas 9-14.
Elegy XX.

Christopher Smart, 1722-1770.
I. Poems in Chalmers, vol. XVI.
III. On the Goodness of the Supreme Being. — "Attest, and
praise," sq.

On the Immensity of the Supreme Being. — "Easy may
fancy pass, *' sq.

Horace Smith, 1779-1849.
I. (With James Smith.) Rejected Addresses; or, The New
Theatrum Poetarum. New Edition. London, 1879.
Poems in Miles, vol. IX.

III. Address to a Mummy in Belzoni's Exhibition.
The Jester Condemned to Death.

IV. The Rebuilding. (With James Smith.)

Tobias George Smollett, 1721-1771.
I. Poems in Chalmers, vol. XV.

III. Ode to Independence. — "Arabia's scorching sands" sq.

IV. Brief passages in other poems.

Robert Southey, 1774-1848.
I. Poetical Works. Boston, 1880. Ten vols, in five. British

Poets.
II. The Battle of Pultowa.
Botany Bay Eclogues.
The Curse of Kehama.
Donica.

Gonzalo Hermiguez.
Imitated from the Persian.
The King of the Crocodiles.
La Caba.

The Lover's Rock.
The March to Moscow.
Ode on the Battle of Algiers.
Ode on the Portrait of Bishop Heber.
Ode to His Imperial Majesty, Alexander I, Emperor of All
the Russias.
Poems Concerning the Slave-Trade.

Osborne: Oriental Diction and Theme lit

Queen Orraca, and the Five Martyrs of Morocco.
Sonnet XIV.
Thalaba the Destroyer.
The Young Dragon.
III. Joan of Arc.

Book VI. — "'These as they saw, " sq.

— " [Come thundering on.] As when Chederles

comes" sq.
— "Grateful, as to the way-worn traveller,"*^.
Book VII.— Touches.
Book VIII.— "So thickly thronged" sq.
Book X. — "Fills not the Persian^s soul," sq.
— "The foe tremble and die." sq.
— "As the blood-nurtured monarch" sq.
— "The Maiden rushing onward," sq.
The Retrospect. — "Oh, while well-pleased" sq.
A Tale of Paraguay. — ^Particularly Canto I, 18.

WiLUAM Thompson, 1712-1766.
I. Poems in Chalmers, vol. XV.
II. The Magi: A Sacred Eclogue. — Biblical, but Oriental in

tone.
III. An Hynm to May. — Stanza 18.

James Thomson, 1700-1748.
I. Poetical Works. Edited by D. C. Tovey. London, 1897.

Two vols.
II. Prologue to Mallet's Mtistapha.
III. Liberty. Part III. — " From the dire deserts " sq.

The Seasons. — ^Extensive passages in Autumn, Summer^
and Winter.

John Tobin, 1770-1804.
I. The Honeymoon. In Inchbald's British Theatre, vol. XXV.
in. A brief passage in I, 1.

Horace Walpole, 1717-1797.
I. Works. liondon, 1798. Four vols.
II. Epilogue to Tamerlane.
III. The Mysterious Mother. — II, 1.

IfK University of Kansas Humanistic Studies

IV. A Few Oriental touches in various poems; such as ''crossing
a gypsy's palm, " "some luxurious Satrap's barbarous lust» **
etc.

Joseph Wabton, 1722-1800.

I. Poems in Chalmers, vol. XVIII.
III. Fashion : A Satire. — Passim.
Ode to Liberty. — Passim,

Thomas Warton, 1728-1790.

I. Poems in Chalmers, vol. XVHI.
n. Ode XII: The Crusade.

in. The Pleasures of Melancholy. — " What though beneath" sq

— "To me far happier'' sg.
— "Yet feels the hoary her-
mit" sg.
Translations and Paraphrases. — Job.

Charles Jeremiah Wells, 1800-1879.

I. Joseph and His Brethren. With an Introduction by A. C.
Swinburne. Oxford University Press, n. d. The World's
Classics.

III. While this is a Biblical play, it has passages of distinctly
Oriental quality. Note especially I, 8; Prologue to II; II, 3;
and III, 3.

Gilbert West, 1703-1756.

I. Poems in Chalmers, vol. XIII.

IV. Brief passages passim. Some touches in the translations
from Pindar.

Henrt Kirke White, 1785-1806.

I. Complete Works. With an Account of his Life by Robert
Southey. E. Kearny, New York, n. d.

II. Sonnet IX.

III. The Christiad. — Passim.
(jondoline : A Ballad.
Time. — ^VII; and brief passages passim.

Osborne: Oriental Diction and Theme 127

Paul Whitehead, 1710-1774.
I. Poems in Chalmers, vol. XVI.
III. An Occasional Song. — Stanza 4.

The State Dunces: A Satire. — "But Asia's deserts" sq.

WiiXiiAM Whitehead, 1715-1785.
I. Poems in Chalmers, vol. XVII.

The Roman Father. In Inchbald's British Theatre^ vol.
XIV.
II. Prologue to The Orphan of China.

III. A Charge to the Poets. — " Friend of the finer arts " sq.
An Hymn to the Nymph of Bristol Spring.

"Yet some there have been, " sq.
" ' Twas then, Avonia, " sq.
On Nobility : An Epistle.—" In Turkey still " sq.

William Wilkie, 1721-1772.
I. Poems in Chalmers, vol. XVI.
in. Fables: The Breeze and the Tempest. — "From Zembla to
the burning zone" sq.

Charles Wilkins, 1794 (?)-1886.

IV. See Dictionary of National Biography.

John Wilson, 1785-1854.
I. Works. Edited by J. F. Ferrier. Edinburgh and London,

1855-58. Twelve vols. Verse in vol. XII.
II. Lines written on seeing a Picture by Berghem.

Lines Written on Reading Mr. Clarkson's History of the
Abolition of the Slave Trade.

III. The Isle of Palms. — ^The tropical coloring of this poem
shows some kinship with Oriental style.

IV. Touches and a few brief passages in other poems.

John Wolcott, 1788-1819.
I. The Poetical Works of Peter Pindar, Esq. Dublin, 1788.
ni. The Lousiad. Canto II. — " O Conscience ! who to Clive **sq.
TV. Slight passages in other poems.

WiLUAM WORDSWOBTH, 1770-1850.

I. Poetical Works. Edited by William Knight. Edinburgh,
1862. Eleven vols.

lis University of Kansas Humanistic Studies

II. " Ere with cold beads of midnight dew. "
The Armenian Lady's Love.
Beggars.
Sequel.

Ecclesiastical Sketches.
Crusades.
Crusaders.

Missions and Travels.
The Egyptian Maid; or, The Romance of the Water lily.
The French Army in Russia.
On the Same Occasion.
Gipsies.

''Go back to antique ages, if thine eyes. "
The Prioress's Tale. From Chaucer.
The Russian Fugitive.
The Source of the Danube.
Suggested by a Picture of the Bird of Paradise.
III. Descriptive Sketches. — "The Grison gipsy" sq.
The Excursion.

Book III. — "Not less than that huge pile" sq.

— "But stop! — ^These theoretic fancies jar" sq.
Book IV. — "Within whose silent chambers" sq.

— "Whether the Persian" sq.
Book VII. — "Eastward, the Danube" sq.
A few other slight passages passim.
The Prelude.

Book V. — "A precious treasure ''sq.

—"Sleep seized me" *g.
Book VI. — "Strong in herself and in beatitude" sq.
Book VII. — "There was a time" sq.

— "The Swede, the Russian;" sq.
— "Enjoyment haply handed down" sq.
Book Vni. — "With deep devotion. Nature," sq.
Book X. — "They — who had come elate" sq.

Edward Young, 1681-1765.
I. Poetical Works. With a Memoir by the Rev. John Mitford.
Boston, 1896. Two vols, in one. Aldine Edition.
III. The Consolation.

"Much less in art," sq. Vaguely Oriental.

Osborne: Oriental Diction and Theme 129

"Range through the fairest," sq.
liove of Fame, The Universal Passion. Satire II. — "On
buying books " sq,
Imperium Pelagi.

Strain I. — "His sons, Po, Ganges," sq.

Strain II. — Passim,

Strain V.— "WTience Tartar Grand," sq.
Ocean: An Ode. — "From Indian mines, " sq.
A Paraphrase on the Book of Job. — Passim,
IV. The first citation given above is a good example of a pas-
sage which seems Oriental in significance, but has no
direct reference to the Orient.

B. Collections of Poems

Aiken, John: Select Works of the British Poets from Ben Jonson
to Beattie. With Biographical and Critical Notices. Ninth
Edition. Thomas Wardle, Philadelphia, 18S8.

Chalmers, Alexander: The Works of the English Poets from
Chaucer to Cowper. London, 1810. Twenty-one vols.

Frost, John: Select Works of the British Poets from Falconer to
Sir Walter Scott. With Biographical Sketches. Thomas War-
die, Philadelphia, 1838.

[Frost, John:] Select Works of the British Poets from Southey to
Croly. With Biographical and Critical Notices. J. Whetson
and Son, Philadelphia, 1848.

Hamilton, Walter, Editor : Parodies of the Works of English and
American Authors. London, 1884-9. Six vols.

Inchbald, Mrs. Elizabeth Simpson: The British Theatre. Lon-
don, 1808. Twenty-five vols.

Inchbald, Mrs. Elizabeth Simpson: The Modem Theatre. London,

1811. Ten vols.
Jerrold, Walter, and R. M. Leonard, Editors: A Century of

Parody and Imitation. The Oxford University Press, 1918.

Miles, Alfred H., Editor: The Poets and Poetry of the Century.
London, n. d. Ten vols.

Morley, John, Editor: Parodies and Other Burlesque Pieces by
George Canning, George Ellis, and John Hookham Frere. Lon-
don, Glasgow, Manchester, and New York, 1890.

ISO Univernty of Kansas HumanisHe Studies

C. General Bibliographical Notes

1. Linguistic Works

Baker, Arthur £. : A Concordance to the Poetical and Dramatic
Works of Alfred, Lord Tennyson. New York, 1914.

Bartlett, John: A New and Complete Concordance or Verbal
Index to Words, Phrases and Passages in the Dramatic W^orks
of Shakespeare. London and New York, 1894.

Bradshaw, John : A Concordance to the Poetical Works of Milton.
London, 1884.

Carey, William: Dictionary of Mahratta. 1810.

Carey, William: Dictionary of Bengali. 1818. Three vols.

Carey, William : Dictionary of Bhotanta. 1826.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia, The. Revised and Enlarged
Edition. New York. (1911.) Twelve vols.

Cooper, Lane : Concordance to the Poems of William Wordsworth,
liondon, 1911.

Cowden-Clarke, Mrs.: The Complete Concordance to Shakes-
peare. New and Revised Edition. London, 1889.

Cunliffe, Richard John: A New Shakespearean Dictionary. Lon-
don, Glasgow, and Bombay, 1910.

Ellis, F. S.: A Lexical Concordance to the Poetical Works of
Percy Bysshe Shelley. London, 189£.

Emerson, Oliver Farrar: The History of the English Language.
New York and London, 1907.

Johnson, Samuel : A Dictionary of the English Language. Robert
Grordon Lathan, Editor. London, 1870. Two vols.

Leeb-Lundberg, W.: Word-formation in Kipling. A Stylistic-
philological Study. Lund and Cambridge, 1900.

Lockwood, Laura E. : Lexicon to the English Poetical Works of
John Milton. New York and London, 1907.

Loewe, Louis: Origin of the Egyptian Language. 1837.

Marshman, John Clark: Dictionary of the Bengalee Language.
1827-8. Two vols.

Marshman, Joshua : The Works of Confucius. Original Text with
Translation, and Dissertation on the Language of China.
Serampur, 1809.

Oabome: Oriental Diction and Theme 131

Molineux, Marie Ada: A Phrase Book from the Poetic and
Dramatic Works of Robert Browning. Boston and New York,
1896.

Murray, James A. H., Editor: A New English Dictionary on
Historical Principles. The Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1888-1916.
Ten vols.

Oxford Cyclopedic Concordance to the English Bible. Oxford
University Press. (1901.)

Richardson, John: Dictionary of Persian, Arabic and English
London, 1777.

Schmidt, Alexander: Shakespeare-Lexicon. Third Edition, Re-
vised and Enlarged by Gregor Sarrazin. New York and Berlin,
190«. Two vols.

Skeat, Walter W.: An Etymological Dictionary of the English
Language. New Edition; Revised and Enlarged. The Claren-
don Press, Oxford, 1910.

2. Biographical, Critical, and Historical Works

AUibone, S. Austin: A Critical Dictionary of English Literature
and British and American Authors. Philadelphia, 1891-6. Six
vols.

Beers, Henry A. : A History of English Romanticism in the Eight-
eenth Century. New York, 1889.

Beers, Henry A. : A History of English Romanticism in the Nine-
teenth Century. New York, 1901.

Bible, The : King James Version.

Brewster, Dorothy: Aaron Hill, Poet, Dramatist, Projector.
Columbia University Press, New York, 1918.

Conant, Martha Pike: The Oriental Tale in England in the
Eighteenth Century. The Columbia University Press, New
York, 1910.

Courthope, William John : History of English Poetry. New York
and London, 1895-1910. Six vols.

DawaoB, Edgar: Byron und Moore. Inaugural-Dissertation.
Leipzig, 19012.

13£ University of Kansas Humanistic Studies

Foster, John : Critical Essays Contributed to the Eclectic Review.
Edited by J. E. Ryland. London, 1888. Two vols. The Bohn
Standard Library.

Christianity in Lidia.

Darnell's Oriental Scenery,

Hindoo Idolatry and Christianity.

Sanscrit Literature.

Southey 's Curse of Kehama.

Vindication of the Baptist Missionaries.

Fuhrman, Ludwig: Die Belesenheit des jungen Byron. Inaugural-
Dissertation. Friedenau bei Berlin, 1903.

Grosse, Edmund: A History of Eighteenth Century Literature.
London and New York, 1889.

Hosmer, James K. : A Short History of German Literature. Re-
vised Edition. New York, 1896.

Jeffrey, Francis: Contributions to the Edinburgh Review. New
York, 1871. Four vols, in one. Modem British Essayists.
Review of LaUa Rookh; an Oriental Romance.
Review of Roderick; the Last of the Goths.

Jones, William: Dissertation sur la littirature Orientale. 1771.

Jones, William : On the Poetry of the Eastern Nations. In Chal-
mers, vol. XVni, pp. 50£-508.

Jones, William: Traite sur la littirature Orientale. 1770.
Langhome, John: Observations on the Oriental Edogues (of

Collins). In Dyce's edition of Collins cited above, pp. 125-139.

Macdonell, Arthur A. : A History of Sanskrit Literature. New
York, 1900.

Mackintosh, James: Miscellaneous Works. New York, 1878.
Three vols, in one. Modem British Essayists.

Marks* Jeannette: English Pastoral Drama (1660-1798). Lon-
don, 1908.

Montagu, Lady Mary Wortley: Letters and Works. Edited by
her Great Grandson, Lord Wharncliffe. With Additions, etc.,
by W. Moy Thomas. New Edition Revised. London, 1887.
Two vols. The Bohn Standard Library.

More, Paul Elmer: The Drift of Romanticism. Boston and New
York, 1918.

Osborne: Oriental Diction and Theme ISS

Phelps, William Lyon: The Beginnings of the English Romantic
Movement. Boston, New York, -Chicago, and London. (1893) .

Reynolds, Myra: The Treatment of Nature in English Poetry
between Pope and Wordsworth. The University of Chicago
Press, Chicago, 1909.

Stephen, Leslie and Sidney Lee, Editors: Dictionary of National
Biography. NewYork and London, 1885-19112. Sixty-six vols.

Symons, Arthur: The Romantic Movement in English Poetry.
London, 1909.

Thiergen, Oscar: Byron's und Moore's Orientalische Gedichte.
Eine Parallele. Inaugural-Dissertation. Leipzig, 1880.

Tucker, T. G. : The Foreign Debt of English Literature. London,
1907.

Underbill, John Garrett: Spanish Literature in the England of
the Tudors. New York and London, 1899. Columbia Univer-
sity Studies in Literature.

m

UnwersUy of KariBM Hnmanvftie Studies

II. Notes ON Oeiental VocABtTLART

A. Oriental Vocabulary in Sir William Jones

The diction of Jones includes many words characteristic of the
Oriental verse of our period in general, and a considerable number
which are much more rare, in some cases probably unique. To the
former class belong such words as antelopes, Arabian, Asiatic, asp,
caravan, cypress, Egyptian, dephants, genii, jasmine, lotus, musk,
myrtle, Nilus, rose, sandals, the names of several precious stones,
etc. In the table below are given the most important words of the
second class found in the text of Chalmers. Many of these words
are explained in footnotes by the author. It will be noted that
nearly all are nouns, and that a large proportion are proper names
of deities, persons, or places. Most are simply transliterations;
and few have an assured place in English dictionaries.

Abelah

Cumar

Laili

Ravi

Adda

Cumara

Langa

Reti

Aden

Gurus

Laschmi

Rocnabad

Aditi

Lecshmy

Rucmini

AgnyzstrtL

Daysa

Letit

Agra

Daysasha

Sachi

Ahmed

Dayscar

Mactigir

Sagar

Ajeirs

Deipec

Madhava

Samarcand

Amana

Deits

Magadh

Sambal

Amer

Devatas

Mahadeo

Sanscrit

Amra

Devtas

Mahadew

Sarat

Amrit

Dhenasry

Mahanadi

Sasin

Ananga

Dhriterashtra

Mahesa

Scythian

Area

Draupaty

Maia

Seita

Anin

Durga

Malcaus

Seita Cund

Aryama

Duryodhen

Malsry

Sereswati

Asavery

Dwapar Yug

Maricha

Sereswaty

As!

Dwarpayan

Martunda

Seyte Yug

Asmora

Dwaraca

Marva

Shambhawty

Asurs

Dyripetir

Mathuna

Sindhu

Aswatthama

Mathura

Singarhar

Aswin

Elachy

Matra

Siret

Azih

Erjun

Maya

Sisira

Azza

Maygh

Sita

Gandac

Medhu

Siva

Bactrian

Gandharvas

Medhumadha

Sivy

Bala

Ganesa

Melar

Solima

Benares

Ganga

Mena

Soma

Bhagirath

Geda

Mengala

Subahdar

Oabome: Oriental Dictum and Theme

1S6

Bluiran

Gocul

Menru

Sudaman

Bhairavy

Gogra

Merich

Suderman

Bhanu

Gopa

Meru

Sumeru

Bhavani

Gopia

Mihira

Supiary

Bhifioriarsu

Gour

Moeellay

Sura

Bhopsly

Goverdhen

Surauimnaga

Bocan

Grishma

Nagkeser

Surya

Brahma

Gujry

Nairrit

Swerga

Brahnan

Gumpi

Narac

Brahmaputra

Guncary

Narayan

Taraca

Brindavan

Gwury

Narayena

Teic

Gyres

Nared

Tenca

Cailas

Nargal

Toda

Cailasa

Hadramut

Nawadwip

TrisroU

Caley

Haldea

NetU

Tulsy

Caly Yug

Uara

Nipal

Call

Hementa

Vacadevy

Calinadi

Heri

Ormus

Vahni

Cama

Heridaswa

Oshadhi

Valmic

Cambala

Himalaya

Yamuna

Camod

Uimansu

Palamau

Vani

Candarpa

Himola

Palanqueen

Varan

Cantesa

Hindol

Pana

Varuna

Canyacuvja

Hindustan

Pandu

Vasanta

Carmasckhi

Parvati

Vasava

Carnaty

Indra

Patala

Vedas

Cashgahr

Indrani

Patali

Venamaly

Casi

Indraprest

Pedma

Versha

Casyapa

Indraprestha

Pedmala

Vinatian

Catels

Isa

. Pedmanabha

Virawer

Catha

Is'wara

Peitamber

Vishnupedi

Caydara

Pendit

Verihaspati

Cetaca

Jafer

Petmenjary

Vishnu

Champa

Jami

Piepel

Vraga

Chatacs

Jeifel

Pulomaja

Vrindavan

Chawla

Joutery

Purander

Vyas

Checra

Vyasa

Chitraratha

Kais

Ragnys

Chury

Kernel

Rahu

Yama

Coaba

Ki

Rajas

Yamuna

Condals

Kiticum

Rajahs

Yudishteir

Cosa

Krishen

Rama

Yudhishteir

Coeecs

KyUbh

Rancary

Yunan

Crishna

Rangamar

Cubera

Lacshmi
Ladon

Ranies

Zdneb

136

University of Kansas Humanistic Studies

B. English Words of Oriental Derivation

The following list is by no means complete. It is taken from
the "Distribution of Words'' in Skeat, Edition of 1910, pp. 761-
780; this list then being revised by the New Intemaiional Diction^
ary of 1910.

The following abbreviations are used: A. — ^Arabic; C. — Chi-
nese; E. — Egyptian; H. — ^Hindustani; M. — ^Malay; O. — ^'Ori-
ental"; P. — ^Persian; S. — Sanskrit; T. — ^Turkish.

Admiral. A.
Alcayde. A.
Alcohol. A.
Alcoran. A.
Alcove. A.
Algebra. A.
Alguazil. A.
Alkali. A.
Amadavat.

I^dia.
Amber. A.
Aniline. S.
Anna. Hindi.
Areca. Ganarese.
Argoey.

Dahnatian.
Arrack. A.
Arsenal. A.
Artichoke. A. (?)
Asafetida. P-Lat.
Asparagus. P. (?)
Assagai.

Berber.
Assassin. A.
Atabal. A.
Attar. P.-A. (?)
Avatar. S.
Azimuth. A.
Azure. P.

Balas. A.
Bamboo. M.
Bangle. H.
Banian. S.
Banyan. S.
Baobob.
West African.

Cotton. A.
Cowry. H.
Creese. M.
Crimson. S.
Cubeb. A.
Curry. Tamil.

Dervish. P.
Dey. T.
Divan. P.
Dragoman. A.
Drosky. R.
Dugong. M.
Durbar. P.

Elixir. A.
Emir. A.

Fakir. A.
Fellah. A.
Fez. From the

town Fez.
Firman. P.
Fustian. E.

Galangal. A.

Gamboge.
From Cambo-
dia (Siam).

Garble. A.

Gazelle. A.

Genet. A.

Ghoul. A.

Giaour. T.

Ginger. O.

Giraffe. A.

Gnu. Kaffir.

Lory. M.
Lute. A. (?)

Mace. S. (?)
Magazine. A.
Magi. P.
Mameluke. A.
Mammoth.

Russian.
Mandarin. H.
Mango. Tamil.
Mangrove.

M. -English.
Mattress. A.
Minaret. A.
Mogul. P.
Mohair. A.
Mohammedan. A.
Mohur. P.
Monsoon. A.
Moonshee. A.
Morse. R.
Moslem. A.
Mosque. A.
Muezzin. A.
Mufti. A.
Musk. P.
Mussulman. A.

Nabob. A.
Nadir. A.
Nankeen. C.
Nilgai. P.

Orange. P.-A.
Orang-outang. M,
Ottoman. A.

Sarcenet. A. (?)
Sash. A.
Satrap. P.
Scarlet.

A.-P.-Lat.
Scimitar. P. (?)
Seguin. A.
Senna. A.
Sepoy. P.
Shagreen. T.
Shah. P.
Shampoo. H.
Shawl.

P. or H.
Sheik. A.
Sherbet. A.
Shrub. A.
Silk. O. (?)
Simoom. A.
Sirocco. A.
Slave.

Slavonic.
Sofa. A.
Soy. C.

Spinach. A.-P.
Steppe. R.
Sugar. S.
Sultan. A.
Sumac. A.

Tabby. A.
Taboo.

Polynesian.
Taffeta. P.
Talc. A.
. Talk.

Lithuanian.

Otbome: Oriental Diction and Theme

1S7

Basil. A.
Bazaar. P.
Bedouin. A.
Beg. T.
Begum. T.
Benzoin. A.
Beryl. S. (?)
Betel.

Tamil.
Bezoar. P.
Bhang. P.
Bohea. C.
Borax. P.
Brahman. S.
Brilliant. S. (7)
Bungalow.

Bengali.

Caddy. M.
Cadi. A.
Caftan. T.
Calash. Slavonic.
CaU. A.
Calico.

East Indian.
Camphor. S.
Candy. S.
Caravan. P.
Caravansary. P.
Carob. A.
Cashmere.

Cashmere.
Cassowary. M.
Catamaran.

Tamil.
Champac. S.
Check. P.
Cheetah. H.
Chimpanzee.

African.
Chintz. H.
Chouse. T.
Cinnabar. P.
Cipher. A.
Civet. A.
Cockatoo. M.
Coffee. T.-A.
Coosack. Russian.

Gong. M.
Gorilla.

W. African.
Gum. Probably E
Gutta-percha. M.

Harem. A.

Hazard. A.

Hegira. A.

Henna. A.

Hooka. A. or P.

Horde. T.

Howdah. A.

Howitzer.
Bohemian.

Houri. A.

Hussar. Hunga-
rian-Latin.

Ibis. E.

Jackal. P.
JagoneUe. P.
Janizary. T.
Jar. A.
Jasmine. P.
Jerboa. A.
Julep. P.
Jungle. S.
Jute. S.

Kangaroo.

Australian.
Kermes. A. andP.
Khan.

P. and Tatar.
Khedive. P.
Kiosk. T.
Koran. A.

Lac.

East Indian.
Lama. Tibetan.
Lascar. P.
Lemon. P.
Lilac. P.
lime. A.
Loot. A. (?)

Pagoda. P« (7)
Palanquin. S.
Paradise.

Avestan.
Paramatta.

Australian.
Pariah. Tamil.
Pand. H.-P.
Parvis.

Avestan.
Pasha. T.
Pawnee. H.
Peacock. O. (?)
Peri. P.
Pice. H.
Pistachio. P.
Polka. Bohemian.
Proa. M.
Pundit. S.
Punch. S.
Punkah. H.

Quagga. Zulu.

Racket. A.
Rajah. S.
Rajut. S.
Rattan. M.
Realgar. A.
Ream. A.
Rebec. A. (?)
Reindeer.

Lapp.
Rice. S. (?)
Rook. P.-A.
Rouble. R.
Rupee. S.
Ryot. A.-H.

Sable. Slavonic.
Saccharine. S.
Saffron. A.-P.
Sago. M.
Salaam. A.
Sandal-wood S.
Sanskrit. S.
Saraband. P.
Saracen. A. (?)

Tamarind. A.-P.
Taraxacum.

A. (7)-P. (?)
Tare. A.
Tariff. A.
Tartar. A. (?)
Tattoo.

Tahitan.
Tea.

Chinese.
Teak. M.
Thug. H.
Tiara. P.
Tiger. P. (?)
Toddy. H.
Tokay.

Hungarian.
Tom-tom. H.
Tulip. T.
Turban. T.
Turk.

P.-Tatar (?)

Uhlan. Tatar.
Ukase. R.

Vampire.

Servian.
Van. P.
Veda. S.
Veranda. P. (?)
Verst. R.
Vizier. A.

Wombat.
Australian.

Yak. Tibetan.
Yataghan. T.

Zamindar. P.
Zanana. P.
Zebra.

Abyssinian.
Zedoary. A.-P.
Zenith. A.
Zero. A.
Zouave. Algerian.

198

Unwemtp rf Kqmwu HumamsHc Sindies

C. Orioital Vocabulaiy in the King James Version

of the Bible

The Sang James version of the Bible indudes the following
words which may be considered as belonging to the Oriental
vocabulary of our period, though the Bible is not necessarily to be
viewed as a source.

Adder

Cyprus

Jasper

Pharaoh

Agate

Cyrene

Phenicia

Almond

Lebanon

Phrygia

Aloes

Dalmatia

Leopard

Pomegranate

Amber

Damascus

Libya

Amethyst

Desert

Lizard

Red -Sea

Ape

Diamond

Locust

Rose

Asia

Dromedary

Lute

Ruby

Asp

Dulcimer

Assyria

Mandrake

Sabeans

Assyrian

Eden

Medes

Saffron

Astaroth

Egypt

Media

Sand

Egyptian

Melons

Sapphire

Baal

Emerald

Myrrh

Sardonyx

Babylon

Ethiopia

Saron

Bahn

Ethiopian

Nard

Sharon

Belshazzar

Eunuch

Nimrod

Sidoa

Beryl

Euphrates

Nineveh

Sidonians
Spicery

Camel

l«ng-tree

OUve

Spikenard

Cane

Frankincense

Onyx

Sycamore

Carbuncle

Ophir

Syria

Cassia

Gold

Syrians

Cedar

Grove

Palm-tree

Chaldea

•

Parthians

Tent

Chaldeans

Idol

Peacock

Timbrel

Chaldees

Idumea

Pearls

Topaz

Chrysolite

India

Pelican

Cinnamon

Persia

Viper

Cymbals

Jacinth

Persian

Vulture

Cypress

Jah

INDEX

Akenside, Mark, 36, 44, 94
Arabian NighU, 48, 60, 78
Ario0to, Lodivico, 34, 49, 78, 122
Armstrong, John, 14, 44, 94
Arnold, Sir Edwin, 16, 54
Arnold, Matthew, 13, 16, 17, 42, 77
Atherstone, Edwin, 94

Baillie, Joanna, 19, 44, 46, 62, 64,

73, 74, 78, 81, 94
Barbauld, Anna Letitia, 96
Barham, Richard Harris, 95
Barker, Granville, 19
Barnes, William, 95
Seattle, James, 95
Beckford, William, 52
Beddoes, Thomas Lovell, 88, 42,

51, 52, 73, 95
Beers, Henry A., 11, 12, 13
Beowulf, 9
Bible, The (King James Version),

8, 25, 32, 47, 48, 49, 51, 62, 63,

90, 188
Blacklock, Thomas, 96
Blair, Robert, 36, 44, 96
Blake, William, 32, 42, 45, 51, 67,

96
BHnd, Mathilde, 19
Bloomfield, Robert, 97
Bowles, William Lisle, 21, 25, 36,

38, 44, 57, 65, 67, 82, 97
Bowring, Sir John, 53, 71, 98
Boyse, Samuel, 34, 69, 76, 79, 98
Bradshaw, John, 11
Brooke, Henry, 49, 52, 98
Brown, John, 62, 98
Browne, Isaac Hawkins, 22, 98
Browning, Robert, 13, 17, 23
Bryant, WiUiam Cullen, 72
Barns, Robert, 15, 21, 32, 54, 98
Butler, Samuel, 13
Byrom, John, 23, 33, 99
Byron, Lord, 8, 13, 16, 18, 19, 23,

26, 26, 29, 36, 38, 39, 40, 50, 52,

54, 79, 83, 91, 99

Cambridge, Richard Owen, 74, 81,

83, 100
Camoens, Luis de, 26, 36, 66
Campbell, Thomas, 16, 35, 42, 44,

47, 72, 91, 100
Canby, Henry Seidel, 12
Canning, George, 100
Carey, William, 65, 101
Carlyle, Thomas, 8
Cary, Henry Francis, 101
Cawthorn, James, 34, 44, 66, 101
Chatterton, Thomas, 32, 42, 54, 101
Chaucer, Geoffrey, 9, 10, 20, 35, 40
Churchill, Charles, 60, 102
Coleridge, Hartley, 42, 102
Coleridge, Samuel Taylor, 12, 18,

26, 44, 49, 55, 79, 83, 86, 91
Collins, William, 7, 13, 15, 21, 26,

29, 31, 39, 41, 48, 51, 53, 54, 59,

72. 102
Colman, George, the Younger, 52,

103
Conant, Martha Pike, 8, 17, 52, 98
Confucius, 27, 75, 81
Congreve, William, 11, 12
Cooper, John Gilbert, 61, 103
Cotton, Nathaniel, 77, 103
Cowley, Abraham, 71
Cowper, William, 23, 38, 57, 103
Crabbe, George, 13, 19, 38, 47, 49,

68, 60, 63, 71, 75, 86, 104
Croly, George, 105
Croxall, Samuel, 12
Cumberland, Richard, 106
Cunningham, John, 32, 63

Darley, George, 105
Darwin, Erasmus, 71, 72, 83, 103
Davenant, Sir William, 11, 18
De Quincey, Thomas, 89
Dobell, Sydney, 19
Dodsley, Robert, 53, 106
Doyle, Sir Francis Hastings, 106
Dyer, John, 26, 44, 106

1S9

140

INDEX

Ellis, George, 106

Emerson, Ralph Waldo, 17, 20, 26

Falconer, William, 69, 106
Fawkes, Francis, 107
Fergusson, Robert, 36, 107
Fitzgerald, Edward, 18, 20, 49, 64
Foster, John, 14, 41, 86
Frere, John Hookham, 64, 107

Gifford, William, 86

Glover, Richard, 107

Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von, 67

Goldsmith, Oliver, 62, 67, 68, 84,

108
Gosse, Edmund, 12, 19
Grahame, James, 84, 108
Grainger, James, 21, 61, 64, 108
Gray, Thomas, 21, 108

Hafiz, 27, 39, 64, 69, 78

Hallam, Arthiir H., 78, 108

Hamilton, William, 109

Harte, Walter, 32, 34, 49, 76, 109

Hartson, Hall, 109

Hawker, Robert Stephen, 38, 109

Hazlitt, William, 86

Heber, Reginald, 64, 91, 109

Hemans, Felicia Dorothea, 16, 21,

29, 64, 66, 62, 64, 66, 71, 72, 78,

83, 109
Heywood, John, 10
Hill, Aaron, 11, 62, 110
Hogg, James, 46, 111
Home, John, 111
Hood, Thomas, 61, 66, 63, 72, 74,

111
Hoole, John, 18, 34, 36, 49, 78, 111
Home, Richard Henry, 121
Hughes, John, 11, 62
Hunt, Leigh, 83, 112

Jago, Richard, 36, 62, 121.
Jami, 60

Jeffrey, Francis, 40, 80, 83
Jenyns, Soame, 32, 112
Jephson, Robert, 112
Johnson, Samuel, 13, 22, 62, 76

Jones, Sir William, 12, 13, 16, 18,
22, 23, 26, 26, 30, 39, 48, 49, 60,

63, 64, 69, 62, 66, 73, 78. 90, 118
Jonson, Benjamin, 77

Keats, John, 12, 16, 32, 61, 72, 78,

86, 89, 113
Keble, John, 8, 14, 28, 38, 42, 43,

64, 73, 114

KipUng, Rudyard, 9, 17, 18, 61, 64
Konrad of Wurzburg, 90
Koran, The, 78, 87, 90

Lamb, Charles, 47, 68, 114
Landor, Walter Savage, 38
Lang, Andrew, 19, 20
Langhorne, John, 32, 36, 44, 67, 69,

71, 72, 90, 114
Lewis, Matthew Gregory, 63, 114
Leyden, John, 116
Lillo, George, 68, 70, 93, 116
Lloyd, Robert, 14, 42, 76, 116
Lockhart, John Gibson, 116
Logan, John, 21, 63, 116
Lovibond, Edward, 67, 63, 116
Lyly, John, 11

Lyttelton, George, 32, 84, 116
Lytton, Bulwer, 13

Macaulay, Thomas Babington, 86,

66, 76, 83, 116
Mackay, Charles, 19
Mackintosh, Sir James, 66, 83
Maclean, Letitia Elizabeth Landon,

62, 116
Macpherson, James, 21
Madame BuUerfiy, 20
Maginn, WiUiam, 116
Malcolm, Sir John, 16
MaUet, David, 44, 116
Mangan, James Clarence, 18, 28,

29, 31, 34, 36, 49, 60, 61, 63. 69,

117
Marlowe, Christopher, 11, 16
Marshman, Josuha, 63
Mason, WiUiam, 37, 48, 71, 117
Mickle, WiUiam Julius, 26, 32, 86,

36, 67, 117

INDEX

Ul

MiUer, James, 11, 62, 117
Milman, Henry Hart, 74, 117
Milton, John, 10, 11, 84, 77, 79
Mitford, Mary RuBsell, 68, 118
Montagu, Lady Mary Wortley, 12,

18, 68, 64, 62, 77, 118
Montgomery, James, 21, 26, 88, 84,

86, 88, 42, 44, 46, 49, 64, 66, 70,

71, 72, 73, 74, 77, 82, 84, 118
Moore, Edward, 119
Moore, Thomas, 18, 16, 16, 19, 21,

26, 28, 29, 31, 86, 86, 89, 40, 60,

64, 67, 69, 62, 72, 78, 76, 76, 79,

81, 88, 86, 119
More, Paul Elmer, 14, 88
Motherwell, William, 21, 80, 82,

120

Nairne, Caroline Oliphant, Lady,

120
Newman, John Henry, Cardinal,

48,120
Nordau, Max, 84

Omar Khayyam, 18, 20

Peacock, Thomas Love, 28, 82, 89,

46, 69, 120
Pearl, The, 10
Peele, George, 11
Persian Tales, 60
Petrarch, 89

Phelps, William Lyon, 12, 41
Pindar, 60

Play of the Saefament, The, 9
Pollock, Robert, 82, 44, 67, 120
Pope, Alexander, 12, 18
Praed, Winthrop Mackworth, 22,

29, 32, 42, 48, 68, 68, 64, 88, 91,

121
Preston, Thomas, 10
Pringle, Thomas, 121
Procter, Bryan Waller, 42, 49, 98,

121
Raddiffe, Ann, 82, 64, 121
Ramayuna, The, 41, 101
Reynolds, John Hamilton, 122

Rogers, Samuel, 88, 44, 46, 61, 67,

122
RoUiad, The, 83
Rose, William Stewart, 122
Roesetti, Dante Gabriel, 19, 81, 84,

78
Ruskin, John, 89

Saadi, 20, 27, 78

Sackville, Thomas, and Thomas

Norton, 10
St. Pierre, 71
Scott, John, 28, 48, 64, 69, 63, 64,

77,122
Scott, Sir Walter, 26, 64, 68, 66, 67,

76, 76, 79, 122
Shakespeare, William, 10, 16
Shearmen and Taylors, Coventry, 9
Shelley, Percy Bysshe, 12, 16, 26,
26, 27, 28, 82, 86, 38, 42, 49, 61,
62, 67, 63, 71, 78, 80, 86, 123
Shenstone, WHliam, 86, 49, 128
Skeat, Walter W., 26, 80, 136
Smart, Christopher, 82, 124
Smith, Horace, 66, 66, 83, 124
Smollett, Tobias George, 16, 34, 44
Southey, Robert, 18, 16, 17, 18, 21,
22, 28, 26, 26, 28, 29, 32, 83, 86,
37, 42, 61, 64, 66, 67, 60, 64, 72,
78, 76, 80, 88, 86, 89, 91, 102, 124
Spencer, Edmund, 11, 48
Stevenson, Robert Louis, 29
Surrey, Earl of, 10, 11, 61

Tagore, Rabindranath, 20
Tasso, Torquato, 18, 86, 49, 66
Tennyson, Alfred, Lord, 18, 17, 18,

19, 81, 86, 60, 91
Thompson, William, 34, 43, 126
Thomson, James (1700-1748), 26,

82, 86, 86, 48, 46, 49, 84, 126
Thomson, James (1834-1882), 19
Tobin, John, 126
Tulley, Richard Walton, 20

Udall, Nicholas, 10
Underbill, John Garrett, 10

14^

INDBX

Vfdas, The, 78
Voltaire, 62, 117

Waller, Edmund, 11, 12, 34
Walpole, Horace, 126
Warton, Joseph, 44, 46, 126
Warton, Thomas, 126
Webster's New Intematumdl Die-

tianary, 26, 136
Wells, Charles Jeremiah, 8, 47, 62,

73, 126
West, Gilbert, 126
White, Henry Kirke, 71 86. 87, 93,

126

White, Gilbert, 63
Whitehead, Paul, 63, 127
Whitehead, William, 127
Whitman* Walt, 46
¥rilkie, WiUiam, 32, 127
Wilkins, Sir Charles. 63, 127
Wilson, John, 42, 58, 65, 127
Wolcott. John, 81, 83, 127
Wordsworth, William, 12, 19, 38,

47, 58, 60, 61, 65, 66, 67, 72, 76,

79, 127

Young, Edward, 13, 15, 44, 52, 56,
57, 79, 88, 128

The Land Credit Problem

CHAPTER I

Intboduction

Fortunately, the history of the United States is not, like that
of some countries, the history of a peasantry struggling for land.
In the early agricultural organization of this countiy the land
problem was non-existent. There was not, as in Europe, any
feudal ^stem to be broken, concentration in land ownership to
foster rural discontent, nor landlord and tenant relations to be
adjusted. From the very beginning the supply of unoccupied
land was abundant, and it was possible for the man of small means
to become his own master, the owner of 160 acres of land, with
scarcely any financial assistance.

This free and ea^ path to land ownership and economic in-
dependence was due to the establishment of the public-land system.
Shortly after the dose of the Revolution, the several states ceded
the greater portion of their imsold lands to the federal government,
which then began to devise plans for their sale and settlement.
At first, the policy adopted by the central government for the
disposition of the public lands was actuated by financial consider-
ations. To the West was a boundless stretdi of unoccupied
territoiy which was regarded as ''an asset to be cashed at once
for payment of current expenses of Government and extinguish-
ment of the national debt".^ Accordingly, land was sold in large
tracts at a comparatively low price per acre. From 1785 to 1796
the minimum price was $1 per acre;* from 1796 to 1820, $2 per
acre:' and in the latter year the price was reduced to $IM per

1. Donaldson: The Public Domain, p. 196.

2. Ibid,, p. 107.

3. /Mtf.. p. 205.

8 University of Kansas Humanistic Studies [160

acre/ Irrespective of the motive which first prompted the gov-
ermnent to dispose of the public land in this manner, the owner*
ship of land was, at these prices, well within the reach of the
young man seeking economic independence.

In the meantime the public-land policy was undergoing a
significant change. The plan, fathered by Alexander Hamilton,
of disposing of the public land for the sake of the revenue it would
yield to the federal government was gradually giving way to a
policy which regarded the rapid settlement of the western territory
as a factor in national development. From 1801 to 1841 there
was developed in sixteen special acts the preemption system,
which gave preference to actual settlers in the sale of land. Under
this system a settler was allowed to enter upon a tract of land before
it had been offered at public sale. After he had lived upon the
tract for a limited period and had improved and cultivated a
portion of his holdings, he could acquire a title to the land on
payment of $1.25 per acre.^

The climax of the policy of favoring the actual settler was
reached with the passage of the Homestead Act in 186i^. The law
was the result of ten years of agitation for free land. In 1852 the
Free Soil Democrats, assembled in National Convention, had
resolved ''that the public lands of the United States belong to the
people, and should not be sold to individuab, nor granted to
corporations, but should be held as a sacred trust for the benefit
of the people, and should be granted in limited quantities, free of
cost, to landless settlers".^

Moreover, ''the rich and fertile lands of the Mississippi Valley
were fast filling up with settlers. Agricultural lands in the Middle
States, which, after the year 1824, were bought for $1.25 per acre,
now sold at from $50 to $80 per acre. Former purchasers of these
Government lands in the Middle, Western, and Southern States
were selling their early purchases for this great advance, and
moving west, to Iowa, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Missouri, and
there again taking cheap Government lands under the preemption
laws.

"The western emigration caused a rush-^ migration of neigh-

4. IMd., p. 206.
6. /Md.. p. 214.
6. JMJ.. p. 332.

161] Putnam: The Land Credit Problem 9

borhoods in many localities of the older Western States. Following
the sun, their pillar of fire, these State founders moved westward,
a resistless army ot agents of American civilization, and there was
a demand for homes on the public lands, and a strong pressure for
the enactment of a law which should confine locators to small
tracts, and require actual occupation, improvement, and culti-
vation. "^

The Homestead Act and its amendments marked the third
important step in the disposition of the vast public domain. For
a nominal fee it gave to ** a settler — a man or woman over the age
of twenty-one, a citizen of the United States or having declared
an intention of becoming such — ^the right to locate upon 160
acres of unoccupied public land in any of the public-land States
and Territories subject to entiy at a United States land oflSce,
to live upon the same for a period of five years, and upon proof
of a compliance with the law, to receive a patent therefor free of
cost or charge for the land".*

The effect of this generous treatment accorded to the farmer by
the federal government was far-reaching in its significance. In
the first place, it meant that the farmer was independent of the
financial institutions not only in the matter of acquiring a farm
but also in its improvement and cultivation. Few improvements,
in fact, were needed. With the early settlers, about the only
improvement wluch called for immediate attention was the clear-
ing ot a portion of the land and the construction of a shelter.
Once a small space had been cleared of trees and forest growth,
the woik of cultivation was comparatively simple because of the
natural fertility of the soil. While nature was thus engaged in
the growing of crops the farmer was able to devote his time to the
complete conquest of the forest. And later, when the tide of
westward expansion had reached the western slope of the Missis-
sippi Valley, the settler was even relieved of the preliminary task
of clearing his farm. Here were farms already made, with virgin
soil that responded bountifully and immediately to careless and
extensive methods of cultivation. Under these conditions, which
prevailed generally throughout the Middle West, the business

7. Ibid,, pp. 332-333.

8. Ibid., p. 350.

10 UniversUy of Kansas Humanistic Studies [168

of farming was practicaUy independent of the commercial banking
system.

In the second place, the public-land policy was instrumental in
producing a type of American farmer totally different in mode of
living and economic status from the agricultural workers of Europe.
His life was that of a pioneer, spent in comparative isolation. He
seldom saw his neighbors, if he had any, but strangers were always
welcome. In his reckoning of character, present worth counted
for most, antecedents for least. Moreover, with his Bible and his
ax he was well-nigh self-sufficient. He paid no rent to an absentee
landlord nor looked to charity when overtaken by misfortune.
He was essentially a home builder and a home owner, a farmer
rather than a proletarian, who enjoyed the full product of his own
labor. "Such men", wrote Jefferson, **are the true representa-
tives of the great American interest, and are alone to be relied on
for expressing the proper American sentiments".*

No less marked in significance was the effect which the land
supply had upon the welfare of the laboring classes. On the farm
the labor problem was acute. Few there were who cared
to work in the hire of another when it was possible for one to be-
come his own master on his own land. Likewise, the frontier
offered a life of independence to those who found the conditions
of employment in the factory and workshop unpromising or in-
tolerable. To have been bom in the ranks of a wage-earning dass
was no severe handicap. One could easily rise above the status
of "low birth". Laborers had an alternative of economic indepen-
dence by virtue of which employers were constrained to recognize
efficiency as it appeared and to grant an early preferment to those
worthy of further employment. Being conscious of their ability
to rise, however humble in origin, they had ambition and incentive
which in turn reacted favorably upon their productive powers and
the scale of labor remuneration.

It is little wonder, therefore, that the passion for freedom and
democracy has long been regarded as one of the chief character-
istics of the American people. At a very early date the spirit of
equality became the rule, not because it was decreed that "all
men were created equal", but because the conditions under which
men made their living were conducive to the development of that

9. Work* (Washington ed.): Vol. IV. p. 107.

1BS\ Pvinam: The Land Credit Problem 11

spirit. Land was the predominant form of wealth and it was
abundant; all were free to become landowners; and while there
was undoubtedly a certain inequality in material possessions,
there was» nevertheless, an approximate equality in opportunity.

Finally, the large supply of free and fertile land determined in
advance the character of agricultural methods. The scarcity of
labor and the abundance of land gave rise to methods of tillage
which conserved the former and wasted the latter. If the farmer
realized a surplus from his farming operations, it was more profit-
able to invest his funds in additional land and await the natural
increase in value than to attempt to increase the productivity of
the land he already possessed. Or, if he had gotten all from the
land that its fertility would yield, he might abandon his exhausted
farm and migrate to newer and fresher territory. Even the immi-
grants who came from Northern and Western Europe to settle
upon the public lands soon abandoned the use of intensive methods,
to which they had been accustomed, for the more profitable "cut
and cover'* methods employed by the American farmer. Thus a
premium was placed on waste and soil depletion. The course
most profitable to the farmer was the one most wasteful to society.
Most unfortunate of all was the fact that farmers were being
schooled generation after generation under a demoralizing system,
the effects of which still linger.

But whatever may be said as to the merits or demerits of the
public-land system, it gave a great impetus to agricultural settle-
ment. Within a century after the time of its inception there
remained only a small area of public land available for cultivation.
The disposition of the public domain from its origin to June 30,
1880, is estimated by Donaldson at 547,754,488 acres.^" Accord-
ing to the annual reports of the General Land QflGice, 578,288,140
acres were disposed of between 1880 and 1915. On July 1, 1915»
there were 279,544,494 acres of public land in the United States
unappropriated and unreserved^' — less than one-seventh of the
total land area. Most of the land still open for settlement is to be
found in Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada,
New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, and Wyoming.

10. Th€ PuMie Domain, p. 22.

11. Report of the CommtMHoner of the Oeneral Land Office, 1016, p. 120.

12

University of Kansas Humanistic Stvdies

[15^

The importance of free land in the settlement of the public
domain is shown in the following table :^*

FINAL HOMESTEAD ENTRIES FROM THE PASSAGE OF
THE HOMESTEAD ACT TO JUNE 80, 1915

Fiscal Year Ended June 30

1868.

1869.

1870.

1871.

1872.

1873.

1874.

1875.

1876.

1877.

1878.

1879.

1880.

1881.

1882.

1883.

1884.

1885.

1886.

1887.

1888.

1889.

1890.

1891.

1892.

1893.

1894.

1896.

1896.

1897.

1898.

1899.

1900.

1901.

1902.

1903.

1904.

1905.

1906..

1907..

1908..

1909..

1910..

1911..

1912..

1913..

1914..

1915..

Number

Acres

2.772

3.965

4.041

6.087

6.917

10.311

14.129

18.293

22.530

19.900

22.460

17.391

15.441

15,077

17,174

18.998

21.843

22.066

19,356

19.866

22.413

25.549

28.080

27.686

22.822

24.204

20,544

20.922

20.099

20.115

22,281

22.812

25.286

37.568

31.627

26«87S

23.932

24,621

25.546

26.485

29.636

25.510

23.253

25.908

24.326

53.262

48.724

37,343

Total I 1,063.584

855.086.04
504.301.97
519.727.84
629.162.25
707.409.88
1.224.890.93
1.585,781.5$
2.068.537.74
2.590.552.81
2.407.828.19
6,662.980.82
2,070.842.39
1,938,234.81
1,928,204.76
2,219.458.80
2.504.414.51
2.945.574.72
3.032.679.11
2.668.531.83
2.749.037.48
3.175.400.64
3.681.708.80
4.060.592.77
3.954.587.77
3.259.897.07
3.477.231.63
2.920.947.41
2,980.809.30
2.790.242.55
2.778.404.20
3.095.017.75
3.134.140.44
8.477,842.71
5,241,120.76
4,342.747.70
8.576,964.14
3.232.716.75
8.419.867.15
3.526.748.58
3.740.567.71
4.242.710.59
3.699.466.79
3,795.862.89
4,620.197.12
4.306.068.52
10,009.285. li
9.291.121.46
7.180,981.02

154,827.812.45

Although the free distribution of land has continued steadily
down to the present time, final entries had been made on the best
lands of the Mississippi Valley during the years before 1890.
Thereafter settlers were obliged to enter upon lands greatly inferior
in quality or to await the opening of Indian reservations to white

12. IHd., p. 67.

165] Putnam: The Land Credit Problem 13

settlers. In recent years the opening of these reservations has
been the big factor in the settlement of the public lands. Since
the close of the last century, vast areas have been made available
to settlers in Oklahoma, Florida, North Dakota, Wyoming, Mon-
tana, New Mexico, and the Pacific Coast States. And in nearly
every instance where reserved land has been opened for settlement,
the number of applicants registered for homesteads has far ex-
ceeded the number of farms available for distribution. This fact
suggests that the free and easy path to land ownership was prac-
tically closed by 1890, when the best land had been taken up.

The practical exhaustion of the supply of free land in 1890
marked the beginning of a new era in the economic history of the
United States of no less significance than the establishment of the
public-land system itsdf. The change became apparent just
before the close of the century, following a long period of malad-
justment. The rapid settlement of the fertile lands of the Mis-
sissippi Valley and the subsequent increase in the volume of farm
products caused, after 187S, a gradual decline in the prices of
agricultural products. Farmers who were seeking to acquire a
title to land under the homestead or preemption laws cultivated
their farms in order to conform to the requirements of the law.
Moreover, in the cultivation of their land they made extensive
use of farm machineiy in order to secure, at the same time, the
largest possible reward for their labor. Under these conditions,
k>w prices obtained for agricultural products and agricultural
discontent became general. For the time being agriculture had
outgrown its proper relation to industry. It had evolved from a
self-sufficient to a conunercial undertaking which was proving
altogether unprofitable.

By 1896, however, prices had reached their lowest ebb and,
with the return of business prosperity, began a rapid upward
bound which has steadily continued. The general increase in the
prices of various farm products during the last twenty years is
shown in the following table :^'

18. The farm prices of December 1 for each year, as reported by the Yearbook
of the Department of AifricuUure, 1915, pp. 412-463, are averaged by five-year periods.

u

Uvmersity of Karutu HumanisHe Studies

[168

Com, per bushel

Wheat, per bushel...

Oats, per bushel

Barley, per bushel...
Potatoes, per bushel
Hay, per ton

1896-1900

1901-1005

1906-1910

80.28

$0.46

$0.52

.66

.72

.86

.23

.38

.39

.38

.44

.55

.41

.68

.59

7.06

9.07

10.78

1911-1915

$0 60
.89
.42
.59
.62

12.06

No sooner had the rise in the prices of farm products been
generally felt than the value of land, which before 1900 had beoi
subject to fluctuation and uncertainty, began rapidly to rise. In
1900 the average value of land per acre exclusive of buildings was
$15.57; by 1910 it had risen to $8«.40." In many of the newer
states west of the Mississippi, the price of land more than trebled.
Apparently there had come over investors a full realization of the
fact that the supply of unoccupied land which could be brought
under cultivation was practically exhausted, and that a further
rise in agricultural prices was imminently certain. These consid-
erations, coupled with the realization that the rate of interest was
gradually f aUing, led investors to offer exorbitant prices for farms —
prices that were, in the vast majority of cases, out of all proportion
to the then productive capacity of land. What th^ failed to
realize on their investments in the present they expected to recover
with interest in the future. The mere prospect of securing an
unearned increment had a cumulative effect on land values.

But while the general rise in the value of farm land was filling
the coffers of the landowning classes, it was having an adverse
effect on the economic status of the landless man. No longer
could the man of small means who aspired to a position of economic
independence rely upon the generosity of the federal government.
On the contrary, he must needs serve a long period of apprentice-
ship either as a tenant or laborer before he could acquire sufficient
means to purchase a farm of his own. In some of the older agri-
cultural states, where, on account of a certain immobility on the
part of farmers, the status of tenancy was deemed preferable to
the isolation and hardships of frontier life, an increase in the per-
centage of tenancy had already begun. In 1880, 25.6 per cent of
all the farmers in the United States were tenants. In spite of the
fact that home seekers were continually appropriating new farms

14. Thirteenth Census of the United States; Vol. V. p. 28.

167] Putnam: The Land Credit Problem IB

on the public domain^ the percentage of tenancy had risen to 37
by 1910." Manifestly, the status of the home seeker had been
altered. The rise in the value of land had, in many cases, rendered
ownership by the actual cultivator unprofitable if not altogether
impossible. It had destroyed that approximate equality of oppor-
tunity which obtained when land was free. In short, a problem
of land tenure was graduaQy developing.

Nor has the welfare of the laboring classes been unaffected.
While it is true that the rise in the general level of food prices has
been accompanied by a rise in the level of mon^ wages, the latter
has not kept pace with the former. In other words, real wages
have fallen. There seems to be abundant evidence of a substantial
decline. According to a recent computation made by Rubinow,
the index of real wages per week rose from 99.4 in 1890, to 104.7
in 1896; but thereafter a decline set in, reaching the low figure of
85.8 in 1912." It is his conclusion that "the American wage-
worker, notwithstanding his strenuous efforts to adjust wages to
these new price conditions, notwithstitnding all his strikes, boy-
cotts, and riots, notwithstanding all the picturesque I. W. W.-ism,
new unionism, and the modish sabotage, has been losing surely
and not even slowly, so that the sum total of economic progress of
• this country for the last quarter of a century appears to be a loss
of from 10 to 15 per cent in his earning power".^^

Various explanations might be offered to account for the material
decline in real wages, but among these explanations a more prom-
inent place than most writers have conceded should be given to
the fact that the land supply, which had always been able to absorb
a large share of the labor surplus, was beginning to wane in im-
portance. Moreover, the character of the immigrant population
was changing. The earlier immigrants had come from Northern
and Western Europe for the purpose of acquiring farm homes;
now they were coming from Southern and Eastern Europe expect-
ing to enter the ranks of industrial workers. The effect of their
numbers was to augment the labor surplus, overstock the labor
market, and weaken the bargaining power of the American laborer.

In the first place, then, the period of rising prices after 1896,
itself the product of many factors, called for the strengthening of

15. Thirtemth CensuM of the United States; Vol. V, p. 102.

16. American Economic ReHew; Vol. IV. Dec.. 1014. p. 811.

17. Ihid,, p. 813.

16 University of Kansas Humanistic Studies [158

the laborer's bargaining power if the level of real wages was to be
maintained. But the laborer was unable to maintain an even
ratio between his bargaining power and his increasing productive
capacity, because on account of the rise in the value of land the
alternative which he formerly enjoyed of becoming an independent
landowner no longer existed. It seems reasonable, therefore, to
conclude that if the supply of farm land had remained cheap and
plentiful, it would have absorbed a large portion of the labor
surplus and those who chose to remain in the field of industry
could have secured a larger share of their product.

Of equal significance is the effect which higher land values
have had and promise to have upon the character of agricultural
methods. The old extensive and soil-depleting system of culti-
vation has at last become relatively unprofitable. Land must be
conserved and its productivity increased if a large product per
man is to be obtained. While the time has not yet arrived when
the farmer should attempt to ''make two blades of grass grow
where one grew before ", the continued rise in the price of land and
farm products will necessitate a complete readjustment of the
proportion in which land, labor, and capital are now employed.

Already there is an urgent need for readjustment, but the need
is not fully appreciated by most farmers. As a class they are slow
to adapt themselves to changing conditions. Having been reared
under the old school of waste and independent action they are
loath to adopt new methods which would increase the product per
acre without lowering the product per man. It is too often the
case that farmers lag behind with their farming, content in the
knowledge that they have made money in land whether they have
grown crops or not. Where this attitude is prevalent and persistent
little immediate progress can be expected, and the problem of
better farming must be left to the younger generation of farmers.

Nevertheless, some progress has been made during the last fifteen
years. Unfortunately, the census of 1890 grouped the value of
land and buildings together. In 1900 and 1910, however, the value
of buildings was listed separately and a comparison shows an
increase per farm of 62.3 per cent." During the same decade the
value of implements and machinery per farm increased 65.8 per

18. Thirteenth Census of the United States; Vol. V. p. 28.

159] Putnam: The Land Credit Problem 17

cent;^* while the tx>tal amount expended by the American farmer
for fertilizer and labor increased 115*® and 82.3*^ per cent respec-
tively. The increase in the value of these items shows some
appreciation on the part of farmers of the imperative need for
improved methods — ^better housing for better stock, the preven-
tion of soil depletion, better equipment and machinery, and more
intensive cultivation. Yet with all these expenditures there is no
evidence to show that the product per acre has increased in the
slightest degree. The present agricultural stage is one of transition,
and until the farmer has paid in full the price of his reckless school-
ing the returns from his capital expenditures will be represented
only in the maintenance of the productive capacity of his farm.
What prosperity he now enjoys is due entirely to the high level
of prices.

As a final effect of the rise in the value of land and the growing
demands of agricultural progress, the farmer has been obliged to
depend more and more upon his marketing ability and his borrow-
ing power. With the disappearance of the American frontier, the
backwoods occupation of farming has at last become a business.
As such, it requires a knowledge of three distinct kinds of business
practice, i. ^., production, marketing, and finance. Although it
would be difficult to estimate which one of these departments of
farming is most important, leaders in agricultural education have,
until recently, been wont to emphasize only the need of reform
in the business of growing crops. The advancement of other
departments of the business has been generally neglected. As a
result of this neglect, the system under which the farmer sells his
products and borrows his capital has become uneconomical, ill-
adapted, and obsolete.

It is about the problem of agricultural finance that chief interest
now centers. In discussing the nature of this problem, the fact
should be borne in mind that the capital requirements of farmers
are supplied by two forms of loans — ^the long-term and the short-
term. The long-term loan is used in aiding to pay the purchase
price of land, in making permanent improvements, and in pro-
viding those forms of productive equipment which are too expen-
sive to be met out of the earnings of two successive years. As

19. Ibid., Vol. V, p. 28.

20. JWd.. Vol. V. p. 661.

21. JWd.. Vol. V, p. 660.

18 University of Kansas Humanistic Studies [160

security for such loans, the farmer gives a mortgage on his land.

Just as the long-term or land-mortgage loan is needed for the
purchase and improvement of the farm, so the short-term or per-
sonal loan is necessary in the growing of crops. From the time the
ground is prepared and the seed planted until the crop is harvested
a period of six or nine months may have elapsed. In the mean-
time the farmer's income is small and his expenses heavy. He is
obliged to make continual advances for the payment of wages and
for the purchase of productive equipment and supplies. Funds
are required not only to grow the crops but also to tide him over
until his products have been sold. The lender's security for the
short-term loan may be in the form of a chattel mortgage or it may
consist solely of the farmer's personal integrity.

In the following chapters, attention will be given to only one
phase of the farmer's credit problem, i. e., the problem of long-term
or land-mortgage credit; not because the problem of personal
credit is unimportant but because the two problems are absolutely
distinct. The lines of procedure to be followed in dealing with one
are totally ill-adapted to deal with the other. Furthermore, it is
the writer's firm conviction that much of the land credit legislation
already in force is of doubtful character and, for reasons whidi
will subsequently appear, that the solution of the farmer's
land credit problem is for the present of far more pressing im-
portance.

CHAPTER II

Land Mortgage Credit in the United States

The census of 1890, the first to make any definite inquiry into
the extent of farm mortgage indebtedness in the United States,
reported a total mortgage debt of $1,085,995,960^ on farms oper-
ated by th^ owners and on farms whose owners rented additional
land. These figures include an estimate of the mortgage debt on
those farms from which incomplete reports were obtained. No
attempt was made to ascertain the amount of mortgage debt on
farms operated by tenants or hired managers for the obvious reason
that these operators are not likely to have accurate information
as to whether the farms which they operate are mortgaged, and
still less as to the amount of mortgage debt.

Unfortunately, the data secured by the census of 1900 are of
little comparative value as they relate only to the number of farm
homes mortgaged. But in 1910 the census enumerators again
attempted to ascertain the extent of farm mortgage indebtedness,
reporting a total of $1,726,172,851.^ This amount, however, does
not include an estimate of the indebtedness on farms from which
incomplete reports were obtained, nor does it include the indebted-
ness on farms whose owners rented additional land. Of these
farms there is a considerable number. The figures for 1890 and
1910 are not, therefore, strictly comparable, but th^ show con-
clusively the existence of a growing demand for land credit.

Many have viewed with alarm the growth in the number of
mortgaged farms, believing it to be an unmistakable sign of agri-
cultural adversity. But this attitude is not well founded. Al-
though farms are frequently mortgaged on account of poor crops,
mismanagement, or unavoidable misfortune, such indebtedness
more often represents an unpaid portion of the cost of the farm,
expenditures for additional land, buildings, and other permanent
improvements. Notwithstanding the increase in the number of

23. ThMeemh Cen9u$ of ihe United SfolM ; Vol. V. p. 102.
28. ld«.. Vol. V. p. 162.

19

£0 University of Kansas Humanistic Studies [16£

mortgaged farms from 1890 to 1910, the ratio of the farmer's debt
to the value of his land actually declined. While the average
amount of mortgage indebtedness per farm increased from $1,2^
in 1890 to $1,715 in 1910, the owner's equity per farm increased from
$2,2£0 to $4,574, or more than doubled. It can scarcely be main-
tained that farmers as a class were less prosperous in 1910 than in
1890. On the contrary, there is plenty of evidence to show that the
most prosperous and progressive agriculture obtains in those states
where the mortgage indebtedness is the greatest. In the South,
where the percentage of farms free from mortgage debt has been
unusually large, agriculture has developed only as the percentage
of mortgaged farms increased.

Perhaps the most satisfactory estimate of the extent of mortgage
indebtedness in the United States is the one recently made by
members of the Department of Agriculture. On the basis of the
Thirteenth Census figures, supplemented by actual field study,
they have estimated the total mortgage debt on all farms, whether
operated by owners, managers, or tenants, to be $3,598,985,000.**
In the distribution of this debt among the several states, the pro-
portion is much the same as that reported by the Thirteenth
Census. Iowa has the largest farm mortgage debt of any state.
It is followed by Illinois, Missouri, Wisconsin, Texas, and Kansas.
Of the total mortgage indebtedness for the whole country, 64 per
cent is found in the North Central States alone.

The table^ on page 21, prepared by the Department of Agricul-
ture, shows by states the estimated total farm mortgage debt and
the extent to which farm mortgages are held by life insurance
companies and banks.

At present, life insurance companies are one of the most im-
portant sources of land credit. The data on page 21 show that
two hundred and twenty companies with assets representing more
than 99 per cent of the total assets of all life companies in the
United States had, in October, 1915, when their reports were
tabulated, $695,536,000 invested in farm mortgages. Among
these companies, the Northwestern Mutual of Milwaukee is the
heaviest single lender on mortgage security. On December 31,
1915, it had outstanding farm mortgage loans to the amount of

24. Tabular statement of O. W. Thompson, Hearings before the Subcommittee
of the Joint Committee on Rural Credits, 64 Cong., 1 Sess., p. 107.
26. Ibid., p. 107.

