Woodrow Wilson to Richard Heath Dabney
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Various things have conspired to prevent my writing since your heartily welcome letter of the early part of the summer reached me in Tenn., not the least of which has been lack of heart. The account you gave of the treatment you—and others—have received at the hands of the Bloomington people filled me with an astonishment and a chagrin which until now I have been unable to express, but which till now I have not been able to write without expressing. I felt that I had gotten you into unpleasant quarters; and I did not have the heart to write to you till you sh. have been in Bloomington long enough to find out at least how tolerable the berth would be. In his correspondence with me Jordan was so throughly pleasant, and apparently so entirely straightforward, that I did not once dream of what you found revealed in him in your dealings with him. I was thoroughly disgusted and indignant when I read your letter—and the disgust and indignation continue till the present moment unabated. I sincerely hope, my dear fellow, that the reality is not so bad as the prospect threatened when you wrote—though what I heard the other day at Cornell doesn't aid my hope at all. I went up there last week to read a paper before the University Historical and Political Science Association; and, after the meeting, I was taken off by a ?? to meet some of the fraternity boys at a house they have just put up for themselves near the Univ. grounds. One of the men I met, (Robinson, I believe) was at Indiana Univ. last year, I found, and I asked him some questions about the state of affairs, previous to this year, in the history department—inasmuch as I have a friend now connected with that department in whom I am considerably interested. He said, amongst many things that were irrelevant to my purpose, this, which was extremely relevant, that your predecessor, Newkirk(?) had been turned out 'because he too often spoke before he thought' and, thus speaking, had let drop Calhoun views' on the Constitution. In a word, you have gotten into a chair whose incumbent is expected to present, not the scientific truth with reference to our Constitutional history, whether that truth be on the side of Webster or of Calhoun in the great historical argument, but 'Yankee sentiments'—sentiments agreeable to that eminent body of scholars, the Grand Army of the Potomac Republic. It's a shame; but I hope that the reality isn't half as bad as these bits of rumour. The shabbiness of the transactions connected with Newkirk's dismissal and your appointment can't be explained away; but the place may not be as uncomfortable as such preliminaries would indicate. It was such a genuine delight to me to be able to advance your candidacy that it's it would be too bad to find now that your success was not a satisfaction to you after all. Write me all about it, 'thou very ass,' at once, if you would comfort me.
That Wilmington editor treated me most cavalierly. He did not answer my letter accompanying the notice I had written of 'Don Miff'; I have not been able to obtain a copy of the paper containing said notice (supposing it was published); the returns upon the venture, in a word, have been nil. The fellow's a boor! I knew that he was before; but I spoke him so fair in my letter that I hoped he would play gentleman for once. Not he! But, I'm glad to know that, however futile my efforts in its behalf may have been, 'Don Miff' has been, marketably as well as by merit, a decided success—three editions within about as many months: and I suppose more since? Hurrah, the taste of the 'reading public' isn't quite corrupted after all. Some members of it know a good thing when they see it yet.
I worked hard most of the summer—all of it after the receipt of your letter: first with a sick baby, and afterwards with a big subject—the treatise on Government which I am preparing for DC Heath & Co. I told you of the undertaking, didn't I?—the origin and early history of govt viewed historically, of course, and not ala Rousseau, Locke, etal; the govts of Greece and Rome and of the Middle Ages, treated in the same spirit; comparative studies in the public law of the present, our own and the Eng. constitutions standing centrally and most prominent, of course; and, in the light of such studies, considerations on the functions and ends of govt. and on law (customary, statutory, &c.). A big task—especially in view of the consideration and clearness necessary to a book intended to be small enough and plain enough to be used as a college textbook; but a task full of delight and profit for me, and thoroughly well worth doing, because our language, so far as I now, affords no such work.
Speaking of this work,—which is just now imperatively interrupted by class duties, and must probably wait to be done in vacations,—leads me to ask your counsel on what is to me a matter of the very greatest moment. I'll set it forth as plainly and briefly as I can. In my special work in comparative Politics—indeed in all my work—as I need hardly tell you, I have to use German a great deal: I ought to use it a great deal more than I do. But, such are my engagements, and such is my position in other respects, I cannot find, either in term time or out of it, time or opportunity to learn the language well enough to be emancipated from the constant use of the dictionary in reading it. That's one side of my statement; now for the other. These studies in public law and the history of govt. for which Heath & Co. are waiting ought to be finished,—such is my interest as well as the publishers'—before the time at which vacations now promise to finish them. Besides, I have another scheme on hand, for what Mr. Scudder of Cambridge (Mass.) calls a Novum Organon on Politics (I will lay the plan before you later, if you are interested.) for the preparation of which, not only a ready knowledge of German, but considerable leisure to know, better than I can possibly know it from any outlook available in Bryn Mawr, the modern world.—That is the other side of my statement. Put together, the two pieces make this whole: I am just now pressingly in need of towo things, German and a little leisure for wide observation of men and things. This is the best time to learn German because my acquiring faculties are still young; and this is the most desirable time at which to have leisure, because my susceptibility to impressions from men and things is as yet unblunted.
Such being the case, my dear fellow, I want from you both counsel and information. Would you advise me to cut loose from employment and go abroad for one or two years? and could you estimate for me the cost of living in Berlin for a man, wife, and child who would not care a peppercorn for style, but who would require for a while, perhaps, a nurse, and always comfort? My plan would be to spend most of my time in Berlin, because that is the centre of German affairs, but not all of it; and not to connect myself regularly with any Univ., but to be a sort of detached student, writing, observing, digging at German, but attending regular courses only sometimes and perhaps. If prices be such as I hope they are, we might afford to stay in Europe for a couple of years. Meantime, I have gotten a start in German; and by next June can have gotten a better one.
What do you say, Heath? Would you advise it? I want to know your opinion, and your whole opinion. The leisure and the German would be invaluable to me: can I risk getting employment again when I return? Is the benefit to be expected greater or less than the risk which is inevitable? If you will answer me candidly as to your thought on these heads you will have revealed your dear, genuine old self once more to
Woodrow Wilson
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