JOHN HOWARD PAYNE, HIS LIFE AND ACCOMPLISHMENTS
BY Hugh R. King
Deliverd at the East Hampton Library
June 13, 2002
John Howard Payne was a person of vast experience and of varied undertakings and achievements. He was an actor, playwright, minor poet, newspaper editor, publisher and critic as well as a United States Consular official. He championed for the rights of American Indians, fought for the establishment of copyright laws and he was a gifted director and producer in the world of the theater. Payne was probably the first native American actor to enact the role of Hamlet, the first American performer to appear on the European stage and the earliest American playwright to have his works produced abroad. John Howard Payne insisted on accurate period costumes for performers and included extensive scenery and costume designs for his plays. Payne wrote more than sixty different pieces for the theater including tragedies, comedies, farces and operas and his work was produced in both Europe and America for nearly half a century. Although his work was mainly adaptive and most of his plays and operas are no longer performed, Payne's works enjoyed success until the latter half of the 19th century and were performed by the leading actors of the day .He also wrote the lyrics to arguably one of the world's most famous songs, "Home Sweet Home."
Payne's major flaw was that throughout his life he was a poor financial manager. He was lavishly extravagant and never free from financial debt. He had many enemies and detractors and was at numerous occasions the victim of bad timing, misunderstandings and downright malice. In addition to the above, ill fortune and a penchant for wandering probably kept John Howard Payne from achieving greatness in the eyes of the world.
Any story of a
historically relevant person should begin with his or her family. Aaron Isaacs,
the maternal grandfather of John Howard Payne was said to have come from Hamburg,
Germany. He spent time in New York City and was listed as a member of Temple
Shearth Israel in 1748. Aaron Isaac's name first appears in the Records of the
First Presbyterian Church in 1750 when his seven-year-old child died. He was
a merchant who shipped goods on consignment between Long Island and Connecticut
and was employed as a courier during the American Revolution. Mary Hedges Isaacs,
the maternal grandmother of John Howard Payne traces her ancestors back to William
Hedges and Thomas Talmage Jr., early settlers of East Hampton.
William Payne,
the father of John Howard Payne was born in New England in 1746. His father
had already died and his mother remarried and moved to Nova Scotia leaving her
young son in the care of a Congregational minister whose son was a student at
Harvard. William Payne began studying medicine with General Joseph Warren who
was killed at the Battle of Bunker Hill. Payne then studied and became a specialist
in languages and elocution and started a school in Boston, which closed as a
result of the Revolution. He then removed to Barnstable to work as a tutor where
he met his first wife Lucy Taylor who died after one year of marriage. After
a business trip to the West Indies William Payne returned to New London where
he met Sarah Isaacs the daughter of Aaron Isaacs. They later married and moved
to East Hampton where William Payne along with Jabez Peck became the first teachers
at Clinton Academy. Aaron Isaacs was an early financial supporter of Clinton
Academy.
Where the Paynes
lived in East Hampton is anybody's guess as Aaron Isaacs, the father of Sarah
Isaacs Payne owned several houses in town. One candidate of course would be
the house now called Home Sweet Home; another would be the present law office
of Robert Osborne close to Clinton Academy.
William and Sarah
Payne had nine children, five who were born in East Hampton. Two girls, Eliza
Maria and Elizabeth Mary both died before their third birthday. Lucy Taylor
Payne, who is buried in the South End Burying Ground married a Dr. John Cheever
Osborn and had two children who died in infancy. The last of the Payne's children,
Thatcher Taylor Payne, became a lawyer in New York City. Sarah Isaacs Payne,
named after her mother, attended Roxanna Beecher's school at the present site
of the East Hampton Village Hall and died at the age of twenty-three. John Howard
Payne's other two sisters, Eloise and Anna, operated schools in Rhode Island
and New York City.
Eloise Richards Payne, who died at the age of thirty-two may have been the most
talented of all the Payne children. She was thought to be a woman of extraordinary
genius and accomplishments. Eloise displayed an incredible proficiency in Latin
at the age of fourteen, demonstrated a remarkable skill in penmanship and later
in life distinguished herself as an amateur artist.
