Views of William Cullen Bryant, Essay Example

Views of William Cullen Bryant about the Society

The XIX century was an epoch of fundamental and substantial transformation and William Cullen Bryant, as a “leading voice”, supported the ordinary people and liberal principles, for example elimination of slavery. ^[1] As Bryant mentioned, “to me it seems that one of the most important requisites for a great poet is a luminous style. The elements of poetry lie in natural objects, in the vicissitudes of human life, in the emotions of the human heart, and the relations of man to man”. [2] Bryant’s robust antislavery and public-spirited opinions directed him to struggle fervently for liberal grounds, “Can anything be imagined more abhorrent to every sentiment of generosity or justice, than the law which arms the rich with the legal right to fix…the wages of the poor? If this is not slavery we have forgotten its definition”.[3]

Bryant stated his opinion about the civil liberties of labor unions and workforces in his editorial columns, for instance in his column The Right of Workmen to Strike.[4] In this anger-filled editorial column, Bryant disputed Judge Edward’s opinion that labor unions, or “self-created society”, are illegal.[5] Bryant stated that if “self-created societies” were undemocratic, then “every literary, every religious, and every charitable association” must not be integrated and be considered as illegal, as all those organizations are “self-created”.[6]

According to Lincoln, “Mr. Bryant, whose reputation as a poet may have caused the present generation to overlook the fact that he was also a great editor and a patriotic and unselfish leader of public opinion”.[7] Bryant’s editorial support of numerous open-minded and civic foundations stimulated him to imaginatively express his outlooks.[8] As the publishing supervisor of The New York Evening Post, Bryant obtained a “respected social and political voice”.[9] The Post had a distinct view on society and posed crucial questions concerning the American social equality.[10] Moreover, The Post had “integrity and class” that many other American journalists aimed to possess.[11] Bryant’s conviction of free communication and writing provided him with a motivation to support “the arts and clubs representing and supporting groups of literary writers, such as the Sketch Club, also later known as the Century Club”.[12] He desired that “people who have no place to meet” would have a shelter to become educated encouraged.[13] Moreover, Bryant’s passion for natural surroundings and the fine art motivated his revelation for the American countryside, since he supported the Metropolitan Museum of Art in its idea to be provided with a “respiratory of the production of artists of every class”.[14]

Bryant observed the radical necessity for vital sanitary actions and improved aeration for the clogged region of New York.[15] Thus, Bryant, a supporter of social-spirited foundations, utilized the Post, which was regarded as a major society-oriented magazine, to propagate the necessity of green areas, which later transformed into the conception and notion of Central Park.[16] Along with Bryant’s propagation of expanding parks to offer broader, nature-bursting surroundings for the public, he likewise was one of the initiators of the New York Medical College.[17] His assistance of the institution needs represented Bryant’s aspiration of benefiting the society and his apprehension of homeopathic education and condition of clinics.[18] Therefore, Bryant promoted such medical practice as homeopathy, an accepted method of treatment utilizing fresh air and relaxation, which sustained the necessity for Central Park.[19] Thus, Bryant was chosen as the first leader of the recently created New York Homeopathic Medical College.[20] This college was also divided into several clinics, for example the Metropolitan Hospital.[21]Owing to Bryant’s supervision, New York Medical College presented the first medical profession perspectives for females, a fundamental revolution in the American society.[22]The numerous ways to enhance society of that time was not simply acknowledged by Bryant, but he was enthusiastic to struggle for them.[23]

Bryant turned out to be an “honored citizen” and received much admiration from the public owing to his endeavors that benefitted the society.[24] Numerous years spent as an editor in chief made Bryant a reliable and reputable citizen. Beginning his career as a young genius, the author of The Embargo and Thanatopsis, Bryant had gained much admiration from the society.[25] The poet’s death was a trauma to the inhabitants of New York, who rose to grieve for the prodigious citizen and publishing manager who realized many civic acts that profited the metropolis.[26] After his death, the Century Club “petitioned for a statue of Bryant in Century Park to represent all the deeds he achieved, which they erected and named the Bryant Memorial”.[27]

The “wisdom of age in his youth and the fire of youth in his age” actually provided Bryant with a motivating force to support his views on such problems as civic development, elimination of slavery, and enhancing of liberal principles.[28] In the city of New York, he was an icon of XIX century, generally for his numerous actions that profited the ordinary people, and for his pro-societal principles. Nevertheless, Bryant is habitually famous for his poem Thanatopsis filled with his humanitarian ideas. His reputation in XIX century aided Bryant’s influence on society’s enhancement, and laid the ground for the constant development of the American society.