16S]

Putnam: The Land Credit Problem

SI

QUANTITATIVE DATA RELATIVE TO FARM MORTGAGE LOANS
(Figures for amounts represent thousands of dollars)

Geographic division
and State

United States.

Geographic divisions:

New England

Middle Atlantic

East North Central..
West North Central.

South Atlantic

East South Central..
West South Central.

Mountain

Padflc

New England:

Maine

New Hampshire....

Vermont

Massachusetta

Rhode Island

Connecticut

Middle Atlantic:

New York

New Jersey

Pennsylvania

East North Central:

Ohio

Indiana

IlUnols

Michigan

Wisconsin

West North Central:

Minnesota

Iowa

Missouri

North Dakota

South Dakota

Nebraska

Kansas

South Atlantic:

Delaware

Maryland

Virginia

West Virginia

North Carolina

South Carolina

Georgia

Florida

East South Central:

Kentucky

Tennessee

Alabama

Mississippi

West South Central:

Arkansas

Louisiana

Oklahoma

Texas

Mountain :

Montana

Idaho

Wyoming

Colorado

New Mexico

Arizona

Utah.

Nevada.

Pacific:

Washington

Oregon

California

Estimated

total farm

mortgage

debt*

3.69S.9S5

80.544
313.156
944.436
.375.903
153.155
127,135
299.614
101,285
203,757

13.727
6.100

17.113

24.077
2.514

17.013

168.234

35,610

109.312

130.678
132.325
355.802
118.950
206.681

145.181
469.063
223.107
100.364
92.467
165.015
180.706

6.857
32.393
26.007

8.725
21.005
24.967
29.711

4.400

41.305
25,468
25.943
34.419

21.023

21.141

73.129

184.321

17.111
21.566
7.148
36.767
4.585
4.161
6.818
3.129

43.470

35.535

124.752

Farm mortgages
held by life insur-
ance companies**

Amount

695.536

1.702

556

121.075

426.960

22.930

22.871

72,685

12.532

14.225

15

13
9

1.665

128
222
206

17,073

48.789

51.046

1.706

2.461

35.577
160.150
59.699
19.423
31.024
66.614
64.473

46

492

670

'- 23

2.267

3.884

15,479

69

7.170

10.674

1.771

3.256

4.259

1.500

29,065

37.861

3.518

2.948

487

3.135

1.191

376

862

15

3.087

1.091

10.047

Per cent
of esti-
mated
total

19.3

2.1
.2
12.8
31.0
16.0
18.0
24.3
12.4

7.0

.1

.1

ft

9.8

.1
.6
.2

13.1

36.9

14.3

1.4

1.2

24.5
32.0
26.8
19.4
33.6
40.4
35.7

.7

1.5

2.7

.3

10.8

15.6

52.1

1.5

17.4

41.9

6.8

9.5

20.3

7.1

39.7

20.5

20.6

13.7
6.8
8.5

26.0
9.0

12.6
.5

7.1
8.1
8.1

Farm mortgages
held by
banksf

Amount

739.500

84,900
30.900
220.000
216.400
40.800
33.600
27.900
19.800
65.200

6.000
12.500
46.700
8.700
6.000
5.000

18.200

2.600

10.100

26.200
52.000
56.200
44.900
40.700

43.600
104.800

34.900
5.000
6.200

10.400

11.500

1.600
6.000
5.000
1.700
6.900
9.000
8.000
2.600

13.300
4.000
3,700

12.600

5.700

9.000

2.100

11.100

5.200
2.200
1.200
2.100
400
1.600
6.000
1.100

6.000

4.100

56.100

Per cent
of esti-
mated
total

20.6

105.4
9.9
23.3
15.7
26.6
26.4
9.3
19.5
32.0

43.7
204.9
272.9

36.2
238.7

29.4

10.8
7.3
9.2

20.1
39.3
15.8
37.8
19.7

30.0
22.3
15.6
5.0
6.7
6.3
6.4

23.3
18.5
20.0
19.5
32.9
36.1
26.9
57.9

32.2
16.7
14.3
36.6

27.1

42.6

2.9

6.0

30.4
10.2
16.8
6.7
8.7
38.5
88.0
35.2

11.5
11.5
45.0

* Estimates based on Thirteenth Census figures.

** figures actually reported by 220 companies, with assets representing more than
99 per cent of the total admitted assets of all life Insurance companies In
the country,
t Estimates based on reports received firom banks,
tt Less than one-tenth of 1 per cent.

££ University of Kansas Humanistic Studies [164

$103,769,238. It was followed by the Mutual Benefit of Newark
with $84,882,136, and the Union Central of Cincinnati with
$80,116,236. The Prudential, whose activities in the farm loan
field do not cover as many years, held $67,146,570, and the Aetna,
one of the first companies to begin investing its funds in fann
mortgages, had $58,206,405. These are the five largest investors
in farm mortgages among life insurance companies or among any
other class of institutions in the United States.

The territory within which these companies make farm loans
is carefully selected. Safety is demanded before eveiy other con-
sideration. Since the crop-producing qualities of land are the
sustaining element of the farm loan, those sections where a one-
crop system prevails are generaUy avoided. Only with the growth
of diversified agriculture have the Southern States come to be
included in the investment territory of the large companies. With
the exception of Connecticut, the New England and Middle
Atlantic States are practically excluded. Widespread investments
through the great crop-producing states are naturally the safest
for average results. For this reason, the investment territory of
insurance companies is found principally in Iowa, Nebraska, Kan-
sas, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, and Texas. In other agricultural
states only those sections are favored which are known to have
stable land values and a thrifty rural population.

But selection is not exhausted when a general territory has been
determined by a company. A state, a county, or even a township
does not contain uniformly good land, and undesirable spots must
be eliminated. The art of selection seems to be continuous in the
business. In choosing an individual farm as security for a loan,
companies exercise the greatest care. The most important con-
siderations affecting their decision in the matter are the produc-
tiveness and marketability of the land. The productive quality of
the soil is evidenced by the record of the crops harvested over a
period of years. If the land is located on a good public road, near
a good railroad market, and surrounded by well improved farms, it
IS not likely to be subject to depreciation in value. Other important
considerations affecting the selection of individual tracts for in-
vestment purposes are the general topography of the land, the
extent and character of fann buildings, and the moral hazard in-

166] Putnam: The Land Credit Problem 23

volved. An accurate account of the borrower's financial condition
is uniformly required.

Various methods are employed by the insurance companies in
placing their farm mortgage investments. The smaller companies
whose farm mortgage business is not sufficiently large to justify
the maintenance of a separate farm loan department frequently
buy their mortgages from well established concerns — state banks,
savings banks, brokers, and investment companies — operating in
the territoiy which has been selected. Or they may put at the
disposal of their selected agents a constant fund to be loaned under
certain conditions to well qualified applicants, reserving the right,
however, to reject any loan within a given period of time if the
representations of the agent have been found to be inaccurate. On
the other hand it is the practice of the larger companies to deal
directly with the farmer, either through a local representative who
acts as the agent of the borrower or through a district agent having
charge of the selection of loans within a certain state or territoiy.

An illustration of the latter method is afforded by the practice
of the Union Central life Insurance Company. This company
operates in thirty-four states and has the unique distinction of
having a greater proportion of its assets invested in mortgage
loans on farm lands than any other company. ''It has a complete
organization of its own, which means that it does not buy mortgage
paper from brokers or investment companies — but deals directly
with the farmer in the original transaction. This branch is man-
aged by the treasurer of the Company and consists of thirty-five
financial correspondents with local agents, land examiners, ab-
stracters of title, local attorneys — all operating in the field;
together with a financial department at the Home Office equipped
with a division to handle each phase of a loan — security, title,
final settlements, collection of maturities either principal or in-
terest, taxes and assessments, fire insurance, foreclosures, and real
estate.

''The application for loan form contains an exhaustive state-
ment in detail of the character and conditions of the security
offered, together with an exhibit of assets and liabilities, income
and outgo of applicant. It further contains a sworn appraisem^it
of the security by two land owners and residents of the county,
and a report of personal examination and recommendation of the

^i University of Kansas Humanistic Studies [166

amount to be loaned, by the local agent. The financial correspon-
dent makes a personal examination of the security and financial
condition of the applicant himself or through his salaried land exam-
iner, and in written report he bases his recommendation of amount
to be loaned on statements in the application, verified by personal
examination and by his office records of other examinations in that
immediate locality. This is the field work done upon every appli-
cation before it is submitted to the Company. The financial
department of the Company assumes a position of absolute inde-
pendence of the applicant, appraiser, local agent and financial
correspondent, and proceeds to investigate the security and the
applicant as it deems best. The records at the Home Office of the
loans already made in the locality afford a reliable guide, as they
are the result of actual examination and the report of subsequent
changes in ownership indicating purchase price in sales. If abnor-
mal, a special Home Office agent is sent out if the circumstances
warrant such examination. When information from all sources is
accumulated, it is abstracted and condensed in a single sheet for
each loan and a copy is placed before each member of the Execu-
tive Committee — the investing authority of the Company — ^which
finally decides the amount of loan justified by the security.

"During its history of forty-six years, the Company has made
75,102 loans to farmers, amounting to $133,838,549.44 secured by
mortgages on 11,462,363 acres — an average loan of $1,782.00 to
the borrower. * * * *

"It has been a basic principle not to hold real estate obtained
under foreclosure for speculative rise in value, but rather to force
the quick sale of it. The test of a mortgage investment is the
experience with real estate obtained under foreclosure. During
forty-six years the Company has acquired 871 pieces of real estate
through foreclosure of mortgage, costing a total of $2,839,660.27.
It has sold 859 pieces, and now has on hand 12 pieces located in
five states and costing $46,331.19. * * * The total loss upon the
investment of $133,838,549.44 during the contingencies of forty-
six years has been $193,485.11."^

The records of such companies as the Union Central, the North-
western Mutual, and the National Life of Montpelier — companies

26. Extract from an address delivered by Jesse B. Clark, President of the Union
Central Life Insurance Company, at the ninth annual meeting of the Association
of Life Insurance Prertdents, New York City. December 6, 1912.

167] Putnam: The Land Credit Problem 25

which have always been willing to inform the general public about
the conduct of their business affairs — ^bear testimony to the abund-
ant security of farm mortgage investments when properly safe-
guarded. The growing demand for this class of investments on
the part of the old established life insurance companies is evidence
that the status of the farm mortgage has changed materially
during the last two decades. It is true that some of the companies
have been induced to enter the field on account of the relatively
higher interest rate which the farm mortgage offers, but for the
most part they have proceeded with caution, extending their farm
loan territory only when considerations of safety justified such ac-
tion. One of the noteworthy events in farm loan circles during
the year 1918 was the entrance of three New York companies —
the Equitable, the Mutual, and the New York Life — ^into the farm
mortgage investment field.

A second important source of land-mortgage credit is the bank.
Until the passage of the Federal Reserve Act in 1913, national
banks were forbidden by law to lend on the security of real estate.
The reason for this limitation on lending power was unquestionably
sound. Since the primary function of a commercial bank is to
make profitable use of funds which would otherwise be temporarily
unemployed, and at the same time to keep the bulk of its invest-
ment in liquid form so that it will always be able to meet the
demands of its depositors, its loans should be continually maturing.
If its assets are invested in short-term paper, having a maturity of
thirty, sixty, and ninety days, they are liquid. On the other hand,
if it has made long-term loans on the security of real estate, to that
extent it will be less able to meet its demand obligations in time of
stress. This principle was clearly recognized by the national bank-
ing law, but in spite of its good intentions, national banks exper-
ienced httle diflSculty in making mortgage loans indirectly through
their directors whenever such loans became relatively profitable.

The Federal Reserve Act empowered any national bank not
located in a central reserve city to make loans secured by improved
farm land within its district up to 50 per cent of the actual value of
the property offered as security, and for a period not exceeding
five years. Such loans can be made to an aggregate sum equal to
25 per cent of the bank*s capital and surplus, or to 33i^ per cent
of its time deposits. A statement given out by the Treasury

■m '■

£6 University of Kansas Humanistic Studies [Ij^

Department in June, 1914, indicated that the sum of $500»000,000
was at that time available for farm mortgage loans under theJaw.
But it is not likely that national banks will lend this amounr on
mortgage security in competition with the older farm mortgage in-
^stitutions. The rate of interest that can be obtained on short-term
loans is generally higher, and, unless the rediscount privilege
afforded by the federal reserve system causes a material reduction
in the short-term rate, bankers will instinctively prefer the more
liquid commercial loans. However, the new system enables a
national bank to invest a larger proportion of its assets in long-term
loans without running the risk of being seriously embarrassed.

State banks occupy a position of much greater prominence in
financing the farmer's long-term credit needs than do national
banks. Owing to the small amount of capital required for their
organization, they can be more easily formed in the rural districts
and are therefore greater in number. Although they are not pro-
hibited by law from lending on the security of real estate, consider-
ations of safety demand that in the performance of th^r conmier-
dal banking function they limit rigidly the proportion of their
assets so invested. Individually the volume of their mortgage
loans is small, but on account of the great number of these banks
the aggregate of their loans is large. Not infrequently they act as
financial agents for insurance companies, private lenders, and
other investing classes, thereby making a large quantity of foreign
capital available for local needs.

The function of trust companies and savings banks is unlike that
of the commercial bank. The funds held in trust by these institu-
tions may safely be invested in long-term loans. As yet the savings
banks, outside of New England, are not heavy investors in farm
mortgages, preferring urban to rural loans. What farm mortgages
they hold have been acquired for the most part from countiy
banks and mortgage companies. Trust companies, however, have
shown a certain prominence in the farm mortgage field. In addi-
tion to investing their own funds in this class of security, they
frequently maintain farm loan departments through which mort-
gages are made on carefully selected farms and sold to private
investors. Sometimes, too, they hold in trust the mortgages
deposited by investment companies as security for an issue of

169] Pvtnam: The Land Credit ProUent 27

bonds or certificates. In a few instances trust companies issue
their own bonds on the security of their unsold mortgages.

According to the estimates prepared by the Department of
Agriculture, the total volume of farm mortgages held by banks in
the spring of 1914, when the data were gathered, was $739,500,000*'
— ^more than one-fifth of the estimated total mortgage indebted-
ness. Under '* banks*' are included state banks, trust companies,
and savings banks, t. e., banks operating under state law. In
addition to the mortgages which these banks held, it is estimated
by the Department, on the basis of the reports received from banks,
that farm mortgages to the amount of $486,580,000*' were nego-
tiated by banks or bank officials acting as agents or correspondents
for life insurance companies and other investors. Presumably,
this amount represents the total outstanding mortgages which the
banks had sold but which had not yet matured. Since a portion
of this sum has already been accredited to the holdings of life
insurance compani^es, it cannot be included in the aggregate as a
definite addition to the total volume of bank loans.

In the distribution of mortgage loans by states there appears to
be little correspondence, except in a few states, notably Indiana
and Illinois, between the percentage of loans held by banks and
the percentage held by life insurance companies. The high per-
centage of farm mortgages held by the banks in New Hampshire,
Vermont, and Rhode Island, indicates that a great many mortgages
of western origin are purchased by eastern institutions, espedally
savings banks. In other sections of the country the difference in
the relative importance of banks and insurance companies as
sources of land credit is not so striking, but some interesting con-
trasts can be found. In general, the relation between bank loans
and insurance loans is supplementary. The percentage of bank
loans seems to be relatively large where the percentage of insurance
loans is small and vice versa.

This relation is probably due to the fact that insurance com-
panies seek first the territory where the best security and a fair
rate of interest can be obtained and, once their territoiy has been
selected, are able on account of the extent of their funds to control '
most of the farm mortgage business within the district. On the

27. 5ttpra, p. 21.

28. Huarinen btfof th$ SuhcommiUH 0/ Vu Joint Committer an Burai Crg^HU,
tA Gong., 1 Sen., p. 15.

X8 University of Kansas Humanistic Studies [170

other hand, in those sections where the security of mortgage loans
is deemed insufficient for the investment of insurance funds, interest
rates are high and the farmer is dependent on local capital.

In view of the fact that life insurance companies and state banks
hold approximately 40 per cent of the total farm mortgages out-
standing, the question arises, What are the other sources of land
credit?

In the first place there are the farm mortgage companies, large
and small, scattered all over the United States, but operating
chiefly in the Middle West. In Kansas, Missouri, and Nebraska
alone there are over twenty-five companies each of which has
outstanding mortgage loans varying in amount from $5,000,000
to $20,000,000. The Farm Mortgage Bankers' Association to
which most of the large companies belong claims to have a mem-
bership whose outstanding loans in twenty-five states approximate
a total of $500,000,000.^* And there are hundreds of unincorpor-
ated farm loan agencies throughout the Middle West not included
in the membership of this association.

The business of these companies is variously conducted. As a
rule the large companies operate in several states. Each has a
systematic organization of local agents and a carefully selected
territory. On receipt of an application for a loan a salaried
examiner is sent to investigate the reliability of the applicant and
the character and value of his land. If the applicant, title, and
security are approved, the loan is made from the company's cap-
ital and the mortgage is sold, usually without recourse, to a life
insurance company, savings bank, or private investor. The
company collects the interest when due, sees that the taxes are
paid, and charges the borrower a commission for its services. In
some cases it receives in addition a higher rate of interest than
that paid to the ultimate investor.

Formerly, it was the practice of many of these companies to
provide their funds by the issuance of debenture bonds bearing a
lower rate of interest than the mortgages which secured them.
But owing to reckless management and lack of proper legal
restrictions they became involved in the real estate collapse of the
early nineties and with a few exceptions the practice of issuing

29. Pamphlet entitled Recommendations of the Farm Mortgage Bankers* Asso-
cialion of America through its Board of Governors, Chicago, Feb. 16, 1916, p. 3.

I

I

171] Putnam: The Land Credit Problem 29

debentures has been abandoned. The issuance of serial bonds or
certificates, however, is quite common. When a company has
made an individual loan of say $10,000, too large to be readily
sold to one client, it may deposit the mortgage with a trustee as
security for the issuance of certificates in convenient denomina-
tions of $100 and $500. These are generally guaranteed by the
company and sold to individual investors.

There is another type of mortgage company which follows the
"old-fashioned method" of conducting business. It receives
appUcations from farmers or through its own correspondents and,
after making an examination of the security offered, submits the
application together with its own recommendation to a prospective
investor. If the application is accepted, the loan is made in the
name of the lender. The mortgage company merely supervises
the loan and receives a commission for its services. In such cases,
the farmer may be compelled to wait for his loan until a lender
can be found.

A promising source of land credit is the building and loan asso-
ciation. These associations are formed primarily for the promo-
tion of thrift among members. They have a variable capital
which they lend to their members for the purpose of building or
acquiring homes. Until recently, their activities were generally
confined to lending on the security of urban property, but in some
states the law has been amended to enable them to extend their
operations to the rural districts. The building and loan associa-
tions of Ohio have, for several years, been lending on the security
of farm lands with conspicuous success. In 1914, they had 8,897
farm loans outstanding, representing a total investment of $18,-
262,401.21.'° In other states they have only begun to adapt their
methods to the needs of farmers. Whether they will succeed in
promoting home ownership among the agricultural classes as they
have among urban workers is a doubtful matter. But owing to
the ease with which they can be formed, and the small expense
incident to their management, they ought to become an important
source of farm credit.

Some states, moreover, lend their permanent school and educa-
tional funds directly to fanners at a low rate of interest. This
policy has been followed for a number of years in Idaho, Indiana,

30. Ohio Building and Loan Association Report, 1014, p. xvi.

so University of Kansas Humanistic Studies [172

Iowa» North Dakota Oklahoma^ Oregon, South Dakota, and
Utah with fairly successful results.'^ In South Dakota, for in-
stance, loans to the amount of $6,216,405 were in force on Septem-
ber 80, 191S. In the twenty years during which the state had been
making farm loans, only one foreclosure had been necessary.
Inasmuch as the systems in vogue in other states have been
equally well administered, there appears to be no serious objection
to this form of state activity so long as its primary purpose is to
provide a safe investment for a limited amount of idle funds.
Recently, however, a number of states have been contemplating
a radical extension of their loan systems so that they will be able
to supply farmers with an unlimited quantity of capital at low
interest rates.

A final source of land credit is the individual lender. Collec-
tively, these individual investors hold more farm mortgages than
any single class of institutions. Nearly every bank, trust company,
and mortgage company engaged in the business of negotiating farm
mortgages has among its regular clients a large number of indi-
viduab of small means who will buy farm mortgages in preference
to railroad and public utility securities on account of the higher
interest rate that the mortgage investment offers. Furthermore,
it is a growing practice in the older agricultural conununities,
where the laws of the state do not inadvertently discriminate
against the investment of local capital in farm mortgages, for one
farmer to lend to another or for a private individual to lend
directly to a farmer. In such cases the borrower and lender are
brought into dose contact with one another and the borrower may
be relieved of many incidental expenses which would otherwise be
paid to a middleman. But in a number of states this inmiediate
contact between borrower and lender b impossible or, if pos8iUe»
is unprofitable to the lender on account of prejudicial lawa^ For
various reasons the lender usually prefers to buy Us mortgages from
weD established banks and mortgage companies.

The rate of interest received on farm mortgage loans varies from
about 5 to 10 per cent. With the exception of a few states which
make a limited number of mortgage loans at £ per cent, the lowest
rates are probably received by life insurance companies.

, 31. For fdUer details In regard to the mortcace InTeatmente of theee atates aae
Um keport of W. M. Dnffiu to the Wlaoonatn State Board of Pablle Affatn on
5faf9 Loan9 to Farmers, pp. 80-102.

17S] Putnam: The Ixind Credit Problem 31

to a report submitted by Robert Lynn Cox at the ninth annual
meeting of the Association of Life Insurance Presidents, the aver-
age rate of interest obtained in 1914 by IM American life insurance
companies on farm mortgage loans, representing 97 per cent of
all farm mortgages held by American companies, was 5.5 per cent.
The states in which more than $10,000,000 of insurance funds
were invested and the average rate of interest reported in each
were as follows: Iowa, 5.S2 per cent; Nebraska, 5.34 per cent;
Kansas, 5.46 per cent; Missouri, 5.35 per cent; Illinois, 5.16 per
cent; Indiana, 5.31 per cent; Minnesota, 5.36 per cent; Texas,
6.99 per cent; Oklahoma, 5.91 per cent; South Dakota, 5.44 per
cent; North Dakota, 5.88 per cent; Ohio, 5.30 per cent; and Geor-
gia, 6.28 per cent. The states in which the highest average rates
were obtained were Idaho and Utah. There the reported averages
were 8.53 and 8.74 respectively. But these rates are not generally
sought except by domestic companies. The most conservative
life insurance companies are content to realize an interest rate of
5 or 5^ per cent on well secured mortgage loans. No loan is
granted in excess of 50 per cent of the appraised value of a farm
and, so far as possible, loans are limited to 40 per cent of the
appraised land value.

The rates received by other classes of lenders scarcely admit
of accurate generalization but, like the rates received by life in-
surance companies, are generally lower than the actual rate paid
by the farmer. Various middlemen are required to bring the
borrower and lender in touch with one another, and for their
services they are paid a commission which must be included in any
estimate of the farmer's rate. Manifestly this rate varies from
section to section and, within a given community, from one farm
to another. But over the country as a whole there are a few
regions within which fairly accurate generalization is possible.
Taking into account the middlemen's conmussion charge, the
farmer's rate of interest is lowest in the New England and Middle
Atlantic States, varying from 5 to 6 per cent. In that portion of
the North Central division which lies between Pennsylvania and
the 98th meridian, the rate varies from 6 to 7 per cent. Westward
bom this meridian the rate rises to 10 per cent in the arid and

32. 8eeJPr€€€€din§» of Ois^ Ninth Annual MeiHng of the Aup€iaHon of JAfo

Ifuuranee PrMtideniM, 1016. The cwwnttali of tlito report are reprinted In Buttmn
of the Farm Mortgage Bankers* AeeociaHon of America, Vol. II, Jan., 1016, p. 60.

32 University of Kansas Humanistic Studies [174

Mountain States, falling to approximately 8 per cent on the
Pacific Coast. To the south of Pennsylvania and the Ohio river,
the rate gradually rises from 6 per cent in Maryland and 7 per cent
in Kentucky to about 9 per cent in the Gulf States.

The table*' on page S3 shows by states the average rates for in-
terest and commissions together with the percentage of farm
mortgage business on which a commission is paid.

The facts shown in the table below emphasize the necessity of
considering the charge for commissions in making any estimate
of the farmer's rate of interest. In general, the commission charge
is highest in those states where farmers are dependent on foreign
capital. The average annual commission of 1.8 per cent in Okla-
homa and North Dakota may well be contrasted with the low
commission rates obtaining in eastern states where the supply of
local capital is more than suflScient to meet the requirements of the
farmer. Moreover, the commission charge may be affected by the
laws of a given state. It is commonly used as a means of evading
the spirit of a usury law. In North Carolina, for instance, where
the legal rate of interest is 6 per cent, the average annual com-
mission charge is 1.4 per cent; whereas in South Carolina, where
the legal rate of interest is 7 per cent with the right under con-
tract to make it 8 per cent, the average yearly commission is only
0.6 per cent.

Within a given community, however, the actual rate of interest
paid by farmers offering equal security is determined by competi-
tive forces, and it makes little difference, so far as the total cost of
borrowing is concerned, whether a loan is obtained from an in-
surance company, a bank, or a mortgage company. For, the
amount of commission paid by the borrower varies inversely with
the rate of interest received by the lender and consequently has
an equalizing effect on the actual rates. In an investigation'* con-
ducted by the writer in Kansas in 1914, it was found that on five-
year loans made by life insurance companies at 5J^ per cent, the
loan agents charged a commission of 5 per cent, making an addition
of 1 per cent to the rate recorded in the mortgage instrument. On
the other hand, when banks made a competitive farm loan for the

33. Arranged from data prepared by C. W. Thompson of the Department of
Agriculture. Hearings before the Subcommittee of the Joint Committee on Rural
Credits, 64 Cong., 1 Sess.. pp. 98-99.

34. See article entitled Farm Credit in Kansas, American Economic RevieWn
Vol. V, March, 191S, p. 28.

176]

PtUnam: The Land Credit Problem

S3

Aver-
age

inters

est

rate

Aver-
age
annual
com-
mis-
sion*

Inter-
est
plus
com-
mis-
sion

Percentage with
commission

Geographic division
and State

Total

With
com-
mis-
sion
paid
in ad-
vance

With
com-
mis-
sion
paid
& in-
stal-
ments

New England:

MMn«

6.1
6.3
5.6
6.6
6.7
6.7

6.6
6.6
6.6

6.9
6.8
6.7
6.3
6.7

6.3
6.6
6.2
6.0
7.0
6.3
6.1

6.6
6.7
6.1
6.2
6.3
7.8
7.6
9.0

6.7
7.3
8.7
8.0

9.0
8.2
6.6
8.4

8.4
8.2
9.2
8.3
9.7
9.1
8.6

7.9

7.7
7.4

0.1

i

.2
t

.1
.3
.3

.2
.4
.3
.3
.1

.6
.3
.6
1.8
1.0
.8
.8

t

.4

.7

0.2

1.4

.6

1.1

.6

.4
.6
.7
.6

.6

.4

1.8

.6

1.6
.7
.8
.6
.8
.8
.4

.8
.8
.2

6.2
6.3
6.6
6.6
6.9
6.7

6.6
6.8
6.8

6.1
6.2
6.0
6.6
6.8

6.8
6.9
6.8
8.7
8.0
7.1
6.9

6.6
6.1
6.8
6.4
7.7
8.4
8.7
9.6

7.1
7.9
9.4
8.6

9.6
8.6
8.4
9.0

10.0
8.9

10.0
8.9

10.6
9.4
9.0

8.7
8.0
7.6

8.9
3.4
6.9
2.8
21.7
1.3

13.4
27.7
18.6

26.3
46.6
47.8
23.2
14.9

47.7
64.0
64.9
79.8
68.2
69.3
67.8

1.9
36.7
34.1
11.1
40.9
36.3
66.1
29.8

23.3
36.4
87.2
26.6

33.1
28.2
91.6
43.0

68.9
64.2
40.1
68.3
41.0
19.6
38.0

68.2
81.6
19.0

6.0
3.4
4.8
2.7
11.7
1.3

9.6
18.7
10.1

17.9
36.2
39.1
18.0
10.4

20.0
61.8
28.0
17.0
46.6
63.6
30.6

1.9
28.6
26.2

8.8
27.6
26.0
64.1
18.6

14.2
28.9
26.2
16.7

18.6
16.8
86.7
27.1

28.4
46.6
28.1
47.0
82.8
9.6
18.3

46.4
23.6
16.1

3.9

New Hammhire. ......... ,...,

Vermont.

1.1

MansachnsettsL

.1

10.0

Connecticut.

Middle Atlantic:

New York

3.8

New Jersey

9.0

Pflnnflvivanin^

8.6

East North Central:
Ohio

8.4

9.3

Illinois

8.2

Mi^Thigan

6.2

Wisconffin

4.6

West North Central:

Minnesota

27.7

Iowa

12.7

Missouri.

26.9

North Dakota.

62.8

South Dakota

22.7

N«t>ni«ka

16.8

Kansas

37.2

South Atlantic:

Delaware

Maryland

7.2

Vfiii(n<a

7.9

West Virginia.

2.3

North Carolina.

13.4

South Carolina

9.8

Oeorgia

12.0

Florida

11.2

East South Central:

Kentucky.

9.1

Tennessee.

11.6

A|at>ama. > >

12.0

M<«ri«ippi

9.8

West South' Central:

14.6

(6.9

Oklahoma

Texas .....

64.9
16.9

Mountain:

Montana

40.6

Tdnho

18.6

■Wyoming.

12.0

Colorado

11.8

New Mexico

8.2

10.0

Utah.

14.7

Padflc:

11.8

Oregon.?.

8.0

Oalfi6mia.

3.9

* Where the report shows a oommlMlon paid once for all in advance on a loan
running more than one year, the equivalent annual commission is used.

t Less than one-tenth of 1 per cent.

Si University of Kansas Humanistic Studies [176

same term of years, the lowest rate was usually 6 per cent, with an
extra charge of S or 3 per cent for commission. In other words»
the competitive farm mortgage rate was approximately Q\^ per
cent.

The commission charge is thus a variable factor and, whenever
the lender's rate of interest is sufficiently low, can be exacted as a
separate charge to make the borrower's rate correspond to the
competitive rate. It is an exceptionally convenient device for
making the farmer's rate of interest appear to be lower than it
really is. Its subtle effect upon the actual rate is due partly to the
method in which the commission is paid. In the majority of cases,
the borrower pays the commission at the time the loan is made by
having it deducted from the principal. For instance, a commission
of 3 per cent deducted from a loan of $1,000, maturing in five years
and bearing 6 per cent interest, leaves the borrower a net loan of
$970. When he has paid interest charges of $60 per annum and
repaid the principal, his actual rate has been 6.8 per cent. If the
commission had been paid in equal yearly instalments, the borrow-
er's actual rate would have been 6.6 per cent. On larger loans, the
agent frequently takes a second mortgage for the amount of the
commission.

The term of the loan has an important bearing on the cost o'
borrowing. Until about twenty-five years ago mortgage loans
were not made for longer periods than five years, and could not be
paid off in whole or in part until the date of maturity. Since that
time, however, severe competition and renewed confidence in the
farm mortgage have caused more liberal privileges to be granted
to borrowers. Although the customaiy term of mortgage loans is
now five years, life insurance companies make loans for terms of
seven or ten years in some of the favored sections where first class
security can be offered. Only with the smaller institutions such
as state banks is a term of three years common.

As regards the repayment of loans, nearly every mortgage in-
strument provides for the voluntary repayment of a certain per-
centage of the principal annually, or some multiple of $100 on any
interest-paying date. These privileges enable many borrowers to
repay their loans in full before maturity, but for the great majority
of borrowers the term of loans is far too short and renewal at
maturity is a conmion practice. This necessitates the payment of

177] Putnam: The Land Credit Problem SB

renewal oommissions and other incidental fees all of which figure
in the borrower's actual rate. Furthermore, if a loan matures
during a period of financial stringency, the borrower may be
obliged to pay a higher rate of interest on the renewed loan. Only
a few companies have found it possible to extend the term of loans
beyond the customary five years and provide for the repayment of
the principal by amortization.

Finally, the borrower must pay the recording fee and the ex-
penses that arise in connection with the perfection of his land
title. Sometimes, too, he pays the notary's fee, the inspector's
charges, and a fee for having the mortgage released. These are
not insignificant items. The cost of establishing a title prior to the
granting of a loan may be especially burdensome to the small
borrower. The title must be carefully searched every time the
property is sold or mortgaged. Even the findings of a reliable
abstract company are subject to review if the farmer attempts to
convert his loan by borrowing from a new source. Only in those
states where the Torrens system has been successfully adopted is
it possible for a farmer to escape this recurrent charge.

From the foregoing account it is evident that the present system
of land credit is defective. The specific defects may be summarized
as follows: first, the customary term of farm loans is far too short
a period for the repayment of a loan out of the product of land;
second, the method of repayment is haphazard; third, the possi-
bility and conditions of renewal are uncertain; and fourth, the
expenses in the way of interest charges, commissions, etc., are
much higher than farm mortgage security under a specialized and
mobile system of land credit would warrant.

One reason for the existence of high rates can be found in the
legislation of the states themselves. In many of the states the
investment of local capital in farm mortgages is adversely affected
by the general property tax law which subjects real and personal
property to the same kind of taxation. To the local investor the
tax is extremely annoying. It scales down an interest rate of 6
per cent on a mortage loan to an actual rate of 4 or 5 per cent.
Rather than suffer this loss of income the individual lender is

36 University of Kansas Humanistic Studies [178

wont to invest his capital in foreign enterprises and withhold from
the tax assessor a full declaration. Thus an enormous volume of
local capital annually seeks investment beyond the boundaries of
those states in which mortgages and real property are taxed at the
same rate. The withdrawal of these loanable funds compels the
farmer to pay commission charges on foreign capital, i. e., a higher
rate of interest than would be necessary under more lenient laws.
That the burden of a heavy mortgage tax is borne partly by the
borrower in the form of a higher commission may be inferred from
the findings of the Department of Agriculture.*^ In California,
Arizona, and Utah where mortgages are exempt from taxation, in
Massachusetts, New Jersey, and Wisconsin where they are treated
as interest in the land, or in New York and Michigan where th^
are subject to mortgage registration taxes, the commission charge
is relatively low because it is possible for borrowers and individual
tenders to have direct dealings with one another. Some exceptions
will be found to this principle here and there on account of the
existence of other factors. In some states where mortgages are
subject to the regular property tax rate, the conunission charge is
low because the law in regard to the taxation of personalty is
laxly administered. In others, notably Oklahoma and Montana,
the commission charge is exceedingly high — notwithstanding the
fact that mortgages in these states are subject only to recording
taxes — ^because of the small quantity of local capital available for
investment.

Another phase of state legislation which affects the rate of
interest on long-term loans b the privilege accorded in most states
to the mortgagor who has defaulted on interest payments of
regaining title to his land by redeeming his obligations within a
given period after foreclosure sale. A common period allowed for
redemption is eighteen months. Until the expiration of this
redemption period, the mortgagor may reside upon the land and
derive all the income it yidds without being subject to the ordinary
fixed expenses. The conditional owner, moreover, is exposed to
a possible loss not only on account of taxes and interest but also
on account of the wilful negligence of the occupier in caring for the
property. Under these conditions, it is little wonder that conser-
vative lenders must limit their loans to 40 and 50 per cent of the

86. Supra, p. 33.

179] Putnam: The Land Credit Problem 37

appraised value of the property to be mortgaged. Invariably the
long-term redemption privilege detracts from the security of a
mortgage loan. A shorter period allowed for redemption would
virtually lower the borrower's rate of interest by enabling him to
secure larger loans on his property with less risk to the lender.

After making due allowance for the effect which obnoxious
state laws have upon the fanner's rate of interest, it does not
appear that the farmer's net rate — ^the rate received by the lender —
is inordinately high compared with the rates paid by other small
business men. It is the commission charge and other incidental
expenses rather than the lender's rate that seems in most cases to
be excessive. There is, however, one class of borrowers, i. e., those
of small means who aspire to land ownership, to whom the lender's
rate is excessive. At present the value of land is high, out of all
proportion in fact to the capitalization of its rent at the current
rate of interest. In order to become an independent landowner,
the tenant must first be able to pay one-half the purchase price;
in addition, he must borrow the renuiinder at an interest rate of
possibly 6 per cent and be subject to other charges which may
increase the actual rate to 7 per cent. In view of the smaU return
from land at the present scale of values, these requirements offer
little encouragement to the young man to become a landowner.
The margin of security demanded is too large and the rate of in-
terest is unprofitably high. Until special provision has been nmde
for this class of borrowers, the land credit system will continue to
be defective.

A final and fundamental defect in the existing system of agri-
cultural finance is to be found in the character of the institutions
on which the farmer is dependent. The state and national banks
particulariy are ill-adapted to his needs. These institutions were
established to meet the needs of the oonmiercial and industrial
classes at a time when land was free, when loans for agricultural
purposes were secondary in importance. In the performance of the
conunerdal function for which they were designed, they are unable
to extend to the farmer on the most advantageous terms the kind
of credit he requires. It is largely because the farmer has been
dependent on conunercial banking institutions that the specific
drfects, already indicated, have arisen.

Nor are the life insurance companies wholly satisfactory as

38 University of Kansas Humanistic Studies [iSO

sources of land credit. Although they have accomplished more
than any other single class of institutions in meeting the growing
demand for better land credit machinery, they operate at a great
distance from the borrower and the cost of placing their loans may
completely offset the advantages that would otherwise be derived
from the low rate of interest they are content to receive. They
naturally prefer the large loans and follow a practice similar to
that established by banks in fixing the term of loans and the
method of repayment. For various reasons it is impossible for
them to observe the standards to which an ideal land credit in-
stitution should conform.

The farm mortgage companies — the only real specialists in the
business of negotiating land-mortgage loans — are open to similar
criticism. Their primary function is to bring borrowers and lenders
together for mutual benefit. In the performance of this function
they have succeeded, like the life insurance compajiies, in directing
a large flow of capital to agricultural channels. But their methods
have not kept pace with the needs of agricultural progress, nor
have they succeeded in accomodating the large ntmiber of small
investors whose savings are insufficient to warrant the purchase
of individual mortgages. Until new machinery has been devised
that will enable the farm mortgage companies to reach this class
of investors, capital for agricultural development will be ineffec-
tively mobilized.

CHAPTER III

The Rural Credit Movement

There is nothing new in the general complaint that the farmer's
rate of interest is high. On the frontier, high rates have always
caused a certain amount of complaint, especially during periods of
falling prices. It is only recently, however, that the fundamental
defects in the rural credit system have received recognition. Much
credit for the general awakening should be given to the National
Monetary Commission, created in 1907, which brought to light
certain stimulating facts in regard to the European systems of
farm credit. Moreover, the Country Life Commission, created in
the following year, found that among the causes contributing to
the deficiencies of country life was the ''lack of any adequate
system of agricultural credit, whereby the farmer may readily
secure loans on fair terms",** and suggested that "a method of
cooperative credit would undoubtedly prove of great service".*'
This view was favorably received by those who saw in the rural
problem an economic cause — ^who believed that the conditions of
country life could be made more attractive only by the adoption
of a program that would promote the prosperity of the agricultural
worker.

Public interest in the possibilities of cooperative credit was
immediately aroused. At the annual meetings of the various
bankers' associations, the European systems of agricultural credit
afforded a recurrent topic for discussion. In furthering this in-
terest, the American Bankers' Association played a prominent
role. At its annual meeting, held in New Orleans, November 24,
1911, a Committee on Agricultural and Financial Development
and Education was created to undertake a study of agricultural
credit at home and abroad. The action of this association was
quickly followed by minor organizations until the interest in the
movement became nation-wide.

36. Sen. Doc. 706, 60 Cong., 2 Sets., p. 15.

37. IMd., p. 59.

S9

jiO University of Kansas Humanistic Studies [18£

At length President Taft, in March, 1912, directed Secretary
Knox to instruct the American ambassadors to Germany, France,
and Italy, and the American ministers to Belgium and the Nether-
lands to investigate the agricultural credit systems in operation in
their respective countries. On the basis of the data gathered by
these investigations, Myron T. Herrick, American Ambassador to
France, was ihstructed to prepare a general report which would
''place the Department in possession of all data necessary to the
President for the formulation of some practical scheme which may
be worked out to bring the desired benefits to agricultural com-
munities in the United States".'*

This report, known as the Preliminary Report on Land and
Agricultural Credit in Europe, was published October 11, 1912, and
copies were sent to the governors of all the states with a personal
letter from President Taft. In the course of the letter the President
said: ''The interest rate paid by the American farmer is consider-
ably higher than that paid by our industrial corporations, railroads
or municipalities. Yet, I think, it will be admitted that the security
offered by the farmer in his farm lands is quite as sound as that
offered by industrial corporations. Why, then, will not the in-
vestor furnish the fanner with money at as advantageous rates as
he is willing to supply it to the industrial corporations? Obviously,
the advantage enjoyed by the industrial corporation lies in the
financial machinery at its conmiand, which permits it to place its
offer before the investor in a more attractive and more readily
negotiable form. The farmer lacks this machinery and, lacking
it, he suffers unreasonably"."

In* the meantime, Mr. David Lubin of the International Insti-
tute of Agriculture, who had been gathering data for a number of
years on the European rural credit systems, brought the matter to
the attention of Senator Fletcher, president of the Southern Com-
mercial Congress. Mr. Lubin attended the annual convention of
this organization in NashviUe in the spring of 1912, presented his
data on European systems of agricultural credit, and a resolution
was promptly adopted calling upon the Southern Commercial
Congress to assemble a commission composed of two representa-
tives from each state for the purpose of studying at first hand and

' " 38. Herrick and IngaUt: How to Finana Ou Fanrntn d. 2.
^39. Ben. Doc. 067702 Oong.. 8 Sets., p. 4.

183] Putnam: The Land Credit Problem 41

of popularizing the methods employed by the cooperative credit
and cooperative marketing organizations of Europe.

The movement soon took on a political aspect. The three polit-
ical parties, assembled in national convention in 1912, adopted
planks favoring the improvement of agricultural credit facilities.
With a view to paving a way for remedial legislation, the Repub-
lican and Democratic platforms recommended authoritative in-
vestigations of the European credit associations. On March 4,
191S, President Taft approved the Agricultural Appropriation bill
which carried an amendment providing for the appointment of a
United States Commission of seven members ''to investigate and
study in European countries cooperative land-mortgage banks,
cooperative rural credit unions, and similar organizations and in-
stitutions devoting their attention to the promotion of agriculture
and the betterment of rural conditions".^® This commission was
instructed to work in conjunction with the American Commission
which was being assembled by the Southern Commercial Congress.
President Wilson, on his accession to office, promptly appointed
Senator Duncan U. Fletcher, Senator Thomas P. Gore, Congress-
man Ralph W. Moss, Col. Harvie Jordan, Dr. John Lee Coulter,
Dr. Kenyon L. Butterfield, and Dr. Clarence J. Owens as members
of the United States Commission. Senator Fletcher was made
chairman of both commissions.

The American Commission — consisting of seventy members,
and representing twenty-nine states, the District of Columbia, and
four Canadian provinces — ^and the United States Commission
sailed for Europe April 26, 191S. The commissions as a body or
through subcommittees visited Italy, Egypt, Hungary, Austria,
Russia, Germany, Switzerland, Belgium, Holland, Denmark, Nor-
way, France, Spain, England, Wales, Scotland, and Ireland. In
gathering material for their reports they visited banks, cooperative
institutions and farms, and held conferences with government
officials, heads of agricultural organizations, and individuals.

The agricultural data thus obtained were published in a report
known as Information and Evidence,^^ Each commission, however,
made a separate report. Of these the report of the United States
Commission on Land-Mortgage or Long-Term Credit^ is the most

40. Sen. Doc. 3S0. 63 Cong.. 2 Sen., p. 3.

41. Sen. Doc. 214. 63 Oong.. 1 Seas,

42. Sen. Doc. .380. 63 Cong.. 2 Sen.

4,2 University of Kansas Humanistic Studies [184-

noteworthy on account of its bearing on tJie course of subsequent
events. That report was confined to a consideration of rural
credit. The general conclusions recorded by the commission were
that the same institution could not properly supply the farmer's
long-term and short-term credit requirements, that reform in the
long-term facilities should come first, and that with the establish-
ment of suitable machinery under strict federal supervision private
im'tiative could be depended upon to reduce the farmer's rate of
interest and improve the methods of making loans.^ Although
the commission recognized the "value of cooperative effort alid
the wisdom of permitting cooperative institutions to be organized",
it found that the landschaft form was unsuited to the conditions
and requirements of American agriculture.*^ Furthermore, it
recorded its firm conviction "that not only was government aid
unnecessary, but that it would be unwise".**

The Moss-Fletcher bill,** one of the early*^ rural credit bills to
be introduced, embodied the specific reconmiendations of the
commission. It provided for the voluntary organization of decen-
tralized farm land banks, either as cooperative or non-coOperative
institutions, under a federal charter, with a capital stock of at
least $10,000. The organization and management of the banks
were to be supervised by a Conunissioner of Farm Land Banks in
charge of a bureau in the Department of the Treasury. They were
empowered to receive deposits, to make long-term loans, repay-
able by amortization, up to 50 per cent of the value of improved
farm land, and to issue and sell their debenture bonds. The
amount of bonds so issued by any one bank could at no time
exceed fifteen times its capital and surplus, nor could the farmer's
rate of interest exceed by more than one per cent the rate paid on
the last series of bonds. Each bank was empowered to make loans
only in the state where it was located.

To give the bonds an investment standing, provision was made
for the appointment of a federal fiduciary agent for each bank who
was to have control of the mortgages deposited as security for

43. Ibid., pp. 12 and 21.

44. JM<f.. p. 31.

45. JMtf.. p. 31.

46. S. 4246, Introduced January 29, 1914.

47. Another bill (S. 2900) preVioiulylntrodaced by Senator Fletcher provided
for the formation of a central oank at wathington with power to iaane oondB on
the security of mortftages turned over to it and guaranteed by central state banks.
At the time, this bill was supposed to embody the opinions of the United States
Ckmimission but it was subsequently withdrawn in favor of the Moss-Fletcher bilL

186] Pvinam: The Land Credit Problem 4S

bonds and whose duty it was to certify that each bond issue was
properly secured by first mortgages of equal value. The bonds
were made available as security for the deposit of postal savings
funds in all banks authorized to receive such deposits, and as
security for loans from national banks to farm land banks and
individuals. Furthermore, they were made legal investments for
trust funds and estates under the charge of a United States court,
and for time deposits of national banks and of savings banks
organized in the District of Columbia. Finally, the land banks
and their debenture bonds were to be exempt from all federal,
state, and local taxation except taxes on real estate.

Numerous other land credit bills were introduced during this
session of Congress. Of these the Bathrick bill,** introduced at
about the same time as the Moss-Fletcher bill, is worthy of note.
It provided for the issuance of government bonds bearing an in-
terest rate of SJ/^ per cent or less. The funds obtained from the
sale of bonds were to be loaned to farmers up to 60 per cent of the
value of their lands at an interest rate of not more than 43^ per
cent. No individual loan could exceed $15,000. Provision was
made for lending to farmers through farm credit associations on
condition that such associations become surety for the mortgages
they accepted. The administration of the system was to be under
the control of a bureau in the Department of Agriculture.

The Senate and House Committees on Banking and Currency
created subcommittees on rural credits which held joint meetings
from February 16 to July 23, 1914. In the course of the hearings
before the subcommittees, the Moss-Fletcher bill was severely
criticized. On the whole it was generally regarded with suspicion.
The charge was persistently made that it placed too much reliance
on private initiative, that it was a banker's rather than a farmer's
measure, that it would not only lead to unnecessary centralization
in banking power but would also fail to afford the needed reUef to
the debtor farmer. Moreover, in the course of the extensive hear-
ings it was found that the f ramers of the bill were not wholly agreed
as to the wisdom of its provisions; and that the Bathrick bill,
which provided for direct government loans at a low rate of in-
terest, had the stronger support of the farmers' organizations.

Accordingly, no favorable action was reported on either bill.

48. H. R. 11.897, 63 Cong., 2 Sets.

44 University of Kansas Humanistic Studies [186

Instead, the HoULs-Bulkley bill^* was drafted and introduced by
the chairmen of the subcommittees. This bill formed the basis of
the present law. It provided for the appointment of a Farm Loan
Commissioner by the newly created Federal Reserve Board to
supervise the organization and management of national farm loan
associations. These associations could be formed under a federal
charter with a capital stock of not less than $10,000, to be subscrib-
ed, if the board of directors so authorized, after the manner fol-
lowed by building and loan associations. When fully organized,
they could make long-term loans to farmers up to 50 per cent of
the value of their land and 25 per cent of the value of farm build-
ings at a rate of interest not exceeding the legal rate current in the
state where the association was located. Borrowers were required
to subscribe for stock in an association up to 5 per cent of the
amount of their loans and to reside upon the land offered as
security. No association could lend to a single individual more
than $4,000, nor a larger sum than 25 per cent of its capital and
surplus.

The bill authorized the Federal Reserve Board to divide the
country into twelve districts, the boundaries of which corres-
ponded so far as possible with state boundary lines, and to estab-
lish in each district a federal land bank having a capital stock of
$500,000. National farm loan associations were required to sub-
scribe at least 10 per cent of their capital to the capital of the land
bank located in their district. If their subscriptions were insuffi-
cient to provide the land banks with their minimum capital
requirements, the Secretary of the Treasury was authorized to
subscribe for the balance.

Federal land banks were to have power to purchase first farm
mortgages from the national farm loan associations within their
respective districts and, under certain conditions, from institutions
organized under state laws. On the security of these mortgages
they could issue bonds, bearing an interest rate of 5 per cent or
less, to an amount equal to twenty times their capital and surplus.
The bonds were to be exempt from all taxation and were made
legal investments for the funds withdrawn from postal savings
depositaries if the bonds could be purchased at par or below.
Finally, upon the recommendation of the Federal Reserve Board,

49. H. R. 16,47S. 63 Oong., 2 SesB.

187] Putnam: The Land Credit Problem 46

the Secretary of the Treasury might be required to purchase land
bank bonds to an amount not exceeding $50,000,000 in any one
year. No less administrative authority was given to the Federal
Reserve Board than that conferred by the Federal Reserve Act
of 191S.

Manifestly, the HoUis-Bulkley bill was a drastic attempt to
meet the objections that had been urged against the Moss-Fletcher
bill. It was far from being a banker's bill as it carefully removed
all possibility of private gain; and the federal assistance for which
it provided should have satisfied those who favored a program of
government loans. But its paternalistic guise failed to win the
enthusiastic support of the administration and, as Congress was
busily engaged on other pressing matters, all attempts to enact a
rural credit law were temporarily abandoned.

At length when the Agricultural Appropriation bill came up
for consideration in the House, Representative Bulkley, in a last
desperate effort to save the Hollis-Bulkley bill, proposed it as an
amendment. In this attempt he was partly successful as the
amendment passed the House March 1, 1915. Meanwhile, the
McCumber amendment,^ also proposed as a rider on the Agri-
cultural Appropriation biU, had passed the Senate February 25,
1915. This measure provided for the establishment of a bureau
in the Treasury Department with power to issue bonds and to
purchase farm mortgages from state and national banks so long
as its bonds could be disposed of at par. No objection was made
to this amendment by the supporters of the Hollis-Bulkley bill
because they expected the latter to be adopted in conference.*^
But owing to a lack of time for proper consideration, the two
riders were stricken out and replaced by a clause authorizing the
formation of a joint committee of twelve members of the Senate
and House to prepare and report to Congress a bill or bills providing
for the establishment of a system of rural credits adapted to Amer-
ican needs and conditions. This action was approved March 4,
1915, and the joint committee was immediately organized.

On January 8, 1916, the Joint Committee on Rural Credits sub-
mitted the report of its subcommittee on land-mortgage loans

60. SubMQuenUy Introduced as S. S31. 64 Oong., 1 Sesa.

51. 8«e Con9r€9sUmal Record, Vol. 52, pp. 5195-5190.

52. Printed as House Doc. 494, 64 Cong., 1 Sess.

46 University of Kansas Humanistic Studies [188

together with the draft of a proposed bill<^ which differed but
slightly from the HoUis-Bulkley bill. It was introduced two days
later by Senator Hollis, was favorably re^rted by the Senate
Committee on Banking and Currencjy with amendments February
15, and passed the Senate with scarcely any opposition May 4.
The same bill somewhat changed passed the House May 15 and
was approved by the President July 17."

In the meantime, while Congress was attempting to work out a
practical program for rural credit reform, the state legislatures
had been attacking the problem with characteristic initiative.**
In 1913, the Wisconsin legislature passed a law on land-mortgage
associations. Similar laws were passed in Massachusetts and Utah
in 1915. In 1914, the New York legislature provided for the organ-
ization of the I^nd Bank of the State of New York, a central
institution, to be owned and controlled by local savings and loan
associations. In the following year, Missouri, Montana, and
Oklahoma, abandoning all hope of solving the rural credit problem
through private initiative, adopted modified programs of state
loans.

These measures are not altogether dissimilar. Although there
is considerable difference in the proposed machinery for adminis-
tration and supervision, all contain plans looking toward a longer
term of loans, repayable by amortization, and the issuance of
bonds on the collective security of farm mortgages. The chief
differences are to be foimd in the effect which these measures are
expected to have upon the farmer's rate of interest. From this

63. S. 2986. known as the Hollia bill, or the Federal Farm Loan bill.

54. The detailed proTisions of the Federal Farm Loan Act together with a
criticism of the measure may be fomid infra, Chapter VI.

65. The history of state rural credit measures may be sketched briefly as follows :
Massachusetts passed a law on credit unions in 1909; Texas on rural credit
unions in 1913; Wisconsin on cotfperatiTe credit associations in 1913; and New
York on credit unions in 1914. In 1913 a law was passed in Wisconsin providing
for the incorporation and regulation of land-mortgage associations. The associa-
tions were authorized to make long-term loans to farmers on first mortgage security
and to issue and sell mortgage bonds. In the following year the New York
legislature provided for the organization of the land bank, a central institution
with the power to issue bonds on the security of farm mortgages turned over to it
by local savings and loan associations.

In 1915 laws providing for the organization of credit unions or coVnerative banks
were passed in Massachusetts, North Carolina, Oregon, and Utah. Massachusetts
and Utah, following the example set bv Wisconsin, enacted si>eclal laws for the
organization of farm land banks. Simuar measures were defeated in California,
Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, and Nebraska. In Kansas and North Carolina the laws
on building and loan associations were amended to enable those institutions to
make long-term loans on agricultural lands. The California legislature authorized
the governor to appoint a commission to investigate rural crecut schemes at home
and abroad.

In some states there has been a disposition to regard the land credit problem of
such serious nature as to warrant the adoption of a policy of state aid. For a
number of years Idaho, Indiana, Iowa. North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, South

189] Pvinam: The Land Credit Problem 47

point of view the laws are of two fairly distinct types. One type
seeks merely to reduce a portion of the waste in the present land
credit system by improving the method of making loans and by
giving greater mobility to funds seeking mortgage investment.
The other contemplates, in addition, a material reduction in the
farmer's rate of interest either through the organization of a strong
central bank or through a program of minimum state aid.

The Wisconsin law^ is a typical example of the former type of
legislation. It provides for the voluntary formation of land-mort-
gage associations having a capital stock of not less than $10,000.
These institutions can make long-term loans — ^repayable in annual
instalments of 1 per cent of the original loan — on the security of
agricultural lands, forest lands, or lands occupied by dwelling
houses within the state. Loans are limited to 65 per cent of the
value of such real estate if improved, and to 40 per cent if unim-
proved. No association can lend to a single individual a larger
sum than 15 per cent of its capital and surplus. On the security of
the mortgages so taken and deposited with the state treasurer, each
association may issue bonds, equal in amount to the total unpaid
principal of loans outstanding, up to twenty times its capital and
surplus. The rate of interest paid by the borrower is limited to
the rate agreed upon plus an annual charge for expenses which can
not exceed 1 per cent of the face of the loan. The bonds are made
legal investments for trust funds and are exempt from taxation
whenever the taxes upon the mortgaged real estate are payable
either by the mortgagor or the mortgagee.

The laws of Missouri, Montana, New York, and Oklahoma are

Dakota, and Utah have been investing certain permanent school funds in farm
mortgages. In 1913 Wisconsin adopted a similar policy, authorizing that the state's
school fund be loaned to farmers for the purpose of making permanent farm im-
provements. Another law of the same year provided for the issuance of bonds
by counties to enable farmers to clear their lands for agricultural purposes. So
far nothing has been accomplished by either law ( Wisconsin Bulletin 247. Jan. 1916,
p. 31). In the early part of 1915 the legislature of Wyoming authorized the state
treasurer to Invest, subject to certain conditions, the funds arising from the sale
of state lands in irrigation bonds. A bill providing for the investment of the state's
permanent funds in farm mortgages at not less than 6 nor more than 7 per cent
failed to pass. The North Dakota legislature proposed an amendment to the state
constitution which, if adopted, will enable the state to establish a loan fund and

Sledge its credit either to individual farmers or to rural credit associations. In
lontana, authority has been given to the state treasurer to issue bonds and make
long-term loans to farmers on the security of first mortgages whenever the demand
for Donds is equal to the demand for farm loans. Applications and subscriptions
are to be received by the county treasurers. To insure prompt payment of interest
on the bonds a gu&rantee fund has been provided by the state. Finally, Missouri
and Oklahoma have provided for the appropriation of certain state funds to be
used as initial working capital for a system of long-term loans. Additional funds
will be obtained through the sale of bonds secured by first mortgages or deeds of
trust.

56. The Banking Laws of Wisconsin, Revision of 1913, pp. 55-66.

48 University of Kansas Humanistic Studies [190

examples of the second type of legislation. If they succeed in
accomplishing the definite purpose for which they were enacted,
the farmer's rate of interest on long-term loans wiO be about 6 per
cent in Montana and Oklahoma, and 5 per cent or less in Missouri
and New York. These rates are well below the rate that is current

in the lespective states.

The Missouri law^ is the most drastic of these measures. Briefly,
it provides for the establishment of a Missouri land bank, annexed
to the office of the state bank commissioner, under the direction
and supervision of a board of governors composed of the governor
of the state, the attorney general, the secretary of state, the state
treasurer, and the state auditor. Loans varying from $250 to
$10,000 are to be made to farmers up to 50 per cent of the value
of their lands for terms of not less than five nor more than twenty-
five years. An amortization scheme, borrowed with some inaccu-
racies from the Credit Fonder, provides foi: the repayment of the
principal within the term of the loan in fixed annual payments
consisting of interest, one-half per cent on account of the reserve,
and the remainder on account of principal. The law expressly
stipulates that loans are to be made only for the onUnary produc-
tive purposes, t. 6., to complete the purchase price of land, to pay
off existing incumbrances, and to make permanent improvements.
Of the total amount loaned, 25 per cent may be used for the pur-
chase of stock and machinery.

The initial working capital of the bank, $1,000,000, is to be
appropriated by the legislature from the funds in the state treasury.
One-half of this amount will be loaned to applicants at a net in-
terest rate of 4.3 per cent. Thereafter, capital will be provided
throu^ the sale of debenture bonds, issued in series of $500,000,
and loaned to farmers at the rate which the bank must pay on
the bonds. Whenever there are deeds of trust on hand aggregating
$500,000, a new series of bonds will be issued until the total issue
has reached $40,000,000. Further issues may be made indefinitely
at a ratio of $80 of bonds to $1 of the reserve.

An effort is made to give the bonds a high standing as invest-

67. Laws of Miss<mri, 1915, H. B. 877* p. 196. The law can not become opera-
tive until December 1, 1916. There was some doubt at the time the measure was
proposed as to whether It would be constitutional for the legislature to appropriate
$1,000,000 fh>m the state treasury for the purpose of organising the bank. To
avoid all poaslble constitutional dlfflcultles It was deemed best to postpone the
organisation of the bank until the law could be submitted to the voters of the
state under the "Inltlattve".

191] Pvinam: The Land Credit Problem J^B

ment securities. Every series of bonds will be secured by a like
amount of deeds of trust on farm lands within the state appraised
at double the face value of the bonds. For the purpose of insuring
careful appraisement, the state is to be divided into districts and
an expert appraiser appointed for each district at a salary of $2,000.
The appraiser is to have the co5peration of local banks in securing
information relative to the applicant for a loan, and the services of
state and county officials in passing upon title abstracts. These
services are to be rendered without fee. Furthermore, the bonds
will have as security the bank's reserve fund. The board, how-
ever, has the discretionary power to refund to each borrower who
has made regular payments for at least ten years, the reserve of
one-half per cent collected on his payments, or that portion of it
which remains after charging it with its share of expenses and loss.
When the reserve fund has accumulated to an amount sufficiently
large that it will no longer be needed to insure the solvency of the
bank, the legislature is to provide for its repayment to the state.
Finally, the bonds are exempt from taxation; and in all cases where
the law requires a deposit of securities to be made with the super-
intendent of insurance or the state treasurer, the bonds are to be
available for that purpose ''as if they were the bonds of the state
of Missouri".

The Montana law^^ provides that the state treasurer may issue

5 per cent bonds, secured by farm mortgages, whenever the county
treasurers have received sufficient applications for loans and sub-
scriptions to bonds to warrant a series of $100,000. Smaller bond
issues may be made from time to time at a rate of interest agreed
upon by all the applicants for loans. Loans will be amortized by
semi-annual payments equal to 4 per cent of the face value of the
mortgages. One-eighth of each payment or less, in the discretion
of the state treasurer, will be used to pay the expenses of adminis-
tration. The inference is that the farmer's rate of interest will be

6 per cent or less when bonds are issued in series of $100,000.
The law authorizes the appropriation of $20,000 from the state

treasury to be used as a guaranty fund. In the event of default by
a mortgagor, the state treasurer will draw upon this fund to satisfy
the holders of bonds, but the amount thus drawn must be restored
to the fund either from the proceeds of foreclosure sale or by a

58. Laws of Montana, 1915. ch. 28.

60 University of Kansas Humanistic Studies [19S

direct levy on all mortgagors benefiting under the same bond issue.
The effect of this guaranty on the investment character of the
bonds seems to be of doubtful value when one reflects that the
mortgages rather than the bonds are to be exempt from taxation.
The proposed Land Bank of the State of New York is an adapta-
tion of the Central Landschaft of Prussia. The law^* provides that
the bank may be formed by ten or more savings and loan associa-
tions with aggregate resources of $5,000,000 when they have sub-
scribed $100,000 to its capital. On the security of first mortgages
made by the local associations and placed in trust with the state
comptroller, the land bank may issue bonds, exempt from taxation,
up to 80 per cent of the face value of the mortgages so long as its
total outstanding indebtedness does not exceed twenty times its
capital. A portion of the profits of the bank equal to one-half per
cent of the capital must be set aside each year as a guaranty fund
until the fund is equal to 15 per cent of its capital.

The savings and loan associations were adopted as the local
organizations in the new system because of the excellent law under
which they have operated. At present they are among the sound-
est financial institutions in the state. They can make loans only to
members. The property pledged as security for a loan must be
located within a radius of fifty miles of the office of the association
and loans must be limited to 75 per cent of the appraised property
value. Nothing in the law has prevented these associations from
lending to farmers but, since they have been dependent on local
savings for their capital, their operations have been confined to
urban communities.

The new law attempts to overcome these limitations. A savings
and loan association having invested in the shares of the land bank,
and having no debts or second mortgages, may pledge 75 per cent
of its mortgages or other securities for cash or bonds of the central
institution. With the funds thus obtained — ^which can not be in
excess of twenty times the share capital it has contributed to the
land bank — ^the local association can make farm loans to members
on the amortization plan for terms of forty years. The rate of in-
terest to be paid by the farmer will be the rate paid on the bonds
plus a small charge to cover expenses.

The land bank is now fully organized. Over forty associations

59. Laws of New York, ch. 369, art. X.

193] Putnam: The Land Credit Problem 61

with total assets of approximately $20»000,000 have met the organ-
ization requirements. The first bond issue of $250,000, maturing
in ten years and bearing an interest rate of 4^ per cent, has also
been authorized. A successful effort is being made to sell the first
issue of bonds to the large financial institutions. The funds thus
derived from the sale of the bonds will be loaned by the land bank
to member associations at 5 per cent. Owing to the cooperative
structure of these associations the cost of placing the loans will be
comparatively small and the farmer's rate of interest is expected
to be well below that rate once the system has become firmly estab-
lished. At present, the one concern of the organizers is to arouse
the interest of farmers in the new system so that they will be in-
duced to become members of the local associations.*^

The Oklahoma law*^ is the outgrowth of the state's experience
in making loans to farmers. Since 1907 that state has been lending
its permanent school funds on the security of farm mortgages.
Loans limited to one-half the value of land, exclusive of the value of
improvements, have been made by the commissioners of the land
office for terms of five years at an interest rate of 5 per cent. On
the whole the system was well administered, but the number of
k>ans was naturally limited. With a view to supplying the demand
for state loans, the new law created another loan fund out of the
lands set apart for the benefit of the higher institutions of learn-
ing. Loans are to be made for terms of twenty-three and one-half
years, with provision for amortization, at an interest rate of 6 per
cent. The maximum loan that can be obtained by any one indi-
vidual or family is $2,000 and then only on condition that the
borrower reside upon the land given as security.

