Nathaniel Hawthorne, whose birth day falls on July 4, was, from his boyhood, conscious of the meaning of the independence of his country from England, and naturally he paid sincere respect to the Father of the Independence, George Washington. This is a fact well evidenced in his repeated reference to this great national figure in varieties of his literary writings, including “A Book of Autographs,” though he left no independent works devoted solely to him like M. L. Weems’ The Life of Washington (1806) or Jared Sparks’ Life of George Washington (1837).

Hawthorne’s attitude towards Washington was by no means tinged with such wholesale hero worship as is typically exemplified by those biographers’ idea of him, namely a flawless military commander and statesman, or by other contemporary writers of his time like William Dunlap. This essay argues that Hawthorne, a man of letters distinguished in the observation of humanity, was perceptive enough to recognize in this great American commander such a hint of “petrified heart” as may be identifiable in the main characters of his fictions, “Ethan Brand” and “The Man of Adamant.”

As a man of literary and poetic imagination, however, Hawthorne is understood to have been gifted with a sharp and penetrative insight into the true human character of George Washington, and here the auther goes so far as to refer to Hawthorne’s hitherto - unknown interest in the personality of English Vice Admiral Collingwood, who appeared as a significant character in a French novel, Servitude and Grandeur of Arms (1835) by Alfred Vigny. The French novelist, who also had a military career, makes a character or storyteller in the novel respectfully portray the character of this British naval commander, referring to the commander’s individual fortitude as a soldier, “who waged war with a full consciousness of its nature” and selflessness in accepting his command and power and in obeying to his duty to public benefit. More significant than anything else in Vigny’s story is the fact that the spirit of George Washington finds itself referred to as ranking as high as that of the great hero in the novel. It still remain doubtful whether Hawthorne himself read this French novel by Vigny, but it is doubtlessly a fact that Hawthorne had already taken independent interest in Collingwood’s unequalled personality as a naval commander. In my own investigation Hawthorne had already borrowed from an athenium in Salem a volume entitled Selected Letters, Public and Private, of Vice Admiral Collingwood (1829) in 1834, one year before Vigny’s novel in question was published in France, and I also in those days Hawthorne was avidly reading literature related with the American Revolution.

Collingwood was, according to Vigny, dark eyed and dark browed and gifted with “a look of deep melancholy,” and within him was a “perfect calm,” which signified an inner peace which was the gift from his sense of sacred duty to his home country. From what is said about Collingwood by Vigny may we derive an inestimable key to understanding George Washington’s own personality as a national leader, who was famed for his most brilliant military reputation, beneath which lay a “profound repining” and an “unappeasable sadness” which had characterized Collingwood. What struck Hawthorne most was not Washington as a genuine patriotic hero only, as Sparks assumed him to be, but Washington as a melancholy genius who, having within him a profound attachment for his own deep inner world and his own personal home life, felt it a sacred duty, as a Catholic priest does, to relinquish and abnegate all his own private self for the sake of the happiness of others.

In the United States, where the federal government is only moderately committed to cultural development, private sector entities function as support groups for cultural affairs. Corporations and foundations are major funding sources for museums. Although private sector money has a direct and sometimes enormous effect on collections, the participation of corporations and foundations in shaping history museum exhibitions and educational programs has been overlooked in museum studies. This article examines this critical and complementary history museum - private sector connection by focusing on the 2000 acquisition process for the George Washington Lansdowne portrait at the National Portrait Gallery. The NPG exhibits the history of the United States through portraits of extraordinary people. As part of the Smithsonian Institute, 60 to 70% of the NPG’s budget comes from the US government and the rest is raised through its own efforts. In other words the NPG is a quasi-governmental entity.