Views of William Cullen Bryant About the Social Contract

William Cullen Bryant was a person who vigorously advocated the social contracts. Along with being the publishing supervisor of New York Evening Post, he was one of the most prominent poets in America. “The thinking of few men of the nineteenth century has been proved by the inexorable unfolding of historical events to have been so sound, so fundamentally right as that of William Cullen Bryant over the fifty-two years in which he contributed to the columns of the New York Evening Post,” mentioned his biographer Curtiss S. Johnson.[29] According to his biographer, he “was a scholarly man who believed his main duty as an editor was to give his considered judgment on the events of the day in his editorial leader”.[30]

William Cullen Bryant was the prominent supporter of liberalism and the development of social contracts.[31] According to his biographer, Bryant admired the liberal principles for more than fifty years.[32] He criticized such organizations as the Second United States Bank, protected the right of ordinary workers to gather in unions, and organized the Democratic Party’s antislavery division.[33] Nevertheless, after the adoption of the Kansas-Nebraska Act in 1854, he changed his views and became a member of the innovative radical party, the Republicans.[34] One of Bryant’s fellow columnists, Charles Nordhoff, pointed out that Bryant was a ‘strict constructionist’ in constitutional issues and in propagation of a social contract.[35] Bryant tempted to support and propagate the political principles of social contract.[36]

Soon after the election of President Lincoln, Bryant went to Washington and recounted to his friend,

“I saw the President, and had a long conversation with him on the affairs of the country, in which I expressed myself plainly and without reserve. He bore it well, and I must say that I left him with a perfect conviction of the excellence of his intentions and the singleness of his purpose of social contract propagation”.[37]

Originally, Bryant was more tolerant with President Lincoln actions than several of his columnist contemporaries in America were. According to his biographer Charles H. Brown, even though Bryant supported continuing the war strongly, advising no postponement in raising people and funds, he did not take part in the persuasive demands for an instantaneous attack on the South.[38] He was assured that the Yankees could calm down the revolutionaries shortly but he did not advocate the rapid activities with unprepared crowds.[39]

In 1862, Bryant became irritated with President Lincoln’s program of liberation. Brown mentioned,

“Though never giving up his belief that the first goal of the war was to put down the rebellion and restore the Union, Bryant continued to urge immediate emancipation not only in editorials but also in speeches given at Abolitionist rallies. In editorials he repeatedly pleaded with the President not to delay in declaring the slaves free and condemned him when he failed to act”.[40]

In March of 1862, Bryant visited a mass conference held at Cooper Union in order to listen to Carl Schurz, the Wisconsin attorney who had propagated Lincoln’s election as a President and at that moment was “a brigadier of volunteers in the army”, on the intolerability of an enduring slavery.[41] Afterwards Bryant wrote, “nobly did that message crown the proceedings of the meeting, and those who attended it went home with the assurance in their hearts that in listening to its plain and direct words they had heard the death knell of slavery”.[42] In 1862, Bryant’s liberation ideology obliged him to be elected as a Head of the Emancipation League created in the New York City.[43] Thus, William Cullen Bryant can be considered a self-sacrificing struggler for the introduction of a social contract and emancipation of the American society.

Views of William Cullen Bryant About Education

Bryant was born and brought up in a fusion of different religious beliefs and concepts, thus his views on education are diverse.[44] Being born in Cummington, Hampshire County, Massachusetts, Bryant was an offspring of a Puritanical heritage, whose principles and understandings he had learnt in his family.[45] Bryant’s mother, Sarah Snell, “the descendent from Puritanical ancestry”, took care of her household utilizing severe Puritanical principles, which encouraged the maturation of Bryant’s outlooks and engagements.[46] Education and ethical principles were exceedingly appreciated in his family.[47] Due to such parenting, Bryant had taught sensible ethical judgment, perfect practical wisdom, and the condemnation of inequalities.[48] Bryant’s future works and observations on civic development reproduced his mother’s education in the sphere of society’s progress, for example “the improvement of schools, building of reliable infrastructure, and expanding green space”.[49] Moreover, Bryant was “philanthropic in his nature” with a constant concern on helping others in learning.[50]

