The Medallic History of the United States of America Part 3

In Washington, in January, 1872, I was informed by Mr. Spofford, of the Library of Congress, that after the fire which destroyed a portion of that library, December 24, 1851, the bronze copies of the medals formerly deposited there had been transferred to the Smithsonian Inst.i.tution. At the latter place I was shown the remains of the collection, all more or less injured by fire. Moreover, the five wanted were not to be found; and further investigations made in December, 1877, in the Philadelphia Mint, showed that four of the dies, namely, those of Generals Greene and Wayne, and of Lieutenant-Colonel de Fleury and Major Stewart, are still missing from that establishment.

During the year 1872, I obtained permission from the Honorable Hamilton Fish, Secretary of State, to examine in the archives of his department the official papers relating to the medals of the War of Independence, and was fortunate enough to find the correspondence concerning the Diplomatic medal between Jefferson, William Short, the Marquis de la Luzerne, and the Count de Moustier. Afterward, in the reports of the Ma.s.sachusetts Historical Society (vol. vi., 3d series), I found a description which seemed to apply to this same medal. I then went to Philadelphia to see the writer of the description, Joshua Francis Fisher, Esq., but he was on his death-bed, and it was impossible to prosecute the inquiry. After his decease, I was informed that no medal of the kind described was contained in his collection.

In 1790, President Washington ordered two Diplomatic medals to be struck and presented, one to the Marquis de la Luzerne, French Minister to the United States, and the other to his successor, the Count de Moustier. In Paris, in 1874, I made application to the present heads of those families, the Count de Vibray[14] and the Marquis de Moustier,[15] for information concerning these medals; but no trace of the object of my search could be found among their family papers.

[Footnote 14: The Count de Vibray is the representative in the female line of the de la Luzerne family, which is extinct in the male line.]

[Footnote 15: The Marquis de Moustier is the great-grandson of the Count de Moustier.]

About this time, Mr. Charles I. Bushnell, of New York city, kindly sent me plaster casts of an obverse and of a reverse, in which I at once recognized the Diplomatic medal, but neither bore the signature of Dupre. Nevertheless, I had a plate engraved from them, hoping by its aid to find the original.

I then turned once more to M. Gatteaux, the son of M. Nicolas Marie Gatteaux, who had shown me, in 1868, in his house in the Rue de Lille, Paris, the wax model of the obverse of the medal of General Gates, and the designs for those of General Wayne and Major Stewart, but, the house having been burnt during the reign of the Commune in 1871, he could furnish no information, and I was as far as ever from discovering the original of this piece.

In 1876 I showed to M. Augustin Dumont, the celebrated sculptor,[16]

and the G.o.dson of Augustin Dupre, the plate engraved from the plaster casts, and from him I learned that M. Narcisse Dupre, the son of Augustin, was still living in the south of France, at Montpellier. M.

Dumont had given to M. Ponscarme, his pupil, now professor in the ecole des Beaux-Arts, the _maquettes_, or lead proofs, of many of Dupre's works. A few days later, M. Ponscarme showed me a _maquette_ of the obverse of the Diplomatic medal, and at last M. Narcisse Dupre sent me a photograph of the reverse. I thus obtained proof of the correctness of the engraved plate.

[Footnote 16: Among his most noted works is the bronze statue of the Emperor Napoleon I., placed by Napoleon III. on the column in the Place Vendome, Paris, which was overthrown by the Communists. The statue has since been replaced on the reconstructed column. M. Dumont, who is a professor in the ecole des Beaux-Arts, is a member of the Inst.i.tute, Commander of the Legion of Honor, etc.]

While in Washington, in February, 1872, I was fortunate enough to find, in the office of Rear-Admiral Joseph Smith, then chief of the Bureau of Yards and Docks, in the Navy Department, where they were used as paperweights, the original dies of the medal voted to Commodore Edward Preble for his naval operations against Tripoli. I immediately brought this to the notice of the chief clerks of the Navy and of the Treasury Departments, and also to that of Captain (now Rear-Admiral) George H. Preble, a connection of the commodore's, and these dies are now where they belong, in the Mint in Philadelphia.

Shortly afterward I was also instrumental in having restored to the mint the dies of the Vanderbilt medal, which were lying in the cellar of one of the New York city banks.

I have found it impossible to obtain any trustworthy information respecting the designer and the engraver of the medal, voted on March 29, 1800, in honor of Captain Thomas Truxtun. As there were no competent medallists in the United States at the period, and as we were then at war with France, it is presumable that the dies were made in England. If so, they were probably cut at the private mint of Matthew Boulton, of Birmingham, who furnished the United States Government for a long time with planchets for its copper coinage.

The work now offered to the public consists of two volumes: Volume I., Text; Volume II., Plates.

The text is subdivided into eighty-six sections, corresponding to the number of the medals, in each of which is included, besides the descriptive matter, all the doc.u.ments that could be obtained relating to the respective piece, and arranged according to the following plan:

1. The number of the medal, its date, and its number in the book of plates. The medals are arranged chronologically: those voted by Congress according to the dates of the several resolutions or acts awarding them, and not in the order of the events which they commemorate; the unofficial ones in the order of events which they commemorate; and the presidential pieces according to the date of inauguration of each President.

2. The descriptive t.i.tles of each medal, in the following order: 1st, the legends of the obverse and of the reverse; 2d, the name of the person honored, or of the t.i.tle by which the piece is known; 3d, the event commemorated.

3. A description of the medal, beginning with the obverse: 1st, the whole legend; 2d, the description of the emblems and devices; 3d, the legend of the exergue; 4th, the names of the designer and of the engraver. The same order has been followed for the reverse. The legends are copied exactly from the medals, and when in Latin, translated; the abbreviations are explained, and are, like the translations, placed between parentheses. The words, "facing the right" and "facing the left" mean the right or the left of the person looking at the piece.

