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Bayesian
Optimization
Theory and Practice Using Python
—
Peng Liu
Bayesian Optimization: Theory and Practice Using Python
Peng Liu
Singapore, Singapore

ISBN-13 (pbk): 978-1-4842-9062-0 ISBN-13 (electronic): 978-1-4842-9063-7

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4842-9063-7

Copyright © 2023 by Peng Liu

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For my wife Zheng and children Jiaxin, Jiaran, and Jiayu.
Table of Contents
About the Author����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� ix

About the Technical Reviewer��������������������������������������������������������������������������������� xi

Acknowledgments������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� xiii

Introduction�������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������xv

Chapter 1: Bayesian Optimization Overview������������������������������������������������������������ 1

Global Optimization����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 2
The Objective Function������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 4
The Observation Model������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 8
Bayesian Statistics���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 11
Bayesian Inference���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 11
Frequentist vs. Bayesian Approach��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 14
Joint, Conditional, and Marginal Probabilities����������������������������������������������������������������������� 15
Independence������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 18
Prior and Posterior Predictive Distributions�������������������������������������������������������������������������� 19
Bayesian Inference: An Example������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 23
Bayesian Optimization Workflow������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 26
Gaussian Process������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 26
Acquisition Function�������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 29
The Full Bayesian Optimization Loop������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 30
Summary������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 31

Chapter 2: Gaussian Processes������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 33

Reviewing the Gaussian Basics�������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 36
Understanding the Covariance Matrix����������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 37
Marginal and Conditional Distribution of Multivariate Gaussian�������������������������������������������� 39
Sampling from a Gaussian Distribution��������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 40
v
Table of Contents

Gaussian Process Regression����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 43

The Kernel Function�������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 43
Extending to Other Variables������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 46
Learning from Noisy Observations���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 49
Gaussian Process in Practice������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 50
Drawing from GP Prior����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 50
Obtaining GP Posterior with Noise-Free Observations���������������������������������������������������������� 55
Working with Noisy Observations������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 57
Experimenting with Different Kernel Parameters������������������������������������������������������������������ 59
Hyperparameter Tuning��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 61
Summary������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 66

Chapter 3: Bayesian Decision Theory and Expected Improvement������������������������ 69

Optimization via the Sequential Decision-Making���������������������������������������������������������������������� 70
Seeking the Optimal Policy���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 72
Utility-Driven Optimization����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 74
Multi-step Lookahead Policy������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 76
Bellman’s Principle of Optimality������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 79
Expected Improvement��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 82
Deriving the Closed-Form Expression����������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 83
Implementing the Expected Improvement����������������������������������������������������������������������������� 86
Using Bayesian Optimization Libraries���������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 96
Summary������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 98

Chapter 4: Gaussian Process Regression with GPyTorch������������������������������������� 101

Introducing GPyTorch���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 101
The Basics of PyTorch��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 102
Revisiting GP Regression����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 104
Building a GP Regression Model������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 105
Fine-Tuning the Length Scale of the Kernel Function��������������������������������������������������������� 111
Fine-Tuning the Noise Variance������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 117

vi
 Table of Contents

Delving into Kernel Functions��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 119

Combining Kernel Functions����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 122
Predicting Airline Passenger Counts����������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 124
Summary���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 129

Chapter 5: Monte Carlo Acquisition Function with Sobol Sequences

and Random Restart��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 131
Analytic Expected Improvement Using BoTorch������������������������������������������������������������������������ 131
Introducing Hartmann Function������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 132
GP Surrogate with Optimized Hyperparameters������������������������������������������������������������������ 134
Introducing the Analytic EI��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 135
Optimization Using Analytic EI��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 138
Grokking the Inner Optimization Routine����������������������������������������������������������������������������� 140
Using MC Acquisition Function������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 148
Using Monte Carlo Expected Improvement������������������������������������������������������������������������� 150
Summary���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 153

Chapter 6: Knowledge Gradient: Nested Optimization vs. One-Shot Learning����� 155

Introducing Knowledge Gradient����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 156
Monte Carlo Estimation������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 158
Optimizing Using Knowledge Gradient�������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 161
One-Shot Knowledge Gradient�������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 167
Sample Average Approximation������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 167
One-Shot Formulation of KG Using SAA������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 169
One-Shot KG in Practice������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 171
Optimizing the OKG Acquisition Function���������������������������������������������������������������������������� 178
Summary���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 184

Chapter 7: Case Study: Tuning CNN Learning Rate with BoTorch������������������������� 185
Seeking Global Optimum of Hartmann�������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 186
Generating Initial Conditions����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 187
Updating GP Posterior��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 188

vii
Table of Contents

Creating a Monte Carlo Acquisition Function���������������������������������������������������������������������� 190

The Full BO Loop����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 193
Hyperparameter Optimization for Convolutional Neural Network��������������������������������������������� 198
Using MNIST������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 199
Defining CNN Architecture��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 203
Training CNN������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 209
Optimizing the Learning Rate���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 212
Entering the Full BO Loop���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 215
Summary���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 222

Index��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 225

viii
About the Author
Peng Liu is an assistant professor of quantitative finance
(practice) at Singapore Management University and an
adjunct researcher at the National University of Singapore.
He holds a Ph.D. in Statistics from the National University
of Singapore and has ten years of working experience as a
data scientist across the banking, technology, and hospitality
industries.

ix
About the Technical Reviewer
Jason Whitehorn is an experienced entrepreneur and
software developer and has helped many companies
automate and enhance their business solutions through data
synchronization, SaaS architecture, and machine learning.
Jason obtained his Bachelor of Science in Computer Science
from Arkansas State University, but he traces his passion
for development back many years before then, having first
taught himself to program BASIC on his family’s computer
while in middle school. When he’s not mentoring and
helping his team at work, writing, or pursuing one of his
many side-projects, Jason enjoys spending time with his wife and four children and
living in the Tulsa, Oklahoma, region. More information about Jason can be found on his
website: ­https://jason.whitehorn.us.

xi
Acknowledgments
This book summarizes my learning journey in Bayesian optimization during my
(part-­time) Ph.D. study. It started as a personal interest in exploring this area and
gradually grew into a book combining theory and practice. For that, I thank my
supervisors, Teo Chung Piaw and Chen Ying, for their continued support in my
academic career.

xiii
Introduction
Bayesian optimization provides a unified framework that solves the problem of
sequential decision-making under uncertainty. It includes two key components: a
surrogate model approximating the unknown black-box function with uncertainty
estimates and an acquisition function that guides the sequential search. This book
reviews both components, covering both theoretical introduction and practical
implementation in Python, building on top of popular libraries such as GPyTorch and
BoTorch. Besides, the book also provides case studies on using Bayesian optimization
to seek a simulated function's global optimum or locate the best hyperparameters (e.g.,
learning rate) when training deep neural networks. The book assumes readers with a
minimal understanding of model development and machine learning and targets the
following audiences:

• Students in the field of data science, machine learning, or

optimization-related fields

• Practitioners such as data scientists, both early and middle in their

careers, who build machine learning models with good-performing
hyperparameters

• Hobbyists who are interested in Bayesian optimization as a global

optimization technique to seek the optimal solution as fast as
possible

All source code used in this book can be downloaded from ­github.com/apress/
Bayesian-optimization.

xv
CHAPTER 1

Bayesian Optimization
Overview
As the name suggests, Bayesian optimization is an area that studies optimization
problems using the Bayesian approach. Optimization aims at locating the optimal
objective value (i.e., a global maximum or minimum) of all possible values or the
corresponding location of the optimum in the environment (the search domain). The
search process starts at a specific initial location and follows a particular policy to
iteratively guide the following sampling locations, collect new observations, and refresh
the guiding policy.
As shown in Figure 1-1, the overall optimization process consists of repeated
interactions between the policy and the environment. The policy is a mapping function
that takes in a new input observation (plus historical ones) and outputs the following
sampling location in a principled way. Here, we are constantly learning and improving
the policy, since a good policy guides our search toward the global optimum more
efficiently and effectively. In contrast, a good policy would save the limited sampling
budget on promising candidate locations. On the other hand, the environment contains
the unknown objective function to be learned by the policy within a specific boundary.
When probing the functional value as requested by the policy, the actual observation
revealed by the environment to the policy is often corrupted by noise, making learning
even more challenging. Thus, Bayesian optimization, a specific approach for global
optimization, would like to learn a policy that can help us efficiently and effectively
navigate to the global optimum of an unknown, noise-corrupted environment as quickly
as possible.

