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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 December 2020
During the summer of 1849, while Melville was in New York writing White Jacket, the New York Herald carried a running story of the arrest and trial of a petty criminal known as the “Confidence Man.” There are several parallels between the Herald's “Confidence Man” and the character that Melville created in his later novel The Confidence-Man. Both the New York “Confidence Man” and Melville's Confidence-Man use the same approach and the same line of reasoning, leading to the same question: “Could you put any confidence in me?” Both men work under several aliases; both men use the former-acquaintance routine to relax their victims. In both the reality and the fiction there is a matter of bail to get out of the Tombs. And in both the novel and a Herald editorial a strong parallel is drawn between petty confidence men and the confidence men of Wall Street. From this correlation there is little doubt that this “Confidence Man” of 1849 was, in fact, the prototype for a major part of Melville's character in 1857.
Note 1 in page 1013 Paul Smith's article— “The Confidence-Man and the Literary World of New York,” NCF, 16 (1962), 329–37—notes the allusion to such a man in Duyckinck's Literary World (18 Aug. 1849). The Duyckinck article is, however, a response to an editorial in the Merchant's Ledger, which Smith was unable to fix within Melville's reading. However, these two publications were themselves responding to the running story in the New York Herald and the coverage in the New York Tribune. There were later confidence men who may well have added to this original model. One is an 1850 Melville impersonator mentioned by Jay Leyda (The Melville Log, xxx); another Melville impersonator of 1850 is described by Paschal Reeves, “The ‘Deaf Mute’ Confidence Man: Melville's Imposter in Action,” MLN, 85 (Jan. 1960), 18–20.
Note 2 in page 1013 New York Daily Tribune (10 July 1849), p. 3; Tribune (12 July 1849), p. 4; New Orleans Picayune (21 July 1849), p. 1; Picayune (26 July 1849), p. 1; Picayune (17 Aug. 1849), p. 1; New York Herald citings will be given in detail below.
Note 3 in page 1013 To avoid confusion, Melville's character will be referred to as the Confidence-Man. The character in the Herald will be referred to as the “Confidence Man.” Generic use of the phrase will be in lower case.
Note 4 in page 1013 An American Glossary, ed. Louise Hanley, iii (New York: Ungar, 1962), 85, places the first usage in print at 1867. A Dictionary of American English on Historical Principles, ed. W. A. Craigie and J. R. Hulbert (Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press, 1938), i, 590, cites the Knickerbocker, 34(1849), 279: “One of the good effects resulting from the arrest of the ‘Confidence Man’ was an article in the Herald.”
From the context it is obvious that the Herald article precedes the citation. A Dictionary of Americanisms, ed. Mitford M. Mathews (Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press, 1951), i, 375, cites the New Orleans Picayune (21 July 1849), p. 1, col. 4: “Well then,” continues the ‘confidence man,‘ “just lend me your watch till to-morrow.”
The Picayune story, however, credits New York as being the source of the incident. No other reference works cite an earlier usage than those shown here. Therefore, the Herald story of 8 July 1849 appears to be the first printed use of the term “confidence man.” Moreover, from reading the running stories, one gets the impression that the paper coined the word for the occasion to describe the modus operandi of the criminal.
Note 5 in page 1013 Leon Howard, Herman Melville (Los Angeles and Berkeley: Univ. of California Press, 1951), pp. 133–34.
Note 6 in page 1013 Merton M. Sealts, Melville's Reading (Madison: Univ. of Wisconsin Press, 1966), p. 15, cites a letter from Elizabeth Shaw Melville to Hope Savage Shaw, 23 Dec. 1847, held in the Harvard College Library.
Note 7 in page 1013 Herman Melville, White Jacket, ed. Hennig Cohen (New York: Holt, 1967), p. 241.
Note 8 in page 1013 New York Herald, “Police Intelligence” (8 July 1849), p. 2, col. 3.
Note 9 in page 1013 Herald, “Police Intelligence” (9 July 1849), p. 2, col. 4.
Note 10 in page 1013 Herald, “Court of General Sessions” (10 Oct. 1849), p. 4, col. 4.
Note 11 in page 1013 Leon Howard, Melville, p. 139.
Note 12 in page 1013 Jay Leyda, ed., The Melville Log, i (New York: Harcourt, 1951), 310.
Note 13 in page 1013 Herald, “Police Intelligence” (14 July 1849), p. 2, col. 3.
Note 14 in page 1013 Herald, “ ‘The Confidence Man’ on a Large Scale” (11 July 1849), p. 2, cols. 1–2.
Note 15 in page 1013 Herman Melville, The Confidence-Man, ed. Elizabeth S. Foster (New York: Hendricks House, 1954), p. 30; hereafter page numbers referring to this edition will appear in the text.
Note 16 in page 1013 Herald, “Court of General Sessions” (9 Oct. 1849), p. 1, col. 6.
Note 17 in page 1013 Herald, “Court of General Sessions” (10 Oct. 1849), p. 4, col. 4.
Note 18 in page 1013 Herald, “Police Intelligence” (31 July 1849), p. 2, col. 5.
Note 19 in page 1013 Herald, “Police Intelligence” (3 Aug. 1849), p. 3, col. 2.
Note 20 in page 1013 Ibid.
Note 21 in page 1013 Knickerbocker, 34 (1849), 279.
Note 22 in page 1013 Herald, “ ‘The Confidence Man’ on a Large Scale” (11 July 1849), p. 2, cols. 1–2.
Note 23 in page 1013 After this article was written, my attention was called to a study by J. D. Bergmann, “The Original Confidence Man,” AQ, 21 (Fall 1969), 560–77, which bears certain similarities to my own work.
