s ' i ] CIVILIZED AMERICA. BY THOMAS COLLEY GRATTAN, LATE HER BRITANNIC MAJESTY'S CONSUL FOR THE STATE OF MASSACHUSETTS ; HONORARY MEMBER OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE; THE NEW YORK AND BOSTON HISTORICAL SOCIETIES, ETC., ETC. AUTHOR OF A " HISTORY OF THE NETHERLANDS ; " " HIGHWAYS AND BYWAYS," ETC. IN TWO VOLUMES. VOL. IL LONDON: BRADBURY AND EVANS, 11, BOUVERIE STREET, 1859. \Tlie. Avfhor reserves the right of TranMotion.'] c^ -A LONDON : BRADBURY AND EVANS, PRINTERS, WHlTEFRIARf5. CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. THE IRISH IN AMERICA. America the Natural Refuge of the Irish — Their Claims on the Good-will of Americans — Their Reception in America — Doctrines of Naturali- zation — Improved Habits of the Irish — Temperance — Intelligence Societies — Comparison between Germans and Irish — Peter Parley on Ireland and the Irish . CHAPTER II. THE WOMEN OF AMERICA. Progress of Female Influence — Scarcity of Monster-women — Right Appre- ciation of the Sex — Supeiiority of Women in America — Their Foibles in Manuer and Dress — Precocity — Flirtations — Marriages — Indepen- dence of Children — Matchmaking unusual in America — American Women in Europe — Home sickness — Woman's Rights' Conventions CHAPTER III. COMPARISON AND CONTRASTS BETWEEN ENGLAND AND AMERICA. The National^ Conceit encouraged by Leading Public Men — Instances — Misapplication of Terms — Marriage, Murder, and Cowhiding in High Life — Selfishness of the Social System — Contrasts between England and America • . . 81 CHAPTER IV. THE FINE ARTS IN AMERICA. Extravagant Self-laudation of Americans on that head — Artists of Merit — Little Encouragement for them — Ignorance of the Fine Arts— Public and Private Collections — " Apollo Association " — Art-Union — Objection to the Lottery System — Connoisseurs — Amateurs— Speculators — Rosa Bonheur's "Horse Fair" 107 - /^ »-• /w /C s CONTENTS. CHAPTER V. EXTREMES OF SALVAGE AND CIVILIZED LIFE. THE INDIAN TRIBES. PAGi: The Indians an inferior race— Exaggerated accounts of them— Their gradual extinction- Ill-treatment by the first Discoverers of America— Hypo- crisy of their Descendants— Frequent but vain attempts to create an interest in the Tribes— Their Religious Notions— Languages— Their Oratory— Final Struggles— Persecution in the Gold Regions— Hope- lessness of their Present Condition l*^! CHAPTER VI. EUROPEAN TRAVELLERS AND VISITORS. Professional Visits of Eminent Musicians: Braham, Cinti-Damoreau, Ole Bull, Artot, Wallace, Vieuxtemps, Paggi— Arrival of Sir Charles Bagot —General Miller— Sir Richard Macdonnell— Bishop of Newfoundland Madame Calderon de la Barca — Lord Carlisle — Mr. Dickens— Mr. Combe — Lord Metcalfe and others — Establishment of the first Line of Steamers— Public Banquets— Public Feeling- True Bond of Union between England and America— Undue Expectations of Sympathy— The best International Policy IGO CHAPTER VII. THE SOUTHERN STATES. The Direct Route from North to South — New York — Philadelphia— Balti- more— Wilmington— Characteristics of Society — Public Works— Kit Hughes, a retired Diplomatist— Another, sans peur et sans reproche— A Small but Honest State — Deviations from the Straight Road — Newport An Episode of Rhode Island — Dorr's Rebellion — A Yankee Campaign Two Victories and no Battle — A Brilliant Afiair — Conclusion of Episode — Historical Parallel 181 CHAPTER VIII. THE SOUTHERN STATES— (Continued). Another deviation from the direct road — The River Hudson — The Students and Admirers of Nature — Catskill Mountains — Esopus Falls — West Point — Military and Naval Officers — Saratoga — Maryland once more — w. Plantation on Chesapeake Bay — Washington — Virginia — Richmond — * Slave Auction — James River — Ethnological Study — A Night Alarm — English names of Plantations— Depreciation of Slave Labour — Uncer- tainty of Political Ojjiuion 214 CONTENTS. CHAPTER IX. THE ANNEXATION OF TEXAS. PAGE Description of the Country — Diplomatic History of the^ Question — Bad Faith of American Statesmen — Mutual Vituperation . . . . 