Radio Script #1975

Little Talks on Common Things
May 4, 1975

Last week, I told you a little about a miniature edition of the Samuel Johnson Dictionary, a small volume published in Boston in 1810. I then said that the book contained many interesting items besides its list of words, and I told about some of them. However, I did not have time on that broadcast to include all of its contents. So, as we start today’s broadcast I want to tell you more.

The preface of the little dictionary is itself of some interest. Here is what it said. “Future generations will perhaps view the late Revolution in North America as the most singular phenomenon that ever appeared in the political hemisphere of any nation. To point out the gradual steps by which America finally obtained independence, to describe those scenes of rapine, blood and slaughter, which accompanied the struggle, so fatal to thousands of brave officers and men on both sides, and so ruinous to the fortunes of the mother country, are the principal objects of this brief epitome. In the execution of that task, we have endeavored to divest ourselves of every spark of national prejudice and have been content briefly to relate the facts, presenting truthfully what happened, without giving our own opinions thereon, preferring to leave to our readers the power of judging for themselves.”

Then follows an account of the red men whom the white colonists found in possession of the land on this side of the Atlantic. About the Indians this sketch said: “The native Americans are tall and straight. Their bodies are strong, but not fitted to continue long at any single work. Their skin is reddish brown.

“European arrivals found the Indians naked. Now they generally wear a coarse blanket to cover them. They are poor and squalid. The only occupations of the men are hunting and war, while agriculture is left wholly to their women.

“When the hunting season is over, the men pass their time in indolence. They sleep half the day in their huts, and observe no bounds of decency in eating and drinking. Before the Europeans came, the Indians had no spirituous liquors, but now liquor is their principal pursuit.

“Some of the Indians have no idea of God, others worship a Great Spirit. Their passion is for liberty and for it they sacrifice everything. They seldom strike others of the same family or tribe, and they seldom chastise their children. In domestic relations they are gentle; in war they are fierce and ruthless.

“Some tribes have a king at their head, but his power is persuasive rather than coercive. He is more revered as a father than feared as a monarch. He has no guards, no police.

“When any community affairs are to be conducted, the Indians hold a feast. Councils of the elders then make the decisions.

“Indian women, though worked hard, are not slaves. They participate in tribal councils. Among these people there is no polygamy. Each Indian man has only one squaw.

“The Indians glory in war, sometimes it seems only to satisfy brutal fury. They make no attempt to give warfare even the color of justice. While the men are away, Indian raiders enter a village and capture as many as they can of helpless women and children. They take great pride in ambushing their enemies. The fate of their prisoners is miserable, subject to the most cruel treatment. Some are burned alive after terrible torture.”

Now let us see what the little book said about the coming of Englishmen to New England.

“The Puritans, granted no rights under Charles I, turned to the realms across the ocean, where they could enjoy liberty of conscience. A little colony sailed from England and established themselves at a place they called New Plymouth in 1620. In 1630 another company came to Salem, and soon more than 1500 had settled there and on Massachusetts Bay. Between 1630 and 1650 nearly 300 vessels brought more than 20,000 settlers. Plantations were formed in many parts of Massachusetts, in Connecticut, and Roger Williams, banished from Massachusetts, established Rhode Island.”

Then the topic was changed to the background of the Revolution. Here is what it said. “The Massachusetts legislature voted as follows in 1764: “The sole right of appropriating the money of this province resides in the people’s legal representatives. The impost of taxes upon a people who are not represented in Parliament is absolutely irreconcilable with the peoples’ rights. No man can justly take the property of another without consent.”

Then, enumerated as Parliamentary acts of injustice against the New England colonists were the following items: 1765, the Stamp Act; 1768, quartering British troops in Boston; 1770, the Boston Massacre; 1773, the tax that led to the Boston Tea Party; 1774, closing of the Port of Boston; 1775, the fighting at Lexington and Concord, Washington’s taking command of the army, and the Battle of Bunker Hill.

