THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES GIFT OF Commodore Byron McCandless OLIVER CROMWELL BY GEORGE H. CLARK, D.D. WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY CHARLES DUDLEY WARNER AND ILLUSTRATIONS FROM OLD PAINTINGS AND PRINTS It is the property of the hero, in every time, in every place, in every situation, that lie comes back to reality; that he stands upon things, and not shows of things. — Carlylc. NEW YORK HARPER & BROTHERS PUBLISHERS 1895 Copyright, 1893, by D. Lothrop Company. Copyright, 1895, by Harper & Brothers. All rights rutrved* PA The heroic soul, amidst its bliss or woe, Is never swell'd too high, nor sunk too low; Stands, like its origin above the skies, Ever the same great self, sedately wise ; Collected and prepared in every stage To scorn a courting world, or bear its rage. Henley. Unknown to Cromwell as to me, Was Cromwell's measure or degree. He works, plots, lights, in rude affairs, With squires, lords, kings, his craft compares, Till late he learned, through doubt and fear, Broad England harbored not his peer. Emerson. INTRODUCTORY. The first extant letter from Oliver Cromwell, printed by Thomas Carlyle, is dated at St. Ives, January 11, 1635-6. This was near the time when Thomas Hooker was on his way to make a settle- ment in Hartford. Hooker was already known. His latest sermons were published in London, and devoutly read by those who believed that "man has a soul to be saved," and doubtless by the farmer of St. Ives, who later on was to come into the Protec- torate through the strait gate of this belief. This conception of life leads one to transact directly with God, seeing Divine Right nowhere else, and tends logically to the separation of Church and State. Here Hooker learned his democracy, and for this reason Cromwell rebelled against the invasion of the freedom of the soul in the unbridled tyranny of Charles and the intolerance of his bishops. In America, Hooker founded a democracy; in England, Cromwell fought for a free parliament and a consti- tutionally limited executive ; but the spirit and pur- pose of both men were the same, and the Hartford minister and the Huntingdon gentleman are pre- eminently the leaders in that great movement of the seventeenth century which made the United States and is now transforming England. INTRODUCTORY. There is therefore something singularly appro- priate and significant in the fact that the first book written in Amei'ica that treats Cromwell with un- derstanding, with historic insight, and with a full conception of his noble character and his gigantic intellect, should come from a clergyman of Hook- er's own city, and of a branch of that historic church which for centuries has been praying for the " Mar- tyr" Charles, of blessed memory. Oliver Cromwell was not an agitator. He took up the duties of a plain, God-fearing citizen, prayer- fully anxious to conserve the liberties of the people of England and the honor of the English nation. The result of his genius and fortitude was the de- struction in England forever of the Stuart idea of monarchy; but nothing is plainer than that he had no hostility to a constitutional limited monarchy, and that if Charles had possessed brains enough to comprehend the age in which he lived — in short, had not been a Stuart — he might have reigned prosper- ous!}', with Cromwell his stanch supporter, and a parliament loyal to him as the executive of the people. As a statesman, Cromwell was conservative, the friend of law, and the suppressor of disorder. It is possible that, if he were living to-day, he would belong to the conservative party, for the ruling pas- sion of his life, mingling, indeed, with his deepest religious convictions, was pride in England and the development of its power. Time is slowly vindi c;itiiig bis memory. The greatest ruler, the great est soldier, the most far-seeing and profound statrs man. the noblest man in public life that England INTRODUCTORY. has produced, emerges to the light of day from 11 1 o cloud of malignant calumny and misrepresentation with which the dissolute forces of the old monarchy, the bigots, and the fanatics of all sorts, have con- tinually, almost to this day, obscured his person and his work. The Commonwealth failed because of the lack of intelligence in the mass of the people, and the selfishness and bitter hatred of freedom in re- ligion or in politics of the intelligent few. Never did man, forced by circumstances into a position of supreme power, have such intractable material to deal with, and not the least of these unmouldable elements were the "cranks " of all sorts who ranged themselves nominally under his banner. The Com- monwealth failed with the death of its spring of life, but while it