American historian
John Lothrop Motley
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In office
June 18, 1869 ? December 6, 1870
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President
| Ulysses S. Grant
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Preceded by
| Reverdy Johnson
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Succeeded by
| Robert C. Schenck
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In office
November 14, 1861 ? June 14, 1867
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President
| Abraham Lincoln
Andrew Johnson
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Preceded by
| Jehu Glancy Jones
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Succeeded by
| Henry M. Watts
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Born
| John Lothrop Motley
(
1814-04-15
)
April 15, 1814
Dorchester, Massachusetts
, US
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Died
| May 29, 1877
(1877-05-29)
(aged 63)
Dorchester, Dorset
, UK
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Occupation
| Historian and
diplomat
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Signature
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John Lothrop Motley
(April 15, 1814 ? May 29, 1877) was an American author and diplomat. As a popular historian, he is best known for his works on the
Netherlands
, the three volume work
The Rise of the Dutch Republic
and four volume
History of the United Netherlands
. As United States Minister to Austria in the service of the
Abraham Lincoln
administration, Motley helped to prevent European intervention on the side of the
Confederates
in the
American Civil War
. He later served as Minister to the United Kingdom (Court of St. James) during the
Ulysses S. Grant
administration.
Biography
[
edit
]
John Lothrop Motley was born on April 15, 1814, in
Dorchester, Massachusetts
. His grandfather, Thomas Motley, a jail-keeper (a public position) and innkeeper in
Portland, Maine
, had been a
Freemason
and radical sympathizer with the
French Revolution
. His father Thomas and uncle Edward served mercantile apprenticeships in Portland.
[1]
In 1802, Thomas Motley moved to Boston and established a commission house on
India Wharf
, taking his brother Edward with him as clerk. "Thomas and Edward Motley" became one of the leading commission houses in Boston. Thomas, married Anna Lothrop, daughter of the Rev.
John Lathrop
, product of an old and distinguished line of Massachusetts clergymen. Like other successful Boston merchants of the period, Thomas Motley devoted a great part of his wealth to civic purposes and the education of his children. The brilliant accomplishments of his second son, J.L. Motley, are evidence of the care both the father and mother?known both for her learning and what Motley's boyhood friend
Wendell Phillips
called her "regal beauty"?bestowed on the boy's intellectual development. Motley attended the
Round Hill School
and
Boston Latin School
, and graduated from
Harvard
in 1831.
His boyhood was spent in
Dedham
, near the site of the present day
Noble and Greenough School
[2]
on land purchased from
Edward L. Penniman
.
[3]
His education included training in the German language and literature, and he went to Germany to complete these studies at
Gottingen
, during 1832?1833, during which time he became a lifelong friend of
Otto von Bismarck
. Motley and Bismarck studied civil law together at
Frederick William University, Berlin
. Bismarck recalled his early impression of Motley: "He exercised a marked attraction by a conversation sparkling with wit, humor or originality....The most striking feature of his handsome and delicate appearance was his uncommonly large and beautiful eyes."
[4]
After a period of European travel, Motley returned in 1834 to Boston, where he continued his legal studies.
[1]
In 1837, he married Mary Benjamin (died 1874). She came from a wealthy Boston family; her brother was
Park Benjamin Sr.
In 1839 he published anonymously a novel titled
Morton's Hope, or the Memoirs of a Provincial
, about life in a German university, based on his own experiences. It was poorly received, but has later been recognized for featuring a valuable portrayal of Bismarck, "thinly disguised as Otto von Rabenmarck", as a young student.
[5]
In 1841, Motley entered the U.S. diplomatic service as secretary of legation in
St. Petersburg
, Russia, but resigned his post within three months, because of the harsh climate, the expenses living there, and his reserved habits. Returning to Boston, he soon entered definitely upon a literary career. Besides contributing various historical and critical essays to the
North American Review
, such as "Life and Character of Peter the Great" (1845), and a remarkable essay on the "Polity of the Puritans", he published in 1849, again anonymously, a second novel, titled
Merry Mount, a Romance of the Massachusetts Colony
, based again on the odd history of
Thomas Morton
, who founded
Merrymount
. He was elected a member of the
American Antiquarian Society
in 1856
[1]
and as a member to the
American Philosophical Society
[6]
in 1861.