4. A short biographical sketch of the designers and of the engravers.

5. A short biographical sketch of the person in whose honor the medal was struck, or of the President of the United States, in case of the Indian peace tokens.

6. Original doc.u.ments, such as Resolutions or Acts of Congress, the official reports of the events commemorated, and letters of interest.

The original doc.u.ments have been given in the belief that the reader would prefer them to a mere recital of the events of which they treat.

Many of these are now printed for the first time.

It is interesting to note that Mr. Jefferson, as early as 1789, entertained the idea of publishing an account of all the American medals struck up to that time, as will be seen from the following letter;

To M. DUPRe, Engraver of Medals, Paris.

Mr. Jefferson is going to have a description of all the medals printed, in order to send them, with copies of the medals, to the sovereigns of Europe. The one of Mr. Franklin, made by M. Dupre, is wanting; he begs you to lend him a copy, and to communicate to him the description also, if any has been made, as is probable.

February 23, 1789[17].

[Footnote 17: The original of this letter, which is in French, and which was communicated to me in Paris by M. Narcisse Dupre, is undoubtedly in the handwriting of Mr. Jefferson. I have sought in vain for the doc.u.ment mentioned in it. See I, page 1.]

No mention is made of the size of the medals, as the plates show their exact dimensions.

Being desirous that the execution of the engravings should be as perfect as possible, I invited M. Jules Jacquemart, of Paris, to undertake the whole of them. M. Jacquemart needs no praise. All amateurs know his etchings from Van der Meer, Franz Hals, Rembrandt, etc., and his plates for the "History of Porcelain," by M. Albert Jacquemart, his father, for the "Gems and Jewels of the Crown,"

published by M. Barbet de Jouy, and for the "Collection of Arms" of Count de Nieuwerkerke. The American public has had, moreover, an opportunity of admiring the works of this eminent artist at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York city. His collaboration adds great value to the artistic portion of this work.

ORIGINAL DOc.u.mENTS

REFERRED TO IN THE INTRODUCTION.

A

Mount Vernon, November, 1787.

To THE PRINTER OF THE AMERICAN MUSEUM (Mr. CAREY.)

Sir: I understand that a part, if not all, of the medals which, in the course of the late war, were voted by Congress to officers of distinguished merit, and for the execution of which I contracted with artists at Paris, have lately arrived in America.

But, not having seen any account published of the devices and inscriptions, I presume it will not be ungrateful to the public to receive some authentic information respecting these memorials of national glory. However superfluous the publication of the correspondence[18] on this subject with the Perpetual Secretary of the Royal Academy of Inscriptions and Belles-Lettres might be deemed, it will not, I conceive, be improper it should be known that this learned society, to whom a reference was made, entered on the discussion with the same alacrity as if the subject had been designed to ill.u.s.trate the actions of their compatriots, or to immortalize some glorious events in the annals of their own nation. You will be at liberty to insert in your _Museum_ the result of their deliberations.

In our free republics certainly nothing should be suppressed that can tend to awaken a n.o.ble spirit of emulation, to cherish the fine feelings of patriotism, to exhibit alluring examples for imitation, or to extend and perpetuate the remembrance of those heroic achievements which have enn.o.bled the era of the American Revolution. Few inventions could be more happily calculated to diffuse the knowledge and preserve the memory of ill.u.s.trious characters and splendid events than medals--whether we take into consideration the imperishable nature of the substance whence they are formed, the facility of multiplying copies, or the practice of depositing them in the cabinets of the curious.

Perhaps one improvement might be made. The sage and venerable Dr.

Franklin, whose patriotic genius is active in old age, and ever prolific in projects of public utility, once suggested,[19] in conversation with me, as an expedient for propagating still more extensively the knowledge of facts designed to be perpetuated in medals, that their devices should be impressed on the current coin of the nation.

Under influence of such ideas, I shall claim the indulgence of my countrymen for bringing forward a communication which might possibly have come more satisfactorily from some other quarter.

An apprehension that the subject might remain unnoticed is my apology.

I am, Sir, your most obedient and most humble servant, David HUMPHREYS.

[Footnote 18: I have found none of this correspondence in the archives of the French Academy, Paris, nor in those of the State Department, Washington, excepting the letter of Colonel Humphreys to M. Dacier, dated Paris, March 14, 1785, for which see page xiii.]

[Footnote 19: See Franklin's despatch to the Honorable John Jay, dated Pa.s.sy, May 10, 1785, page xiv.]

_Devices and Inscriptions of American Medals._

The gold medal for General Washington represents the head of His Excellency, with this legend: GEORGIO WASHINGTON SUPREMO DUCI EXERCITUUM, ADSERTORI LIBERTATIS, COMITIA AMERICANA. On the reverse: The Evacuation of Boston. The American army advances in good order toward the town, which is seen at a distance, while the British army flies with precipitation toward the strand, to embark on board the vessels with which the roads are covered. In the front of the picture, on the side of the American army, General Washington appears on horseback, amid a group of officers, to whom he seems to be pointing out the retreat of the enemy.

Legend: HOSTIBUS PRIMO FUGATIS.

On the Exergue: BOSTONIUM RECUPERATUM, DIE 17 MARTII, MDCCLXXVI.

The gold medal for General Gates represents the head of that general, with this legend: HORATIO GATES, DUCI STRENUO, COMITIA AMERICANA.

On the reverse: The enemy's general, at the head of his army, who are grounding their arms, presents his sword to the American general, whose troops stand with shouldered arms.