Ebenezer Snell, Bryant’s grandfather, taught Bryant his Calvinistic principles, revealing the views on death and the evil spirit to him. These principles instigated Bryant to “ponder mortality” and deeply influenced his educational beliefs.[51] Later, nevertheless, Bryant headed for Unitarianism, an idea stimulating the principles of Calvinism by supporting an enthusiastic view on manhood instead of considering that man was immoral, corresponding Bryant’s educational views.[52]

In 1860, William Cullen Bryant with a group of civic frontrunners was a founder of New York Medical College.[53] They thought that medicine and medical education should be learnt with superior understanding of the patients’ necessities.[54] Bryant, as the well-known poet, protester, and publishing manager of the Evening Post, was predominantly troubled with the medical education and the lack of skilled doctors in the hospitals.[55] Bryant was enthusiastically fond of the medicine branch acknowledged as homeopathy. Thus, the college was opened as the New York Homeopathic Medical College. Moreover, Bryant worked as the medical college’s first president and filled the position of the Board of Trustees’ president for 10 years.[56]

In addition, Bryant was promoting medical professions for females. In 1863, with the help Dr. Clemence Sophia Lozier, he founded a distinct but correlated institute acknowledged as the New York Medical College for Women.[57] Many of the male College’s authorities and professors worked in and managed the newly opened medical school. Therefore, in 1867, the first woman, Canadian physician Dr. Emily Stowe, who had beforehand been declined in enrollment to every homeopathic college in Canada, graduated from the New York Homeopathic Medical College.[58] Thus, Bryant can be called one of the front-runners of the American medical education.

Views of William Cullen Bryant About the American Character Identity

The works of William Cullen Bryant occupy the actual center of the American fictional and customary past, as he was the founder that introduced the standards for all subsequent American lyrical poets. Frank Gado pointed out that publication of Bryant’s Poems in 1821 was revolutionary for the American lyrical tradition.[59] Bryant composed his poetry in a critical epoch, at the beginning of XIX century. This fact allowed him to occupy a noteworthy position as the disseminator of Puritan principles into the American Romantic Society. Moreover, Bryant was the true example of “how the New Englanders attempted to establish an authentic American national identity of their own. American pastoral verse cannot be approached without tackling Bryant’s work and acknowledging his own contributions to it”.[60]Therefore, his position in the American national culture is well-known and his lyrical poems are most renowned. As Brown mentioned,

“In the near-century since Bryant’s death he has been known almost as a poet, the first authentic American voice to sing of native birds like the brown thrasher and bobolink rather than the skylark and nightingale, of the spicebush or the late-blooming fringed gentian rather than Britain’s gorse or primrose, of the grandeur of his country’s mountains and broad prairies rather than the curried and combed landscape of England”.[61]

Thus, Bryant was the front-runner of the American character identity in innovative national poetry.

After governmental independence from the Great Britain, the United States of America sturdily required a state poet, presenting America’s romanticized profile as a country, and signifying the principles of the American dream and the American national character identity.[62] Thus, according to Gado,

“Political independence had immediately mandated a view of the new nation as the creature of history, working to accomplish a divinely appointed destiny. Literary independence was soon coupled to expression of that unique role: being a major American poet entailed bardic celebration of the nation’s founding as the climax of Western civilization”.[63]

In his compilation of Bryant’s editorials and lyrics, Frank Gado pointed out that Bryant had made a lot to become the bard of the national American identity, and he verified this position having printed his Poems in 1821.[64]Bryant’s lyrical illustration of the American national identity in addition to his passionate accent “on a literary output of a distinctive national color connected him to the figure of the national poet? a model that was eagerly sought by the American people at this time”.[65] Bryant was an example of the nationalistic poet with his passionate illustrations of the genuinely American national identity.[66] As stated by Charles L. Sanford,

“it was this sense of national self-consciousness that significantly shaped the rise of American nature art. National pride in the rude native scene as opposed to effete European civilization helped to produce our first school of landscape painting as well as the nature writing of Bryant, Cooper, Emerson, and Thoreau”.[67]

Bryant’s lyrical outcome, profoundly reproducing Romantic standards, has been regarded by booklovers and criticizers closely connected with Romantic English patterns.[68] Nevertheless, Bryant was unoriginal but not totally derivative. While accepting traits of English Romantic principles both in philosophy and practice, Bryant’s chief objective was to put an emphasis on the genuine American national character identity.[69] Consequently, although his poesy reproduced unique Romantic standards, it also presented a characteristic American national essence.[70] Motivated by the English Romantic heritage, Bryant described the American national identity, and enthusiastically depicted its attractive characteristics and strong points.[71] In conclusion, Bryant’s poesy was successful in obtaining the positive critical approval throughout the USA, and became a breakthrough of the early American literary history.