This leaves us
with the most famous child of the Payne family, John Howard Payne, and the place
of his birth. Like many other aspects of John Howard Payne's life the place
of his birth is rife with speculation. His biographers give the place of Payne's
birth to New York City on June 9, 1791. Family histories also assert that he
was born in New York City including extant letters of Lucy Taylor Payne and
Thatcher Taylor Payne. Numerous newspaper articles written about the life of
John Howard Payne mention his birth as having taken place in the city of New
York. Also there are no Paynes listed as living in East Hampton in the 1790
census. Another piece of evidence that supports a New York City birth is a letter
written by Reverend Samuel Buell stating that as of September 30, 1790 William
Payne was no longer teaching at Clinton Academy, and five days before John Howard
Payne's birth William Payne is advertising in a New York Newspaper for students
to attend his school of Academical Instruction in Great Dock Street at No. 4.
However, evidence
to the contrary abounds. The late great Morton Pennypacker, an eminent historian
whose collection of historical books, pamphlets, letters, maps and other historical
artifacts comprised the beginning of the Long Island Collection of the East
Hampton Free Library felt that John Howard Payne was born in East Hampton. Mr.
Pennypacker related a story
that while living in East Hampton William Payne often visited New York City,
possibly to find a site for his new school. On his trips he sometimes stopped
at the house of a man named John Howard in Smithtown. During one of his visits
in 1791 the traveler mentioned the birth of a son and asked his host to suggest
a name for the child. John Howard supposedly proposed his own. Mr. Pennypacker
also located a note on an address that was given by John Howard Payne while
he was performing in Ireland explaining that the address was delivered by Mr.
John Howard Payne, formerly of Easthampton, Long Island. Another East Hampton
connection appears in a letter Payne wrote to his sister-in-law while traveling
among the Indians in which he refers to himself as a "staid East Hamptoner."
The great, but not
late former East Hampton Town Historian Carleton Kelsey asserts that being pregnant
in 1791 would have caused John Howard Payne's mother Sarah to remain in East
Hampton to have her child rather than risk the arduous journey to New York City.
Members of the Mulford family who lived next to the house now called Home Sweet
Home as well as a relative of John Howard Payne, Sophy Jones both remembered
young John Howard as a child living in the home. Articles appearing in the Brooklyn
Eagle around the turn of the 19th Century, attempting to promote East Hampton
as a tourist attraction, stated not only that Payne was born in East Hampton
but also that he wrote his famous song in Home Sweet Home!
We do know that
John Howard Payne spent time as a child in East Hampton. He wrote of being terrified
of the geese around Town Pond and of a teacher in the Town House terrifying
her students. Also, in his early years Payne suffered from various ailments
described as "fits of hypo" and "unremitting fevers." According
to John Howard Payne he also suffered for three years from St. Vitus Dance,
a nervous disorder. Later in life he suffered "fits of despondency and
blue devils." Nevertheless, Payne could have been sent to East Hampton
as a child in an attempt to restore his fragile health.
The place of John
Howard Payne's birth, whether in East Hampton or New York, should not detract
from Home Sweet Home as a memorial to his song and the accomplishments of his
life.
William Payne's
schools in New York City were located at various addresses and in 1799 he moved
his school to Boston starting a boarding school called Berry Academy in which
John Howard was a student. A component of the curriculum at the Berry Street
Academy was the performances of plays called "exhibitions." Young
John Howard Payne exhibited a talent for acting in these endeavors and several
prominent theater personages offered to take him under their wings and train
him for the theater. The theater was not highly thought of in the early 19th
Century and while William Payne was forward-thinking enough to include it as
part of his curriculum to further the teaching of elocution, he was not about
to let his son enter the acting profession.