Dutch history
[
edit
]
In 1846, Motley had begun to plan a history of the Netherlands, in particular the period of the
United Provinces
, and he had already done a large amount of work on this subject when, finding the materials at his disposal in the United States inadequate, he went with his wife and children to Europe in 1851. The next five years were spent at
Dresden
,
Brussels
, and
The Hague
in investigation of the archives, which resulted in 1856 in the publication of
The Rise of the Dutch Republic
, which became very popular. It speedily passed through many editions and was translated into Dutch, French, German, and Russian. In 1860, Motley published the first two volumes of its continuation,
The United Netherlands
. This work was on a larger scale and embodied the results of a still greater amount of original research. It was brought down to the truce of 1609 by two additional volumes, published in 1867.
[1]
Reception in Britain and the United States
[
edit
]
The books were popular and critical successes in both Britain and the United States, and multiple editions over the decades sold tens of thousands of copies. It was a favorite prize that schools awarded to their best students. Owen Edwards says of Motley, "He and he alone had created a Dutch awareness on a wide scale."
[7]
American critics have given the book mixed reviews. It was quite popular in its day, but modern scholars argue:
Motley's overdramatization and didacticism, combined with research less intense than Prescott's or Parkman's, have cost his works in staying power. Scholars have largely rewritten the story of the Dutch Republic; it is the rare modern who would, for pleasure alone, read Motley from cover to cover, even his Rise of the Dutch Republic. But particular characterizations and episodes in his writings--notably the portraits of William of Orange and Philip II and the descriptions of the Siege of Leyden, the abdication of Charles V, and the assassination of William-- are not excelled in American literature for glint and lift and thud of language.
[8]
Reception in the Netherlands
[
edit
]
The reception of Motley's work in the Netherlands itself was not wholly favorable, especially as Motley described the Dutch struggle for independence in a flattering light, which caused some to argue he was biased against their opponents. Although historians like the orthodox Protestant
Guillaume Groen van Prinsterer
(whom Motley extensively quotes in his work) viewed him very favorably, the eminent liberal Dutch historian
Robert Fruin
(who was inspired by Motley to do some of his own best work, and who had reported already in 1856 in
The Westminster Review
Motley's edition on the
Rise of the Dutch Republic
) was critical of Motley's tendency to make up "facts" if they made for a good story. Though he admired Motley's gifts as an author, and stated that he continued to hold the work as a whole in high regard, he stressed it still required "addition and correction".
[1]
The humanist historian
Johannes van Vloten
was very critical, and responded to Fruin in 1860: "I agree less with your too favorable judgement....We cannot build on Motley['s foundation]; for that?apart from the little he copied from Groen's
Archives
and
Gachard's
Correspondences
?for that his views are generally too obsolete." Although appreciating his efforts to make Dutch history known among an English-speaking audience, Van Vloten argues that Motley's lack of knowledge of the Dutch language prevented him from sharing the latest insights of the Dutch historiographers, and made him vulnerable to bias in favor of Protestants and against Catholics.
[1]
American Civil War
[
edit
]
In 1861, just after outbreak of the
American Civil War
, Motley wrote two letters to
The Times
defending the Federal position, and these letters, afterwards reprinted as a pamphlet entitled
Causes of the Civil War in America
,
[9]
made a favourable impression on
President Lincoln
.
[
citation needed
]
At this point the English census of 1861 confirms that he was living with his wife and two daughters at 31
Hertford Street
, in the parish of St George's, Hanover Square, London and describing himself as an 'author - history'.
[10]
Partly owing to this essay, Motley was appointed United States minister to the
Austrian Empire
in 1861, a position which he filled with distinction, working with other American diplomats such as
John Bigelow
and
Charles Francis Adams
to help prevent European intervention on the side of the Confederacy in the American Civil War. He resigned this position in 1867.
[11]
Two years later, he was sent to represent his country as Minister to the Court of St. James's, but in November 1870 he was recalled by
President Grant
. Motley had angered Grant when he completely disregarded Secretary of State
Hamilton Fish
's carefully drafted orders regarding settlement of the
Alabama Claims
.
[12]
After a short visit to the Netherlands, Motley again went to live in England, where the
Life and Death of
John Barneveld
, Advocate of Holland: with a View of the Primary Causes and Movements of the Thirty Years War
appeared in two volumes in 1874.
[13]
Ill health now began to interfere with his literary work, and he died at Kingston Russell House, near
Dorchester, Dorset
.
