[As a reminder, click on the colored links to reach the relevant Gallison journal excerpts or other external documents.]
August, 1818, brings a resumption of the Journals from the year before. Missing volumes I and J account for most of the gap from our last entries, but Gallison also notes that he had not had a book to write in for some time after Volume J was finished. Increased professional and social success had still not translated to genuine financial comfort.
In this entry, we get a few brief glimpses of the ZipHorse (ZipChaise?) app that allowed a less-affluent urbanite like Gallison to make trips out of town before the arrival of the railroad and the automobile.
His intellectual life was active at this time. In particular, the article on Bristed he mentions was a scathing 10,000-word review of the newly-published The Resources of the United States of America; or, A view of the agricultural, commercial, manufacturing, financial, political, literary, moral and religious capacity and character of the American people. Published in Volume 7 of the North American Review, Gallison’s piece spends a lot of time correcting Bristed’s opinions of American law and government at the federal and state levels, and is worth study for that reason alone.
He had also been reading a fair amount for pleasure, especially Walter Scott.
The most important item this month for his own CV, and sense of well-being, was his receipt of an honorary master’s degree at Harvard. The College had been putting feelers out for a few years about repairing relations with one of their outstanding and successful students, to make up for expelling him just before his graduation in 1807. Among other things, they had discussed re-admitting him so that he might take his bachelor’s degree. Continuing to respect the oath he made to his classmates, however, Gallison had consistently refused to accept re-entry until all others had also been forgiven. The grant of the MA was a face-saving maneuver that made everyone happy, especially as it occurred just after he had helped organize his class’s reunion.