In order to provide sufficient funds for all applicants the com-
missioners of the land office are authorized to sell without recourse
the mortgages taken in part payment for the University lands, or
to issue bonds, bearing an interest rate of 5 per cent or less, up to
75 per cent of the value of the mortgages. With these funds addi-
tional loans can be- made and the commissioners are empowered
to issue 5 per cent bonds up to 90 per cent of the value of the mort-
gages taken for such loans. When the University lands are finally
sold, an almost inexhaustible fund will be available for farm

60. See Journal of lAe American Bankers* AseoeioHon, Jan.. 1916, p. 676.

61. Law$ of OkMoma, 1016, chs. 34. 284.

6£ University of Kansas Humanistic Studies [194

loans — ^provided the state has no difficulty in floating the bonds.
Although not guaranteed by the state, the bonds will bear the
signatures of the governor, the president of the state board of agri-
culture, and the state auditor. They will be exempt from all
taxation except the tax on incomes and will be approved security
for the deposit of public funds and legal investments for trust funds.
As yet, no bonds have been issued by the commissioners.

Numerous other land credit measures have been seriously con-
sidered by Congress and the state legislatures, but the measures
already outlined furnish sufficient and conclusive evidence that the
land credit problem is being boldly, if not blindly, attacked. With
no American precedent to follow and no consensus of opinion as to
the kind of land credit machinery best adapted to American con-
ditions, a great deal of irregular legislation has been evolved.
Even the members of the commissions who have studied at first
hand the various systems in operation in foreign countries seem to
have gained little from their investigations except a dignified en-
thusiasm for reform.

In general, three distinct kinds of legislation have been passed
or proposed. On the one hand are the less conservative reformers
who would rely upon a scheme of government aid. They would
have the state or federal governments engage directly in the busi-
ness of making long-term loans to farmers at a low rate of interest.
In no other way, they claim, can a young farmer secure a rate of
interest sufficiently low to make the ownership of a farm a prac-
tical certainty. On the other hand, those who are opposed to a
government subsidy of any kind, particularly one for the benefit
of farmers, insist that there is need only for legislation that will
provide new machinery for the mobilization of farm credit at the
hands of private initiative. Finally, there are those who, in advo-
cating cooperative organization as a remedy for all economic iUs,
would transplant with little modification the German landschafts
to this country.

The dissimilarity of these three proposals is probably due to an
incomplete understanding of the land credit problem. The prob-
lem is clearly of a two-fold nature. It involves a consideration

195] Putnam: The Land Credit Problem 63

not only of the credit needs of landowners, but also of the credit
needs of tenants who would become landowners. There is a
fundamental difference between the requirements of these two
classes. The former require long-term credit for the purpose of
equipping the farm; the latter need long-term credit in order to
complete the purchase price of land. Those who advocate a pro-
gram of government loans at a low rate of interest have in mind
the promotion of home ownership and the welfare of the tenant
classes; while those who would rely upon private initiative or
cooperative efforts to reduce the rate are concerned chiefly with
the needs of landowners.

In view of the two-fold nature of the land credit problem, two
distinct kinds of legislation are needed. No one program of reform
is capable of treating both classes of farmers alike without being
prejudicial to the interests of the farm tenant. It follows, there-
fore, that some provision should be made whereby tenants will be
encouraged to become their own masters; and, on the other hand,
independent machinery should be established to enable landowners
to obtain a rate of interest commensurate with the security they
have to offer. These two problems of land credit legislation will
now be given separate consideration.

CHAPTER IV
Land Cbedit for Landowners

The problem of supplying landowners with capital for the im-
provement and development of their farms is not a difficult one.
It involves merely the establishment of new and specialized
machinery which will provide for a longer term of loans, repayment
of the principal by amortization, and the elimination of excessive
conunission charges.

In accomplishing this reform, direct government aid is unde-
sirable and unnecessary. The well established principle that the
state, as the guardian of its citizens, should protect the weak
against the strong is, fortunately enough, inapplicable in the case
of landowners. As a class they are among the most prosperous
citizens. To enhance their individual prosperity by extending to
them the credit of the state or federal government would be an
unwarranted infringement of democratic principles. In all justice
the same assistance would needs be granted to merchants, manufac-
turers, and other individual borrowers. It follows, therefore, that
in the establishment of a system designed to extend land credit to
farmers on as favorable terms as have been accorded to the com-
mercial and industrial classes by the national and state banking
i^stems, chief reliance should be placed upon self-help and private
initiative. Where these individual qualities offer a basis for
remedial action, direct government aid would be pernicious and
destructive.

Those who advocate coiSperative organization among farmers
as the proper remedy for a defective land credit system have a
point of view which requires more serious consideration. The
claim is forcefully made that, with the proper legislative authority,
farmers could take the initiative, form cooperative land credit
institutions and solve their own land credit problems. In support
of the feasibility of such institutions and what they might accom-

5i

197] Ptdnam: The Land Credit Problem 56

plish for the fanner in this countiy, the advocates of the plan are
wont to cite the work of the German landschafts.

In general, a landschaft is a highly organized association of
landowners who are authorized to borrow on collective rather than
individual mortgage security. By issuing bonds secured by mort-
gages on the property of all members they can o£Fer to the investor
a security far superior to that possessed by the individual mort-
gage. The collective guaranty and the requirement that all
borrowers be members constitute the fundamental and character-
istic features of these associations.

The origin of the landschaft was not voluntary. At the close
of the Seven Years' War, agriculture was in an impoverished con-
dition and interest rates were high. To relieve the distress of the
large landowners who were more deeply involved in debt than any
other class, and on whom the burden of the war had fallen heaviest,
Frederick the Great forced the nobles of Silesia to form a land-
schaft. Whether the members of the association wished to borrow
or not, their lands were made jointly liable for all loans granted by
the association.

The Silesian landschaft was founded in 1770.^ Similar associa-
tions were founded for Pomerania in 1781, for western Prussia in
1787, and for eastern Prussia in 1788. These were compulsory
associations of all the large landowners within a province, whether
borrowers or not, and their estates were compulsorily included in
the guaranty of the bonds of the association of that province. The
four associations thus formed have retained with few exceptions
their original characteristics although the actual liability of non-
borrowing guarantors has greatly diminished by reason of the fact
that the associations have accumulated large reserves to cover
possible losses.

At present, there are in Germany twenty-three of these coiSp-
erative land credit institutions. Seventeen are located in Prussia,
two in Saxony, and one in each of the states of Bavaria, Wurttem-
berg, Mecklenburg, and Brunswick. With the exception of the
Wurttemberg Credit Association, which issues bonds on the
security of both urban and rural mortgages, their bonds are secured

02. Unleai otherwise indicated, the facte in regard to these asMciatloDe liave
been drawn firom J. R. CahiU's Report to the Board of AgricuHure and FUherUt of an
InoMiry into Agricultural Credit and AgricuUural CooperaHon in Oermany, (sen.
Doc. 17. 63 Cong.. 1 SeM.) pp. 3S-A4.

56 University of Kansas HumanisHc Studies [198

by mortgages on rural property only. For the most part, the
associations in Prussia are confined in their operations to the prov-
inces within which they are located. The associations outside of
Prussia operate over the whole of their respective states.

The landschafts which were formed during the nineteenth cen-
tury are of a different pattern from the older institutions. An
example of their method of organization and operation — although
in non-essential matters these later institutions differ from one
another — is afforded by the Mortgage Credit Association for the
Province of Saxony, founded in 1864.^ This association is directly
under the supervision of a royal conmoissioner and the minister of
agriculture. Its members consist of borrowers who have pledged
rural property as security for loans. In general assembly they
elect a council of administration which, in turn, appoints a board
of directors. One of the members of the board is the general
director, another is an active member of the landschaf t, and among
others is a syndic who attends to all legal matters affecting the
association. One of the most significant powers of the landschaft
is the power to enforce payment of all debts which are due it
without recourse to law.

In every district of the province is a representative of the land-
schaft through whom local business is transacted, subject of course
to the approval of the board of directors. Loans are made up to
two-thirds of the value of land. The principal basis for determin-
ing the value of the borrower's land is the land-tax assessment.
If the borrower applies for a loan of twenty to thirty times the net
income of the land, no special appraisement is required. If, how-
ever, the applicant calls for a larger amount, two special appraisers
are sent as agents of the landschaft who, together with the district
representative, appraise the land offered as security. If properly
secured, there is no limit to the size of an individual loan. On one
estate the association has loaned the sum of 3,000,000 marks; on
the other hand, a borrower must possess at least four acres of land
before he can become a member of the organization.

When all matters pertaining to title and appraisement have been
settled by the landschaft and the mortgage has been made out and
registered, the borrower receives the amount of his loan in bonds of

oa. The facto In regard to this particuUr anociatlon have been drawn flrom
Information and BMtnca (Sen. Doc 214, 08 Cong., 1 Sen.) pp. 808-367.

199] Putnam: The Land Credit Problem 67

the association. These are not secured, as were those issued by
the older landschafts, by a mortgage upon specific property with
concurrent guaranty by the association, but represent a claim upon
the association for a mortgage claim of like amount. The liability
of the borrower is limited to the amount he has borrowed plus 5
per cent. The rate of interest paid on the bonds varies from 3 to
3J^ per cent.

In order that the borrower might find a ready market for his
bonds, the association followed the example set by other land-
schaf ts and established, in 1898, the Landschaf t Bank. The officers
of this institution are the officers of the association. It has a work-
ing capital of 3,000,000 marks representing the profits and savings
turned over to it by the association. Although it conducts a gen-
eral banking business, its primary purpose is to act as intermediary
between the borrower and the ultimate purchaser of his bonds, and
to facilitate the amortization of loans which the landschaft has
made. It therefore buys the borrower's bonds at the current
market price for resale to the investor. The borrower pays to the
bank the regular interest rate which the bonds bear, one-fourth
per cent for the bank's services, and three-fourths per cent yearly
for amortization. The earnings which accrue from these opera-
tions are carried to the association's surplus fund until the fund has
equaled 5 per cent of all outstanding obligations. Since the asso-
ciation has no capital stock and pays no dividends, the excess
earnings above the reserve fund are used to augment the borrower's
amortization payments thereby reducing the term of his loan.

The amortization payments which are continually being made to
the Landschaft Bank are used to redeem the landschaft 's bonds so
that there may not be more bonds outstanding than are covered by
mortgage security. The bonds are subject to call at par. If the
market price is above par, the bank may select by lot sufficient
bonds to cancel maturing mortgages; if the price is below par,
bonds will be purchased in the open market by the bank or the
borrower and the amortization payments will be completed that
much sooner. The various landschafts make it a regular practice
to buy in their bonds when the market is favorable.

In 1873, when a number of associations were having difficulty
in marketing their bonds, there was created a Central Mortgage
Credit Association for the Prussian State for the purpose of widen-

BS University of Kansas Humanistic Studies [200

ing the market for the bonds of the provincial associations. At
present, eight of the Prussian associations are aflUiated with the
central organization. It is managed by a board of directors com-
posed of the leading officials of the affiliated associations. It issues
central bonds for its members who have retained, nevertheless, full
authority to issue their own bonds as before. If a farmer finds that
the bonds of the central landschaf t are selling at a better price than
are the bonds of his own association, he may request that his bonds
be given in exchange for bonds of the central landschaft.

The par value of the bonds of the twenty-three provincial land-
schafts together with the outstanding issues of the central land-
schaft amounted at the end of 1910 to well over $800,000,000. A
Uttle more than one-eighth of this amount was represented by
central bonds. The volume of the outstanding bonds of the cen-
tral association was exceeded by the bonds of both the Silesian
Mortgage Credit Association and the East Prussian Mortgage
Credit Association. It appears that the central landschaft has not
been altogether successful, for its bonds have not maintained
superiority over those issued by the provincial associations. This
is largely due to the fact that the market for such bonds has
always been mainly provincial, and furthermore to a strong
distaste on the part of the associations themselves for centralized
organization.

Experience has shown, however, that the methods employed by
the provincial associations for financing the long-term credit re-
quirements of landowners are thoroughly in accord with sound land
credit principles. The loans which they grant are not subject to
recall. They are repayable at the mortgagor's convenience and
the extinction of the debt is accomplished gradually. Owing to the
abundant security possessed by their bonds they can be sold on
advantageous terms, and the landowner is able to borrow for long-
time periods without being subject to the expensive necessity of
renewal or to any uncertainty as regards his average rate of in-
terest. In fact the landschaft bonds have, at times, an investment
status superior to that possessed by government bonds — if the
comparative market prices of these securities are reliable criteria.
On June IS, 1913, when the 4, S)^, and 8 per cent government
bonds of Germany were selling at 96, 84.80, and 74.80 respectivdy.

eOl] Putnam: The Land Credit Problem 59

landschaf t bonds bearing the same rates of interest were quoted at
100, 96, and 80.50 respectively .•*

Moreover, the ease with which these institutions mobilize land
credit is evidenced by the fact that the borrower's actual rate of
interest corresponds very closely to the rate paid on the bonds.
He pays, of course, a small entrance fee to his association and
contributes moderately to the cost of administration. But these
expenses are extremely low, for the principal reason that the asso-
ciations are non-profit organizations. The directors themselves
are landowners and borrowers holding honorary office. They are
thoroughly acquainted with the individual needs of landowners
and the value of landed property. The management is therefore
both efficient and inexpensive. Some associations are able, on
account of their large accumulation of funds, to grant loans to
members with scarcely any extra charge beyond the immediate
expenditure actually incurred.

If it were possible to adapt these institutions to meet the needs
of American landowners, both large and small, one phase of the
land credit problem would be easily solved. And, indeed, nothing
should be done in any way prejudicial to the formation of such
organizations. On the contrary, if it is so desired, they should be
given legislative sanction under conditions which would allow
government supervision and insure careful management. But in
the absence of all American precedent in this field of activity it is
not likely that a mere enabling act would effectively accomplish
the needed results. Unless an association imposed on borrowers a
heavy Uability in addition to that imposed by their mortgage con-
tracts, the bonds would be regarded with suspicion by conservative
investors. Moreover, if additional liability were imposed, good
fanners would be loath to join an association. Rather than create
a lien on their property for the benefit of others, they would prefer
to borrow from other sources. Thus the chances for successful
organization would be extremely small.

In this connection, it should be remembered that the first asso-
ciations in Germany were compulsory organizations. It was not
until their success had been firmly established that other associa-
tions were voluntarily formed. For the most part these associations
of borrowers were not cooperative in structure — only two were

64. statement of David Lubln. Sen. Doc. 106. 63 Cong., 1 Seai.. p. 49.

60 University of Kansas Humanistic Studies [202

formed with a capital stock after the maimer of a true cooperative
credit association. Yet all of them had in their foundation a
strong coiSperative spirit.

It is this that is lacking with the American farmer. The frontier
stage is not far enough in the past to have allowed the development
of a co(5perative spirit. The farmer is still a strong individualist.
Living a comparatively isolated life, he has become accustomed to
looking after his own affairs without the assistance of others; and
it is seldom that he will brook their interference. On account of
the continual shifting of the rural population, the character of his
neighbors is ever a matter of uncertainty. There is, moreover, no
religious or communal bond to overcome the mutual distrust that
frequently arises. These conditions militate strongly against the
growth of a cooperative spirit. Furthermore, farmers are suspic-
ious of cooperative enterprise in all its forms. Partly for this
reason cooperation in buying and selling has made little headway.
The number of failures has been large. It would seem unwise,
therefore, to urge the establishment of farmers' cooperative land
credit banks until cooperation in its milder and safer forms has
secured a permanent footing.

For the present, then, it is unlikely that the landschaft form
could be successfully adapted to American needs except by limit-
ing rigidly the liability of borrowers and by permitting others than
borrowers to become financially interested. But such an institu-
tion would differ radically from the landschaft form. It would be
an association composed of lenders as well as of borrowers. In
short, the admission of non-borrowing members seeking pecuniary
gain would be a virtual acceptance of the contention that only
through private enterprse can the land credit problem of land-
owners be properly solved. Those who believe in the eflBcacy of
private initiative as a remedial agent for a defective land credit
system would advocate the establishment of institutions patterned
after the joint-stock mortgage banks of Germany or the Credit
Fonder of France.

Of the thirty-seven joint-stock mortage banks in Germany, the
Prussian Central Land Credit Company, organized in 1870, is by
far the most important institution of its kind for making loans to
landowners.^ It operates over the whole of Germany and has over

66. The fact! In regard to this Inetlttttlon have been drawn fkom the OahUl
Report, Sen. Doc. 17, 68 Oong., 1 Seai., pp. 72-74.

WS] Putnam: The Land Credit Problem 61

four hundred appointed agencies. It makes long-term loans, vaiy-
ing in size from 1»000 to 6»000,000 marks, up to two-thirds of the
value of farm lands as appraised by its own valuation experts. On
the security of the mortgages it may issue bonds up to twenty
times its original capital of 86,000,000 marks. Provision is made for
the extinguishment of loans in 56}/^ years by an annual amorti-
zation charge of one-half per cent, or in 44 years by an annual
payment of 1 per cent. After a loan has been in force for a period
of ten years it may be paid off in full if the borrower so desires.

In 1918, the rate of interest paid on the bonds varied from 4 to
43^ per cent. The rate paid by the farmer exceeds this rate by
about one-fourth per cent. He pays, in addition, a charge of two
or three per cent of his loan at the time the loan is granted — one-
half per cent goes to the state, one-half per cent to the bank, and
the remainder is used to cover other expenses. Owing to the
greater liberality in the conditions under which loans may be
granted, the bank is an active competitor of the landschafts in
the farm mortgage business.

The capital stock and surplus of the bank is 62,400,000 marks.
About one-third of this amount is used as a revolving fund to keep
the outstanding bonds equal in volume to the mortgages which
secure them. When it is necessary to reduce the number of out-
standing bonds, they are purchased by the bank in the open mar-
ket if the price is below par; otherwise they are called by lot at par.
In 1912, the total volume of outstanding bonds secured by mort-
gages amounted to 802,877,650 marks. The value of rural and
urban mortgages held as security amounted to 275,885,058 and
560,948,158 marks respectively. No other German mortgage bank
has invested so large a proportion of its funds in mortgages on
rural property. Compared with the landschafts, its volume of
rural mortgage loans is exceeded only by that of the Silesian, the
East Prussian, and the Posen associations.

But the bank is not confined in its operations to the granting
of loans on the security of rural and urban property. It makes
long-term loans to municipalities, towns, parishes, etc., and pro-
vides the necessary capital for such loans by issuing communal
bonds. Unlike its mortgage bonds these may be used for the in-
vestment of trust funds. The bank does not conduct a general
deposit business, but its other operations are suflSciently profitable

6£ University of Kansas Humanistic Studies [SOJ^

to enable it to pay liberal dividends to its shareholders. In 1913
the dividend rate on a capital of 44,400,000 marks was 9)^ per cent.
From 1870 when the bank was organized down to 1912, the average
annual dividend rate was 9.13 per cent.

The business of the bank is under the immediate supervision of
a special royal commissioner, subject to the authority of the min-
istry of agriculture. The special commissioner acts as fiduciary
agent and must give his consent before any bond issue can be made.
He may require a fresh valuation of any property on which a mort-
gage has been taken or he may refuse altogether to accept a given
mortgage as security for bond issues. The president of the bank
and members of the board of directors are required to have their
appointments confirmed by the Crown. Since the bank enjoys
certain special privileges and is under the strict supervision of the
government, it holds the confidence of the investing public.

The Credit Fonder of France, organized in 1852, is the largest
and most successful institution of its kind in the world. It was the
outgrowth of a law of the same year providing for the organization
of decentralized land credit institutions. Within a short time,
however, the plan came to be regarded with disfavor. Greater
centralization was deemed advisable in order to insure solvency,
proper governmental supervision, and public confidence. Accord-
iiigly> the Land Bank of Paris, the first company to be organized
under the law, was authorized to absorb other existing companies.
The new institution, officially known as La SodM du CrSdit Fan-
cier de France, was given a subsidy of 10,000,000 francs and was
granted a monopoly for twenty-five years. Althou^ the monop-
oly was never renewed, the bank retained certain special privileges
which have practically eliminated all possibility of competition.

The following account of the Credit Fonder has been given by
Myron T. Herrick:"

**The governor and two subgovemors of the Credit Fonder are
appointed for life by the President of the Republic. It is subject
to the surveillance of the Treasury Department of the Govern-
ment, and three of its directors must be high officers of the depart-
ment. It may use the Government treasuries for the recdpt of its

60. PrtUminary Report on Land and Agricultural Credit in Europe, Sen. Doc.
067, 62 Oong., 3 Seai.. p. 21.

£06] Putnam: The Land Credit ProUem 63

dues and the deposit of its surplus funds and enjoys a reduction in
stamp and registration duties.

'^Its debentures are registered or payable to bearer, and the
claim of a third party to them can not be made in court except in
case of theft or loss. Trust and pubUc funds may be invested in
them. Its mortgages are exempt from the decennial registration
and consequent charges required of other mortgages. It has a
cheap and speedy method of 'purging' the title of real estate in
case of disputes. In the event of default the courts can hot grant
the debtor any delay and payments due it upon loans can not be
gamisheed or attached. It is allowed summary proceedings for
attaching mortgaged property in case of violation of contracts. If
dues are not paid or if the property deteriorates it may attach and
sell the property simply upon notice and publication. During
attachment proceedings it has a right to all returns from the estate.
The sale may be by auction in a civil court or at a notary public's
office, if the court permits, and no adverse claim to the proceeds of
the sale can be allowed until its claims are fully satisfied.

"The regulations under which the Cr6dit Fonder transacts its
business are veiy strict. The mortgage loans must be first hens.
The property must have a clear and unencumbered title and yield
a certain durable income. Loans on theaters, mines, and quarries
are not accepted. The amount loaned on any property must not
exceed half its value, or one-third the value for vineyards, woods,
orchards, and plantations. Factory buildings are estimated with-
out regard to their valueforparticular purposes. A borrower can not
bindhimself to pay a greater annuity than the total annual income
of the property mortgaged, while on the other hand the society is not
allowed to charge borrowers 0.6 per cent over the rate at which it
obtains money on its debentures issued at the time of the loans.
An excess of only 0.45 per cent is allowed on loans to municipalities.
The outstanding loans and debentures issued must exactly corre-
spond in amounts.

*' After paying a 5 per cent dividend the Credit Fonder must
set aside between 5 and 20 per cent of the balance of the profits
each year for the obligatory reserve, and continue to do so as long
as the same does not equal one-half of the capital stock. The
investment of this reserve is left to the board of directors. The
capital stock of the sodety must be always maintained at the ratio

64 University of Kansas Humanistic Studies [206

of one-twentieth or more of the debentures in circulation and is the
primary guaranty of its obligations, especially the debentures.
The capital at present is $40,000,000 divided into 400,000 shares of
$100 each; but authority has been obtained to increase the same to
$50,000,000, represented by 500,000 shares, which will be done
before the debentures in circulation pass the legal limit. One-
fourth of the capital must be invested in French rentes or other
treasury bonds; one-fourth in office buildings of the society, or by
loans to French colonies, or in securities deposited with the Bank
of France as a guaranty for advances. Shares can not be issued at
a price below par. They are nonassessable. The surplus may be
loaned on mortgages or to municipalities or may be used in other
mortgage business allowed by the statutes; and for buying its own
debentures, making advances to borrowers in arrears, or purchas-
ing mortgaged property in foreclosure; and for acquiring conuner-
cial paper acceptable by the Bank of France or securities to be
deposited with that bank.

"The governor of the Cr6dit Fonder must be the owner of at
least 200 shares of stock of the society. He receives a salary of
$8,000. The subgovemors must hold 100 shares each. Their
salaries are $4,000. They perform such functions as are delegated
to them by the governor, and in order of their nomination fulfill his
duties during his absence on account of illness or other causes. The
governor appoints and dismisses all agents of the society and super-
intends the organization of the service in Paris and elsewhere. He
countersigns the debentures and signs the share certificates and
all other papers and documents and must strive to promote the
interests of the society in every way. The governor is the head of
the board of directors, which is composed of himself, the two sub-
govemors, the auditors, and 20 to 23 directors. This body posses-
ses the administrative powers of the society and is beholden only
to the laws and the general assembly of the stockholders for the
proper exercise of the same. The three auditors are the guardians
of the society. Their duties are to watch, investigate, and make
reports. The only power they have is to call extraordinary gen-
eral meetings of the shareholders.

''The general assembly of the stockholders meets regularly^once
a year. It consists only of the 200 largest stockholders, of whom 40
make a quorum if th^ hold one-tenth of the stock of the society.

907] Ptdnam: The Land Credii Problem 66

Each member has one vote for every 40 shares of stock hdd, but
can not cast more than five votes in his own name, nor more than ten
in his own name by proxy. He has, however, a right to one vote
even though his shares be less than 40 in number. The general
assembly receives the report of the governor, and also of the audi-
tors, if any. It elects the directors and auditors and decides on all
resolutions or proposals for the increase of capital, the amendment
of the by-laws and constitution, and generally on all matters not
otherwise specifically provided for.

^'The only places outside of France where the Credit Fonder
can do business are Algiers and Tunis . Under a clause in its charter
which allows it, with the sanction of the Government, to enter into
projects for improving the soil, developing agriculture, and to ex-
tinguish existing debts on real estate, etc., the society has been
authorized to finance drainage projects and to advance monqr on
the paper of the Sous-Comptoir des Entrepreneurs, an incorporated
association of builders. It may also receive deposits up to $20,000,-
000, one-fourth of which must be kept in the Government treasury
and the balance invested in Government paper, treasury bonds» or
high-class bankable commercial notes and securities. In connec-
tion with its banking house it has large deposit vaults.

''The Credit Foncier is permitted to take short-term mortgages
and does a big business in that line. But the true purpose of its
existence and the greatest part of its operations are the granting
of long-time loans. These are made on mortgages to individuals
and without mortgage to municipalities and public establishments.
The periods run from 10 to 75 years. The annuities required to be
paid for amortising the loan for the average period used are so
small as to appear insignificant. The success achieved by the
Credit Foncier in popularising the amortization principle for real
estate loans is the chief cause of its great renown. At present its
interest rate for mortgage loans is 4.8 per cent per annum, for public
establishments 4.1 per cent, and S.85 per cent for municipalities.
The total annuity, including both interest and amortization sum,
for a 25 year mortgage loan is a little over 0.5 per cent. With this
small annual payment the debt is gradually wiped out, and nothing
is left to be paid at the end of the term. The longer the term the
smaller the annuity, and vice versa. The loans now exceed (870,-
000,000. ♦ ♦ ♦

66 University of Kansas Humanistic Studies [208

''The Cr^t Fonder is obliged to keep the interest and amorti-
zation payments in separate accounts, the latter going to create a
sinking fund for the retirement of outstanding debentures. As
stated above, the amounts of the loans and debentures must bal-
ance each other; consequently, as loans are paid up debentures
must be paid off. Borrowers have the right to pay in advance,
which they frequently exercise, so the proper adjustment of the
balance is beyond the control of the society. It is for this reason
that the debentures, although calculated to be redeemed synchron-
ously with the loans they represent, have no fixed time for maturity
and are recallable at option. In each issue a certain number are
repayable by lots, with prizes for the lucky holders. A bond last
year drew a prize of $40,000. The right to give prizes at the lottery
drawings is one of the special privileges of the society. The deben-
tures are of two kinds — ^those representing the mortgages are called
'fonci^res' and those representing the loans to municipalities and
public establishments are called 'conmiunales'. They are issued
in series. The smallest denomination is $20. They may be bought
by installments and are the most popular form of investment in
France, being held largely by farmers and poor people in the cities.
The issue of 1912 for $100,000,000 at 3 per cent, payable within 70
years, was oversubscribed 18 times. The total land mortgages and
municipal indebtedness in France is figured at $2,800,000,000.
Nearly one-third of this is represented by the loans of the society. "

That the land credit needs of landowners can be adquately sup-
plied by institutions conducted for profit is shown by the successful
records of the Prussian Central Land Credit Company and the
Cr6dit Foncier. They have been efficiently managed and carefully
supervised. Although differing substantially in the matter of size,
both are joint-stock institutions, t. e., associations of lenders rather
than of borrowers. They lend on farm mortgage security in con-
formity with sound land credit principles and mobilize land credit
through the issuance of debenture bonds. Owing to the large share
capital which they possess and to the rigid supervision imposed by
their respective governments, they have retained the confidence of
the investing classes.

l^^ndoubtedly some adaptation of these forms would be both

209] Putnam: The Land Credit Problem 67

feasible and desirable in the United States. The greater effidenpy
gtowing out of private enterprise, the dangers involved in any un-
necessary extension of governmental activity, and the improbable
success of co5perative land credit render the adoption of any other
plan of reform indefensible.

The foundation for some such system is already in existence.
There are the numerous farm mortgage companies which, in spite
of legislative handicaps and a badly organized system, have been
instrumental in reducing the farmer's rate of interest during the
last twenty-five years by developing a market for mortgage invest-
ments. These agencies would welcome any legislative action
designed to promote conservative business practice.^ In view of
the intimapy of their contact with agricultural conditions and what
they have already accomplished in the way of mobilizing land
credit, it would seem that the first step in any program of reform
should be the formulation of some plan for their reorganization.

Much discussion has arisen as to whether or not the new system
should be highly centralized. It has been urged, not without a
great deal of force, that debenture bonds could not be issued to
advantage in this country unless backed by the assets and prestige
of a great central institution like the Credit Foncier. In fact,
some doubt has been expressed as to whether debentures could be
issued at all. On the other hand it is pointed out that the decen-
tralized mortgage banks of Germany, notably the Prussian Central
Land Credit Company, occupy a position scarcely inferior to the
Credit Foncier as bond issuing institutions; and that decentralized
banks would be better adapted to deal with American conditions.

In considering this question of centralization, the United States
Commission came to the conclusion that, although a central land
credit bank having the sole power to issue debenture bonds would
command a wider market in the sale of its securities, a system of
competitive farm land banks would be more in conformity with the
character of American institutions and would, therefore, be better
adapted. This Opinion seems to be well founded. Public senti-
ment in the United States is strongly opposed to centralization in
banking power — an attitude that is deserving of much weight in

67. See iMonphlet entitled Recommendaiiana of the Farm Mortgage Bankerw'
AsBoetaUon of America uHth reference to H. R. 68S8 and 3, 1986, Chicago. Feb. 16.
1916.

68 University of Kansas HumanisHe Studies [tlO

devising a feasible plan of reform. The commission, however, went
too far in recommending that banks be allowed to organise with as
small a capital stock as $10,000. If European ezpeiienoe has any-
thing to offer with regard to the formation of joint-stock mortgage
banks, it is that they should have a large share capital and should
be carefully supervised by government officials. The smaller the
banks and the greater their number, the less rigid would govern-
ment supervision become.

It is true that the American investor is distrustful of debenture
bo^ds. He prefers to hold a mortgage lien on a specific and tangi-
ble piece of property regardless of the fact that the ultimate
security for his loan is earning capacity rather than property . This
preference is clearly shown in the attitude of American investors
toward rajlroad debentures — although the market for these bonds
has steadily improved. But collateral trust bonds more neariy
resemble in character the bonds that would be issued by an estab-
lished land-mortgage bank than do railroad debentures. These are
frequently sold at high pricefs. The Northern Pacific-Great
Northern collateral trust 4s, secured by the stock of the Chicago,
Burlington and Quincy Railroad Company, have steadily sold
dose to par. Many other issues secured by stocks and bonds
having a definite income yidding powor are well thought of in
finandal drdes.

There is no good reason why the bonds of well regulated farm
land banks should not attain a similar standing once the public
has become accustomed to the debenture securities. The diief
reason for the present attitude of distrust toward these bonds is
that the memory of the old farm mortgage erase and its disastrous
results still lingers. After 1870 scores of investment companies
were formed in the Middle West to make loans on dty and rural
property. The principal market for their bonds and mortgages
was located in the New England and other Eastern States. Their
promoters were over confident, thdr methods faulty, and for the
most part they were grossly mismanaged. When the western boom
collapsed in the eaily nineties, these unregulated companies, with
few exceptions, failed. Farms mortgaged for more than th^ were
worth were abandoned, interest could not be paid onddientuies,
and investors refused to renew their loans at maturity. Had
mortgages been drawn for longer terms and the companies t

eil] Putnam: The Land Credit Problem 69

selves been subjected to regulatoiy laws, the effects of the collapse
would not have been so cumulative. As it was, the failure of a few
large companies involved others until the disaster became wide-
spread. Only those who held on to their investments either because
ihey were unable to dispose of them or because they were confident
of a return of prosperity, recovered their losses with the subsequent
rise in property values.

The few companies that survived this collapse of real estate and
farm values are now the strongest and most prosperous institutions
of thdr kind. One of those is the Pearsons-Taft Land Credit
Company of Chicago, established in 1885. It is by far the oldest
and largest concern in the United States engaged exclusively in the
busmess of making farm loans. It now has outstanding loans to
the amount of $16,000,000 secured by farm mortgages in eighteen
states. About three-fourths of these loans are held by its clients
in the form of individual mortgages. The balance is held by the
company or deposited with the Illinois Trust and Savings Bank
under a carefully prepared deed of trust as security for debenture
bonds. On April 12, 1916, the official statement of the company
showed that bonds to the amount of $8,848,262 were outstanding.
The rate of interest which the debentures bear has varied from 4
to 5.S per cent according to market conditions. They are issued
for terms of twenty years and are secured not only by a like amount
of farm mortgages but also by a capital stock and surplus of $220,-
000. Since 1900 the company has been making lojig-term loans
repayable by amortization, but thus far the number of such loans
has been small in comparison with the total volume of business.**

Evidences of renewed confidence in land-mortgage bonds are
not lacking. An example of a farm mortgage institution, more
recently formed, which has been successful in issuing debenture
bonds is afforded by the Woodruff Trust Company of Joliet. This
company, organised under the general trust company laws of
Illinois, has been issuing land-mortgage bonds for the past four
years. It has a capital stock of $500,000, a majority of which is
owned by the stockh<dders of the First National Bank of Joliet
It makes long-term loans, repayable by amortization, on the
security of farm lands at 6 per cent. A loan of $1,000 is amortized

68. The writer is indebted to Oran B. Taft, President of the Pearsons-Taft
Land Credit Oompany, for the facts in regard to the business of this eomptaky.

10 University of Kansas Humanistic Studies [212

by forty semi-annual payments of $43.26. On the combined
security of the mortgages held in trust, the company issues bonds
to the public at 5 per cen;t and invests the proceeds in further
agricultural loans. This process leaves a margin of profit sufficient-
ly large to enable it to pay liberal dividends to its stockholders.
Although the company is confined in its business operations to a
very restricted territory, a statement of its financial condition on
May 1,1916, showed bonds and guaranteed mortgages outstanding
to the amount of $1,361,718, a gain of 100 per cent over the out-
standing issues of the previous year. Its close affiliation with the
First National Bank of Joliet reduces materially the expenses of
operation.*'

Many other companies are in the organization stage. In Wis-
consin there has been organized a corporation known as the Wis-
consin Mortgage and Security Company, with a capital stock of
$100,000. All of its stockholders are bankers intimately acquainted
with agricultural conditions throughout the state. It is expected
that the company will acquire first farm mortgages from local
banks, place them with a trustee under an indenture ot trust and
issue bonds against them. This institution will merely supplement
the state controlled system of rural credits adopted by Wisconsin
in 1913.'®

In Kansas there is being organized the Kansas Land Credit
Trust Company with a capital stock of $500,000. It is planned to
have the stock widely scattered over the state; to be owned, in fact,
by the stockholders in land credit banks. One of these institutions
will be established in each county. The local institution will make
long-term loans at 6 per cent, turn over the mortgages to the cen-
tral trust company, and debenture bonds will then be issued against
them. Once this system is fully organized it ought to be successful.
With a widely scattered body of stockholders, the difficulties here-
tofore encountered by land-mortgage companies in educating the
farmer to a proper understanding of long-term loans and amortiza-
tion will have been largely overcome. Besides, in providing for an
organization extending into every agricultural section of the state,
the business of making farm loans can be carried on with a com-

69. See Rural Credits in Operation, an address delivered by George Woodruff
before the convention of the Southern Commercial Congress at Muskogee, Okla-
homa, April 27, 1916.

70. See Journal of the American Bankers* Association, Nov.. 1916, p. 393.

213] Putnam: The Land Credit Problem 71

paratively small margin of expense and the volume of transactions
ought to be sufficiently large to assure liberal returns to the stock-
holders.

Finally, it is noteworthy that two small companies formed in
Wisconsin under the law of 1913 have sold approximately $100,000
of land-mortgage bonds bearing 5 per cent,^^ while the Land Bank of
the State of New York, organized under the law of 1914, has sold
its first bond issue of $50,000 bearing 4)^ per cent interest to the
Guaranty Trust Company of New York City.'* Perhaps these
laws are open to serious criticism — the former in that it allows bond
issuing banks to be formed with too small a capital stock, and the
latter for the reason that it has weakened the financial stability
of the savings and loan associations.^' Yet their operation thus far
lends strength to the conviction that land-mortgage bonds can be
successfully utilized to mobilize land credit in this country.

When provision has been made for the incorporation and regu-
lation of land-mortgage banks, authorized to make long-term loans
on the security of farm lands and to provide capital through the
sale of debenture bonds, the long-term credit needs of landowners
can be readily supplied. It is not to be expected that these insti-
tutions will greatly reduce the farmer's rate of interest. An im-
provement in the method of making loans is, under existing
conditions, much more to be desired. But by giving greater
mobility to private capital and eliminating the expense growing
out of renewal commissions, they can at least give the farmer a
rate of interest commensurate with the security he has to oflfer.

Whether these companies should be organized under a state or
federal charter is no longer a question of vital concern. It has
been strongly urged, however, that inasmuch as the existing laws
governing land transfers, title registration, foreclosure, taxation,
and other matters pertaining to land are state laws which differ
materially from one state to another, the area of operation of a
land-mortgage bank should be confined to a single state so that its
bonds would be secured by mortgages of uniform quality; and there-
fore that legislation providing for the formation and control of
such institutions logically belongs within the province of state
activity.

71. /Md.. p. 392.

72. Journal of the American Bankers" Association, Jan., 1916. p. 676.

73. Cr. Journal of the American Bankers* Association, Feb.. 1916. p. 676.

72 Univerriiy of Kansas Humanisiie Studies [XH

Much could be said in favor of state as opposed to federal
lation in this field. But now that the federal government has
enacted a rural credit law primarily for the ben^t of landowners,
there is scarcely any need for the states to concern themselves
further with legislation of this kind once they have revised obnox-
ious laws pertaining to land. The new federal law will undoubtedly
hasten this reform in state law. While serious criticism may be
directed against its purpose and proposed methods, it will be in-
strumental, nevertheless, in providing a mobile system of land
credit for landowners. It will not, as some have thought, have
any far-reaching eflFect on the welfare of the tenant classes. It
does not strike at the cause of the tenancy problem. The credit
problem of tenants calls for more radical treatment if land-tenure
reform is the goal.

CHAPTER V

Tenancy and Land Tenure Reform

In the sense that its dtLeens were free to become their own
masters, the United States was, during the first centuiy of its
existence, truly a "free oountiy'*. The large supply of unoccupied
land and the adoption of a liberal policy for its settlement gave to
eveiy agriculturist a ready means of independent Kvdihood.
There was, therefore, an approximate equality in opportunity. So
long as these conditions existed, a democracy of equality and
economic independence was natural and inevitable; and ownership
rather than tenancy remained the characteristic form of land
tenure.

But in recent years a change in the form of land tenure has
gradually been making its appearance. The percentage of farms
operated by their owners is, for the United States as a whole,
declining.^* Althou^ this change became apparent long ago in
some of the older states, it is only within the last twenty-five years
that tenancy seems to have made great headway. In some sections
of the country the decline in the percentage of farms operated by
their owners has been nothing short of precipitous. According to
the Thirteenth Census of the United Stales,'^ 0.7 per cent of the
farms in Oklahoma in 1890 were operated by tenants; by 1910 the
percentage had risen to 54.8. In Kansas the percentage of farm
tenancy increased from 16.8 in 1880 to 86.8 in 1910. A similar
increase is recorded for Nebraska during the same period. These
are comparatively new states, where one would expect to find a
high percentage of ownership, but the increase in the number of

74. The general increase in the percentage of farm tenancy, as reported by the
TMrteenih Census of the UniUd StaUs, Vol. V. p. 102, is shown in the following table:

Year Percentage of farms operated

by tenants
18S0 26.6

ISOO 28.4

1900 36.3

1910 37.

76. Vol. V. pp. 125-126.

78

7^ Unwerniy of Kansas Htanamstie Studies [SIS

owned f anns in the less fertile portions of the western coiinties has
not been sufficient to counterbalance the rapid increase in tenancy
in the older sections. In states like Iowa and Illinois, well devd-
oped and long settled, the transition from ownership to tenancy
has steadily advanced until at the present time there are several
counties in which more than one-half the number of farms under
cultivation are operated by tenants. Finally, in Alabama, Arkan-
sas, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, and Texas,
less than one-half the number of cultivable farms are operated by
their owners.

With regard to the number and status of tenants in the South-
western States, the Manly Report of the Commission on Industrial
Relations says:^'

''Tenancy in the Southwestern States is already the prevailing
method of cultivation and is increasing at a very rapid rate. In
1880, Texas had 65,468 tenant familiesv comprising 37.6 per cent
of aU farms in the state. In 1910, tenant farmers had increased
to 219,571, and operated 53 per cent of all farms in the state.
Reckoning on the same ratio of increase that was maintained
between 1900 and 1910, there should be in Texas in the present
year (1915) at least 236,000 tenant farmers. A more intensive
study of the field, however, shows that in eighty-two counties of
the State where tenancy is highest, the average percentage of
tenants will approximate sixty.

"For Oklahoma we have not adequate census figures so far back,
but at the present time the percentage of farm tenancy in the
State is 54.8 and for the 47 counties where the tenancy is highest
the percentage of tenancy is 68.13.

"Tenancy, while inferior in every way to farm ownership from a
social standpoint, is not necessarily an evil if conducted under a
system which protects the tenants and assures cultivation of the
soil under proper and economical methods, but where tenancy
exists under such conditions as are prevalent in the Southwest, its
increase can be regarded only as a menace to the Nation.

"The prevailing system of tenanpy in the Southwest is share-
tenancy, under which the tenant furnishes his own seed, tools, and
teams, and pays to the landlord one-third of the grain and one-
fourth of the cotton. There is, however, a constant tendency to

76. Final Report of 0i$ Commission on Induslriai Relations, pp. 127-131.

ei7] Putnam: The Land Credit Problem 75

increase the landlord's share, through the payment either of cash
bonuses or of a higher percentage of the product. Under this
$ystem tenants as a class earn only a bare living through the work
of themselves and their entire families. Few of the tenants ever
succeed in laying by a surplus. On the contrary, their experiences
are so discouraging that they move from one farm to the next in
the constant hope of being able to better their condition. Without
the labor of the entire family the tenant farmer is helpless. As a
result, not only is his wife prematurely broken down, but the
children remain uneducated and without the hope of any condition
better than that of their parents. The tenants having no interest
in the results beyond the crops of a single year, the soil is being
rapidly exhausted, and the conditions therefore tend to become
steadily worse. Even at present a very large proportion of the
tenants' families are insufficiently clothed, badly housed, and
underfed. Practically all of the white tenants are native born. As
a result of these conditions, however, they are deteriorating
rapidly, each generation being less efficient and more hopeless than
the one preceding.

"A very large proportion of the tenants are hopelessly in debt
and are charged exorbitant rates of interest. Over ninety-five per
cent of the tenants borrow from some source, and about seventy-
five per cent borrow regularly year after year. The average in-
terest rate on all farm loans is 10 per cent, while small tenants in
Texas pay 15 per cent or more. In Oklahoma the conditions are
even worse, in spite of the enactment of laws against usury.
Furthermore, over eighty per cent of the tenants are regularly in
debt to the stores from which they secure their supplies, and pay
exorbitantly for this credit. The average rate of interest on store
credit is conservatively put at W per cent and in many cases
ranges as high as 60 per cent.

''The leases are largely in the form of oral contracts which run
for only one year and which make no provision for compensation
to the tenant for any improvements which may be made upon the
property. As a result, tenants are restrained from making im-
provements and in many cases do not properly provide for the
upkeep of the property.

'* Furthermore, the tenants are in some instances the victims
of oppression on the part of landlords. This oppression takes the

76 Unwerniy of Kansas HunuLnutie Studies [£18

form of dictation of character and amount of crops, eviction with-
out due notice, and discrimination because of personal and politi-
cal convictions. The existing law provides no recourse against
such abuses.

''As a result both of the evils inherent in the tenant system and
of the occasional oppression by landlords, a state of acute unrest
is developing among the tenants and there are dear indications of
the beginning of organized resistance which may result in dvil
disturbances of a serious character.

''The situation is being accentuated by the increasing tendency
of the landlords to move to the towns and dties, relieving them-
sdves not only from all productive labor but from direct respon-
sibility for the conditions which develop. Furthermore, as a result
of the increasing expenses inddent to urban life, there is a marked
tendency to demand from the tenant a greater share of the products
of his labor.

"The responsibility for the existing conditions rests not upon
the landlords, but upon the system itself. The prindpal causes
are to be found in the ^stem of short leases, the ^stem <rf private
credit at exorbitant rates, the lack of a proper ^stem of maiketing,
the absence of educational facilities, and last, but not least, the
prevalence of land speculation.

"A new factor is being introduced into the agricultural situation
through the devdopment of huge estates, owned by corporations
and operated by salaried managers upon a purdy industrial ^stem.
The labor conditions on such estates are subject to grave criticism.
The wages are extremely low, 80 cents per day being the prevailing
rate on one large estate which was thoroughly investigated; arbi-
trary deductions from wages are made for various purposes; and a
considerable part of the wages themsdves are paid in the form of
coupons, which are, in all essential particulars, the same as the
'script' which has been the source of such great abuse. Further-
more, the communities existing on these large estates are subject
to the complete control of the land-owning corporation which may
regulate the lives of citizens to almost any extent. There is an
apparent tendency toward the increase of these large estates and
the greatest abuses may be expected if they are allowed to develop
unchecked".

gl9] Putnam: The Land Credit Problem 77

There are a number of factors that have contributed to the
growth of farm tenancy. In a particuhur community tenancy may
be due to backward educational facilities, to pure inertia on the
part of the rural cUsses* or to a preponderance of foreign-bom
farmers in the rural population. Or it may be due to the fact that
the prevailing type of agriculture lends itself readily to a system of
tenant farming. The tenant is seldom equipped for cultivating a
large farm intensively. He can cultivate a large farm extensively
or a small farm intensively. In the grain-growing sections of the
liiddle West, for instance, where the sise of the farm unit is large
and where esctensive methods of cultivation are still possible,
tenancy has increased rapidly. In the South, tenanqr grew out
of the agricultural disorganization following the emancipation of
the slaves and the breaking up of the large estates shortly after
the Civil War.

But the primary cause of the general increase in farm tenancy
lies in the fact that land values have risen. The young man who
aspires to land ownership can no longer depend upon the generosity
of the federal government. On the contrary, if he has only his
hands to work with, he is obliged to spend a number of years in
apprenticeship, either as a farm tenant or laborer, in order to
acquire sufficient capital from his earnings to become his own
master. In spite of natural handicaps many succeed eventually
in acquiring farms, but owing to the continued rise in land values
the possibility of acquiring land from its earnings in the course of
a natural life time is gradually becoming more remote.

The dose correspondence between land values and the percent-
age of tenancy in the North Central States, as reported by the
Thirteenth Cenetis of the Untied States J' is shown in the table on
the following page.

The ratio between the value of land and the percentage of farm
tenancy is not comparable in all of these states for the reason that
th^ are not uniform in character. Yet in certain contiguous
states such as Kansas and Nebraska, Iowa and Illinois, where
agricultural conditions are very similar, or in contiguous counties
within a stat^ the ratio of land values to tenancy is fairiy constant.
In the Southern States, where land values are much lower and the
percentage of tenancy much higher, the ratio, while not comparable

77. Vol. V. table 22. p. 122 end table 80. p. 80.

78

University of Kansas Humanistic Studies

[gSO

State

age of
tenancy

Averace

value of

land per

acre

TTaninui

36.8
38.2
24.6
14.3
21.0
37.8
29.9
41.4
13.9
16.0
30.0
28.4

$35.60

Nebraska

41.84

flouth T>akota

34.70

N^oHh Dakota

26.70

Minnesota

37.00

Iowa

83.00

Missouri

41.76

TlllnolM

94.90

winr-onffln

43.30

Michigan

32.00

Indiana

62.00

Ohio

63.30

to that obtaining in the Northern States, is nevertheless sufficiently
uniform from county to county to justify the conclusion that rising
land values have been largely responsible for the general increase
in tenancy.

If the rise in the value of land had been proportionate to the
increase in its productive capacity, it is not likely that tenancy
would have increased so rapidly. But at the present time the
value of land is speculative. Owing to the exhaustion of the supply
of free land and the rapid rise in the prices of farm products during
the last fifteen years, there has been a growing confidence in the
minds of farmers that the ownership of land is equivalent to the
certainty of an unearned increment. All classes indeed have con-
tributed to the speculative spirit. The prosperous landowner, on
realizing a surplus from his farming operations, has found it more
profitable to invest his funds in additional land than to attempt to
increase the productivity of the land he already possessed. Like-
wise, merchants, bankers, and private investors, equally aware of
the possibilities attached to land ownership, have discovered in
land acquisition a pleasant and profitable avocation. Much of the
land so acquired has naturally been turned over to tenants (many
of whom are wholly incompetent) for a cash rental insufficient in
some cases to meet the annual tax levy.

The result of this speculative activity has been to raise the value
of land far above any investment valuation that could be made on
the basis of present productive capacity. Land which yields a
cash rent of $8 per acre may sell for considerably more than $100.

gfSl] Putnam: The Land Credit Problem 79

When the cost of borrowing on farm mortgage security is from 6
to 7 per cent, the natural return from the land is less than one-half
the expenses that would be incurred by the prospective purchaser.

That it is more profitable for the man with small capital to rent
a farm than to buy one has been clearly demonstrated by investi-
gations of the federal Department of Agriculture.^* In the summer
of 1911, the Department made a farm-management survey of cer-
tain districts in Indiana, Illinois, and Iowa. On two hundred
and seventy-three farms operated by their owners, it was found
that after deducting 5 per cent interest on the capital invested the
operators received an average labor income of $408. On two
hundred and forty-seven rented farms, tenants received an average
labor income of $870, and landlords an average interest rate of 8^^
per cent on their invested capital. Where the owners who culti-
vated their own farms were allowed 3)^ per cent interest on their
investment instead of 5 per cent, they received approximately the
same labor income as tenants. " One farmer out of every three paid
for the privilege of working his farm",^* expecting to recover his
current loss from the natural rise in the value of land.

Thus land speculation, even though the land be cultivated, has
given rise to a ratio between farm earnings and expenses extremely
unfaivorable to ownership by the actual cultivator. So long as
this ratio continues, tenancy may be expected to go on increasing.
The period of apprenticeship which the man of small means must
serve as a tenant must continue steadily to grow longer. This is
a situation not to be viewed with complacency. Face to face with
the prospect of life-long tenancy, the young farmer of ambition
and enterprise is likely to abandon the occupation of farming for
the higher money wages and more attractive social life of the city.
The gradual decline in the population of many rural communities
bears witness to the strength of this tendency. The most vigorous
blood has been irreparably lost. Those who have remained on the
soil without the vision of economic independence have fallen
victims to an enervating environment. Already, there has devel-
oped a type of American tenant not far removed in intelligence and
mode of living from the level of European peasantry.

Moreover, as a system, farm tenancy is wasteful. The tenant

78. See BuUetin No. V . United States Department of Agriculture, 1914, pp. 9-12.

79. /M4.. p. 10.

80 UniversUy of Kansas Humanistie Studies [Stt

depletes the soil, neglects the maintenance of farm buildings, and
manifests little interest in the application of scientific principles
to agriculture. Having no permanent ties to the conununity in
which he lives, he is unconcerned with the betterment of roads, the
improvement of educational facilities, or the development of a
wholesome community life. These landmarks of tenancy are not
easily destroyed.

Finally, experience has shown that a system of tenant farming
gives rise to endless friction between the tenant and landowning
classes. Sooner or later absentee landlordism becomes the rule.
The relation between owner and tenant becomes what Cariyle
would have called a '^cash nexus'*, necessitating continual and
unfriendly adjustment. These conditions militate strongly against
the spirit of American institutions. Concurrently with the growth
of absentee landlordism, rural population is divided into classes,
landlords and landless, and there arises an inequality in opportu-
nity directly opposed to a democracy of equality and independence.

In a democracy, then, the ideal form of land tenure is ownership.
Opportunity to acquire and the right to possess hold for the young
man a certain magic which makes for initiative, independence,
and dtiz^iship. Unlike the farm tenant, the cultivator who owns
his own farm is interested in the welfare of his community and the
maintenance of property rights. The contrast is tersely expressed
in the well-known sentiment, '* Any man would die for a home, but
who would die for a boarding house?" Even socialists, strong in
their advocacy of collective ownership of all the instruments of
production, find difficulty in arguing out of existence the social
advantages to be derived from a system of limited holdings.
Indeed, in some of the writings of modem socialists there is a
tendenpy to withdraw from the old extreme position and to grant
the desirability of small land proprietors. Only through some
such concession in doctrine can the socialist appeal arouse any
interest among the millions of small farm owners.

Private ownership of agricultural land, where the land is held
as the property of the cultivator, does not give rise to great in-
equality. On the contrary, it fosters that spirit of equality and
independence so essential to the welfare and content of the rural
classes. In short, landowners who cultivate their own farms are
the best type of agricultural workers. like Jefferson's '^cultiva-

ggS] Putnam: The Land Credit Problem 81

tors of the earth ", they "are the most valuable citizens. They are
the most vigorous, the most independent, the most virtuous, and
they are tied to their country and wedded to its liberty and in-
terests by the most lasting bonds".*®

There are various ways of attacking the tenancy problem in a
democracy. One of the simplest devices for this purpose is the tax
weapon. If a special tax, say one per cent, were imposed on land
not operated by the owner, it would check the growth of absentee
landlordism. If, in addition, a progressive tax were imposed on all
holdings above a certain minimum value, it would tend to dis-
courage land speculation — one of the primary causes of farm
tenancy. There seems to be a strong need for such taxes. For
although absentee landlordism has not yet become a positive
menace to the democracy of rural life, the speculative character of
land values is indicative evidence that the problem will soon
emerge. So long as the value of land continues to rise, the owners
of large estates will be extremely loath to part with their holdings.
And if, perchance, they find the acquisition of additional land to
be a burdensome investment in their own generation, they are
wont to derive abundant consolation from the assurance that their
children will have the benefit of an unearned increment and suffi-
cient soil to support a healthy family tree! Large farms so be-
queathed are not likely to be cultivated by the beneficiaries.

Concentration in land ownership has already assumed large
proportions. In 1905, the Public Lands Commission reported that
"nearly everywhere the large landowner has succeeded in monop-
olizing the best tracts, whether of timber or agricultural land".*^
In 1915 the Commission on Industrial Relations reported that
"the farms of 1,000 acres and over, * * * valued at two and one-
third billion dollars, comprise 19 per cent of all the farm lands of
the country and are held by less than one per cent of the farm
owners".^ Another investigator has declared that "the drift
toward concentration of landownership is alarming; already 5 per
cent of the total area of the United States is owned by less than

80. The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, (Ford ed.) Vol. IV, p. 88.

81. Sen. Doc. 154. 68 Cong., 3 Sees., p. 14.

82. Final Report of the Commission on Industrial Relations, p. 36.

8S Univeraity of Kanacts Humanistic Studies [SH

2,000 persons. The holding of lands for speculative purposes has
become an evil of menacing proportions".^

A progressive land tax together with a special tax on absentees
would, if properly administered, have a remedial effect on the
tenancy problem. By discouraging concentration in holdings and
by reducing the speculative value of farm lands, it would tend to
readjust the ratio between farm earnings and expenses so that the
ownership of land would not be beyond the reach of the actual
cultivator. But it is highly improbable that any such measures
could be effectively carried out in this countiy . The use of the tax
weapon for the purpose of social or economic reform has always
been attended with difficulties well-nigh insuperable. If it is im-
posed expressly for the purpose of breaking up large estates, it may
easily be evaded. Moreover, it could be imposed in the United
States only by the state governments, which, in the past, have
shown themselves utterly incompetent to cope with the problems
involved in the administration of simple property taxes. Under
these conditions it would be futile to hope for a general application
of the tax remedy or, if it were applied, to expect the states to
accomplish any practical or desirable results.

One of the most drastic proposals that has been made for dealing
with tenancy and related problems is that the state, as the guardian
of its citizens, should enter extensively into the business of acquir-
ing land and, as the sole landowner, should reduce all farmers to
the status of tenants. The advocates of this plan claim, among
other things, that it would overcome the vexatious relations that
are likely to arise between the farm tenant and the private land-
owner. Others who have not completely lost faith in the institu-
tion of private property would offer a variant and less radical
proposal; in effect, that the state should lease the land so acquired
in small holdings to cultivators on terms that would render ultimate
ownership possible.

The latter method was adopted in a small way in Great Britain
in 1908 with the passage of the Small Holdings and Allotments
Act.^ In that countiy the value of land has come to be excessive
on account of the social position which ownership affords, and

83. Oharlfis W. Holman: Marketing and Farm Credits, p. 321. A collection of
IMipera read at the third annual session of The National Conference on Marketing
and Farm Credits.

84. For a fuller discussion of the provisions of this act and the effects of Its
operatton, see Herrlek and Ingalls, Rural Credits, pp. 148-151.

Sgg\ Putnam: The Land Credii Problem 83

tenancy has long been the characteristic form of land tenure.
According to the terms of the Act, designed partly to mitigate the
tenancy evil, the government is authorized to acquire, under cer-
tain conditions, that portion of any farm in England or Wales in
excess of fifty acres and to sell or lease it to a farmer or laborer who
desires land for the purpose of cultivation. If the owner and the
government can not agree as to what constitutes a fair price for the
land, the government may acquire control of it compulsorily.

The efifect of this drastic measure has been to make the owner-
ship of large estates less attractive by actually destroying a certain
portion of their capital value. Several members of the peerage
have been intimidated into converting their ancestral estates into
cash lest the government should adopt even more stringent meas^
ures looking toward complete land nationalization. Incidentally,
the outlook of the British tenant has been substantially improved.
From year to year there has been a steady increase in the number
of small holdings. Up to 1918, 154,977 acres had been acquired
either by purchase or lease for the benefit of the small cultivator.

This piece of legislation was not the first of its kind to be passed
by the British government. It was merely an adaptation of the
drastic principles that had been successf uUy employed for a num-
ber of years in landlord-ridden Ireland, a oountiy whose history is
essentially one of a land struggle. For many generations the Irish
peasantry were steeped in miseiy and poverty due to the prevailing
system of lai^ estates and absenteeism. The greater the thrift and
industry of the tenant classes the more burdensome their rental
obligations became. In years of agricultural prosperity it was the
practice of landlords to ruse the occupiers* rent, while in adverse
years the rental payments fell into arrears. In the years of irreg-
ular crop production following the potato famine, the estrange-
ment in the relations between landlords and tenants became acute.
Discontent grew into open revolt, the property of landlords was
wantonly destroyed, while the rent collectors and eviction bailiffs
met with organized resistance from the peasantry.

It was out of these distressing conditions that the Irish land
policy arose. "^ In 1870, Gladstone's first land act was passed. It
was the earliest definite attempt to deal with the grievances of the

85. UnleM othenrloe Indicated the facts In regard to the Irish land-parchaae
legialatian have been drawn from C. F. Bastable's artkde, r^ IrUh Land PurchoM
Act of 190S, Quarterly Journal of EconomiCM, Not., 1908, pp. 1-21.

8i University of Kansas Humanistic Studies [SS6

Irish tenant. It sought not only to provide for an amicable ad-
justment of the relations between landlord and tenant but also to
facilitate the sale of land to tenants. Owing, however, to con-
tinued agricultural depression the act failed to accomplish the
purpose for which it was intended and further remedial legislation
was demanded. This demand was partly met by the act of 1881.
It provided especially for "fixity of tenure", a "fair rent", the
right of "free sale" of the tenants' interest in rented land, and
created a special commission to determine the "fair rent" of the
tenants' holdings. It was essentially a rent-fixing act the imme-
diate effect of which was to cause a reduction of more than 20 per
cent in the average rentals. But its purchase clauses were un-
successful and numerous amendments were subsequently made in
order to facilitate the transfer of land from landlords to tenants.

The operation of these laws greatly improved the status of the
Irish tenants. By 1903 a large portion of the land in Ireland was
either owned by the actual cultivators or was held by them at
fixed rents. But there was still much dissatisfaction. Landlords,
knowing that their proprietorship had been rendered insecure*
were desirous of selling their estates,and they were confronted with
the obvious difficulty that the only possible purchasers were ten-
ants of limited means. The tenants, moreover, were discontented
because they were not always able to acquire complete control of
their holdings.

Accordingly, the interests of these two classes were joined by
the Irish Land Purchase Act of 1908. This legislation marked the
climax in the evolution of the Irish land-tenure reform policy. It
was essentially a land-purchase rather than a rent-fixing act. It
reconstructed the Land Commission which had been created in
1881 and gave it authority to purchase land with government fimds,
for resale to tenants, when the owners voluntarily agreed to sell
at an estimated price. But the most important method of effect-
ing a transfer of land was by direct agreement between landlord
and tenants for the sale of a whole estate. Here the parties con-
cerned were to agree on a price to be paid the landlord; that is,
tliey were to agree to a reduction of the tenants' rent on which the
price of land is based. Rents fixed before 1896 were to be reduced
at least 20 and not more than 40 per cent before transfer could be
sanctioned; rents fixed after that date were to be reduced between

iB^] Putnam: The Land Credit Problem 86

10 and 30 per cent. The Estates Commission — ^an administrative
branch of the Land Commission — was required to accept any
agreement between landlord and tenants which satisfied these con-
ditions as to reduction. It could, if adequate reason were shown,
sanction sales outside the limits of these maxima and minima
reductions. Furthermore, it could acquire lands compulsorily if
its offers to purchase were refused.

This legislation and its amendments necessarily involved the
credit of the British government. Landowners were to receive
payment for their lands in cash, the amount being determined by
the annuity which the purchaser agreed to pay. In addition^
those who sold their entire estates were to receive a cash bonus of
12 per cent of the purchase price. Funds for these purposes were
to be obtained for the most part by the issue of British government
stock bearing 2^ per cent interest. In short, the government
virtually forced the landowners to sell their estates and advanced
100 per cent of the purchase price (repayable in instalments) to
tenant purchasers. In 1909 the purchaser's annuity was fixed at
3^ per cent and the period for the extinction of a loan at 68^
years.^

Naturally, the Irish land-purchase policy has been severely
criticized. Its critics have condemned it as paternalistic. They
have contended that it would tend to destroy individualism and
personal initiative. But in view of the results already accomplish-
ed such criticism is unjust and unwarranted. The magic of prop-
erty has given the Irish peasant a new incentive. His industry has
increased, the appearance of homes and farm buildings has greatly
improved, and the disorder which formerly existed on account of
landlord and tenant relations has practically disappeared. In 1915
over 450,000 farmers owned their homes representing two-thirds of
all the land in Ireland, whereas in 1876 over half of the land was
owned by about 700 men.^ This transformation has been effected
only because an opportunity for self-help and economic indepen-
dence was offered.

Nearly every European government lends its credit in some
form or other for the purpose of helping the poorer classes to help
themselves. In Norway, a most interesting and suggestive ex-

86. Herrick and IngaUs: Rural Credits, p. 157.

87. Charles W. Holman: Marketing and Farm Credits, p. 317.

86 University of Kansas Humanistic Sivdies [X£8

periment in state aid to land purchasers has been on trial since
1903. In that year the Norwegian Parliament established the
Norwegian Bank for Laborers' Holdings and Dwellings to provide
needy laborers or farmers with capital for the purchase of land or
the erection of buildings.*® The main purpose underlying the
adoption of this program was to retard the continuous movement
of the rural population to the cities. Furthermore, two-thirds of
the cultivated farms in Norway were of a size which required the
employment of paid laborers. It was thought that by encouraging
agricultural laborers to become the owners of their own home-
steads a larger supply of labor would be available for the country
districts.

The capital of the bank is supplied out of government funds.
In 1912 it amounted to $2,680,000. Its directors are the directors
of the Norwegian Mortgage Bank at Christiania and its manage-
ment is under the supervision of the minister of finance. Loans
may be granted for two purposes — either for the purchase of small
farms or for the erection or purchase of laborers' dwellings. A
small farm is one of not less than 1.24 acres nor more than 4.94
acres of cultivated land, the value of which does not exceed $804.
Loans for the purchase of such holdings are made by the bank to
applicants who are Norwegian citizens, who have not previously
owned rural real estate, who are capable of cultivating the land,
and who do not own property valued at more than $402. The
maximum loan is limited to nine-tenths of the appraised value of
the property to be purchased. It may be made directly to an in-
dividual with the guaranty of his commune, or the bank may
advance the money to a commune for the purchase and subdivision
of land into allotments for laborers' dwdlings. The maximum rate
of interest on these loans is 8^ per cent. They run for terms of
forty-two years and the repayment of the principal need not begin
until the sixth year.