Meanwhile the Payne's
oldest son, William Osborn Payne, died while working in a counting house in
New York City where he had become a partner in the business. Young John Howard's
father -- in an attempt to discourage his interest in the theater - sent him
to New York to take his brother's place in the firm. The owner, a Mr. Forbes,
was encouraged to keep young Payne so busy he would have no time for the theater.
Denied the opportunity
to attend the theater on a regular basis and having no chance to perform, John
Howard Payne, then fourteen years of age, initiated a venture that would involve
him in the world of the theater. He commenced the publication of a newspaper,
the Thespian Mirror, the first newspaper in the city of New York devoted exclusively
to the theater. The paper first appeared on December 28, 1805 and featured news,
critiques and sketches of stage personalities. It was published anonymously
and ran for fourteen issues until Payne was discovered as its editor and publisher.
The paper was an astounding accomplishment for a child of fourteen who was working
a twelve-hour day in a counting house and had little or no writing or newspaper
experience.
Payne's newspaper
attracted the attention of William Coleman the editor of The Post an influential
New York City paper and Mr. Joseph Seaman a merchant of some note. They convinced
William Payne that young John Howard's future was not in the counting house
and made arrangements for young Payne to attend Union College with Mr. Seaman
footing the bill.
While publishing
the Thespian Mirror, John Howard Payne wrote his first original play, Julia,
or the Wanderer. That he found time to write a five-act play while working in
the counting house and writing and publishing his newspaper is astonishing.
The play was said to be filled with wit and penetrating thought and was quite
good considering the age of the playwright. However, the piece was criticized
for indecorous incidents and objectionable language. The word "damne"
appeared several times in the script. The play was given a single performance
and was withdrawn by the author.
After a short trip to
Boston to visit his family Payne departed for Union College early in June of
1806. He was supposed to depart the boat at Albany and travel to Schenectady,
the site of Union College. But young John Howard instead departed on a stage
with some fellow travelers bound for Montreal. He never arrived there and his
return trip to Union College cost him the tidy sum of ninety dollars. Upon arriving
at Union he was dismayed that Mr. Seaman was not happy at his tardy arrival.
This kind of impetuous act was to plague Payne throughout his life.
At the college young
John Howard came under the direct supervision of the college president, Dr.
Eliphalet Nott, even boarding in the same room. Besides his studies he also
found time to publish another newspaper, which was not a financial success and
act in a student production, playing the part of a female character Lodoiska
in a student-written play Pulaski.
Then events began to transpire that would change the course of John Howard Payne's
life. On June 18, 1807, Payne's mother died at the age of forty-seven. A year
later, Sarah Isaacs Payne died of consumption. These two events sent William
Payne into a tailspin and he was finding it difficult to make his Berry Academy
financially viable. It was then agreed that young John Howard Payne was to leave
Union College and embark on an acting career to help defray some of his father's
expenses.
John Howard Payne
made his acting debut on February 24, 1809 at the Park Theater in the part of
Young Norval in The Tragedy of Douglas, or the Noble Shepherd. Payne's debut
was a success. His success was tempered by a disagreement he had with the Park's
two co-managers, the actor Thomas Cooper and Stephan Price. At the end of his
run at the Park Theater Payne insisted that the ornaments on his dresses (costumes)
as well as the dresses were his property. Mr. Price informed him that the ornaments
belonged to the actor Cooper and an argument ensued. Propelled by jealousy on
Cooper's part and the indignation by Price of Payne's self-important attitude
they both conspired to make further engagements in the theater difficult. Young
John Howard Payne then went on tour and performed in the cities of Providence,
Baltimore, Philadelphia, Richmond, Charleston, Petersburg, Norfolk, Boston and
Washington. D.C. He earned more than $13,000 for his efforts greatly easing
his father's financial concerns.
Despite Payne's
early successes he found it more and more difficult to attract engagements.
There was not a large theater-going public in the early 1800's and the influence
of Cooper and Price was far-reaching. Upon his father's death in 1812 a group
of his Baltimore friends raised the funds for Payne to travel to Europe for
a year and become acquainted with the English theater to further his theatrical
education. If John Howard Payne had remained in America and overcame the obstacles
of Cooper and Price he may have become our first great actor. As it was, he
was the first American actor to enact the part of Hamlet.