lasted England was lifted to a power in the world which it never enjoyed before, and the ruler was feared, respected, and obeyed by kings, sovereigns, and princes, as English ruler never has been before or since. This present volume, by Dr. George H. Clark, is not a dry biography, not in any sense an abridg- ment of Carlyle's noble work, not a rivulet of biog- raphy stuffed with English history. Such was not needed. It is a book of enthusiasm, a warm-hearted vindication of a great man, based upon careful study, and backed by indubitable authority, written with a clear American comprehension of the prin- ciples that underlay the great liberating movement of the seventeenth century in England. Exactly such a book as this was needed, written with fervor, with courage, and fidelity to facts, to awaken inter- INTRODUCTORY. est, fix the judgment upon essentials, and carry con- viction to the public mind. In its introductory chapters the author devotes himself to the necessary task of lifting from his subject the mass of lies and misconceptions which centuries have heaped upon it. The ground cleared, he goes on to elucidate the character and work of the man in all the depart- ments of his activity. This, in the view of the writer, is not the final life. In the reaction now going on in England, which is certain to give Crom- well his just place in history, that life will appear with all the honor due to the chief character in English public life. Meantime the second edition of this volume is commended to the public in confi- dence that it will be found intensely interesting, and will awaken a glow of admiration for one of the most sturdy and indomitable spirits in history, the dictator who was full of charity, the leader who sought nothing for himself, the friend of the people who was not a demagogue. Our sympathy is with the modern spirit of the Commonwealth, and we feel that its ruler was our kin. In the list of world heroes Cromwell's name stands near the top; but he was a new kind of hero in the world. "In the whole modern history of Europe," says Frederic Harrison, "Oliver is the one ruler into whose pres- ence no vicious man could ever come; whose service no vicious man might enter." Charles Dudley Warner. IIaktford, December, 1894. PREFACE. If the historians, poets, novelists, biographers, essayists, reviewers and writers of school histories who wrote adversely to Oliver Cromwell between the years 1660 and 1860 were alive, the largest room in the British Museum Library would not hold them. For those who, between the years named, did partial justice to Oliver's memory a small alcove would suffice. In that alcove would be writers like Nathan Ben Saddi, who suggests that the Protector was both a '-'righteous man" and a " r.ogue ; " and Smollet, who says that he was a " compound of villainy and virtue." Within those two hundred years Macaulay, with one ex- ception, was the only great writer who justly measured and fairly described the Protector. The exception was Thomas Carlyle. Carlyle, by five years of patient and impatient toil, has made it possible for such books as the present one to be written; and yet, while making much use of the " Letters and Speeches," I have made but little use of the elucidations of this great biographer. In the library of Trinity College, Hartford, is a PREFACE. remarkable collection of old folios relating to Eng- land's civil wars, in which may be found the Clar- endon " Letters/*' the Clarendon '• State Papers,"' the Thurloe " State Papers,"' Dugdale, Rushworth, Xal- son, etc. These six works contain a large part of the material from which the histories of the Com- monwealth and the Protectorate have been made. It is noteworthy that within the twenty thousand folio pages of these volumes there is not to be found one charge adverse to Cromwell which is supported by credible evidence. The vilification of the Protector, with the exception of a few allega- tions, the most important of which are refuted in the following pages, is limited to the nicknames with which he was branded : such names as " Catiline," "Tiberius," "Nero," " Domitian," "Devil," etc. It was natural that royalists who had been ex- cluded from English politics for many years, and who had been in exile and in poverty, should re- sort to calumny after Oliver was dead ; but it is strange that with a few false statements and the use of opprobrious titles, they should have suc- ceeded in making the greatest and the purest ruler of his country the most infamous of all on the pages of modern history. With the help, however, of David Hume they have done so. It is to be remarked that the only documents tin-owing light on Cromwell were published, or were in ni;i nusi-ri j>t. prior to the year 17