1
© Peng Liu 2023
P. Liu, Bayesian Optimization, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4842-9063-7_1
Chapter 1 Bayesian Optimization Overview

Figure 1-1. The overall Bayesian optimization process. The policy digests the
historical observations and proposes the new sampling location. The environment
governs how the (possibly noise-corrupted) observation at the newly proposed
location is revealed to the policy. Our goal is to learn an efficient and effective
policy that could navigate toward the global optimum as quickly as possible

Global Optimization
Optimization aims to locate the optimal set of parameters of interest across the whole
domain through carefully allocating limited resources. For example, when searching
for the car key at home before leaving for work in two minutes, we would naturally start
with the most promising place where we would usually put the key. If it is not there,
think for a little while about the possible locations and go to the next most promising
place. This process iterates until the key is found. In this example, the policy is digesting
the available information on previous searches and proposing the following promising
location. The environment is the house itself, revealing if the key is placed at the
proposed location upon each sampling.
This is considered an easy example since we are familiar with the environment
in terms of its structural design. However, imagine locating an item in a totally new

2
 Chapter 1 Bayesian Optimization Overview

environment. The policy would need to account for the uncertainty due to unfamiliarity
with the environment while sequentially determining the next sampling location. When
the sampling budget is limited, as is often the case in real-life searches in terms of
time and resources, the policy needs to argue carefully on the utility of each candidate
sampling location.
Let us formalize the sequential global optimization using mathematical terms. We
are dealing with an unknown scalar-valued objective function f based on a specific
domain Α. In other words, the unknown subject of interest f is a function that maps a
certain sample in Α to a real number in ℝ, that is, f : Α → ℝ. We typically place no specific
assumption about the nature of the domain Α other than that it should be a bounded,
compact, and convex set.
Unless otherwise specified, we focus on the maximization setting instead of
minimization since maximizing the objective function is equivalent to minimizing the
negated objective, and vice versa. The optimization procedure thus aims at locating
the global maximum f ∗ or its corresponding location x∗ in a principled and systematic
manner. Mathematically, we wish to locate f ∗ where

f * = max f ( x ) = f ( x * )
xeA

Or equivalently, we are interested in its location x∗ where

x * = argmax xeA f ( x )

Figure 1-2 provides an example one-dimensional objective function with its global
maximum f ∗ and its location x∗ highlighted. The goal of global optimization is thus to
systematically reason about a series of sampling decisions within the total search space
Α, so as to locate the global maximum as fast as possible, that is, sampling as few times
as possible.

3
Chapter 1 Bayesian Optimization Overview

Figure 1-2. An example objective function with the global maximum and its
location marked with star. The goal of global optimization is to systematically
reason about a series of sampling decisions so as to locate the global maximum as
fast as possible

Note that this is a nonconvex function, as is often the case in real-life functions we
are optimizing. A nonconvex function means we could not resort to first-order gradient-­
based methods to reliably search for the global optimum since it will likely converge to
a local optimum. This is also one of the advantages of Bayesian optimization compared
with other gradient-based optimization procedures.

The Objective Function

There are different types of objective functions. For example, some functions are wiggly
shaped, while others are smooth; some are convex, while others are nonconvex. An
objective function is an unknown object to us; the problem would be considered solved
if we could access its underlying mathematical form. Many complex functions are almost
impossible to be expressed using an explicit expression. For Bayesian optimization, the
specific type of objective function typically bears the following attributes:

• We do not have access to the explicit expression of the objective

function, making it a “black-box” function. This means that we can
only interact with the environment, that is, the objective function, to
perform a functional evaluation by sampling at a specific location.

4
 Chapter 1 Bayesian Optimization Overview

• The returned value by probing at a specific location is often

corrupted by noise and does not represent the exact true value of the
objective function at that location. Due to the indirect evaluation of
its actual value, we need to account for such noise embedded in the
actual observations from the environment.

• Each functional evaluation is costly, thus ruling out the option for
an exhaustive probing. We need to have a sample-efficient method to
minimize the number of evaluations of the environment while trying
to locate its global optimum. In other words, the optimizer needs to
fully utilize the existing observations and systematically reason about
the next sampling decision so that the limited resource is well spent
on promising locations.

• We do not have access to its gradient. When the functional evaluation

is relatively cheap and the functional form is smooth, it would be very
convenient to compute the gradient and optimize using the first-­
order procedure such as gradient descent. Access to the gradient is
necessary for us to understand the adjacent curvature of a particular
evaluation point. With gradient evaluations, the follow-up direction
of travel is easier to determine.

The “black-box” function is challenging to optimize for the preceding reasons. To

further elaborate on the possible functional form of the objective, we list three examples
in Figure 1-3. On the left is a convex function with only one global minimum; this is
considered easy for global optimization. In the middle is a nonconvex function with
multiple local optima; it is difficult to ascertain if the current local optimum is also
globally optimal. It is also difficult to identify whether this is a flat region vs. a local
optimum for a function with a flat region full of saddle points. All three scenarios are in a
minimization setting.

5
Chapter 1 Bayesian Optimization Overview

Figure 1-3. Three possible functional forms. On the left is a convex function whose
optimization is easy. In the middle is a nonconvex function with multiple local
minima, and on the right is also a nonconvex function with a wide flat region full
of saddle points. Optimization for the latter two cases takes a lot more work than
for the first case

Let us look at one example of hyperparameter tuning when training machine

learning models. A machine learning model is a function that involves a set of
parameters to be optimized given the input data. These parameters are automatically
tuned via a specific optimization procedure, typically governed by a set of corresponding
meta parameters called hyperparameters, which are fixed before the model training
starts. For example, when training deep neural networks using the gradient descent
algorithm, a learning rate that determines the step size of each parameter update needs
to be manually selected in advance. If the learning rate is too large, the model may
diverge and eventually fails to learn. If the learning rate is too small, the model may
converge very slowly as the weights are updated by only a small margin in this iteration.
See Figure 1-4 for a visual illustration.

6
 Chapter 1 Bayesian Optimization Overview

Figure 1-4. Slow convergence due to a small learning rate on the left and
divergence due to a large learning rate on the right

Choosing a reasonable learning rate as a preset hyperparameter thus plays a critical

role in training a good machine learning model. Locating the best learning rate and
other hyperparameters is an optimization problem that fits Bayesian optimization. In
the case of hyperparameter tuning, evaluating each learning rate is a time-consuming
exercise. The objective function would generally be the model’s final test set loss (in
a minimization setting) upon model convergence. A model needs to be fully trained
to obtain a single evaluation, which typically involves hundreds of epochs to reach
stable convergence. Here, one epoch is a complete pass of the entire training dataset.
The book’s last chapter covers a case study on tuning the learning rate using Bayesian
optimization.
The functional form of the test set loss or accuracy may also be highly nonconvex
and multimodal for the hyperparameters. Upon convergence, it is not easy to know
whether we are in a local optimum, a saddle point, or a global optimum. Besides, some
hyperparameters may be discrete, such as the number of nodes and layers when training
a deep neural network. We could not calculate its gradient in such a case since it requires
continuous support in the domain.
The Bayesian optimization approach is designed to tackle all these challenges. It
has been shown to deliver good performance in locating the best hyperparameters
under a limited budget (i.e., the number of evaluations allowed). It is also widely and
successfully used in other fields, such as chemical engineering.

7
Chapter 1 Bayesian Optimization Overview

Next, we will delve into the various components of a typical Bayesian optimization
setup, including the observation model, the optimization policy, and the Bayesian
inference.

The Observation Model

Earlier, we mentioned that a functional evaluation would give an observation about
the true objective function, and the observation may likely be different from the true
objective value due to noise. The observations gathered for the policy learning would
thus be inexact and corrupted by an additional noise term, which is often assumed to be
additive. The observation model is an approach to formalize the relationship between
the true objective function, the actual observation, and the noise. It governs how the
observations would be revealed from the environment to the policy.
Figure 1-5 illustrates a list of observations of the underlying objective function. These
observations are dislocated from the objective function due to additive random noises.
These additive noises manifest as the vertical shifts between the actual observations and
the underlying objective function. Due to these noise-induced deviations inflicted on the
observations, we need to account for such uncertainty in the observation model. When
learning a policy based on the actual observations, the policy also needs to be robust
enough to focus on the objective function’s underlying pattern and not be distracted by
the noises. The model we use to approximate the objective function, while accounting
for uncertainty due to the additive noise, is typically a Gaussian process. We will cover it
briefly in this chapter and in more detail in the next chapter.