Loans for the erection or purchase of laborers' dwellings are
granted under the same general conditions either to individuals
of ''moderate means" or to building societies and communes. In
all cases they are secured by the tax power of the commune. The
land on which the laborer's house is to be located must not exceed

SS. For filler details in regard to the operation of this system see Bulletin of ih$
UniUd suae* Bureau of Labor StaHeHce, No. 158, pp. 889-4fol.

££9], Putnam: The Land Credit ProUem 87

l,M acres nor must the combined value of house and land exceed
$1»S40 in towns or $804 in the country. Loans of this type bear
4 per cent interest. Th^ are drawn for terms of twenty-eight
years and repayment of the principal begins after the second year.
All loans whether for the purchase of small holdings or the erection
of dwellings may be repaid at any time by the borrower.

The bank may increase its loanable funds, if insuflSdenty by
issuing bonds so long as the outstanding issues do not exceed six
times its capital. The bonds bear an interest rate determined by
the bank directors. They run for periods varying from thirty to
eighty years and are withdrawn gradually by lot. The bonds as
well as the loans authorized by the bank are guaranteed by the
state. Up to June 80, 1918, the bank had placed £0,600 guaranteed
loans, of which 18,140 were for the purchase of land holdings and
9,460 for the erection of dwellings. The total outstanding loans
amounted to about $8,576,000. From the time of the bank^s
organization, 174 foreclosure sales had been made but with
scarcely any loss to the state.

Other notable experiments in state aid to agricultural and»
directly or indirectly, to industrial workers are in operation in
Denmark and the Australian States. With regard to the Danish
system, the federal Department of Labor has given the following
account :••

"The special advantages which have existed in Denmark for the
small peasant proprietors since 1899 are of great interest and im-
portance in the agricultural development of Denmark. A series
of laws beginning with that of March £4, 1899, furnished to rural and
urban laborers of small means State funds with which to purchase
small holdings. Each law was passed for a term of only five years,
but so beneficial were the results that no law failed of reenactment.
The most recent law now in force is that of June, 1914, which is to
continue in force for three years.

'* According to this law workmen and other persons of small
means between 25 and 50 years of age who are citizens of Denmark
may secure a State loan to aid in the purchase of a small holding
(£.7 to 10.9 acres) not to exceed 5,000 crowns ($1,840) in value;
the total amount loanable, however, is only nine-tenths of above,
the borrower being compelled to supply one-tenth of the purchase

89. Bulhtin of the United States Bureau of Labor StatUtice, No. 16S. pp. 123-124.

88 University of Kansas Humanistic Studies [IMO

price. The borrower pays interest at 3 per cent plus a payment on
the principal to make a total payment of 4 per cent a year of the
total sum loaned.

'"The amounts appropriated under each act in each of the five-
year periods to which the act applied are as follows: Act of 1899,
$3,685,000; act of 1904, $4,020,000; act of 1909, $5,360,000; act
of 1914 (3 years), $4,020,000.

"These laws have had very beneficial results. The total num-
ber of peasant proprietors who, by the assistance of the State
fund, became owners of their properties from 1900 to March 31,
1914, was 7,117. The State has loaned in all approximately
33,634,000 crowns ($9,013,912). That the state has been success-
ful in encouraging the younger farmers to establish themselves as
owners is shown by the fact that 3,895 (71.6 per cent) of the 5,441
borrowers concerning whom information is available, up to 1911,
were between the ages of 25 and 40, and 1,274 (23.4 per cent) were
from 40 to 50 years of age. Over four-fifths (82.2 per cent) of the
purchasers of properties were married. Day laborers made up
72.7 per cent, agricultural laborers and domestic servants 9.7 per
cent, and other occupations not specified 17.6 per cent.

"The average size of holding purchased was 3.16 hectares (7.81
acres) under the law of 1899, but since 1904 there has been a grad-
ual increase in the size of the farm purchased. Thus under the act
of 1909 the average size was 4.22 hectares (10.42 acres).

"The total losses have amounted to only 10,000 crowns

($2,680)."

In the United States, the problem of tenancy is not so different
from the problem in other countries as to warrant a weak or
laissez-faire policy. Fundamentally, it is a rural problem. While
there has also been a steady increase in tenancy among urban
workers, the increase has been partly due to the persistent move-
ment of the rural population toward industrial centers — ^that is,
tenancy in the city is deemed preferable to tenancy and isolation
in the countiy. The problem of checking this rural movement is,
first of all, a problem of land credit. An effective land-purchase
act would not only brighten the prospects of the agricultural
laborer and the farm tenant, but, in so far as it succeeded in pro-

231] Putnam: The Land Credit Problem 89

moling home ownership among the rural classes, would also lessen
the pressure of population in industrial centers and strengthen
the bargaining power of industrial workers.

Unfortunately, too little has been accomplished in this countiy
toward making the conditions of rural life more attractive to the
younger generation of farmers. It was with this end in view that
the rural credit movement originated. But most of the land
credit legislation enacted during the past three years for the benefit
of the landless farmer is of an exceedingly doubtful character. It
is based for the most part on a popular belief that the general in-
crease in farm tenancy is to be attributed to a defective land
credit system and that a material reduction in the rate of interest
to all farmers would enable farm tenants to become their own
masters.

The probable effect of such legislation on the tenancy problem
seems entirely to have been overlooked. While it is undoubtedly
true that the adoption of a land credit system providing for a low
rate of interest and a longer term of loans repayable by amortiza-
tion would enable a man of small means eventually to become a
landowner, (true amortization as a method of repaying the prin-
cipal literally compels the borrower to save) it does not follow that
farms thus acquired would be farms of profitable size or that the
percentage of farm tenancy would decline. After all, there is an
intimate relation between the value of land and the current rate
of interest. However strained that relation may become, the value
of land is certain to rise in response to a reduction in the farmer's
rate of interest. Indeed, there is abundant evidence that a lower
rate would only add to the present speculative element in farm
land investments. Recently, there have come to the attention of
the writer a great many cases where prosperous farmers are in-
curring heavy mortgage indebtedness at fairly high interest rates
and acquiring new land, in the belief that direct governmental aid
will enable them ultimately to convert their interest charges to
lower rates and to realize a speculative profit on the land thus
acquired in advance. Manifestly, legislation which promotes the
spirit of land speculation by promising higher land values tends not
only to make it more difficult for a tenant to acquire in the course
of his productive years a farm of the most profitable size, but also
to encourage concentration in ownership, absentee landlordism.

90 University of Kansas Humanistic Studies [SSt

and its concomitant, farm tenancy. In short, the effect of legisla-
tion which seeks to improve the prospects of tenants by redudng
the rate of interest to all farmers may be to accentuate rather than
to mitigate the problem.

If any reform measure is to succeed in reducing the percentage
of farm tenancy in the United States merely by reducing the bor-
rower's rate of interest, the lower rate must be accompanied by
specific limitations on the borrowing power of present landowners.
About the only way in which this could be accomplished without
resorting to "class legislation" would be through the adoption of
a program following out the fundamental principles embodied in
the liberal land policy of the federal government. First of all,
there should be, in any such scheme of reform, a careful limitation
on the amount of long-term credit that could be extended to any
one individual. Some attempts of this kind have already been
made in current legislative measures. The Missouri law provides
that individual loans shall not be in excess of $10,000, and that
applications for loans under $5,000 shall be given administrative
preference. The new Oklahoma law fixes the maximum loan at
$2,000. But even this restriction seems liberal. Certainly, any
larger grant would only encourage land purchasers to indulge in
the same kind of speculative ventures that have characterized
farm land investments for a number of years. Furthermore, an
effective policy would provide that loans be made only for the
pmpose of acquiring land and on condition that the land acquired
be cultivated by the owner as resident for a definite period of years
or until the loan is repaid. These restrictions would virtually, but
not technically, prohibit a utilization of the scheme by present
landowners and private speculators. A reasonable relation might
be maintained between the value of land and its productive capac-
ity; and, with a lower rate of interest, the farm tenant of worthi-
ness and ambition would have better prospects of becoming a
landowner.

Whether the government should adopt the foregoing plan and
make loans directly to landless farmers solely for the puixx>se of
acquiring land, or should itself purchase large tracts of land — as
is the practice of the British government in Ireland — for resale to
tenants on easy terms of. repayment, is a question that can be
decided only in terms of the success of the various experiments as

SS3] Putnam: The Land Credit Problem 91

they are now being conducted. It is probable that the former plan
would be more feasible at the present time although perhaps not
so effective as the latter. But until machineiy has been devised
that will make the landless classes the sole beneficiaries of govern-
ment aid, such aid should be definitely withheld.

Thus far the only piece of American legislation really designed
to promote ownership is the Oklahoma law of 1915. If no difficulty
is experienced in floating the bonds, an almost inexhaustible fund
will be available for Oklahoma tenants at a rate of interest well
below the rate that is current in the state. Much permanent gain
would result from the successful administration of the law. But»
in the opinion of the writer, the problem of land-tenure reform is
one of such magnitude as to be beyond the scope of state legisla-
tion. After all, state legislation on current problems is notoriously
irregular and ineffective. Already the states have shown a dis-
position blindly to attack the land credit problem. In view of the
complex nature of this problem and its intimate relation to the
tenancy problem, a strong national policy seems desirable.

The federal government is in a much stronger position than any
one state to cany through an effective program. It could market
its bonds to better advantage, grant a lower rate of interest to the
landless man, and apply a uniform remedy to a common problem.
Furthermore, the federal government should have precedence in
this field of legislation by virtue of a function it has assumed in the
past. For many years it was a liberal donor of the public lands.
Its policy made for ownership and democrapy. Now that the
supply of free land has been exhausted, a program involving
special aid to the landless man would be a logical continuation of
that policy.

Those who are opposed to this kind of government intervention
need carefully to revise their understanding of the land-tenure
problem. Eventually democrai^ will have its way and it would
be better to attack the tenancy problem in its infancy than to
adopt retributive measures later on. Approximate equality in
opportunity rather than in possessions is the goal. Whether this
means socialism or a compromise regime is immaterial. This much,
however, is certain: to object to a well designed system of govern-
ment aid to land purchase on the ground that it is unnecessary is
to discredit the desirability of democrai^ ; to condemn it as " social-
istic" is equivalent to paying one's compliments to socialism.

CHAPTER VI
The Federal Farm Loan Act

The passage of a land credit measure by the federal government
has at last been accomplished. On July 17, 1916, President Wilson
approved the Federal Farm Loan bill,'^ thereby settling for a time
a question that has given rise to no small amount of legislative in-
terest. During the past four years repeated attempts have been
made to discover a practical formula for constructive land credit
legislation. The merits of various programs have been carefully
estimated and discussed. Now that the mystery surrounding one
of the problems of agricultural finance has been definitely cleared,
and a program of reform finally adopted, it is expected that the
long-term credit facilities of farmers will be improved in no less
degree than the Federal Reserve Act improved the machinery for
granting loans to the commercial classes. Incidentally, the new
law marks the fulfilment of a party platform pledge, a pledge that
was accepted and ardently supported by the President during his
candidacy. .

It would be beyond the scope of the present discussion to deal
with any but the fundamental provisions of the new law. As a
piece of legislation it is exceedingly complicated, and far more
experimental than the Federal Reserve Act from which its inspira-
tion was originally drawn. That measure was intended to reform
a commercial banking system already in existence, while the Fed-
eral Farm Loan Act contemplates the establishment of an indefinite
number of new institutions to supplement, if not to supplant, the
numerous agencies now engaged in the business of making farm
loans. Moreover, in recognition of the experimental nature of any
one plan of reform, and in view of the conflicting notions as to
which plan should be followed, provision is made for the employ-
ment of three distinct programs so that by one means if not by

00. For a chronological history of the bill tee Sen. Doc. 500. 64 Cong., 1 Seas.,
p. 29.

gS6] Putnam: The Land Credit Problem 93

another the law may succeed in accomplishing the definite purpose
for which it was enacted.

In the first place, it provides for the creation of a Federal Farm
Loan Bureau in the Department of the Treasuiy under the imme-
diate supervision of a Federal Farm Loan Board consisting of the
Secretaiy of the Treasuiy and four other members to be appointed
by the President. As soon as practicable after the members of the
Board have been appointed, they are authorized to divide the
country into twelve districts, no one of which may contain a frac-
tional part of any state, and to establish in each district a federal
land bank having a capital stock of not less than $750,000. Shares
will be issued in convenient denominations of $5, and may be pur-
chased by individuak, firms, corporations, and the state or federal
governments. In case any part of the required capital remains
unsubscribed thirty days after the opening of the subscription
books, the Secretary of the Treasuiy is authorized to subscribe
for the balance. Provision is made, however, for the gradual
retirement of the stock hdd by the United States as soon as sub-
scriptions from other sources are found to be adequate.

Beneath this superstructure, the law contemplates the forma-
tion of national farm loan associations. These may be formed in
any federal land bank district, subject to the approval of the
Federal Farm Loan Board and the land bank directors, by ten or
more natural persons who are the owners or are about to become
the owners of land qualified as security for mortgage loans, and
who desire loans in the aggregate of not less than $20,000. An
association thus formed must invest 5 per cent of the amount of
each loan in the stock of the federal land bank within its district. Its
management will be in the hands of a board of five directors who
together with all officers except the secretary-treasurer will serve
without compensation unless the payment of salaries is approved
by the Federal Farm Loan Board. Only borrowers can become
members and while no limit is placed on the number of shares that
one might own in an association, no more than twenty votes may
be cast by a single shareholder.

After an association has received its charter frpm the Federal
Farm Loan Board, it can make long-term loans within its district
up to 50 per cent of the value of farm lands and 20 per cent of the
value of improvements at a rate of interest, including commissions.

94 University of Kanscuf Humanistic Studies [286

not to exceed 6 per cent. Such loans may be made only for the
following purposes; (1) to provide for the purchase of land for
agricultural purposes; (2) to provide "equipment" and "improve-
ments" as defined by the Federal Farm Loan Board; and (Sj to
liquidate mortgage indebtedness existing at the time when the
first national farm loan association is organised in or for the county
containing the mortgaged land. The borrower is required to sub-
scribe for stock in his association*^ up to 5 per cent of the amount
of his loan, to cultivate the land offered as security, and to repay the
principal in annual or semi-annual instalments. After a loan has
been in force for a period of five years, additional payments of |26
or any multiple may be made toward the extinguishment of the
principal on regular instalment dates. The longest term for which
a loan may run b forty years and the size of individual loans may
vary from $100 to $10,000.

On the security of the mortgages purchased from and indorsed
by the national farm loan associations of its district, each land
bank is empowered to issue an equal amount of farm loan bonds,
bearing an interest rate not to exceed 5 per cent, up to twenty
times its capital and surplus. These may be delivered to the asso-
ciation of which the borrower is a member or, at his option, they
may be sold by the land bank for his benefit. In any case he pays
the rate of interest borne by the bonds plus an administrative
charge which can not exceed 1 per cent of the unpaid principal of
hisloan. Inadditionhewillpay, as at present, the cost of apprais-
ing the land and perfecting the title, together with the legal fees
imposed by his state for recording the mortgage, etc

It is on the formation of national farm loan associations that the
internal organization of the land banks is dependent. Until the
stock subsmptions of the associations in a federal land bank dis-
trict have amounted to $100,000, the officers and directors of the
district land bank are to be appointed by the Federal Farm Loan
Board. Thereafter, the board of directors will oons&st of nine
members, six of whom, known as local directors, will be chosen by
and be representative of national farm loan associations. The
remaining three^ known as district directors, will be appointed by
the Federal Farm Loan Board to represent the public interest. No

01. Stock held by borrowen, as well ae the federal land bank stock pnrehaeed
by nattonal fann loan aaMMdatlons, will be retired upon tall payment of iMBe.

9S7] PvJtnam: The Land Credit Problem 96

director in a federal land bank may have any official connection
with any other institution engaged in the business of banking or
in the negotiation of land-mortgage loans.

Some doubt was evidently in the minds of the f ramers of the law
as to whether national farm loan associations would be immediately
formed or, if formed, whether they would be sufficiently numerous
to reach the great mass of borrowers. Since the land bank system
is designed for and largely dependent on the formation of national
farm loan associations, the failure on the part of borrowers to form
the local organizations might defeat the purpose for which the land
banks were established. In anticipation of this contingency the
law provides that if within one year after its passage associations
have not been formed in a given locality and are not likely to be
formed, the Federal Farm Loan Board may in its discretion appoint
banks, trust companies, mortgage companies, or savings institu-
tions incorporated under state laws as agents through which fed-
eral land banks can make farm loans subject to the same conditions
as if they were made through national farm loan associations. Such
agents are empowered to negotiate mortgage loans so long as the
aggregate of the unpaid principal of their outstanding loans does
not exceed ten times their capital and surplus, or until the district
in which they are authorized to operate is adequately served by
national farm loan associations. In the meantime they will be
held liable for the payment of the mortgages they have negotiated
and will receive a small commission for their services.

In order to give further protection to the farm mortgage com-
panies already in existence and to make room for private enter-
prise in the new system, a third possible source of land credit b
contemplated. It is provided that any ten or more natural persons
nuty form a joint-stock land bank, under a federal charter, with
power to make land-mortgage loans and to issue farm loan bonds.
Such banks must have a capital stock of at least $250,000. They
can make mortgage loans and issue farm loan bonds under the
same conditions and restrictions as imposed on federal land banks
with the following exceptions: (1) the territory within which th^
nuty operate is limited to the state where the principal office is
located and to some one contiguous state; (2) loans may be made
on the security of farm land for any purpose and without restrict-
ion as to the amount to be loaned to a single borrower; (8) the

96 UniversUy of Kansas Humanistic Studies [£38

borrower is not required to purchase stock or to cultivate the mort-
gaged land; (4) the rate of interest received on loans or paid on
bonds is not subject to alteration or review by the Federal Farm
Loan Board; (5) the bonds of joint-stock land banks can be issued
only up to fifteen times their capital and surplus; (6) the bonds
must be readily distinguishable from the bonds of federal land
banks.

The powers conferred upon the Federal Farm Loan Board in the
administration of this intricate system are aknost unlimited. Li
addition to those already indicated, the Board has the following
important powers: (1) to exercise general supervisory authority
over federal land banks, national farm loan associations, and joint-
stock land banks; (2) to grant or refuse any specific issue of farm
loan bonds; (8) to regulate the charges imposed on borrowers for
appraisal, determination of title and recording; (4) to alter the
rate of interest charged on loans by federal land banks so as to
secure as much uniformity in rates ais possible; (5) to require fed-
eral land banks to cooperate with one another in the payment of
interest coupons on federal farm loan bonds; (6) to appoint land
bank examiners, land bank appraisers, and a farm loan registrar
for each federal land bank district and to fix their compensation;
(7) to declare the mortgages on farm lands within a state to be
ineligible as a basis for bond issues if after investigation it finds
that the laws of that state afford insufficient protection to the
holders of first mortgages.

An effort is made to give farm loan bonds a high standing as
investment securities. Every series of bonds will be secured by
a like amount of first mortgages^^ on farm lands. In the appraise-
ment of land there is little opportunity for collusion. Before any
mortgage loan is made by a joint-stock or federal land bank it
must first have the approval of local appraisers and the special
appraisers of the federal land bank district. Likewise, when a
land bank applies for the privilege of issuing bonds, the application
must be approved by the proper farm loan registrar with whom
collateral security has been placed in trust. If, after investigation,
the Federal Farm Loan Board finds the collateral unsatisfactory,
it may reject the application or demand additional security.

In the case of bonds issued by federal land banks special security

92. United States bonds may be substituted.

eS9] Pvinam: The Land Credit Problem 97

is o£Fered. The bonds of any one of these banks will be secured by
the capital, reserves, and earnings of all the federal land banks
and by mortgages previously indorsed by agents or by national
farm loan associations within its district. Every mortgage so
pledged will be further secured by the double liability assumed by
borrowers on their stock.*' And in the event that federal land
banks are unable for a time to meet all claims arising on account of
the payment of interest coupons and the redemption of bonds, they
may rely upon federal assistance. That b, the Secretaiy of the
Treasury is authorized, in his discretion, to deposit government
funds with federal land banks and to charge a rate of interest not
exceeding the rate current on other government deposits. The
aggregate of all sums so deposited may not exceed $6,000,000 at
any one time.

In other respects, the bonds of joint-stock and federal land banks
will have similar security^ and will enjoy similar privileges. All
first mortgages executed to land banks and all farm loan bonds
are to be regarded as ''instrumentalities of the Grovemment of the
United States" and as such will be exempt from all federal, state,
municipal, and local taxation. The same exemption applies to the
capital, reserve, and surplus of federal land banks and national
farm loan associations. Farm loan bonds will be lawful invest-
ments for all fiduciaiy and trust funds and may be accepted as
security for all public deposits. They may also be purchased by
member banks of the federal reserve sfystem.

Finally, the law provides that the Secretary of the Treasury may
designate any land bank, federal or joint-stock, as a depositary of
public money, except receipts from customs, and as a financial
agent of the government. This feature of the law is not, like that
already referred to, intended to afford relief to land banks when
temporarily embarrassed, for the deposits permitted under this
section may not be invested in mortgage loans or farm loan bonds.
It is merely a skillful manoeuver to aid in establishing the con-
stitutionality of the law.

03. The law It not dear as to whether those who borrow from acente of fedefal
land hankB will be held doubly liable on their stock. See sections 9 and 16.

94. One possible exception to this statement should be noted. While the law
Imposes double liability on all stock holden In Joint-stock land banks. It makes
no attempt to fix the same liability on shares of federal land bank stock pordiased
by the goyemment or the pubUc, presumably for the reason that these shares will
be retired when the subscriptions of national farm loan associations haTe become
sufident to glye the land banks their requtred capital.

98 University of Kansas Humanistic Studies [2^0

In the evolution of this intricate program the knowledge of
European practice has been a confusing element. From the very
beginning the merits of codperation as exemplified in the land-
schaft system received unanimous recognition. But in view of the
individualistic nature of the American farmer the successful adap-
tation of the cooperative form appeared to be impossible. For
this reason the United States Commission favored a system of
joint-stock banks, patterned somewhat after the joint-stock mort-
gage banks of Germany, with the provision that they be organized
along cooperative lines if desirable; while others, with a less digni-
fied enthusiasm for reform, favored the more expeditious program
of direct government loans.

The present law is obviously designed to reconcile these con-
flicting proposals. It is founded on the strong conviction that
cooperation offers not only the most desirable remedy for the
problem of agricultural finance but also one that is entirely feasible
if supported by federal assistance. Accordingly, liberal aid is pro-
vided and the establishment of the federal land bank system is
assured. Lest this preliminary organization fail to inspire the
development of a cooperative spirit and the formation of national
farm loan associations, federal land banks may still be utilized to
make loans through existing institutions. Finally, the law en-
deavors to provide new machinery for the mobilization of land
credit at the hands of private initiative. This portion of the law
was not contained in the Hollis-Bulkley bill which formed the
basis of the present measure. It was incorporated into the final
draft of the Hollis bill as reported by the Joint Committee on Rural
Credits only at the instance of those committee members who had
served on the United States Commission.

Thus the Federal Farm Loan Act represents a drastic attempt
to solve once and for all the farmer's land credit problem. Its
specific purpose is of a three-fold nature; i, e., to improve current
methods of granting loans, to reduce the waste growing out of
excessive administrative and commission charges, and, so far as
possible, to equalize interest rates on land-mortgage loans. This
is by no means a small program nor can the full effects of its
operation be anticipated. Nevertheless, some of the possibilities
inherent in the measure are worthy of careful inspection.

In the first place, the law rightly provides for a longer term of

HI] Putnam: The Land Credii Problem 99

loans and the repayment of the principal by amortization. This
provision is in conformity with sound land credit principles. It will
obviate a great deal of uncertainty as regards the farmer's rate of
interest and will literally compel the borrower to save. The privi-
lege accorded to borrowers of repaying the principal of their loans
in annual as well as semi-annual instalments is also well taken for
the reason that annual payments will be more convenient for those
engaged in specialized farming. There is, however, one feature of
the amortization plan that does not take account of the peculiari-
ties of the American farmer, namely, the provision that no extra
payment can be made toward the extinguishment of the principal
until the loan has been in force for a period of five years. While
there is some justification on administrative grounds for this
restriction, it will undoubtedly deter a great many borrowers from
liquidating present loans or from borrowing under long-term con-
tracts. As a class, farmers are especially optimistic. They are
accustomed to loans having a maturity of five years and not in-
frequently they expect to extinguish the whole of their principal
before the expiration of that term. Rather than forego the liberal
privileges of repayment now accorded by farm mortgage and life
insurance companies, some borrowers will prefer to pay a slightly
higher rate of interest.

Another feature of the proposed reform which is not likely to
make a strong appeal to the average farmer is the requirement
that before loans are granted by federal land banks, the borrower
must subscribe for stock in a national farm loan association or, if
he borrows through an appointed agent, in the federal land bank
itself. Although he may arrange with the federal land bank to
advance, as a part of his loan, the price of the stock subscription,
the actual cost of appraisal and the determination of title, together
with the legal fees and recording fees imposed by the state in which
his land is located, his power to borrow on the security of land
alone is limited in any case to 47}^ per cent of its value, while his
total liability on account of the ownership of stock may become
52^ per cent. If the experience of one of the so-called co(5perative
land credit companies now attempting to make loans in this man-
ner in the Middle West may be taken as a reliable criterion, it will
require no little effort to induce intelligent farmers to purchase
stock, least of all to assume double liability on their shares.

100 Unwersiiy of Kansas Humanutic Studies [S42

Nor is the additional provision — that the oommissions paid by
federal land banks to agents or national farm loan associations be
deducted from dividends on land bank stock — any material im-
provement over the present system so far as the actual method of
granting loans is concerned. It is meant of course to prevent the
payment of oommissions in advance. But there are numerous
sources from which borrowers can obtain loans up to 50 per cent
of the value of cultivable land, and if the size or term of the loan is
such as to call for the payment of a large commission, the agent
will accept a second mortgage on the land in lieu of cash.

In the second place, no objection can be urged against the well
meant purpose of the law in so far as it is designed to reduce the
cost of borrowing by reducing administrative charges and by giving
greater mobility to funds seeking farm mortgage investment. The
present ^stem of land credit is hic^ily immobile. Owing to obnox-
ious state legislation, backward methods of farming, and the mem-
oiy of the real estate collapse of the nineties, capital is still some-
what distrustful of land-mortgage security. Middlemen are
eveiywhere required to direct a flow of capital to agricultural
channels, and the machineiy which they utilise to bring borrowers
and lenders into contact with one another is altogether uneoonom*
ical and obsolete. This is especially true in the Southern and
Western States where farmers are dependent on foreign capital.
In North Dakota and Oklahoma, for instance, the average rate of
interest received by one hundred and twenty-six American life
insurance companies in 1914 amounted to 5.88 and 5.01 respect-
ively.* According to a recent estimate by the federal Department
of Agriculture, the average annual commission paid by borrowers
in those states amounts to 1.8 per cent.** Such charges add
materially to the borrower's rate of interest. In the Eastern
States, the commission charge is a less important element in the
cost of borrowing because of the large supply of local capital.

The device to be employed in mobilising land credit to better
advantage is the farm loan bond. In principle, bonds issued on the
collective security of farm mortgages are well adapted to this
purpose. Th^ oug^t, as in European countries, to be the means
of drawing capital from centers where it is now redundant to those

05. Su^ra, p. 81.

06. Supra^ p. 38.

g43] Pvinam: The Land Credit Problem 101

agricultural sections where the supply of local capital is inadequate.
Moreover, within a given community they should make a large
quantity of capital ordinarily diverted to other channels available
for agricultural purposes. The only reason why such machinery has
not been utilised more extensively in recent years by farm mortgage
companies is because of the popular distrust manifested toward
unr^Sulated land-mortgage bond issues. Only a few of the strong
companies whose reputation for integrity and conservatism is of
the highest standing have been able to sell debenture bonds.
Owing to the strict federal supervision that will be given to the
land bank system, the diflSculties that would otherwise be encount-
ered in marketing land-mortgage bonds should be la^;ely overcome.

The specific mechanism intended to reduce the administrative
charge will vary in its effects according to the source of credit.
In all cases the yearly charge for conmiission, which is included in
the borrower's rate of interest, b limited to 1 per cent of the unpaid
principal, and other charges made to borrowers on account of
appraisal and the perfection of titles will be regulated by the Fed-
eral Farm Loan Board. When loans are granted by national farm
loan associations or appointed agents of federal land banks, a com-
mission charge of not more than one-half per cent may be retained
by the institution making the loan. The remainder will contribute
to the profits of the federal land bank and may be partly recovered
by borrowers in the form of dividends on stock. The significance of
this arrangement is that those who borrow through national farm
loan associations will pay the lowest possible administrative cost.
They will share not only in the profits of a federal land bank, in
conmion with those who borrow from appointed agents, but also
in the profits of the association to which they belong. Borrowers
from joint-stock land banks will recover no portion of the adminis-
trative charge, unless of course they happen to be stockholders.

Manifestly the framers of the law cherished the hope that
national farm loan associations would be immediately formed; and
there is good reason to believe that nuiny such associations will be
organized in those conmiunities where religious or communal bonds
already exist. Others will undoubtedly follow as soon as the
success of the initial organizations has been established. But
too much should not be expected of these associations. Farm^
as a class are not possessed of a cooperative spirit. They have not

10£ University of Kansas Humanistic Studies [244

yet reached the stage where they will care to have their personal
affairs a matter of common knowledge. Nor has their time become
so valueless that they can afford to devote it gratuitously to the
organization and management of associations from which others
will receive an equal benefit. Under these conditions it is not
likely that the greater economies offered by the national farm loan
association will be sufficiently attractive to good farmers to induce
a majority of them to organize. Certainly, those who live in the
newer sections of the countiy will prefer to borrow from agents of
federal land banks or from institutions conducted solely for profit.

The position that joint-stock land banks will occupy in the new
system is also a matter of some uncertainty. If formed, they
should prove to be attractive sources of credit to those who prefer
to deal with private institutions. Borrowers would not be obliged
to purchase stock, to cultivate their mortgaged land, or to expend
their loans for specific purposes. Nor would there be any restric-
tion on the amount that might be loaned to a single individual.
But in other respects the law imposes such onerous restrictions on
the powers of these banks as to discourage their formation. Why,
for instance, should they not be allowed to operate in more than
two states if they can do so with profit? It is a basic principle with
those institutions that are noted for their conservatism in making
farm loans to operate over an extended territory. The Pearsons-
Taf t Land Credit Company of Chicago has loans outstanding in
eighteen states. '^ The Union Central Life Insurance Company of
Cincinnati has gradually extended its farm loan territory until
it now operates in thirty-four states.'^ Considerations of safety
demand widespread investments. Similar considerations would
demand that an institution having the power to issue farm loan
bonds be allowed to make land-mortgage loans in several states.
It is obvious, therefore, that the rigid limitation on the investment
field of joint-stock land banks will not only detract from the
security of their bonds but it may also prevent the large farm
mortgage companies now operating over a wide territory from
reorganizing under a federal charter.

Another discomforting feature that will be prejudicial to the
reorganization of farm mortgage companies is the requirement that

97. AooordiiLK to a personal letter from Oren E. Taft. president of the company.
08. Annual Report, Dec. 31. 1915. p. 5.

£45] PiUnam: The Land Credit Problem 103

loans made by joint-stock land banks must be approved by the
Federal Farm Loan Board before th^ can be pledged as securi^
for farm loan bonds. In practice this restriction could have but
one effect, namely, that as a matter of prudence joint-stock banks
would not make loans until they had first been approved by the
federal autjiorities. And in the meantime borrowers might seek
the prompt service accorded by other agencies.

It is extremely unfortunate, if private enterprise is to play a
prominent role in the new system, that more leniency was not
shown toward the joint-stock land banks. In other countries they
have been found to be well adapted to the mobilization of land
credit, and, although their earnings are not excessive, capable of
operating profitably in competition with codperative and state
aided ventures. These facts seem to have been appreciated only
in part by the members of the Joint Committee on Rural Credits.
For with a view to equalizing the profits that might be made by fed-
eral and joint-stock land banks they limited the bond issuing power
of joint-stock banks to fifteen times their capital and surplus.**
This action was in virtual recognition of the superior efficiency of
private enterprise when given an equal opportunity. It is incon-
ceivable why the opportunity should have been withheld.

A third purpose of the law is to mobilize land credit so effectually
that interest rates on mortgage loans will be equalized. The equal-
izatibn of these rates, varying from 5.S per cent in New Hampshire
to 9 and 10 per cent in the Southern and Western States*®® is
expected to be a simple matter. Farm loan bonds will be well
secured. Those issued by federal land banks will offer a number of
attractive features not possessed by European land-mortgage
bonds. To make certain that approximate uniformity in interest
rates will be realized, the law fixes the maximum rate to be paid
on bonds at 5 per cent and the highest rate, including commissions,
to be paid by farmers at 6 per cent. As a precautionary provision,
however, the limitation on interest rates is worse than useless.
Either the high rates paid by farmers in the South and West will
be reduced to conform to the legal maximum or investors will be
unwilling to purchase the bonds of land banks operating in those

99. See Report of the Joint Committee on Rural Credits, House Doc. 494, 64 Cong..
1 Sess.. p. 14.

100. Supra, p. 33.

lOi University of Kansas Humanistic Studies [£i6

sections. In view of the abundant security o£Fered by the bonds
of federal land banks the latter possibility seems doubtful.

The successful operation of the law, then, will result in the
equalization of farm mortgage rates. Farmers in the South and
West with inferior security^^^ will be able to borrow on as favorable
terms as the farmers who live in the older agricultural sections.
The demand for a material reduction in the current rate of interest
will have been fully met. But in responding to this ubiquitous
demand, there appears to have been no justification for drastic
action. While it is true that the farmer's rate of interest is higher
than the rate paid by some industrial and commercial corporationsy
the vendors of such comparisons forget that farming as a business
is highly individualistic and is likely to remain so. If the fanner's
rate of interest is excessive it is not because it is higher than the
rate paid by corporate enterprises or by European fanners but
because it is so much higher than the rate received by the ultimate
lender. The difference represents the cost of mobilising land
credit under a wasteful and badly organised system. A more
economical organization rather than an approximate equalization
of rates should have been the goal of remedial legislation.

Serious consequences may follow if the set purpose of the law
is fully realized. A material reduction in the current rate of in-
terest, unaccompanied by careful restrictions on borrowing power,
is opposed to the welfare of the tenant farmer who aspires to land
ownership. The potential effect of lower rates is to promote the
spirit of land speculation, raise the value of land, and only further
the movement toward concentration in ownership. These con-
ditions, in turn, invariably breed farm tenancy and absentee land-
lordism. It is unfortunate that the present law takes so little
account of such contingencies. It contains no definite restriction
thatwill effectively prevent land speculation. Although the borrow-
ers who depend upon the federal land bank system are required to
engage in the cultivation of their mortgaged land and to expend
their loans only for the most specific purposes, residence on the

101. Some would insist that their security is not inferior, on the ground tliat
the land is actually better in many cases than land in Iowa, IllinoiB, and Southern
Wisconsin. But this point of view fails to take any account of the purpose for
which land is used. Crops are the sustaining element in farm loans, where on»*
crop systems are in vogue land is highly speculatiye in value even though it Is
regularly cultivated. ImtU a more diversifled culture has become prevalent In the
South and West, farm lands In those sections will be Inferior as secority for mort-
gage loans no matter what system of land credit Is adopted.

247] Ptdnam: The Land Credit Problem 106

land is not made a condition of borrowing. Moreover, the maxi-
mum loan that can be granted to a sin^e borrower seems much too
large. It should at least have been limited to the amount necessaiy
for the acquisition of a farm of profitable size — a farm that could
be cultivated in a profitable manner by one operator. Finally, it
should be remembered that not one of these restrictions is
imposed on those who borrow from joint-stock land banks.

Perhaps a great deal will depend upon the course that is followed
by the Federal Farm Loan Board in the interpretation of its powers
as to whether or not the land bank system will prove positively
harmful. The law is ambiguous and indefinite on a number of
points. It is not dear, for instance, whether the Board has power
to regulate the rate of interest paid on farm loan bonds.^^ But it
does have power to refuse to authorize any specific issue and it
mi^t exercise that power tacitly on the ground that the rate
borne by the bonds was too high or that the underlying mortgages
represented loans made for speculative purposes. If, therefore,
the Board places a liberal construction on its powers and, in co-
5peration with the land bank directors, rejects a large percentage
of the applications for loans — as is the practice in New Zealand
and Australia where systems of state loans are i;n force — ^the spirit
of land speculation mi^t be kept within present bounds. But the
small borrower is the one who would suffer most from this policy
because he is not usually possessed of unquestionable security. In
either case the system would play into the hands of those land-
owners who are already prosperous.

On the whole the law is a badly disguised attempt to establish
a ^stem of government loans, under the cloak of cooperation,
where government loans are not needed. It is essentially a land

102. Sectton 16 provldec that "joint stock Uoid banks shall not be subject to
the provisions of subsection (b) of section seventeen of this Act as to interest rates
on mort«ige loans or farm loan bonds*'. The subsection ref e rred to gives the
Federal Farm Loan Board power *' to review and alter at its discretion the rate of
Interest to be charged by Federal land banks for loans made 6y [italics are the
author's] them under the provisions of this Act. said rates to be uniform so far as
practicable". Nothing is contained in this subsection relative to the interest rate
on bonds of federal land banks. But subsection (f) of the same section gives the
Board power **to prescribe the form and terms of farm loan bonds": and section
20, dealing with the form of farm loan bonds, says ** they shall have interest coupons
attached, payable semi-annually, and shall be issued in series of not less than
$60,000. the amount and terms to be fixed by the Federal Farm Loan Board". If
by " terms " is meant the rate of interest, the law is contradictory. Such an inter-
pretation would give the Federal Farm Loan Board power to regulate the rate
of interest on bonds of Joint-stock land banks, and section 16 would flatly deny
that power. If the word "terms" is not meant to include the rate of interest,
then a portion of section 16 is meaningless as it attempts to exempt Joint-stock
land banks firom restrictions that are not imposed.

106 Unwermiy of Kansas HunumisUe Studies [§48

owner's measure and one that will prove to be cumbersome and
needlessly expensive in its operation. Federal land bank stock
owned by the government will not sha^re in dividend distributions;
members of the Federal Faim Loan Board will receive an annual
salaiy of $10,000 together with all necessary traveling expenses;
the salaries of the twelve farm loan registrars, the numerous land
bank examiners, the attorneys, experts, assistants, clerks, laborers,
and other employees required to conduct the business of the Board
will likewise be paid by the tax payers. For the sake of simplicity
and economy the problem of supplying landowners with adequate
land credit facilities should have been left entirely to private
initiative, subject in some measure to the same administrative
authority that now supervises the national banking system. Or
if a system of government loans was regarded as the onl^^ desirable
solution of the land credit problem, the so-called McCumber
amendment which passed the Senate in February, 1915, might
well have received more serious consideration. Although defective
both in principle and purpose, it at least offered a plan having the
combined merits of simplicity, economy, and certwity. It would
have utilized to better advantage the institutions already in
existence and, if found to be ill-adapted or grossly defective, could
easily have been abandoned.

After all, there was no necessity for any kind of federal legisla-
tion affecting the land credit problem of landowners. That prob-
lem is of a comparatively simple nature and rightly belonged within
the province of state legislation. There is, however, the more
pressing problem of land credit with which the federal government
should have been deeply concerned, namely, the problem of making
the conditions of country life more attractive to the younger gener-
ation of farmers. In accomplishing this end some form of land-
purchase legislation is needed. In the long run no other course of
action seems capable of checking the growth of tenancy and the
depopulation of rural communities. Doubtless the framers of the
present law were sincere in the belief that by applying one remedy
to a two-fold problem these tendencies would be stayed. But in
reality they seem only to have given a subsidy to present land-
owners, a subsidy that may i^gravate rather than mitigate the
problem of tenancy. It will now remain for the states to attack

£49] PvJtntm: The Land Credit Problem 107

this important problem, as th^ have attacked others, by applying
unlike remedies to a common ill when uniform treatment should
be administered.

■ ■/ , ) J.

llo

t b rv

BULLBTIN OF THE UNIVBRSITY OP KANSAS
Vol.XXn NoYMber 1, 1921 ^'^ No. 17

Psblished Miai-aioathly fron lanwur to Jaii« and aKMthly firom Jaly lo
DMraaber, iaeluivs, by the Uaivwaitr of Eoom*

HUMANISTIC STUDIES

Vol. II, No. 3

INDIAN POLICY AND WESTWARD

EXPANSION

BY
JAMBS G. MAUN, PH. D.

7i# Univ§nify ofKamBOM

LAWRBNCB, NOVBMBBR, 1921

Bntered m MOond«eh»t Matter Deoember 29, 1910, at Aa pottofioa at
Lawranoa, Kaataa, uiidar tba aot of Joly 16, 1894

THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS

GOMMITTBB ON HUMANISTIC 8TUDIB8

FBANK HBYWOOD HODDSM EDWIN MOMTIMBM HOPKISS

FMANK WILSON BLACKMAM ARTHUR TAPPAN WALKEM

SBLDBN LINCOLN WHITCOMB, Biifr

The University of Kansas Humanistic Studies
are offered in exchange for similar publications
by learned societies and by universities and
other academic institutions. All inquiries and
all matter sent in exchange should be ad-
dressed to the Library of the University of
Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas.

Volume I

Number 1. Studies in the Work of CoUey
Cibber, by DeWitt C. Croissant. October, 1912.
Seventy pages. Fifty cents.

Number 2. Studies in BergsorCe Philosophy ^
by Arthur Mitchell. January, 1914. One hun-
dred and fifteen pages. Seventy-five cents.

Number 3. Brovming artd Italian Art and
Artists, by Pearl Hogrefe. May, 1914.
Seventy-seven pages. Fifty cents.

Number 4. The Semantics of -mentum^
'hulum, and --eulum, by Edmund D. Grossman.*
January, 1915. Fifty-six pages. Fifty cents.

Volume II

Number 1. Oriental Diction and Theme in
English Verse, 17J^0'1840, by Edna Osborne.
May, 1916. One hundred and forty-one pages.
Seventy-five cents.

Number 2. The Land Credit Problem^ by
George E. Putnam. December, 1916. One
hundred and seven pages. Seventy-five cents.

Number 8. Indian Policy and Westward
Expaaision, by James C. Malin. November,
1921. One hundred and eight pages. One
dollar.

BULLETIN OP THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS
HUMANISTIC STUDIES

VeL II N§v€mb0r, I92I ATo. 3

Indian Polky and Westward Expansion, by Jamos C MaUn

One Dollar

BULLETIN OF THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS

HUMANISTIC STUDIES

Vol. II November 1, 1921 No. 3

INDIAN POLICY AND WESTWARD

EXPANSION

BY

JAMBS C. MALIN, PH. D

Asiistamt PrrfeMsor •/ Histwy
Tke Umivertify •f Kansas

LAWRBNCB. NOVBMBBR. 1921
PUBU8HBD BY THB UNIVBR81TY

COPYRIGHT 1922

BY
JAMES C. MALIN

^0 tt)e iOemorp

of

iHp iMottrer

PREFACE

This monograph is the outgrowth of a study of the life of
David R. Atchison. Mr. Atchison was for some time chair-
man of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs and the in-
vestigation of his activity on that committee led to a study
of Indian policy in th^e Trans-Mississippi Valley and its
relation to the westward movem^ent. This latter problem,
begun as a phase of Atchison's career in the Senate, de-
veloped into one that is larger and more significant than th^^
original subject. The story here told is the history of the
Indian policy up to the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act
in 1854. It is written as concisely as possible to bring out
the main thesis into clear relief.

This history of Indian policy is of decided importance in
th« general history of the United States in the pre-Civil War
period, but is of special importance in any attempt to write
the history of the West. The purchase and conquest, explo-
ration, fur trade, Indian wars, the Pacific railroad project,
the extension of the frontier, schemes for the civilization
of the Indians, etc., are topics in Western history which are
more or less unrelated in the form in which they have usually
been treated. Indian policy and its relation to westward
expansion now furnish a frame- work upon which the history
of th:e Trans-Mississippi Valley before the Civil War may be
written. The period is given a unity otherwise impossible
and a foundation is laid upon which to base an interpreta-
tion. The fact stands out clearly that the early history of
the Trans-Mississippi Valley is essentially the history of
the relation between the Indian and tbe advancing frontier
placed in proper perspective with all the other related prob-
lems. Thus, it becomes a distinctly new chapter in th^e
history of the West.

The period since 1854 presents a markedly different as-
pect. The dominant theme in the earlier period is Indian
policy, while in the latter it is the expansion of the frontier,
the settlement of the Middle West. Here has been produced

a white civilization which has taken the place of the Indian.
In the process of its evolution it grew with much greater
rapidity than the Indian receded, until it has almost com-
pletely absorbed the remaining remnants of the Indians and
their special problems. The result has been the creation of
a new spirit, a new viewpoint or attitude of mind, something
distinct in itself, which is recognized as "Middle West.'' I
hope later to present the history of this phase of the Indian
problem in another study.

I wish to acknowledge my indebtedness to Professor
Frank H. Hodder, who lias been friend as well as teacher,
and that, whep friendship has been of more value than any
instruction could have been. Professor Frank E. M^elvin
has made helpful criticism and suggestion. My wife has
given invaluable aid in the revision and typing of the manu-
script and in reading the proof.

James C. Malin.

1333 Ohio Street,
Lawrence, Kansas.

CONTENTS

INTBODUCnON

Position of the Indian Country — Time dnrinflr which problem
developed — ^Factors determinin^r Indian policy: Settlement of
the Pacific Coast, Transcontinental lines of communication and
transportation. Westward expansion in the Trans-Mississippi
Valley, Changed condition and civilization of the Indians — ^Three
phases in the development of the problem.

Part One

CONSOLIDATION OF THE INDIANS IN THE

SOUTHWEST, 1880-40

Relation Between Geography, Expansion, and Reloca-
tion of the Indians J5

Original grouping — ^Expansion across mountains into Mississippi
Valley, first wedge, 1770-1830 — General removal west of the
Mississippi River, the spreading of the wedge, 1816-40 — ^Ex-
pansion up the Missouri Valley, 1816-3&— Relocation of west-
em Indians in Indian Country, the spreading of the wedge,
1880-66.

Removal of the Indicms West of the Mississippi River;
First Phase 16

Act of 1830 — General principles of Indian Policy — Cass's seven
point program — Commission of 1832 — ^Legislative program of
1834 — ^Execution of Cass program — Organization of the In-
dian Department — ^Administrative regulations of 1834.

Consolidation of the Indians in the Southwest; Sec-
ond Phase JiS

Growth of the idea — Consolidation in the Southwest and plans
for an Indian State — Indian Department and relocations to 1840
— Commissioner Crawford's report of 1840 and tendencies in
westward expansion — Reasons for selection of the Southwest
for Indian relocations.

Part Two

FACTORS CONTRIBUTING TO THE REVISION OF

THE OLD INDIAN POLICY

Transition in Indian Policy, 1840-48 35

First settlements in Oregon — Oregon Trail, roads and military
posts — Santa Fe Trail and the southwestern commerce — Pur-
chase of right of way for Oregon Trail recommended — ^Organi-
zation of Oregon and Nebraska proposed — ^Effect on Indian
policy.

Development of the Four Great Factors, 1848-54 40

Westward Expansion and Settlement of the Pacific
Coast 41

Summary of early period — Population when organized — Oregon
emigration after 1848 — California emigration after 1848 — Re-
lation to Indian policy.

Westward Expansion and the Pacific Railroad Move-
ment -4^

Routes — Buchanan on the Pacific railroad, 1847 — Ewing on the
Pacific railroad, 1849 — Stuart on the Pacific railroad, 1849 —
Rivalry over routes — Beginnings of two Pacific railroads, Han-
nibal-St. Joseph and the Pacific Railway — Land grants to Mis-
souri railroads — Relation between men and measures.

Westward Expa/nsion and the Organization of Ne-
braska 52

Factors in movement — ^Douglas bill, 1848 — ^Father De Smet's an-
alysis of the situation in 1851 — Consideration of a survey of
Nebraska, 1861 — ^Hall's bills, 1851-52 — ^Legislative program of
the House Committee on Territories, 1862-53, Richardson bill,
Territory of Columbia bill and Road to the Pacific — Discussion
and debates — ^Atchison-Benton contest in Missouri; Status of
Indian title, 1854 — Popular interest in Nebraska; The Kansas-
Nebraska Act.

Changed Living Conditions and Civilization of the
Indians 71

Border tribes — Prairie and Mountain tribes.

Part Three

THE NEW INDIAN POLICY, 1848-1854
Grouping of the Border Tribes 77

Crawford's report,'^ 1841, first statement of policy — Organiza-
tion of Oregon and Nebraska, 1844-45 — Wilkins's Report, 1844,
second statement — Grouping begun, 1840-48 — ^Treaties recom-
mended — Medill's report, 1848, crystallization of new policy —
Indian Department transferred to Department of the Interior —
Orlando Brown's Report, 1849 — Case of Stockbridge Indians,
1849, application of principle — Supt. Mitchell's Report on bor-
der tribes, 1849 — ^Agent Barrow on Pawnees, 1849 — Lea's Re-
port, 1850— Lea's Report, 1851— Mitchell's Report, 1851— Agent
Coffee's Report, 1851.

The PraiHe and Mountain Tribes 90

The Elements in the situation, the prairie, the Indians, the tribal
boundaries, Oregon and California and Santa F^ Trails, emi-
grants and the Indians, emigrants and game supply.

The Northwest Tribes 91

Supt. D. D. Mitchell — Growing discontent — ^Treaty recommended
by Mitchell, 1849— Mitchell's treaty bill, 1850— Laramie Treaty,
1851.

The Southwest Tribes 9Ji>

Santa Fe Trail — Railroad routes — ^Fort Atkinson Treaty, 1853 —
Fitzpatrick's Report on purpose of treaty. Pacific railroad.

Realization of the New Policy; Third Phase 96

Nebraska movement, last phase — Debate on Richardson bill —
Indian title in Nebraska Country — Preliminary negotiations for
extinguishment of Indian title, 1853 — Manypenny's Report, 1853
— Organization recommended — ^Fitzpatrick's Report, 1853 — Op-
ening of Indian Country — Indian title extinguished, Jan.-June^
1854 — Relations of treaties to railroads — Conclusion.

i Bibliography 105

r

MAPS

No. 1. Land to which Indian title had been extinguished by
1833 to provide for removal of tribes from east of the
Mississippi River S5

No. 2. Status of Indian title in Trans-Mississippi Valley

before 1854 56

No. 3. Land to which Indian title was extinguished 5 June,

1854, and the northern and southern groups 102

Indian Policy and Westward

Expansion

iNTBODUCnON

The question of the relation of the government to the
Indian has been ever present throughout the course of
American history. The frontier has been continually en-
croaching on the territory of the Indian, pushing him further
and further west. With each step in the unfolding of this
process new problems have had to be met and worked out.
Sometimes the solutions have followed the lines of least
resistance and sometimes they have followed definitely
planned policy. The problems which presented themselves
in the development of the Trans-Mississippi Valley have been
of more than usual significance. This was because of the
position of the territory in relation to the other states and
territories, because of the critical time during which these
problems arose and because of the character of the forces
and interests demanding action. It is a new departure to
approach the subject of Trans-Mississippi history from the
standpoint of Indian policy, but it can be much better un-
derstood if approached in this way ; that is, from the stand-
point of the territory itself. From this vantage ground the
play of outside forces can be watched as they press for
solution of the problems, each of them interacting not only
on the other, but also on the situation in the territory and
the policy being developed there.

The Indian Country of the Trans-Mississippi Valley has
occupied a peculiar position in American development. By '
the Indian (Country is meant the country west of Arkansas,
Missouri and Iowa, north of the Red River and extending as
far westward as the Rocky Mountains. It was generally un-
derstood that this country was specifically set apart for the

1^ University of Kansas Humanistic Studies [262

habitation of the Indians, even though it crossed and blocked
the natural lines of expansion to the Pacific. Of course this
was not so important at the time the territory was set apart,
but this had scarcely been done when the development of
Oregon began, and then followed the annexation of Texas,
the conquest and opening of California and the southwest.
By this time its location had become a matter of decided
significance. During the early period of Oregon settlement,
the only route to the Pacific, lying wholly within our limits,
was through this Indian Country. The growth of the Span-
ish trade to Santa Fe over the Santa Fe Trail was a contem-
porary movement and was carried on over routes which also
ran through this territory. Then the acquisition of the Span-
ish southwest only served to increase the traffic over these
routes, and make more necesary the framing of definite ar-
rangements regarding the situation. It was an anomolous
situation indeed for a nation to be virtually cut in half ter-
ritorially by the existence of a considerable district set apart
wholly for the occupation of Indians and from which all
white men were excluded, except missionaries and traders
who went in only by special permission. Such an Indian
policy was diametrically opposed to the forces then tending
to a more complete national development. The progress of
these forces could not be stopped and the government Indian
policy must eventually be adjusted to their demands.

The time during which these problems had to be solved
added to the difficulty of the solution. During the earlier
part of the period considered, the question of slavery and
sectional rivalry had not become so acute and at that time
had little influence on the situation. However, by the time
of the annexation of Texas and the settlement of the Oregon
question, sectional rivalry had become one of the dominant
factors in any consideration of measures relating to west-
ward expansion and even threatened to make impossible
any solution of these problems. These difficulties could not
but be reflected in the formulation and execution of Indian
policy.

There are four factors that stand out conspicuously as de-

£63] Malin: Indian Pdiq^ and WesttDardExparmon IS

termining forces in dictating the final policy in the Indian
Country* The first, in point of time, was the movement for «
the settlement of the Pacific Coast. Interest in Oregon de-
veloped earliest, but after the Mexican Cession in 1848 and
the discovery of gold, interest in California superseded it.
Second, the building of adequate lines of conununication and 2
transportation became of great importance. In the begin-
ning the only method considered was by wagon roads, which
must be built for emigrants, mail, express and freight. Later
the railroad and telegraph were perfected and plans were
made to utilize them in solving these problems. It was at
just this time also that the American trade with the Orient
was opened and it was hoped that the Pacific railroad would
place the United States in a most advantageous position in
respect to the development of that trade. Third, the west- 3
ward expansion of population in the Trans-Mississippi
Valley demanded the opening of more country to settle-
ment Lastly, the changes in living conditions of the Indians )
and the problems attending their civilization necessitated
decided modifications in the policy pursued toward these
people. The cumulative effect of these forces must ultimately
bring about the organization of a territorial government
for the Indian Country, in order to open it to white settle-
ment and to make possible a continuous line of settled coun-
try through to the Pacific. The passage of the Kansas-
Nebraska Act in 1864 marks the culmination of this move-
ment, for it made possible the realization of the ends toward
which these forces tended.

The complex character of the forces in process of evolu-
tion during the period from 1830 to 1854 brought about such
great and unexpected expansion and consequent changes in
the lines of internal organization that no single consistent
policy could be followed throughout the whole period. Thi£
does not imply that there was a lack of attention or of policy
on the part of the government. Strictly speaking, policies
were formulated from time to time to fit the new conditions.
Taking the period as a whole, the Indian policy develops
through three phases. The first two phases cover the period

H University of Kansas Humanistic Studies [S6i

to about 1841, and as they are less permanent in character
they will be treated briefly. The first phase is the removal
of the Indians to the region west of the Mississippi River and
the formulation of general principles of policy and ad-
ministration. The second is the evolution of Uie plan of
consolidating the Indians in the southwest of the Indian
Country to allow for westward expansion of the white
population across the northern part. The emphasis, how-
ever, will be placed on the latter part of the period, or third
phase, when a new policy was worked out : one designed to
allow the free development of the progressive factors just
indicated. The purpose of this new policy was to group the
Indian tribes to the north and to the south in the Indian
Country in such a manner that they would not interfere with
westward expansion in the country between the groups. The
natural geographic lines of development, the Platte Valley
and the South Pass, would be made available for the undis-
turbed pasage of the emigrant to the Pacific Coast, for the
building of adequate means of transportation and com-
munication to the Pacific, and for settlement by white men.
This policy determined the relocation of several Indian
tribes and simplified the problem of extinguishing the
Indian title when this part of the Indian Country was finally
organized in 1864.

PART ONE

The Consolidation of the Indians in the

Southwest, 1830-40

GEOGRAPHY, EXPANSION, AND RELOCATION OF INDIANS

The geography of the United States has had the greatest
effect on the determination of the lines of advance of the
American frontier and its relation to the relocation of the
Indians. After crossing the Appalachian Mountain Range
from the east, the natural line of emigration was down the
Tennessee and Ohio valleys. The original grouping of the
Indian tribes into the northern and southern confederacies ^
also favored this, for it was the line of least resistance be-
tween the groups. The advance of the white frontier may be
likened to a wedge driven into the heart of the Indian
Country. The point of this wedge pushed down the Ohio
Valley, reaching the Mississippi River early in the century,
and soon after began a period when this wedge spread north-
ward and southward, crowding the Indians further and fur-
ther apart, until about 1830 a policy of general removal of
all tribes to the territory west of the Mississippi River wasy
determined upon. While this process was going on east of
the river, a second wedge was being driven up the valley of ^
the Missouri River as far as the present western boundary of ,.
the state of Missouri. The spreading of this wedge was
slower because it could not take place until the general re-
moval from east of the Mississippi was pretty well carried
out. But Missouri was the first of these states to be freed
of Indians, this being effected by 1832.^ Iowa was practically
free by 1846.^ The same process was being carried out in

^ Abel. Indian Consolidation, Report of the American Historical Assodatioii*
1906. Vol. 1, p. 396.

' Report of Indian Oommiasioner Medill, 1846. 28. 29 C. Sen. doc. No. 1. pp.
217-219. Pub. doc. No. 493. Cardinal Goodwin. The American Occupation of
Intca. In the Iowa Journal of History and Politics, XVII, pp. 83-103. The Move-
ment of American Settlers into Wisconsin and Minnesota. Ibid. pp. 406-28.

16 University of Kansas Humanistic Studies [^66

the other western states as the pressure of population de-
manded. As these Indian tribes were removed from the
eastern states, new locations had to be provided either by
consolidation on reservations or by removal into the Indian
Country to the west.

■

m

REMOVAL OF INDIANS WEST OF MISSISSIPPI : FIRST PHASE |

It is not, however, the problem of Indian removal in itself j

that is of interest here, but the policy that was followed in (
the relocation of the Indians after they were removed to
their new home west of the Mississippi River, and the pro-
graia for their administration there. When the program of
general removal was first considered, the plans for location
were very vague. The most that can be said is that the
Indians were to be sent to the far west beyond the Mississippi
where they would never be disturbed again. Indeed the
^ plans were so vague that the general act of 1830 providing
. for their removal does not indicate any particular place for
their relocation, but leaves the choice to the discretion of the
President. Section one of the act reads as follows :

"That it shall and may be lawful for the Presi-
dent of the United States to cause so much of any
territory belonging to the United States, west of
the river Mississippi, not included in any state or
organized territory, and to which the Indian title
has been extinguished, as he may judge necessary,
to be divided into a suitable number of districts,
for the reception of such tribes or nations of
Indians as may choose to exchange the lands where
they now reside, and remove there; and to cause
each of said districts to be described by natural or
artificial marks, as to be easily distinguished from
each other."'*

The dominating idea was to move the Indian completely out-
side of the boundaries of all organized states and territories.
Some Indian tribes had already been removed and others
were to be removed as soon as arrangements could be com-
pleted.

« 4 U. 9. Stat'itea, pp. 411-12.

I

1

I

£67] Malin: Indian Pdiq^ and Wedward Expansion 17

The plan of a general removal and consolidation of aU
tribes in one area placed the whole problem of Indian poKcy
and Indian administration in an entirely new light. The
government rather than the Indian had taken the initiative
in the measures for consolidation. The responsibility was
thus definitely placed on the government to formulate a pr^
gram for himdHng Indian problems that would be active
rather than passive, in order to make consolidation a success.
Suggestions from various sources had been presented before
the act of 1830 was passed and soon afterwards a quite de-
finite program was announced. This program was Uie work
of Lewis Cass, who was then Secretary of War, and appears '
in his annual report for the year 1831. These are what he
calls the fundamental principles ' Vhich once adopted, would
constitute the best foundation for our exertions, and the
hopes of the Indians.'' :

I 1. ^'A solemn declaration, similar to that al- ^

I ready inserted in some of the treaties, that the

country assigned to the Indians shall be theirs as
long as they or their descendants may occupy it,
and a corresponding determination that our settle-
ments shall not spread over it. • • .

2. ^'A determination to exclude all ardent spirits
from their new territory. . . .

3. 'The employment of an adequate force in
I their immediate vicinity, and a fixed determination
! to suppress, at all hazards, the slightest attempt at

hostilities among themselves.

I 4. '^Encouragement to the severalty of pro-

perty, and such provision for its security, as their
^ I own regulations do not afford, and as may be neces-

^ I sary for its enjoyment.

: 5. ''Assistance to aU who may require it in open-

I ing farms, and in procuring domestic animals and

\ instruments of agriculture.

^ 6. "Leaving them in employment of their own

i institutions, as far as may be compatible with their

I own safety and ours, and with the great objects of

J their prosperity and improvement.

7. "The eventual employment of persons com-
i I petent to instruct them, as far and as fast as their

i

i

!■

I

18 UrmersUy qf Kansas Humanistic Studies [268

progress may require, and in such manner as may
be most useful to them/'^

The next step was to gather all the information possible
regarding the country west of the Mississippi and the
Indians inhabiting it. To accomplish this three commis-
sioners, William Carroll, Montford Stokes, and Robert Vaux,
were appointed in 1882 'to visit the several tribes west of
the Bfississippi, and to arrange the various interesting and
unsettled questions arising out of the new relations, which
the system of emigration has created/' Their instructions
were dated 14 July and were signed by Secretary Cass. These
instructions show that Cass expected their report to be the
foundation of a really constructive policy. They are as f ol«
lows:

''In the execution of the duty, respecting a plan
for the government and security of the Indians, you
will report in detail, aU the information you can pro-
cure concerning their present and probable future
condition, which can be useful in the determination
of the questions of their government and inter-
course. Your own judgment aided by such informa-
tion as may be afforded you upon the spot, must
guide you in your views of this matter. Its im-
portance is apparent, as on its decision, may rest the
future fate of all these tribes ; and in the great
change we are now urging them to make, it is de-
sirable that all their political relations, as well
among themselves as with us, should be established
upon a permanent basis, beyond the necessity of
any future alteration. Your report upon this branch
of the subject will be laid before Congress, and will
probably become the foundation of a system of
legislation for these Indians.''"

The report of this committee was submitted to Congress in
1834 and was used by the House Committee of Indian Affairs
in drafting their legislative program.
It was in the year 1834 that the first complete legislative

^ Report of Sec. of War, H. doc. No. 2. li. 220. p. 30. Pub. doc. No. 210. Report
of Sec. of War for 1832 glyes additional comment on policy contemplated for the new
Indian Country. H. doc. No. 2. 2ii. 22C. p. 23. Pub. doc. No. 233.

•^Renort of Sec. of War for 1832. H. doc. No. 2. 2i. 22C. pp. 32-37 Pub. doc.
No. 288.

£89] MaUn: Indian PoUcy and Westu)ardExpanrion 19

was presented to Congress for consideration. At that time
Mr. Everett (Vt), who was then chairman of the House^
Conmiittee on Indian Affairs, introduced three bills. The
first provided for the organization of the Indian Department.
The second was an Indian Intercourse bilL The third was a
bill to provide for the organization of a Western (Indian)^
Territory.* This last bill will be considered here. It was
planned to establish this Western Territory between the
Red and Platte rivers west of Arkansas and Missouri. It
was to be set aside for the exclusive use of the Indians in ful-
fillment of the law of 1880. The government of the new ter-
ritory was to be under the direction of the President. The
chief executive power was to be vested in a governor, but the
real powers of government were to be left in the hands of the
tribes. It was contemplated that a confederation of the ^
tribes would be formed and a general council was provided^
for. In case of hostilities among the tribes, the Governor
¥ras given power to suppress them with the aid of the
Indian trib^ or of the United States military power within
program for the organization of Indian affairs in the west
the Territory. Furthermore, the Territory was to be allowed ""
a delegate on the floor of Congress, and eventually it might/
be admitted as a state in the Union. Mr. Everett stated his
position frankly in the debate on the bill on 25 June. He said
at that time, 'The present policy of the government, in re-
spect to the Indians, is to civilize them.'' This bill was de-
feated although its two companion bills were passed.^ Such
a plan as is here outlined would have carried out Cass's pro-
gram of 1831 with remarkable completeness. Although there
may have been serious defects in certain details, it would
have been an epoch-making step in the evolution of Amer-
ican Indian policy.

The two bills that did pass will next be considered in rela-
tion to their contributions to the actual development of
policy. It must be admitted that this plan of pro-

* Cone. Debates. Is. 280. X. Pt. IV. p. 4200. Introduced 20 Mdjt. The report
of the above Committee wm i^ipended to report of House Comm. of Indian Almirs
on fatiL

T Cong. Debates. Is. 250. Pt. IV. pp. 4763-4770.

20 VnwersUy cf Kansas Eum^mistic Studies {S70

cedure was not complete, but the pronuses of the Cass pro-
gram were at least partiaUy fulfilled. In 1834 and in suc^
ceeding years definite legislation was worked out on the
subject.

