Common sense is the characteristic of the American people: it is the foundation of their institutions; it pervades society, bringing the high and the low near to each other: it tempers our religion, yielding that indulgence to each other’s weakness, which should follow the mandates of God; it wears down the asperities of character—but it ruins the beau ideal.
The difficulty is only increased in works of fiction that are founded on the customs of America, when a writer attempts to engraft the scions of the imagination, on the stock of history. The plant is too familiar to the senses, and the freshness of the exotic is tarnished by the connexion. This very book will, probably, be cited as an instance of the fallacy of this opinion. We wish that we could think so. “The Spy” was introduced at a happy moment, and the historical incidents were but little known, at the same time that they were capable of deep interest; but, so far as well known characters are concerned, we have been assailed with every variety of criticism, from the cock of a hat to the colour of a horse.
Besides the familiarity of the subject, there is a scarcity of events, and a poverty in the accompaniments, that drives an author from the undertaking in despair. In the dark ages of our history, it is true that we hung a few unfortunate women for witches, and suffered some inroads from the Indians; but the active curiosity of the people has transmitted those events with so much accuracy, that there is no opportunity for digression.—Then, again, notwithstanding that a murder is at all times a serious business, it is much more interesting in a castle, than in a corn field. In short, all that glow, which can be given to a tale, through the aid of obscure legends, artificial distinctions, and images connected with the association of the ideas, is not attainable in this land of facts. Man is not the same creature here as in other countries. He is more fettered by reason and less by laws, than in any other section of the globe; consequently, while he enjoys a greater political liberty, he is under a greater moral restraint than his European brother.
We cannot suffer this edition of “The Spy” to appear, without saying a few words in our own justification. While the book was in press we consulted, with a few friends, on the subject of abandoning it entirely, under the apprehension of losing by its publication. We were persuaded to persevere, as it was urged that “Precaution” had received a respectful notice from a few English periodicals and newspapers, and it was thought its author would be secure from loss. Could we have found a Bookseller who would have given enough for the work to pay the scribe, we might have been tempted to dispose of the copy-right—but none offered. With such a prospect before us, we continued to write by the way of amusement, and because we were committed by an advertisement; but it was with an indifference and carelessness that were somewhat disrespectful to the public, and unjust to ourselves. Were we to relate the disadvantages under which “The Spy” was written and printed, we should only gain credit with some four or five to whom we are intimately known; but after our unexpected introduction to the American public, we must add, that it was printed as it was written; that it was printed with a very superficial revision of the press—the second edition without a proof-sheet coming out of the office; and that it was published without a hope of success. We should have been above stating these facts with a view to disarm criticism; but, after the reception that has been bestowed on our work, we present them by way of apology.
Introduction
[1831]
* * *
HAPPILY THERE IS sympathy with virtue, as well as contagion in vice. Without this relief to the downward tendency of human passions, there would be little hope that the wishes of the wise and good, for the gradual extension of the reign of justice and philanthropy, would ever be realised.
Of all the generous sentiments, that of love of country is the most universal. We uniformly admire the man who sacrifices himself for the good of the community to which he belongs; and we unsparingly condemn him who, under whatever plea of sophism or necessity, raises his arm or directs his talents against the land to which he owes a natural allegiance. The proudest names and the fairest hopes have fallen under the obloquy of treason. Men have admired the Roman who could sacrifice the closer tie of blood to that of country; but we overlook the courage and success of Coriolanus, in scorn of his disaffection. There is a purity in real patriotism which elevates its subject above all the grosser motives of selfishness, and which, in the nature of things, can never distinguish services to mere kindred and family. It has the beauty of self-elevation, without the alloy of personal interest.
Many years since, the writer of these volumes was at the residence of an illustrious man, who was remarkable for an exhibition of the quality just named during the darkest days of the American revolution, as well as for the high trusts he discharged throughout that memorable period. The discourse turned upon the effects which great political excitement produced on character, and the purifying consequences of love of country, when that sentiment is powerfully awakened in a people. He, who, from his years, his services, and his knowledge of men, was best qualified to take the lead in such a conversation, was the principal speaker. After dwelling on the marked manner in which the great struggle of the nation, during the war of 1776, had given a new and honourable direction to the thoughts and practices of multitudes whose time had formerly been engrossed by the most vulgar concerns of life, he illustrated his opinions by relating an anecdote, the truth of which he could attest as a personal actor.