8
 Chapter 1 Bayesian Optimization Overview

Figure 1-5. Illustrating the actual observations (in dots) and the underlying
objective function (in dashed line). When sampling at a specific location, the
observation would be disrupted by an additive noise. The observation model thus
determines how the observation would be revealed to the policy, which needs to
account for the uncertainty due to noise perturbation

To make our discussion more precise, let us use f (x) to denote the (unknown)
objective function value at location x. We sometimes write f (x) as f for simplicity. We
use y to denote the actual observation at location x, which will slightly differ from f due
to noise perturbation. We can thus express the observation model, which governs how
the policy sees the observation from the environment, as a probability distribution of y
based on a specific location x and true function value f:

p ( y |x , f )

Let us assume an additive noise term ε inflicted on f; the actual observation y can
thus be expressed as

y = f +e

Here, the noise term ε arises from measurement error or inaccurate statistical
approximation, although it may disappear in certain computer simulations. A common

9
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than an acquaintance with persons and facts. One must comprehend
its real origin, and have mastered and become familiar with his
subject. This is a task which Mr. Frothingham has not accomplished.
Every heresy segregates its adherents from the straight line of the
true progress of the human race, all deviations from which are, in
the nature of things, either transitory or fatal. They live, for the
greater part, outside of the cumulated wisdom and the broad stream
of the continuous life of humanity. When the heresy has almost
exhausted its derived life—for no heresy has a source of life in itself
—and the symptoms of its approaching death begin to appear, the
intelligent and sincere who are born in it at this stage of its career
are the first to seek to regain the unbroken unity of truth. This is
reached by two distinct and equally legitimate ways. The first class
gains the knowledge of the whole body of the originally revealed
truth, from which its heresy cut it off, by tracing the truths retained
by the sect to their logical connection with other no less important
truths equally contained in the same divine revelation. The second
class falls back upon the essential truths of natural reason; and as all
supernatural truth finds its support in natural truth, it follows that
the denial of any of the former involves a denial of the latter. Heresy
always involves a mutilation of man’s natural reason. Once the
integral natural basis recovered, the repudiation of heresy as
contrary to reason follows logically. But the experience of the human
race, that of the transcendentalists included, shows plainly that
nature does not suffice nature; and this class, at this moment, starts
out to find a religion consonant with the dictates of reason,
satisfactory to all their spiritual necessities, and adequate to their
whole nature. They ask, and rightly, for a religion which shall find its
fast foundations in the human breast. This appeal can only be
answered, and is only met, by the revelation given to the world in
the beginning by the Author of man, completed in the Incarnation,
and existing in its entirety and in unbroken historical continuity in
the Catholic Church alone.
This dialectical law has governed the course of all heresies, from
which they could not by any possibility escape; the same law has
governed the history of Protestantism on its native soil, in Germany,
as well as in old England, in New England, and wherever it has
obtained a foothold.
Our business at present is with those of the second class, under
which head come our New England transcendentalists; and what is
not a little amusing is the simplicity with which they proclaim to the
world, in this nineteenth century of the Christian era, the truths of
natural reason, as though these were new and original discoveries!
They appear to fancy that the petty sect to which they formerly
adhered, and their dreary experience of its rule, have been the sad
lot of the whole human race! It is as if a body of men had been led
astray into a cavern where the direct rays of the sun never
penetrated, and, after the lapse of some generations, their
descendants approach its mouth, breathe the fresh air, behold the
orb of light, the mountains, the rivers, and the whole earth covered
with trees, flowers, and verdure. For the first time this glorious
world, in all its wonderful beauty, bursts upon their view, and, in the
candor of their souls, they flatter themselves that they alone are
privileged with this vision, and knowledge, and enjoyment! Their
language—but, be it understood, in their sober moods—affects those
whose mental sight has not been obscured by heresy; somewhat like
the speech of children when first the light of reason dawns in their
souls. For the transcendental movement in New England was
nothing else, in its first instance, than the earnest and righteous
protest of our native reason in convalescence against a false
Christianity for its denial or neglect of rational truths.
Mr. Frothingham tells us that “he was once a pure transcendentalist,”
and that perhaps “his ardor may have cooled.” We protest, and as a
disinterested party assure him that he writes with all the glow of
youth, and in his volume he has furnished a pretty cabinet-picture, in
couleur du rose, of transcendentalism in New England, without
betraying even so much as the least sign of a suspicion of its true
place in the history either of philosophy or religion. In seeking for
the “distinct origin” and the place in history of the transcendental
movement in New England, he goes back to Immanuel Kant, born at
Königsberg, in Prussia, April 22, 1724, and finds it, as he supposes,
in Kant’s famous Critique of Pure Reason, published in 1771. After
mentioning some of the disciples of Kant, we are taken to the
philosophers of France—Cousin, Constant, Jouffroy; then we are
next transported across the Channel to old England, and entertained
with Coleridge, Carlyle, and Wordsworth; finally we are landed in
New England and are told:
“With some truth it may be said that there never was such a
thing as transcendentalism out of New England. In Germany
and France there was a transcendental philosophy, held by
cultivated men, taught in schools, and professed by many
thoughtful and earnest people; but it never affected society in
its organized institutions or practical interests. In old England
this philosophy influenced poetry and art, but left the daily
existence of men and women untouched. But in New England
the ideas entertained by foreign thinkers took root in the
native soil and blossomed out in every form of social life. The
philosophy assumed its full proportions, produced fruit
according to its kind, created a new social order for itself, or
rather showed what sort of social order it would create under
favoring conditions. Its new heavens and new earth were
made visible, if but for a moment, and in a wintry season” (p.
103).
The contact with the productions of the foreign philosophers as well
as religious and literary writers whom Mr. Frothingham mentions
undoubtedly stimulated and strengthened the transcendental
movement in New England; but it did not originate it. The movement
was the spontaneous growth of the New England mind, in
accordance with the law which we have stated, aided by the peculiar
influence of our political institutions, as will be shown further on. Its
real authors were Channing, Alcott, and Emerson, who were neither
affected at their start nor afterward—or if at all, but slightly—by
foreign or extraneous influences.