Payne left for
England on January 17,1813 for his one year stay. He was gone for twenty years!
The trip to Liverpool
took thirty-five days and, once again, Payne's timing was poor. Because of the
hostilities between America and England as a result of the War of 1812, he was
interred in Liverpool for fourteen days while his passport was examined. Upon
his release John Howard Payne set out to secure an engagement at the Drury Lane
Theater, one of the two leading theaters in London. Events leading up to the
War of 1812 had affected Payne's debut in New York City in 1809 and his arrival
in England in 1813 was at the height of the hostilities between the United States
and England which affected the size of a theater audience in London. Also he
had arrived just at the time the London theaters were closing for the summer
season.
Nevertheless John
Howard Payne became the first actor from the New World (America) to grace the
stage of the Old World (England) when he appeared as Norval in The Tragedy of
Douglas on June 4, 1813. Considering the disdain the English had for American
culture -- or the lack of it -- Payne's reception was warm and complimentary.
He later appeared as Romeo in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. While in London
at this time he made the acquaintance of Benjamin West, Charles R. Leslie and
Samuel F.B. Morse. Later friends were Walter Scott and Samuel Taylor Coleridge.
After the theaters
closed for the season in London John Howard Payne then embarked on a tour of
the countryside appearing in Liverpool, his greatest success, Birmingham, Litchfield,
Manchester and other smaller hamlets starring in many of the roles he played
in the United States. His performances did not afford him a great deal of profit
as travel and management fees cut into his earnings.
During this time
Payne was also involved in a "romantic friendship"with a wealthy woman
named Mrs. Emelia Von Harten who fell desperately in love with him. Mrs. Von
Harten exhibited a propensity to mental disturbances and John Howard was enlisted
by her to supply aid and comfort. Payne, while somewhat attracted to Emelia,
realized her married state and attempted to cool her ardor. Upon the return
of her husband to England Emelia's passion for the young actor abated little
and the resulting circumstances almost led to a duel between Payne and George
Von Harten. Cooler heads prevailed and the death of Emelia Von Harten in 1816
ended the unhappy episode.
In the summer of
1814 John Howard Payne traveled to Ireland and his tour of the Emerald Isle
was an artistic success. He developed friendships with some of Ireland's leading
literary and public figures and he helped launch the career of Eliza O'Neill
who later went on to become one of England's leading tragic actresses. He also
fell in love with Miss O'Neill but did little to further his suit. His Irish
tour while not a financial success did serve to widen his fame abroad.
Upon his return
to England Payne joined the throngs sailing for Paris as the war with America
had ended and Napoleon was exiled to the island of Elba. When he arrived in
Paris Napoleon had escaped from Elba and the city was in an uproar. John Howard
Payne made the acquaintance of Francois Joseph Talma, the great French tragedian
who extended him the freedom of the house which enabled Payne to view every
play in Paris free of charge.
During the first
quarter of the 19th Century, London theaters had a great sentiment for adaptations
of Paris hits preferring them to original works. This set John Howard Payne
on a course that would encompass most of his dramatic writing careers, the adaptations
of the works of others. Had Payne developed original works of his own, he may
have achieved exceptional results and financial success, but his adaptations
while remarkable, brought him little recognition or monetary reward, except
to others. After adapting several French plays and sending them to England Payne
returned there and resumed his acting career which ended apparently in May of
1818. In all he had appeared for one hundred and six nights in twenty-two different
roles.
The night of December
3, 1818 marked the opening of what many felt was John Howard Payne's greatest
work, Brutus, or the Fall of Tarquin. The play launched the career of one of
England's greatest actors, Edmund Kean and was performed for half a century
in both England and the United States. One of America's greatest actors, Edwin
Booth, performed in it in the late 1860's. Payne's Brutus, like so many of his
plays, contained explicit directions for scenery, costumes, stage directions
and lighting. John Howard Payne was one of the first playwrights to insist on
accurate period costumes for his productions. He received one hundred eighty-three
pounds for his efforts, not a huge amount considering the success of the production,
and received nothing from subsequent performances both in England and in the
United States. International Copyright laws were usually ignored at this time.