The dispute between England and the United States of America, though not strictly a family quarrel, had many of the features of a civil war. Though the people of the latter were never properly and constitutionally subject to the people of the former, the inhabitants of both countries owed allegiance to a common king. As the Americans, as a nation, disavowed this allegiance, and as the English chose to support their sovereign in the attempt to regain his power, most of the feelings of an internal struggle were involved in the conflict. A large proportion of the emigrants from Europe, then established in the colonies, took part with the crown; and there were many districts in which their influence, united to that of the Americans who refused to throw away their allegiance, gave a decided preponderance to the royal cause. America was then too young, and too much in need of every heart and hand, to regard these partial divisions, small as they were in actual amount, with indifference. The evil was greatly increased by the activity of the English in profiting by these internal dissensions; and it became doubly serious when it was found that attempts were made to raise corps of provincial troops, who were to be banded with those from Europe, to reduce the young republics to subjection. Congress named an especial and a secret committee for the express purpose of defeating this object. Of this committee Mr. ——, the narrator of the anecdote, was the chairman.
In the discharge of the novel duties which had now devolved on him, Mr. —— had occasion to employ an agent whose services differed but little from those of a common spy. This man, as will easily be understood, belonged to a condition in life which rendered him the least reluctant to appear in so equivocal a character. He was poor, ignorant, so far as the usual instruction was concerned; but cool, shrewd, and fearless by nature. It was his office to learn in what part of the country the agents of the crown were making their secret efforts to embody men,—to repair to the place, enlist, appear zealous in the cause he affected to serve, and otherwise to get possession of as many of the secrets of the enemy as possible. These he of course communicated to his employers, who took all the means in their power to counteract the plans of the English, and frequently with great success.
It will readily be conceived that a service like this was attended with great personal hazard. In addition to the danger of discovery, there was the daily risk of falling into the hands of the Americans themselves, who invariably visited sins of this nature more severely on the natives of the country than on the Europeans who fell into their hands. In fact, the agent of Mr. —— was several times arrested by the local aut
horities, and in one instance he was actually condemned by his exasperated countrymen to the gallows. Speedy and private orders to his gaoler alone saved him from an ignominious death. He was permitted to escape; and this seeming, and indeed actual, peril was of great aid in supporting his assumed character among the English. By the Americans, in his little sphere, he was denounced as a bold and inveterate Tory. In this manner he continued to serve his country in secret during the early years of the struggle, hourly environed by danger, and the constant subject of unmerited opprobrium.
In the year —— Mr. —— was named to a high and honourable employment at an European court. Before vacating his seat in congress, he reported to that body an outline of the circumstances related, suppressing the name of his agent from policy, and demanding an appropriation in behalf of a man who had been of so much use at so great personal risk. A suitable sum was voted, and its delivery was confided to the chairman of the secret committee.
Mr. —— took the necessary means to summon his agent to a personal interview. They met in a wood at midnight. Here Mr. —— complimented his companion on his fidelity and adroitness; explained the necessity of their communications being closed; and finally tendered the money. The other drew back, and declined receiving it. “The country has need of all its means,” he said; “and as for myself, I can work, or gain a livelihood in various ways.” Persuasion was useless, for patriotism was uppermost in the heart of this remarkable individual; and Mr. —— departed, bearing with him the gold he had brought, and a deep respect for the man who had so long hazarded his life, unrequited, for the cause they served in common.
The writer is under an impression that, at a later day, the agent of Mr. —— consented to receive a renumeration for what he had done; but it was not until his country was entirely in a condition to bestow it.
It is scarcely necessary to add, that an anecdote like this, simply but forcibly told by one of the principal actors, made a deep impression on all who heard it. Many years later, circumstances, which it is unnecessary to relate, and of an entirely adventitious nature, induced the writer to compose a novel, which proved to be, what he little foresaw at the time, the first of a tolerably long series. The same adventitious causes which gave birth to the book, determined its scene and its general character. The former was laid in a foreign country; and the latter embraced a crude effort to describe foreign manners. When this tale was published, it became matter of reproach among the author’s friends, that he, an American in heart as in birth, should give to the world a work which aided perhaps, in some slight degree, to feed the imaginations of the young and unpractised among his own countrymen, by pictures drawn from a state of society so different from that to which he belonged. The writer, while he knew how much of what he had done was purely accidental, felt the reproach to be one that he was anxious to deprecate; and, as the only atonement in his power, he determined to inflict a second book, whose subject should admit of no cavil, not only in the world, but in himself. He chose patriotism for his theme; and to those who read this introduction and the book itself it is scarcely necessary to add, that he took the hero of the anecdote just related as his best illustration of the quality in the abstract.
Since the original publication of “The Spy,” there have appeared several accounts of different persons who are supposed to have been in the author’s mind while writing the book. As Mr. —— did not mention the name of his agent, the writer never knew any more of his identity with this or that individual than he has here explained. Both Washington and Sir Henry Clinton had an unusual number of secret emissaries; for in a war that partook so much of a domestic character, and in which the contending parties were people of the same blood and language, it could scarcely be otherwise.