Moreover, the Kantian philosophy afforded no logical foothold for the
defence of the movement in New England. Were our New Englander,
who still clings to his early faith in transcendental ideas, to present
himself to the philosophical offspring of Kant, he would no more
pass muster than his old orthodox Protestant antagonist of the
exclusive traditional school. The logical descendants of Kant are, in
the region of philosophy, to use an Americanism, played out, and
those who still keep up an existence will be found in the ranks of
positivism, materialism, and blank atheism.
The idea of God, the immortality of the soul, the liberty of the will,
the creation of the world—these and all such ideas the descendants
of Kant have politely conducted to the frontiers of philosophy, and
dismissed each and every one, but not before courteously thanking
them for their provisional services. Our New Englander would appear
to their eyes as a babe still in swaddling-clothes, or as a child
learning to read by amusing itself with the pictures of old Mother
Goose stories. Whatever hankering Mr. Frothingham and some few
others may have after their first love of transcendental ideas—and
those in New England with whom they are most in sympathy, one
and all are moving in the same direction—they are only in the initial
stage of the process of evolution of the Kantian germ-cell, the
product of Protestant protoplasm, and will end eventually in the
same logical issues as their less sentimental German, French, and
English confrères.
To give us a right history of transcendentalism, Mr. Frothingham
must enlarge the horizon of his mental vision, and include within its
scope a stretch of time which elapsed before his ancestors were led
off by heresy into the cavern of obscurity. He will find a historical no
less than a “dialectical basis” for its ideas or primary truths, and
other truths of natural reason of which he has not yet made the
discovery, in the writings of Clement of Alexandria, in Augustine, in
Vincent of Lerens, in Anselm, and above all in Thomas of Aquinas,
whose pages contain all the truths, but purified from the admixture
of error, of the pagan philosophers, as also of those who had
preceded him in Christian philosophy—men whose natural gifts, as
well as devotion to truth, were comparable, to say the least, with
Immanuel Kant and his French, or English, or American disciples.
Those profound thinkers maintained and demonstrated the truth of
the great ideas which Kant, according to his own showing, neither
dared affirm nor deny, and which the transcendentalists held for the
most part by openly contemning logic and by submissively accepting
the humiliating charge of being “sentimentalists.” What those great
men taught from the beginning has been always taught, even to our
day, by all sound Catholic teachers in philosophy. So jealous has the
supreme authority of the church been in this matter of upholding the
value of the natural powers of human reason against those who
would exalt tradition at its expense it has required, if they would
teach philosophy in the name of the church, as a test of their
orthodoxy, a subscription to the following proposition: “Reason can
with certitude demonstrate the existence of God, the spirituality of
the soul, and the liberty of man.” Had the author of the volume
which we are briefly reviewing read the Summa of St. Thomas, or
only the chapters which treat of these subjects, and understood
them—which is not, we hope, asking too much from an advanced
thinker of our enlightened age, inasmuch as St. Thomas wrote this
work in the “dark ages” for mere tyros—he would have gained a
stand-point from which he might have done what he tells us in his
preface was “the one purpose of his book—to define the
fundamental ideas of philosophy, to trace them to their historical and
speculative sources, and to show whither they tended” (p. viii.) Such
a work would have been more creditable to his learning, more
worthy of his intellectual effort, more satisfactory to intelligent
readers, and one of permanent value. We commend to Octavius
Brooks Frothingham the perusal and study of St. Thomas’ Summa—
above all, his work Contra Gentiles, which is a defence of Christianity
on the basis of human reason against the attacks of those who do
not admit of its divine revelation; or if these be not within his reach,
to take up any one of the modern works on philosophy taught in
Catholic colleges or seminaries to our young men.
After all, perhaps, the task might prove an ungracious one; for it
would not be flattering to the genius of originality, on which our
transcendentalists pride themselves, to discover that these
utterances concerning the value of human reason, the dignity of the
soul, and the worth of man—barring occasional extravagant
expressions attributable to the heat of youth—were but echoes of
the voice of the Catholic Church of all ages, of the traditional
teachings of her philosophers, especially of the Jesuitical school; all
of which, be it said between ourselves, has been confirmed by the
sacred decrees of the recent Vatican Council! Still, passing this act of
humiliation on their part, it would have afforded them what our
author says their system “lacked,” and for which he has had recourse
—in our opinion in vain—to the great German systems: namely, a
“dialectical basis.” He would have found in Catholic philosophy solid
grounds to sustain every truth which the transcendentalists so
enthusiastically proclaimed in speech, in poetry, and prose, and
which truths, in their practical aspect, not a few made noble and
heroic sacrifices to realize.
To have secured such a basis would not have been a small gain,
when one considers that these primary truths of reason are the
sources from which religion, morals, political government, and
human society draw their vitality, strength, and stability. Not a small
service to humanity is it to make clear these imperishable
foundations, to render them intelligible to all, and transmit them to
posterity with increased life and strength. It is well that this noble
task of philosophy did not depend on the efforts of the
transcendentalists; for Mr. Frothingham sadly informs us in his
preface that “as a form of mental philosophy transcendentalism may
have had its day; at any rate it is no longer in the ascendant, and at
present is manifestly on the decline, being suppressed by the
philosophy of experience, which, under different names, is taking
possession of the speculative world” (p. vii.) Who knows what might
have been the precious fruits of all the high aspiration and powerful
earnestness which were underlying this movement, if, instead of
seeking for a “dialectical basis of the great German systems,” its
leaders had cast aside their prejudices, and found that Catholic
philosophy which had interpreted the divine oracles of the soul from
age to age, consonant with man’s original and everlasting
convictions, and sustaining his loftiest and noblest hopes?
But with the best will in the world to look favorably on the practical
results of the transcendental movement, and our sincere
appreciation of its leaders—both of which, the issues and the men,
are described from chapter vii. to xv., which latter concludes the
volume—in spite of these dispositions of ours, our sympathy for so
much praiseworthy effort, and our respect for so many highly-gifted
men, in reading these chapters a feeling of sadness creeps over us,
and we cannot help exclaiming with the poet Sterling:
“O wasted strength! O light and calm
And better hopes so vainly given!
Like rain upon the herbless sea,
Poured down by too benignant heaven—
We see not stars unfixed by winds,
Or lost in aimless thunder-peals,
But man’s large soul, the star supreme,
In guideless whirl how oft it reels!”

