Abstract

Lowell The Patriot

To many of the people the news of the death of author James Russell Lowell has come like a physical blow. There was in his social speech and writing such an exuberance of personality, such a suggestion of treasures of wit and humor indrawn upon, as those who knew the man find it hard to connect with the thought of annihilation. But for the public his works remain. Had he lived, they might have been added to, but people are not deprived of them by his death. They have taken their place, perhaps among the classics of the race, certainly among the classics of the United States. He was in the loftiest sense of the word a patriot. Lowell's patriotism was imbued with a feeling. He loved his country. The civil war showed that Lowell could guide and stimulate true patriotism with words as lofty and strong and wise as those with which he had repressed the false.