1344. Cornelius Mathews to EBB
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 7, 267–268.
New-York.
July 31st 1843.
My Dear Miss Barrett,
The World goes sadly with America, just now, both in great things & small. As if it were not enough that our Mississippi, Pennsylvania and Company should relent at the payment of just millions, [1] a minor issue of good faith must be got up between British Poets & American Buyers of British Poetry. I learned with great pain (having addressed Mr. Putnam, [2] directly—being advised here that he had orders to pay the amount—to learn how the matter stood)—that you had sent to Paternoster-Row for your copy money & had failed to receive it. I write now, not knowing under what possible misconstruction I may labor—to tell you that the whole difficulty has grown out of a sad want of truth, as I now perceive, in the Editor of Graham’s Mage who had assured me more than once, positively, that it was adjusted! Why then did I deal with Graham’s Mage in your behalf? Firstly, because of its widest circulation, I thought your interests would be better served, because its Editor seemed anxious for your contributions & willing to pay for them, promptly, and because, having had no previous money-dealings with him, I supposed faith would be kept and, finally, because I was not unwilling to sue him if I could. Since Mr. Putnam’s information I have written twice to Philadelphia, seeking an explanation—& have not, as yet, been honored with an answer. On these accounts I have with[h]eld the two poems last sent by you [3] waiting for an opportunity in some more reliable quarter. All this is but a new version of an old story—and now may I ask Miss Barrett, that you will look to me for the payment of the sum in question—not just at present for money runs low with all authorship & attorneyism, at this time, but at the very earliest moment of commanding it! I regret that this business should have so shaped itself & confess to more pain from its misdirection than all my own indebtednesses have ever caused me. The Magazine has published two shorter poems of the first parcel, [4] & I have only waited the publication of all of them to forward you copies.
To escape for a while from this perplexing & disagreeable matter let me go back to one of your letters, now many months old, and answer a question. Dr. Channing is your greatest genius, you asked, is he not? The slight verses I sent you [5] were written only, in admiration of the high cast of his character and not out of a conviction of great genius in his writings.
Dr. Channing’s genius, in my humble judgement, or his talent perhaps, was rather pure & elevated in its moral views, than grand or fruitful. He viewed every question from a certain serene height & struck a uniform key-note in all his works. He lacked invention—imagination—fancy—& without these it is clear he could have scarcely been a great author. The great want of an American Literature, has been in truth, Invention. Our writers have been contented to labor after the manner of the Stint, with sticks and stubble at second hand. [6] Another kind of Literature—another cast of labour was to have been expected! But I must pause on the edge of the subject & write myself while I may,
Yours Truly
Cornelius Mathews
To
Elizth B. Barrett.
London
I have a doubt whether certain pamphlets (the Motley Book, to wit & Behemoth, a part of the works I have before ref[er]red to, as mine & of mine) with a note have reached you from an error in the address. They were directed, I think 69. instead of 50 Wimpole-St. Could you, without too great trouble, rectify the error, by sending for them. I ask you to do this because Mr. Putnam on whom I have here before relied for the delivery, leaves London by the Steamer of 5th August. & they may be overlooked by his successors at the office. You have the address “Wiley & Putnam—Amen-Corner. Paternoster-Row”–
Address, on integral page: To / Elizabeth B. Barrett. / 50 Wimpole-Street. / London.
Docket, in Mathews’s hand: Steamer 1st Aug. 1843.
Publication: BBIS-23, pp. 24–25 (in part).
Manuscript: Pierpont Morgan Library.
1. In 1838, the Union Bank of Mississippi was chartered by the state legislature and its bonds, to the total of $15,500,000, were backed by the faith and credit of the State. Bonds to the value of $5,000,000 were acquired in August 1838 by the United States Bank of Pennsylvania, but when the Union Bank proved to be insolvent, Mississippi repudiated the bonds in 1842, advancing as partial justification the argument that the charter of the United States Bank of Pennsylvania absolutely prohibited the bank from buying bonds other than those issued under the authority of the United States of America or the State of Pennsylvania. (See History of Mississippi, by R. Lowry and W.H. McCardle, 1891, pp. 280–293.)
2. George Palmer Putnam (1814–72) was a partner of the American publishing firm of Wiley and Putnam, founded as Wiley and Long in 1833. He took up residence in England in 1841 to supervise the firm’s London operations.
3. EBB had sent further contributions intended for Graham’s Magazine with letter 1222.
4. Two of the poems sent with letter 1155 were printed in the July and August numbers of Graham’s (pp. 34 and 71).
5. These verses, sent to EBB with letter 1103, appeared in The United States Magazine, and Democratic Review (November 1842, p. 554).
6. The American stint (tringa minutilla), a member of the sandpiper family, lays its eggs in the deserted nests of other birds.
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