But this is not to be wondered at; for although these men had
arrived at the perception of certain great truths, they held them by
no strong intellectual grasp, and finally they escaped them, and their
intellectual fabric, like the house built upon sand, when the storm
came and the winds blew, great was the fall thereof. This was the
history of Brook Farm and Fruitlands, communities in which the two
wings of transcendentalism attempted to reduce their ideas into
practice. Here let us remark it would have increased the interest of
the volume if its author had given to his readers the programme of
Brook Farm, “The Idea of Jesus of Society,” together with its
constitutions. It is short, interesting, and burning with earnestness.
There is scarcely any account of the singular enterprise of the group
of idealists at Fruitlands, and the name of Henry Thoreau, one of the
notables among transcendentalists, is barely mentioned, while to his
life at Walden Pond there is not even an allusion. True, these
experiments were, like Brook Farm, unsuccessful, but they were not
without interest and significance, and worthy of a place in what
claims to be a history of the movement that gave rise to them; at
least space enough might have been afforded them for a suitable
epitaph.
We will now redeem our promise of showing how the influence of
our political institutions aided in producing what goes by the name
of transcendentalism. But before doing this, we must settle what
transcendentalism is; for our author appears to make a distinction
between idealism and transcendentalism in New England. Here is
what he says:
“There was idealism in New England prior to the introduction
of transcendentalism. Idealism is of no clime or age. It has its
proportion of disciples in every period and in the apparently
most uncongenial countries; a full proportion might have
been looked for in New England. But when Emerson
appeared, the name of idealism was legion. He alone was
competent to form a school, and as soon as he rose, the
scholars trooped about him. By sheer force of genius
Emerson anticipated the results of the transcendental
philosophy, defined its axioms, and ran out their inferences to
the end. Without help from abroad, or with such help only as
none but he could use, he might have domesticated in
Massachusetts an idealism as heroic as Fichte’s, as beautiful
as Schelling’s, but it would have lacked the dialectical basis of
the great German systems” (p. 115).
If we seize the meaning of this passage, it is admitted that previous
to the knowledge of the German systems Mr. Emerson had already
defined the axioms, run out their inferences to the end, and
anticipated the results of the German transcendental philosophy. But
this is all that any system of philosophy pretends to accomplish; and
therefore, by his own showing, the distinction between idealism and
transcendentalism is a distinction without a difference.
Mr. Frothingham, however, tells us on the same page that
“transcendentalism, properly so-called, was imported in foreign
packages”; and Mr. Frothingham ought to know, for he was once, he
tells us, “a pure transcendentalist”; and on pages 128 and 136 he
criticises Mr. Emerson, who identifies idealism and
transcendentalism. With the genius and greatness of the prince of
the transcendentalists before his eyes, our author, as is proper,
employs the following condescending language: “It is audacious to
criticise Mr. Emerson on a point like this; but candor compels the
remark that the above description does less than justice to the
definiteness of the transcendental movement. It was something
more than a reaction against formalism and tradition, though it took
that form. It was more than a reaction against Puritan orthodoxy,
though in part it was that. It was in a very small degree due to study
of the ancient pantheists, of Plato and the Alexandrians, of Plutarch,
Seneca, and Epictetus, though one or two of the leaders had drunk
deeply from these sources. Transcendentalism was a distinct
philosophical system” (p. 136).
So far so good. Here is the place, if the author knows what he is
talking about, to give us in clear terms the definition of
transcendentalism. But what does he? Does he satisfy our
anticipations? Mr. Emerson, be it understood, does not know what
transcendentalism is! Well, hear our author, who thinks he does. He
continues: “Practically it was an assertion of the inalienable worth of
man; theoretically it was an assertion of the immanence of divinity in
instinct, the transference of supernatural attributes to the natural
constitution of mankind.… Through all was the belief in the living
God in the soul, faith in immediate inspiration, in boundless
possibility, and in unimaginable good” (p. 137). Ordinarily when
writers attempt to give a definition, or convey information of a
“distinct philosophical system,” they give one to understand its first
principles or axioms, its precise method, and its important
conclusions, and particularly wherein it differs in these respects from
other systems of philosophy. This is what Mr. Frothingham in the
passage last quoted has led us to expect; but instead of this he
gives to the reader mere “assertions” and “beliefs.” And these
assertions and beliefs every one knows who has heard Dr. Channing,
or Mr. Emerson, or Mr. Alcott, or who has a slight acquaintance with
their writings, to have been the sources of inspiration in their
speech, which appear on almost every page they have written! Proof
is needless; for there is no one who will venture a contradiction on
this point. The men who were most influenced by the study of the
philosophers abroad were neither the originators nor leaders of the
so-called transcendental movement in New England—Brownson,
Parker, and William Channing. Mr. Frothingham, we submit, has not
made out his case, and has given too much credit where it was not
due, while robbing others of their just merit, whatever that may be.
If “transcendentalism was a distinct philosophical system,” nowhere
in his book has this been shown.
Transcendentalism, accepting the author’s statement as to its true
character, was never a philosophical system in New England; and
had its early disciples been content to cultivate the seeds sown by its
true leaders, instead of making the futile attempt to transfer to our
clime exotics from Germany which would not take root and grow in
our soil, we should have had, in place of a dreary waste, stately
trees whose wholesome and delicious fruits would now refresh us.
And now for our reasons why it was native to the soil from which it
sprang. If we analyze the political system of our country, we will find
at its base the maxim, “Man is capable of self-government.” The
American system exhibits a greater trust in the natural capacities
and the inherent worth of man than any other form of political
government now upon this earth. Hence all the great political trusts
are made elective; hence also our recourse to short periods of
election and the great extension among us of the elective franchise.
The genius and whole drift of the current of our political life runs in
this direction. Now, what does this maxim mean, that “Man is
capable of self-government”? It means that man is endowed by his
Creator with reason to know what is right, true, and good. It means
that man possesses free-will and can follow the right, true, and
good. These powers constitute man a responsible being. It supposes
that man as he is now born is in possession of all his natural rights,
and the primal tendencies of his native faculties are in accordance
with the great end of his existence, and his nature is essentially
good. But such views of human nature are in direct opposition to the
fundamental doctrines of Puritanism and orthodox Protestantism.
These taught and teach that man is born totally depraved, that his
nature is essentially corrupt, and all his actions, springing from his
nature, nothing but evil. Now, the political influence of our American
institutions stimulated the assertion of man’s natural rights, his noble
gift of liberty, and his inalienable worth, while the religion peculiar to
New England preached precisely the contrary. In the long run, the
ballot-box beat the pulpit; for the former exerted its influence six
days in the week, while the latter had for its share only the Sabbath.
In other words, the inevitable tendency of our American political
system is to efface from the minds of our people all the distinctive
dogmas of the orthodox Protestant views of Christianity by placing
them on a platform in accordance with man’s natural capacities, his
native dignity, and with right and honorable views of God. Herein lies
the true genesis of Unitarianism and its cogenitor, the transcendental
movement in New England.
Dr. Channing was right in discarding the attempt to introduce the
worse than idle speculation of the German and French philosophical
systems in New England. “He considered,” so says his biographer,
“pretensions to absolute science quite premature; saw more
boastfulness than wisdom in ancient and modern schemes of
philosophy; and was not a little amused at the complacent
confidence with which quite evidently fallible theorists assumed to
stand at the centre, and to scan and depict the panorama of
existence.” “The transcendentalists,” he tells James Martineau in
1841, “in identifying themselves a good deal with Cousin’s crude
system, have lost the life of an original movement.” In this last
sentence Dr. Channing not only anticipated history but also uttered a
prophecy. But how about a philosophy whose mission it is to
maintain all the great truths for which he so eloquently and manfully
fought? How about a conception of Christianity which places itself in
evident relations with human nature and the history of the universe?
—a religion which finds its sanctuary in man’s soul, and aims at the
elevation of his finite reason to its archetype and its transformation
into the Infinite Reason?
Unitarianism in New England owes its existence to the supposition
that Calvinism is a true and genuine interpretation of Christianity.
“Total depravity,” “election,” “reprobation,” “atonement,” etc.,
followed, it was fancied, each other logically, and there was no
denying one without the denial of all. And as it was supposed that
these doctrines found their support in the divinity of Christ, and in
order to bring to ruin the superstructure they aimed at upsetting its
base by the denial of the divinity of Christ. They had grown to detest
so heartily the “five points” of Calvinism that they preferred rather to
be pagans than suckled in such a creed. Is it probable, is it
reasonable to suppose that our New Englanders, who have a strong
vein of earnest religious feeling in their nature, would have gone
across the ocean to find a support for the great truths which they
were so enthusiastic in affirming among the will-o’-the-wisps of the
realms of thought, when at their very doors was “the church which
has revealed more completely man to himself, taken possession of
his inclinations, of his lasting and universal convictions, laid bare to
the light those ancient foundations, has cleansed them from every
stain, from every alien mixture, and honored them by recognizing
their impress of the Divinity?”
But Mr. Frothingham tells us: “The religion of New England was
Protestant and of the most intellectual type. Romanism had no hold
on the thinking people of Boston. None besides the Irish laboring
and menial classes were Catholics, and their religion was regarded
as the lowest form of ceremonial superstition” (p. 107); and almost
in the same breath he informs his readers that “the Unitarians of
New England were good scholars, accomplished men of letters,
humane in sentiment and sincere and moral in intention” (p. 110). Is
Octavius Brooks Frothingham acquainted with all “the ceremonial
superstitions” upon this earth, and does he honestly believe that the
Catholic religion is “the lowest form” of them all? Or—what is the
same thing—does he think that the “good scholars and accomplished
men of letters” of New England thought so? Perhaps such was his
received impression, but that it was common to this class of men we
stoutly deny. No one stood higher among them than Dr. Channing,
and his estimate of the Catholic religion was certainly not the same
as Mr. Frothingham’s. It would be difficult to find in a non-Catholic
writer a higher appreciation of her services to humanity, and more
eloquent descriptions of certain aspects of the Catholic Church, than
may be found in his writings. Mr. Frothingham ought to know this,
and only the limits of our article hinder us from citing several of
these. Is he aware that President John Adams headed the
subscription-list to build the first Catholic church in Boston. Our
author, by his prejudices, his lack of insight, and limited information,
does injustice to the New England people, depreciates the
intelligence and honesty of the leaders in Unitarianism, and fails to
grasp the deep significance of the transcendental movement.
He does injustice to the people of Boston especially, who, when they
heard of the death of the saintly Bishop Cheverus, tolled the bells of
the churches of their city to show in what veneration they held his
memory; and if he was not of the age to have listened, he must
have read the eloquent and appreciative eulogium preached by Dr.
Channing on this great and good man. And Bishop Cheverus was the
guide and teacher of the religion of the Irish people of Boston!
Mr. Frothingham will not attempt to make a distinction between the
“Catholic religion” and “the religion of the Irish menial and laboring
classes”—a subterfuge of which no man of intelligence and integrity
would be guilty. The Irish people—be it said to their glory—have
from the beginning of their conversion to Christianity kept the pure
light of Catholic faith unsullied by any admixture of heresy, and have
remained firm in their obedience to the divine authority of the holy
church, in spite of the tyranny, of the bitterest persecution of its
enemies, and all their efforts of bribery or any worldly inducements
which they might hold out. When our searchers after true religion
shall have exhausted by their long and weary studies Zoroaster,
Pythagoras, Svenalis, Plato, Epictetus, Brahma, Buddha, Confucius,
Mahomet, and any other notable inventor of philosophy or religion;
when they have gathered up all the truths scattered among the
different heresies in religion since the Christian era, the end of all
their labors will only make this truth the plainer: that the Catholic
Church resumes the authority of all religions from the beginning of
the world, affirms the traditions and convictions of the whole human
race, and unites, co-ordinates, and binds together all the scattered
truths contained in every religious system in an absolute, universal,
divine synthesis.