251 CHAPTER X. ANNEXATION OF TEXAS— (Continued). Mexican Affairs — War of Independence — War with Texas — Battle of San Jacinto — Overtures for Annexation rejected by the United States — Texas turns to Europe for Aid — President Tyler's Policy — Election of Mr. Polk — Resolution for the Annexation of Texas — Final Consumma- tion of the Work 283 CHAPTER XI, ARE THE AMERICANS A HAPPY PEOPLE ] Definition of Happiness — Deficiency of the European Elements for it in America — Negative Advantages — Mysteries of Maternity — A Boston Boy — Middle-aged Young Men — Political Unsteadiness — Levity and Conceit — Changing Names — Reasons for it — Confusion in Names of Towns — Patriotic Names of Towns — Extraordinary Wager — A Political Hoax 312 CHAPTER XII. RELIGIOUS SECTS. Their great Variety and conflicting Opinions — The Voluntary System — No State Church — Religion unconnected with Politics — No Persecution but plenty of Hatred — Fanaticism — Its Excesses — Ranting Preachers — Specimens of them — The Anxious Bench — A great Vocalist out of tune and place — Eminent Preachers — Dr. Channing — Mormonism — ■ Millerism — Camp Meeting — Bursting of the Bubble — Shakerism — Con- trasts in Fanaticism — The Sacred Scroll — Angelic Nomenclature . . 337 CHAPTER XIII. SPECULATIVE PHILOSOPHY. Mental Excitability of the Americans — Their Speculative Ardour — Phre- nology — Mesmei-ism — Neurology — Dr. Joseph R Buchanan — His Lectures — Phrenology in Action — Reading Character from Handwriting — The same result from mere Contact with the Paper — Remarkable Instance of this Faculty — Discredit attached to Mesmerism — Spirit Raspings 355 vi CONTENTS. CHAPTER XIV. ' EDUCATION— LITERATURE— THE DRAMA. PAGE Public Instruction fti America — Wisely Regulated and not Overdone- Mr. Horace Mann's Reports on Public Schools — Scholarship necessarily restricted in the United States in comparison with England — General Education of the People — Its Results, and Limits of its Influence — After-education in Political and Commercial Life — " Young America " — Estimation of Scholai'ship — Writers unduly extolled— Recent Pro- gress of Literature — Mr. Ward's *' Views of England " — An American N'otiou of John Bull — Poverty of the American Drama — Miss Cushman. English Actors in America — Anecdote of Mr. Braham — American Italian Opera ... * 373 CHAPTER XV. HENRY CLAY. His Political Honesty— His Views of Slavery — Chosen Presidential Candi- date — Defeated at the Election — Triumph of the Democrats . . . 395 CHAPTER XVI. SLAVERY. Importance of the question — Long avoided by the People at large — The Abolition Party — Tribute to its generous Enthusiasm — English Aboli- tionists — Abettors of Slavei'y in the Northern and Western Free States — Dangers of Emancipation — Its present Impracticability — Main Evils of Slavery— Susceptible of Improvement— Plans for Emancipation, by John Mc Donough and Cassius Clay — Congressional Enactments — Ordinance of 1787 — Missouri Compromise in 1820 — Wilmot Proviso, 1846 —Misery of the Fi-ee Blacks in the Slave States — Their Situation in the Free States — O'Connell's Denunciation of Slavery and its Abet- tors among the Irish — Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 — Repeal of the Missouri Compromise in 1854--Triumph of the Slaveholding Power — Possible change before 186 3-^ Arguments in favour of Slavery — The Ancient and Modern Slave — The Kansas struggle — Aggressive Policy of Southern States — Slave Trade with Africa . . . . .409 CHAPTER XVIL MISCELLANEOUS SUBJECTS. Inauguration of Mr. Polk — Oregon Question — British Columbia — Rapid Decline in Influential Men in the United States — ^Despondency of the Whigs — Elation of the Democrats — Mexican War — Last Visit to WaSh- CONTENTS. jugton— Desultory Eeflections— Discipline— In the Army— In Civil Life-The Americans a Military People- Obedience to Autliority— Definition of Lynch Law-Its Practical Effect-Not dangerous to the Institutions of the Country CHAPTER XVIII. MISCELLANEOUS SUBJECTS— (Continued). British North American Provinces-Glances at Canada-Boston Emigration . Society-A Yankee Job on a Small Scale-Departure from America- Resignation of Consulship-Commercial Dishonesty- Fame of Public Men short-lived— Concluding Remarks Appendix . 