Part of the first point insisted on the guarantee to the
Indians forever of the territory on which they were to be
relocated. The Act of 1830 had authorized the President to
give this guarantee in the treaties of removal he might
make with them, and in each ins^nce it was observed. The
other part of the first point regarding the encroachment of
the whites on the Indian Country was at least partially ful-
filled by section two of the Intercourse Act of 1834. It pro-
vided that no person should be admitted to the Indian Coun-
try except by license from the Commissioner of Indian Af-
fairs, and Indian agent, or sub-agent Such license should be
good for not more than two years in the country east of the
Mississippi and three years west of that river.* This pro-
vision should not be construed to be in the nature of a per-
petual guarantee of land title to the Indians. Rather it was
in the nature of a legislative regulation for administrative
purposes. Point two of the program ¥ras fully covered by
sections twenty and twenty-one of the above act They pro-
vided that no spirituous liquors should be sold in or taken
into the Indian Country, except for the use of government
officials under the direction of the War Department, and no
distilleries should be set up in the Indian Country. Point
three of the program was the problem of insuring peace in
the Indian Country and adequately defending the western
frontier. The plans for its execution were under considerar
tion for several years. Various proposals were presented.
The first was the report of the committee appointed in 1832
which was presented to Congress in 1834.* The bills provide
ing for the organization of an Indian State also included
plans, but the most elaborate and complete proposal was
that of General Gaines.^^ The principal feature of these pro-
posals was to build a definite line of forts from the Red

• 4 U. S. Statutet. pp. 729-85.

• See above, p. 18.

^ H. doc. No. 311. 28. 26C. 1888. Pub. doc. No. 829.

£71] • Malin: Indian Pdwy and Wedward Expansion SI

River extending northward into Minnesota, together with a
system of military roads to connect them and to afford con-
venient and rapid transportation of troops and supplies.^^
None of these proposals were adopted as a unified plan of
legislative action. However, the actual necessities of the
situation did develop a fairly complete line of forts Idong the
frontier ; Fort Towson, Fort Smith, Fort Gibson, Fort Scotty
Fort Atkinson, Fort Dodge, Fort Snelling, etc. The prin-
cipal fort on the Oregon Trail was Fort Laramie and on the
Santa Fe Trail, Fort Atkinson, located near what is now
Dodge City, Kansas. Two special mounted regiments were
raised to defend th# frontier and finally in 1846 a bill was
passed creating a regiment of mounted riflemen and pro-
viding for a line of military posts to defend the route to
Oregon^*. Point five was provided for in a limited way by
the act of 1834 for the organization of the Indian Depart-
ment by which authorization was given to furnish domestic
animals and agricultural implements to the Indians west of
liie Mississippi River, but the value of such animals and
implementa furnished to ttiose tribes was not to exceed
15000.^* According to point six the Indians were to be al-
towed their own institutions so far as possible. This prin-
ciple was recognized in practicaUy all proposed legislation.
The Intercourse Act of 1834 provided that in aU disputes ^
between white men and Indians concerning property the
burden of proof must lie with the white man. The criminal
law of the United States was extended over the Indian
Country, but was not to apply to crimes between Indians.^*/
The last point of the program was recognized in the act of
1834 for the organization of the Indian Department, and
provided that blacksmiths, mechanics, and teachers, when
employed under treaty stipulations, should be under the
direction of the department."

Another phase of the program on the part of the gov-

^ The most accessible map Illustrating one of these plans is given in Folio State
Papers. Military Affairs. VIl, p. 777.

^ Act of 1832. 4 U. S. Statutes, pp. 533-35. Act of 1833. Ibid. d. 652. Act of
1844. 5 U. S. Statutes, p. 664. Act of 1846. U. S. Statutes, 1846. ch. 22.

1* 4 U. 8. Statutes pp. 736-38.
" Ibid. pp. 729-35.

*» Ibid. pp. 735-38.

g£ University of Kansas Humanistic Studies [g7S

eminent for handling the new situation was the reorganiza-
tion of the Indian Department Up to this time Indian affairs
had been in the hands of a Chief Clerk of the Indian Office in
the War Department In 1832 the new office of Conmiis-
V sioner of Indian Affairs was created^* Next, provision was
made in an act of 28 June, 1834, to attach the Upper Mis-
souri Territory to the Territory of Michigan for the purpose
of temporary government This included all the country west
of the Mississippi River north of the State of Missouri and
north and east of the Missouri and White Earth rivers.^^ A
bill passed during the same year for the organization of the
Indian Department provided that the duties of the Governor
of Arkansas Territory as Indian Superintendent should cease.
The same provision was also to apply to the €rovemor of
Michigan Territory in the country west of Lake Michigan
when that country should be organized into a territory. A
new office of Superintendent of Indian Affairs was created,
to be located at St. Louis, and was to have jurisdiction over
the Indian Country west of the Mississippi River.^® During
the same year the Secretary of War issued new regulations
under authority of this act which defined more definitely the
boundaries of the new administrative divisions. There were
to be three Indian Superintendents in the west The Mich-
igan Superintendency included aU that territory with the
addition of the Upper Missouri Territory as indicated
above.^* The St. Louis Superintendency included aU the
western territory between the Michigan Superintendency
and the Santa F6 Trail. The Western Superintendency (act-
ing) was to include all the remaining territory south of the
St. Louis Superintendency.'^ Lastly, the Intercourse Act of
1834 gave the name of Indian Country to aU the territory of
the United States west of the Mississippi River (except Mis-
souri, Louisiana, and Arkansas Territory) and also that part

>* 4 U. 8. Statutes p. 604.

" Ibid. p. 701.

u Ibid. pp. 785-38.

!• Except the Prairie du Chlen and Rock Island agencies, which belonged to the
St. Louis Superintendency.

^ Sen. doc. No. 1. 28. 23C. p. 258. Pub. doc. No. 2B6.

i7S] Malin: Indian Pdiey and WestvxirdEg^pansum tS

east of the Mississippi not in any organized territory for the
purpose of that act.'^

CONSOLIDATION OF INDIANS IN SOUTHWEST : SECOND PHASE

In the preceding pages the first phase of the Indian policy,
that is, the removid of the Indians west of the Mississippi
and the formulation of the general principles of a policy f w
administration, has been summarized. Next will be con-
sidered the second phase, the selection of a definite location
for the Indians and the removals to it.

Nothing in the foregoing statements indicates that there
was any intention in the beginning of limiting the territory
to be used for Indian locations tcr any particular section of
the west. However, a general understanding was soon quite
definitely established that the Indians should be located in
the southwest. The Indian missionary Isaac McCoy writing
in 1831 traces the development of thought along that line
as follows :

''Early in the progress of this business, a question
arose as to the most eligible location for the settle-
ment. Under the administration of Mr. Monroe,
the territory between Lake Michigan and the
Mississippi river was spoken of as a suitable place
for, at least, a portion of the tribes. Since that time,
the choice of public authority has become undivided,
and has settled down upon the region west of the
Arkansas Territory and west of the state of Mis-
souri, as far north as the Missouri river, and upward
on the southwest of that river, embracing a country
about six hundred miles from south to north, and
two hundred miles in width.''**

The act of 1830 provided that the original Indian title
must be extinguished in the territory west of the Missis-
sippi before eastern Indians could be located there. This had
already been done in most of the territory now included in
the states of Oklahoma and Kansas, and by 1833 it was com-
pleted in the remaining territory as far north as the Little

» 4 U. 8. Statutes p. 729 „ ^, ^ ^ ^ . ^ . , ** ^

a AddreM to phiUnthroplsts In Washington , D. C. and quoted In Isaac McCoj,
HUtory of Baptist Indian Mi$$Ums, p. 432.

£4 University cf Kansas Humanistic Studies [S7i

Nemaha and Platte rivers.^' It was in this territory between
the Red and the Platte rivers that the eastern Indians were
to be relocated, and at no time before the opening of Kansas
and Nebraska was the Indian title extinguished in any of the
ceuntry to the north of this. This fact further limited the
region which was considered as permanent Indian country.
The northern limit as McCJoy had indicated it in 1831 ¥ras
the Missouri River, now it was the Platte.

The same act authorized the President to guarantee to the
Indians and their heirs forever the lands assigned to them
west of the Bfississippi in exchange for lands held by them
east of that river. Contrary to the usual assumption, there
was no guarantee to the Indians on the part of the govern-
ment of perpetual possession of the lands north of the
Pbtte. Neither was there any such guarantee for the land
south of that river, except for such lands as were used for
reiocaticm of Indians and definitely assigned to them by
treaty under the act of 1830 and supplementary acts.

In his annual message for the year 1886, President Jack-
son gave definite recognition of the principle of consolida-
tion in the southwest. It contains the following statement :

''A country west of Missouri and Arkansas has
been assigned to them, into which the white settle-
ments are not to be pushed. No political conununi-
ties can be formed in that extensive region, except
those which are established by the Indians them-
selves or by the United States for them and with
their concurrence. . . .''**

In connection with another project, the principle of limit-
ing the Indian Country to the territory south of the Platte
River was even more clearly planned. At various times
schemes had been offered for creating an Indian State in the
west.*'^ One of these proposals is presented in the report of
the three commissioners sent out by the Indian Department

** Quapftw 1818. Great and Little Osages 1818, 1826. Kansas 1825, Oto and
Missouri 1833. Pawnee confederated tribes 1833. See Royce. Indian Cesriona,
18th Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology. Pt. II.

^ Messages and Papers of the Presidents. Ill, pp. 171-72.

» See Abel. Propoaala for an Indian State, 177^1878. In Annual Report
of American Historical Association. 1907. I, pp. 87-104.

£6 University of Kansas Humanistic Studies [276

in 1832 to investigate and make a report on the condition
of the Indians and plans for the administration of the
country.** This report was submitted to CSongress in 1884
by C!onmiissioner of Indian Affairs Elbert Herring and on
this point proposed to make the south hank of the Missouri
and Platte rivers the northern boundary of the proposed
territory. These boundaries were incorporated in the bill
presented on 20 May of that year by the House Conmiittee
on Indian Affairs and the report of the department commit-
tee was appended to their report on the bill to the House.'^
As this bill failed to pass, another of similar character was
presented in 1836. In this second bill the northern boundary
was extended northward as far as the Puncah River.^^ In
its other features it was similar to the preceding bill. This
bill also failed. The Indian Department, however, did not let
the matter drop there, but presented the subject to as many
tribes as possible during the summer of 1837 and received
the assent of several.*' In the next session another bill was
presented from the Senate (Committee on Indian Affairs by
Tipton of Indiana.*® This measure also provided for making
the Puncah River the northern boundary of the Indian Ter-
ritory, but it was explained that the only reason for includ-
ing any country north of the Platte was to allow the Ottoes,
Omahas, and Pawnees, who lived in that district, an oppor-
tunity to participate in the advantages of the new terri-
tory.**

The debate on this bill brought out some very interesting
and significant information in regard to the forces support-
ing and opposing the measure and the motives directing the
men who were interested in it. In the Senate, Mr. King of

» See above, p. 19.

V See above, p. 19.

*• Beport of Commissioner of Indian Affairs C. A. Harris. 1836. H. doc. No. 2.
2 Session, 24 Congress, p. 376. Pub. doc. No. 301. The Puncah River is now calldd
Puncah Creek and is located between the Niobrara and White rivers.

* Report of Commissioner of Indian Affairs C. A. Harris. 1837, 2 session. 25
Congress. Pub. doc. No. 314. and in debates in the Senate. Tipton's speech 18
April 1838. Appendix Congressional Globe. 2 session. 26 Consress pp.. 269-74.
(Hereafter the following form will be used: C. O. 2s. 26C.) Tne tribes who as-
sented were the Delawares. Shawnees. Kickappos. Pottawatomles. Sauks of Mis-
souri, lowas, Weas. Piankashas, Poorias and Kaskaskias, Kansas and Ottawas.

C. O. 2s. 26C. p. 41. Introduced 20 De'^ember, 1837.

'^ Tipton's speeches. Appendix C. O. 2s. 26C. pp. 269-74, and C. G. 28. 26C. p.
348.

g77] Malin: Indian Pdiey and WedtoardExpandon 21

Alabama offered an amendment to enlarge the proposed
territory by adding to it aU the country west of the Misais-
sippi and north of the State of Missouri and the Missouri
River and west as far as the Rocky Mountains, except land to
which the Indian title had already been extinguished. Fur-
thermore the faith of the United States was to be pledged
by the act to guarantee to the Indians forever aU the land in
this territory granted to them.** Sevier of Arkansas favored
the amendment chiefly for reasons based on sectionalism. He
charged that the original bill was merely a plan on the part
of the north to get more states in the northwest. Linn of
Missouri and Lumpkin of Georgia opposed the amendment.
Linn read extracts from a memorial of the Missouri Legisla^
ture in which they urged the formation of an Indian state
along the lines of the original plan. Lumpkin attacked the
amendment on account of the sectional character it gave to
the whole measure. He pointed out that two thirds of the
territory included in the original bill lay north of the line of
36° 80' and as all the land south of that line was already
taken up by Indians, no northern Indians could be moved
south of it The south could have no just complaint against
the measure. The addition of all the country north to the in-
ternational line would make the territory so vast that it
would defeat the whole purpose of the bill. The original
measure is similar to the proposal made by Calhoun in 1836.
Why did Calhoun now withhold his support of the measure?
Lumpkin said that for himself this measure was just what he
had been advocating for the past ten years.*' However, the
main debates were led by King and Tipton. In defending his
amendment, King insisted that the plan of the northern
men was to crowd all the northern and southern Indians into
the southwest to block the development of the south and to
make possible the opening of the whole country north of the
Missouri Compromise line to white settlement. Sevier was
right in saying that it was merely a plan to get more states
in the northwest He regretted that his southern friends

» O. 0. 2t. 250. pp. 345-48.
** Ibid. pp. 340-45.

fB8 University of Kansas HumanisHc Studies [S78

were so indifferent to the future. Then he asked Tipton a
question. Would he op^se the amendment if he believed
that there would be no more states formed in the northwest?
Tipton insisted that the amendment would effectually check
the growth not only of the northwest but of the nation, and
in answer to King's last question he said : *^o this, I answer
in the affirmative. I have many friends and acquaintances
in that country west of the Mississippi River, who desire to
form a state at no distant day, and I wish to gratify them.
Does the honorable senator expect to check the growing
power of the Northwest? Sir, he might as well attanpt. . •
to stay the current of the Niagara, as to prevent the emigra-
tion of the industrious, intelligent and enterprising people
from aU parts of the United States to the Iowa Territory,
west of the Mississippi.''^^ When the imiendment came to a
vote it was defeated 11 to 22. The vote was for the most
part sectional, the only votes cast for it coming from the
southwestern and southeastern states.*^

At the same time that the above bill was under discussion
another measure of great importance to the development of
the west was before both houses. On 6 February in the
House and 14 March in the S^iate Mils were presented pro-
viding for the division of Wisconsin Territory and the es-
tablishment of *The Territory of Iowa.*' Consideration of
the bills was delayed until June. In the debate Waddy
Thompson of South Carolina attacked the measure. It was
again a question of the balance of power between the north-
em and western and the southern states on the slavery ques-
tion. He would not consent to these territories coming into
the Union so long as the northern states opposed the annexa-
tion of Texas on the ground of slavery. However, the bill
was passed and was approved 12 June, 1838.^® This new
Territory of Iowa included all the country between the
Mississippi and Missouri rivers and north of the state of
Missouri, in other words exactly the same country that King

** C. G. 28. 25C. pp. 347-48.

* Yeas: — Merrick and Spence of Maryland, Roane of Virginia, Calhoun and
Preston of South Carolina, Clay and King of Alabama. Mouton and Nicholas of
Louisiana, and Sevier and Fulton of Arkansas. Nays: — Northern and border
stntes and Georgia.

» C. G. 29. 25C. pp. 239. 247, 424. 428. 131, 161, 5 U. S. Statutes pp. 235-41.

g79] Malin: Indian Pdi4^ and Wedward Expansion 29

<

had insisted, in the debate of 27 April, must be included in
the proposed Indian Territory, and the passage of the act
creating the Territory of Iowa was precisely what he was
trying to prevent by his amendment. The trend of westward
expansion was clearly shown, and the attempt of the radical
southern group to block it by creating out of the northwest a
permanent Indian Territory was completely defeated.

The next question to consider in connection with the prin-
ciple of consolidation in the southwest is the attitude of the
Indian Department in planning the removal and relocation of
individual tribes and the extent to which it was applied.
Westward expansion brought about the addition of the Platte
country to the state of Missouri in 1836. The Indians oc-
cupying this country had to be removed and the Secretary of
War in 1836 reports that:

''With a view to the extinguishment of the Indian
title to the country between the State of Missouri
and the Mississippi river, negotiations were opened
with the tribes interested therein for the relinquish-
ment of their rights ; and treaties to that effect
have already been concluded with the lowas and
Sacs of Missouri, Omahas, Yancton Sioux, and
Ottawas and Missouris. Measures have also been
taken for opening negotiations with the united
nation of Ottawas, Chippewas, and Pottawatomies,
for an exchange of the lands north of the Missouri
river assigned to them by the treaty of Chicago of
1883, for lands south of that river; and with the
Miamies, for a cession of their lands in Indiana."*^

At the same time there was a movement to extinguish the
title to the lands held by the Indians of western Iowa. The
Commissioner of Indian Affairs reports that a Senate resolu-
tion

''requested the President to propose to the Indians,
parties to the treaty of Chicago, an exchange of the
lands north of the Missouri river; assigned to them
by that treaty, for lands south of it. As no appro-
priation was made for this object, and a part of the
Indians had emigrated, a part were removing and a
part were in Illinois, the instructions to the sub-

^ H. doc. No. 2. In. 24C . p. 118. Pub. doc. No. 301. The italics am the author's.

so UnivergUy of Katuas HunumUtic Studies [£80

agent merely directed him to seek interviews with
them/'»«

In his report for the next year Clonmiissioner Harris made a
clear and definite statement on the subject of Indian re-
location policy :

The operations of the Department include '^the
removal of the Indians in New York, Ohio, lodiana,
Illinois, Michigan, and Wisconsin, in the north, the
west, and the northwest; and in Georgia, North
Carolina, Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi and
Floridly in the south and southwest, to new homes
southwest of the Missouri river."^^

The Secretary of War, Poinsett, in the same year, re-
ported that the Winnebagoes had agreed to remove to the
'^neutral ground''^ but their sojourn there would probably
be temporary as it was planned to remove them south of the
Missouri River as soon as the country was sufficiently ex-
plored. He adds :

''The interests of the country appear to require
the existence of a line of frontier States between
the Mississippi and the Missouri, and the extin-
guishment of the Indian title to aU l^e land east of
the Missouri, to the 48'' of north lattitude, would ef-
fect that object.""

The result of such action would have opened to white
settlement almost all of what is now Iowa as far west as the
Missouri. This was not done immediately, but, as has been
previously stated, Iowa was practicaUy all opened by 1846.

In 1840, Indian Conmiissioner T. Hartley Crawford dis-
cussed the question of Indian removal in a larger way in his
annual report and recommended the removal of even the
most northerly tribes to the southwest. He considered it
was necessary as the only solution of the continued Indian

s H. doc. No. 2. Is. 24C. p. 382. Pub. doc. No. 301. The remoTftI of these Indians
wv delayed for some yeun and did not take place until 1846. The ItaUcs are the
auUior's.

» Sen. doc. No. 1. 3s. 24C. p. 626. Pub. doc. No. 314. The Italics are the author's.
In his report for the removal of the Menomlnees of that territory to the country
south of the Missouri River. Ibid. p. 663.

*• Western Iowa.

^ Sen. doc. No. 1. 28. 24C. p. 184. Pub. doc. No. 814.

SSI] Mdin: Indian Pdicy and Westward Expansion SI

difficulties on the northwestern frontier. There was a
tendency among the American Indians, as he pointed out, to
cross the international line to the northward into Canada
and the resulting complications were a continual source
of friction with the British. The final solution of those dif-
ficulties would be a complete removal of the Indians from
the northern country/*

The preceding statements show how consistently and
clearly this second phase of the Indian policy was developed,
and how definitely the principle of consolidation of the In-
dians in the southwest was recognized* In another part of
the report for 1840 Commissioner Crawford predicted the
developments that could be expected in the near future in
the way of Indian removals and the opening of the new
northwest to white settlement. He said :

''It is sufficient at present to state, that the
original title to the laiid to the southwest of the
Missouri is extinguished as far north as the
Little Nemaha river. There are located on it a large
number of tribes ; and there yet remain northeast
of the Missouri and east of the Mississippi rivers,
who will soon require a new home'' several other
tribes. • • . '"Die day is not distant, either, when the
Sioux and other tribes will be asked to cede their
lands. . . . All, probably, must soon emigrate.''*'

The lands referred to in the above quotation would include
most of the country between the Mississippi and Missouri
rivers. The western part of it was occupied by the Sioux
and Dakota Indians, the greater part of whose land lay west
of the Mississippi. The white settlements were pushing up
the upper Mississippi Valley and the Great Lake region, and
up the northern bimk of the Mississippi River from the state
of Missouri.** They were also pushing across what is now the

* Sen. doe. No. 1. Is. 870. p. 243. Pub. doc. No. 375.

^ Report of CommlMloner of Indian Affaln 1840. Sen. doc. No. 1. le. 870. p.
282. Pud. doc. No. 376. Another Interesting and significant derelqpmeiit in tills
region Is the maldng of a surrer and map of the Platte and Mlssoorl vaUeys by the
war Deimrtment. The map included the oonntry ftom 89* to 4ft* north latitude,
and ftom 90* to 100* wmt londtude. The secretary urced in the report that the
survey should be extended to the source of the Missouri Rirer and then to the Pacific.
Report of Secretary of War. 1840. Sen. doc. No. 1. Is. 270. p. 24. Pub. doc No. 87ft.

^ The Platte purchase was added to the state of Missouri in 1886.

32 Ufdoersiiy cf Kansas Humanistic Studies [282

state of Iowa toward the north bank of the Missouri. That
river was still the main route to the far west and the chief
outlet for the fur trade of that resrion. Mr. Crawford shows
in his report that he understood and appreciated the ten-
dencies then operating in the westward extension of the
frontier and the geographical lines along which it would pro-
gress under the influence of conditions as they then existed.
The extinguishment of Indian title to the land was always a
preliminary to the settlement of a new part of the country
and this process was steadily and inevitably being realized.
It was evident that this new northwest was soon to be settled
by white men and divided into states. This would necessitate
the removal and consolidation of the Indians in the south-
west between the Platte and Red rivers. This principle of
consolidation was recognized both by Congress and by the
Indian Department and was thus being definitely and con-
sistently developed to allow for the westward expansion of
the white population across the northern part of the Indian
Country toward the Rocky Mountains.

The principle of the consolidation of the Indians in the
southwest has been traced step by step through the decade
of the thirties to show how that principle crystallized into
a clearly defined policy to provide for a permanent home for
the Indians. The reasons and motives operating in deter-
mining the choice of that particular location were many and
their action was often complex. Several of them are ex-
plained in a report of the Senate Committee on Indian Aflfairs
in 1836 accompanying the bill to supplement the Act of 1880
and providing for the establishment of an Indian Territory.^^
The report stated that it was a country well adapted to
grazing and lay within the latitude to which the Indians were
accustomed, but more important still was the fact that it
was west of all white settlements and would probably not be
surrounded by white population because the country beyond
it was considered uninhabitable. In the words of the report :
''With this uninhabitable region on the west of the Indian
territory, they cannot be surrounded by white population*

<s 8ee above, p. 26.

£83] Malin: Indian Pdicy and Westward Expansion 83

They are on the outside of us, and in a place which will ever
remain on the outside." As the rivers of this re^on flow
eastward, they would direct such commerce as the Indian
country possessed to the white settlements. Another con-
sideration of importance in maintaining order was that the
Indians located there could not escape westward for safety
from punishment after depredations they might commit.^*
Still other reasons were brought out in the debates on the
Indian Territory bills. Tipton pointed out the difficulties
that had always arisen out of the contact of the northern
tribes along the border with British influences. These would
be effectively prevented only by removal and con-
solidation in the southwest. But probably the most import-
ant reason in determining that location was the influence of
westward expansion which made necessary an outlet across
the northern part of the country toward the mountains.
Just at this time also, Senator Linn of Missouri was begin-
ning his agitation in Congress for the recognition of the
importance of Oregon and the encouragement and protec-
tion of its settlement by Americans. Thus by the opening of
the northwest the demands of northern expansion would be
satisfied. At the same time the first movement for the
annexation of Texas was under way and its success would
satisfy the demands of southern expansion. This situation
created a balance of power between the northern and south-
em expansionist forces which throws into clear relief the
stand which Waddy Thompson of South Carolina took in the
House debates on the Iowa Territory bill in 1838. He would
oppose northern expansion into the Indian Country of the
northwest so long as the north opposed southern expansion
to the southwest by preventing the annexation of Texas. As
a result the problem of Indian location resolves itself into
this; the Indians were to be limited to what was then the
southwest because this was believed to be the only region
where they would not block white expansion westward.

* Sen. doc. No. 246. is. 24C. p. 4. Pub. doc. No. 279.

PART TWO

Factors Contributing to the Revision of the

Old Indian Policy

Westward expansion was the dominating factor in deter-
mining the development of the Indian Policy in the Trans-
Mississippi Valley until about 1840. It exercised a decisive
influence in the rearrangement and relocation of the In-
dians, and had brought about the formulation of the policy
for their consolidation in the southwest. By 1840 this con-
solidation had been only partially completed, and after that
date several new factors developed which were to modify
completely this policy. It had been very satisfactory so long
as it was merely a question of getting the Indians out of
the way, of removing them "outside of us, and into a place
which will ever remain on the outside." However, by 1848 ^
this Indian Country was no longer "on the outside of us.'V
It was in the very center of the nation. It was evident that
the policy which had once been considered as permanent
had now to be revised completely to fit the new conditions.

NATIONAL SELF-ASSERTION. 1840-1848. A TRANSITION

PERIOD IN INDIAN POLICY

The period between 1840 and 1848 is one which is best
characterized as a period of National Self-Assertion. In
such a term lies its truest interpretation. The public at-
tention was almost wholly occupied with the solution of
foreign issues which were of the greatest moment to the
nation ; viz., the Oregon boundary, the annexation of Texas,
the Mexican War and its resulting cessions of territory, and
the establishment of commercial relations with China and
other parts of the Orient. This focusing of attention on^
foreign questions was at the expense of the solution of ^
purely domestic problems. Therefore, as in the case of
other internal problems, there was little done toward evolv-

S6 University of Kansas Humanistic Stttdies [^86

ing a constructive policy in Indian affairs to meet the new
requirements. So far as Indian policy is concerned, it is
a period of transition. Nevertheless, it is one which is
vital to the whole problem, because in it lie the roots of
the forces that were to bring about the revision of
the old Indian policy and during it were laid the founda-
tions on which this new policy was to be built.

^ The Oregon question was the first of a series of develop-
ments which brought out clearly and definitely the neces-
sity of a change in the policy towards the whole of the In-
dian Country. The chief route to Oregon, which became
known as the Oregon Trail, followed the Missouri River
through Independence or St. Joseph and thence across that
river to the Platte Valley and thence along the south side
of the Platte to Fort Laramie and thence by way of the
South Pass westward to the valley of the Columbia. The
first American settlers had gone to Oregon in 1834. The
stream of emigrants had increased slowly until 1843 when
it assumed considerable proportions. As early as 1838,
Lewis F. Linn, Senator from Missouri, advocated the es-
tablishment of stockades and military posts along the route
for the protection of the emigrants. His first bill failed,
but each year thereafter until his death in 1843 he put the
question definitely before Congress in the form of a bill or
resolution. His successor, David R. Atchison, immediately
took up the agitation and he and Benton, with the aid of
others, put through a bill in 1846 which provided for the
establishment of a regiment of mounted riflemen and a line
of military posts along the route to Oregon.*^ This was the
same year that the Oregon boundary question was settled
with Great Britain.

Another transcontinental route which was to have great
influence on determining certain phases of Indian policy
was the Santa F6 Trail. This became an important com-
mercial route after the recognition of Mexican indepen-
dence in 1822. Thomas H. Benton, the great champion of
the west, took up the question almost immediately and was

^^ 9 U. S. Statutes, 1846. ch. 22.

S87] * Malin: Iridian Policy and Westioard Expansion 37

able to secure the passage of a bill in 1825 providing for
the appropriation of money to survey and mark the route
and to purchase the right of transit from the Indians. The
survey was made from Franklin, Missouri, to Taos, but the
traders usually followed the more dangerous trail across
the Cimmaron Desert. Negotiations were carried out with
the Indians and a treaty was concluded with the Pawnees
and Osages by which they agreed not to molest the caravans.
The negotiations were unsuccessful with the Comanches.
The traders were practically left to their own devices to
provide for protection. However, the government did send
out a military escort as far as the Arkansas Crossing on
three different occasions, in 1829, 1834, and 1843. In 1843
the Governor of New Mexico sent an escort to the Arkan-
sas to meet the traders and protect them on the remainder
of their journey through Mexican territory. The growing^
importance of this Santa F6 trade, especially after the an-
nexation of New Mexico, and the possibility of its use as a
railroad route, made necessary the establishment of more^
definite relations with the tribes along this route.

While the Oregon agitation was going on in Congress,
certain members of the Indian Office had been advocating
a more effective means of meeting the difficulties created by
the Oregon emigration. The Santa Fe Trail treaty was
cited as precedent for action of a similar nature for the
Oregon Trail. Thomas H. Harvey, Superintendent of the
St. Louis District, in his annual report of 1845 urged that
the government buy a right of way through the IndiaiV;
country :

"For the safety of the emigrants and the tran-
quility of the Indians, I would suggest that a right
of way through such sections of the Indian country
as may be deemed most convenient for laying out
roads to Oregon be purchased from the Indians
owning the country. This was done with the Osages
and Kanzas, when laying out the road to Santa Fe.
In that event the emigrants would be obliged strictly
to confine themselves to the roads so purchased and
laid out. With a view to carrying the foregoing
into effect, I would respectfully recommend the es-

38 University of Kansas Humanistic Stidies ' [£88

tablishment of the following roads or routes ; viz :
one to cross the Missouri river at St. Joseph, which
would pass through the Kickapoo, Iowa and Sac and
Fox countries ; another to cross the same river at
Council Bluffs, and passing through the Potawa-
tomie, Ottoe and Pawnee lands ; and a third, from
Westport, on the south side of the Missouri river,
passing through the lands of the Shawnees,
Delewares and Kanzas."^^

His recommendation was not acted upon and the next
year he repeated it, but this time instead of merely suggests
ing that a right of way be purchased, he called "the atten-
tion of the Department to the necessity of it."" This recom-
mendation had no greater effect than the first. It would
have been neither difficult nor expensive to have made this
purchase, because the Indian title to most of the territory
on the south side of the Platte River through which the main
routes ran was already extinguished as far west as the
mountains and only a narrow strip along the Missouri and
Nemeha rivers had been regranted to eastern Indian tribes.
The Pawnees, however, who were to have removed north
of the Platte, still occupied the country south of that river

owing to the pressure of the Sioux to the north of them as
the government had not established sufficient military
forces in the Indian Country to insure their safety on their
own lands.°®

The first attempts to organize Oregon Territory included
or were contemporary with the first attempts to organize
a part of the Indian Country. The existence of this close
relation has been persistently overlooked. In the Senate,
Atchison of Missouri introduced a bill on 19 December, 1844,
for the organization of Oregon, which included the Indian
Country, that is all the territory between the Missouri River
and the Rocky Mountains,* and in addition provided fo**
stockades and forts to be built along the route to Oregon
from the Missouri River by way of the South Pass to Ore-
gon. At the same time Douglas, in the House, introduced

« Sen. dor. No. 1. Is. 29C. p. 636. Pub. doc. No. 470.
« Sen. doc. No. 1. 2s. 29C. p. 286. Pub. doc. No. 493.
" Ex. doc. No. 1. 28. 30C. pp. 388-90. Pub. doc. 537.

£89] Malin: InduinPdiqf and Wedvxird Expansion 39

a bill for the organization of Nebraska Territory. It de-
fined the territory as the country between the parallels of
thirty-eight and forty-three. However, these bills did not
come up for consideration in either house/^ But in the next
session Douglas introduced a bill similar to the Atchison
measure of the preceding year. This measure provided for
the organization of a temporary government and included
within the limits of Oregon the Indian Country west of the
Missouri River between the parallels of forty and forty-
three, and extended over it the jurisdiction of the Supreme
Court of Iowa and the laws of that Territory.*^* The fact
that these provisions affecting the Indian Country were in-
cluded in the bills, whose purpose was to create a govern-
ment for Oregon, indicated clearly that they were not de-
signed primarily to organize the Indian Country, but rather
to provide an outlet to the valley of the Columbia through
organized country which was to be settled by white men.
Also the fact should be emphasized that it was through this
region, the valleys of the Missouri and the Platte rivers,
that the best routes to the Pacific were to be found. Hence
it was only natural that, with the enormous increase of mi-
gration westward and the pressure of the frontier settle-
ments, this country should soon be opened to the pioneer,
even though the annexation of Texas and the addition of
the Mexican cession soon created a strong diversion toward
the southern routes and expansion along them toward Cali-
fornia. Douglas's own explanation of his early bills to or-
ganize Nebraska was that they were to serve notice on the
Secretary of War not to locate any more Indians there. "In
consequence of this notice, the Secretary (by courtesy) sus-
pended his operations until Congress should have an oppor-
tunity of acting on the bill : and inasmuch as Congress
failed to act at that session, Mr. Douglas renewed his bill
and notice to the Secretary each year, and thus prevented

'1 Atchison bill. C. G. Appendix 28. 28C. p. 44. Douglas bill. O. G. 28. 28C. p. 41 .

** C. G. 18. 29C, p. 690. Parker'8 Calendar of Papers in the WasMnaUm Archives
relating to the Territories of the United States, p. 319. Carnegie pub. No. 148. The
original bill was introduced 9 Dec. 1845 to protect settlers until the end ofjoint
occupation. Amended to provide a territorial government. It passed the House
18 April. 1846. Read in the Senate 20 April.

40 University of Kansas Humanistic Studies [S90

action for ten years, and until he could procure action on
the bill."^«

The effect of these bills on the Indian policy would have
been revolutionary had they become law. It would have
meant the abandonment of the policy of consolidation of
the Indians in the southwest, and instead would have di-
vided them into two groups, one north and one south of the
newly organized or settled territory. The chief motive be-
hind these bills was the opening of Pacific routes and this
fact must be remembered in the consideration of subse-
quent development of Indian policy.

PERIOD OP INTERNAL EXPANSION AND READJUSTMENT,
1848-54-68. THE FOUR GREAT PACTORS

The period between 1840 and 1848 has been character-
ized as a period of national self-assertion. It brought In its
train a multitude of new problems, especially in connec-
tion with the newly acquired territory, and those together
with the growing bitterness of the slavery issue in the old
states as well as in the new territory created a crisis which
was the supreme test of American Nationality. The per-
iod from 1848 through the Civil War was one of internal
expansion and readjustment and its problems had to be
worked out in the face of ever increasing sectional rivalries
and jealousies. The bitterness to which this sectionalism
would go was not fully appreciated until the problem of
organizing the new territory was taken up during and after
the close of the Mexican War. The sudden and complete
comprehension of the import of the situation made the
great leaders hesitate, and in a spirit of conciliation, re-
sulting from this new understanding, the compromise of

^ 1850 was finally accepted, and all the recently acquired
territory was organized. The Indian Country alone was
without a government. It was now surrounded on all sides
by organized states and territories and through it ran the

^ routes connecting the east and the far west.

Next must be traced the development of the four great

M Cutts. Constitutional and Party Questions, pp. 89-91. The Congressional
Globe does not record bills for Nebraska in 1846 or 1847.

291] Mcdin: Indian Policy and Westward Expansion 41

factors which contributed to the revision of the Indian pol-
icy through this later period as far as the passage of the
Kansas-Nebraska Act. These factors are, first, westward
expansion and the settlement of the Pacific Coast; second,
the Pacific railroad movement; third, westward expansion
and the organization of Nebraska ; fourth, the changed liv-
ing conditions and civilization of the Indians. In the dis-
cussion of each the aim is to indicate how it brought in-
fluence to bear on Indian policy which made revision iie-
cessary.

WESTWARD EXPANSION AND SETTLEMENT OF PACIFIC COAST

The movement for the settlement of the Pacific Coast lajrs
the background and becomes the motive in a large measure
for the development of the other three factors indicated.
A brief statement of the earliest phases of the settlement
has already been made. The first steady stream of emi-
gration to the coast began to flow in 1843. It is estimated
that about 1000 emigrants made the long overland journey
in that year. This stream increased slowly each year, in
spite of the uncertainty of the question of the boundary, the
joint occupation, and the absence of a government or pro-
tection either in Oregon or en route. In 1846 the boundary *"
question was satisfactorily settled with Great Britain. At
that time the total population of the territory was reported
at 10,000. In the spring of that year it is estimated that
2,500 people were gathered along the Indian frontier on the
Missouri River at Council Bluffs, St. Joseph, Elizabethtown,
and Independence. Approximately two-thirds of them were
bound for Oregon and the remainder for California. The
road was long and difficult, and by the time they reached
Ft. Laramie some were obliged to sell or abandon their
wagons and supplies and continue on horseback. Sickness
of both emigrants and teams added to the hardship and dis-
couragement of the journey. '^^

After ^848 the emigration to Oregon continued, although
it did not have the incentive which attracted settlers to
California. In that year the Territory of Oregon was or-

»* McMaster. History of the People of the United States, Vol. VII, p. 432.

4£ UnwersUy cf Kansas Humanistic Studies [292

ganized. The settlements came to center largely in two
regions. The first had been made in the Willamette Valley»
on the south side of the Columbia River. This still remained
the center of population in the southern part of the Terri-
tory. In the northern part of the Territory Puget Sound
became the center of population and of economic develop-
ment The people of the north demtoded a separate gov-
ernment and prepared a memorial asking that a division of
the Territory be made. A bill was passed in March, 1853,
which created the new Territory of Washington out of the
country north of the Columbia River and the forty-sixth
parallel.'^'^ /

In 1848 the Pacific Coast became of most unexpected
importance. Gold was discovered in California in January
and before the year was out the news had spread to all partes
of the east. Preparations were made during the winter of
1848-49 for the rush to California. The question of first
importance immediately became the matter of routes. Gen-
erally speaking three possibilities presented themselves;
the route by way of tape Horn, the route across theasthmus
of Panama, and the route . overland by. way of the PlatteN
River Valley and the South Pass^ Of these the Cape Horn
route was the safest. It was also the longest, but it was
the one by which most of the commerce was carried on with
the Pacific Coast. By the middle of March, 1849, over
12,000 gold seekers had left New York for California by
that route. The route across the Isthmus of Panama was
more difiicult and dangerous but it had the advantage of be-
ing comparatively short. This route was literally swamped
with emigrants. The overland route was the only one
which had the advantage of lying within the territory of
the United States. In the early spring of 1849, emigrants,
wagons, and supplies collected along the Missouri River
from Westport, Missouri, to Council Bluffs, Iowa. There
they orgaiiized and waited for summer and sufiicient grass
to graze their animals during the journey. The streams
from these divergent points united at or near Fort Kearny

» C. G. 28. 32C. pp. 5:50-40. .554-55.

£93] Malin: Indian Pdicy and WeHimrd Expansion iS

on the Platte River west of Grand Island. There a record
was kept of the number of wagons that passed. By the end
of June, when the emigration was practically over, there
were 5,516 wagons recorded and it is estimated that 20,000
persons accompanied them. Hundreds of wagons turned
back. Probably 2,000 emigrants had died of cholera. This
was only the beginning of the journey, and across the wil-
derness many had to abandon part or all of their property.
A traveler passing over the route writes that near Fort
Laramie the prairie was strewn with provisions and wreck-
age and burned wagons left by the emigrants. In one place
about 800 pounds of bacon were heaped in one pile. ''Boxes,
barrels, trunks, wagon wheels, whole wagon bodies, cook-
ing utensils," and various implements were scattered along
the trail, together with the carcasses of oxen. It was win-
ter before the more belated emigrants reached their desti-
nation and then only with the aid of those at the other end
of the trail. This was the California and Oregon Trail, the
overland route to the Pacific.

Congress failed to provide a government for the Mexican
Cession immediately after the close of the war. Polk sent
General Riley to California with troops and orders from
the War Department to take up the duties of civil govern-
ment. With the encouragement of the President the Cali-
fomians made a state constitution in September, 1849. It
was adopted and the gpvernment organized. John C. Fre-
mont and William M. Gwinn were elected senators. The
state was admitted in the next year, as a part of the Com-
promise of 1850. Similar movements developed in Deseret,
or Utah, and in New Mexico, but Congress merely created
territorial governments for them.

The census of 1850 showed that California had a popula-
tion of 122,000 and the emigrants poured into the country
by the thousands during the year. Along the route they
were required to register at Fort Laramie and the records
show that 9,000 wagons carrying about 42,000 people had
passed that point by the first of July, 1850.=« The emigration

44 University of Kansas Humanistic Studies [29 J^,

during 1851 and 1862 was near that of 1850, and the
emigrants used every method of transportation for them-
selves and their small store of goods from well equipped
freight wagons and ox teams to wheelbarrows and push-
carts. Representative Hall of Missouri made the statement
in the House on 10 February, 1853, in the debate on the
Richardson bill to organize Nebraska, that the annual emi-
gration to the Pacific Coast was fifty to sixty thousand, and
these pioneers had to make the long, weary journey through
wild Indian country where there was no government to give
them aid or protection except such as was afforded by the
small military forces stationed at the few forts along the
route." The territory from the Missouri River west to the
Pacific Coast could never develop along natural lines and
become a prosperous and contented part of a unified nation
£0 long as it was cut off by the Indian Country and forced to
work out its own destiny apart from the rest of the union.
The integrity of nationality demanded that adequate com-
munications and means of transportation be provided, that
the country along these routes be settled and developed, and
that the Indians be removed from that territory.^*

WESTWARD EXPANSION AND PACIFIC RAILROAD MOVEMENT

The story of the Pacific railroad movement is one that is
closely interwoven with the organization of the Indian Coun-
try and the consequent modification of the Indian policy. It
must now be traced briefly in so far as it relates to these
questions. Here also will be noticed the sectional rivalry be-
tween the north and south. The idea of a Pacific railroad
had occurred to several men in the beginning of the period
of railroad building, but in 1845 Asa Whitney placed the
proposition before Congress by memorializing that body for

^ M. O. to Major John Dougherty 1 July. 1850. Dougherty MSS.; Missouri
Historical Society Library, St. Louis.

" C. G. 28. 32C. pp. 558-60.

H The data for this section on the settlement of the Pacific Ooast have been
mostly taken from. McMaster. History of the People of the United States. Volumes
VII and VIII except where otherwise indicated. The interpretation is strictly the
author's.

£95] Malin: hidianPoliq/ and Westward Expansion Jf5

a grant of land along the route to aid in the building of the
road. His original plan was to build by the northern route
from the Great Lakes westward. In the early forties this
would have been the natural route, because it was the line
along which westward expansion seemed to be moving.
Similar proposals were presented in 1846 and each year
thereafter until 1854. The later routes proposed were the
central routes, either by way of South Pass or Santa F6) or
the southern route by way of Fort Smith and Santa Fe, ' or
lastly the 'Sfar southern route by way of El Paso; All of these
except the last would pass through the Indian Country) and
the land grants made to build them would be grants of the
Indian Country. The land so granted was to be sold to set-
tlers who would develop the country along the route so as to
support the railroad. Almost all of the members of Congress
were in favor of the railroad, but they could not agree as to
the method to be adopted for building it, nor as to the
terminals of the road. But^one thing was clear to all; that,
whenever the road should be built, unless it went by the most
southern route, the territorial organization of the country
along the route would have to be completed.

Officials of the government were also interested in the
railroad and were looking forward to its being built.
Buchanan, when Secretary of State, wrote a letter to J. M.
Shively, Deputy Postmaster at Astoria in Oregon Territory,
dated 29 March, 1847, in which he predicted the building of
railroads and telegraphs to the Pacific. He said :

"Science has discovered, and enterprise is now
fast establishing, means of intercommunication so
rapid, that, at no distant day, a journey from New
York to Oregon will be accomplished in less time
than was once employed in traveling from that cit>
to New Orleans, and important news will be com-
municated by telegraph with the velocity of light-
ning. Their foreign commerce with the west coast
of America, with Asia, and the isles of the Pacific,
will sail under the protection of our common flag

46 Univeraity of Kansas Humanistic Studies [S96

and cannot fail to bear back wealth in abundance
to our shores."*^*

Two years later, the Secretary of the Interior, Thomas
Ewing, in his annual report, commenting on the subject of
the Pacific railroad, pointed out that the expansion of the
eastern and the western lines of settlement would ultimately
approach each other and thus fill up all the intervening ter-
ritory.

"It [California] has already a considerable com-
merce, which is constantly increasing, and must
soon become extensive, not only with our own coun-
try and Europe, but with China, and the Pacific
islands ; including Japan, whose ports, it is believed,
will be opened to the admission of its gold. . . [The
Oregon commerce was also growing.] Some means
of intercommunication across the continent,
through our own territory, from the Atlantic to the
Pacific — a road which can be passed over with
reasonable speed and safety — ^is necessary to meet
the wants of our citizens on either coast, and is
equally necessary to aid the government in con-
trolling the Indian tribes of the intermediate coun-
try, and in protecting from their depredations our
two lines of frontier settlements, which will now
gradually approach each other. Opinion as ex-
pressed and elicited by two large and respectable
conventions, recently assembled at St. Louis and
Memphis, points to a railroad as that which will
best meet and satisfy the wishes of our people.^'^

He then recommended that surveys be made to determine the
best route for a road, and, in fact, money had been set aside
in the army appropriation bill of 1849 for such surveys, but
had not been used.®* The next Secretary of the Interior, A.
H. H. Stuart, made very similar comments in his report of
the following year, but these recommendations also failed to
bring results.

M Ex. Doc. No. 1. 18. 30G. p. 44. Pub. doc. 603.

^ Sen. doc. No. 6. Is. 31C. pp. 13-14. Pub. doc. No. 670. The italics are the
author's.

*^ Haney. Congressional History of Railways. Pt. II. p. 66.

£97] Malin: Indian Pdicy and Westward Eocpansion ifl

The rivalry between the north and the south over the
question of routes for the Pacific railroad was intense. Their
plans were niore extensive than has been generally ap-
preciated, and had a close relation to various proposals
relating to Indian Affairs. On '30 September, I860, Con-
gress authorized the appointment of a special commission
for the purpose of obtaining statistics and making treaties
with various Indian tribes along the border of the United
States and Mexico. The conmiission was composed of C. J.
Todd, Robert B. Campbell, and Oliver Temple. Instructions
were issued under the date of 15 October, 1860, and were
written by Acting ^Commissioner A. S. Loughery. Behind
the whole affair was a plan to secure territory, probably
in west Texas, on which all the southern border tribes could
be consolidated. ' This would remove all Indians from the
southern boundary line, relieve the government of Indian
border difficulties, open the country to settlement, and make
possible the building of the Pacific railroad by the southern
route. At the same time the government was engaged, in
surveying the boundary and the commission was to cooperate
with the topographical engineers."' These plans do not all
come out in the instructions but they are clearly set forth in
the committee's report. They had conversations with Sena-
tor Rusk of Texas, one of the strongest of the southern rail-
road agitators, at New Orleans in November, and with
Governor Bell at Austin, and sent reports of the conversa-
tions to the department together with other communications
not mentioned in the report. The following extract from the
printed report (1851) gives a full statement of the under-
lying motives of the expedition :

"This system contemplates arrangements by
which incursions into Mexico as well as Texas shall
be restrained, and the separate territory proposed
to be secured in Texas lies north of the route usujolly
travelled to El Paso and New Mexico. A boundary
halving this beneficial provision on the entire route

** Instructions. Sen. doc. No. 1. 28. 81 C. p. 153. Pub. doc. No. r>87.

48 University cf Kansas Humanistic Studies [^8

to the Pacific, will therefore offer inducements to a
cordon of settlements along the borders of the
United States and Mexico, which, with the military
advantages of a railroad, will supercede the neces-
sity of a considerable expenditure in the establish-
ment of military posts. In this view of the subject
we regard a railroad, so far as its establishment
may be within the provisions of the Constitution,
contiguous to the line now in process of demarca-
tion, and extending to the Pacific, as possessing
eminent tendencies to fulfill our treaty stipulations,
on^ of the mx>st important objects contemplated in
our instructions. Without any design to disparage
the other routes to the Pacific, we may be permitted
to speak of the great advantages which the climate
and the topography on this route present to the con-
struction of a railroad from sea to sea. The dis-
tance along the route of the Gila, enormously es-
timated at one thousand six hundred miles, is be-
lieved to be, in the opinion of competent officers of
the topographical bureau, not more than twelve
hundred; and along this route the depressions in
. the Rocky Mountains are preeminently advantage-
ous for the construction of a railroad, while all the
approaches through Texas to El Paso on the Rio
Grande present the most mviting considerations for
this great object.

''It is needless to expatiate upon the value of a
railroad communicating across the continent within
our own borders, whether we look at it in a com-
mercial, political or military point of view. As a
bond of union between the states on the Atlantic
and Pacific, its importance cannot be exaggerated :
and in event of a war with a maritime power, the
facility which it would afford for the rapid trans-
portation and sudden concentration of an armed
force, will render our possessions on the Pacific as
impregnable as the late war with Great Britain
proved our invincibility along the Atlantic, Missis-
sippi and lake coasts."®^

In connection with the Richardson bill to organize the
Territory of Nebraska, three years later, the rivalry over

** Sen. doc. No. 1. Is. 31C. pp. 302-306. Pub. doc. No. 61. The italics are the
author's.

£99] Malin: Indian Pdicy and Wedtoard Expansion 49

these same routes is again clearly manifested, with its bear-
ing on the Indian situation. In the debate of 10 February
in the House Committee of the Whole, Mr. Howard of Texas
led the opposition based on the argument that the Indian title
to the land in Nebraska had not been extinguished. As the
government had made special treaty guarantees to the
Indians that this land would be theirs forever and that there
would never be any organized white territory or state es-
tablished over them, the Richardson bill would be a breach
of faith which could not be tolerated. In order to allow the
Indians sufficient land the southern boundary of the
Nebraska territory should be made 39"" SO' instead of 36'' 30%
north latitude. Mr. Hall of Missouri, who was one of the chief
supporters of the bill, answered him. He ridiculed Howard's
change of attitude toward the Indian and his sudden
solicitude for his welfare, because it was always understood
that ''according to Texas morals and politics" the Indian
had no rights whatever. He then made it plain that he con-
sidered that Howard's interests were not in the welfare of
the Indians of Nebraska, but in an altogether different sub-
ject. His purpose and that of the state of Texas was to
force the Indians out of that state in order that it might be
settled and to drive them northward into Nebraska and pre-
vent its organization and settlement. These additional wild
Indians in Nebraska would make the central routes to the
Pacific so dangerous that emigration to the coast would of
necessity have to go by way of the southern route through
Texas, and when the Pacific railroad should be built» it
would also have to follow that route.^*

The climax of the efforts of the southern group of rail-
road men to open their route came in 1853. The southern
boundary of the Mexican cession as fixed by the treaty of
peace in 1848 was designed to include the passes through the
Rocky Mountains for a Pacific railroad well within the ter-
ritory of the United States. The surveys of the boundary
later showed that the best passes were on the Mexican side

** O. O. 2s. 32C. pp. 542-44. 650-58.

60 University of Kansas Humanistic Studies [300

oi tiie line, and by a second faneaty with Mexico the Gadsden
Purdiase was made which secured the desired railroad route.

During this time two particular groups of men in Missouri
had set about to fouild railroads as far as the Indian Coun-
try. The Hannibal*St. Joseph Bailroad Company was in-
corporated by the act of 16 February, 1847. The company
immediately made efforts to secure a land grant from the
United States Government to aid in building the road. The
memorial was drawn up by J. S. Green and W. P. Hall. It
was stated that the road was to be *'an outlet to our rich and
valuable trade to Santa F§ and other Mexican towns, which
trade [was] becoming daily more and more important, and
would oiier many facilities to those who were desirous of
migrating to Oregon or the more distant provinces on the
Pacific."^^ Senator Atchison of Missouri presented a bill
for the land grants on 5 May, 1848, which was favorably
reported from the Committee on Public Lands by Senator
Breese of Illinois, but was not acted upon further.*** On 3
January, 1850, Atchison introduced another bill for a land
grant to the same road, which was passed by the Senate on
19 June, but was not considered by the House.*^ In the next
session Shields, the chairman of the Senate Committee on
Public Lands, introduced a bill for the same purpose. It was
also passed by the Senate on 8 February, 1851, but again the
House did not consider it.*^ In the House the same series
of bills had been presented by W. P. Hall, Representative
from Missouri, and in addition he had presented two memo-
rials in 1850 in favor of building a Pacific railroad from St.
Joseph, Missouri, his home city.*^

In the meantime, the Hannibal-St. Joseph Raibroad was
working for state aid in Missouri, which was granted by the

^ Laws of Missouri. 1847. pp. 353-54. Quoted in Million. State Aid to

Railroads in Missouri, n. 71.

*" Sen. Jour. Is. 30C. pp. 318. 397. A week later Douglas introduced a bill for
a land grant for the state of Iowa for a railroad from the Mississippi to the Mis-
souri River. Sen. Jour.. Is. 30C. p. 333.

^ Sen. Jour. Is. 31C. nr>. 51. 206. 410. A bill providinK for a grant of land t-o
the Davenport-Council Bluffs road in Iowa was presented by Felch 6 March.
Ibid. p. 07.

« Sen. Jour. Is. 31C. pp. 35. 38. 151. 157.

•» House Jour. Is. 31C. pp. 755. 880. Pub. doc. No. 566. It is also very impor-
tant to note here that a year later Hall presented his first bill providing for the or-
ganization of Nebraska Territory. It is significant that he should be presenting
these three subjects to the attention of Congress at the same time.

SOI] Malin: Indian Policy and Westward Expansiofi 51

lefirislature on 22 February, 1851. When Congress met the
next -winter, another attemirt: was made to secure a land
grant from the national government, which proved success-
ful. Saiator Atchison again introduced the measure, but it
was amended in order to include another project upon which
he had also been working.

The Pacific Railroad Company was incorporated by the
state of Missouri 12 March, 1849, and was to follow ihe
route from St. Joseph through Jefferson City to the west
line of the state at some point in Cass County. The inten-
tion of the men behind this proposition was to build the road
''with a view that the same may thereafter be continued
westwardly to the Pacific Ocean."^<^ This company also de-
sired a grant of land from Congress, and drew up a memorial
which was presented by Senator Atchison 27 February,
1850.^^ In the next session he presented a bill for the same
purpose which was passed by the Senate but not by the
House." In the winter of 1851-52 the bill was introduced by
Senator Geyer of Missouri but was not considered. How-
ever, the Hannibal-St. Joseph bill, before mentioned, was
passed with an amended title which included both roads.
This act was approved 10 June, 1852.^^ A special session of
the state legislature was called to accept the grant and dis-
tribute the land to the companies, but the distribution was
delayed until the following regular session. The Pacific Com-
pany was authorized on 25 December, 1852, to build a south-
west branch, which was finally run to Springfield, Mis-
souri.^* Soon afterward an act was passed which granted
the company the right "to construct and operate its road to
any point or points west of the boundary of the state of
Missouri."^^

' Both of these ventures were represented in Congress by
two men, Atchison in the Senate and Hall in the House, who
were leaders in the movement to organize a territorial gov-

^ ThecharteriBprlntedinSen.Mi8C.doc. No. 59. Is. 31C. pp. 3-7. Pub. doc. No.
663.

2 Ibid. pp. 1-3.

* 2 Sen. Jour. 2b. 31C. pp. 47. 57. 160. 208.

" Sen. Joiu". Is. 32C. Text of Act. 10 U. S. Statutes, p. 8.

1* Million. State Aid to Railroads in Missouri, pp. 68. 75. 86.

^ Ibid. p. 81. The italics are the author's.

S^ University of Kansas Humanistic Studies [SOS

eminent in the Indian Country. Senator Atchison was also
chairman of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs for
some time and managed the business of the Indian Depart-
ment in the Senate, especially the Liaramie Treaty which
opened up the central route to the Pacific through the west-
em Indian Country. The two roads just considered have
been chosen as illustrations, because of the men supporting
them and because they were roads which were not only pro-
jected, but had received both state and national aid and were
actually in process of construction. Furthermore it was
clearly planned for both of them to be built to the Pacific
through the Indian Country.^*

WESTWARD EXPANSION AND ORGANIZATION OF NEBRASKA

1848-52

After 1848 emigration across the Indian Country increased
by leaps and bounds. The road to California was traversed
by thousands of Americans going to seek homes or gold in
the territories of the Pacific 'Coast. They were therefore es-
pecially interested in a safe route to the Pacific through
organized territory. At the same time the pioneers had been
banking up against the eastern frontier of the Indian Coun-
try and many were looking forward with a great deal of
interest to the day when the Indians would be forced out of
that country and the whole region opened up to settlement.

On 20 December, 1849, a memorial from the Legislature of
the State of Missouri asked for the organization of the coun-
try west of that state."

The interest of Stephen A. Douglas in the organization of
the Nebraska country in the preceding period has been dis-
cussed in connection with the organization of the Oregon
country. In 1848, Douglas came forward with another bill
providing for the organization of Nebraska.^" As proposed
in this bill, the territory was to include the country between

'* The project of the Douglas frroup are probably of more importance In the his-
tory of the Pacific milroad. but that story has been told in Hodder's Cenesis ofthe
Kansas-Nebraska Bill. In the proceedings of the State Historical Society of Wis-
consin. 1912. The connection between the schemes of Douglas and the Mis-
souri group will be discussed in the next section, on the organization of Nebraska.

" C. G. Is. 30C. p. 66.

7» Ibid. p. 467.

303] Malin: Indian Poliq^ and Westward Expansion S3

40** and 43** north latitude, from the Missouri River west to
the Rocky Mountains^* The bill, however, failed to receive
consideration at this time. The proposal was premature so
far as inunediate accomplishment was concerned, but the
movement in favor of early organization was steadily grow-
ing.

A very keen analysis of the situation as it existed at the
time was made by Father De Smet, the noted missionary to
the Indians of the west. The following is taken from a letter
written in 1851 :

''The same lot that the Indians east of the
Mississippi have experienced, will at no distant day
overtake those who dwell on the west of the same
river. As the white population advances and pene-
trates into the interior, the aborigines will gradu-
ally withdraw. Already, even, it is perceptible
that the whites look with a covetous eye on the fer-
tile lands of the Delawares,**® Potawatomies, Shaw-
nees,*^ and others on our frontiers, and project the
organization of a new Territory — ^Nebraska. I
should not be surprised if, in a few years, negotia-
tions were entered upon for the purchase of those
lands, and the removal of those Indians who will be
forced to retire farther west. The great openings
offered to emigration by the definitive, arrangement
of the Oregon Question, as well as the acquisition of
New Mexico, California and Utah, have alone, thus
far, hindered any efforts for extinguishing the
Indian titles or rights to the lands situated inmiedi-
ately west of the State of Missouri, and those situ-
ated on the south side of the river Missouri, be-
tween the rivers Kansas and Platte, and probably
as high as the Nebraska or L'Eau qui court.""

Father De Smet's comments are very significant. He had
read the situation aright, only the movement, which he pre-
dicted, came sooner than he had anticipated. The government
seems to have gone so far as to consider the survey of the
Indian Country in 1851 with a view to the organization of

n Watklns. History of Nebraska, Vol. I. p. 135.
» Territory on the north side of the Kansas River,
n Land immediately south of the Kansas River.

n De Smet. Life and Letters, Edited by Chittenden and Richardson. Vol. III.
pp. 1201-03.

64 University of Kansas Humanistic Studies [3(^

the territory, for J. Butterfield, Commissioner of the General
Land Office, reported to the Secretary of the Interior, A. H.
H. Staart^ that :

*^he establishment of a territorial government for
the Platte river or Nebraska country, west of the
Missouri river, and between the state of Iowa and
the eastern spurs of the Rocky Mountains, would
have to precede the extension of our surveying
system over any bodies of country that may be ac-
quired from the Indians in that region."*^

The next step in the movement to organize the Indian
Country was the introduction of a bill in the House for that
purpose by Representative Hall of Missouri in 1851.^* This
was followed in the next year by one in which he named the
proposed territory, the "Territory of the Platte.'* However,
neither of these bills received consideration. Nevertheless
the issue of the organization of Nebraska was joined during
this session of 1862-53 on the bill presented by Representa-
tive Richardson of Illinois, Chairman of the House Commit-
tee on Territories. At that time there seems to have been
more than one element in the legislative program of the
northwestern group in the House. Three measures were as-
sociated in their minds which should be worked out in con-
junction with each other. They were the division of Oregon
into two territories under the names of Oregon and Colum-
bia, the organization of Nebraska, and the building of a
road from the frontiers to the coast. This is the program
outlined by Shields of Illinois on 8 February, 1853, when the
two bills for organization of territories came up for con-
sideration in the Committee of the Whole. Richardson made
a motion to take up the Nebraska bill firsts as it was the de-
sire of the Committee on Territories to take them up in that
order, but when objection was made he gave way. The Ter-
ritory of Columbia bill was then considered, amended to

M Sen. doc. No. 1. Is. 32C. p. 17. Pub. doc. No. 613.
6* C. G. Is. 32C. pt. 1. p. 80.
» C. G. 28. 32C. p. 47.

305] Malin: Indian Policy and Westtoard Expansion 65

change the name to Washington, and passed on 10 Febru-
ary/«

Richardson's Nebraska bill was considered in Commit-
tee of the Whole on the same day as the Territory of Colum-
bia bill. The proposed bomidaries of the Territory were 36""
30' on the south, and 43*" on the north, and included all the
country between the Missouri and the Rocky Mountains. The
debate on the bill was almost altogether along three lines ;
the absence of white population, the question of Indian title,
and the building of a Pacific railroad. The last two questions
are very closely connected in many respects and it is dif-
ficult to draw the line between the arguments based on a
sincere interest in the Indian and those arising out of the
selfish interests and the rivalry over the Pacific railroad
routes.

AU the territory included within the boundaries fixed by
the Richardson bill was occupied by Indians and the inter-
course act of 1834 prohibited white men access to the coun-
try. It was therefore impossible for white men to settle
there. However, the intercourse act did not give the Indians
a perpetual guarantee to all the territory defined as Indian
Country for the purpose of the administration of the act. In
this Indian Country there were three different kinds of
lands. First, those to which the original Indian title had
been extinguished and which had been regranted by treaty
in perpetuity to Indians removed from east of the Mississippi
River under the provisions of the Act of 1830. Furthermore,
these Indians were never to be included within any organized
state or territory without their own consent. They con-
stituted a comparatively narrow strip along the western
border of Missouri. Second, those to which the original
Indian title had been extinguished, but which had never been
regranted to any other Indians. The title, therefore, be-
longed to the United States Government, although Indians
occupied or hunted over all of what is now central and west-
ern Kansas and Nebraska south of the Platte River. Lastly,
lands for which the original Indian title had never been ex-

•• C. O. 2S. 32C. pp. 539-40, 554-55. Passed Senate 2 March.

S07] Malin: Indian Pdicy and Westward Expansion 57

tinsruished, and no treaty guarantee had been made to the
Indians to whom the title belonged. These included lands
north of the Platte River, also a small district south of the
Platte and just west of the Missouri River, and the lands of
the prairie and mountain tribes of the far west; Colorado,
Wyoming, etc.'^

The objections to the Richardson bill based on the Indian
question centered on three points ; the perpetual treaty guar-
antee of title, the guarantee that they would not be included
in any organized state or territory, and the argument that if
Nebraska were organized with the boundaries as fixed in
the bill, the Indians would not be left enough land to sup-
port them.^^ Howard of Texas insisted that the south bound-
ary should not be 36° 30' but 39° 30'. This would leave the
Indians sufficient room, but he did not explain that it would
also leave the central routes to the Pacific in the Indian
Country just as before. Hall of Missouri led the defense.
He ridiculed Howard's sudden interest in the welfare of the
Indians. He was not aware that the g^tleman from Texas
had changed his policy toward them, and his constituents
were to be congratulated on the change in their representa-
tive. It had always been understood that ''according to
Texas politics and morals, the Indians had no rights what-
ever." He then pointed out that the bill provided that the
treaties with the Indians should not be violated and that
they should not be included in the new territory without
their own consent Provisions were also made for negotia-
tions with the Indian tribes for the extinguishment of their
title in a regular way. He then showed that Mr. Howard
was not interested in the Indians in Nebraska at all. It was
the purpose of Mr. Howard and the state of Texas to force
the Indians out of Texas so that their territory could be
settled and developed. The Indians thus driven out would be
forced northward into the Nebraska country and in that way
prevent the organization and settlement of Nebraska. The
presence of so large a body of wild Indians in that country

•7 See above, pp. 20 and 24.
« See above, p. 49.

68 University of Kansas Humanistic Studies [308

would make Hie overtand notes ta the Padfie 8o dangerova
that emigraticm woald of necessity have to avoid the Indlaii
Coontry and pass through Texas and f urthennore whem the
raibroad should be built, it would have to take the southern
route.'*

Mr. Hall seems to have been the only speaker who under-
stood, in its larger aspect, what the opening of the Netouska
country would mean in its relation to the Indian poUey of
the government. The organization of Nebraska and the re^
moval of the Indians would be a complete revolution in the
Indian policy followed for twenty years. The consolidation
of the Indians in the southwest would have to be abandoned
and a complete regrouping would have to take place.