Payne even had to defend his play from charges of plagiarism.
Washington Irving
then suggested that Payne return to America but instead he took over the management
of a small summer theater called Sadler's Wells, which even though he raised
the stature of the theater with his productions, caused him to incur indebtedness
to the tune of seven thousand dollars.
His debts caused
Payne to be sent to London's Fleet Prison for the inability to pay his creditors.
He was able to obtain his release by adapting a French play -- that with a stoke
of good luck, he was able to obtain -- into a melodrama entitled Therese which
afforded him enough funds to satisfy some of his creditors. There were still
outstanding debts and his creditors were becoming insistent so Payne fled to
Paris to look out for French novelties to be translated and adapted for the
English stage.
Gradually his finances
improved and Payne's time in Paris was one of the more prosperous times of his
life. He visited with Charles and Mary Lamb and for a while shared an apartment
with his good friend, Washington Irving.
Payne was attracted
to a ballet then playing in Paris called Clari, or the Promise of Marriage.
He created a play from the ballet entitled, Angioletta, which his good friend
the great English composer, Henry Rawley Bishop, suggested he turns into an
operetta and thus was born Clari, or the Maid of Milan, with lyrics by John
Howard Payne and music by Henry Rawley Bishop. And of course this production
was the introduction of the famous song, Home Sweet Home to the world.
The operetta opened
at the Covent Garden Theater on May 8, 1823 with Anna Maria Tree playing the
part of Clari. The production was well received and played throughout England
and America. Payne sent Clari with two other pieces -- Ali Pacha and The Two
Galley Slaves -- to England and the Covent Garden Theater for two hundred fifty
pounds. That was Payne's entire remuneration for his work. The song, Home Sweet
Home, took on a life of its own separate from the operetta as a London publisher
sold thousands of copies of the song making a great deal of money for himself
and others while Payne and Bishop did not share in the profits. The song became
part of the program of many recital singers including Adalina Patti who sang
the song for the Lincolns at the White House after the death of their child,
Tad, and the great Jenny Lind sang the song in Washington, D.C. in 1850 with
John Howard Payne in the audience. The song was a staple of the Civil War and
was used at bond rallies preceding World War 1.
There has been
much speculation about John Howard Payne's motives and circumstances at the
time his famous song was written. Payne was living in an apartment at the Palais
Royale when he wrote his famous lyrics, and the apartment overlooked a magnificent
garden and park and gave a clear view of one of the finest marts in Paris. Thus
the opening lines of his song, "Mid pleasures and places though we may
roam." We can probably dismiss the stories of his wretched and poor and
lonely condition at the time he wrote Home Sweet Home.
However, his motive for writing the song can be open for interpretation. Before
his production of Clari opened in England, John Howard Payne had written home
to lament that his yearnings for home were becoming stronger and that he missed
his family. Was he thinking of the building we now call Home Sweet Home or his
family in New York City when he wrote the song? Certainly a case can be made
for the old saltbox house, the 19th Century windmill and the gardens surroundings
the building we now call Home Sweet Home as evoking feelings of home and belonging.
Another less emotional
theory is that John Howard Payne wrote Home Sweet Home to further the plot of
his operetta. Clari, a poor maiden, is lured from her country home by the Duke
Vilvaldi with a promise of marriage. Sequestered in the Duke's palace, surrounded
by luxuries of every kind, the Duke reveals to Clari that he cannot marry her
because of the differences in their stations. Clari, then alone among all the
Duke's riches, sadly sings her song of home.
Whatever people
feel about Payne's motivation for writing his immortal song, there is nothing
amiss when we associate the words of Home Sweet Home with the 18th Century saltbox
nestled between the historic Mulford Farm and the elegant St. Luke's Episcopal
Church next to the Village Green in East Hampton. There is no better place,
in this writer's opinion, to evoke the memory of John Howard Payne or the meaning
attached to the words of his song.