References

Bender, Thomas. “Spirited Away.” New York Times (9 May 2005: A19(L)).

Brown, Charles H. William Cullen Bryant. New York: John Scribner’s sons. 1971.

Browne, Francis Fisher. The Every-Day Life of Abraham Lincoln. Washington:N. D. Thompson Publishing Company. 1887.

Bryant, William Cullen. A Library of Poetry and Song: Being Choice Selections from the Best Poets. New York: J.B Ford and Company, 1871.

Bryant, William Cullen. Power for Sanity: Selected Editorials of William Cullen Bryant, 1826-1861. New York: Fordham University Press, 1994.

Cazalet, Sylvain. “History of the New York Medical College and Hospital for Women”. (Articles on Homeopathy, 2001). http://homeoint.org/cazalet/histo/newyork.htm. (accessed 22 September 2012).

Donovan, Alan B. “William Cullen Bryant: ‘Father of American Song’”. The New England Quarterly, 41.4 (1968): 505–20.

Douglas, George H. The Golden Age of the Newspaper. Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 1999.

Ellis, David M., Frost, James A., Syrett, Harold C., and Carman, Harry J. A History of New York State. Ney York: Cornell University Press. 1967.

Encyclopedia of World Biography. Bryant, William Cullen (1794-1878). Detroit: Gale, 1998.

Gado, Frank, ed. William Cullen Bryant: An American Voice. Vermont: Antoca Press, 2006.

Hurley, Jennifer A. American Romanticism. San Diego, CA: Greenhaven Press, Inc., 2000.

Johnson, Curtiss S. Politics and A Belly-full: The Journalist Career of William Cullen Bryant. New York: Vantage Press. 1962.

Kinkead, Eugene. Central Park: the Birth, Decline, and Renewal of a National Treasure. New York: W.W Norton & Company, Inc, 1990.

Mr. Lincoln and New York. “William Cullen Bryant (1794-1878)”. (The Lehrman Institution. 2011). http://www.mrlincolnandnewyork.org/inside.asp?ID=34&subjectID=3 (accessed 23 September 2012).

Muller, Gilbert H. William Cullen Bryant: Author of America. Albany: State University of New York. New York Press, 2008.

New York Medical College. “History of NYMD”. (New York Medical College, 2009). http://www.nymc.edu/AboutNYMC/History.html. (accessed 22 September 2012).

Nordhoff, Charles. Reminiscences of Some Editors I Have Known, New York: Vantage Press. 1900.

Poetry Foundation, “William Cullen Bryant”, (Poetry Foundation, 2011). http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/william-cullen-bryant. (accessed 22 September 2012).

Sanford, Charles. “The Concept of the Sublime in the works of Thomas Cole and William Cullen Bryant.” American Literature, 28.4 (1957): 434–48.

Wilson, James Grant. Bryant and his friends: Some Reminiscences of the Knickerbocker Writers. New York: Howard & Hulbert, 1886.

20-20 Site. “Biography of William Cullen Bryant”. (20-20 Site, 2011). http://www.2020site.org/literature/william_bryant.html. (accessed 22 September 2012).

[1] Mr. Lincoln and New York. “William Cullen Bryant (1794-1878)”. (The Lehrman Institution. 2011). http://www.mrlincolnandnewyork.org/inside.asp?ID=34&subjectID=3 (accessed 23 September 2012), 4.

[2] William Cullen Bryant, A Library of Poetry and Song: Being Choice Selections from the Best Poets. (New York: J.B Ford and Company, 1871),  30.

[3] William Cullen Bryant, Power for Sanity: Selected Editorials of William Cullen Bryant, 1826-1861. (New York: Fordham University Press, 1994), 38.

