a program which must make some of the elder generation "stare and gasp."
"Two names I purpose linking together before the youth of our land—Abraham Lincoln and Marcus Whitman. Two patriots, two martyrs, these two men, lineal cousins, with the blood from their Whitman sire in their veins, no wonder they did such noble deeds, stood at their posts, died for their country. All honor to such heroes of the past. Let us keep in touch with them through the onward march of the twentieth century. In the interest of truth, justice, and American honor."[1]
To judge from the past, the prophecy of the Reverend William Barrows in 1883, and the modest proposal of J. Wilder Fairbank in 1901, are quite as likely to attain realization as the disquieting vox clamantis of criticism is to get a respectful hearing.[2]
PART II
The genesis and diffusion of the Legend of Marcus Whitman have been set forth in detail to demonstrate beyond a doubt that the story was new in 1864 or 1865, and that, widespread as has been its diffusion since, every single extant version is a branch from that parent stem, and depends upon testimony elicited subsequent to that first publication. It will now be my purpose to make clear the real cause and purpose of Marcus Whitman's journey east in 1842-43, to examine the evidence of his political services in Washington
- ↑ New Haven Evening Register, Feb. 19, 1901.
- ↑ For the benefit of any who have a curiosity to see how criticism affects the advocates of the Whitman story, I append references to some of the more important comments on and replies to my article in The American Historical Review. The Chicago Inter-Ocean, Dec. 30, 1900, Jan. 9, 10, 11, 21, 26, and Feb. 9; The Congregationalist, Jan. 19; The Advance, Jan. 17 and 24; The Interior, Jan. 17, and Feb. 14; The Christian Work, Mch. 7; The Homiletic Review, July, 1901 (Professor H. W. Parker); Journal of Education, Jan. 24 (W. A. Mowry), and President Penrose of Whitman College in the Boston Transcript of Jan. 21, and in many other prominent papers simultaneously. The last was a shot fired in the dark, as the author had not read the article to which he replied.