John Howard Payne
spent the remainder of his time in Europe collaborating with Washington Irving
on several plays, bringing out a small weekly publication called The Opera Glass,
adapting numerous other works for the London stage and falling in love with
one of the most famous women of the early 19th Century.
In 1825 John Howard
Payne met and fell in love with Mary Shelley, the author of Frankenstein. Payne
secured free passes for Mrs. Shelley and her friends to attend operas and plays,
accompanied her on many occasions. Letters between Mary Shelley and Payne indicate
that while he hoped for a relationship, she was not only not interested in him,
but Mary Shelley had developed a fondness for Payne's best friend, Washington
Irving! Irving it appears had no interest in developing a relationship with
Mary Shelley. She, according to a recent biography, may have feigned an interest
in Irving to thwart Payne's unwelcome advances.
John Howard Payne
had achieved abroad what no American had done before and had won a unique place
in American and English theatrical history. With his future in doubt he now
set sail for home on June ll, 1832 at the age of forty-one, to live another
twenty-one years and die far from his home sweet home.
John Howard Payne's arrival
in New York City on July 25, l832 coincided with the great cholera epidemic
which eventually took the lives of more than three thousand people, another
piece of extremely bad timing. By August life began to return to normalcy and
a benefit was proposed for Payne by the New York Mirror which had recently published
the story of his life to date in two lengthy installments. The benefit realized
upwards of three thousand dollars and others were planned in Boston and other
cities, but a charge of "accepting charity" was lodged toward him
and Payne refused any and all proposals for future benefits and testimonials.
Anyway his mind was taken by an idea for a new venture, a proposed periodical
to attempt to further Anglo-American friendship to be called by the unusual
name, Jam Jehan Nima.
John Howard Payne
thought that if people in England and Europe knew more about America they would
be more respectful of our people and culture. His new periodical would include
accurate information about the United States, which would acquaint Europeans
about the true nature of his mother country. Thinking he needed five thousand
subscriptions before commencing publication Payne set out on a tour of the western
and southern states to secure the necessary subscribers. He traveled to Boston,
Baltimore, Charleston, Louisville, Natchez, New Orleans and Florida. While in
New Orleans he received more than one thousand dollars from a benefit in his
honor. The benefit was roiled in controversy, however, as Payne became embroiled
in a dispute between two rival newspapers in the city.
Writing to his
benefactors in New Orleans to thank them, he broached a subject which made him
a pioneer in the field- copyright protection for dramatic authorship. Payne
wrote that England had recently given its authors twenty-five years of protected
compensation for their works while in America there was no copyright law at
all. Later in 1836 he wrote to Senator Henry Clay in support of a copyright
law then before Congress. If copyright laws had been in effect and enforced
during his lifetime, John Howard Payne would have been free of debt and would
have been remembered as a literary and dramatic figure of some note.
Leaving Florida
Payne continued his journey into Alabama and Georgia in order to obtain more
subscriptions and gather information for his articles. Here he experienced adventures
with the Creek and Cherokee Native Americans that would bring him posthumous
fame and recognition, but also threaten his life.
In a letter to
his sister Lucy John Howard Payne gave a complete description of probably the
last Green Corn Dance enacted by the Creeks east of the Mississippi River. He
later compiled a fourteen-volume history of Cherokee political history, religious
history, myths and legends. Both of these works have proved invaluable to subsequent
ethnographers of Native American culture. Home Sweet Home Museum and the Village
of East Hampton have obtained a microfilm copy of John Howard Paynes's fourteen
volumes of Cherokee history from the Newberry Library in Chicago and donated
it to the Long Island Room of the East Hampton Free Library.
However, Payne
was also destined to suffer greatly due to his contact with the Cherokee Indians.