Interesting to us on the Kennebec is what this 1810 volume had to say about Arnold’s expedition to Quebec in 1775.

“General Washington decided to send a body of troops to cross the country to Quebec. They set out on Sept. 13, 1775, under Col. Benedict Arnold, assisted by Cols. Greene and Enos, and Majors Meigs and Bigelow. The whole force numbered 1100 men.

“The attempt to capture Quebec failed. Col. Arnold was wounded and taken to a hospital, and General Montgomery, who had approached Quebec via Lake Champlain, was killed. After this failure, there was dispute about command. It was finally given to Arnold, who commanded the retreat.”

Then the book gives us a brief account of the Revolution. “The British evacuated Boston on March 17, 1776, and on July 4 the Continental Congress issued the Declaration of Independence. Lord Howe arrived at Halifax with British forces in June, and proceeded to New York, drove Washington forces from Long Island to Harlem, then out of New York altogether. On Christmas eve in 1776, Washington crossed the Delaware and attacked the Hessian mercenaries at Trenton. In 1777 Burgoyne surrendered at Saratoga. In 1778 Benjamin Franklin and others went to France to seek help, and the next year a French fleet assembled in the West Indies to go to the aid of the Americans. In the same year, the patriot cause was shocked by the treason of Benedict Arnold. In 1780, the cause looked bleak when the British captured Charleston.

“But the next year, with the help of the French, events took a brighter turn. Washington’s army took the field in Virginia, the French fleet arrived. By the middle of September, American and French troops combined into a single force at Williamsburg, and on October 19 Cornwallis surrendered his whole army to the Americans. It took two more years to secure a definitive treaty of peace, by which the British government recognized the independence of the American colonies. And it was four more years before those independent 13 states united to form the United States of America.”

In a separate article the book gives this account of Arnold’s treason.

“General Arnold, commanding West Point, was brave but mercenary, always in need of money for his lavish expenses. In Philadelphia he had made his headquarters at Gov. Penn’s house, the best dwelling in the city. He conducted extravagant living, but was unsuccessful in attempts to secure money and was constantly pressed by his creditors. When a bill he presented to the Continental Congress, claiming recompense for large expenses, was disallowed, Arnold was outraged. In 1779 he began correspondence with Major Andre, adjutant general of the British forces in New York.

“On the night of Sep. 21, 1780, after prior arrangements, a boat went out to the British ship Vulture anchored in the Hudson, for the purpose of bringing Andre to a meeting with Arnold. Unable to get back to the Vulture, which had changed position, Andre changed his uniform for civilian clothes. Furnished with a horse, using the alias John Anderson, and carrying a passport signed by Arnold, he started to go through the continental lines to White Plains. He passed all guards and posts without arousing suspicion, and thought he was out of danger, when suddenly he came upon an American scouting party. They demanded that Andre produce his papers. Andre mistook his captors for British, not American, scouts. He soon learned his mistake, for when a search revealed incriminating papers, he was seized and bound.

He offered his captors a purse of gold and his watch for his release. But they spurned the bribe and took Andre to Col. Jameson, who commanded the force from which the scouting party had come. Andre demanded that Arnold be notified of his arrest, claiming that he was Anderson, a loyal patriot. But papers found in Andre’s boots proved to be in Arnold’s handwriting, and those papers contained detailed information about the defenses at West Point. Andre confessed to his true identity, but insisted that he was not a spy. Meanwhile Arnold fled to the Vulture and soon took command of British troops against the Continentals with whom he had been a trusted general.

“Washington assembled a court martial of 14 officers, who tried Andre, convicted him as an enemy spy and sentenced him to be hanged. On October 2, 1780 he was led to execution, while Arnold, the traitor, escaped.”

And with that story we close our account of the contents of the miniature American edition of Samuel Johnson’s famous dictionary.

Year: 1975