[147]Transcendentalism in New England. A History. By Octavius Brooks

Frothingham. New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons. 1876.
 CHARLES CARROLL OF CARROLLTON.[148]

Charles Carroll’s is a household name in the American family—the

name of a man marked among his peers for a purity of character on
which a Christian mind loves to dwell: integer vitæ scelerique purus!
His independence was so noble and sublime, yet so toned with
homeliness withal, that of him it was said he walked the streets of
his regenerated country with brow erect and mien expanded,
because he was sans peur et sans reproche, a preux chevalier—the
idol in the family sanctuary. He alone of the great founders chosen
by the angel of this land was destined to witness, beyond the span
of days usually allotted to man, the unparalleled prosperity and
unequalled development of the resources of a virgin country. Such
was the well-earned reward of a career marked by the purest
disinterestedness in motives, justice in the choice of means, and
humblest dependence on the assistance of the Lord God of nations.
On the anniversary of that day when the covenant that saved
mankind was announced by an archangel from the highest heavens,
and ratified on earth by the assent of the lowly maid of Jesse, the
Ark and the Dove moored on the American waters of the Potomac. A
stalwart band of men who were to herald—and they alone of all the
Pilgrims—the great covenant of true liberty leaped on shore and
planted the standard of salvation. They planted the cross on a new
land to be added to Mary’s dowry. Truer men were never hailed by
an uncivilized people—men who had learned how to fulfil their
destinies in the schools of Bethlehem and of Golgotha.
The Catholic student of American history feels his heart glowing with
sentiments of the holiest pride, as, reverting to the twenty-fifth day
of March, 1632, he reads that the Catholic pilgrim alone, with his
descendants after him, has held steadfastly and without swerving,
even to this day, to the true dictates of that moral and religious
economy whereby man can secure his happiness and moral
independence here, with a never-wavering certainty of thereby
securing a claim to an everlasting welfare hereafter. Cardinal
McCloskey to-day represents and enacts these very same principles
and laws among and to the millions of Catholics in America, which
the humble Jesuit missionary Andrew White proclaimed among and
to the tribes of the Potomac two hundred and forty-three years ago
—nay, the same principles and laws which were, by the Lord’s
mandate, proclaimed by Peter and the apostles when for the first
time they announced their mission to the throngs gathered in the
city of David.
We love to dwell on these facts. The child who was christened in his
mother’s arms in Jerusalem on the day after Pentecost became
endowed with the same heavenly prerogatives as the Indian babe
regenerated in the laver of redemption by Father White sixteen ages
later or by any priest of the church on this very day! In very deed,
the indelible marks and divine perfections of the heavenly court are
mirrored and reflected by the city of God on earth. That same and
one Christ who reigned, with his laws, in the church of Jerusalem,
and a thousand years after in Vineland of North America, reigns and
rules to-day, with the same laws, from the Atlantic to the Pacific.
Meanwhile, where is the church of the Puritans? Where are her
antecedents? Has any of her aspirations been fulfilled? Is there any
mark of benediction left by her professors?
The past of Charles Carroll clusters around his life in manifold
benedictions; his name is borne aloft on the waters of that grand
stream over which the bark of Peter has triumphantly glided for
eighteen centuries, and will continue its triumphant course to the
consummation of the world. Such is the perpetuity of faith!
A half-century had hardly passed away since the landing of the
Pilgrims when Daniel Carroll, the grandsire of our Charles, came to
America (A.D. 1680). He was an Irishman, of that prodigious stock
which, in the wonderful ways of Providence, being transplanted on
our shores, was on some future day to give to America most
energetic and determined laborers in the rearing of our
independence. Surely did the orator of Concord, amid the festivities
of the last Centennial, prove himself miserably ignorant of what his
sires owed to the Irish[149] of Pennsylvania.
For let it be recorded for the hundredth time: but for those men our
cause would have been lost, in the straits to which the public weal
was brought. They came to the rescue, and George Washington took
good heart and went on to victory.
Daniel was born in Littemourna, King’s County, Ireland. During the
reign of James II. he held responsible offices. Lord Baltimore was his
patron, and by his favor, close application, sterling honesty, and
persevering industry he became the owner of large estates, and the
family prospered and increased in wealth, although not in social or
political position, during the second and third generations.[150]
Daniel Carroll rose very high in the estimation of the colony, and was
chosen to offices of important and delicate trust. So great was his
renown for spotless integrity, extraordinary ability, and love of the
public weal that when Protestant bigotry obtained the upper hand,
and, in the language of McMahon, the non-Catholic historian of
Maryland, “in a colony which was established by Catholics, and grew
up to power and happiness under the government of a Catholic, the
Catholic inhabitant became the only victim of religious intolerance,”
he was exempted from the opprobrious and hateful disqualifications
inflicted upon his coreligionists by the penal code—an exemption, at
first sight, of doubtful honor, were it not for the exceptional nature
and circumstances of the case. It entailed not the least compromise
on the part of the recipient, who accepted it without hindrance to an
open profession of his faith; moreover, it enabled him to shelter less
favored colonists in the enjoyment of rights most dear to their hearts
and indispensable to their happiness.
Charles Carroll, the father of the signer, was born in 1702. He was a
high-spirited man, but he had no chances to display his talents, nor
field on which to exert his energies. He chafed under the wrong and
ingratitude with which the children of mother church were harried in
the “Land of the Sanctuary” which they had opened to the
oppressed of all climes. Alluding to the legislation of the Maryland
colony in 1649, Chancellor Kent says: “The Catholic planters of
Maryland won for their adopted country the distinguished praise of
being the first of American States in which toleration was established
by law. And while the Puritans were persecuting their Protestant
brethren in New England, and Episcopalians retorting the same
severity on the Puritans in Virginia, the Catholics, against whom the
others were combined, formed in Maryland a sanctuary where all
might worship and none might oppress, and where even Protestants
sought refuge from Protestant intolerance.”
But Protestant intolerance demolished the sanctuary, the handiwork
of noble and loving Catholic hands. In accord with the wish of many,
Mr. Carroll entertained the idea of seeking freedom of action, liberty
of conscience, and equality of rights under another sky. Thus, in one
of his journeys to Europe, he applied to the French minister for the
purchase of a tract of land in Louisiana. The project was far
advanced, when the minister growing alarmed at the vast purchase
which it was their wish to make on the Arkansas River, the
negotiations were (providentially?) broken off. The project, viewed in
the light of succeeding events, may appear, as it was then by many
deemed, injudicious. Yet great praise is due to Charles Carroll, Sr.,
for his taking the lead in the movement at a time when, as Mr.
Latrobe observes, “the disqualifications and oppressions to which
Catholics were subjected amounted to persecution. Roman Catholic
priests were prohibited from the administration of public worship.
The council granted orders to take children from the pernicious
contact of Catholic parents; Catholic laymen were deprived of the
right of suffrage; and the lands of Catholics were assessed double
when the exigencies of the province required additional supplies.”…
Nay, more: a Catholic was levelled to the condition of a pariah or a
helot—he was not even allowed to walk with his fellow-citizen before
the State-house. Things were carried to a point beyond endurance.
No wonder the Catholics of Maryland felt relief even in the thought
of fleeing from home. And yet, with these facts, admitted by all
American historians, staring him in the face, the British ex-premier
has dared to flaunt a lie in the face of the whole world!
Charles Carroll, Sr., died at a patriarchal age, more than four-score
years. Like Simeon of old, he had long waited for the consolations of
Israel, for the day when the spouse of Christ would cast aside the
slave’s garb, and, emerging from American catacombs, come forth in
the radiant panoply of freedom and celestial splendor. He himself
never had faltered in this hope. He always felt that Mary’s land
would not be forsaken by her in whose name it was first held. He
saw his country free, and he rejoiced. He witnessed around him the
beneficent results accruing from the influences of mother church. He
raised his hand to bless God, to bless his kin, to bless the land. But
how shall we portray the emotions of his heart when no more in
hiding-places, but in full noon-day, openly and freely, he saw the
clean Sacrifice offered by the priests of the Most High? And when
the form of his beloved son knelt before him for a last blessing, how
with the father’s benedictions must have mingled feelings of pride
and gratitude because even by the untiring labors of that son had
the blessings of liberty to church and state been won!
It was the writer’s good-fortune, a great many years ago, to seek for
rest in what, among Catholic Marylanders, was formerly known as
the “Jesuit Tusculum.” In a secluded nook in Cecil County, on the
Eastern Shore, lies embosomed within dense thickets and shady
lanes the Bohemia Manor, a dependency of Georgetown College.
When the Catholic youth of Maryland were debarred the privilege of
collegiate training in their native schools, the members of the
Company of Jesus had, at a very early period, opened there a
boarding-school, especially for such of the American boys as would
afterwards, like their persecuted peers in England, seek for a sound