Before the time at which the Richardson bill was being
considered in Congress the two propositions, the organiza-
tion of Nebraska and the construction of the Pacific rail-
road by the central route, had been definitely and openly
linked together. Probably the first time they were so
publicly linked as measures for practical and immediate ac-
complishment was in a speech made by Thomas H. Benton
at Jackson, Missouri, on 30 October, 1862.®^ However, the
connection had been well understood for some time by the
groups of men interested in these and other railroads and in
the organization of the Nebraska Territory. The close con-
nection is also brought out very forcibly by the Atchison-
Benton campaign for the senatorship in Missouri during the
summer of 1853 and the following winter. Both of the prin-
cipals in the contest recognized that the organization of the
Nebraska Territory was necessary before the railroad could
be built by the central route to the Pacific.** In fact the two
measures were counterparts of each other.

When it comes to the analysis of the debate on the Rich-
ardson bill it is clear that the really fundamental objection
was the rivalry over the routes for the Pacific railroad. It
is clear that the bill was sponsored by the Douglas group in

» C. G. 28. 32C. pp. 542-44. 556-58.

•0 "Ray, Repeal of the Missouri Compromise, p. 75.

« Ibid.

*

S09] MaKn: Indian P(Jdcy and Wedward Expansion 69^

C!ongresSy a group which was definitely pledged to the rail-
road idea.*^ Richardson of Illinois was chairman of the
ConiBiittee on Territories in the House, and Douglas himself
was Chairman of the Committee on Territories in the Senate.
They were in coalition with the members from Missouri,
Hall in the House and Atchison in the Senate, who were also
pledged to the railroad idea. The importance of this coalition
has not been sufficiently appreciated. Atchison had se-
cured the land grants to two Missouri railroad companies
whose purpose was to build to the Pacific and he was now
supporting the Nebraska bill. Hall had presented the same
series of land grant bills in the House, memorials for the
building of a Pacific railroad from St. Joseph, Missouri, and
two bills for the organization of Nebraska.** Now he was
taking the leading part in the defense of the Richardson bill
in the House. His speech in the Committee of the Whole on
10 February, 1853, in which he developed his reasons for the
organization of Nebraska, is sufficiently comprehensive and
important to warrant quotation even at the risk of a measure
of tedidusness :

"The gentleman from Texas [Mr. Howard] en-
tirely misapprehends the reasons upon which the
organization of Nebraska rests. He states, that
Nebraska Territory comprises three hundred and
forty thousand square miles of land, and that only
some four or five hundred people reside in the Ter-
ritory; and he says that the wants of the people
do not require a territorial organization. We do
not want this biU merely to protect the inhabitants
of Nebraska; we want it for other equally impor-
tant purposes.

"I wish the gentleman from Texas would turn
to the map of the United States, and look at the
situation of Nebraska.

"I wish the gentleman would also look at the
situation of Oregon, California and Utah. An im-
mense wilderness of one thousand miles in extent
separates the people of this side of the continent

M Hodder. Genesis o f the Kansas'Nebraska BiU. Proceedings of the Wisoonsin
HIstorfcal Society. 1912.
x SeeaboTe. pp. 50-51.

60 University of Kansas Humanistic Studies [310

from those occupying the territory bordering on
the Pacific Ocean. How are Oregon and Califor-
nia to be protected in time of war if this great
wilderness is forever to remain without settle-
ment? It appears to me to be a self-evident trutii
— one about which there cannot be two opinions
— ^that if California and Oregon are to remain
portions of this Union, you must extend your lines
of settlement from the Missouri river to the sum-
mits of the Rocky Mountains, and continue the
farms, the village, and city of the white man from
ocean to ocean. How is your commerce carried
on with California and Oregon? It is carried on
by way of Cape Horn, or across the Isthmus of
Panama. And how do your emigrants reach those
settlements? They have to pass through tihe im-
mense wilderness west of the State of Missouri,
exposed to all kinds of disease, the inclemency of
the weather, and the attacks of savage Indians.
There is no house on this great line of travel in
which a sick man can take refuge, or a helpless
woman seek shelter from tiie storm; and yet the
gentleman says, because we have a treaty with a
few Indian tribes which stipulates that tiieir ter-
ritory shall not be included within any territorial
government, that neither now nor thereafter can
we protect that extensive overland route.

"We want to organize the Territory of Nebraska
then not merely for the protection of a few people
who reside there, but also for the protection of
Oregon and California in time of war, and the.
protection of our commerce, and the fifty or sixty
thousand emigrants who annually cross the plains.
These emigrants have now no protection, and
murder and crimes of various kinds, are commit-
ted among them which are not and can not be pun-
ished under existing laws. Establish a territorial
government and judicial tribunals there, and pro-
tection will be afforded them.

"The crowd of emigrants, to which I have ad-
verted, every year violates to a greater or less ex-
tent the rights of the Indians. They destroy their
timber, and spread the cholera, small-pox, and
measles, and other contagious diseases among
them. They subject them to innumerable annoy-

311] Malin: Indian Polu^ and Westward Expansion 61

ances ; and you cannot protect these Indians from
encroachments on their rights unless you do what I
have no doubt the State of Texas would wish were
done; establish a decree that no nuin shall pass
through that Territory at all, either in going to or
returning from California and Oregon, or remove
these Indians off the great highways to the Pacific
coast and settle them as far as possible from the
emigrants who now pass through their country
in crowds. Establish the Territory of Nebraska,
place its government under the direction of men
of character, supported by the laws of the coun-
try, and, if necessary, by military force. Do that,
and in some degree you may expect to secure these
Indians from disturbance."®*

He then quotes from the reports of C!ommissioner of Indian
Affairs Medill and Superintendent Mitchell in which they
advocate the removal of the Indians of the Platte VaUey and
the opening of the country along the routes to Oregon and
California. Continuing he says :

"I will never go for a bill to violate a treaty with
any Indians, or anybody else. But, says the gen-
tleman, this will change our entire Indian policy.
Yes, sir, it will. Does the gentleman know that
since the Act of 1834 was passed, the condition of
the country has been totally changed? In 1834,
Oregon was not settled, and I suppose a majority
of the people of the United States thought it would
never be settled. Since that time we have acquired
a great and powerful State on the coast of the
Pacific, and we have acquired New Mexico,
too, but under the Indian intercourse act,
that immense country which intervenes be-
tween Missouri and the summit of the Rocky
mountains is made a wilderness, and we are cut
off from the great coast of the Pacific. / appeal
to the gentlemen of this committee if that change
of the circumstances of the country does not im-
peratively demand a change in the Indian policy
of the country? Why, everybody is talking about
a Railroad to the Pacific ocean. In the name of
God, how is the railroad to be made if you will
never let people live on the lands through which

M The italics are the author's.

6g University of Kansas Humanistic Studies [SIS

the road parses? Are you going to construct a
road through the Indian Territory, at the expense
of $200,000,000, and say no one shall live upon
the land through which it passes ?

"But this territory is too extensive, says the
gentleman from Texas. I admit that it is exten-
sive. It extends from the forty-third parallel of
north latitude to the parallel of 36° 30' north lati-
tude, and from the Missouri river to the summit
of the Rocky Mountains. /* has to be thus ex-
tended^ in order to embrace the great line of travel
to Oregon, New Mexico and California. The
South Pass is in latitude 42"" 30\ and hence the
territory has to extend to the forty-third degree of
north latitude.

'*The reason why this biU fixes S6^ SO* as the
southern boundary of Nebraska is, because the
road from Missouri to New Mexico crosses the
line of S6^ SO', and therefore you have to run down
to that line to protect that great travel. That is
the reason why the boundaries are so extensive.

"As to the Indian intercourse act and that pol-
icy I regret that it ever was established. It ap-
pears to me that those who at that day represented
the State which I now represent, did not go quite
as far into futurity as they might have done, and
as the interests of the people of my section of the
country required. I regret that it is the case, but
having been established, I wish to do nothing that
will interfere with any treaties that may have
been made whilst that policy prevailed. In my
opinion, however, this bill is sufficiently guarded
to protect the rights of the Indian tribes. If it is
not so, then I beg the gentleman to devise amend-
ments calculated to protect the Indians, and I will
vote for them; but do not raise the objections to
the bill and then make no effort to relieve it from
the weight of those objections."®'

Later in the debate Richardson spoke in support of the bill
and the burden of his defense was to make possible the na-
tural westward expansion and the opening of the routes to
the Pacific :

» C. G. 2b. 32C. pp. 558-60. The italics are the author's.

SIS] Malin: Indian Policy and Wedtmrd Expansion 6S

"Gentlemea have stated that the popuJation of
this territory amounts to only six or eight hundred
people. Probably it does not amount to more than
that. The settlement of that territory has been
prevented for six or seven years by the Indian in-
tercourse act and the policy pursued by this gov-
ernment. But there are today, upon the borders
of Missouri five, ten or fifteen thousand people
waiting for you to give them permission to settle
in the Territory, and to relieve the Government
from the expense of the military force that you
keep there. Five thousand settlers would do more
to protect the line of travel to Oregon, California
and New Mexico, and all the interests you have in
the Proposed Territory, than all the troops in your
regular Army.

"He [Howard] is opposed to all bills which
create territorial governments. He is wiUing to
treat with these Indians, to go through that slow
process, and in the meantime all the great objects
of the establishment of a territorial government
will be lost, dnd emigration to the Pacific will be
driven to another portion of the Union, from the
route which it now follows. He wants time, but the
great interests of our western people dewfiLnd the
passage of this bill, and demand it now. . . ."••

Two amendments were adopted to obviate all possible ob-
jections based on the Indian question. The first presented
by Clingman (N.C.) provided specifically that certain
Indian tribes be not included in the Territory without their
own consent. The second transferred the duties of superin-
tendent of Indian Affairs in the Territory from the Superin-
tendent at St. Louis to the Governor of the proposed Terri-
tory. In this form the bill passed the House on 10 February,
1853, by a vote of 98 to 43. An analysis of the vote shows it
to be almost altogether sectional. Thirty of the forty-three
votes against the bill coming from the south, and eighty of
the ninety-eight for the bill coming from the north.'^

In the Senate the contest was more critical as the opposi-

K C. G. 2s. 32C. pp. 651-63. The italics are the author's.

9J Ibid.

64 University of Kansas Humanistic Studies [SH

tion was strongrer owing to the more equal representation of
north and south in the upper house. The objections made
were very similar and here the Douglas-Missouri coalition
becomes even more significant. Atchison of Missouri was
Chairman of the Committee on Indian Affairs and was chosen
President pro tern 20 December, 1852, and presided during
the session. For the reason that he was presiding officer
he kept almost silent on all matters under discussion,
si)eaking on only two bills ; first an Indian appropriation bill
on which, as Chairman of the Committee on Indian Affairs,
he had special information and interest ; the other the Rich-
ardson bill. On 3 March, 1853, he spoke with considerable
reservation.

"Perhaps," he said, "there is no state so much
interested in the organization of Nebraska Terri-
tory as Missouri. If not the largest, I will say,
the best portion of that territory, perhaps the only
portion of it that in half a centuty will become a
state, lies immediately west of the State of Mis-
souri. It is only a question of time whether we
will organize the territory at this session of Con-
gress, or whether we will do it at the next session ;
and for my part I acknowledge now, as the Sena-
tor from Illinois [Douglas] well knows, when I
came to this city at the beginning of the last ses-
sion, I was perhaps as much opposed to the propo-
sition as the Senator from Texas [Rusk] now is.
The Senator from Iowa [Jones or Dodge] knows
it; and it was for reasons which I will not mention
or suggest. But, sir, I have upon reflection and
investigation in my own mind and from the opin-
ion of others — my constituents whose opinions I
am bound to respect, — come to the conclusion that
now is the time for the organization of this Terri-
tory. It is the most propitious time."®^

It was the last day of the session ; the last hope that the
bill would pass. It needed the support of every friend. The
opposition to consideration of the bill continued and Atchison

M C. O. 28. 32C. p. 1111. The itaMcfl are the author's. A meeting at Park-
Tille, Missouri, in the spring of 1852 declared in favor of the organization of the
Territory of Nebraska. Atchison presented the proceedings of the meeting and
they were referred to the Committee on Territories. Local sentiment in the west,
independent of political considerations, demanded the organization of Nebraska.

316] Malin: Indian Pdicy and Westward Expansion 66

spoke again, this time with less reserve. Before, he had re-
fused to give his reasons for his earlier opposition ; now he
gave them :

"One was, that the Indian title had not been ex-
tinguished, or at least only a small portion of it
had been. Another was the Missouri Compromise,
or, as it is commonly called, the slavery restric-
tion. . . . Whether that law was in accordance with
the Constitution of the United States or not, it
would do its work, and that work would be to pre-
clude slaveholders from going into that territory.
But when I came to look into the question, I found
that there was no prospect, no hope of a repeal of
the Missouri Compromise, excluding slavery from
that territory. Now, sir, I am free to admit at
this moment, at this hour and for all time to come,
I should oppose the organization and settlement of
that territory unless my constituents and the con-
stituents of the whole South, of the slave states of
the Union, could go into it on the same footing,
with equal rights and privileges, carrying their
species of property with them as other people of
the Union. Yes, sir, I acknowledge that that would
have governed me, but I have no hope that the re-
striction will ever be repealed. . . .

"So far as that great question is concerned, we
ought as well agree to the admission of this Terri-
tory now as next year or five or ten years
hence."**

His speech explained why he had objected to the organiza-
tion earlier, but it did not explain fully what influence had
brought about this change in opinion. There was a purpose
behind this bill important enough to outweigh his objections
based on the slavery restriction of the Missouri Compromise.
He admitted that the Senator from Illinois and the Senator
from Iowa knew well his reasons for earlier opposition and
implied that they also knew his reasons for a change of
opinion.

Senator Bell of Tennessee, who was an important member
of the opposition, asked Douglas to explain his meaning in
urging the bill :

» C. G.28. 32r. p. 1113.

66 University of Kansas Humanistic Studies [316

"1 know the Senator from Illinois sufficiently
well to know that when he makes a proposition of
this description, it has a meaning ; and he does
not merely mean to fill up space, and pass the time
until the present session of Congress has passed
away. What he does is pregnant with signifi-
cance; and if the honorable Senator from Illinois
is disposed to tell his meaning, I am perfectly will-
ing to hear him.''"°

Douglas took up the challenge. He stated plainly :

"I have tried to get it through for eight long
years, .... It is an act that is very dear to my
heart, one that I should be glad to discuss in all
its bearings. It is one of immense magnitude and
grave importance to the country.

"The object of the bill is to create a territorial
government extending from the western boundary
of Missouri and Iowa to Utah and Oregon. In
other words, it is to form a line of territorial gov-
ernments extending from the Mississippi valley to
the Pacific Ocean, so that we can have continuous
settlements from one to the other. We can not ex-
pect or hope even, to maintain our Pacific posses*
sions unless they can be connected in feeling and
interest and communication with the Atlantic
states. This can only be done by contimuyus lines
of settlements, and those settlements can only be
formed where the laws will furnish protection to
those who settle upon and cultivate the soil. The
proposed Territory of Nebraska embraces quite a
number of the emigrant routes extending to our
Pacific possessions. It embraces the route from
Missouri to Santa F6: and also to Utah, Oregon
and California. . . . Sir, what have we done for
these Pacific possessions? What have we done to
bind them to us ? When a proposition was brought
forward here to establish a railroad connection,
it met with determined resistance. The project
was crushed and destroy ed.*'^^^

Douglas's first bill for the organization of Nebraska had
been introduced in December, 1844, and at the same time
Atchison had introduced a bill for the organization of Oregon

;« C. G. 2b. 32C. p. 1115.

^^ Ibid. p. 1 1 16. The Italics are the author's.

317] Malin: Indian Pdicy and WMlward Expansion 67

which had included Nebraska. Atchison's interest in
Nebraska therefore had been of as long standing as that of
Douglas.^®' At that time the slavery question had not been
so large a factor in territorial organization. Atchison's at-
titude at that time was more national than sectional as it had

come to be later.

•

Douglas and Atchison had both been working since 1848
to secure grants of land from CJongress to build railroads
from the Mississippi River to the Indian CJountry. Douglas's
efforts had been directed to the building of a road which
would connect Chicago with the Missouri River at some point
in Iowa. Atchison had secured grants of land in 1852 to
build two roads, one from Hannibal to St. Joseph, Missouri,
and the other from St. Louis to the west line of the state.^®*
It was the purpose to extend each of these roads eventually
to the Pacific, therefore both Douglas and Atchison were
vitally interested' in the organization of Nebraska, and in
order for Douglas to carry his measure he had won Atchison
over to the support of his bill, even though Atchison had had
to sacrifice the slavery interests of Missouri to do so.

Atchison gives further evidence of the purpose of this bill
in a series of speeches beginning at Weston, Missouri, 6
June, 1853, just three months after the above discussion in
Congress, in answer to Benton's charges that he was opposed
both to the organization of Nebraska and the construction of
the Pacific railroad. In his defense he cited the land grants
which he had secured for railroads during the preceding ses-
sion :

"The land obtained by these measures will assist
in the construction of two roads from the Missis-
sippi, both pointing to the Pacific, either of them
long links in the chain yet to be constructed. VSHio
will not admit that the land grants thus obtained
will facilitate, expedite and certainly insure, the
speedy completion of the Hannibal-St. Joseph rail-
road, the Pacific railroad from St. Louis to Kan-
sas, as well as the southwestern branch of the same,
terminating in a section of the state rich in re-

JJJ See above, p. 38.

'*'* See above, pp. 60»51.

68 University of Kansas Humanistic Studies [318

sources hitherto undeveloped. Missouri will oc-
cupy the enviable position of being: able to offer
the United States three frontier starting: points
for the Pacific railroad, which offer cannot be made
by any other state in the Union. ... In obtaining
these grants of land, the first link toward connect-
ing by railroad the valley of the Mississippi with
the Pacific, was heated, formed and welded, and
if ever the connection is made (and I doubt not
it will be) and either of the points upon our
western border be made the starting point, it will
be because this link has been made. ... I am in
favor of the construction of such a railroad by the
General Government for that purpose. I will vote
to appropriate land and money. / believe it abso-
lutely necessary for the integrity of the Union. As
to where it shall commence or where it shall end,
that is a matter to be determined when the surveys
and operations in progress shall be completed, and
the route it must take between the termini is ab-
solutely dependent upon these surveys. . . . My
opinion is that the matter of termini and the route
of the road will of necessity be left to the discre-
tion of the President."i«*

During the summer of 1853 Atchison's attitude toward the
slavery question,* as related to the organization of the
Nebraska Territory, underwent a radical change. On re-
turning to Missouri after the close of the session in which
the Richardson bill had been under discussion, he was drawn
into a political contest with Benton. His term was drawing
to a close and Benton was determined to secure his seat. The
Legislature elected in the fall of 1854 would select his suc-
cessor. Benton began his campaign in May, 1853, making the
Central Pacific railroad and the organization of the Nebraska
Territory the key notes of the campaign, charging Atchison
with opposition to both of these measures. Atchison made
his first speech in answer at Weston, Missouri, 6 June, 185S.
In this speech he avowed his support of both measures and
cited his record in Congress, but he said a bill for the or-
ganization of Nebraska must not contain ''any restrictions

*°* Quoted In Ray, Repeal of the Missouri Compromise, pp. 78-80. The italics
are the author's.

319] Malin: Indian Pdu^ and Wedward Expansion 69

upon the subject of slavery I will vote for a bill that

leaves the slaveholder and the non-slaveholder upon terms
of equality. I am willingr that the people who may settle
there and who have the deepest interests in this question
should decide it for themselves.""* To carry this policy into
effect would be to repeal the Missouri Compromise. This was
a complete chancre of attitude and it must be recognized in
whatever influence Atchison may have had in shaping: the
Kansas-Nebraska Act of the succeeding session.

The fact that the Indian title in Nebraska had not been
extinguished proved a stumbling block in the way of the pas-
sage of the Richardson bill to organize the Territory. The
bill had been defeated, but another had been passed which
authorized the President to negotiate with the Indian tribes
west of Missouri and Iowa for the purpose of extinguishing
the Indian title to all or part of that country."^ If this could
be done immediately that important element in the opposition
to the bill would be removed. So great a task was not to be
easily accomplished and when the question of Nebraska was
opened in the next session the work was still incomplete.

The people on the border were very much excited about
the proposed organization of the Indian Country and some
went over into the territory to explore and make locations.
Of course the opposition made the most of it. Reports came
out through the press ''that a constant current of emigration
is flowing into the Indian Country." This campaign of op-
position assumed such proportions that Manypenny, the
Commissioner of Indian Affairs, took occasion to comment
upon it in his annual report of 1853. He said :

"Some have explored the country, but all, as far
as my information extends, have returned to await
the action of the executive department in making
treaties, and the necessary legislation for the or-
ganization of the territory. ... On the 11th of Oc-
tober, the day on which I left the frontier, there
was no settlement made in any part of Ne-
braska.""^

5* Quoted In Ray, Repeal of the Missouri Compromise, p. 136.

^ Rpt. Com. Inf. Aff. Sen. doc. No. 1. Is. 33C. pt. I. p. 249. Pub.doc. No. 690.

^ Sen. doc. No. 1, la. 33C. pt. I. p. 275. Pub. doc. No. 690.

70 UnwersUy of Kansas Humanistic Studies [320

The sentiment of the western country clearly demanded
the organization of the territory, and with the meeting of
Congress the final struggle began. On 14 December, 1853i
Dodge of Iowa introduced his Nebraska bill and the Kansas-
Nebraska bill, which Douglas reported on 23 January, 1854,
as a substitute, was finally passed and approved by the
President on 30 May. The bill as passed provided for the or-
ganization of the Indian Country north of the thirty-seventh
parallel into two territories. Kansas and Nebraska. The Mis-
souri Compromise was repealed and the question of slavery
was left to be determined by the people who settled the ter-
ritory. These provisions regarding slavery met the demands
which Atchison made during the summer of 1853 as the
only conditions upon which he would support the organiza-
tion of the Indian Country. Douglas alone was not able to
carry the Kansas-Nebraska measure which would open the
way for his Pacific railroad. Therefore, it was necessary
for him to preserve the coalition with Missouri, for Atchison
could command enough western and southern influence to
accomplish his purpose. He was obliged to make this con-
cession and in addition he gave Atchison his active support
in the latter's campaign against Benton in Missouri, as is
shown by the letter of F. P. Blair Jr., to the Missouri
Democrat 1 March, 1856. ''Mr. Douglas especially has taken
the trouble on several occasions within the last two years to
visit the state of Missouri to give aid and comfort to the
'NuUifiers and Rottens'. . . who have been warring on Old
Bullion here since the advent of Tyler."*®*

The fact that Atchison had an important influence in
shaping the Kansas-Nebraska Act is beyond question, al-
though there are conflicting stories regarding details. Sena-
tor Butler of South Carolina in his defense of Atchison in the
Senate on 28 February, 1856, said that ''General Atchison. . .
had perhaps more to do with the bill than any other sena-
tor.""» He was in a position to know whereof he spoke be-

i« Quoted in Ray. Repeal of the Missouri Compromise, p, 202. Note,
lot Appendix C. G. 1b. 340. p. 103.

S21] Malin: Indian Pdicy and Westward Expannon 71

cause he and Atchison together with Hunter of Virginia had
lived at the same place during the session of 1853-64.^^*

There is no doubt that the chief interests behind the Kan-
sas-Nebraska Act were those concerned in the building of the
Pacific railroad.^^^ Atchison recognized these interests and
commented upon them in a letter written from Washington
5 June, 1854, to the Missouri Republican, a week after the
passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act :

*'The Douglas BiU was a western measure. It
was designed to add to the power and wealth of
the West. Well might St. Louis declare Benton as
hostile to her best interests ; for no portion of the
country is to be so largely benefitted by the open-
ing of Kansas and Nebraska to settlement. All of
the railroad interests are largely interested, for a
terminus on the western frontier, blocked by an
Indian wall, is very different from an indefinite
extension west through new, rapidly opening set-
tlements."^^^

CHANGED LIVING CONDITIONS AND CIVILIZATION OF INDIANS

The last factor to be considered in bringing about the re-
vision of the Indian policy is the changed living conditions
and civilization of the Indian himself. When located east of
the Mississippi, the Indian had been more or less injured by
contact with the white population, his game had been dis-
troyed, he had had to be consolidated into smaller and smaller
districts and finally had to turn to agriculture and a civilized
mode of living or to migrate to the west. Now in his west-
em home much the same process was going on, only there
was now no great unoccupied region to which he could go.
The Indians on the border had reached a fair degree of
civilization, especially the half-breeds of the tribes. These
more advanced Indians were looking forward to the time
when they could become citizens, own land in severalty, and
live the life of the white man. However, the majority of
them were not ready for such measures.

^^^ CongresHonal Directory, 1853-54.

>^ For further discussion on this subject see Hodder, Genesis of the Kansas-
Nebraska BiU. Proceedings of the State Historical Society of Wiaoonsin. 1912 .

>i> Quoted in Ray, Repeal of the Missouri Compromise, p. 261. The italics are
the author's.

72 University of Kansas Humanistic Stiidies [322

The Wyandot Indians were one of the most advanced
tribes on the border and they, particularly, were anxious to
become citizens, and were lookingr forward to chancres in
policy in their relation to their country. William Walker, a
member of their Nation and grovemor under the so-called
Provisional Government of Kansas, wrote in his diary on 25
May, 1850:

"This may be the last semi-annuity we will re-
ceive from the United States, for, if the President
and the Senate should confirm our treaty it will
certainly be the last. As after that event we Wy-
andots will become citizens of Uncle Sam's States,
a truly new era in the history of the Wyandot Na-
tion.""«

The treaty was not approved but the Wyandots persisted
in pressing: their measure. The subject was again brought
to the attention of Congress in 1852 when the Wyandots
asked to become citizens of the new territory which they ex-
pected would be immediately organized. Thomas Moseley,
the Indian Agent for the Kansas Agency, explained the
situation among the Wyandots in a letter to Indian Superin-
tendent D. D. Mitchell, dated 1 September, 1852 :

"I am of the opinion that the entire tribe, with
very few, if any, exceptions, are anxious to be-
come citizens of the United States government, in
the new territory expected to be organized, north
of the Kanzas river and west of Missouri.

"I find quite a difference with this tribe, in the
last three years, in the management of their little
government affairs by laws of their own creation.
Many of the principal men have died, reducing
their numbers so as to make it difficult to carry on
a system of government ; and hence their great de-
sire to change their present condition. They see
plainly that they cannot expect to see the present
state of things to continue much longer ; and from
the many reports in circulation, they confidently
believe that the Nebraska Territory may, at the
present session of Congress, be organized, and they

"' Cnvernor Walker's Diary. Proceedings and Collections of the Nebraska Histor-
cal vSociety. 2 Series. Vol. Ill, p. 309.

3^3] Malin: Indian Policy and Westward Expansion 73

wish to become, by permission of the United States,
citizens of that Territory."^"

The condition of the other tribes near the border was not
so far advanced, but they were in need of a chancre of policy.
Their gsme had been largrely killed and destroyed and the
government had for years been granting them annuities and
had made provisions for aiding in teaching them something
of the civilized mode of living. But these arrangements had
not been satisfactory either to the Indians or to the govern-
ment. Commissioner Medill in 1848 reviewed the conditions
and pointed out the necessity of a more effective method of
handling and regulating trade and intercourse with the
Indians. His proposed policy for correcting these defects
will be considered later.

Three years later Superintendent D. D. Mitchell made the •
following report concerning the border tribes :

"So far as the border tribes are concerned, I
am happy to be able to state, (from personal ob-
servation) that they are gradually advancing in
civilization, and a large majority of them are now
as intelligent, comfortable and well informed as
their white neighbors. They have become very
much intermixed and amalgamated with the
whites; and this process of civilization (if it may
be so termed) will continue under the existing state
of Indian affairs. I have thought ajid observed
much on this subject, and have no hesitation in
saying, that an intermixture with the Anglo-Saxon
race is the only means by which the Indians of
this continent can be partially civilized.""*^

After outlining his proposals regarding the organization

of Nebraska Territory and the assigning of land to the

Indians he continued :

»
"The Indians do not and never can cultivate one
acre in a thousand of the productive lands watered
by the tributaries of the Missouri, Kansas, Platte,
and Arkansas. Moreover, these lands are now of
no use to the present owners, the game having been

"* Sen. doc. No. 1. 2b. 32C. pp. 364-66. Pub. doc. No. 668.
^ Sen. doc. No. 1, Is. 32C. pp. 322-26. Pub. doc. No. 613.

7i University of Kansas Humanistic Studies {32k>

long since killed off. I have talked this subject
over with the Indians on several occasions, and
have always found the more intelligent portions
of the tribes not only willing but anxious to change
their condition in such manner as I have recom-
mended."^"

The tribes further west were far less civilized, but thdr
condition was gradually becoming more serious. The
emigrants who had been crossing the plains had been steadily
killing off their game. It was not so easy for them to turn
to agriculture for a portion of their support, as the border
tribes had done. As early as 1849 John Barrow, the Indian
Sub- Agent at Council Bluffs, had called the attention of the
department to the situation among the Pawnees:

"Unless the lands of these people are soon pur-
chased by our government, and they removed to
a country wherie game is more abundant, and which
does not lie in the midst of their enemies, this
once powerful tribe, in a few years, must become
extinct.""^

Two years later Superintendent Mitchell also described the
condition of the more western tribes in his annual report for
the year 1851 :

"The condition of the prairie and mountlain
tribes presents but a gloomy prospect for the fu-
ture. I had an opportunity during the present
year of seeing and talking with a majority of the
wild nations, and was much surprised to witness
the sad change which a few years and unlooked
for circumstances had produced. The buffalo, upon
which they rely for food, clothing, shelter and traf-
fic, are rapidly diminishing. In addition to their
other misfortunes, the hoardes of emigrants pass-
ing through the country seem to have scattered
death and disease in all directions. The tribes have
suffered much from small-pox and cholera, and
perhaps still more from venereal diseases. The
introduction of all these evils they charge, and I
suppose justly, to the whites. While their melan-

»• Ibid.

1^^ Sen. doc. No. 5, li. 32C. p. 1078. Pub. doc. No. 570.

3S6] Malin: Indian Pdicy and Westward Expansion 76

choly condition is greatly to be deplored, it is ex-
ceedingly difficult to prescribe a remedy/'^^'

These eictracts from the reports of the Indian Department
are sufficiently clear to show that the Department considered
that decided modifications of policy were essential to insure
the well-being of the Indian, as well as to allow for west-
ward migration, the road to the Pacific, and the organization
of the Nebraska Territory.

ui Sen. doc. No. 1. Is. 320. pp. 324-26. Pub. doc. No. 613.

PART THREE

The New Indian Policy

The period between 1840 and 1848 has been indicated as
one of transition in Indian policy. The beginnings of the
new forces which were to modify it have been described and
then the evolution and growth of the four most important
factors in the period after 1848 has been traced to illustrate
how they were reacting on each other and were bringing
definite and ever increasing influence to bear in demanding
a complete modification of the recognized Indian policy in
the Trans-Mississippi Valley. This policy of consolidation of
the Indians in the southwest between the Red and Platte
rivers west of Missouri blocked the free emigration of white
population to the Pacific Coast, the Pacific railroad by the
central route, the normal extension of the frontier westward
toward the Rocky Mountains, and did not solve the problems
of protection and civilization of the Indians. During the
period through which these forces were developing, they were
exerting a continuous pressure to which the officials of the
Indian Department responded; first, with uncertainty and
with seeming reservations, later, clearly and completely.

GROUPING OF BORDER TRIBES : NORTH AND SOUTH

The first statement in which the new policy is forecasted
was made in the very beginning of the transition period. The
plan is formulated in the annual report of Indian Commis-
sioner T. Hartley Crawford to the Secretary of War, J. C.
Spencer, in 1841. It did not originate with him, but no pre-
vious public statement of the plan has been found. It
seems to have been one that had been contemplated for some
time, although it is quite clear from the operations of the
Indian Department that up to this time the older policy of

78 University of Kansas Humanistic Studies [328

consolidation had been followed consistently. He states the
plan very clearly:

"Your immediate predecessor,"* at an early per-
iod in his adminis^ation of the War Deparbnent,
contemplated the establishment of an Indian Ter-
ritory in the northern part of Iowa. Governor
Doty, of Wiskonsan, was appointed commissioner
to negotiate with the Sioux, or Dakota tribes, for
a cession of land for this purpose west of Fort
Snelling, embracing the St. Peter's river, in the
neighborhood of the Blue Earth river and Swan
Lakes. It was not intended, however, to confine
him to any particular spot or definite limits, but
to indicate that there or thereabouts seemed to be
the proper selection. . . . The project seems to me
to be judicious, in reference as well to our citizens
as to the Indians. It will be difficult to find space
southwest of the Missouri for all of the tribes yet
to be removed, and perhaps impossible without the
acquisitions referred to a twelve month ago. The
Southwestern states complain of the congregation
of so many Indians on their borders. If there be
any danger in their concentration, it will not be in-
creased on the plan proposed, and we shall thus
make a counterpoise to the Southwestern Indian
Territory, having a dense white population (that
will soon he collected) interposed between the two
settlements. It is an important point of national
policy, that judiciously carried out, would, I think,
result in great benefits to the country.""®

In addition he reported that Governor Doty had made two
treaties in accordance with this plan, but they had not been
ratified. Also commissioners had been appointed to
negotiate with the Fox and Winnebagoes, and still other
negotiations had been attempted with the Sac and Fox but
had not been successful."^ The most important point is that
in this report of Commissioner Crawford are outlined the
essential features of the New Indian Policy, viz., the forming

U9 HiB immediate predecessor was John Bell, who had been In ofDce only about
six months, so it is quite certain that the earlier Secretary Poinsett is referred to
here. The report was written about the time the change was made in the War
Department, and probably before, therefore the seeming discrepancy can be ex-
plained.

w» Ex. doc. No. 2. 2s. 27C. p. 243. Pub. doc. No. 401. The St. Peter's River is
now called the Minnesota River. The italics are the author's.

m Ibid. p. 260.

St9] Malin: Indian Policy and Weshi>ard Expansion 79

of two great groups or colonies of Indians, one in the north,
and one in the south, with ''a white poulation interposed be-
tween the two settlements,'' in the valley of the Platte, mak-
ing a continuous line of white settlements to the coast and
opening that important transcontinental route through de-
veloped and organized country.

The growing importance of the Oregon Country attracted
attention to this problem in another way. If Oregon was to
be saved to the United States it was necessary to encourage
and protect settlers who might be induced to go there.
Atchison's Oregon bill of 1844, Douglas's Nebraska bill of
the same year, and his Oregon bill of 1846 were designed to
meet this demand. Any one of these bihs, had it been en-
acted into law, would have immediately revolutionized the
old Indian policy.

In the same year in which the first Atchison and Douglas
bills were presented to Congress, Secretary of War Wilkins
discussed the question of the Indians m the Platte Valley in
his annual report. At that time he recommended that the
territory on both sides of the Platte River be organized and
opened to settlement. The Indians who then occupied the
region should be moved northward and southward, forming
two Indian groups or colonies. By such a plan the organized
country between the groups would include and protect the
two great routes to Santa F6 and Oregon."'

The principle involved in these proposals does not seem to
have been generally accepted or recognized during the period
from 1840 to 1848 in making relocations of tribes. Except
for the treaties mentioned in the report of 1841, it is not
referred to as a guide in treaty making in any reports of the
Indian Department. However, upon examination of the
treaties of removal made during the period the fact comes
out that, whether intentionally or not, they were in accord-
ance with this principle, as were other relocations recom-

« H. Kx. doc. No, 2. 2». 28C. p. 124. Pub. doc. No. 103.

80 University of Kansas Humanistic Studies [330

mended by the department which were not carried out.
These treaties are classified in the table below to indicate the
tribes shifted northward and southward."*

A. Tribes moved northward.

1842 Chippewas from Wisconsin and Michigan to Minn.
(Consolidated on lands of tribe).

1846 Winnebagoes from Iowa and Minnesota to Minn.

1847 Chippewas from Wisconsin to Minnesota.
(Consolidated).

1848 Menomini from Wisconsin to Minnesota.

B. Tribes moved southward.

1842 Wyandott from Ohio and Michigan to Kansas.

1842 Sac and Fox from Iowa to Kansas.

1846 Kansas from Kansas to Kansas.

(Consolidated to make room for removal of other tribes).

One of the recommended treaties is worthy of special
notice because of the principle which is advocated in regard
to the purchase of lands from the Indians. The land of the
Peorias was located near the border and a few miles south of
the Kansas River. These Indians were related to the Weas
and Miamis. The Indian Superintendent at St. Louis made
the following proposal :

"The Peorias have decreased within the last
few years. . . . They are anxious to sell. ... I would
suggest that their land be purchased. ... I am
aware that the government has no immediate use
for the land, but / would urge it, as a good policy
on the part of the government, to extinguish the
Indian title to the lands that they have no need of,
whenever it can be done on advantageous terms,
and with benefit to the Indians.""*

Superintendent Harvey had two purposes in making this
recommendation. First, the consolidation of these small,
weak, tribal groups would make for the more efficient ad-
ministration and for the well-being of the Indians. Second,
the purchase of all lands on the frontier as fast as possible.

^ Data taken from Royce. Indian Land Cessions. In Eighteenth Annual re-
port of the Bureau of Ethnology, Part II. Polk's Diary shows that the removal of
the Winnebagoes to Minnesota was in accordance with his recommendations. Vol.
II. pp. 169. 187.

»** Report of Supt. T. H. Harvey. 1846. Sen. doc. No. 1, 2s. 29C. pp. 282-88.
Pub. doc. No. 493. The Italics are the author's.

331] Malin: Indian Policy and Westward Expansion Sl-

it was along this section of the frontier that the white
population was exerting its greatest pressure toward break-
ing through the Indian wall into the valleys of the Kansas
and Platte rivers beyond.

The developments which have just been outlined become
much more significant when they are considered in connec-
tion with the report of Indian Commissioner Medill for 1848.
These tendencies here are crystallized, taking definite shape
in the new Indian policy. This statement of policy is pre-
faced by a discussion of the moral and material condition
of the Indians in the west and the obligation which rested
on the government to provide for their welfare. The Indians
had never been able to make a sudden transition from
savagery to civilization and when they came into direct con-
tact with white men it was always to their detriment. Meas-
ures should be taken to prevent this, and as a means to this
end he advocated the consolidation of the Indians into com-
pact groups. Under this kind of an arrangement the admin-
istration could be made more efficient and measures taken
for their civilization could be made more effective. Then he
comes to the heart of the question :

"If this great end is to be accomplished, how-
ever, material changes will soon have to he made
in the position of some of the swxiller tribes on the
frontier, so as to leave an ample outlet for our
white population to spread and to pass towards
and beyond the Rocky Mountains: else, not only
will they be run over and extinguished, but, all may
be materially injured.

**It muy be said that we have commenced the
establishment of two colonies for the Indians that
have been compelled to remove; one north, on the
headwaters of the Mississippi, and the other south,
on the western borders of Missouri and Arkansas,
the southern limit of which is the Red River. . . .
The southern boundary of this [northern] colony
will be the Watabe River, which is the southern
limit for the country of the Winnebagoes. . . .

"If the Kansas River were made the northern
boundary of the southern colony there would be
ample space of unoccupied territory below it for

8g UnwersUy of Kansas Humanistic Studies [332

all Indians above it that should be included in the
colony. But the Delawares, Potawatomies, and
possibly the Kickapoos, who, or nearly all of whom,
are just above that river, it would not be necessary
to disturb. Above these and on or adjacent to the
frontiers, are the band of Sac and Foxes, known
as the 'Sac and Foxes of Missouri,' the lowas, the
Ottoes and Missouris, the Omahas, the Poncas, and
the Pawnees. The last named tribe is hack some
distance from the frontier, on the Platte river, di-
rectly on the route to Oregon, and has been the
most troublesome to the emigrants in that terri-
tory. By the treaty of 1833 they ceded all their
lands south of that river, and obliged themselves
to remove north of it; but as they are constantly
liable to attacks from the Sioux in that direction,
those south have never been removed. As, how-
ever, there will soon be a military force in that
region, which can afford them protection from the
Sioux, they may properly be compelled at an early
day to remove to and keep within their own coun-
try; and thus be out of the way of emigrants. . . .
The other tribes mentioned can gradually be re-
moved doum to the southern colony, as the conven-
ience of our emigrants and the pressure of our
white population may require; which may be the
ca^e at no distant day, as the greater portion of
the lands they occupy are eligibly located at and
near the Missouri river, and from that circum-
stance, and their superior quality, said to be very
desirable. Indeed it would be a measure of great
humanity to purchase out and remove the Omahas
and the Ottoe and Missouris at an early period,
particularly the former. . . as they are circum-
scribed in their hunting expeditions by the Sioux
and Pawnees, they are liable at times to destitu-
tion and great suffering. . . . [Their] country is
estimated to contain from five to six million acres
of valuable land, which could be obtained at the
time at a very moderate price. . . . Reasons of a
similar kind exist for buying out and removinR^ at
an early period, the Ottoes and Missouris. . . .The
lands claimed by them are estimated to embrace
two or three million acres. These two measures
consummated, the Pawnees removed north of the
Platte, and the Sioux of the Missouri restrained
from country south of that river, there would be

3S3] Malin: Indian Policy and Westward Expansion 83

a wide and safe passage for our Oregon emigrants;
and for such of those to California as may prefer
to take that route, which I am informed will prob-
ably be the case with many.

"Eventually when the Sioux have left the Mis-
sissippi region, and the Pawnees have been dis-
placed in one or other of the ways mentioned, and
when the other intervening tribes between the
northern and southern colony, shall have been re-
moved within the latter, an ample outlet of about
six geographical degrees wHl he opened for our
population that may incline to pass or expand in
that direction; and thus prevent our colonized
tribes from being injuriously pressed upon, if not
swept away; while to the south of the southern
colony there will also be a sufficient outlet for such
portion of our population as may take that direc-
tion."^^'

The above report illustrates the two points to be accom-
plished by this new policy. The Indians were to be removed
from the Platte and Kansas valleys in order to open fully
the central route to the Pacific, and in order to provide a
great area of fertile country for the extension of the frontier.
Commissioner Medill recognized the work that had already
been done toward the fulfillment of this program. Still, only
a beginning had been made, and the recommendations which
were included in this report would further its achievement.
He also recognized that he would have to deal with sectional
jealousies, and therefore called special attention to the fact
that to the south of this southern Indian colony there would
be ample opportunity for the expansion of white settlements
to the westward. It must be remembered that this was just
at the close of the Mexican War when the question of the
organization of the new southwest made the problem of
slavery and its extension into the territories particularly
bitter. And it was further complicated by the rivalry over
the routes for the Pacific railroad. In this way the northern
and central states could be satisfied by the central outlet and
the south by the southern outlet to the Pacific and the re-

** Report of Com. of Ind. Aff. 1848. Ex. doc. No. 1, 28. 30C. pp. 388-90. Pub.
doc. No. 537. The italics &re the author's.

84 University of Kansas Humanistic Studies [334

cently acquired territory. In this report the Indian Depart-
ment has formulated its new policy, and this marks the be-
ginning of the definite movement on their part to fulfill it.
Their efforts were continued until the day of the final ac-
complishment of their aim in the extinguishment of the In-
dian titles in the central part of the Indian Country and its
organization into Kansas and Nebraska territories.

In 1848 the Department of the Interior was created and
the Indian Department, which had been a division of the
War Department, was now transferred to it. The year 1849
was the first under the new arrangement. The presidential
election brought in a new political party and a change in the
heads of departments. But in spite of all these changes
there was no modification in the new policy in regard to the
Indian Country. Orlando Brd^m, the new Commissioner of
Indian Affairs, advocated in his annual report of 1849 the pro-
gram of grouping the Indians, adopted enthusiastically the
course outlined by his predecessor and repeated the recom-
mendations for the relocation of the border tribes :

"A prominent feature in this course of policy
should be to carry out an excellent suggestion in
the annual report of my predecessor of last year,
that the smallest tribes scattered along the fron-
tier, above the Delawares and Kickapoos— embrac-
ing the Sacs and Foxes of Missouri, the lowas, the
Omahas, the Ottoes and Missouris, the Poncas, and
if possible the Pawnees — should be removed down
among the tribes of our southern colony, where
suitable situations may be found for them, in con-
nection with other Indians of kindred stock. Such
an arrangement, in connection with the change
which must inevitably take place in the position
of the Sioux, would, as remarked by my predeces-
sor, open up a wide sweep of country between our
northern and southern colonies for the expansion
and egress of our white population westward, and
thus save our colonized Indians from being injur-
iously pressed upon, if not eventually overrun and
exterminated, before they are sufficiently advanced
in civilization, and in the attainment of resources
and advantages, to be able to maintain themselves

335] Malin: Indian Policy and Westward Expansion 85

in close proximity with, or in the midst of, a white
population."^*^

In another part of the report Commissioner Brown made
a definite application of the new principle of grouping. The
Stockbridge Indians were being relocated and a place had
to be selected for their new home. The central region was
considered, but was rejected, for :

"To locate at any point between the Winneba-
goes and Menominies, on the upper Mississippi or
its vicinity, and the Kickapoos and Delawares, in
the neighborhood of the Kansas river, south of the
Missouri, would he inconsistent with the policy
of keeping a wide space between the northern and
southern Indian colonies cw an outlet for our white
population."^"

A location which was satisfactory to the Indians, was
not found for some time. They were first assigned to lands
in Minnesota, but later definitely located in Wisconsin."^

The recommendations of some of the subordinates in the
Indian Department were even more urgent than those of the
Indian Commissioner himself. D. D. Mitchell of the St. Louis
Superintendency insisted that the policy must be carried out
quickly. Thus he said:

*

"I would next call your attention to the neces-
sity of some speedy action in reference to the half
breed lands near the mouth of the Kansas river,
and between the two Nemehas.^^*^ Many of the
claimants are desirous to sell, while but few evince
any disposition to settle on the lands. It would,
in my opinion, be the best policy for the govern-
ment to purchase these tracts as early as possible ;
for, considering the vast tide of emigration that
is now settling westward, the time is not distant
when it will require twenty fold the amount to ex-
tinguish the title of the claimants, than it would
at present.""® "

It is evident that Mitchell recognized the force which the

^^Rpt. Indian Comm. 1849. Sen. Ex. doc. No. 1, Is. 31C p. 946. Serial No. 570.

^ Ibid. p. 947. The italics are the author's.

i» See Royce. Indian Land Cessions, pp. 780-81.

U9 In the southeast corner of Nebraska.

"" Sen. doc. No. 6, Is. 310. p. 1068. Pub. doc. No. 570.

86 University of Kansas Humanistic Studies [336

pressure of the westward movement of population was exert-
ing on the Indian wall along the frontier. He realized that it
was only a matter of time until that wall would be broken
and white settlements would spread over the whole region.
In the same year, John E. Barrow, the Indian Sub-Agent
at Council Bluffs, adds his recommendation for the removal
of the Pawnees:

"Unless the lands of this people are soon pur-
chased by the government, and they removed to a
country where game is more abundant, and which
does not lie in the midst of their enemies, this once
powerful tribe, in a very few years, must become
an extinct race.""^

These Indians lived in the central Platte Valley, and most
of the emigrant travel to the coast had been through the
country which they occupied. The slaughter of game had al-
ready gone on to such an extent that they were not able to
support themselves, and continued slaughter of their game
and their contact with the emigrants made their future im-
possible under the conditions which must exist there.

Although another change took place in the office of In-
dian Commisioner in 1850, there was again jno change in the
general policy. Mr. Luke Lea, the new Commissioner, again
adopted the new policy of grouping the Indians into two
colonies and advocated it in his annual report. His language
is almost identical with that which Commissioner MediU
had used two years earlier, and it is evident that he was
using MedilFs statement as his model.^*^ But he went fur-
ther by emphasizing more definitely the necessity of a cen-
tral as well as a southern outlet to the western possessions
of the United States :

"Below the most southern of our colonized tribes
we have an ample outlet to the southwest, but
another of higher latittide is required, leading
more directly to our remote western posses-
sions."^^^

Then he indicated the removals which he considered most

^ Ibid, p. 1078.

*" Sen. doc. No. 1. 28. 31 C. p. 39. Pub. doc. No. 587.

I" Ibid. The italics are the author's.

S37] Malin: Indian Policy and Westward Expansion 87

necessary and desirable as the first steps in the fulfillment
of the policy :

''A beginning will be made in carrying this meas-
ure of policy and humanity into effect by the pur-
chase, as contemplated, from the Sioux, of a large
portion of their country ; — and it may be fully con-
summated by the removal of a few tribes between
the Sioux territory and the Kansas river, with
whom we have no treaty stipulations guaranteeing
in perpetuity their possessions. Suitable locations
may be found for them south of that river, where
secure in comfortable and permanent homes, they
would be stimulated by the salutary influence and
example of neighboring and more enlightened
tribes.""*

Again in the next year he repeated his statement of policy.
Also he announced :

"The recent purchase from the Sioux of a large
portion of their country supplies this outlet in part,
and will enable the government by the removal of
a few tribes between the Sioux territory and the
Kansas river, to throw open a wide extent of coun-
try for the spread of our population west-
ward. . . ."»"

In the same report he brings the Nebraska movement into
direct relation to the question of the removals which he had
just recommended :

"The necessity for an appropriation to carry
these measures speedily into effect is the more ap-
parent and imperious, in view of the already im-
posing demonstrations of the public feeling in
favor of the early organization of a territorial
government over the territory on which these In-
dians reside.""*

What had been referred to in a general way in the earlier
reports as the pressure of white population or the extension
of the western frontier had now become a definite movement

"« Ibid.

w Sen. doc. No. 1. Is. 32C.p. 268. Pub. doc. No. 613. The italics are the author's.
The Btouz territory referred to lay in Iowa, Minnesota and the eastern edge of the
Dakotas.

»» Ibid.

88 Univeraity of Kansas Humanistic Studies [338

for the organization of this part of the Indian Country which
had now come to be called Nebraska. The organization of
Nebraska as a separate movement has already been traced,
but now here as early as 1851 explicit evidence is afforded of
the influence which its development had on the evolution of
Indian policy.

Other members of the Indian Department were not with-
out interest in the situation and the tendencies developing in
the middle west relative to the same movement. They were
western men and it is possible that in a large measure they
may have been responsible for the attitude of the Indian De-
partment as a whole. Mr. D. D. Mitchell, Superintendent of
Indian Affairs at St. Louis, presented his plans in his report
of 1851. Of course he approaches the question from the
standpoint of the well-being of the Indian, biit whatever the
point of view, the result would be the same for the Indian
Country. Thus he explains his plans :

"I have thought and observed much on this sub-
ject, and liave no hesitation in saying, that an in-
termixture with the Anglo-Saxon race is the only
means by which the Indians of this continent can
be partially civilized. In order to carry out this
plan, I beg leave to suggest, for the consideration
of the department, the following measures, viz.;
the laying off of Nebraska Territory, with the fol-
lowing boundaries : Commencing on the Missouri,
at the mouth of the Kansas river, and running up
the Missouri to the mouth of the L'au qui court,
or Running Water river; following up the Run-
ning Water river to its source, about thirty miles
above Fort Laramie, where this stream issues
from the base of the Black-hill; from thence due
south to the Arkansas river; thence along our es-
tablished boundaries to the western line of the
state of Missouri, to the place of beginning. This
would give the United States all the agricultural
lands south of the Missouri river that are consid-
ered exclusively Indian territory. . . .

"The force of circumstances will soon compel
the government to adopt some plan by which the
fine ajsrricnltural lands (that form a large portion
of Nebraska) will be thrown open to that class of

339] Matin: Indian Policy and Westward Expansion 89

American citizens that have always been found
on our frontiers, forming as they do a connecting
link between the civilized and savage life. The
state south of the Missouri river is densely pop-
ulated along the western border, there being a
continuous range of farms immediately on the
line. The same state of things existed only a few
years since on the north side of the Missouri river,
when the government was compelled to make what
is known as the 'Platte Purchase,' and which is
now the most populous and wealthy portion of the
State.""^

He proposed that in the case of the more advanced tribes
the head of a family should be granted one section of land
which could not be sold for fifty years. He hoped that by that
time these Indians would be sufficiently civilized that the
whites could not take undue advantage of them and their
holdings would be safe. This was somewhat of a departure
from the generally accepted policy of consolidation within
smaller limits, separated from direct contact with white
population, but it must be remembered that this was to
apply only to the most civilized tribes. It was injecting a
new element into Indian policy, one that was to play a much
larger part in the later history. In the case of the more
backward tribes they should still be grouped further west in
the northern and southern colonies.

In the same year A. M. Coffee, the Indian Agent at the
Osage Agency, discussed the same topic in his report. He
seemed much concerned over the scanty results which were
obtained in trying to civilize the Indians :

"To remedy these evils, doubtless the most ef-
fective plan would be to concentrate within nar-
rower limits the tribes between whom and our
government there are subsisting treaties, more
specially those south of the Missouri and the
Platte rivers, and north of the Cherokee boundary.
These number in all not exceeding fifteen
thousand, diffused over a territory of not less than
ten thousand miles — a population less than is con-

^'^ Sen. doc. No. 1. Is. 32C. pp. 322-26. Pub. doc. No. 613.

90 University of Kansas Humanistic Studies [SiO

tained in some of the border counties in the state
of Missouri of twenty-five miles square.

"Besides the good consequences resulting to the
Indian, it would throw open to the occupancy of
the white man a large extent of fertile country,
justly esteemed as among the richest and the most
beautiful portions of the west.""*

This early activity on the part of the Indian Department
in preparing for the opening of the Nebraska Country really
preceded the Nebraska movement itself as it was agitated in
Congress. In its later stages it developed contemporary
with and as a part of that movement.

RIGHT OF WAY THROUGH COUNTRY OF PRAIRIE AND MOUN-
TAIN TRIBES

The factors which contributed to the modification of the
Indian policy bore with particular force on the tribes located
on or near the border of the Indian Country. They were so
located that all the forces operated directly on them. This
was not so true of the tribes occupying lands further west.
There, none of the factors exerted so direct an influence and
the one factor of the westward expansion of the frontier did
not contribute to the problem except in an indirect manner.
For these reasons the new Indian policy was formulated in
respect to the border tribes at an earlier date than in respect
to the prairie and mountain tribes. Yet the solution of the
problem of the Indians of the far west was essential to the
complete evolution of the new policy. In particular it was
necessary for the development and protection of the central
route to the Pacific and the emigration over that route.

The country occupied by the western tribes was both
prairie and mountain districts, high, dry, and with the mini-
mum of vegetation. The Indians were among the most fierce
and savage of the tribes of the country, and had had little
contact with civilization. Their mode of living was of the
simplest. Their food was for the most part the buffalo, deer,
antelope, etc. ; only such game as the semi-arid prairies could
furnish. Their clothing was almost solely the skins of the

us Sen. doc. No. 1. Is. 32C. p. 354. Pub. doc. No C13.

341] Malin: Indian Policy and Westward Expansion 91

same animals. They were scattered over a vast area and
their contact with each other was so vague and indefinite
that there «had been no fixed boundaries established either
by the Indians themselves or by the government.

Through the country of these prairie and mountain tribes
ran two great trails leading toward the Pacific. In the north
central district was the Oregon and California Trail, which
had been used on a large scale only since about 1843. In the
south was the Santa F4 Trail, used as a great commercial
route since about 1822. Almost the only contact which these
Indians had with white civilization was through merchants,
traders, emigrants, and military expeditions. After 1848
the enormous emigration to Oregon and California had raised
serious questions in regard to free passage through the
country and the killing of game. The coming of white men
brought with it all the usual attending evils. The emigrants
killed off the game in great quantities and within a very
short time the Indians were short of food in many districts.
As was usual under the circumstances the relations between
the emigrants and the Indians were not without friction, and
in case of Indian depredations, it was exceedingly difficult
if not impossible to discover and punish the guilty tribes.

PORT LARAMIE TREATY, 1851. THE NORTHWEST TRIBES

The man who seems to have been most interested in this
phase of the Indian relations was D. D. Mitchell, who had
been Superintendent of Indian Affairs at St. Louis for some
years. Before becoming Indian Superintendent he had been
engaged in the fur trade and was particularly familiar with
the Indians of that region. He knew the difficulties that
had been experienced by the emigrants, and attacks on emi-
grant trains, and appreciated the precarious condition of the
Indians on account of the great scarcity of game. The In-
dians were becoming more and more discontented, and the
government was not in a position to handle the situation pro-
perly until more definite treaty relations were established
and the Indian boundaries fixed so that responsibility could
be placed for Indian depredations in any particular region.
Superintendent Mitchell advised that the Indians of the

92 University of Kansas Humanistic Studies [342

prairie and mountain tribes east of the Rocky Mountains
and north of the Arkansas River should be called together
and that a formal treaty should be made in the presence of
all of the tribes. So in order to carry out his plan, he pre-
pared a bill granting to the president the authority to make
such a treaty and appropriating money to pay the expenses
of its negotiation. This bill was endorsed by Orlando Brown,
the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, and was submitted to
David R. Atchison, the chairman of the Senate Committee
on Indian Affairs. Atchison presented the bill from his com-
mittee on 18 March, 1850, together with a report which con-
firmed the representations of Superintendent Mitchell.^^*
However, the bill was delayed on account of the slavery
struggle then going on in Congress, and although it passed
the Senate it did not receive consideration in the House dur-
ing that session. Meanwhile Mitchell had felt so confident
that it would pass, in view of the attitude of Congress and
the wishes of President Tyler, that he made representations
to the Indians accordingly. These of course he had to re-
tract when the bill failed."®

In his annual report of 1850, Mitchell again recommended
the treaty with the prairie and mountain Indians and in the
next year the measure was carried. The Indians were called

to meet at Fort Laramie on 1 September, 1851. He made the
most careful preparations to make the conference a success

and managed it himself, aided by Agent Fitzpatrick of the
Upper Platte and Arkansas River Agency. The Superintend-
ent's party also included Colonel Chambers, editor of the
St. Louis Republican^ and B. Gratz Brown, also of St. Louis.
As Father De Smet had unusual influence with the Indians,
he attended by special invitation of the Superintendent to
aid in the conference."^ The Indians included in the con-
ference were the Cheyennes and Arapahoes, the Sioux or^
Dahcotahs, the Gros-ventres, the Assiniboins, the Ankoras, '
the Crows, and the Shoshones or Snakes. The treaty was ^ ^^^ .

131 Senate Journal. 1b. 310. p. 221. Oommlsfdoner's report and documents are
printed In Senate doc. No. 70. Sen. Miac. docs. Is. 31C. Pub. doc. No. 663.

*<® Mitchell's report. Sen. doc. No. 1. 28. 31 C. p. 47. Pub. doc. No. 587.

"* De Smet. Life and Trawls among the North American Indians. II, pp. 674 ff.
and IV. p- 1565.

S4S] Malin: Indian Policy and Westward Expansion 93

completed on 17 September, together with a new map of the
country showing the newly defined boundaries. This treaty
provided that the Indians grant to the United States the
right to establish roads and military and other posts in their
country and that they abstain from all depredations on the
whites passing through their country. The boundaries of
the territory occupied by each of the tribes were defined for
the first time. The government on its part distributed
presents of goods among the Indians as a settlement of their
grievances against the whites, and agreed to pay them
$50,000 per year in annuities for a period of fifty years."^

This treaty was ratified by the Senate on 24 May, 1852,
with an amendment which must be ratified by the Indians
before it could go into effect. The amendment provided that
the annuities promised in the original treaty should be paid
for a period of only ten years instead of fifty. The
Cheyennes and Arapahoes, and the Sioux ratified the amend-
ment during the summer of 1853, but it seems that the re-
mainder of the tribes, the Gros-ventres, Assiniboins,
Ankoras, Crows, and Shoshones did not."' However, al-
though the treaty was not legally completed by all the par-
ties, the government considered itself bound by its provisions
and appropriated money regularly to carry them out."*

By this treaty Mitchell was laying the foundation for an
Indian policy in the far west which coincided with the group-
ing policy being developed further east. In the same report
in which he described the Laramie treaty he explained his
plans for future change among the prairie and mountain
tribes.

''As a means of turning their [Indian] atten-
tion to Agriculture and grazing pursuits, I would
recommend that a suitable secMon of the country,
somewhere on the Missouri or its tributaries, be
assigned to the half-breeds, who are becoming very

i« Report of Supt. Mitchell. Sen. doc. No. 1. 1b. 32C. pp. 288-90. Pub. doc. No*
613. De Smet's account appears in his Life and Travels, II. pp. 674 ff. De Smet
approved the treaty and neld that the government did the best possible for the
Indians. Larpenteur, in his Forty Years as a Fur Trader on the Upper Missouri,
II. pp. 418-22, denounced the treaty unequivocally.

M Report of Agent Fitzpatrick 1852. Sen doc. No. 1. Is. 330. pp. 366-71. Pub.
doc. No. 690.

IM 11 U. S. Statutes. Not« p. 749.

9^ University of Kansas Humanistic Studies [344

numerous througrhout the Indian country. ... A
half-breed colony, properly located in the midst of
the Indians, would form a semi-civilized nucleus
around which the wild Indians would soon be
drawn by necessity to assemble. . . .

"Another half-breed colony of the same charac-
ter should be established at some suitable point on
the headwaters of the Arkansas. During the re-
cent council at Fort Laramie I talked the matter
over frequently with the half-breeds and the In-
dians ; both parties were delighted with the plan. . . .

"Should the government determine to establish
these half-breed colonies, I would earnestly recom-
mend that they be located as far as possible from
the jrreat thoroughfares leading to New Mexico,
California and Oregon."^"

In the Laramie treaty the immediate object was to pro-
vide for the security and development of the central route
to the Pacific. In this proposal the dominating idea behind
the establishment of half-breed colonies was the grouping of
the Indians into northern and southern colonies, as was being
done with the border tribes, and the removal of the Indians
from the country between them. Mitchell's purpose in his
"talks" with the Indians was to try to accustom them to the
idea of the colonization plan as well as to make arguments in
support of his idea in his recommendations to his superiors
and to Congress.

FORT ATKINSON TREATY, 1853. SOUTHWEST TRIBES

The Laramie treaty opened the central route to the Pacific
through the country of the prairie and mountain tribes and
established definite relations between these Indians as far
south as the Arkansas River. In the country to the south
and west of that river the tribes were in much the same
condition, and through it ran the Santa Fe Trail. And an-
other question which was becoming of greater and greater
importance was railroads. Two of the proposed routes crossed
this country. One from St. Louis followed the line of the

i« Sen. doc. No. 1. Is. 32C. pp. 324-26. Pub doc. No. 613. This proposal was
erdorsrd by Commissioner Luke Lea In his report of 1852. Sen. doc. No. 1. Is.
32 C. pp 296. Pub. doc. No. 659.

346] Malin: Indian Pdicy and Westward Exjninsion 96

Santa Fe Trail. The other ran from Fort Smith to Santa
Fe and then to the coast by about the same route as the first.
Up to 1853 there had been no adequate agreements made
with the tribes of the southwest, but in that year this phase
of the new Indian policy was completed. Under instructions
dated 5 May, 1853, Fitzpatrick of the Upper Platte River
Agency was sent out to make a treaty of friendship with
these Indians ; the Comanche, Kiowa and Apache. A treaty
was concluded at Fort Atkinson"* on 27 July in accordance
with the instructions. Article 3 is of particular interest in
connection with the evolution of the general Indian policy,
and is as follows :

''Article 3. The aforesaid Indian tribes do also
hereby fully acknowledge the right of the United
States to lay off and mark out roads and highways,
to make reservations of land necessary thereto —
to locate depots — and to establish military and
other posts within the territory inhabited by the
said tribes; and also to prescribe and enforce, in
such manner as the President or Congress of the
United States shall from time to time direct, rules
and regulations to protect the rights of persons
and property among the said Indian tribes,"**^

Fitzpatrick made his report in November and in it made
a clear explanation of the real meaning of the above article :

"The mere acknowledgment of a right of way
through their country was readily conceded, be-
cause it had been long enjoyed ; but upon the sub-
jects of military posts, and reservations of land,
and hostilities against the Republic of Mexico,
they were found to be far more tenacious. . . .

"The same objections which operate, to a greater
degree, against military locations, also induced
them to oppose the reservations of land by the
United States for depots and roads; but, in view
of the fact that at no distant day the whole coun-
try over ivhich those Indians now roam must he
peopled by another and more enterprising race, and

^* Near tbe present site of Dodge City. Kansas.
^^^ 10 U. S. Statutes 1013.

96 University of Kansas Humanistic Studies [34^6

also of the consideration that the channels of com-
merce between the east and the west will even-
tually, in part at least, pa^s through their coun-
try, it was regarded as incumbent as far as pos-
sible, for any action the government might see
proper to take upon the subject. Already the idea
of a great central route to the Pacific by railway
has become deeply impressed upon the public
mind; and while many courses are contemplated
two of them at least (ffre designed to pass through
this section of the country. Should the results of
explorations now in progress determine it thus,
the acknowledgment contained in this cUmse of the
treaty may be found of inestimable value. It wiU
afford all the concession necessary for locations,
pre-emptions, reservations, and settlements, and
avoid, besides, the enhanced costs of secondary
treaties with those tribes. Moreover, it will open
a rich vein of wealth in what is now a wilderness,
and that, too, without additional public burden.
In this respect, therefore, these concessions can-
not but be regarded os extremely fortunate. "^^^

The underlying motives in making the Fort Atkinson
treaty in this particular form are certainly sufficiently clear
and impressive. Its provisions were designed to admit of
the interpretation that they might be considered as grants
of right of way for railroads and locations for settlements.
The Laramie treaty contained practically the same provis-
ions for the grant of right of way for roads and locations for
military and other posts. It is evident that they also would
be open to the same Hind of an interpretation. Thus by these
two great Indian treaties the two most practicable railroad
routes to the Pacific were opened through the country of
the prairie and mountain tribes.