The style of the book has been revised by the author in this edition. In this respect, he has endeavoured to make it more worthy of the favour with which it has been received; though he is compelled to admit there are faults so interwoven with the structure of the tale that, as in the case of a decayed edifice, it would cost perhaps less to reconstruct than to repair. Ten years have been an age with most things that are connected with America; and, among other advances, that of her literature has not been the least. So little was expected from the publication of an original work of this description, at the time it was written, that the first volume of “The Spy” was printed several months before the author felt a sufficient inducement to write a line of the second. The efforts expended on a hopeless task are rarely worthy of him who makes them, however low it may be necessary to rate the standard of his general merit.
A brighter prospect is beginning to dawn on the republic, which is about to assume that rank among the nations of the earth which nature has designed her to fill, and to which her institutions inevitably tend. Should chance throw a copy of this prefatory notice into the hands of an American twenty years hence, he will smile to think that a countryman hesitated to complete a work so far advanced, merely because the disposition of the country to read a book that treated of its own familiar interests was distrusted.
Paris, April 4. 1831.
Introduction
[1849]
* * *
THE AUTHOR has often been asked if there were any foundation in real life, for the delineation of the principal character in this book. He can give no clearer answer to the question, than by laying before his readers a simple statement of the facts connected with its original publication.
Many years since, the writer of this volume was at the residence of an illustrious man, who had been employed in various situations of high trust during the darkest days of the American revolution. The discourse turned upon the effects which great political excitement produce on character, and the purifying consequences of a love of country, when that sentiment is powerfully and generally awakened in a people. He who, from his years, his services, and his knowledge of men, was best qualified to take the lead in such a conversation, was the principal speaker. After dwelling on the marked manner in which the great struggle of the nation, during the war of 1775, had given a new and honorable direction to the thoughts and practices of multitudes whose time had formerly been engrossed by the most vulgar concerns of life, he illustrated his opinions by relating an anecdote, the truth of which he could attest as a personal witness.
The dispute between England and the United States of America, though not strictly a family quarrel, had many of the features of a civil war. The people of the latter were never properly and constitutionally subject to the people of the former, but the inhabitants of both countries owed allegiance to a common king. The Americans, as a nation, disavowed this allegiance, and the English choosing to support their sovereign in the attempt to regain his power, most of the feelings of an internal struggle were involved in the conflict. A large proportion of the emigrants from Europe, then established in the colonies, took part with the crown; and there were many districts in which their influence, united to that of the Americans who refused to lay aside their allegiance, gave a decided preponderance to the royal cause. America was then too young, and too much in need of every heart and hand, to regard these partial divisions, small as they were in actual amount, with indifference. The evil was greatly increased by the activity of the English in profiting by these internal dissensions; and it became doubly serious when it was found that attempts were made to raise various corps of provincial troops, who were to be banded with those from Europe, to reduce the young republic to subjection. Congress named an especial and a secret committee, therefore, for the express purpose of defeating this object. Of this committee Mr. ——, the narrator of the anecdote, was chairman.
In the discharge of the novel duties which now devolved on him, Mr. —— had occasion to employ an agent whose services differed but little from those of a common spy. This man, as will easily be understood, belonged to a condition in life which rendered him the least reluctant to appear in so equivocal a character. He was poor, ignor
ant, so far as the usual instruction was concerned; but cool, shrewd, and fearless by nature. It was his office to learn in what part of the country the agents of the crown were making their efforts to embody men, to repair to the place, enlist, appear zealous in the cause he affected to serve, and otherwise to get possession of as many of the secrets of the enemy as possible. The last he of course communicated to his employers, who took all the means in their power to counteract the plans of the English, and frequently with success.
It will readily be conceived that a service like this was attended with great personal hazard. In addition to the danger of discovery, there was the daily risk of falling into the hands of the Americans themselves, who invariably visited sins of this nature more severely on the natives of the country than on the Europeans who fell into their hands. In fact, the agent of Mr. —— was several times arrested by the local authorities; and, in one instance, he was actually condemned by his exasperated countrymen to the gallows. Speedy and private orders to his gaoler alone saved him from an ignominious death. He was permitted to escape; and this seeming, and indeed actual, peril was of great aid in supporting his assumed character among the English. By the Americans, in his little sphere, he was denounced as a bold and inveterate Tory. In this manner he continued to serve his country in secret during the early years of the struggle, hourly environed by danger, and the constant subject of unmerited opprobrium.
In the year —— Mr. —— was named to a high and honorable employment at a European court. Before vacating his seat in Congress, he reported to that body an outline of the circumstances related, necessarily suppressing the name of his agent, and demanding an appropriation in behalf of a man who had been of so much use, at so great risk. A suitable sum was voted, and its delivery was confided to the chairman of the secret committee.
The Spy & Lionel Lincoln Page 3