Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 5).djvu/656

622 public feeling was bitter against them. Mr. Spark- inan has contributed to various periodicals.

SPARKS, Jared, historian, b. in Willington. Conn., 10 May. 17*9: .1. in Cambridge. Mass.. 14 March, 1800. "He obtained in 1809 a scholarship in Phillips Exeter academy, through the influence of Rev. Abiel Abbott, and, after remaining two years, entered Har- vard, whore he was also given a scholar- ship, which he sup- plemented by teach- ing during a part of the year. While era- ployed in a private school at Havre de Grace. Md., in 1813. he served in the militia against the British, who cap- tured and burned the town. After his graduation in 1815 he taught a classi- cal school at Lancaster, Mass., but he returned to the uni- versity in 1817 to v study divinity, and for the two years that he was there he was tutor in mathematics and natural philosophy in the college i ing editor of the " North American Review." In May. 1819, after the completion of his theologi- cal studies, he was ordained pastor of a new Unita- rian church in Baltimore, Md. He took part in I he doctrinal controversy with orthodox theologians. In 1821 he was chosen chaplain of the National house of representatives. He edited in 1821-'3 a monthly periodical called the " Unitarian Miscel- lany and Christian Monitor," in which he printed letters addressed to Rev. Samuel Miller on the Comparative Moral Tendency of Trinitarian and Unitarian Doctrines" that were afterward expand- ed and republished in a volume (Boston, 1823). He resigned his pastorate in Baltimore in 1823 on ac- i-oii m of impaired health, and, after a journey in the western states, returned to Boston and purchased the" North American Review," which he conducted from January, 1824, till April, 1831. He undertook HI Is. 1 .", 1 1,,- task of collecting and editing the writ- ings of George Washington, and, after examining the papers in the public archives of the thirteen stairs of the Continental federation, he secured possession, through an arrangement with Bushrod Washington and Chief-Justice John Marshall, of the papers of Gen. Washington that were preserved at Mount Vernon. In 1828 he went to Europe for the purpose of transcribing documents in the gov- ernment archives at London and at Paris. Several years later he made a second journey to Europe, and, in his renewed researches among the French archives discovered the map with the red line marked upon it, concerning which, and the use made of it in settling the question of the north- eastern boundary in 1842, there was much debate, both in this country and in England. Mr. Sparks was the originator and first editor of the " Amcri- ean Almanac and Repository of Useful Knowl- edge" (Boston, 1830-'61). He was professor of it. and modern history at Harvard from 1839 till 1849, and president of the college from Febru- ary, 1849, till February. 1853, when he resigned on account of failing health. He devoted his IaM years to a work on the "History of the American Revolution," which he left unfinished, lie re- ceived the degree of LL. D. from Harvard in 1843, and was a member of many learned societies. The tir-t volume that Dr. Sparks published was "Let- ters on the Ministry, Ritual, and Doctrines of the Protestant Episcopal Church." in reply to a sermon of Rev. William E. Wyatt directed against Unitari- an doctrines (Baltimore, 1820). His sermon before the house of representatives on the death of Will- iam Pinkney was printed (Washington, 1822). He began in Baltimore, and continued in Boston, the publication of a "Collection of Essays and Tracts in Theology from Various Authors," with bio- graphical and critical notices (6 vols., 1823-'0). In 1827 he published, in the form of two letters to Judge Joseph Story, an account ot the Washington papers at Mount Vernon. with a plan for their pub- lication. His first biographical work was a " Life of John Ledyard " (Cambridge, 1828), which was translated into German (Leipsic, IsO'.h. While en- gaged in collecting the public and private writings of President Washington, Sparks, by authority of congress, gathered and edited "The Diplomatic Correspondence of the American Revolution, being the Letters of Benjamin Franklin. Silas Deane, John Adams. John Jay. Arthur Lee, William Lee, Ralph Izard, Francis Dana. William Carmichael, Henry Laurens, John Laurens, and others, concerning the Foreign Relations of the United States during the Whole Revolution ; together with the Letters in Reply from the Secret Committee of Congress and the Secretary of Foreign Affairs; also the Entire Correspondence of the French Ministers Gerard and Luzerne with Congress" (12 vols.. Boston, 1829-30). He also wrote at this time " The Life of Gouverneur Morris " (3 vols.. 1S32). After nine years of preparatory labor he began the publication of " The Writings of George Washington, being his Corn'spondeiK-e, Addresses, Messages, and other Papers, Official and Private, selected and published from the Original Manuscripts, with a Life of the Author, Notes, and Illustrations" (12 vols.. 1834-8). The first volume, containing the " Life of Washington." appeared in 1837, and was reissued separately (Boston, 1839). An abridgment by the author "was also published (2 vols., Boston, 1843). Those parts of the correspondence that were of interest to the French public, with the biography in full, were translated and published under the title of " Vie, correspondance, et ecrits de Washington," with an introductory discourse by Frai^ois I'. <J. Guizot on the influence and character of Washington in the American Revolution (6 vols. and atlas, Paris, 1839-'40). The first volume of the correspondence was reprinted in London, but found no sale. An English publisher issued the " Personal Memoirs and Diaries of George Washington," with the name of Jared Sparks on the title-page, though without his authorization (2 vols., London. 1839). Friedrich von Raumer made a German translation of the biography, with extracts from the writings (Leipsic, 1839). Historians and critics c,vnerall accorded praise to Sparks for the thoroughncs- am accuracy of his work; yet his manner of refining the language of the letters and diaries and suppressing objectionable words and passages drew upon him the unfriendly criticism of Lord Mahon. who charged the editor not only with omissions, but with "substituting and interpolating passages, afterward withdrawing the latter part of the charge. Mr. Sparks, in a Reply to Lord Mahon and Others" (1852). defended his mode of editing. The letters of Washington to Joseph Reed that were referred to in the controversy were reprinted in their original form (Philadelphia, 1852) eliciting from Sparks "Remarks on a Reprint of Washing-