REALIZATION OF THE NEW POLICY: THIRD PHASE

Having traced the evolution of the new Indian policy as it
applied to the border tribes down to 1853 and as it was com-
pleted for the prairie and mountain tribes, it only remains to

i« 8eii. doc. No. 1. pt. 1. Is. 33C. p. 363. Pub. doc. No. 690. The italics are the
author's. The Fort Atidnson treaty was ratified with amendments 12 April, 1854.
The Indians agreed to the amendments 21 July. The treaty was proclaimed 12
February , 1855.

547] Malin: Indian Policy and Westward Expansion 97

trace the final steps in the fulfillment of the new policy as
it was worked out in conjunction with the last stages of the
movement to organize the Nebraska country. One of the
most persistent objections to the organization of
Nebraska made during the debates in Congress was that the
country had been set aside permanently for the exclusive
use of the Indians and had been guaranteed to them by
treaties. The government therefore had no right to open it
to settlement. Before the country could be legally opened
the Indian title must be extinguished. In order to meet
this objection an amendment had been made to the
Richardson bill in 1853 to provide that no lands could be
settled until the title had been legally extinguished.^^* At
that time Howard of Texas had led the opposition to the bill.
He had also proposed that the boundary of the territory
should be SS"" 30' instead of 36'' 30' in order to allow the
Indians sufficient lands. Hall and Richardson defended the
bill and insisted that Howard's interest was not for the wel-
fare of the Indians but was to prevent the organization of
Nebraska in order to block northern expansion and the cen-
tral route for the Pacific railroad. Emigration to the Pacific
would in that way be diverted to the south and the railroad
would have to be built by the southern route. Texas Indians
would be forced northward and that country would be opened
to settlement along the railroad. This attempt on the part
of southern interests to block the extinguishment of Indian
title in the Nebraska country failed. Although the Richard-
son bill to organize the territory was defeated, another bill
was passed which authorized the president to negotiate with
the Indian tribes west of the states of Missouri and Iowa for
the purpose of extinguishing the Indian title to all or part of
that country."®

The character of the Indian title in the Indian Country has
already been explained."^ The only land legally held by the
Indians in what is now Kansas and southern Nebraska was

i« C. G. Is. 32C. p. 111«.

150 Report of Comm. of Ind. Affs. Sen. doc. No. 1. pt. 1. Is. 33C. p. 249. Pub.
doc. No. 690.

i&i See above, pp. 55, 57, and map, p. 56.

98 University of Kanscta Humanistic Studies [3i8

in reality only a comparatively narrow strip along the east-
ern border, except in the Kansas River Valley, where the
Indian holdings extended somewhat over a hundred miles
into the interior. By far the greatest part of the land had
never been assigned to any tribe or tribes, although it was
hunted over by the Indians of the region and especially the
northern part which had been held by the Pawnees and was
still occupied by them although they had relinquished their
title in 1833.

The prevailing ideas on the character of the Indian title
in respect to the far western region were so vague and re-
presented so grave a misunderstanding that Agent Fitz-
Patrick of the Upper Platte and Arkansas River Agency tried
to clear up the matter somewhat in his report of 1853 :

These prairie and mountain tribes do not occupy
liie same territory which they occupied fifty years
ago. ''It is a moving claim, a constantly shifting
location, a vagabond right, and, at best, only
amounting to the privilege of occupancy, and not
to that of exclusion. . . . This migratory process
has given to these Indian nations no title to exclude
others. . . . Regarding therefore, the carelessly re-
ceived opinion about the extinguishment of Indian
title, as based upon false ideas of what that title
is, and how it originates. . . I cannot avoid stat-
ing candidly the objections which exist to its ex-
tension.

"The foregoing observations have been called
forth by the fact that opposition might arise on
that score to any act on the part of the govern-
ment calculated to induce settlement in what is
known as 'Indian Territory.' ""*

In accordance with the act of C!ongress of 1853 Manypenny,
the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, made a preliminary visit
to the Indians of the border during the summer to explain
to them the purpose of the government "With a few ex-
ceptions,'' he reported, "the Indians were opposed to sell-
ing any part of their lands" as the people from the states
had for some time been going into the territory exploring

iM Son. doc. No. 1. pt. 1. Is. 33C. p. 366-71. Pub. doc. No. 690.

3i9] Malin: Indian Policy and Westward Expansion 99

with a view to making locations for settlements and seriously
excited the Indians.^^'

In the same report he went on to recommend the organiza-
tion of the territory :

''The acquisition of Texas, New Mexico and
our Pacific possessions, and the vast annual emi-
gration which passes through the Indian countiy
and over the Indian reservations, on its journey
thither, and which was not anticipated at the time
the Indians were located there, rendered it abso-
lutely necessary that they be placed out of the paths
of the emigrants as far as possible. The inter-
ests of both require it. . . .

"In my judgment, the interests of the Indians
require that a civilized government be inmiediately
organized in the territory. . . .

"In the annual report of November 30, 1848, the
Conunissioner of Indian Affairs suggested the pol-
icy of procuring and keeping open portions of the
lands west of Missouri and Iowa, for the egress
and expansion of our own population ; and the same
measure has been urged in several successive an-
nual reports. The necessity of opening an ample
western outlet for our rapidly increasing popuUt-
tion, seems to have been clearly foreseen by this
department. The negotiations with the Indians
who will have to be disturbed, and the arrange-
ments for their peaceful and comfortable reloca-
tion, requiring time and deliberation, it is to be re-
gretted that the authority and the means for ac-
complishing the object were not given more in ad-
vance of the exigency which has occured, and which
appears to require proceedings of a more precipi-
tate character than should have been permitted to
become necessary.

"Objections have been urged to the organiza-
tion of a civil government in the Indian country;
but those that cannot be overcome are not to be
compared to the advantages which will flow to the
Indians from such a measure, with treaties to con-
form to the new order of things, and suitable laws
for their protection.

"In addition to this, the preparation of a large

«» Ib!d. p. 249.

100 University of Kansas Humanistic Studies [850

district of that country for settlement, by remov-
ing the Indians, would open up, in a most desir-
able locality, homes for the enterprising and hardy
pioneers who are ready to occupy it, and by their
energies speedily to found in it a state, the bene-
ficial influences of which, from its position, would
be of incalculable advantage to the Indian, as well
as the government and the people of the United
States.""*

He then pointed out that the money appropriated at the
last session of Congress was not sufficient to carry out the
negotiations for the extinguishment of the Indian title and
asked that more money be appropriated at the next session.
Furthermore he was not satisfied with the limited nature of
the plans of the government and urged that authority be ex-
tended so as to allow negotiations to be carried out with
other tribes in "what is known as Nebraska."

The Commissioner was supported in his reconmiendations
by Agent Fitzpatrick, who had just secured the ratification
by the prairie and mountain tribes in his district of the
amendments to the Laramie Treaty. Fitzpatrick criticized
the policy of consolidation of the Indians and keeping them
at the expense of the government, both because of its cost
and because he considered that it was really detrimental to
the moral and material welfare of the Indians. He recom-
mended :

" — such modifications in the 'intercourse laws'
as will invite the residence of traders amongst
them, and open the whole country to settlement. . . .
The effect of so removing the barriers that now
oppose the residence of our own citizens amongst
them, OS to afford inducements of preemption to
settlers, would, I am satisfied, be in every way pro-
ductive of good to the Indians themselves, and
would, at the same time, yield to the hands of in-
dustry and enterprise a large and vahmble terri-
tory, that now serves only as a disconnecting wil-
derness between the States of the Pacific and At-
lantic slopes.*'^^^

*'^ Ibid. pp. 261-62. The Italics are the author's.

^'^ Sen. doc. No. 1. pt. 1. Is. 33C. p. 366-71. Pub. doc. No. 690. The Italics are the
author's.

361] Malin: Indian Policy and Westward Expansion 101

On the question of consolidation of the Indians he differed
from most of the others, but the end in view was the same :
the opening of the Platte Valley to settlement and the con-
necting of the Pacific Coast with the east.

During the winter of 1853-54, while Congress was debat-
ing the organization of Kansas and Nebraska and the ques-
tion of the extension of slavery to those territories, the In-
dian Department, under authorization of Congress, was busy
making treaties with the Indians to extinguish the Indian
title within the limits of the proposed territories. The fol-
lowing is the list of treaties which were made, together with
their dates of conclusion, ratification, and proclamation :

Pro-

Tribe

Treaty Concluded

[ Ratified

claimed

Ottoe and Missouri

15 March

1854

17 April

21 June

Omaha

16 March

1864

17 April

21 June

Delaware

6 May

1854

11 July

17 July

Shawnee

10 May

1854

2 Aug.

2 Nov.

Iowa

17 May

1854

11 July

17 July

Sac and Fox of Mo.

18 May

1854

11 July

17 July

Kickapoo

18 May

1854

11 July

17 July

Kaskasia, Peoria,

Wea and Piankeshaw

30 May

1854

2 Aug.

10 Aug.

Miami

5 June

1854

4 Aug.

4 Aug.

Other treaties were recommended to complete the ex-
tinguishment of Indian title, but these were all that were
immediately necessary."^ These treaties ceded to the gov-
ernment practically all the territory in the eastern part of
the present states of Kansas and Nebraska except some large
tracts in the Kansas River Valley. However, later treaties
ceded those lands within a short time, leaving only a few
small Indian reservations.

Besides the cession of lands another feature of these
treaties deserves notice in connection with the railroad move-
ment. In each of them there were clauses providing that in
every case where the Indians were allowed to withhold any

iM Report of Comm. of Ind. Affs. 1864. Sen. dor. No. 1. 28. 33C.pp. 213-15. Pub.
doc. No. 777. This document gives a report of the negotiations, Kappler. Indian
Affairs. Laws and Treaties. II. pp. 451-78. Pub. doc. No. 4254. or U. S. Statutes
gives the texts of the treaties and the dates.

363] Malin: Indian Policy and Westward Expansion 103

parts of their lands as reservations, all roads, highways,
and railroads which might be constructed should have, when
necessary, the right of way through such reservations. In
other words railroad enterprises were not to be blocked in
the future in any part of this country by the fact that the
Indian title had not been extinguished. This group of
treaties was the first to include definitely such concessions.
The nearest to it had been the Laramie treaty and the Fort
Atkinson treaty, both of which had secured recognition of
the right to build roads through the Indian Country. It
has been pointed out how in the latter treaty this provision
had been purposely designed to allow of a broader interpre-
tation should it be necessary in the future to permit the build-
ing of a railroad through the Indian Country to the Pacific.

Now all the difiiculties which had been in the way of the
organization of Nebraska were removed so far as the Indians
were concerned. Practically all of the country included in
the present state of Kansas and all of Nebraska south of the
Platte, together with the eastern part of the state north of
it, was ready for settlement. All of the above treaties save
one had been concluded before the passage of the Kansas-
Nebraska Act. They were the realization of the policy which
was outlined by the Commissioner of Indian Affairs in 1848
and urged continuously by the department for the six years
following. That policy had been to group the Indians into
two colonies, a northern and a southern, and to open the
country between the two colonies to white settlement. The
Indians were now arranged in the two great groups as plan-
ned. The southern group was located in what is now the
state of Oklahoma, and the northern group comprised what
is now the Dakotas."^ The country between them in which
the Indian title had been extinguished was now included, by
the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act, in two territories,
Kansas and Nebraska, and connected the east and the west
in one continuous line of organized states and territories.

^ The territory of Nebraska included all the territory fjrom the fortieth parallel
north to the International line, and thus included the northern group. However, this
northern group was detached ftom Nebraska in 1861 when the Territory of Dakota
was organized.

lOi University of Kansas Hvmanistic Studies [364

Eventually they were more closely bound together by the
building of the Pacific railroad through this newly organ-
ized territory by the route of the Platte Valley and South
Pass. To continue the figure used in the beginning, this was
a third wedge driven through the Indian Country. It was
to spread northward and southward in the near future until
finally the last of the Indian Country was opened to white
settlement and organized into states.

Bibliography

GOVERNMENT DOCUMENTS

Reports of the War Department, 1825-54.

Reports of the Department of the Interior, 1848-54.

Reports of the Department of Indian Affairs, 1825-54. The Indian
Office was a part of the War Department till 1848 and the re-
ports accompany the reports of that department. Since 1848
the Indian Office has been a part of the Department of the In-
terior and its reports accompany the reports of that depart-
ment.

Journals of the Senate and the House.

McCoy, Isaac. Report on Land West of the Mississippi River. House
doc. No. 172. 1 sess. 22 Cong. Pub. doc. No. 219.

Instructions to Commissioners to Visit the Indians West of the Mis-
sissippi River. 1832. Sigrned by Lewis Cass, Secretary of War.
House doc. No. 2. 2 sess. 22 Cong. Pub. doc. No. 233.

Expedition of Colonel Dodge to the Rocky Mountains. 1835. Folio
State Papers. Military Affairs. Vol. VI, pp. 130 ff. Con-
tains map showing locations of Indian tribes.

Proposals for the Defense of the Frontier. Folio State Papers. Mili-
tary Affairs. Vols. VI and VII. Maps showing locations of
Indian tribes and plans of military roads, etc., Vol. VII, p. 777.

Letter from James Buchanan, Secretary of State, to Deputy Post-
master at Astoria, 29 March, 1847. Written on his departure
to his post in Oregon Territory. Ex. doc. No. 1. 1 sess. 80
Cong. p. 44. Pub. doc. No. 503.

Journal of Major Cross, commanding a regiment of mounted riflemen
en route to Oregon. 1849. Sen. doc. No. 1. 2 sess. 31 Cong.
Pt. 2, p. 140. Pub. doc. No. 587.

Memorial from Missouri Legislature for grant of land for Hannibal-
St. Joseph Railroad. 1848. By J. S. Green and Willard P.
Hall. Sen. Reports No. 178. 1 sess. 80 Cong. Pub. doc.
No. 512.

Memorial of Pacific Railroad Company of Missouri for grant of
lands. 1850. Sen. Misc. docs. No. 89. 1 sess. 81 Cong. Pub.
doc. No. 563.

Charter of Pacific Railroad of Missouri. Sen. Misc. docs. No. 59.
1 sess. 31 Cong. Pub. doc. No. 563.

106 University of Kansas Humanistic Studies [366

Letter of Instructions to Special Commission authorized by Act of
Congress, 30 Sept, 1860, to obtain statistics and make treaties,
etc., with various tribes on the border of the United States and
Mexico. Written by Acting Commissioner of Indian Affairs, A.
S. Loughery. 16 Oct., 1860. Sen. doc. No. 1. 2 sess. 81 Cong.
Pub. doc. No. 687.

Report of Special Commission authorized by Act of Congress, 30 Sept.
1860. Commissioners C. J. Todd, Robert B. Campbell, and
Oliver P. Temple. Sen. doc. No. 1. 1 sess. 31 Cong. pp. 302-6.
Pub. doc. No. 613.

Documents submitted in support of bill authorizing the negotiation of
a treaty with the prairie and mountain tribes^ 1860. Sen.
Misc. docs. No. 70. 1 sess. 31 Cong. Pub. doc. No. 668.

Report of Commissioner of the General Land Office. 1861. Sen. doc
No. 1. 1 sess. 32 Cong. p. 17. Pub. doc. No. 613.

Kappler, Charles J. Indian Affairs; Laws and Treaties. 2d ed. 2
vols. Washington, 1904. Sen. doc. 2 sess. 68 Cong. Pub. docs.
Nos. 4623 and 4624.

Statutes at Large of the United States of America.

OTHER SOURCE MATERIAL

Congressional Globe. Washington, 1834-66.

De Smet, Father. Life and Travels Among the North American
Indians. Edited by H. M. Chittenden and A. T. Richardson.
4 vols. New York, 1906.

Dougherty, Major John. Dougherty MSS. Library of Missouri
State Historical Society. St Louis, Mo.

Gregg, Josiah. Commerce of the Prairies. In Thwaites, Early
Western Travels, Vols. XIX and XX. Map opposite p. 173, Vol.
XIX. Cleveland, 1906.

Larpenteur. Forty Years as a Fur Trader on the Upper Missouri.
2 vols. Edited by Elliott Coues. New York, 1893.

National Intelligencer. (Thrice a week). Washington, 1860-68.

Polk, Jambs E. Diary. Edited by M. M. Quaife. 4 vols. Chicago^
1910.

Walker, William, Provisional Governor of Nebraska Territbry.
Diary. In Proceedings and Collections of Nebraska Historical
Society. Second Series, Vol. III.

SECONDARY MATERIAL

Abel, Anne Heloise. History of Events resulting in Indian Con-
solidation West of the Mississippi River. In American His-

S67] Malin: Indian Policy and WeHward Expansion 107

torical Asflociation Annual Report. 1906. Vol. I. pp. 238-460.
Waahingrton, 1908.

Indian Reservations in Kansas. In Kansas State Historical Col-
lections. Vol. yill» pp. 72-109. Topeka, 1904.

Proposals for an Indian State, 1778-1878. In American Historical
Association Annual Report. 1907. Vol. I. pp. 87-104. Wash-
ington, 1908.

Biographical Congressional Directory. 1774-1911. Sen. doc. No.
5656. Washington, 1918.

Burgess, John W. The Middle Period. New York, 1897.

Chittenden, Hibam Mabtin. The American Fur Trade of the Far
West. 8 vols. New York, 1912.

Cottebgill, Robebt S. Early Agitation for a Pacific Railroad, 1845-

50. In Mi88ia8ippi Valley Hiatariecd Review. Vol. V. pp. 896-

415. Cedar Rapids, la.
The Memphis Convention. In Tennessee Histarical Magcusine,

Vol. IV. pp. 88-94.
The St. Louis Convention. In Mieeouri Historical Review. Vol.

XII. pp. 207-15.

Cutts, Madison. A Brief Treatise upon Constitutional and Party
Questions. New York, 1866.

Davis, John Patterson. The Union Pacific Railway. Chicago,
1894.

Goodwin, Cardinal. The American Occupation of Iowa, 1883-60. In
Iowa Journal of History and Polities. Vol. XVII, pp. 88-108.
The Movement of American Settlers into Wisconsin and Minne-
sota. In Iowa Journal of History and Politics. Vol. XVII.
pp. 406-28.

Haney, Lewis Henby. A Congressional History of Railways in the
United States to 1887. In Bulletin of University of Wisconsin,
ESconomic and Political Science Series. Part I is in Vol. III.
Part II is in Vol. VI. Madison.

HODDEB, Fbank H. The Genesis of the Kansas-Nebraska Bill. Pro-
ceedings of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin. 1912.
Madison, 1918.

HoDGE, Fbesebick Webb. Handbook of American Indians North of
Mexico. 2 vols. Smithsonian Institution, Bureau of Ethnology
Bulletin No. 80. Washington, 1910.

Johnson, Allen. Stephen A. Douglas. New York, 1908.

Linn and Sabgent. Life and Public Services of Lewis F. Linn.
New York, 1867.

McCoy, Isaac. History of Baptist Indian Missions. Washington
and New York, 1840.

108 University of Kansas Humanistic Stvdies [358

McMaster, John Bach. History of the People of the United States.
8 vols. New York and London, 1883-1913.

Manypenny, G. W. Our Indian Wards. Cincinnati, 1880.

Meigs, Wuxiam M. The Life of Thomas H. Benton. Philadelphia
and London, 1904.

Million, John W. State Aid to Railways in Missouri. University
of Chicago Economic Studies. No. 4. Chicago, 1896.

Parker, David W. Calendar of Papers. In Washington Archives
relating to the Teritories of the United States. (To 1873). In
Carnegie Institution Publications. Na 148. Washington,
1911.

Ray, Perley Orman. Repeal of the Missouri Compromise/ Cleve-
land, 1909.

Rhodes, James Ford. History of the United States. 8 vols. New
York, 1892-1919.

RiPPY, J. Fred. Border Troubles Along the Rio Grande, 1848-60. In
the Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Vol. XXIII, pp. 91-112.
Austin, 1919.

RoYCE, Charles C. Indian Land Cessions of the United States. In
Smithsonian Institution, Bureau of American Ethnology, 18th
Annual Report. Part II. Washington, 1899.

Schoolcraft, H. R. Conditions and Prospects of the Indian Tribes
of the United States. Six Parts. Philadelphia, 1857.

Turner, Frederick Jackson. Rise of the New West. New York,
1906.

Watkins, Albert. Illustrated History of Nebraska. 3 vols. Lincoln,
1911.

Wyeth, Walter M. Isaac McCoy. Philadelphia, 1895.

TOURNALISM pRESS

V IMIV«MtTV OP ^ KAMSA*
t.Awn>NCC- KAN9AS*

BULLBTIN OP THB UNIVBRSITY OP KANSAS
Vol. XXU DMemb«r 1, 1921 No. 18

PublUhad Miiii*nM>atfaly fiom Jaaury to Jiui« snd nMmthlir from Joly to
DcooBbor, iaeluftive. by the UaireraitT of Kmmi

HUMANISTIC STUDIES

Vol. II, No. 4

AMERICAN INDIAN VERSE

CSianioteristios of Style

BY

NBLUB BARNES

imsirmegor in Eugttsh
7i# Univenity of Kmua*

LAWRBNG6, DBGEMBBR, 1921

Battred m Moond-olcM aatter DMember 29, 1910, •£ the poitoftot at
LttwrsBM, Kansaii, under the •«! of July 16, 18SH

THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS

GOMMITTBB ON HUMANISTIC STUDIES

PRANK HBYWOOD HODDBM BDWIN MtOBTmBB HOPKINS

PKANK WiiSON BldCKMAK AMTHOM TAPPAN WALKBM

SBLDBN UNCOLN WatTCOJiB, BJit^r

The University of Kansas Humanistic Studies
are offered in exchange for similar publications
by learned societies and by universities and
other academic institutions. All inquiries and
all matter sent in exchange should be ad-
dressed to the Library of the University of
Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas.

Volume I

Number 1. Studies in the Work of CoUey
Cibher, by DeWitt C. Croissant. October, 1912.
Seventy pages. Fifty cents.

Number 2. Studies in Bergson'e Philoeophy,
by Arthur Mitchell. January, 1914. One hun-
dred and fifteen pages. Seventy-five cents.

Number 3. Browning and Italian Art and
Artists, by Pearl Hogrefe. May, 1914.
Seventy-seven pages. Fifty cents.

Number 4. The Semantics of -mentum,
-hulum, and -eulumf by Edmund D. Gressman.
January, 1016. Fifty-six pages. Fifty cents.

Volume II

Number 1. Oriental Diction and Theme in
English Verse, ITJ^O-ISJ^O, by Edna Osborne.
May, 1916. One hundred and forty-one pages.
Seventy-five cents.

Number 2. The Land Credit Problem, by
George £. Putnam. December, 1916. One
hundred and seven pages. Seventy-five cents.

Number 3. Indian Policy and Westward
Expansion, by James C. Malin. November,
1921. One hundred and eight pages. One
dollar.

Number 4. American Indian Verse: Char^
acteristies of Style, by Nellie Barnes. Decem-
ber, 1921. Sixty-four pages. Seventy-five cents.

BULLETIN OP THE UNIVERSITY OP KANSAS
HUMANISTIC STUDIES

VoL II December, 1921 tie. 4

Amerieam Imdiam Verse, h NelHe Barmes
Seveety'fkve Cents

BULLETIN OF THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS

HUMANISTIC STUDIES

Vol. II December I 1921 No. 4

AMERICAN INDIAN VERSE
Characteristics of Style

BY

NELLIE BARNES

Instructor in English
The University of Kansas

LAWRBNGB. DBGBMBBR. 1911
PUBU8HBD BY THB UNIVBR81TY

COPYRIGHT, 1922

BY
NELLIE BARNES

-<%^H/'

Preface

The recent discussion of Indian verse opened by Mr. Louis
Untermeyer in the Dial of March 8, 1919S would have been
interesting and diverting had it not become acrimonious. That
Indian verse is the original vers Ubre is a debatable question,
although Mrs. Austin gives the view her warm support*.
Scholars agree that this verse is mnemonic. Perhaps the new
school of poetry would make the same claim for vers libre.
Whatever the form, the critic at least should understand the
civilization shaping any literary product upon which he pre-
sumes to pass judgment. The large number of Indian lan-
guages forbids very wide knowledge of originals.* Acquaint-
ance with customs and mjrths is possible, however, for one who
is not a close student of Indian linguistics. The interweaving
of each mnemonic fragment with a narrative perhaps as old as
the race presents a problem to the student at every step in his
research. This problem should not wholly discourage the
reader of Indian poetry, for no literature which represents the
life of a race can ever be of indifferent interest. Neither can
such poetry be entirely clear to the white reader. Mr. Unter-
meyer has confessed his ignorance of Indian lore. As a critic,
might he not have ^encouraged others to search out the spirit of
a passing race? It seems unfortunate that he has left the real
issue untouched in his last communication to the DiaL

In the light of these facts, it may appear inconsistent for the
writer to offer even this tentative sketch of the characteristics
of style without a discussion of Indian life and character. Since
both these discussions are parts of a larger work nearing com-
pletion, it seems unnecessary to present any part of the latter
in connection with this paper.

The verse here studied includes only forms preceding tiie in-
fluence of white men ; at least forms showing no obvious in-
fluence of white men or of Christian teachings. No transla-

1 The Dial, Mar. 8, 1919, pp. 240-241; May 31, 1919, pp. 569-570; July
12, 1919, p. 30 ; Aug. 23, 1919, p. 163.

s Austin, Introduction: The Path on the Rainbow (ed. by Cronyn),

p. XVI.

> Boas, Handbook of American Indian Languages, p. 62.

tions into the Indian languages have, therefore, been consid-
ered. Wherever possible, the writer has made comparison of
the free translations with literal translations and with glossa-
ries. Errors may have found their way into this study in spite
of this extreme care, but it is hoped that they are few.

Authenticity of material is frequently an open question.
After reading the marriage song of Tikaens^ with enthusiasm,
the writer regretfully discarded it upon reading a full account
of this hoax in a later volume by Dr. Brinton.' Apparently
Mrs. Austin has not come upon the exposi of this fraud, or she
would not have included this verse in her brief study of Indian
poetry®.

A problem greater than authenticity is that of finding a
sufficient range of material to assure general characteristics.
Although the sources for this paper are by no means inclusive,
they cover the songs and rituals of twenty ethnic families,
which represent all but one of the nine great culture areas in
North America, north of Mexico — all but tilie Southeastern
Area^ This analysis of seventeen thousand song lines is based
on the poetic literature of fifty-six tribes, among them the
greatest of the red race. So far as possible, the writer com-
pared the studies of several translators of a given tribal litera-
ture before determining a characteristic.

The writer has been unable to make sharp distinctions be-
tween the verse of the American Indians of the far North and
that of the Eskimo, as the two races seem to have largely
parallel cultures, each centering in a cosmic belief.

Those who may wish to follow the study farther will find
extensive translations in the ethnological publications of both
our own and the Canadian government. The American
Museum of Natural History, the Field Museuni, the Peabody
Museum, the University of California, the University of
Pennsylvania, the American Folk-Lore Society, and the Amer-

^ Brinton, AborigiruLl American Authors^ pp. 48-49.
s Brinton, Essays of an Americanist, pp. 452-468.
^ Austin, Introduction: The Path on the Radnbotv (ed. by Gronyn),

pp. xxviii-xxx. ; ;<

7 Wissler, The American Indian, pp. 206-226.
See map in Indians of the Plains, p. 11.
Cf. Holmes, Areas of American Culture; Anthropology in America,

pp. 42-76.

lean Anthropological Association, have made valuable collec-
tions and translations. The Ayer Collection in the Newberry
Library, Chicago, is particularly valuable. Dr. Daniel G.
Brinton, Dr. Washington Matthews, Miss Alice C. Fletcher,
Mrs. Natalie Curtis Burlin, Miss Frances Densmore, Mr.
Frederick Burton, and Mr. Edward Curtis have done notable
work in the field of Indian poetry and song. It is largely
through the scholarship of such workers as these that this
critical study has been made possible, although the investiga-
tion began independently some ten years ago when the writer
spent a winter among the Chickasaw Indians.

It requires some courage to enter an untried field, especially
when many have thought the venture a futile one. The writer
is glad to express here her appreciation of the friendly counsel
given her by Dr. Dunlap, Head of the English Department, and
by Dr. Hopkins, Dr. Johnson, Dr. Whitcomb, and Dr. Bumham
of the departmental committee on graduate work.

The University of Kansas, Nellie Barnes.

Lawrence,
October 1, 1919.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Acknowledgments are due to the following persons and or-
ganizations for their courteous permission to quote from works
on which they hold the copyright : to Mrs. Daniel Garrison
Brinton ; to Mr. Bridgham Curtis, executor for the estate of
Mrs. Natalie Curtis Burlin; to the Theodore Presser Com-
pany; and to the Bureau of American Ethnology.

CONTENTS

Part One : Shaping Forces

I Spirit 9

II Observation 13

ni Imagination 14

IV Symbolism 15

V Sense of Beauty 18

Part Two : Characteristics of Style

I Monotony : Variety 22

II Repetition 24

III Conciseness ; 30

IV Poetic Diction 38

V Imagery 41

VI Musical Quality in Verse 49

VII Minor Characteristics : Vigor

Onomatopoeia, Parallelism 52

Summary .* 56

Bibliography :

A. General References 57

B. Critical Comment on Indian Verse 61

Index 62

>r

American Indian Verse

PART ONE : SHAPING FORCES

I SPIRIT^

The American Indians are the poets of the cosmos. To
them, this faith is the great reality. Although their literature
is related to their material culture, it is more intimately a part
of their spiritual and artistic development In this respect the
shaping forces of Indian verse are much like those of all
primitive verse, but their essential qualities are most significant
in this particular verse. These elements, to be understood,
must be studied in their relation to the cosmic motive.

From such a motive grew that fine poetic instinct for what
is beautiful, that lifts and frees thought from time and circum-
stance. Other shaping forces of Indian poetry grew from that
same source. To name them may set limits which this poetry
never accepted. We should, therefore, consider that spirit,
observation, imagination, symbolism, and sense of beauty are
only tentative valuations of these forces.

The exalted feeling^ — ^the high spirit of Indian verse — ^is in-
deed the dominant tone of this literature, reflecting the Red
Men's self -reverence, their consciousness of personal worth in
the great scheme of life. This feeling saves the simplest poems
from absurdity. There are majesty and power in the exalted
spirit of the Omaha ritual, the Introduction of the Child to the
Cosmos,^^ and of the Mountain Songs of the Navahos^^ The
following passage is quoted from the Omaha ritual :

Introduction of the Child to the Cosmos

Ho! Ye Sun,. Moon, Stars, all ye that
move in the heavens,
I bid you hear me !
Into your midst has come a new life.

Consent ye, I implore!
Make its path smooth, that it may reach
the brow of the first hill !

® Brinton, EsBayB of An Amerieaniat, p. 804.

* Brinton, Aboriginal American Authors, p. 49.
1^ Fletcher, The Omaha Tribe, pp. 116-117.
11 Curtis, The Indiana' Book, pp. 860-356, 866-869.

10 University of Kansas Humanistic Studies [36S

Ho! Ye Winds, Clouds, Rain, Mist, all ye
that move in the air,

I bid you hear me !
Into your midst has come a new life.

Consent ye, I implore !
Make its path smooth, that it may reach

the brow of the second hill !

Ho! Ye Hills, Valleys, Rivers, Lakes,

Trees, Grasses, all ye of the earth,

I bid you hear me !
Into your midst has come a new life.

Consent ye, I implore !
Make its path smooth, that it may reach

the brow of the third hill !

Ho ! Ye Birds, great and small, that fly

in the air.
Ho ! Ye Animals, great and small, that

dwell in the forest.
Ho ! Ye insects that creep among the

grasses and burrow in the ground —
I bid you hear me !
Into your midst has come a new life.

Consent ye, I implore !
Make its path smooth, that it may reach

the brow of the fourth hill !

Ho ! All ye of the heavens, all ye of the
air, all ye of the earth :
I bid you all to hear me !
Into your midst has come a new life.

Consent ye, consent ye all, I implore !
Make its path smooth — then shall it travel
beyond the four hills !

There is less elevation in style, but a fine nobility and dignity
of thought in the great body of Indian verse studied. It is a
commentary on the sincerity of this verse that there is scant

4

evidence of self-satisfaction or a holier-than-thou attitude. The
spirit of a race that so preserved its nobility, must have been
one of constant aspiration.

Another mood, and one less common, is that of reflection.
Though there is a considerable body of wisdom-lore among the
Indians, it has a relatively small place in their poetry. The phil-

S69] Barnes: American Indian Verse 11

osophy of life gathered up in their religion is largely the source
of reflective poetry.

There are few fine examples of introspective poetry, and of
these the subjective treatment is most striking in the Death of
TcUuta,^^ a lover's lament ; in the Wind Songs^^^ expressing con-
cern for absent loved ones ; and in the shorter songs of invoca-
tion. Eastman has recorded the lover's lament :

Death of Taluta

(Siouan)
Ah, spirit, thy flight is mysterious !
While the clouds are stirred by our wailing,
And our tears fall faster in sorrow —
While the cold sweat of night benumbs us.
Thou goest alone on thy journey —
In the midst of the shining star people !
Thou goest alone on thy journey —
Thy memory shall be our portion ;
Until death we must watch for the spirit.

There is a hint of reflection on a nature theme in this
Eskimaun poem :

Mount Koonak : A Song of Arsut^*

I look toward the south, to great Mount Koonak,
To great Mount Koonak, there to the south ;
I watch the clouds that gather round him ;
I contemplate their shining brightness ;
They spread abroad upon great Koonak;
They climb up his seaward flanks ;
See how they shift and change;
Watch them there to the south ;
How one makes beautiful the other ;
How they mount his southern slopes.
Hiding him from the stormy sea.
Each lending beauty to the other.

It is this reflection on the beauty and majesty of the nature
world that Mackenzie considers the source of idealism in prim-
itive peoples.^^ Perhaps this idealism so shapes the poetic
instinct that it never loses itself in abstractions, but holds fast

" Old Indian Days, p. 32.

13 Curtis, The Indians' Book, pp. 102, 223-225, 463.

1* Rink, Tales and Traditions of the Eskimo, pp. 68-69. See also Brin-
ton, Essays of an Americanist, p. 290.

15 Mackenzie, Evolution of Literature, p. 165.

1^ University of Kansas Humanistic Studies [370

to objective beauty in its interpretive nature poems.^* The
Hako gives some admirable interpretations of the life-giving
power of the sun, the guidance of stars, and the motherhood of
earth in these lines :

Chant to the Sun"

I
Now behold ; hither comes the ray of our father Sun ; it cometh
over all the land, passeth in the lodge, us to touch, and
give us strength.

Song to the Pleiades^*

Look as they rise, up rise

Over the line where sky meets the earth ;

Pleiades !

Lo ! They ascending, come to guide us.

Leading us safely, keeping us one;

Pleiades,

Us teach to be, like you, united.

Song to the Eaeth"

I
Behold ! Our Mother Earth is lying here.
Behold ! She giveth of her f ruitf ulness.
Truly, her power gives she us.
Give thanks to Mother Earth who lieth here.

Ill
Behold on Mother Earth the growing fields !
Behold the promise of her f ruitf ulness !
Truly, her power gives she us.
Give thanks to Mother Earth who lieth here.

V
Behold on Mother Earth the spreading trees !
Behold the promise of her f ruitf ulness !
Truly, her power gives she us.
Give thanks to Mother Earth who lieth here.

VII
Behold on Mother Earth the running streams !
Behold the promise of her f ruitf ulness !
Truly, her power gives she us.
Give thanks to Mother Earth who lieth here.

i« Densmore, Teton^ioux Music, p. 60; Chippewa Music, I, p. 110.

17 Fletcher, The Hako, pp. 135-136, 326.

18 Ibid., pp. 161-152, 330.
i» Ibid., pp. 163-168, 335.

S71] Barnes: American Indian Verse IS

A feeling of pathos and loneliness sometimes gives atmos-
phere to a poem. Grief is openly expressed — yet it is note-
worthy that the melancholy mood does not temper the spirit
of Indian song.

The predominance of affirmation^^ explains the absence of
melancholy. Affirmation was the basis of achievement and of
cure among many widely scattered tribes. The crier sum-
moned the patient to healing with the words : "Come on the
trail of song."" Through faith in the singing shaman's in-
cantations, an ancient form of musico-therapy, the patient re-
covered his health and power.

There is naivete in this ancient f aith» and this quality is free
from pose. The very dignity and reserve of the Indian nature
refine it.

Humor is the most uncommon aspect of the spirit of Indian
poetry. Though it is a comparatively modem spirit in all
literature, with some notable exceptions, there is a slight
strain of it in Indian song.^^ The taunting songs of the bene-
dicts and bachelors are found in the southwest.^^ But the most
extensive evidence of this quality is seen in the Eskimaun
songs, especially in the nith songs.^^

Even in summarizing these eight factors just presented, it
is difficult to- measure the spirit of Indian poetry as a shaping
force. Its essence, through all its varied moods, is aspiration.
This feeling gives direction, if not limitation, to the poetic
instinct.

n OBSERVATION

We may further interpret the spirit of Indian poetry
through the study of a second shaping force, observation. Here
was range enough, on a rock-ribbed continent, with its cool

20 Wisskr, Ceremonial Bundles of the Blackfoot Indians, p. 207.
Fletcher, Indian Story and Song from North America, pp. 81-85.
Matthews, The Night Chant, pp. 69, 88, 146.

2^ Matthews, op. cit, p. 69.

22 Fletcher, A Spudy of Omaha Indian Music, pp. 51-52.

28 Lummis, The Land of Poco Tiempo, p. 112.

2« Rink, Tales and Traditions of the Eskimo, pp. 66-67. See also
Brinton, Essays of an Americanist, pp. 287-288.

H University of Kansas Humanistic Stvdies [S72

pine forests and lake waters, its broad sweep of prairies with
their rivers and buffaloes on a thousand hills, its sunbeaten
cactus reaches of the southwest — with vast spaces between
tribes, giving: the sense of isolation that closes in with night.
In his environment, as in all other relationships, the Indian
saw real values. His observation was true to nature ob-
jectively,^' true to his own essential relationship to the nature
world, and true to primal human experiences. Observe this
description of the growth of the squash vine quoted by Mat-
thews: "In one night it ripens, it grows." The source of a
stream is described as "water in a chain of pools." Hie
Pawnees and other tribes recognized the duality in nature.
This power of observation was the eternal search for truth
epitomized in a child faith.

Ill IMAGINATION"

Observation and imagination are accepted as determining
influences of all poetry. In Indian verse, imagination takes
on a spiritual quality. It aspires to a star as the symbol of a
dream, and sees in the purple of the mist and of the smoke-
wreath the presence of the soul. It has enriched the Indian's
experience by the comprehension of beauty at every point at
which he touches life. In his fancy, the Red Man sweeps the
blue with eagle wings or swiftly journeys to the holy moun-
tain on the path of the rainbow. In the Navaho Night
Chant,^'' the Slayer of the Alien Gods strides from summit to
summit among the mountains. Creation songs, especially,
show an imaginative power of a high order. Then there are
poems which rest the mind from following after gods and
heroes of old times. These poems express a delicacy of
imagination. This is, of course, a lesser phase; for this
imaginative force usually directs the poet to the essential
meaning of life, as in the recognition of a purposive Spirit in

25 The Night Chant, pp. 278, 292.

Curtis, The Indians' Book, pp. 97-98.

2« See IMAGERY, below, p. 41, for illustrations of observation and imagi-
nation.

27 Matthews, The Night Chant, p. 279. See also pp. 110, 143-145.

373] Barnes: American Indian Verse 15

the universe. It **r&nges beyond the immediate, deals with the
vast in space or power."

The most characteristic trend of this third shaping: force
of Indian poetry is toward symbolism. One authority states :
"Animism, or identifying imagination, by means of which

the primitive man .... transfers his own life into the

unorganic or organic world, is one of the oldest and surest
indications of poetic faculty, and as far as we can see, it is
antecedent to the use of verbal images or S3rmbols."^^

IV SYMBOLISM

The study of s3rmbolism in Indian diction, in bundles, and in
similar records, is of no importance unless it opens the doors
of our understanding and experience. To a white reader such
study is imperative, although to the Indian little of his sym-
bolism is esoteric.

We may trace this tendency of Indian thought to the univer-
sal experiences of men, chiefly to the religious impulse, as has
been suggested at the beginning of our study. So extensive is
its influence on Indian poetry that nothing which eye can see,
or imagination picture, fails to render its full measure of ser-
vice. In old verse, the idea is frequently lost in the symbol. In
its extreme type, there is the symbol of the song that is never
sung.2®

The fundamental types of Indian symbolism in song include
not less than fifteen to twenty forms. The bird^® — ^as the
eagle,^^ which typifies supreme control and other admirable
qualities, the raven, and the hawk — is common to all tribes.
The serpent'* is the sjrmbol of the lightning and of waters.
Among some of the northern tribes the bear is used; and
among the Eskimos, the fish is the motive of an entire cere-
mony. Wherever the fish or other animal is employed, we dis-
cover the native's observation of habits added to a superna-
tural element in the song or ceremony.

28 Bliss Perry, A Study of Poetry, p. 71.

20 Densmore, Chippewa Mtiaie, II, pp. 247- 248.

«o Brinton, Myths of the New World, pp. 120, 125-129.

«i Ibid., p. 127.

« Ibid., pp. 120, 135.

16 University of Kansas Humanistic Studies [374

Tree and water symbols are often found together. The
tree^^ as a symbol of life and unity presents an inspiring: image
in Omaha song. Water is the emblem of purification among
all peoples. This invocation is found in an Omaha Sweat
Lodge Ritual :**

Thou Water,

Oh ! Along the bends of the stream where the waters
strike, and where the waters eddy, among the water
mosses, let all the impurities that gall be drifted.

The sun,*'^ moon, and star*^ symbols belong to all primitive
tribes, and are so related to religious belief that many rituals
center in them.

The cross" is a universal symbol, which may have originated
from the worship of the points of the compass, or perhaps
from a star symbol. The cardinal points have varied inter-
pretations. Dorsey explains that the east represents life and
its source.^^ Quite naturally, all rituals relating to sun-wor-
ship emphasize the songs to the dawn and to the sunset.^®
Mooney suggests, through interpretations of corresponding
color symbols, these ideas among the Cherokees: east (red),
a symbol of power; south (white), peace or happiness; west
(black), death; north (blue), failure.*® The tribes of the
southwest have chosen different colors to represent these
points. The Navahos, for instance, represent the east as the
white dawn, the south as turquoise, the west as yellow, and the

«8 Fletcher, The Oma}ia Tribe, p. 578. See also pp. 217, 251-261, 457.

Brinton, Myths of the New World, pp. 117-118.

8* Fletcher, op. dt., p. 578. See also her work, The Hako, pp. 302-303.

^^ Densmore, Teton-Siotus Music, p. 86. (Bibliogrraphy on this subject.)

Troyer, Hymn to the Sun; The Festive Sun Dance of the Zunis;
Invocation to the Sun-God.

3« Curtis, The Indians* Book, pp. 90, 163-165.

«^ Wissler, The American Indian, p. 201.

8« Brinton, Myths of the New World, p. 109.

89 Troyer, Traditional Songs of the Zuni; especially Awakening at

Dawn, The Sunrise Call or Echo Song, The Sunset Song. (See
p. 43.)

*o Mooney, Sacred Formulas of the Cherokees, p. 342.

S75] Barnes: American Indian Verse 17

north as black/^ These colors represent totally .different
tribal conceptions of the cardinal points. However varied in
meaning, the cardinal points appear significant to all the tribes
studied.

The winds personify divine power,*^ whether the four winds,
or the Running Whirlwind.

Hills and mountains are favorite symbols the world around.
The Omahas have presented life through four hills, ''marking
the stages of infancy, youth, manhood, and old age.^' This
passage is about as near to abstract reasoning as the Indian
ever approaches, and is to be noted because it is unusual.

The important uses- of color symbolism relate to significant
elements in nature. The simplest form is an interpretation of
night and day in terms of black and white.^^ The interpreta-
tion of the cardinal points is less elementary, as has been
shown. The Zuiii represent the lightning as red, and the eyes
of the gods as yellow.^*^ The Navahos used a most extensive
scheme of color symbolism in their Night Chant, and in all
costumes and ritual accompaniments of this great ceremony.'*
The extent to which this type of symbolism prevails ranks it
next to the primary type of sacred numbers.

The most complex S3rmbolism is found in the group of mystic
numbers associated with the sacred teachings and forms of
repetition used by every tribe. Four is the most common num-
ber.^^ This may signify the four cardinal points^ To some it
meant the four worlds : above, below, middle, our own.** The
multiple of four, sixteen, is the Pawnee symbol for complete-

*^ Curtis, The Indians' Book, p. 361.

See also Densmore, Chippewa Mtisie, I, p. 54; II, p. 261.
Matthews, The Night Chant, p. 6.

«3 Fletcher, The Omaha Tribe, pp. 120-121; The Hako, pp. 29,30, 59.

Curtis, op. eit., p. 202.
*^ Fletcher, op. cit, p. 116. See also spirit, above, p. 9.

** Curtis, op. eiU, p. 165.

*^ Mackenzie, Evolution of Literature, pp. 234-236.

^ Matthews, The Night Chant, pp. 5, 6, 9-29, 35, 53, 58, 67-97. See also
his NavaJio Myths, Prayers and Songs.

*f Wissler, The American Indian, p. 201; Fletcher, The Hako, pp. 64,
94-97.

^ Curtis, op. eit, p. 351.

18 University of Kansas Humanistic Stttdies [376

ness." Other s3nnbolical numbers are two, three, five, six,
seven, ten, and f orty-eight.°®

Boas proposes an aesthetic origin from rhythmic repetition,
rather than a religious origin, for the use of these numbers.'^^
While this question of origin is important, we can only observe
here the general association between these numbers and relig-
ious ceremonials, as well as the use in set patterns of repeti-
tion/^ This second use is frequently bound up in the first, and
has, in such instances, a distinctly religious significance.

These types of S3rmbolism, revealing penetration of thought,
directly shape the quality of conciseness and lend strength
and beauty to Indian poetry.

V SENSE OF BEAUTY

The Indian, believing that "Tirawa is in all things,'''^' set
real values on the nature world. With appreciation of value
grew appreciation of beauty ; for what men value must always
set their standards of beauty. As the Flemish artist painted
his pots and pans and stools in a homely kitchen, precisely be-
cause they were homelike, because they were essential to his
way of life through long winters, so the Indian poet set to the
measure of his song all simple things that gave him happiness,
with those grand impressions and aspirations that shaped his
idealism. It is to this fifth great shaping force, the recogni-
tion of beauty, that we must look for direction of the poetic
impulse not only toward beauty of thought and image, but
toward grace of phrase and symmetry of structure.

Geographical differences turn aesthetic observation to the

«o Fletcher, The Hako, pp. 201, 298.

^ Brinton, Myths of the New World, pp. 8538.
Curtis, The Indians' Book, pp. 100-101, 852, 363.
Mackenzie, Evolution of Literature, p. 232.
Russell, The Pima Indians, pp. 272-339.

Wissler, The Ceremonial Bundles of the Blaekfoot Indians, pp. 176-
177, 192, 247-271.

s^ Boas, Mythology and Folk-Tales of the North American Indians:
Anthropology in North America, p. 348.
Brinton, Myths of the New World, pp. 84, 88, 89, 91, 94, 96, 111, 112.

>2 Matthews, The Night Chant, pp. 277, 283.
Fletcher, The Hako, pp. 57, 94-97.

»3 Fletcher, op. cit., pp. 73, 302.

377] Barnes: American Indian Verse 19

stately in the north, and to lighter and more sn^acef ul forms in
the south/^ The Eskimo sings of his cloud-breasted moun-
tain ;*' the Omaha, of winding streams where weeping willows
dip their branches ;°^ the Navaho, of flaming butterflies among
the com/^

Sensuous beauty is at its highest point in the songs of the
southwest. The Hopi Katzina Songs^^ express a sense of
pleasure in the graceful movement of butterfly maidens as they
frolic in the corn-fields. Quieter in movement is the song of
swaying cactus blossoms ''far on the desert ridges," and the
Paiute song of the wind in the grasses and willows.^"

Vivid coloring is a daily experience of the tribes in that
region as they scan canyon walls and desert reaches. The
chiaroscuro of dawn and evening plays through their song-pic-
tures, relieving the intensity of the high coloring.*^ Black
clouds look down on green valleys and white alkali flats, while
red and blue and yellow make their word paintings rich and
gorgeous. Although the appreciation of color seems com-
paratively well developed among the southwestern tribes, it is,
to a degree, a general quality of the aesthetic force operating
in Indian poetry.

Beauty of sound entered much less frequently into the red^
man's artistic feeling than might be expected; for in his
aboriginal days his ear was quick to note the stir of life about
him. The bird song found him responsive as it did the Hebrew
lyrist who sang of spring, "the time of the singing of birds is

«« Curtis, The Indiana* Book, pp. 230-233, 350-359, 372-373.

^B Brinton, Essays of an Amerieanist, p. 290.

»« Fletcher, The Omaha Tribe, p. 578.

91 Curtis, Songs of Ancient America. (Entire.)

>« Curtis, The Indians' Book, pp. 483-486.
See also imagery, below, p. 41.

*» Cronyn, The Path on the Rainbow, p. 65, Song I.
Curtis, op. eit,, p. 317.

•0 Cronyn, op. cit., pp. 73-76.

Curtis, op. cit., pp. 200, 363, 373, 484-485, 487.

Matthews, The Night Chant, pp. 66-68, 143-144, 153, 245, 273-274, 276-

278, 281, 283-284, 286, 288-289, 291-292, 301.

Navaho Myths, Prayers, and Songs, pp. 38-42, 45.
Russell, Tfie Pima Indians, pp. 229, 245-246, 292-293, 299, 304, 308.
Voth, The Ordibi Odquol Ceremony, pp. 26-29, 30, 43-44.

£0 University of Kamns Hvmianiatic Studies {37 8

coine'\ These lines from the Daylight Song of the Navahos
are in honor of the bluebird :

Just at dawn Sialia calls.

The bluebird has a voice . . . melodious,

His voice beautiful, that flows in gladness/^

On the plains, the wind that blew around the tipi sang to the
Indian huddled beside his fire.^' In other regions, the moun-
tain echoed sound for him,*^ and the voice of the thunder gave
cheerful promise of rain.^

From these illustrations and from the discussion of
IMAGERY,^'^ it will be observed that the. aesthetic principle ex-
pressed itself concretely. Emphasis on form and movement,
light and shadow, color, sound, and that other notable detail
of rhythmic repetition,^^ are only the outward signs of a re-
sponsive attitude toward beauty. This conception of beauty is
further related to the concept of happiness. Indeed, the terms
seem interchangeable in Navaho rituals. From this relation-
ship of terms we may see how vital an influence the aesthetic
sense exerted over Indian thought.

And now some one asks why there is no great Indian poetry,
as we speak of great poetry, meaning Homer, or Dante, or
Shakespeare — or even that host of lesser names still %ure of
lasting honor. The Indian poet had great themes. His work
was dignified in treatment, and poetic in style. Beauty was
round about him, and his imagination took hold upon it. Tre-
mendous emotional forces, held in restraint, fired the poet's
intensity. Certain canons of form were everywhere accepted.
The singer was much honored ; indeed all men had their own
songs. What, then, was lacking to great poetry?

There are two possible answers. The first is that the genius
of the red race found unique expression in social freedom.
Their individualism was the fulfillment of a great social prin-

«i Matthews, The Night Chant, p. 294.

*2 Cronyn, The Path on the RainboWf p. 68.

«» Ibid., p. 66.

«« /6td., pp. 83-84.
^A See below, p. 41.

•< See REPETITION, below, p. 24.

379] Barnes: American Indian Verse 21

ciple which recognized the unity of the tribe, as it recognized
the unity of nature, but which gave to the Indian a freedom
from political restraint known possibly in no other civilization.
The lack of great Indian poetry, may, therefore, have been
occasioned by the social order in Indian civilization, by a lack
of discipline in individual life. This situation was complicated
by the general lack of fixed centers of residence. The literatures
studied give evidence that tribes, such as the Pueblos, occupy-
ing established areas, produced the greatest poetry.

We leave the unsettled problem of race psychology for a
more obvious hindrance. The second condition, and the greater
one, operating against the full achievement of the Indian poet
was the lack of a written language flexible in form and mean-
ing. Memory is limited even in the most exact keeper of songs
and rituals. It is inconceivable that great poetry, as we know
it, should ever be produced under these two conditions.

Rising above all obstacles here suggested, however, the great
body of Indian poetry achieved much beauty, and power, and
truth. The following study of characteristics of style seeks
to present the qualities of this literature which make some
claim to poetic art

PART TWO: CHARACTERISTICS OF STYLE

I MONOTONY: VARIETY

Those unfamiliar with Indian verse frequently object to its
monotony of expression. For this reason, the casual reader
cannot be reminded too often that back of every song line
there is a story which must be read into it by one outside the
group of singers. Nor is this narrative element unique in
Indian literature, if we accept the statement of Moulton that
the nucleus of all creative literature is story.^^

The sharp edge of the singer's experience cuts through the
commonplaces of monotony in many of the one line songs
which mean the least on first reading.^® Here the student goes
searching for the story.*® Miss Fletcher records of tiie
He-dhu'-shka Society, "Every song of the Society has its story
which is the record of some deed or achievement of its mem-
bers."^«

Monotony growing out of repetition of theme and phrase
frequently has an artistic purpose. In nearly all Indian verse,
repetition implies movement as well as story. As sug-
gested under symbolism, the number of repetitions may
signify the steps in ceremonial procedure.^^ Again, movement
may be an accompaniment, as in the Corn Grinding Songs of
the Southwest."

*7 R. G. Moulton, The Modem Study of Literature, p. 335.

°^ A fuller discussion of this point may be found under mnemonic sum-
mary, below, p. 32, and sugsrestion, below, p. 32.

•» Fletcher, Story and Song from North America, entire. Note es-
pecially the Song of the Laugh, pp. 8-14; The Omaha Tribe,
p. 481.

See also:

Burton, American Primitive Music, pp. 163-164.

Curtis, The Indians' Book, p. 360-363.

Densmore, Chippewa Music, both parts; also her Teton-Sioux Music,
entire.

Matthews, T?ie Night Chant, p. 270.

Russell, The Pima Indians, pp. 245-246.

'** Story and Song from North America, p. 13.

71 See above, p. 15, for symbolism.

« Curtis, The Indians' Book, pp. 461-463, 430-432 ; Com Grinding Song,
p. 431.

S81] Barnes: American Indian Verse 23

Corn Grinding Song

Amitola tsina-u-u-ne
Elu, elu toma wahane
Kiawulokia pena wulokia.
Kesi liwamani

Hliton iyane !
Kesi liwamani

Hlapi hanan iyane !
Letewkan atowa
Awuwakia litla.
Hi yai-elu !

Translation :

Yonder, yonder see the fair rainbow,
See the rainbow brigrhtly decked and painted T
Now the swallow bringeth glad news to your com.
Singing, "Hitherward, hitiierward, hitherward, rain.

Hither come !"
Singing, "Hitherward, hitherward, hitherward,
white cloud,

Hither come !"
Now we hear the corn-plants murmur,
"We are growing everywhere !"
Hi, yai, the world, how fair!

The rhythm here is the rhythm of the worker over her metate,
and the reader's sense of monotony gives way to appreciation
of the spirit of one who images beauty to give lightness to her
task. Yet so far as the principle of variety is concerned, the
Indian vocational song bears favorable comparison with the
English chantey.

Emphasis is another motive of monotony. The idea of the
song is the center of the Indian singer's interest.^^ He em-
ploys repetition, not variation, therefore, as a necessary part
of his technique in making his theme effective. "Reduplication
in Dakota consists essentially in the doubling of the principal
theme of the word."^*

To be sure, the monotony is more apparent to the hearer

73 Densmore, Chippewa Music, I, p. 2.

74 Boas, Handbook of American Indian Languages, p. 896.

i?^ University of Kansas Humanistic Studies [38!^

and to the reader than to the singer. Repetition when sung is
never so wearjring as when heard or read. That it gives
pleasure is evidenced by the current folk-songs of the white
race. In all study of Indian verse, let it be remembered that
every line of this verse is chanted or sung and should have
qualities and form suited to chant or song.

Variety, though not a universal quality, is certainly to be re-
cognized as an important element in the verse of the Pawnees^
the Omahas, the Navahos, the Pueblos, and the Cherokees. Dis-
tinctive aspects of this element are found in theme and in
imagery. One of the most striking examples of these phases
of variety is The Hako,'^^ though the songs of the Zuni and the
Navahos admit no rivalry. A literature which sweeps the
uttermost limits of human experience has in its subject mat-
ter, alone, enough inherent variety to offset any degree of
monotony in form. Even a superficial reader will concede this
point to the verse of the American Indian.

II REPETITION^*

The most obvious characteristic of Indian poetry is that of
repetition— of syllable, word, phrase, line, and even stanza
and song. It must not be thought, however, that it is used
without artistry. It has, in fact, the most elaborate technique
of any element in the style of Indian poetry. Dr. Brinton re-
duced it to two fundamentals, that of entire repetition and of
partial repetition with ref rain.^^ But these are only the begin-
nings of the Indians' art.

As in the old European ballad, incremental repetition may
carry forward the action of the narrative.^* In many in-
stances, this form of repetition advances step by step a de-

T» Fletcher, The Hako (a Pawnee ceremony).

T* This diacussion centers upon the tsrpes of repetition. Other phases of
tiie subject, such as ssrmbolism and interpretation are discussed
under symbousm (see above, p. 15,) and monotoKy (see above, p.
22.)

77 Brinton, Essays of an Americanist, pp. 285-286.

78 Fletcher, The Omaha Tribe, pp. 262-269 ; The Hako, pp. 48, 291 ; 50-51,

293-294; 74-75, 303-304; 82-85, 305-306; 118-134, 319-320.
Brinton, op. eit, pp. 294-295.
Curtis, The Indians* Book, pp. 353-356, 370.

38S] Barnes: American Indian Verse 26

scription or an idea of the singer. In the Song of the Hogans
this device develops, through stanza after stanza, pictures of
sacred houses in the mythical dawn and sunset worlds/* The
Song of the Horse, alluding to the horse of the Sun-God, also
illustrates the ability of the poet to sustain the interest of his
hearer while he builds stanza upon stanza of picturesque de-
tail interphrased with verses resung:^®

Song of the Horse

How joyous his neigh !
Lo, the Turquoise Horse of Hohano-ai,

How joyous his neigh,
There on precious hides outspread standeth he ;

How joyous his neigh.
There on tips of fair fresh flowers f eedeth he ;

How joyous his neigh,
There of mingled waters holy drinketh he ;

How joyous his neigh.
There he spumeth dust of glittering grains ;

How joyous his neigh.
There in mist of sacred pollen hidden, all hidden he ;

How joyous his neigh.
There his offspring may grow and thrive for ever-
more:

How joyous his neigh !

Equally fine are the Song of the Rain-Chant and the War Song
describing the Flint Youth.^^ The first is given here entire :

Song of the Rain-Chant

Far as man can see,
Comes the rain,
Comes the rain with me.

From the Rain-Mount,
Rain-Mount far away.

Comes the rain,

Comes the rain with me.

O'er the com,

O'er the com, tall com.

Comes the rain.

Comes the rain with me.

T» Giirtis, The Indiana' Book, pp. 366-858.

80 Gurtis, op. cit, pp. 361-362. See also the section on imagery, below, p.

41, which quotes from this song.
«i Gurtis, op. eit., pp. 363-866.

£6 University of Kansas Humanistic Studies [38^

'Mid the lightnings,
'Mid the lightning zigzag,
'Mid the lightning flashing,

Comes the rain,

Comes the rain with me.

'Mid the swallows,
'Mid the swallows blue
Chirping glad together,

Comes the rain,

Comes the rain with me.

Through the pollen,
Through the pollen blest.
All in pollen hidden

Comes the rain,

Comes the rain with me.

Far as man can see.
Comes the rain.
Comes the rain with me.

In the Pawnee Ritvul of the Dawn, in the song of The Morn-
ing-Star and the New-Born Dawn, there is an unusual use of
incremental repetition:®*

The Morning Star and the New-Born Dawn

I

Ho-o-o-o !

H'Opirit rira risha ;
H'Opirit rira risha ;
H'Opirit rira risha ;
H'Opirit rira risha.

II

Ho-o-o-o !

H'Opirit ta ahrisha;
H'Opirit ta ahrisha ;
H'Opirit ta ahrisha ;
H'Opirit ta ahrisha.

Ill

Ho-o-o-o !

Reshuru rira risha ;
Reshuru rira risha;
Reshuru rira risha ;
Reshuru rira risha.

«a Fletclier, The Hako, pp. 128, 322-323. Cf. p. 123.

385] Barnes: American Indian Verse 27

IV

Ho-o-o-o !

Reshuru ta ahrisha ;
Reshuru ta ahrisha ;
Reshuru ta ahrisha ;
Reshuru ta ahrisha.

This song shows a graceful interlacing pattern in the relations
between the first and third, and the second and fourth stanzas.
This is one of the most artistic uses of this type that the writer
hsLS yet found. In another use, with some variations, incre-
mental repetition suggests the movement of the story or action
connected with the song. The labor songs are the most natural
expression of this form. In all four adaptations of this type
of repetition, the consciousness of the poet is clearly seeking
to realize beautiful forms of song.

The interlacing verse patterns, aside from their use in incre-
mental repetition, are >usually simple. Alternation of lines is
the pattern in the Song of the World.^^

Less symmetrical and less pleasing is a more involved sys-
tem of repetition found among the Pima Indians a^d some
other tribes. Phrases and words are repeated at intervals,
interwoven with other repetitions, the whole effect more
intricate than a system of ballade rhymes. The Crow Dance
Song of the Arapahos falls into the following system:
aaJHibcdaaabcd.^*

Hesunani' ho-hu,
Hesunani' ho-hu,

Bahinahnit-ti,
Hesunani^ ho-hu,

Bahinahnit-ti,
Hesunani^ no!
A e-yo he-ye he-ye yo !

Ho-hu,
Hesunani' ho-hu,
Hesunani' ho-hu,

Bahinahnit-ti,
Hesunani' no!
A e-yo he-ye he-ye yo !

•3 Curtis, The Indians' Book, p. 316.
»* Ibid., pp. 209-210.

28 University of Kansas Humanistic Studies [386

It certainly seems impossible that such elaborate schemes were
accidental, since there are so many illustrations of their use.

The simpler forms of repetition are, of course, universal.
Iteration links thought fragments ; hence it becomes a conscious
literary device for unity. A double repetition, that is, repeti-
tion of the story-phrase and of the burden,^" occurs in the Song
of the Wren.^^ The two parts are sung together several times.
This is, to be sure, a one verse song, and one verse songs in-
varia*bly call for repetition. The distinction here is that repe-
tition does not emphasize the burden, or refrain. Redupli-
cation is another simple form of repetition that seems
to be used extensively.®^ It consists in repeating the syllable :
the stem, for emphasis; sometimes the last syllable, when
the purpose is to complete the measure.®*

As has been observed in the discussion of SYMBOLISM, the
number of repetitions has a distinct significance to the Indian
mind, however accidental it may appear to the casual reader.
One ritual or ceremonial may call for four repetitions, as in
The Hako and some songs of the southwest. Five, six, seven,
and eight repetitions are common.®*

These are the general types of repetition in Indian song.
After a fashion, they approximate rhyme in verse in which
that element is lacking. In addition to Brinton's fundamentals,
there are, then, the four forms of incremental repetition,
alternating repetition, the repetition-complex,^ and reduplica-
tion.

Since refrain has so important a place, it has been reserved
for a more extended discussion here. It may be used by the
chorus, by the soloist, or by ensemble. So universal a form of

^° See definition of burden, below, p. 29, footnote 91.

" Fletcher, The Hako, p. 171.

«7 See also FOEnc diction, below, p. 88.

^^ Fletcher, Indian Story and Song from North Ameriea, p. 96 ; The
Hako, p. 89, 1. 78.

«• Fletcher, op, eit., pp. 6-7, 86-37, 54-55; The Hako, pp. 64-66.
54-55; The Hako, pp. 64-66.
Wissler, Ceremonial Bundles of the Blaekfoot Indians, p. 271.

•0 xhis term is an arbitrary name chosen by the writer for the system
of repetition which approximates the intricacy of the rhyme sys-
tem in many forms of Old French verse.

r •

S87] Barnes: American Indian Verse 29

repetition is the refrain that it is an integral part of most
I Indian songs. With it is occasionally a burden,*^ as in some
> of the Navaho songs.®^ With corresponding effects, . some
songs repeat the prelude at the opening of each stanza.*' The
* form and purpose of the refrain and burden are varied. For
emphasis one song may repeat a simple theme-refrain con-
tinuously until the close of the song or ceremony of which it
is a part.*^^ Usually this is a repetition of the opening line of
the song. Another may use the last word of a line as the bur-
den for all the following verses; hence this burden becomes
the characteristic reiteration of the song.*° In a song-sequence,
a definite word-refrain is sometimes characteristic of the whole
group.®' The prelude and refrain may employ identical
phrasing; and, infrequently, the burden may correspond to
them.®^ Contrasted with tHis purpose which emphasizes a
special theme or word is that which seeks appropriate or
pleasing effects only, in the purely interjectional refrain.®'

Emphasis may join with beauty in I'efrain, as in this Zuiii
song, The Coyote and the Locust :®®

Tchumali, tchumali, shohkoya,
Tchumali, tchumali, shohkoya,
Yaamii heeshoo taatani tchupatchiute

Shohkoya,

Shohkoya !