Beginning in the decade of the 1830's the United States had begun a systematic
removal of the Cherokees from their native lands. Many of the Cherokees, led
by John Ross, resisted any treaty that would result in their removal. John Howard
Payne, who had become acquainted with Ross, wrote passionately of the injustices
that had been inflicted upon the Cherokees, translated various Cherokee documents
and began complying material in order to write a history of the Cherokee Nation.
For his efforts he was arrested by the Georgia Militia, jailed for fourteen
days, and nearly lost his life in the process. The Cherokees were eventually
moved off their native lands despite protests and memorials written largely
by Payne for the Cherokee leader, John Ross.
John Howard Payne's
Indian adventures probably ended the possibility of his periodical becoming
a possibility and he turned to other pursuits. Through a visit to George Keats
he discovered four unpublished poems of the poet, John Keats, established a
relationship with a magazine called the Ladies Home Companion, and then became
a contributor to a new monthly magazine entitled The United States Magazine
and Democratic Review. Payne was to write a series of articles under the subject
of Our Neglected Poets.
His first article
was to be about William Martin Johnson an unpublished poet who lived in East
Hampton for some time. In the middle of his essay on Johnson Payne included
a sketch of Hampton because that's where he thought Johnson was the happiest.
The East Hampton piece appears to have been based on a visit John Howard Payne
made there sometime between 1832 and 1834. His essay is important because it
may be one of the earliest descriptions of an American community for other than
informational purposes, rather an impressionistic travelogue of an isolated
community, which focused on local manners and customs. The tone of the piece
was tongue-in-cheek, and when read appears to be venerating and tender, somewhat
similar to what his good friend, Washington Irving, wrote about the Hudson Valley
Region. 1
However when excerpts
of the piece appeared in the Sag Harbor Corrector in 1838, the people in East
Hampton were not happy. They thought Payne had mocked their way of life and
depicted them as unsophisticated relics of the past. Thus, the piece was lost
to oblivion. 2
After a short journey to the west to again visit with the Cherokees, John Howard
Payne found himself in Washington, D.C. making plans for his final leg of his
rambling journey through life. At the death of William Henry Harrison John Tyler
had become President of the United States. Payne both knew the President's father
and was acquainted with his son, John Tyler Jr., and through the Tyler's influence
he obtained an appointment as United States consul to Tunis, as Tunisia was
known then.
On arriving in
Tunis Payne found the consulate house in disrepair and the duties of office
had been sadly neglected. He spent a good deal of time repairing the consulate
mansion, with a good deal of his own money, and began drafting plans for the
extension of trade between the United States and the North African countries
as well as preparing to write a history of Tunis. Payne's health began to fade
and his time and energy were spent on the repair of the consulate house when
he received a disturbing piece of news. Because of a change in the administration
at Washington, John Howard Payne had been recalled from his position as consul
to Tunis and been replaced by his predecessor! He then spent two years returning
to America traveling by way of Malta and Italy.
Payne then began
making plans for his future. He made an effort to publish the first volume of
his Cherokee history, applied for the position of librarian of the New York
Historical Society and even contemplated joining the California Gold Rush. Nothing
came of these endeavors and in March of 1849 he found himself in Washington,
D.C. Millard Fillmore had succeeded to the presidency upon the death of Zachary
Taylor and Daniel Webster had become Secretary of State. Through their efforts
and with the help of Secretary of War William Marcy, John Howard Payne was reappointed
consul to Tunis.
Before leaving on
his mission Payne was treated to a rendition of Home, Sweet Home by the Swedish
Nightingale, the great Jenny Lind, on December 17, 1850 at the National Hall,
the newly constructed concert hall in Washington, D.C.
During Payne's last years in Tunis his health began to fade. His upper teeth
had already been removed and he began to suffer from oppression in the chest
and a weakening of his nervous system. He died on April 9, 1852 and was buried
at St. George's Cemetery on a hill overlooking the harbor of Tunis. Payne had
died at sixty-two years of age.
