Page:The Cambridge History of American Literature, v2.djvu/159

Motley at Vienna H3 camp at Brook Farm (singularly peaceful spot for a training ground !) and marched off to war. He regretted that his forty- seven years disqualified him from enlisting without previous training, but he was stirred to the depths of his being by the emotion of the summer months of 1861. That emotion, carried abroad, kept him a fervent American during his years of foreign residence. John Bigelow considers that he was denationalized, but he was not. He only tried to hold fast to ideals crystal- lized at a moment of high pressure. He did not feel the meaner elements that obtruded themselves during the long-drawn- out contest. Although he did not enlist, he was summoned to do other work for the republic, and accepted the mission to Austria, where, it was felt, the sentiment he had shown in his London letters would be serviceable. His own historical work was put aside for the six years in which he lived at Vienna, up- holding the dignity of the United States. A cultivated, pol- ished, high-minded American official was a great asset to the United States at that juncture, when there was a disposition abroad to count the Northerners as commercial sordid folk. Here was a Yankee of the Yankees as a living witness that the name was not counted as a term of reproach by those who bore it. His office was no sinecure. In addition to the complica- tions arising from the war, there were others connected with Maximilian's expedition to Mexico, in which he showed good judgment. The unexpected elevation of Andrew Johnson to the presidency in 1865 brought a new element to be reckoned with. It chanced that, just at a moment when Johnson was feeling vfery sore about the defection of Republicans from his support, a letter came to him from Paris accusing various offi- cial Americans abroad of malignant criticism towards the administration. A passage about Motley was as follows : ' ' Mr. Motley does not pretend to conceal his 'disgust' as he terms it elegantly, at your whole conduct. He tells every traveller that Sumner is wholly justified and that you have deserted your principles in common with Mr. Seward, who, he says, is hopelessly degraded." Under the influence of his general feeling of distrust and suspicion, the president told Seward to send a formal query to each person mentioned, asking the