"^ Althougrh the terms refrain and burden are used interdiangeably in
criticism, it will be found convenient to distingnwh the repetition
which follows the stanza and that which reiterates a verse ending,
as the verbal element which stands as a distinct part of the line
structure. When both these forms occur in the same song, the
first type will be called the rejraxn^ and the second the *hurd»n.

w Matthews, The Night Chant, pp. 271, 274, 275, 276, 296; Navaho
Myths, Prayers, and Songs, pp. 37-47, 51-54.

w Matthews, The Night Chant, pp. 275, 277.

^* Crin^^n, Pagan Dance Songs of the Iroquois, p. 170.
Curtis, The Indians* Book, pp. 255, 352, 370.

•<K Fletcher, The Omaha Tribe, pp. 442-446.
Brinton, Essays of an Americanist, p. 289.
Matthews, Navaho Myths, Prayers, and Songs, pp. 45-56.

•« Fletcher, op. cit., pp. 379-380.

»7 Matthews, The Night Chant, pp. 273, 279, 283.

^ Wissler, Ceremonial Bundles of the Blaekfoot Indians, p. 264.

•• Gushing, Zuni Folk Tales, p. 255.

so University of Kansas Humanistic Studies [S88

Translation :

Locust, locust, playing a flute,
Locust, locust, playing a flute!
Away up above on the pine-tree bough,
Closely clinging.
Playing a flute,
Playing a flute !

The Mountain Song of the Navahos loses nothing of its
exalted feeling in its alternating refrain :^^®

Thither go I !

Chief of all mountains.

Thither go I,

Living forever.

Thither go I,

Blessings bestowing.

Thither go I,

Calling me "Son, my son."

Thither go I.

Through all these varied forms of refrain, the aesthetic prin-
ciple of repetition works toward artistic recurrence of sound
and accentuation of rhjrthm.

Ill CONCISENESS

Conciseness is a primary characteristic growing out of fhe
Indian's concentration of thought. Burton observes: "The
most striking feature of Ojibway verse is its extraordinary
compactness." ^^^ The quantity of facts to be condensed seems
never to embarrass the Indian composer. Give him the crea-
tion of the world, its cosmology, a race of culture heroes, the
traditional history of his people, and their religious philosophy,
and he will set down the whole of it — ^f rom the dawn of time
to the coming of the white men — ^in some two hundred lines,
with poetic bits of description for good measure.^®* Take, for
instance, some of the passages in the WcUam Olum, which is
approximately of this length:"'

100 Curtis, The Indians' Book, p. 352.

101 Burton, American Primitive Music, p. 146.

See also Brinton, Essays of an Americanist, p. 841.

102 Brinton, The Walam Olum; The Lendpe and their Legends, pp. 169-

218. (Prose translation.)

103 Ibid., Canto 1, 11. 3-12.

SS9] Barnes: American Indian Verse 31

At first, forever, lost in space, everywhere,

the great Manito was.
He made the extended land and the sky.
He made the sun, the moon, the stars.
He made them all to move evenly.
Then the wind blew violently, and it cleared,

and the water flowed off far and strong.
And groups of islands grew newly, and there

remained.
Anew spoke the great Manito, a manito to manitos.
To beings, mortals, souls and all.
And ever after he was a manito to men and

their grandfather.****

tSo much for creation! But we may see how fair those days
were at the dawn of the world in this one-line sketch of the
Indian's Eden:

All had cheerful knowledge, all had leisure, all thought
in gladness.***'

Almost as brief as the story of creation is that of the great
flood and the scattering abroad of the tribes. Then follows a
catalog of chiefs, with their deeds of fame. Here and there are
landscapes inviting our view :"*

the great Spruce Pine land was toward the shore.

At the place of caves, . .they at last had food on a
pleasant plain.

A great land and a wide land was the east land,
A land without snakes, a rich land, a pleasant land.

These two lines involve a history of civilization and the

stories of great migrations :

They separated at Fish river; the lazy ones remained
there.^''^

All the cabin fires of that land were disquieted, and all
said to their priest, "Let us go.""®

10* Curtis, The Indians' Book, p. 10: "Grandfather is a title of respect
or reverence for any old man/'

io<K Brinton, The Walam Olum, Canto 1, 1. 20.

w« Ibid,, Canto IV. 11. 13, 29; Canto V, 11. 21, 22.

107 Ibid., Canto IV, 1. 49. (The italics are the writer's.)

108 Ibid., Canto III, 1. 8.

3S University of Kansas Humanistic Studies [390

Here we have the broad sweep of tribal movement, and the
understanding of group consciousness and activity. Such com-
pactness gives power to the classic poetry of any race, for it
combines breadth and depth.

Although the Walam Olum is the best illustration of con-
ciseness the writer has yet found among the longer poems,
even the longest bear distinct evidence of this quality.
Conciseness is, of course, as essentially a quality of Ijrric
verse as it is of the epic and dramatic types. It is in the
warp and woof of every Indian song fabric. In rituals, it is
usually a conscious development, since the keepers are in-
clined to keep the meaning hidden from the uninitiated. This
is the old story of rituals, but here the motive seems in part
a worthy one — "To guard the full meaning from the care-
less," as Miss Fletcher suggests.^®*

The poet achieves his effect by means of several devices :
bare narrative, as is found on the whole in the WaiUim Olum;
or allusion — ^the use of suggestion by association or implica-
tion, involving the whole range of tribal custom and belief.
Minor devices include elision, suppression of verbs, and the
use of exclamatory forms.

Suggestion through association is a common form of
allusion. By such means is traditional history kept before the
people. This suggestive power of words "to carry the memory
of tl^e act which the song copimemorates'' is known as
mnemonic summary. It is second only to repetition as an
essential characteristic of style in Indian verse. It is the hid-
den force that gives direction to the song. "Frequently a
single word referred to a known tribal ceremony or recalled a
tribal teaching or precept, so that to the Omaha the word was
replete with meaning or signiflcance."^^^ Matthews points out :
"Another difficulty with Navaho songs is that, without ex-
plaining, they often allude to matters which the hearers are
supposed to understand. They are not like our ballade

109 Fletcher, The Hako, pp. 170-172, 366. See also the diacossion in her

Story and Song from North Ameriea, p. 80.

110 Fletcher, The Omaha Tribe, p. 470. See also p. 479; The Hako, p. 865.
Densmore, Chippewa Music, I, p. 15.

391] Barnes: American Indian Verse SS

they tell no tales. He who would comprehend them must know

the mjrths and ritual customs on which they are based.""^ The

line, "My door is warm in winter," means little to a white

reader, but heard by the Ojibway wandering far from his

tepee through winter snows in search of game, the words

meant a customary invitation to food and cheer by a stranger's
fire."2

Some lines in The Hako will show how difficult is the task of
the translator in undertaking to give the full idea of an Indian
ritual to a reader of an alien race. Even to approximate the
meaning of the mnemonic phrasing requires extensive addi-
tions to the lines."*

Line 1361

Hiri! Riru tziraru; rasa ruxsa.pakara ra witz
pari ; hiri ! tiruta ; hiri ! ti rakuse tararawa hut,
tiri.

Line 1364.

Hiri ! Rirutziraru ; sira waku rarisut : hiri !
tiruta ; hiri ! Tirawa, ha ! tiri.

Line 1365

Hiri ! Riru tziraru ; Rararitu, kata witixsutta,

Rakiris takata wi tixsutta.

Rakiris tarukux pa, raru tura tuka wiut tari.

Literal translation :

Line 1361

hiri!, harken!

ririi tziraru, by reason of, by means of, because of. The word
has a wide significance and force throughout the ritual.

ra^a, the man stood.

rSxsa, he said or did.

pakard ra, a loud call or chant, sending the voice to a great dis-
tance.

tvitz, from tawitz'sa, to reach or arrive.
pari, traveling. These five words tell of a religious rite per-
formed by the leader. The first two refer to his going to a

"1 Matthews, The Night Chant, p. 270.

112 Burton, American Primitive Music, p. 221.

ii« Fletcher, The Hako, pp. 272-273 (text), 274-276 (literal translation),
364-368 (free translation).

Sji. University of Kansas Humanistic Studies [39S

solitary place to fast and pray, seeking help and favor

from the powers above ; the last three describe his voice,

bearing his petition, traveling on and on, striving to reach

the abode of Tir&wa.
hiri! harken ! a call for reverent attention.
ti rata, special or assigned places, referring to the places where

the lesser powers dwell, these having been assigned by

Tira wa atius, the father of all.
hiril, harken! a call for reverent attention.
ti rakme, sitting; present tense, plural number.
tararawd hut, the sky or heavens. It implies a circle, a great

distance, and the dwelling place of the lesser powers,

those which can come near to man and be seen or heard or

felt by him.
tiri, above, up there, as if the locality were designated by

pointing upward.

Free translation :
Line 1361

Hearken ! And whence, think ye, was borne

Unto these men courage to dare,

Strength to endure hardship and war?

Mark well my words, as I reveal

How the gods help man's feebleness.

The Leader of these warriors was a man

Given to prayer. Oft he went forth

Seeking a place no one could find.

There would he stand, and lift his voice

Fraught with desire, that he might be

Invincible, a bulwark 'gainst all foes

Threatening his tribe, causing them fear.

Nighttime and day this cry sped on,

Traveling far, seeking to reach —
Hearken! Those places far above —
Hearken ! Within the circle vast

Where sit the gods, watching o'er men.

Line 1364

Hearken ! And thus it was the prayer
Sent by this man won the consent
Of all the gods. For each god in his place
Speaks out his thought, grants or rejects
Man's suppliant cry, asking for help ;

f

\

f

S93] Barnes: American Indian Verse SB

But none can act until the Council grand
Comes to accord, thinks as one mind,
Has but one will, all must obey.
Hearken ! The council gave consent —
Hearken ! And great Tirawa, mightier than all.

Line 1365

Hearken ! To make their purpose known,
Succor and aid freely to give.
Heralds were called, called by the Winds ;
Then in the west uprose the Clouds
Heavy and black, laden with storm.
Slowly they climbed, dark'ning the skies ;
While close on every side the Thunders marched
On their dread way, till all were come
To where the gods in stately Council sat
Waiting for them. Then, bade them go
Back to the earth, carrying aid
To him whose prayer had reached their circle vast.
This mandate ^ven, the Thunders turned toward

earth
Taking their course slantwise the sky.

Implication is a more subtle form of suggestion than as-
sociation. Take, for instance, the widely known Omaha Tribal
Prayer :^^^

Wakonda dhe-dhu wapa dhin a-ton-he !
Wakonda dhe-dhu wapa dhin a-ton-he !

Translation :

Father, a needy one stands before thee.
That one is I.

No interminable list of needs dulls the clear cry of the sup-
pliant. The prayer is an expression not only of faith in
Wakonda's power to help, but also of an equal faith in his
power to understand human needs. More direct in its impli-
cation is the Cheyenne song of victory, sung as the warriors
retire from the field, leaving the enemy slain:

Wolves

In the dawnlight
Are eating !"°

114 Fletcher, The Omaha Tribe, pp. 128-132; Indian Story and Song from
North America, pp. 26-30.

^^^ Curtis, Mr. Roosevelt and Indian Music, The Outlook, vol. 121, p. 400.

36 University of Kansas Humanistic Studies \S9If

Implication is least subtle in some of the satirical or humor-
ous verse. Two one-line songs from the Ojibways tell their
own stories even to a different civilization, for it here appears
that white men and red men meet on the ground of common
experience. "Better stand oflf or you will crush my feathers"
is, of course, the song of a vain man who resents the crowding
to look at his finery."^ We may easily deduce the cause of
cjniicism from this song by a chieftain's daughter : "You can't
believe what the men say !""^

Before leaving the discussion of allusion, we may consider,
by way of digression, some secondary values of this element in
the verse. Allusion serves not only as a means of weaving
story into song, but as a means of ornamenting it with a rich
and gorgeous pattern of embroidery. Allusions to other arts
than poetry, such as hand-print decoration on a garment, are
incidental."** The rich background is of nature allus-
ion"® — ^to mountain, forest, and stream, to clouds, night skies,
pleasant com lands colored with blossoms and wild life — a
background which throws into relief the tapestried stories of
mjrthical heroes "® and men of ancient fame."^

The suppression of verbs is another device for conciseness

^*<^ Burton, American Primitive Music, p. 271.

1" Ibid,, p. 274.

ii*' Curtis, The Indians' Book, p. 357: "Built of broidered robes . . .
standeth his hogan." See also pp. 368, 432.

Matthews, Navaho Myths, Prayers, and Songs, pp. 27, 41.
Russell, The Pima Indians, p. 281.

110 Brinton, Essays of an Americanist, pp. 289-290; The Lendpe and
their Legends, pp. 187, 189, 191, 197.

Curtis, op. cit., pp. 115-116, 302, 341, 361-362, 365, 370, 430-431.
Cushingr, Zuni Folk Tales, pp. 237, 426.
Fletcher, The Hako, pp. 73-74, 82, 84, 128, 151.

i2(> Allusions to deities and mythical heroes are general.
Barbcau, Wyandot and Huron Mythology, pp. 318-320.
Brinton, The Lendpe and their Legends, pp. 173, 177.
Fletcher, The Hako, pp. 77-78, 128; Indian Story and Song from

North America, pp. 28-29, 66-67, 110-111, 112-118.
Matthews, op. cit., p. 58.
Russell, op. cit, p. 328.

121 Densmore, Chippewa Music, II, p. 294.

Hale, The Iroquois Book of Rites, pp. 129-139.
Russell, op. cit, p. 285.

395] Barnes: American Indian Verse 37

to which the Indian poet occasionally resorts. The resulting
sentence fragments in Navaho songs form a series of hastily
sketched pictures :

In the house of evening light.^"
,In old age wandering. "*
Now Day Bearer's beam of blue."*
Dark fog door posts."*^

As a sustained example of this method, the Waking Song of
the Navahos is exceptional."® There is no verb indicated in
the entire song, which is forty lines in length, except in the
prelude and burden. On close grammatical analysis the bur-
den appears to carry the body of the sentence, but in the verse
analysis the first part of the line falls into a distinct section.
The whole effect is to leave the first part of the line without
sentence structure ; hence the vivid sequence of word pictures.
Among the shorter songs, Elson records a noteworthy ex-
ample of verb-suppression :

Friends — crocks — always firm — ^forward."^

•

Elision is a simple device, and would be of little note, were
it not for the common use of compound words in Indian lan-
guages. Here the practice of omitting many syllables in form-
ing the compound becomes a decided factor in securing concise
form."^ In the line " Ki ruror-a, ki ruror-a hi," for instance, hi
is a part of the word arushahi.

More effective than the two methods of conciseness just
considered are the exclamatory forms, shot through as they
are with varied feelings, as in the song of Ukiabi :"•

I am walking to and fro !

I can find nothing which can heal my sorrow.

^** Matthews, Navaho Myths, Prayers, and Songs, pp. 29, 38.

"3 Ibid., pp. 33, 44.

«* Ibid,, pp. 58, 60.

"5 Ibid., p. 58.

i2« Matthews, The Night Chant, pp. 283-286.

^27 Elson, History of American Music, p. 132.

"8 Fletcher, The Hako, pp. 146, 365.

129 Dorsey, The Cegiha Langtuige, p. 611.

S8 University of Kansas Humanistic Studies [S96

IV POETIC DICTION

The poet of any land must be the master of his own tongue.
Diction is his instrument in a far more subtle way than any
other element of style. While the Indian of a northern night
rocks himself to sleep with the sensuous beauty of song, the
poet may steal in upon his thoughts with whatever motive he
will — such is the power and beauty of the poet's word.

Among those Indian words which stir the imagination are,
first of all, epithets, which recall old Saxon verse in such ex-
pressions as evening-red, land^edge, and shieldr-house.^^^ This
device- has been discussed more at length under imagery and
will be found considered in any study of the composite words
which characterize Indian languages. It is enough for our
purpose here to note that Indian poetry made wide use of
these most effective word-phrases.

Indicative of a more highly developed stage of art than that
which coined epithets is the use of purely poetic diction.*'^
Words of the daily speech often discarded their usual mean-
ings and expressed thoughts unique in the song diction. Here
one must follow interpretations of men who have given lifelong
study to Indian thought and custom. It is difficult for one of
the white race to dissociate a word from meanings common
to his own tongue. But one's feeling about the whole body of
Dakota poetry is completely changed when it is understood,
for instance, that buffalo holds a hidden poetic feeling for the
song-maker. To call a Dakota a buffalo man was to compli-
ment him in the highest degree ; for the buffalo meant food and
shelter and raiment — life, itself — ^to the Indian of the plains.

Exclusive of such words with meaning richer than in prose
are those which have no place at all in Indian prose — ^words
which the poet claims for use in his art alone."* Mr. Sapir
touches on some special points in song diction in his discussion

"0 Russell, The Pima Indians, pp. 302, 303, 336.

Brinton, The Lendpi and their Legends, pp. 193-217.

"1 Fletcher, The Hako, p. 365.

Riggs, Dakota Songs and Music: TdK-koo Wah-kdn, p. 463.
Sapir, Abnormal Types of Speech in Nootka, pp. 11-12.

»»2 Riggs, op. cit,, p. 474.

397] Barnes: American Indian Verse S9

of consonantal and vocalic play : ''Song texts often represent
a mutilated form of the language, but study of the peculiari-
ties of song forms generally shows that the normal forms of
speech are modified according to definite stylistic conventions,
which may vary for different types of songs. Sometimes
sounds are found in songs which do not otherwise occur in the
language. Of particular interest in this connection is the fact
that such special song-sounds (Paiute I, Nootka I and n) are,
at least so it would seem» pronounce by Indians with difficulty
under ordinary circumstances."""

If the student has an historical point of view, a third phase
of diction, the old forgotten words that cling to living:
language, will interest him. Long after they have been di&*
carded from common speech, he will find them in Indian
poetry."*. There the old words linger on, though the learned
men of the tribe have forgotten their use."* They fill out a
measure of some treasured song, and so remain, like the
Cumaean sibyl, a voice without a body.

The preservation of archaic diction is more readily ac-
counted for when a comparative study reveals the wide use of
vocables for no other reason than to fill out the measure."^ A
singer must sing the vocable — an Elizabethan, his hey nonny
nonny; an American Indian, his a he o ov wi hi na — ^when
words do not step to the rhjrthm. This characteristic of dic-
tion is common to all the Indian song collections which the
writer has studied. Often an entire song is composed of
vocables, especially a song belonging to one of the less de-
veloped tribes."^ In discussing this question with the writer,
Mr. Arthur Nevin stated his theory that all genuine Indian
songs were made up in this fashion, as many of the Blackfoot.

1" Sapir, Abnormal Types of Speech in Nootka, pp. 11-12.
is« Mackenzie, Evolution of Literature, pp. 90, 234.
13.-, Burton, American Primitive Music, p. 165.

Elson, History of American Music, p. 126.

Matthews, The Night Chant, pp. 152, 269.

Mooney, Sacred Formulas of the Cherokees, pp. 343-344.

i3« Fletcher, The Hako, p. 65, 11. 180-193; p. 71, 11. 225-229, 231-235:

p. 81,1. 293; p. 83,1. 312.
"7 Fletcher, The Omaha Tribe, pp. 593-594.

L

40 University of Kansas Humanistic Studies [398

songs are today. There is another point of view possible —
that these syllables which complete rhjrthm, or give beauty
and tone color to a poem, may, after all, be fragments of
archaic speech or of specialized song diction.

At this point the linguist draws one aside with his study
of word-structure. The ingenuity of compounding subject
with verb and object, with sometimes an adjective or an adverb
syllable interpolated, is an interesting topic for an investiga-
tion. The outstanding characteristic of word-building in many
Indian languages, polysynthesis or incorporation of holo-
phrastic compounds, has been discussed at length by many
noted students of linguistics."* Although nearly a century
has passed since Humboldt explained the origin of incorpora-
tion as the exaltation of the imaginative over the intellectual
elements of mind, his philosophy is still of interest."® Alluring
as is the philosophy of language, this study of composite words
must end, on the art side, with the study of conciseness.

There should be, however, passing consideration of one
unique feature of Indian word-structure in verse, the redup-
lication of syllables. The poet employs this scheme both for
rhjrthm and for emphasis. Grammatical reduplications, as
those for plurals or diminutives, have less interest for the stu-
dent of style.

138 Boas, Handbook of American Indian Languages, I, p. 75.

Brinton, Essays of an Americanist, pp. 320-323, 340-342, 344, 349-389.

(The Essays review studies by Humboldt and Duponceau.)
Cf. Jane Ellen Harrison, Aspects, Aorists, and the ClassicaJ, Tripos.

Cambridgre Univ. Press. 1920. Quoted in Modem Languages, vol. I,

no. 6, pp. 182-186.

Hanns Ocrtel, Lectures on the Study of Language. Scribner's, 1902.
See p. 2S9.

T. G. Tucker, Introduction to the Natural History of Language,

Blackie, 1908. See pp. 78, 87, 152-156.

W. D. Whitney, Language and the Study of Language. Scribner's,
1898. See pp. 348-349.

Illustrations:

Fletcher, The Hako, p. 179.

Hale, The Iroquois Book of Rites, pp. 149-150.

Russell, The Pima Indians, pp. 37, 272-273, 284, 289, 293, 294, 300.

i»» Brinton, Essays of an Americanist, p. 340.

S99] Barnes: American Indian Verse J^l

V IMAGERY

It is inconceivable, to one who has known an Indian tribe
well, that any people with such quick observation, imagination,
and such certain appreciation of beauty should fail to express
these qualities in their literature in rich variety. So distinct,
indeed, is the characteristic of imagery in Indian song that the
fact .far exceeds the expectation of the student. The statements
of two well known critics of Indian music are, therefore, open
to protest.

The first is that ''Indian verse. . . is. . . unembellished by
metaphor or any other trick of the imagination with which
civilized poets enhance their expressions."^*® The Chippewa
tribe, of all the tribes studied by the writer, has possibly the
least picturesque song-literature. Yet many lines from their
songs show a quickly responsive sense-consciousness, with
sometimes a studied art.^*^

The second statement on the monotony of figure is equally
beside the mark.^*^ Miss Curtis's collection of songs in the
Indians* Book must answer any such observations with finality,
should the following discussion leave the reader unconvinced.
For the subject should be considered in a broad way before we
turn to extended illustrations.

Let us look into the sources of imagery. This quality in
Indian song is the product of an age-old cosmic feeling. The
Indian's observation, aesthetic sense, and vigor of thought
shape the image to his need — a direct picture, a comparison, or
a contrast. There is rarely the depth of introspection, but
rather a reflection of the external factors of circumstance and
experience. There is beauty, without the excess of luxury.

The influences of geography, especially of topography, give
distinct coloring. So, also, do the mode of life and the tribal
occupations and enterprises. So true is the imagery to its
sources that one might venture a history of a tribe, from its
migrations to its rituals, upon a study of its verse infttgery
alone.

140 Burton, American Primitive Miisic, p. 153.
i«i Densmore, Chippewa Music, Parts I and II.
1*2 Elson, The History of American Muaie, p. 126.

4^ Univereity of Kansas Humanistic Studies [400

This characteristic is, indeed, an inheritance from the be-
ginnins:s of all poetry ; for primitive man had seeing eyes and
hearing ears. Perhaps the earliest survival of those far-off
msrth-making times is the figure of personification. We may
identify it as the earliest trace of the poetic faculty, for
it animated the nature world with form, soul, and feeling.
Canticles to the sun, with their use of this figure, are among
the first songs of those remote years. A wider use of com-
parison in metaphor finds its largest application in epithet
and name. Direct contrast is less common, although it is fre-
quently implied. Sense imagery, comparison, contrast — ^these
are the general types of imagery in Indian verse. It is not the
particular purpose of this discussion to draw finer distinc-
tions.

Sense imagery is the readiest adornment of poetry. The
songs of the Southwest are richest in this quality, though
eastern songs are by no means without it. Some picturesque
touches in the Walam Olum have already been quoted.^*^ They
can be multiplied, line upon line, even in that short epic. Con-
creteness will be noted by the reader as a distinctive quality of
sense imagery.

This Katzina song of the Hopi Indians catches all the light,
and color, and sound of life in a sunny land that thirsts for
rain:

KoROSTA Katzina Tawi"*

I

Yellow butterflies
Over the blossoming virgin com.

With pollen-painted faces
Chase one another in brilliant throng.

II

Blue butterflies
Over the blossoming virgin beans,

With pollen-painted faces
Chase one another in brilliant streams.

i«8 See CONCISENESS, above, p. 30.

i«« Curtis, Ths Indians* Book, pp. 484-486.

. 401] Barnes: American Indian Verse 43

j III

Over the blossoming: com,

Over the virgin com
Wild bees hum ;

Over the blossoming com

Over the virgin beans
Wild bees hum.

IV

Over your field of growing com
All day shall hang the thunder-cloud ;
Over your field of growing com
All day shall come the rushing rain.

Much like the open-air pictures of the preceding song are
some lines from the He-hea Katzina Song:^^^

Corn-blossom maidens
Here in the fields. . . .
Fields all abloom,
Water shining after rain,
Blue clouds looming above.

The San Carlos Apache Songs of the Deer Ceremony^*^ hint
of delectable taste and odors :

At the south

Where the white shell ridges of the earth lie,

Where all kinds of fruit are ripe.

We two will meet.

From there where the coral ridges of the earth lie.

We two will meet.

Where the ripe fruits are fragrant,

We two will meet.

These lines from the Pima songs show a tsrpe of imagery
without the lightness and grace of that in the Hopi songs :

Festal Song^*^

The bright dawn appears in the heavens ;
The bright dawn appears in the heavens ;
The paling Pleiades grow dim.
The moon is lost in the rising sun.

145 Curtis, The Indians' Book, p. 485.

146 Goddard, Myths and Tales from the San Carlos Apaehe, p. 62.

147 Russell, The Pima Indians, p. 284.

(Bright dawn — literally, the shining morning.)

44 University of Kansas Humanistic Stvdies [Ii02

Swallow Song^*«

(A sons: for fiestas)

Now the Swallow begins his singing

. . The Swallows met in the standing cliffs. . .
And the rainbows arched above me,
There the blue rainbow arches met.

Game Song"*

The drunken butterflies sit

With opening and shutting wings.

Cure. Song^'^'^

Bluebird drifted at the edge of the world,
Drifted along upon the blue wind.
White wind went down from his dwelling
And raised dust upon the earth.

Badger Song*"

The shadow of Crooked Mountain,
The curved and pointed shadow.

The translator's adaptation of the following song loses much
of the beauty implied in the literal translation. For this reas-
on, the literal phrasing is given, disconnected as it is :

Badger Song*"

Quails small — evening glow arrives — slowly fly —
Darkness stripped crown throws on.

Sound imagery is infrequent, but even more interesting than
some picture adornments of Indian verse."* The Pima songs
are full of movement and sound. The Emergence Songs which
follow the Flood legend in Pima mjrthology suggest Hebrew
imagery :

We all rejoice ! We all rejoice !

Singing, dancing, the mountains rumbling."*

"8 Russell, Tks Pima Indians, p. 292.
1" Ibid., p. 300.
"0 Ibid,, p. 303.

151 Ibid., p. 322.

152 Ibid,, p. 322.

153 Densmore, Chippewa Music, I, pp. 68, 69.

i5« Russell, op. cit,, pp. 227, 280.

(Literal translation: The land trembles with our dancing and
singing.)

403] Barnes: American Indian Verse Jfi

Wind Song^"

Wind's house is now thundering.
I go roarins: over the land,
The land covered with thunder.

Swallow Song"«

In the West the Dragonfly wanders,
Skimming the surfaces of the pools,
Touching only with his tail. He skims
With flapping and rustling wings.

Thence I run, the darkness rattling,
Wearing cactus flowers in my hair.
Thence I run as the darkness gathers.
In fluttering"^ darkness to the singing place.

Badger Song"*

There came a Gray Owl at sunset
Hooting softly around me. . .
The land lay quietly sleeping.

The Mcmse Song suggests sound without presenting it:

Wings of birds invisible
Are now fluttering above you.
You stand with face uplifted
And quietly listen there.

In the Navaho Song of the Horse, imaginative power height-
ens the sensuous beauty. The song pictures the Sun-God's
courser in the pastures of another world :

Lo, the Turquoise Horse of Johano-ai

On precious hides outspread standeth he. . .
There on tips of fresh flowers f eedeth he ; . . .
There he spurneth dust of glittering grains."®

Imaginative, too, are these descriptions of the sacred hogans"^
of the Sun God — ^a series of beautiful pictures set in refrains :

lOB Russell, The Pima Indians, p. 324.

»6 Ibid., p. 294.

157 Fluttering may be more literally translated as rattling.

iM Russell, op. cit., p. 321.

!»• Ibid., p. 814.

i<*o Ciirtis,7^ Indians* Book, p. 362. See also repetition, above, p. 24.

i«i Hogan is a Navaho word for dwelling.

i6 University of Kansas Humanistic Studies [IfiA

I

( 2 ) There beneath the sunrise
Standeth his hogan,
The hogan blessed.

( 4 ) Built of dawn's first light
Standeth his hogan,
The hogan blessed.

( 5 ) Built of fair white com
Standeth his hogan,
The hogan blessed.

( 6 ) Built of broidered robes and hides
Standeth the hogan,
The hogan blessed.

II

(11) There beneath the sunset
Standeth the hogan,
The hogan blessed.

(13) Built of afterglow
Standeth his hogan,
The hogan blessed.

(15) Built of gems and shining shells
Standeth his hogan.

The hogan blessed.

(16) Built of Little-Waters
Standeth his hogan.
The hogan blessed.^"

Intimately allied to observation and the consequent appeal
of sensuous beauty to the imagination is the direct or implied
comparison that runs through all Indian poetry, frequently in
silver threads of epithet, or again in the more brilliant hues
of verbals. For these, we turn again to that admirable old
epic of the Dela wares :

On the stone-hard water all went.
On the. . . mussel-bearing sea.^^^

"2 Curtis, The Indians* Book, pp. 357- 858.

16S Brinton, The Lendpe and their Legends, p. 185.

406] Barnes: American Indian Verse 47

This is the description of a tribal movement over the ice-
bound rivers of the north. In the same poem, the roll call of
Delaware chiefs is an alluring study in names : Shiverer-with-
Cold, Wolf-wise-in-Counsel, Opossum-Like, the Fire-Builder,
and so on at some lengrth in a list which incidentally tells of
more than imagery — of a knowledge of character and a sense
of humor that our first Americans enjoyed."*

Direct comparison in personification, metaphor, or simile, is
universal. Naturally enough, personification of heavenly
bodies, especially of the sun, moon, and morning star, exists
among all tribes. Wissler records it in the songs of the Black-
foot Indians ;"'^ Miss Fletcher adds the Pleiades and the Dawn
in the Pawnee ritual of The Hako.^^^ To be included with these
are The Rainbow Youth^^^ and Rain^thaUStands.^^^

Personification of visions"® and of diseases,"® differing as
they do in poetic imagination, are nevertheless results of the
same tendency of thought. So also are the Corn-Grinding
Songs, in which the corn-ear speaks, and the swallow sings of
the coming rain."*

These conceptions arise from that fundamental belief of the
Indian that all creation lived, moved, and had being, even as
he did. If the reader's imagination has been colored in any
way by the modem pantheism of Walt Whitman or his dis-
ciples, perhaps he can look upon these images as something
more than the dreams of a childlike race.

Comparison goes beyond that primitive stage of personifica-
tion in this Cheyenne song : ''Nay, I fear the aching tooth of
age !""' What poet of the white race would not covet such a
figure?

i«4 Brinton, The Len&pi and Their Legends, pp. 187-217.

165 Wissler, Ceremonial Bundles of the Blaekfoot Indians, pp. 179, 186-

189.
iftf" Fletcher, The Hako, pp. 123-128, 151-152. See also spirit, above, p. 9.
i«r Curtis, The Indians' Book, pp. 431-432.
iM Ibid., p. 479.

"• Fletcher, op. eit., pp. 117-123.
lYo Gatschet, The Klamath Indians, p. 159.
171 Curtis, op. cit., pp. 430-431.
"2 Ibid., p. 153.

48 University of Kansas Humanistic Studies [406

Other fibres from the Pima sons:s show varying turns of
thought :

Wind Song"*

Over the windy mountains,
Came the myriad legged wind.

Beaver Song"*

Strong as the Sun among the trees,
You leave your mark upon them.

Comparison, too, is at the heart of this Zuiii song :

Song of the Blue Corn Dance"'

Beautiful, lo, the summer clouds,
Beautiful, lo, the summer clouds,
Blossoming clouds in the sky.
Like unto shimmering flowers.
Blossoming clouds in the sky.
Onward, lo, they come.
Hither, hither, bound !

For an artistic use of sustained figure, the Iroquois Book of
Rites is remarkable in carrying through the ceremony the
conception of the League as a house builded by early chief-
tains :

Ye two founded the House. . .

Then, in later times.

They made additions

To the great mansion.

These were at the doorway, ....

These two guarded the doorway."*

This figure in a Chippewa song bears a fair comparison, in
its suggestive power, with the figures of modem poetry :

As my eyes search the prairie,
I feel the summer in the spring."^

^'3 Russell, The Pima Indians^ p. 324. (Comparing the wind with a
centipede.)

174 Ihid., p. 320. See also pp. 228, 282.

"5 Curtis, The Indians* Book, p. 432.

>7<( Hale, The Iroquois Book of Rites, pp. 131, 139.

177 Densmore, Chippewa Music, II, p. 254.

407] Barnes: American Indian Verse 49

With so great a wealth in the imagery of comparison, it
seems strange that the Indian singer made so little use of con-
trast. Where he did use it, his results were no less effective.
One good example quoted by Dr. Matthews in the Night Chant
is the contrast of landscapes at the source and the mouth of a
stream.^^® Perhaps this type of imagery requires of the poet
a closer analysis than the other. It cannot be thought so
happy a gift as that philosophy which notes the affinities and
harmonies of life rather than its antitheses.

Note: For those who are interested in giving further study to this
debated subject, the following list of readings is appended:

Brjnton, Essays of an Americanist, p. 290. The Lendpe and their
Legends, pp. 169-218.

Curtis, The Indians* Book.

Fletcher, The Hako; The Omaha Tribe, pp. 115-116, 120-121, 124-128,
394, 570, 578.

Gatschet, The Klamath Indians, pp. 157-158.

Hale, The Iroquois Book of Rites, pp. 138-139, 153, 163.

Matthews, Navaho Myths, Prayers, and Songs; The Night Chant.

"RiggSf, Dakota Songs and Music: Tdh-koo Wah-kdn, p. 474.

Russell, The Pima Indians.

Wissler, The Ceremonial Bundles of the Blackfoot Indians.

VI MUSICAL QUALITY IN VERSE

Quite apart from the structural forms of song-diction is its
sound-quality, with power to please the ear or to give tone-
color to a poem. Where consciousness of word-beauty enters,
poetic art has established itself. It may begin with a refrain
of vocables or a repetition of word-groups, but the beauty of
sound is there. We may call it euphony, but the word can
never interpret for us the joy that the Indian singer feels as
he repeats, hour after hour, some song-phrase that haunts his
memory.

The melody of sounds that carries through the Pima songs,
for instance, is largely assonantal, combined with the conson-

>7t Matthews. The Night Chant, pp. 158» 245, 289.

60 University of Kansas Humanistic Studies [408

ants I, m, w, v. A number of open vowel sounds recur in such
a series as the following:"®

u, u, u, a, ai, u, u, u, a, a, ui, ia, u, a, a, a, i, 5, o, i
i, Si, a, u, a, £, ia, u, ^, ui, a, a, i, o, o.^^^

If a line seems happily evolved, the singer repeats, as in this
instance :

Himovali, movali moko, himovali, movali moko."^

The poet finds that words with musical quality are not
always cojnmon in his language, but he may supplement such
words with those which he has altered, with true poetic license,
to secure a desired effect. These changes are obtained by
elisions, by affixes, or by substitution of sounds."* The Indian's
liberty to alter words apparently exceeds any license known to
the poets of the white race. Dr. Matthews writes : " A word
is often distorted in Navaho song so as to become homophon-
ous with a totally different word in prose and thus the student
may be led far astray.""*

In its fulfillment of lyric art, the music of the word must
join with the music of voice and instrument. And of this
art, the Zuni are among the masters. Of all their
verse, none is lovelier than the Sunset Song,^^* sung from their
housetops by the people of the village as the sun sinks down
the sky :

^7* Consonants are here omitted for the sake of clearness.
ISO Russell, The Pima Indians, p. 272.
See also:

Gushing, Zunt Folk Tales, p. 39 ;

Fewkes, The Snake Ceremonials at Walpi, pp. 100-101 ;
Voth, The Ordihi Odq6l Ceremony, pp. 18, 17-18, 20, 25, 27-29, 38-39.
(A Hopi ceremony.)
isi Russell, op. dt,, p. 278.

"« Fletcher, The Hako, pp. 38-40, 64, 70, 88-89, 101. {Hu for ha, in
H'Atira hu weta arise, to avoid' too many a's in the line. P. 61,
11. 172-177.)
i»» Matthews, The Night Chant, p. 269.

^^* Arranged by Carlos Troyer in his series. Traditional Songs of the
Zuni Indians,

409]

Barnes: American Indian Verse

51

W

Andftnte

Sunset Song

Recorded by Carlos Troyer.

> . 1 I J J J jj-j I J J ra

Good night to thee. Fair God-dess. We
M - iw$' ' iu Mm -if Xu • Im^ Ku . •

1^ ^ J J j: 1 I J J J I J J J

thank thee for thy
Vffjr • In jwfl • a

bles - sing, Good night to thee Fair

v<» • vt, t • nti • In Mm • pm

l^_J J

J i J j^ I m

s

God dc-ss We

Ih • /m Ku

thank thee for this

v4«jr • Im gmn . m

day

In

With tnerMS«d fervor

glo - ry we be

hold thee.

[^j i ' ' J ^B

at

ear • ly dawn a
Am ' mt tmn • dm

^

£

gain
io.

P In SBbdutd toiMc

J I r r r cLrT'J

i

We thank thee for thy

Kna Mfkaff ' Im Jfm • mn

bles • sing.
vi0 ' vi.

To

^

Yl

miH

S

^^

^

^

be with
urn . ifi

US

this

day.

This

day.

We

JTmrn

j^ - <<^ %

thm 8«i-«nrtklpp«ri ptaalnta ih— fh— hmNf the Sua.

I I I

thank thee for this day.
wA«jf • im jNM . m im.

lumgm

By permission of the owner of copsrri^ht, Theodore Presser Company

52 University of Kansas Humanistic Stvdies [^10

Sunset Song

(Troyer Translation)

Goodnis:ht to thee, Fair Goddess,

We thank thee for thy blessing.

Goodnight to thee, Fair Goddess,

We thank thee for this day.

In glory we behold thee

At early dawn again.

We thank thee for thy blessing.

To be with us this day.

This day, .

We thank thee for this day.

Tonality is a further aspect of conscious technique in the
poetry of the Indian. Although it occurs in simple forms, these
unmistakable tonal patterns are to be found: (1) recurrence
of open vowel sounds, already mentioned above under
euphony; (2) explosive articulation which suggests action,
as in the war songs; (3) liquid, flowing syllables for the
quieter feelings and moods; (4) and these last two patterns
in combination where the verse suggests recessional move-
ment, as when forceful utterance is followed by milder
syllables."® In tone-color, as in euphony, the poet employs
vocables and alterations when the usual words are insufficient
for his purpose. Miss Fletcher has gone so far as to determine
the initial consonants of Omaha vocables which express dif-
ferent moods.^***

Assonantal tone color seems more conspicuous in Indian
poetry than in English. It serves a double purpose in that it
supplies rhythm as well as beauty, in combination with pat-
terns of repetition.

VII MINOR CHARACTERISTICS

VIGOR
As in any other literature, vigorous expression in Indian
verse is a product of the vivid emotional experience of the
singer. This life and warm coloring of personal feeling has

^^^ Fletcher, Indian Story and Song from North America, p. 107; A
Study of Omaha Indian Music, pp. 12, 67-61.

186 Fletcher, A Study of Omaha Indian Music, p. 12.

411] Barnes: American Indian Verse 63

not, however, been dissipated by artificialities of style ; hence
it has found its outlet in direct thinking and forceful
epithet. One of the most widely known illustrations is the
Song of Sitting Bull i^"

Earthwide is my fame !
They are shouting my name !
Sing ho ! the eagle soul.
Who follows Sitting Bull.

This characteristic is found largely in the shorter songs,
though it finds its way, as has been shown earlier in this study,
through the longer songs in conciseness, in diction, and in
imagery.

ONOMATOPOEIA

Another element blended with the poetic feeling in word-
tonality is the desire to reproduce the beauty of sound in the
nature world — ^the clear call of a bird, or the sound of rushing
waters. Observe how closely these vocables imitate the song of
the wren: "Whe ke re re we chi."^®* There are obvious
onomatopoetic phrases in this song of the Cherokees :

Traveler's Song"*

Tsiin' wa' ysL-ya'
Tsfln' wa' 'ya-ya'
Tsiin' wa' 'ya-ya'
Tsiiii' wa' 'ya-ya'
Wa + a ! (Imitating wolf howl.)

Tsiin '-ka' wi-ye'
Tsuii '-ka' wi-ye'
Tsun '-ka' wi-ye'
Tsun '-ka' wi-ye'
Sauh ! sauh ! sauh ! sauh ! (Imitating call of the deer.)

Tsun'-tsu' 'la-ya'
Tsun'-tsu' na-ya'
Tsflii'-tsu' *la-ya'
Tsfln'-tsu' 'la-ya'

Gaih! gaih! gaih! gaih! (Imitating barking of fox.)

i»7 E. S. Ctirtis, The North American Indian, vol. Ill, p. 149.

iM Fletcher, The Hako, pp. 170-171 ; Indian Story and Song from North

America, pp. 53-65.
!*• Mooney, Myths of the Cherokee, p. 266. (The words are archaic: "I

become — ^wolf," etc.)

6^ University of Kansas Humanistic Studies [i12

Tsuii'-si' kwa-ya'
Tsun'-si' kwa-ya'
Tsfln'-si' kwa-ya'
Tsiin'-si' kwa-ya'
Ki+ (Imitating the cry which the opossum gives
when cornered.)

In the Song of the Locust^^^ the Hopi trills, "Chi ri ri ri ri, chi
ri ri ri ri/' both as he begins and ends his five line song. Mat-
thews calls attention to a call as an imitation of the dove, which
the student may consider a further illustration of onomato-
poeia.^®^ This element appears to be rather infrequent, but no
point eludes the analysis of a foreign reader more than this
one.

PARALLELISM

Parallelism occurs less frequently than one might expect,
should all forms of exact verbal repetition be excluded from
the discussion. Since it does appear in the songs of widely
separated tribes, it has a place among the general characterist-
ics of Indian poetry. There is an aesthetic element in this
feeling for the symmetry of balanced structure. Many in-
stances point to the conclusion that thought- and structure-
parallels occur together. Occasionally, the motive is contrast.

This Onondaga hymn,"* hundreds of years old, is one of the
best illustrations of this phase of style :

Haihhaih! Woe! Woe!

Jiyathontek! Harken ye!

Niyonkha! We are diminished!

Haihhaih! Woe! Woe!

Tejoskawayenton. The cleared land has become a

thicket.

Haihhaih! Woe! Woe!

Skahentahenyon. The clear places are deserted.

Hai! Woe!

Shatyherarta — They are in their graves —

"^ Voth, Traditums of the Hopi, p. 181.

191 Navaho Gambling Songs, Amer, Anthr., vol. II, (Jan. 1889), p. 19.

^^ Hale, Ths Iroquois Book of Rites, pp. 153-154.

ilS] . Barnes: American Indian Verse 65

Hotyiwisahongwe — ^ They who established it —

Hai ! Woe !

Kayaneengoha The ^eat Lea^e.

Netikenen honen Yet they declared

Nene Kenyoiwatatye: — It should endure —

Kayaneengowane — The great League.

Hai ! Woe !

Wakaiwakayonneha. Their work has grown old.

Hai! Woe!

Netho watyongwen- Thus we are become miserable,
tenthe.

Unfortunately the interpreter gives the Wyandot song, "The
Stars Dehn-dek and Mah-oh-rah""^ in English only. It is not
possible, therefore, to compare the parallelism in the following
stanza with that in the original :

They go into the sky !

From that land are we cast down forever !

And another land is made for us.

Let them be made stars.

Now shall they be stars to shine forever there.

And their journey shall never cease !

The songs of the Pima make some use of this structural
form. In the Rain Song 11,^^* an alternation of two-line pic-
tures gives contrast in parallel form through the eight lines of
the song.

With rhjrthm so highly developed in Indian verse, it is dif-
ficult to understand why parallels did not become more uni-
versally the instruments of this quality, marking, as they dis-
tinctly do, the forward and recessional movements of poetic
feeling. It may be that the varied patterns of repetition ser-
ved the poet's end.

1^3 c. M. Barbeau, Huron and Wyandot Mythology, pp. 318-321, quoting
W. E. Connelley from the Ontario Archaeological Report, 1905, pp.
68-70.

i«« Russell, The Pima Indians, pp. 332-833.

66 University of Kansas Humanistic Studies HH

SUMMARY

1. On the formal side, three factors are outstanding in

Indian verse :

a. Brilliant execution of other repetitional
forms instead of a general use of rhyme as an
aid to rhjrthm.

b. Extensive use of sense imagery and the
imagery of comparison.

c. Extreme economy of expression.

2. Minor qualities of Indian verse are humor, pathos,

satire* The predominantly intellectual quality is
largely lacking.

3. The characteristic qualities are imaginative, aesthetic,

and emotional in type. Their aspects are concreteness,
rhsrthm, beauty, compactness, sincerity. The last
aspect is a notable expression of the great religious
motive which is dominant in all forms of Indian verse.

Bibliography

A. GENERAL REFERENCES

(Note : This list was made for the purpose of illustration, not
for the purpose of exhaustive study.)

Baker, Theodor. Notenbeilagen : t)ber die Musik der
Nordamerikanischen Wilden. Leipzig. 1882. pp. 59-80.

Barbeau, C. M. Huron and Wyandot Mythology. Memoir
80. Dept. of Mines. Geol. Survey. Ottawa, Canada.
1915. pp. 318-321. Quoting W. E. Connelley from the
Ontario Archaeol. Rep. 1905. pp. 68-70.

Beauchamp, William M. Civil, Religious and Mourning
Councils and Ceremonies of Adoption of the New York
Indians. N. Y. State Mus. Bui. 113 in Rep. 60. vol. III.
pp. 337-451.
The Song of the Younger Brothers : Wampum and Shell
Articles. Bui. N. Y. State Mus. vol. 8. 1901. pp. 452-454.

Boas, Franz. The Central Eskimo. 6th Ann. Rep. Bur. of

Eth. pp. 399-669.
Chinook Songs. Jour, of Amer. Folk-Lore. vol. I. pp. 220-

226.
Eskimo Tales and Songs. Jour, of Amer. Folk-Lore. vol.

VII. pp. 45-50 ; vol. X. pp. 109-115.
Kwakiutl Indians. Rep. Natl. Mus. Washington. 1895.

738 pp.

Brinton, Daniel Garrison. Aboriginal American Authors.

Philadelphia. 1883. 63 pp.
The American Race. Hodges. N. Y. 1891. 392 pp.
Essays of an Americanist. McKay. Philadelphia. 1890.

489 pp.
The Lenape and their Legends. Lib. Abor. Amer. Lit. vol. V.

Philadelphia. 1885. 262 pp. (Complete text of Wdlam

Olum.)
Myths of the New World. McKay. Philadelphia. 1896.

360 pp. (Interpretation of Indian sjnnbolism.)

Burton, Frederick A. American Primitive Music. Moffat,
Yard. N. Y. 1909. 281+73 pp.

Chamberlain, A. F. The Poetry of American Aboriginal
Speech. Jour, of Amer. Folk-Lore. vol. IX. pp. 43-47.

68 University of Kansas Humanistic Studies [4,16

Committee of the Chiefs. Traditional History of the Iro-
quois League, or The Confederacy of the Six Nations.
Trans. Royal Soc. of Canada, vol V. sec. II. 1911. pp.
195-246.

Converse, H. M. and A. C. Parker. Myths and Legends of the
New York State Iroquois. N. Y. State Mils. Bui. 125.
1908. 196 pp.

Cringan, a. T. Pagan Dance Songs of the Iroquois. Archaeol.
Rep. Ontario. 1899. pp. 168-190.

Cronyn, George. The Path on the Rainbow. Boni and Live-
right. N. Y. 1918. 347 pp. (Anthology of translations
from Indian Poetry.)

Curtis, Natalie. The Indians' Book. Harper's. N. Y. 1907.

573+32 pp.
The Indians' Part in the Dedication of the New Museum.

Art and Archaeol. vol. VII. nos. 1 and 2. pp. 31-32.
Mr. Roosevelt and Indian Music. Outlook, vol. 121. no. 10.

pp. 399-401.
Songs of Ancient America. Schirmer. N. Y. 1905. 12+v pp.

CusHiNG, Frank Hamilton. Outlines of Zuni Creation Myths.
13th Ann. Rep. Bur. of Amer. Eth. Washington. 1896.
pp. 321-447. (No originals.)

Densmore, Frances. Chippewa Music. Part I. Bui. 45. Bur.
of Amer. Eth. Washington. 1910. 216 pp.

Chippewa Music. Part II. Bui. 53. Bur. of Amer. Eth.
Washington. 1913. 341 pp.

Teton-Sioux Music. Bui. 61. Bur. of Amer. Eth. Washing-
ton. 1918. 561 pp.

DORSEY, J. Owen. Omaha Songs II. Jour, of Amer. Folk-Lore.

vol. I. pp. 209-214.
Osage Traditions. 6th Ann. Rep. Bur. of Eth. Washington.

1888. pp. 375-397.
Ponka and Omaha Songs. Jour, of Amer. Folk-Lore. vol I.

pp. 65, 209 ; vol. II. pp. 271-276.
Songs of the He^ucka Society. Jour, of Amer. Folk-Lore.

vol. I. pp. 65-68.

Eastman, Charles A. An Indian Boyhood. Doubleday, Page.
N. Y. 1911. 289 pp.

Old Indian Days. McClure's. N. Y. 1917. 279 pp.

Music, Dancing, Dramatic Art : The Indian Today. Double-
day, Page. N. Y. 1915. pp. 157-161.

Fewkes, J. Walter. The Snake Ceremonials at Walpi. Jour,
of Amer. Eth. and Archaeol. vol. IV. pp. 100-101.

417] Barnes: American Indian Verse 59

Fletcher, Alice Cunningham. The Hako, a Pawnee Cere-
mony. 22nd Ann. Rep. Part II. Bur. of Amer. Eth.

Washington. 1904. 373 pp.
Indian Games and Dances with Native Songs. Birchard.

Boston. 1915. 139 pp.
Indian Songs and Music. Jour, of Amer. Folk-Lore. vol. XI.

pp. 85-105.
Indian Story and Song from North America. Small, May-

nard. Boston. 1900. 126 pp.
The Shadow or Ghost Lodge : A Ceremony of the Ogallala

Sioux. Peabody Mus. 17th and 18th Ann. Reps. vol. III.

nos. 3 and 4. Cambridge. 1884. pp. 296-308.
Significance of the Scalp Lock. Jour. Anthr. Inst. 1898. pp.

436-450.
A Study of Omaha Indian Music. Archaeol. and Eth.

Papers, vol. I. no. 5. Peabody Mus. Boston. 1893. pp.

7-58, 79-152. (92 songs.)
The Wawan or Pipe Dances of the Omahas. Peabody Mus.

17th and 18th Ann. Reps. pp. 308-344.
The White Buffalo Festival of the Uncpapas. ibid. pp. 260-

276.

Gatschet, Albert Samuel. The Klamath Indians: Contri-
butions to North American Ethnology, vol. II. part I.
Bur. of Amer. Eth. 711+cvi pp. (Verse with scansion,
pp. 153-198.)

GoDDARD, Pliny Eaele. Myths and Tales from the San Carlos
Apache. Anthr. Papers. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist. vol.
XXIV. part I. N. Y. 1918. 86 pp.

Hale, Horatio. An Iroquois Condoling Council. Trans.
Royal Soc. of Canada, vol. I. sec. II. 1895. pp. 45-66.
The Iroquois Book of Rites. Lib. of Abor. Amer. Lit. Phil-
adelphia. 1883. 222 pp.

Hawkes, E. W. The Dance Festivals of the Alaskan Eskimo.
Anthr. Pub. of Univ. of Pa. Mus. vol. VI. no. 2. Philadel-
phia. 1914. 41 pp.

Mason, Alden. The Papago Harvest Festival. Amer. Anthr.
vol. XXII. No. 1. pp. 13-25.

Matthews, Washington. The Mountain Chant, a Navaho

Ceremony. 5th Ann. Rep. Bur. of Eth. Washington.

1887. pp. 379-468.
Navaho Gambling Songs. Amer. Anthr. vol. II. no. 1. pp.

1-20.
Navaho Myths, Prayers, and Songs. Univ. of Cal. Pub. in

Amer. Archaeol. and Eth. vol. V. no. 2. Univ. Press.

so University of Kansas Humanistic Sttidies [418

The Night Chant, a Navaho Ceremony. Memoirs Amer.

Mus. of Nat. Hist. vol. VI. N. Y. 1902, 332 pp. folio. 8

plates, some in color.
Poetry and Music : Navaho Legends. Houghton, MiflPlin for

Amer. Folk-Lore Soc. N. Y. 1897. pp. 22-29, 254-275.
Songs of Sequence of the Navahos. Jour. Amer. Folk-Lore.

vol. VII. pp. 185-194.

MooNEY, James. Myths of the Cherokee. 19th Ann. Rep. Bur.
of Amer. Eth. part I. Washington. 1900. 576 pp.
The Sacred Formulas of the Cherokees. 7th Ann. Rep. Bur.
of Eth. Washington. 1891. pp. 301-397.

Pound, Louise. The Beginnings of Poetry. Pub. of Mod.
Lang. Assn. of Amer. vol. XXXII. no. 2. pp. 201-232.
(References to American Indian verse.)

Rasmussen, Knud. The People of the Polar North. Kegan
Paul, Trench, Tnibner. London. 1908. 358 pp.

Reade, John. Some Wabanaki Songs. Trans. Royal Soc. of
Canada, vol. V. sec. II. pp. 1-8.

RiGGS, A. L. Dakota Songs and Music : Tah-koo Wah-k4n. Con-
gregational Pub. Soc. Boston. 1869. pp. 451-485.

Rink, Henry. Eskimo Tales and Songs. Jour, of Amer.
Folk-Lore. vol. II. pp. 123-132.

Tales and Traditions of the Eskimo. Blackwood. Londom.
1875. 472 pp.

Russell, Frank. The Pima Indians. 26th Ann. Rep. Bur. of
Amer. Eth. (1904-1905.) Washington. 389 pp.

Sapir, E. Abnormal Types of Speech in Nootka. Memoir 62.
Geol. Survey. Dept. of Mines, Ottawa, Canada. 1915.
21 pp. (Paragraph on song diction, pp. 11-12.)

Song Recitative in Paiute Mythology. Jour, of Amer. Folk-
Lore. vol. XXIII. pp. 455-472.

SWANTON, John R. Haida Texts and Myths. Bui. 29. Bur. of
Amer. Eth. Wash. 1905. 448 pp. (Songs, pp. 94-99.)

Thalbitzer, William. The Eskimo Language. Bianco Luno.
Copenhagen. 1904. pp. 289-313, 372-387.

Troyer, Carlos. Traditional Songs of the Zuiii Indians.
Presser. Philadelphia. 56 pp.

VOTH, H. R. Ordibi 06q61 Ceremony. Anthr. Ser. vol. VI.
no. 1. Field Mus. Chicago. 1903. 46 pp. 26 plates.

416\ Barnes: American Indian Verse 61

VoTH, H. R. AND George A. Dorsey. The Oraibi Powamu
Ceremony. Anthr. Ser, vol. III. no. 2. Field Mus.
Chicago. 1901. 158 pp.

Wilson, Thomas. The Swastika : Rep. of U. S. Natl. Mus. for
1894. Washington, pp. 757-1041.

WISSLER, Clark. The American Indian. McMurtrie. N. Y.
1917. 435 pp. (Note chapters on the Fine Arts, Ritualis-
tic Observances, Mythology.)
Ceremonial Bundles of the Blackfoot Indians. Anthr. Pa-
pers of the Amer. Mus. of Nat. Hist. vol. VII. part 2, N.
Y. 1912. 289 pp.

B. CRITICAL COMMENT ON INDIAN VERSE

Austin, Mary. Dial. vol. LXVI. no. 791. pp. 569-570; vol.
LXVII. no. 797. p. 163.
Introduction : The Path on the Rainbow. (Ed. by Cronyn.)
Boni and Liveright. N. Y. 1918. pp. i-xxxii.

Brinton, Daniel Garrison. Native American Poetry:
Essays of an Americanist. McKay. Philadelphia. 1890.
pp. 284-805.
Poetical Literature : Aboriginal American Authors. Phila-
delphia. 1883. pp. 46-50.

Curtis, Natalie. The Indians' Book. Harper's. N. Y. 1907.
pp. xxii-xxv, 348, 535.
Letter to Dr. Luther Halsey Gulick. June 14, 1916. 2 pp. MS.
(Treats briefly of Indian verse, with reference to
Navaho verse. In possession of the writer through
courtesy of Dr. Gulick.)

Fletcher, Alice C. A Study of Omaha Indian Music.
Archaeol. and Eth. Papers. Peabody Mus. Boston. 1893.
pp. 12-13, 17.
Poetry : Handbook of American Indians, part II. Bui. 30.
Bur. of Amer. Eth. Washington. 1910. p. 271.

Mackenzie, A. S. Evolution of Literature. Crowell. N. Y.
1911. pp. 97-102, 232-243. (Scant discussion; chiefly
quotations of songs.)

RiGGS, A. L. Dakota Poetry : Tah-koo Wah-k4n. Congrega-
tional Pub. Soc. Boston. 1869. pp. 473-474.

WiSSLER, Clark. The American Indian. McMurtrie. N. Y.
1917. pp. 144-145.

INDEX

Aesthetics, as a shaping force, 18-
20; effect of geographical dif-
ferences, 18-19; happiness and
beauty, 20; sensuous beauty,
19; sound, 19; vivid coloring,
19

Affirmation, predominance of, 13

Allusion, 32-37

Apache, San Carlos, Songs of the
Deer Ceremony, 43

Arapahos, 27

Badger Song, 44, 45

Beauty, see Aesthetics

Beaver Song, 48

Book of Rites, Iroqiuns, quoted, 48

Burden, 28, 29, 37

Cliant to the Sun, 12

Cherokees, symbols of, 16; Trav-
eler's Song, 53

Cheyenne, Song of Victory,
quoted, 35

Chippewa, song:s referred to, 36;
quoted, 33, 36, 48

Color, aesthetic use of, 19; sym-
bolism of, 14, 16-17

Conciseness, in allusion, 32; as a
characteristic of Indian verse,
30-38; in elision, 32, 37; in ex-
clamatory forms, 32, 37; in
lyric poetry, 32 ; in The WdUjm,
Olum, 30-32; in suggestion,
association, and implication, 32-
36; in suppression of verbs, 82,
36-37

Com Grinding Song, quoted, 23

Cosmic faith, importance of, 9, 41

Coyote and the Locust, The, 29-30

Crow Dance Song, 27

Cure Song, 44

Daylight Song, The, 20

Death of Taluta, The, 11

Delaware, The Walam Olum, con-
ciseness in, 30-32 ; quoted, 31, 46

Diction, as a characterises of In-
dian verse, 38-41; archaic, 39;
characteristics of word-build-
ing, 40; epithets, 38; poetic,
38-41; vocables, 39-40

Earth, motherhood of, 12
Elision, 37

Emergence Songs, 44-45
Eskimo, Mount Koonak: A Sang

of Arsut, 11; nith songs, 13
Euphony, 49-52

Festal Song, 43
Game Song, 44

Hako, The, interpretations of
nature, 12; quotations from,
33-35; repetition in, 28; variety
•in, 24

Holophrasis, 40

Hopi, Katzina Songs, 19, 42, 43;
Song of the Locust, 54

Humor, 13

Imagery, as a characteristic of
Indian verse, 41-49; in imagin-
ative descriptions, 45-46; of
comparison, 46-48; of contrast,
49; origin of, 41; sense, 42-45

Incorporation, 40

Introduction of the Child into the
Cosmos, 9-10, 17

Iroquois Book of Rites, quoted,
48; Onondago hymn, 54-55

Katzina Songs, 42,43

Metaphor, 47-48

Mnemonic summary, 32, 33

Monotony, as a characteristic of
Indian verse, 22-24; emphasis
in, 23; of repetition, 22

Morning Star and the New-Bom
Dawn, The, 26-27

Mount Koonak: A Song of Arsut,
11

Mountain Song, of the Eskimo,
11; of the Navahos, 90

Mouse Song. 45

Musical qualities, as a character-
istic of Indian verse, 4S^52;
assonantal melody, 50; ell-
phony, 49-52; harmony of word
and music, 51

Navaho, color symbolism, 16;
Daylight Song, 20; Mountain
Songs, 9; Myths, Prayers, and
Songs, 37; The Night Chant,
14; Song of the Hogans, 45-46;
Song of the Horse, 25, 45;
Waking Song, 37

Night Chant, The, 14, 49

Nith songs, 13

Observation, as a shaping force,

9, 13-14
Ojibwa, see Chippewa
Omaha, Introduction of the Child

into the Cosmos, 9-10, 17;

-4^i]

Barnes: American Indian Verse

63

Sweat Lodge Ritiuil, 16; Sym-
bols of the Hills, 9-10, 17;
Tribal Prayer, 35

Onomatopoeia, as characteristic
of Indian verse, 53-54

Onondaga, hymn, 54-55

Paiute, sensuous beauty in song,
19

Parallelism, as a characteristic
of Indian verse, 54-55

Pathos, 13

Pawnee, Ritual of the Dawn, 26;
The Hako, 24, 28, 33-35

Personification, as a survival of
myth-making times, 42; of
heavenly bodies, 9-10, 12, 47

Pima, assonantal quality in
song^s, 50; Badger Song, 44,
45; Beaver Song, 48; Emer-
gence Songs, 44-45; Festal
Song, 43; Game Song, 44;
Mouse Song, 45; Rain Song II,
55; Swallow Song, 44-45;
55; Wind Song, 45

Poetic license, 50

Polysynthesis, 40

Rain Song II, 55
Reduplication, 23, 40
Reflective mood, 10-11
Repetition, as a characteristic of

Indian verse, 22, 24-30; as an

aesthetic origin of numbers, 18;

double, 28; incremental, 24-27;

interlacing patterns of, 27;

reduplication as, 28; refrain,

burden, as, 28-30; set patterns

of, 27-28
Refrain, 28-30

Simile, 47, 48

Song of the Blue Com Dance, 48

Songs of the Deer Ceremony, 43

Song to the Earth, 12

Song of the Hogans, 45-46

Song of the Horse, 25, 45

Song of the Locust, 54

Song to the Pleiades, 12

Song of the Rain Chant, 25-26

Eong of Sitting BuU, 53

Sound, aesthetic use of, 19-20

Star, guidance of, 12; symbolism
of, 14

Stars Dehn-dek and Mah-oh-rah,
The, 55

Suggestion, 32-35.

Sun, life giving power of, 12;
symbolism of, 16

Sunset Song, 50-52

Swallow Song, 44-45

Symbolism, bear, 15; bird, 15;
cardinal points, 16, 17; color,
14, 16-17; cross, 16; earth, 12;
fish, 15; hills, 9-10, 17; moon,
16; numbers, 17-18; in repeti-
tions, 28; serpent, 15; star, 12,
16; sun, 12, 16; tree, 16; water,
16; winds, 17

Tone color, as a characteristic
'of Indian Verse^ 52; in ex-
plosive articulation, 52; in
liquid syllables, 52; in recur-
rence of open vowel sounds, 50

Traveler's Song, 53

Tribal Prayer. The Omaha, 35

Ukiabi, Song of, 37

Variety, of theme and imagery,
23-24

Vigor of expression, as a charac-
teristic of Indian verse, 52-53

Walam Olum, conciseness in,

30-32, 42
Wind Song, 48
Wind Songs, 11
Wyandot, The Stars Dehn-dek

and Mah-oh-rah, 55

Zuiii, color symbolism, 17; The
Coyote and the Locust, 29-30;
Song of the Blue Com Dance,
48; Sunset Song, 50-52

End of Volume Two
University of ICansas Humanistic Studies

HUMANISTIC STUDIES

OP

THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS

VOLUMB II

LAWRENCE, KANSAS

PUBLISHH) BY THB UNIVEBSITy

1922

COMMITTEE ON HUMANISTIC STUDIES

Frank Heywood Hodder
Frank Wilson Blackmar
Edwin Mortimer Hopkins
Arthur Tappan Walker
Selden Lincoln Whitcomb, Editor

CONTENTS

I. Oriental Diction and Theme in Engush Verse,
1740-1840.

By Edna Osborne, A. M.

II. The Land Credit Problem.

By George E. Putnam, A.M.

III. Indian Poucy and Western Expansion.

By James C. MaXin, Ph. D.

IV. American Indian Verse: Characteristics of Style.

By Nellie Barnes, A. M.