NPG acquired the Lansdowne portrait with the support of a private foundation. This full-length portrait painted by Gilbert Stuart in 1797 was a gift from a Philadelphian merchant to the Marquis of Lansdowne. It had been on loan to the NPG since the gallery’s opening in 1968. In the fall of 2000, the British owner of the work suddenly announced to the NPG that he would auction the painting unless the gallery purchased it. The NPG made a public appeal, describing the situation to potential donors as a national crisis. As a result, the Nevada-based Donald W. Reynolds Foundation saved the Lansdowne portrait from what they considered to be a patriotic crisis. Through the course of the purchase process, a painting that had been in a foreign collection for two centuries was transformed into a “national icon” and eventually a “national treasure,” revered as an equal to the Declaration of Independence and the Stars and Stripes. This private funding process not only saved the painting, it also altered its status.

It must also be noted that 9/11 changed the meaning of this portrait. George Washington has been endowed with various qualities through the centuries: he has been seen as everything from demi-god to ordinary father. Then, as symbolized by the fire fighters’ self-sacrificing behavior at Ground Zero, post 9/11 society came to view the Lansdowne Washington portrait as an image of a great self-sacrificing figure who led and saved a young nation.

As part of the process of receiving the considerable funds needed for the acquisition, the Lansdowne portrait went from being a loaned work displayed among other portraits to a national treasure and representation of patriot self-sacrifice. These changes result from the integrated and complementary collaboration between the NPG and a private foundation, a situation completely unlike the general perception of a hostile relationship between public and private interests. The Lansdowne acquisition case reveals how the private sector is not a mere funding source, but rather is a vital participant in the shaping and interpretation of history at museums.

PDFファイルをご覧ください。

As the United States fought the War with Iraq under the administration of George W. Bush, there emerged a heated discussion on the nature of the American presidency. Some even speak of the arrival of “the new imperial presidency.” Yet the nature of the American presidency, especially its powers concerning foreign policy, is still unclear.

This essay delineates the contours of presidential foreign policy concentrating on the first successive administrations, i.e., those from George Washington to John Quincy Adams, because their foreign policy can be construed as an archetype. In doing so, this writer attempts to demonstrate the framework under which the modern presidents of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries have pursued their foreign policy.

On the subject of the first successive administrations, Ralph Ketcham’s Presidents above Party is a penetrating intellectual history. Although acknowledging his interpretations of the presidency as a whole, this essay focuses on foreign policy under the first six presidents.

First, the origins of the foreign policy powers of the American president and how the Federalist administrations of George Washington and John Adams actually confronted international issues are discussed. In the young republic, the partisan battles between Federalists and Republicans were closely connected with the Anglo-French rivalry. All in all, however, Washington and Adams contributed to the establishment of an independent executive by forging bipartisanship in foreign policy.

Second, this essay deals with the administrations of Thomas Jefferson and James Madison. The Jefferson administration provides the first example of how the presidency can display strong leadership. Following the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, Jefferson’s power was at its zenith. The subsequent Madison administration fought the War of 1812, the first foreign war since the founding of the United States. In starting the war with England, Madison cooperated with Congress, holder of the power to declare war. But by the end of his term, he barely retained the leadership role he had inherited from his predecessor because predicaments from “Mr. Madison’s War,” such as the burning of Washington, were humiliating to the nation’s honor.

Third, the relationship between the President and Congress under the administrations of James Monroe and John Quincy Adams is discussed. During this period, Congress increased its power under the leadership of Speaker of the House Henry Clay. Thus Congress was able to influence the Monroe administration’s recognition policy toward the new Latin American republics. After the promulgation of the Monroe Doctrine in 1823, Congress also influenced the course of foreign policy under the Adams administration.

In conclusion, the bipartisanship in foreign policy, the strength of presidential leadership, and the rise of Congressional power seen under the first presidencies were the harbingers of the foreign policy role of the modern presidency. The bipartisan Vandenberg resolution of 1948, Woodrow Wilson’s leadership in the United States’ entry into World War I, and the resurgence of Congress after Watergate all testify to it. In this sense, the foreign policy of the first successive administrations was the archetype for that of the American presidency.

日本語Wikipediaのアンカーリンク、リダイレクトリンクからsameAsリンクを抽出することで日本語Wikipediaオントロジーを拡張する．