This however does
not end the story of the star-crossed life of John Howard Payne. Due largely
to the efforts of William Corcoran, founder of the Washington Gallery which
bears his name, his remains were returned to the United States and he was re-interred
in the Oak Hill Cemetery in Washington, D.C. on June 9, 1883. In attendance
were Chester Alan Arthur, President of the United States and a graduate of Union
College, his cabinet, members of the Supreme Court and Congress, members of
the diplomatic corps and more than two thousand attendees, including Payne's
niece Mrs. Eloise Payne Luquer. John Howard Payne was accorded a grand funeral
service and the ceremony was characterized by much pomp and circumstance and
John Phillip Sousa's band of course played Home, Sweet Home.
Even in death Payne
suffered one last indignity. The orator of the day, a Mr. Leigh Robinson, knew
little of his life and characterized him as a failure with the one-blessed event
in his life the writing of Home, Sweet Home. Robinson's oratory was based on
hearsay, innuendo, distortion and his own prejudiced opinion with enough sweet
words to disguise the true effect. Unfortunately William Corcoran's insistence
on extensive press coverage ensured the rapid spread of Leigh Robinson's eulogy.
Much of what future generations would know about the life of John Howard Payne
was based on this one biased and mostly truthless oration.
I hope this paper will serve as a proper memoriam for one of America's most important literary and dramatic figures.
1. Rushmore, Robert P. "The Village of East Hampton, a Sketch by John Howard Payne," Long Island Historical Journal, Fall 1997, Vol. 10, Department of History, State University of New York at Stony Brook: 25-38.
2. Ibid.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Blarney, Ann. Fanny and Adelaide. Chicago: Ivan R. Dee, 2001.
Brainard, Charles, H. John Howard Payne, A Biographical Sketch. Boston, MA: Rand Avery and Company, 1885.
Chiles, Rosa, Pendleton. John Howard Payne. Washington, D.C.: Columbia Historical Society, 1930.
Department of Commerce and Labor Bureau of the Census. Heads of Families - First Census of the United States, 1790, State of New York. Bureau of the Census, Washington Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C., 1908.
Foreman, Grant, ed. Indian Justice. Oklahoma: The Star Printing Company, 1962.
Harrison, Willis, T., The Early Life of John Howard Payne. Boston: The Bibliophile, The University Press, 1913.
Harrison, Gabriel. John Howard Payne, Dramatist, Poet, Actor, and Author of Home Sweet Home, Historical Writings. Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott and Company, 1885.
"John Howard Payne," New York World Mirror, 23, March, 1883.
Luquer, Thatcher, Taylor Payne, ed. "Correspondence of Washington irving and John Howard Payne," Scribner's Magazine, (Oct 10, 1910) pp. 461 - 482.
"Writing a Play in Debtors' Prison," Scribner's Magazine, 1921: 237 - 246. Extracts from Diary of John Howard Payne.
An Unconscious Biography, William Osborn Payne's Diary and Letters, 1796 - 1804. New York: 1938.
Overmeyer, Grace. America's First Hamlet. New York: New York University Press, 1957.
Pennypacker, Morton, ed.. Home Sweet Home, The Homestead of John Howard Payne, New Findings. Village Board of East Hampton. 1937.
Rushmore, Robert P. "The Village of East Hampton, a Sketch by John Howard Payne." Long Island Historical Journal, Fall 1997, Vol. 10, Department of History, State University of New York at Stony Brook : 25 - 38.
Seymour, Miranda. Mary Shelley. New York: Grove Press, 2000.
Sleight, H.D., Journal of the Trustees of the Freeholders and Commonality of the Town of East Hampton, 1772 - 1807. East Hampton New York (Town). 1927.
Smith, Paige. The Nation Comes of Age. New York: McGraw Hill Book Company, 1981.
"The Life of John Howard Payne, Part I." The New York Mirror (Nov. 24, 1832): p. 1.
"The Life of John Howard Payne, Part II." The New York Mirror (Dec. 1, 1832): p. 1.
Twomey, Tom, ed., Exploring the Past, Writings From 1798 - 1896 Relating to
the History of the Town of East Hampton. New York: New Market Press, 2000.