The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 15, No. 88, February, 1865: A Magazine of Literature, Art, and Politics

In Short

This issue of The Atlantic Monthly captures a nation mid-transformation during the final months of the American Civil War. Across essays, critical reviews, biographical sketches, and fiction, its contributors examine the state of American culture and public life. They detail the genius of painter Washington Allston, debate the moral failures of legal compromises with slavery, evaluate early Connecticut poets, record field operations of the Sanitary Commission, and reflect on music, marriage, and polar wildlife. Together, these pieces reflect a society attempting to ground its intellectual identity and moral future in principles of justice, artistic excellence, and human empathy.

The Story

The volume opens with a critical retrospective evaluating the life and artistic legacy of Washington Allston. The author traces Allston’s emergence into the American consciousness at the 1827 Boston Athenæum exhibition, asserting that while technical skill in art has advanced, Allston remains unrivaled in pure imagination. Through detailed descriptions of individual works—including portraits of Benjamin West, studies of Polish Jews, and historical canvases—the narrative outlines how Allston approached every creation with his whole mind, infusing his figures with intellectual maturity and emotional depth.

From the quiet reverie of art, the volume shifts into the domestic sphere through narrative prose exploring human choices and spiritual callings. A young man named Benjamin renounces his legal aspirations following his father's death to pursue the ministry. After studying under Edwards's tradition and completing work at Andover, he marries nineteen-year-old Rachel Handby. Lacking a home of their own, the couple establishes temporary quarters above her father's farmhouse, where Benjamin laboriously prepares sermons while Rachel provides devoted domestic support during his temporary preaching assignments.

The prose then turns sharply toward political philosophy and the moral crisis of the American state. The writing traces how the republic—originally framed on principles of liberty and religious truth—became distorted by the institution of Slavery. It offers a scathing critique of the legal arguments and judicial decisions that upheld human bondage, asserting that such rulings repudiated the nation's foundational pledges and inflicted deeper woe than the violence of battle. Justice, the text argues, was subverted when legal authorities ignored natural law and divine precepts to serve an infamous cause.

Socioeconomic realities come into focus through personal accounts of working women. A narrator recalls a young, fragile schoolmate who collapsed with brain fever after hauling a heavy load of coarse pantaloons under a hot sun for a mean employer. The account exposes the harsh indifference of trade, depicting the shopkeeper's cold refusal to accept delayed work even as the girl lay recovering.

This study of human struggle expands into philosophical treatises on music and literature. Music is framed as a psycho-physical phenomenon capable of mirroring the listener's internal state, transcending language to speak directly to the ideal. This is followed by a historical survey of early Connecticut writers—such as Joel Barlow, Richard Alsop, and Lemuel Hopkins—who sought to establish an American literary tradition through satire, epic verse, and mutual admiration.

The closing segments move outward to nature and practical relief efforts. An expedition off the coast of Labrador brings close encounters with Arctic sea birds and blue foxes along rugged cliffs, prompting reflections on how immediate practical survival absorbs human energy. A comprehensive report on the U.S. Sanitary Commission details the systematic organization required to combat disease, provide field relief, and maintain hospital networks for soldiers near battlegrounds like City Point. Finally, a review of Harriet Hosmer’s statue of Zenobia celebrates the triumph of American sculpture, concluding the volume with an assertion of artistic and moral resilience.

How It Unfolds

The legacy of Allston The volume begins by reflecting on the painter Washington Allston twenty-one years after his death. The author highlights his unmatched imaginative power, detailing specific works exhibited at the Boston Athenæum and emphasizing that his intellectual depth requires cultivated appreciation.

A young minister's start Benjamin abandons his law studies following his father's funeral to train for the ministry at Andover. He marries young Rachel Handby, and the couple settles temporarily in a second-floor room on her father's farm while he travels to preach.

The moral indictment of slavery The text turns to the Civil War, condemning the legal mechanisms and judicial decisions that allowed slavery to corrupt the founding principles of the republic. It argues that betraying foundational pledges of liberty caused deeper national trauma than the war itself.

The toll of labor A narrator recalls a sixteen-year-old friend who collapsed from brain fever after carrying heavy bundles of shop work through the heat. Upon visiting the employer, the narrator encounters a cold, dismissive shopkeeper who rejects the late garment without pity.

