respects he was far in advance of them, and in the handling of color and his brush-work shows a kinship with the methods of the later Nineteenth century. At an early period in his career he came under the spell of the English school, and for a while was a pupil in the studio of Benjamin West, yet it was but a passing phase in his development. He saw that the sole endeavor of the English portraitists was the expression of mere sensuous beauty, so he flung himself out of it and set to work to teach himself the art of painting as he conceived it. Not that the creed of beauty did not enter into his conception, but to Stuart truth was an element equally desirable. The art that could create a fairy princess out of a light o' love possessed no interest to him, hence his portraits have a power and reality that one seeks in vain for in the canvases of Reynolds and Gainsborough. His wonderful intuitive powers enabled him to perceive the spiritual characteristics of his sitters, which he transferred with amazing skill to his canvas. For this reason he has been recognized as the sole artist of his time to give an adequate portrayal of the features of Washington, whose portraits painted by him constitute a noble memorial to America's greatest statesman.

The definite separation of the Colonies from the Mother Country had a repressive effect upon art, and with the exception of Stuart and Trumbull, only four men attained results worthy

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Thomas Sully (1783-1872), John Vanderlyn (1776 1852), and John Wesley Jarvis (1780-1834). Allston was a native of Charleston, South Carolina, and a poet of considerable ability as well as a painter. He was somewhat of a dilletante, restlessly turning from one art to another, yet he had distinct genius as a painter; and, had his technique been on a plane with his conceptive powers, he would doubtless rank among America's greatest artists. As it is, his canvases are more interesting for what they aspire to, than what they realize. The mystical nature of his themes has caused his pictures to appeal to many students of American art, and of late there has been marked tendency towards an Allston renais

sance.

Thomas Sully was the Gilbert Stuart of the early Nineteenth century. During his long life he painted thousands of portraits, which, though not marked by any extraordinary qualities, were of an even excellence. His extant pictures would fill a gallery with the faces of distinguished men and lovely women, among which the famous portrait of Queen Victoria, painted soon after her coronation, would take the first place.

Allston and Vanderlyn were the first artists of America to study in Italy, and both were profoundly influenced by the masters of the Italian

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Renaissance. With regard to Allston it was more or less a passing phase, but with Vanderlyn the spell of Raphael, Titian, and Correggio colored the whole of his art. His greatest painting, the "Ariadne of Naxos," though strongly reminiscent of Titian's sleeping Venuses, nevertheless remains one of the most exquisite examples of the nude painted by an American artist.

Of this group Jarvis conformed more nearly perhaps to the popular conception of the artist for he was essentially a Bohemian, with a life marked by the vicissitudes and vagaries generally experienced by people of that temperament. He was the nephew and namesake of the founder of Methodism, but had little in common with his distinguished relative, save a vigorous mind and a magnetic personality. He was brought from England by his father at the age of five, and though English-born never came under the influence of the English painters of his time. He was self-taught, and in the

beginning painted many hopeless daubs, but his enthusiasm in due time conquered his difficulties, and he became, if not a great painter, at least a skilful and popular one. He made more money than any artist of the day, but he spent it lavishly, and died in Boston at the age of fifty-four, wrecked both physcially and financially by his improvident mode of life.

It is thus evident that the early period of American art did not lack striking figures, a few of whom were men of real genius. In view of the isolation and the lack of appreciation that the painter had to contend with, the marvel is that anything at all worthy was produced. The necessity for making a livelihood forced the majority of them to become portrait painters, but what has proved, perhaps, a loss to art has been a gain to history, for on their canvases the men who molded our nation out of a disorganized group of petty sovereignties, stand faithfully before us, possessed of such immortal existence as art can give.

T

HE great experiment was at last on trial. After long and

earnest discussion, as we have seen, the Constitution had been adopted, though its adoption was received with great doubt and apprehension in various parts of the country. Many thought that its ultimate sucess was extremely problematical, while others disliked its aim and provisions, and had determined to oppose it in every way possible. But, as eleven of the States had adopted it, a trial of its merits or demerits was to be made, notwithstanding the misgivings and even the ill-wishes of its opponents. What little remained of the old Congress, passed out of existence quietly. After the passage of the Ordinance of 1787, it had slowly sunk into supineness, feeling, no doubt, that nothing of importance could be done by it

until the outcome of the Constitutional Convention was definitely known. In 1788, when the adoption of the Constitution became certain, the members of the old Congress betook themselves to their homes, there to assist in the organization of the new government.* government. On July 2, 1788, however, before the members departed, the President of Congress rose in his seat, and, after announcing that nine States had ratified the Constitution, said that Congress should take the steps necessary to put the new government into operation. On Septem