[4] Ibid., 37.

[5] Ibid., 38.

[6] Ibid., 38.

[7] Mr. Lincoln and New York, 5.

[8] Gilbert H. Muller, William Cullen Bryant: Author of America. (Albany: State University of New York. New York Press, 2008), 179.

[9] Ibid, 179.

[10] Ibid, 180.

[11] George H. Douglas, The Golden Age of the Newspaper. (Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 1999), 21.

[12] Thomas Bender, “Spirited Away.” New York Times (9 May 2005: A19(L)): 1.

[13] Ibid., 1.

[14] James Grant Wilson, Bryant and his friends: Some Reminiscences of the Knickerbocker Writers. (New York: Howard & Hulbert, 1886), 13.

[15] Eugene Kinkead, Central Park: the Birth, Decline, and Renewal of a National Treasure. (New York: W.W Norton & Company, Inc, 1990), 13.

[16] Douglas, 20.

[17] New York Medical College. “History of NYMD”. (New York Medical College, 2009). http://www.nymc.edu/AboutNYMC/History.html. (accessed 22 September 2012), 1.

[18] Sylvain Cazalet. “History of the New York Medical College and Hospital for Women”. (Articles on Homeopathy, 2001). http://homeoint.org/cazalet/histo/newyork.htm. (accessed 22 September 2012), 18.

[19] Ibid., 18.

[20] Ibid., 18.

[21] New York Medical College, 3.

[22] Ibid., 2.

[23] Douglas, 20.

[24] Wilson, 12.

[25] Douglas, 92

[26] Muller, 335.

[27] Muller, 335.

[28] Wilson, 11.

[29] Curtiss S. Johnson, Politics and A Belly-full: The Journalist Career of William Cullen Bryant. (New York: Vantage Press. 1962), 187.

[30] Ibid., 188.

[31] Johnson, 188.

[32] David M. Ellis, James A. Frost, Harold C. Syrett, and Harry J. Carman, A History of New York State. (New York: Cornell University Press, 1967), 327.

[33] Ibid., 327

[34] Ibid., 327

[35] Charles Nordhoff, Reminiscences of Some Editors I Have Known, (New York: Vantage Press. 1900), 8.

[36] Ibid., 8.

[37] Francis Fisher Browne, The Every-Day Life of Abraham Lincoln. (Washington:N. D. Thompson Publishing Company. 1887), 421.

[38] Charles H. Brown, William Cullen Bryant. (New York: John Scribner’s sons. 1971), 435.

[39] Ibid., 435

[40] Ibid., 436.

[41] Johnson, 190.

[42] Ibid., 190.

[43] Ibid., 191.

[44] Poetry Foundation, “William Cullen Bryant”, (Poetry Foundation, 2011). http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/william-cullen-bryant. (accessed 22 September 2012), 2-3.

[45] Wilson, 14.

[46] 20-20 Site. “Biography of William Cullen Bryant”. (20-20 Site, 2011). http://www.2020site.org/literature/william_bryant.html. (accessed 22 September 2012), 2.

[47] Ibid., 2.

[48] Johnson, 18.

[49] Wilson, 20.

[50] Poetry Foundation,. 3.

[51] Ibid., 4.

[52] Jennifer A. Hurley, American Romanticism. (San Diego, CA: Greenhaven Press, Inc., 2000), 20.

[53] New York Medical College, 3.

[54] New York Medical College, 3.

[55] New York Medical College, 4.

[56] New York Medical College, 4.

[57] New York Medical College, 5.

[58] New York Medical College, 5.

[59] Frank Gado, ed. William Cullen Bryant: An American Voice. (Vermont: Antoca Press, 2006), 153.

[60] Alan B. Donovan, “William Cullen Bryant: ‘Father of American Song’”. The New England Quarterly, 41.4 (1968), 505–20: 519-520.

[61] Brown, 2.

[62] Brown, 17

[63] Gado, 154.

[64] Ibid., 157.

[65] Ibid., 158.

[66] Ibid., 158

[67] Charles Sanford, “The Concept of the Sublime in the works of Thomas Cole and William Cullen Bryant.” American Literature, 28.4 (1957), 434–48: 434.

[68] Ibid., 435.

[69] Sanford, 435.

[70] Ibid., 436.

[71] Ibid., 436.