education and a thorough Christian training at the well-known
academies of Belgium and France. Wandering through those woods,
rowing over the meandering streams whose soft murmurings give
life to the silent homes of the crane and gentle game, the youthful
forms of the Carrolls and Brents, Dorseys and Darnells, haunted the
imagination and brought one back to those days of fervent Catholic
spirit, pure hearts, and high-minded youths who waxed in years and
strength under the saintly training of Hudson and Manners, Farmer
and Molineux. To the care of experienced, learned, and saintly
Jesuits was entrusted the training of that part of the Lord’s vineyard
which, amid persecution and manifold dangers, mirrored the days of
primitive Christianity.
Young Charles Carroll, who was born in 1737, was sent thither to
drink the first pure waters of secular learning and Christian training.
At one time well-nigh twoscore of the sons of the more fortunate
colonists were there united with him at the Tusculum of the
Company of Jesus.
But a day of separation dawned. Charles was in his eleventh year
when not the swift steamship of our time but a laggard craft was to
convey him to distant shores. He was accompanied in his journey by
his cousin, John Carroll, with whom many years after he
accomplished a most delicate and important mission at the
command of the government. Thus he added to the ties and
sympathies of blood a link of such friendships as are so apt to knit in
college life and ever after congenial souls and hearts beating in
unison. True, when the day arrived on which each was to enter an
avenue of life that would lead to the career for which each was fitted
by nature, they chose different gates, but came forth on the great
drama of life to be the leaders of two generations, one in the
church, the other in the state. Charles Carroll with unerring finger
points to the Catholic layman the resources which he should improve
for the perfect execution of his part; John Carroll has represented
him who is the infallible guide of the church, becoming at the same
time the model of bishop and priest, the pride and the joy of the
anointed minister of that same church in the United States.
Six years did young Carroll spend at St. Omer’s, in French Flanders,
in the study of the classics of ancient and modern times under Jesuit
tuition; thence he passed to Rheims; and lastly he entered the
college of Louis le Grand in Paris. In the two last places he applied
himself, under the guidance of learned Jesuits, to the study of logic
and metaphysics, mathematics and natural sciences. When at Louis
le Grand the elder Charles crossed the ocean a third time to feast his
eyes and gladden his doating heart on the son who had waxed in
years as well as in grace. He found the promising boy grown into a
manly youth, and bade him say farewell to the charms of a life
whose days glided on in unruffled peace, breathing in an
atmosphere of religion and science. His intercourse there was with
men whose aspirations were to the greatest glory of God, whose
conversation was in heaven. These men, so noble, so learned, so
perfect, had entwined the hearts of their pupils with their own.
In 1757 Charles Carroll removed to London to enter upon the study
of law. Admitted to the Inner Temple, an inmate, or at least a
frequenter, of those halls wherein surely the Holy Ghost did not hold
an undisputed sway, the noble-minded and pure-souled Maryland
youth must have felt the change to the quick. What a contrast to the
simplicity of his western home at the paternal manor, the sweet
influences and innocent life at the Bohemian Tusculum, and in the
blessed halls of Bruges and St. Omer’s! At the Temple he spent the
five years requisite in order to be called to the bar; but he remained
in Europe until 1764, when he again set sail for his western home.
A great change had meanwhile come over the moral atmosphere of
his native State. Whilst bickerings about religion were growing
distasteful, a rumbling noise of threatened disasters in the distance
drew the hearts of the colonists together. Indistinct and sombre
figures of enemies lurking around the premises counselled measures
of internal peace, equal distribution of civil rights, and a unity of
sentiments and aims as the only hope of averting ruin and of
conquering a powerful foe. Ties of friendship were strengthened,
measures of concerted action were discussed, whilst religious
questions were laid aside, and arrogant claims of superior rights on
the part of non-Catholics forgotten, in the presence of an impending
danger; the more so because it was felt that there was a party
brooding in their midst which was in accord with the enemy outside.
When the boy left the land of his birth, and the prow of the ship that
bore him ploughed the waters of the Atlantic, his soul expanded with
a heretofore unexperienced sentiment of liberty; for only then did he
begin to feel that freely under the canopy of heaven he could
practise his religion without let or hindrance, without the sneers or
intermeddling of his neighbors. Add to this the anticipated
enjoyment of the liberty in wait for him on the eastern lands of
Catholic faith. Yet the prospective and future return to the land of
bondage must from time to time have thrown shadows of sadness
over the gushing and joyful youth at school. But now comes a truce
to religious dissensions and family quarrels; a victory is gained: the
church is free, her shackles broken. Catholic and non-Catholic
worship at the altar of their choice freely and publicly. They are all
children of the same political family, members of the same moral
body!
But the liberties of the colonies are crushed by the mother country,
and Charles Carroll lands on these shores only in time to be one of
the mourners at the funeral of liberty. His countrymen had been
galled with bitterness by the contempt, insolence, and arrogance of
the British soldiery, and felt a contempt for the martinet leaders of
the Braddock defeat, while at the same time a feeling of superiority
was engendered in their heart by the warlike qualities displayed by
rank and file under the leadership of him who was already first in
the hearts of his peers. They chafed at being made the hewers of
wood and drawers of water to British indolence; they felt the
sanctuary of their homes desecrated by the writs of assistance; their
inmost souls were moved with indignation at being ordered to
sacrifice their hard-earned comforts, their very subsistence, to the
pleasure of a ribald soldiery. Such things could not be endured by
the sons of liberty. And thus it happened that Charles Carroll was not
welcomed with the cheers of a hearty greeting; he only heard the
groans, the smothered curses, the oaths of vengeance deep and
resolute, uttered by his oppressed fellow-colonists.
His soul was fired with wrath and zeal; but a wrath subdued by self-
control, a zeal swayed by prudence. His was a self-possession that
was never thrown off its guard. He seemed ever to be on the alert
against surprises—a foe more fatal to armies than cannon and shot.
During the excitement of the Stamp Act Charles Carroll, who had
returned from the Continent “a finished scholar and an accomplished
gentleman,” was at first a silent but careful and discerning observer.
He studied the tendency of events, and the moral elements on which
these events should work some remarkable development. Cautious
but firm, he gradually entered the lists, and then in the struggles
which seemed so unequal he fought heart and soul with that noble
galaxy of Maryland patriots who, bold and undismayed, opposed an
unbroken front to those first encroachments which were even
countenanced by interested parties in the colony. But for a prompt
resistance a breach would have been opened for such inroads into
the domain of our liberties as would break down its ramparts,
overwhelm our defenders, and enslave the people.
It is not necessary for us here to relate how the obnoxious law was
repealed—a tardy and unwilling act of atonement (“an act of empty
justice,” as McSherry well defines it); yet its revocation was hailed by
the colonies with great rejoicings as the harbinger of a better rule
and the dawn of a day of just polity in the home government. Surely,
the rulers in the mother country had felt the temper of her children
abroad; they loved her fondly as long as she proved herself a
mother; woe were she to forget the ties of love and harshly deal
with them!
Charles Carroll was neither blinded nor hoodwinked by this sporadic
token of motherly justice. Those years of residence in England were
not lost to him. He well knew the temper of the British lion, his
arrogance and his treachery. Sooner or later another paroxysm of
exigencies would come over him; they must be met, cost what it
may.
“Wicked is the only word which I can apply to the government of
your colonies. You seem to regard them as mere material mines
from whence the mother country is to extract the precious ore for
her own luxury and splendor.”[151]
The victory gained and the danger averted for the nonce, Mr. Carroll
devoted himself to promoting the welfare of the colony. In fact,
whilst a short period of comparative peace lasted outside the
colonies, Maryland was not free from internal disturbance. Two
sources of disquietude were then opened—the Proclamation and the
Vestry Act. Nor was the colony less annoyed by the unfaithfulness of
leading merchants in Baltimore, who, goaded by thirst of money and
not prompted by feelings of love for their country, had slackened in
their opposition to the encroachment of the government at home.
They only followed in the wake of New York and Philadelphia, and
even of Boston. The love of lucre and the diseased tastes of what
was then called the quality allowed the merchants of those cities to
fall away from the compact entered upon with the sister colonies. To
advance their interests and to satisfy a portion of the community,
they forsook their principles and paid the hated tributes for
proscribed commodities. But outside Baltimore the people in the
counties remained firm and unshaken in their patriotism.
Charles Carroll was young in years, but ripe in judgment. The future
statesman lost no opportunities. It was of the utmost importance
that he should thoroughly know the habits of his fellow-citizens and
their calibre, whether he looked upon them as a distinct colony or in
their relations to the other provinces; what were the materials and
the resources of the whole country; what guarantees could be drawn
from the past for the welfare of the future; how far or within what
bounds should the liberties of the colonies be restrained; what