The nature of music An essay explores music as an indefinable bridge to human emotion, contrasting its subjective capacity to reflect the listener's soul with the precise, objective nature of literature. Music is presented as an ideal medium for grief, hope, and memory.

The Connecticut wits A literary survey examines early American poets who attempted to cultivate a national voice in Connecticut. Through satirical verses and epics like Barlow's Hasty Pudding, the piece critiques their self-admiration and crude cultural surroundings.

Northern wilderness and practical relief The final sections detail an Arctic voyage encountering eider ducks and blue foxes, followed by an account of the Sanitary Commission's vast support network at City Point. The issue closes with a review praising Harriet Hosmer's regal statue of Zenobia.

The People

• Washington Allston: A deceased painter of extraordinary imaginative depth. He seeks to capture ideal beauty and emotional truth, working with complete mental devotion to produce canvases like Jeremiah and The Tuscan Girl.
• Benjamin Johns: A serious young licentiate minister. Driven by spiritual duty after his father's death, he leaves his legal career, completes his theological studies, and navigates the early, unstable years of his calling.
• Rachel Handby Johns: Benjamin’s nineteen-year-old bride. Simple, loving, and practical, she seeks to support her husband’s ministry, knitting him warm clothes and maintaining their modest living space above her father's farm.
• The Sick Sewing-Girl: A bright sixteen-year-old child of a widow. Struggling to help support five siblings, her fragile physical frame collapses under the weight of heavy tailoring work, revealing the brutality of industrial labor.
• The Tailor: A mean, cigar-smoking shopkeeper. Operating from a cramped storefront, he refuses to show leniency or compassion when a young worker falls ill and fails to deliver her work on time.
• Zenobia: The ancient queen of Palmyra as rendered in marble by sculptor Harriet Hosmer. Bound in chains, she maintains her majestic bearing, embodying a compromise between vanquished power and unyielding royal dignity.

In Its Own Voice

"Allston himself said, that he never painted anything that did not cost him his whole mind; and those who read his genius in his works can easily believe this statement."

A critic reflects on the absolute intellectual and emotional commitment that defined Washington Allston's approach to canvas and color.

"Music is the literature of the heart; it commences where speech ends."

An essay on aesthetics cites Lamartine to explain how musical harmony articulates inner psychological states that written words cannot express.

"There was never one of which a court could take cognizance in America, England, or the world so utterly evil and infamous as that of Slavery in the United States."

A fiery political essay condemns the legal and moral compromises that allowed human bondage to threaten the foundations of the American republic.

What It's Really About

At its core, this issue examines the tension between ideal human aspirations and harsh historical realities. Through its political commentary, the text argues that a nation cannot survive when its legal institutions abandon basic moral truths and natural justice in favor of systemic oppression.

In its cultural essays, the volume asks how art, poetry, and music can elevate a developing society. It balances the high romantic ideals of painters like Allston and sculptors like Hosmer against the unvarnished struggles of everyday life—whether that means a young minister trying to establish a household, a garment worker broken by poor labor conditions, or field agents organizing relief supplies amidst the horrific casualties of war.

Why Read It Today

Reading this issue offers direct access to the American mind at a pivotal historical turning point. Rather than presenting history in hindsight, it reveals how nineteenth-century thinkers, critics, and citizens processed the trauma of the Civil War in real time. Readers interested in legal history, early American literature, art criticism, and socio-economic conditions will find its contents rich, primary-source material.

The prose style varies according to the topic, moving from the formal, elevated rhetoric of 1860s political essays to descriptive travel writing and direct cultural critique. At times, the tone reflects period-specific views on theology, regional character, and art appreciation that demand patient reading. Certain literary reviews focus on long-forgotten poets whose work may feel distant to modern audiences.

What remains compelling is the volume's moral clarity and intellectual energy. Whether dissecting the failure of legal compromises, describing the delicate line-work of a marble statue, or capturing the quiet beauty of an Arctic duck taking flight, the writers write with conviction. It serves as an authentic portrait of a culture striving to understand its duties, refine its tastes, and rebuild its moral integrity.