Richard Henry Dana, Jr.
Richard Henry Dana, Jr. ( born August 1, 1815 in Cambridge, Massachusetts, † January 6, 1882 in Rome ) was an American lawyer, politician and writer.
Life
He was born as the son of one of the most distinguished families of the City of Cambridge; his grandfather Francis Dana had represented Massachusetts in the Continental Congress and was a signer of the Articles of Confederation, his father Richard Henry Dana Sr. was a renowned lawyer and publicist. He matriculated at Harvard University, but interrupted his studies after an attack of measles which affected his eyesight strong. Since he believed that a sea voyage would be conducive to his eyes, he was hired in 1834 as a simple sailor on the brig Pilgrim, which sailed from Boston to California. During the voyage around Cape Horn, his stay in California and the return to Boston on the ship Alert, he kept a diary, which as the basis for his 1840 published book Two Years Before the Mast (Eng. " Two Years Before the Mast ") was. In this work, Dana describes his adventures at sea, his maturation from greenhorn for experienced sailors, and in a lively manner, the California society of the time. The book became a bestseller in the UK as in the U.S. and enjoys to this day, especially as youth book great popularity. Two Years Before the Mast a major influence on the development of the English sailors novel. Herman Melville praised Dana's work explicitly in his 1850 novel, White- Jacket.
After his return to Massachusetts Dana completed his studies and embarked on a career in law. He was initially an expert on maritime law, but became increasingly involved in the abolitionist movement ( anti-slavery movement). In 1848 he attended the founding of the Free Soil Party, and several times he represented in court escaped slaves who had escaped from the South to Massachusetts and should be delivered in accordance with the Fugitive Slave Act. In 1854, he was beaten after the trial about the runaway slave Anthony Burns from paid job clubs on the street almost to death. In 1861 he was appointed by Abraham Lincoln to the United States Attorney for Massachusetts. During the Civil War he defended in this function successfully in the Supreme Court the legality of the seizure of ships in the southern states and the blockade of their ports by vessels of the Union. From 1867 to 1868, he belonged to the Massachusetts General Court, the Parliament of his home state, at.
His last years were overshadowed by a protracted over years Plagiarism process. Dana was alleged to have used as editor of the legal textbook Henry Wheaton 's Elements of International Law passages from the spring of the previous publisher. The process also had an effect on his political career; 1876 prevented Dana's political enemies his appointment as ambassador to England by President Ulysses S. Grant also relying on the plagiarism process.
Works
- Two Years Before the Mast (1840 )
- The Seaman 's Friend: Containing a Treatise on Practical Seamanship, with Plates; A Dictionary of Sea Terms; Customs and Usages of the Merchant Service; Laws Relating to the Practical Duties of Master and Mariners (1841 )
- Cruelty to seamen: being the case of Nichols & Couch
- An autobiographical sketch (1815-1842)
- To Cuba and back (1859 )
- Journal of a Voyage Round the World (1859-1860)
- Twenty -Four Years After (1869; slander to Two Years Before the Mast )
- Robert F. Lucid ( ed.), The Journal of Richard Henry Dana, Jr. Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. Cambridge 1968.
Secondary literature
- Robert L. Gale: Richard Henry Dana, Jr. Twayne, Boston 1969..
- Samuel Shapiro: Richard Henry Dana, Jr. 1815-1882. Michigan State University Press, East Lansing in 1961.