security for the rights of conscience; were the rights of each colony
to be paramount over the exigencies of the whole family of
provinces?… To a mind well stored with the choicest theoretical lore
it became an easy matter to trace its course and clearly see the way
ahead. Thus prepared, he grappled with Charles Dulany, the
champion of those who opposed the people’s claims and
remonstrances. Dulany was his senior by many years, had grown up
identified with the selfish interests of office-holders and of the
established clergy, himself high in the councils of the government,
whilst his opponent had just arrived from a long sojourn abroad, and
was a “papist” enthralled and disfranchised.
The main point of dispute turned on the rights of the government of
the colony to tax the people arbitrarily for the payment of officers
and the support of the clergy. The history of the Proclamation,
drawn up by Dulany himself, and the burial thereof amid a most
solemn pageant by the freemen of Annapolis on the 14th of May,
1673, are too well known to require detailing here. It is enough to
say that by general acclamation the people acknowledged Charles
Carroll as their champion. He could not be selected as a delegate,
enthralled as he was, but in public meetings held in Frederick,
Baltimore, and Annapolis they unanimously voted and formally
tendered him the thanks of the people.
Mr. Carroll entered the lists veiled under the name of First Citizen,
whilst Dulany met him in combat as Antilon—an unnecessary
disguise, for he was too well known, being the patriot “who,” says
McSherry, “had long stood the leading mind of Maryland.” The war
was carried on in the columns of the Maryland Gazette, and Mr.
Carroll sustained his character of “finished scholar and accomplished
gentleman.” Never did he swerve from the high tone of a writer who
was conscious of his own powers. Assailed with offensive names by
his adversaries, he never descended to their level. When the real
name of the First Citizen was yet unknown, the excitement created
by his articles, written in a style ready and incisive, and withal most
graceful, was enhanced by and received a keener zest from the
stimulus of curiosity. Wonderful was the avidity with which they were
sought and read. These articles fed the public spirit, inspired the
people with courage, and shaped the course to be pursued not only
by the colonists of Maryland, but even in sister colonies. The articles
by First Citizen were held in so much esteem that Joseph Galloway,
when speaker in the Pennsylvania Assembly, would copy them with
his own hand, on the loan from a fortunate subscriber, and send
them to Benjamin Franklin.
Thus the popular party triumphed. The party of oppression, with the
established clergy at their back, was discomfited. Hammond and
Paca were elected. Maryland was saved, and her saviour was Charles
Carroll. Amid these controversies arose a young man, spirited,
wealthy, and highly educated, who threw himself headlong into the
struggle, and, growing with its trials, became renowned in its
darkest hours, and honored and cherished in its glorious success”
(McSherry, p. 170). That young man, only seven-and-twenty, was
already a renowned statesman.
A distinguished non-Catholic historian remarks that Charles Carroll
brought to play on whatever he undertook “a decided character,
stern integrity, and clear judgment.” Truly, the star of his name had
reached the meridian of its course already. There it became fixed.
His countrymen were guided by it during the dark days of the most
perilous events, through battles and storms, dissensions and heart-
burnings, the exuberancy of victories and the dejection of defeats.
Thirty years, the best of his life, his whole manhood, a long
manhood—for he grew old only when others cease to live—he
devoted to the welfare of his country.
The life of Charles Carroll becomes at this period so entwined and
blended with the history of the country that our article would swell
into a portly volume were we to undertake a narrative of the details
of his public career. We have endeavored to give a faithful portrait of
the character of a man who is the pride of the secular history of the
Catholic Church in America. It has been our aim to give a key to
open the inmost recesses of that soul the noblest of the noble, that
heart the purest of the pure, that mind greatest among the great.
Therefore we shall only hint at the events of his public life, omnia
quæ tractaturi sumus, narratione delibabimus, as Quintilian would
teach us.
As foreseen, the British lion awoke from his apparent lethargy, and
with a roar and a spring he bounded anew. Stung to the quick at
being, even only once, foiled in his endeavors to saddle on the
colonies unjust burdens, he made renewed attempts, and the tax on
the “detestable weed” was revived. The people arose in their
indignation, and gave vent to it in the hazardous but successful
festivities of the famous Boston Tea Party. Massachusetts was
disfranchised. Indeed, it was the vent of a petty spite. Not the Bay
State alone, but all the colonies, would soon disfranchise
themselves, all in a body, and in a way of their own. But
Massachusetts had given the example, and Maryland followed close
in the wake. The latter even improved on the act of the former; for
what had been achieved in the Boston Bay under disguise the
citizens of Maryland consummated at Annapolis openly and
undisguised. And yet brave Maryland had intestine troubles that
engrossed her attention—troubles which were aggravated even by
the fact that the abettors thereof were interested in carrying out the
measures of the home government. But there shone above them the
guiding star—Charles Carroll led them to victory. Undaunted and
uncompromising, Mr. Carroll looked coming events in the face; and
when Mr. Chase indulged in the hope that there would be no more
trouble, for “had they not written down their adversaries?” he would
not thus flatter himself with illusions of enduring peace. To other
means they would have yet to resort. “What other means have we
to resort to?” asked the other. “The bayonet,” calmly rejoined
Charles Carroll. And so firm was his conviction that they should
resort to arms that he held his opinion against many at home and
abroad. His reply to the Hon. Mr. Graves, M.P., who averred that six
thousand soldiers would easily march from one end of the colonies
to the other, is too characteristic of the statesman not to copy it
here: “So they may, but they will be masters of the spot only on
which they encamp. They will find naught but enemies before and
around them. If we are beaten on the plains, we will retreat to our
mountains and defy them. Our resources will increase with our
difficulties. Necessity will force us to exertion, until, tired of
combating in vain against a spirit which victory after victory cannot
subdue, your armies will evacuate our soil, and your country retire, a
great loser by the contest. No, sir; we have made up our minds to
abide the issue of the approaching struggle, and, though much
blood may be spilt, we have no doubt of our ultimate success.” In
these few lines the spirit, the gallantry, the tactics, the greatness of
our armies from Lexington to Yorktown are both eloquently and
accurately described.
And when a second cargo of the “detestable weed” entered the
waters of Maryland, the friends of Mr. Stewart, a leading merchant in
the colony, to whom the brig Peggy Stewart belonged, and to whom
the cargo was consigned, appealed to Charles Carroll for advice and
protection. The First Citizen was ever consistent. Was not the
importation an offence against the law? Was not the majesty of the
people insulted? To export the tea to the West Indies or back to
Europe was no adequate reparation—what if Mr. Stewart was a
friend of his?… “Gentlemen, set fire to the vessel, and burn her with
her cargo to the water’s edge!” With sails set and colors flying, she
floated, a sheet of fire, amid the shouts of the people on shore.
Besides the powerful promptings of a heart burning with love of
country, Charles Carroll felt moved to deeds of heroism and self-
defence by motives of equal, if not superior, importance. He became,
nay, he seemed to feel that he was, in the hands of Providence, the
chosen champion to assert Catholic rights and liberty—ay, might we
not look upon him as the O’Connell of America in the eighteenth
century? It can be proved beyond all doubt that the Catholics of the
colonies placed great trust in him. Surely he became their
representative. There was power in his name. He had become a
leading genius, inspiring with wise resolves, and determination to
carry them out, those valiant men of his faith who had clustered
around the Father of his Country, or were admitted to the councils of
the nation, or formed part of the rank and file in the American army,
or had it in their power to swell with generous hands the national
resources. This power of Mr. Carroll was felt even outside the pale of
his own church. The case of the Peggy Stewart is one to the point.
Another and far more important illustration of his power is the
following: Thomas Conway, a meteor of sinister forebodings, with his
plots of disaster and ruin, has defiled a very short page of American
history. Yet, brief as his career was in this country, it worked
mischief. “Conway’s Cabal” is well known. It is well known how the
despicable adventurer was bribed into a conspiracy against
Washington in favor of an unpopular superior officer. Charles Carroll
was a member of the Board of War. In that board there was a party
covertly yet powerfully at work to displace the commander-in-chief
in favor of Horatio Gates. Mr. Carroll, as usual, always on his guard,
watched his opportunity. He was approached cautiously and warily,
even before a vote was taken. Then calmly and stoutly, yet with that
rock-like firmness of his that had become proverbial, he said:
“Remove General Washington, and I’ll withdraw.” Words were those
pregnant with weighty consequences. Carroll was at the head, he
was the representative of the Catholics. Maryland went with him; the
Catholics of Pennsylvania, nine-tenths of the whole population, an
element of great power, indispensable to success, were with him.
The colonies needed the aid of Catholic France sadly. What if Charles
Carroll withdrew to Carrollton? What if he recrossed the ocean?
George Washington was not removed; and under God’s favor was
not George Washington the chosen leader, the appointed conqueror,
the Moses of his day, the Josue of his people? Who was there to
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