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POLITICAL PARADES AND AMERICAN DEMOCRACY : JEAN-CHARLES HOUZEAU ON LINCOLN'S 1864 REELECTION CAMPAIGN Translated and Edited by David C. Rankin Jean-Charles Houzeau, author of the document printed below, was born into an old and aristocratic Belgian family on October 7, 1820. Largely educated at home in his father's private library and in Paris at the Bibliothèque Nationale, Houzeau began publishing popular essays on science and society at the age of nineteen. At twenty-three he published his first scholarly article, a note on zodiacal light, in the German journal Astronomische Nachrichten. It was followed by numerous other books and articles, including Essai d'une géographie physique de la Belgique , au point de vue de Thistoire et de la description du globe, Histoire du solde GEurope, and L'étude de la nature, ses charmes etses dangers. In 1872 he published Études sur les facultés mentales des animaux compar ées à celles de Thomme, a two-volume study that Alfred R. Wallace described as a work of "curious facts, acute observations, and sound reasoning, which fully entitle its author to take high rank among philosophical naturalists." A decade later he published Vade-mecum de astronome and Bibliographie générale de Tastronomie, massive volumes that demonstrated his astonishing erudition and remain to this day indispensible guides to the history of astronomy. A member of the Belgian Academy of Sciences, Letters, and Fine Arts, president of the Belgian Geographical Society, and director of the Belgian Royal Observatory, Houzeau died in Brussels on July 12, 1888. In Paris, the president of the Academy of Science mourned the passing of a "great scientist" who had devoted his entire life to the search for "absolute justice and truth."1 1 The Wallace quotation is from his "Houzeau on the Faculties of Man and Animals," Nature 6 (Oct. 10, 1872): 469-71; Jules Janssen's speech before the Paris Academy of Science is reprinted in Ciel et terre9 (1888-89): 368-70. Additional information on Houzeau 's life and publications may be found in Joseph Nyns-Lagye, "Jean-Charles Houzeau, sa vie et ses oeuvres," Revue pédagogique belge 1 (Aug. 15, 1888): 390-416; Albert B. M. Lancaster, "J.-C. Houzeau: Notes biographiques," in J.-C. Houzeau and A. Lancaster, Bibliographie générale de Îastronomiel vols. (Brussels: 1880-89), 1, pt. 2:i~cxx; J-B.-J. Liagre, "Notice sur Jean-Charles Houzeau," Annuaire de l'académie royale des sciences. JEAN-CHARLES HOUZEAU325 Houzeau first came to America in October 1857 after having been fired from a government post because of his identification with democratic socialists and his involvement in the revolutionary upheavals of 1848. Following a brief stay in New Orleans, he traveled to Texas where he remained until February 1862 when his antislavery and pro-Union sympathies provoked a band of white vigilantes to chase him across the border into Mexico. In early 1863 he returned to New Orleans and began writing for the free colored newspaper L'Union. He soon left for Philadelphia , however, where for twelve months he served as L'Union's Northern correspondent and worked on Etudes sur lesfacultés mentales des animaux comparées à celles de Thomme. Later, in response to the "urgent invitation" mentioned below, Houzeau returned to New Orleans , passed for a free man of color, and, from November 1864 until January 1868, edited the New Orleans Tribune, the first black daily in America.2 Houzeau wrote the letter reproduced here during his stay in Philadelphia . One of several hundred he sent home describing life in the Americas ,3 it sheds light on Houzeau's decision to accept the editorship of the New Orleans Tribuneand on the creation of Etudessurlesfacultésmentales des animaux comparées à celles de Vhomme. What is most striking about the letter, however, is its vivid account of a spectacular Republican parade through Philadelphia on October 8, 1864. Houzeau is impressed by the size, precision, and enthusiasm of the parade, but like Tocqueville before him, he is particularly struck by thevoluntaristic and consensual nature of American political associations. He simply marvels at "the intimate character of these immense festivals, where everything is voluntary and spontaneous on the...

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