Selected works
[
edit
]
- Morton's Hope, or the Memoirs of a Provincial
, 1839
- Life and Character of Peter the Great
(
North American Review
), 1845
- On Balzac's Novels
(
North American Review
), 1847
- Merry Mount, a Romance of the Massachusetts Colony
, 1849
- Polity of the Puritans
(
North American Review
), 1849
- The Rise of the Dutch Republic
, 3 vol., 1856
- Florentine Mosaics
(
Atlantic Monthly
), 1857
- History of the United Netherlands
, 4 vol., 1860?67
- Causes of the Civil War in America
(from
The Times
), 1861
- Historic Progress and American Democracy
, 1868
- Review of S. E. Henshaw's History of the Work of the North-West Sanitary Commission
(
Atlantic Monthly
), 1868
- Democracy, the Climax of Political Progress and the Destiny of Advanced Races: An Historical Essay
, 1869. (Pamphlet reprint of "Historic Progress and American Democracy," listed above.)
- The Life and Death of John of Barneveld: Advocate of Holland
, 2 vol., 1874
References
[
edit
]
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
f
"Motley, John Lothrop".
Encyclopædia Britannica
. (11th ed. 1911). 18:909?910.
- ^
Guide Book To New England Travel
. 1919.
- ^
Clarke, Wm. Horatio (1903).
Mid-Century Memories of Dedham
.
Dedham Historical Society
.
{{
cite book
}}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (
link
)
- ^
Sommers, 2017.
- ^
Steinberg (2011), pp. 39?41
- ^
"APS Member History"
.
search.amphilsoc.org
. Retrieved
April 16,
2021
.
- ^
Edwards, 1982, p. 173.
- ^
Robert E. Spiller, et al., eds.
Literary history of the United States
(2nd ed., 1953) p. 535.
- ^
Making of America - The Causes of The American Civil War: A letter to the London Times.
- ^
"Ancestry.co.uk"
.
- ^
"Former U.S. ambassadors to Austria"
. U.S. Embassy in Vienna. Archived from
the original
on September 7, 2008
. Retrieved
December 31,
2008
.
- ^
Corning, Amos Elwood (1918).
Hamilton Fish
. Lamere Publishing Company. pp. 59?84.
Hamilton Fish.
- ^
The Life and Death of John of Barneveld, Advocate of Holland, by John Lothrop Motley (1874)
Further reading
[
edit
]
- Edwards, Owen Dudley. "John Lothrop Motley and the Netherlands."
BMGN-Low Countries Historical Review
97.3 (1982): 561?588.
online
- Guberman, Joseph.
The Life of John Lothrop Motley
(Springer, 2012).
- Haight, Gordon S. "The Publication of Motley's Rise of the Dutch Republic."
The Yale University Library Gazette
(1980): 135-140
online
.
- Kaplan, Lawrence S. "The Brahmin as Diplomat in Nineteenth Century America: Everett Bancroft Motley Lowell."
Civil War History
19.1 (1973): 5?28.
- Putnam, Ruth. "Prescott and Motley,"
Cambridge History of American Literature
(1918), 2:131-47, 501?03.
online
- Sommers, William. "John Lothrop Motley: The Witty US Minister to Vienna"
Foreign Vistas: Stories from a Life in the Foreign Service.
(2017), p. 1+.
online
- Steinberg, Jonathan. "The American connection: John Lothrop Motley, George Bancroft and Andrew Dickson White. Eminent Americans and Otto von Bismarck."
Realpolitik fur Europa
(Verlag Ferdinand Schoningh, 2016) pp. 267?280.
- Steinberg, Jonathan (2011).
Bismarck: A Life
. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
ISBN
978-0-19-978252-9
.
- Wheaton, Robert (1962). "Motley and the Dutch Historians".
New England Quarterly
.
35
(3): 318?336.
doi
:
10.2307/363823
.
JSTOR
363823
.
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the
public domain
:
Chisholm, Hugh
, ed. (1911). "
Motley, John Lothrop
".
Encyclopædia Britannica
. Vol. 18 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 909?910.
Primary sources
[
edit
]
- The Rise of the Dutch Republic
, 3 vol., 1856; many editions
online
- History of the United Netherlands,
4 vol., 1860?67; many editions
online
- Holmes Sr., Oliver Wendell
(1879).
John Lothrop Motley: A Memoir
. Boston, Houghton, Osgood and company.
- Motley, John Lothrop (1939). Higby, Chester Penn; Schantz, B.T. (eds.).
John Lothrop Motley: Representative Selections
.
- Motley, John Lothrop.
The Correspondence of John Lothrop Motley
(G.W. Curtis, ed. 3 vol. Harper & brothers, 1889).
vol 1 online
; also
vol 2 online
; and
vol 3 online
External links
[
edit
]
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Ministers Plenipotentiary to
the Court of St. James's
(1785?1811)
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the Court of St. James's
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