443 4i7f] CIVILIZED AMERICA. CHAPTER I. THE IRISH IN" AMERICA. America the Natural Refuge of the Irish — Their Claims on the Good-will of Americans — Their Reception in America — Doctrines of Naturalization — Improved Habits of the Irish — Temperance — Intelligence Societies — Com- parison between Germans and Irish — Peter Parley on Ireland and the Irish. One of the subjects which most naturally attracted my attention was the position and prospects of my emigrant fellow-countrymen throughout the Union. I was soon satisfied that I saw them in a character altogether new, and infinitely improved in comparison with that which they show in their native island or in Great Britain. The poverty, suffering, and discontent of the masses in Ireland are no doubt modified when they cross the channel, and shift the scene of existence to the English shore. Their industry has more scope, their earnings are larger, their material interests bettered. Small advantages, however, are gained in a moral sense. Degraded by a feeling of inferiority and the overbearing manner of their new fellow- subjects, far from the associations of home, and aloof from the community at large — without anchorage ground or a congenial soil, like sea-beaten ships or trees uprooted by 2 * THE IRISH IN AMERICA. the wind— they are, in the true, but perhaps impolitic, words of a great living statesman, " aliens in race, lan- guage, and religion/' Thus it is that the mass of Irish- men, the poor, ill-educated, lower classes are never seen in their real native character, in what is, logically and legally, the land of their allegiance, or the step-mother country to which they may have removed. It is no wonder, then, that they yield in large numbers to that instinctive longing for change which throbs in the breast of the unhappy ; that they seek elsew^here the good which Nature tells them is the birthright of humanity ; and that, having fixed on the goal of their hopes, they should crowd to it, and aid those they love and have left behind to follow and share in their success. A wide field is open to their adventurous course ; " The world is all before them, where to choose ; " and many a voice is raised, to counsel or deceive them. Inducements of various kinds are held out. Solid advan- tages are mixed up with visionary speculations. The real is blended with the ideal, in the seductive pictures of colonial enjoyment. Objections are made, and obstacles suggested, as self-interest dictates to the agents who would dissuade the voluntary exiles from taking the course of their predilection. But the welcoming whisper of afiection from the United States, answered by the urgings of their own hearts, insensibly draws them on ; and they hopefully trust themselves on " the broad Atlantic,'^ to proceed in immense majorities to the harbours of New York and Boston, or the other seaports of the Great Republic. They have powerful reasons to expect a warm welcome and a ready-made home in this land of political promise. Ireland has strong claims on the good-will of America. When the war of the Revolution broke out, the inhabitants; NATURAL REFUGE OF IRISH. 3 of Belfast were the first European community — the French Court does not come under that classification — that gave open expression to their good wishes for the American cause. Public meetings, quickly following the first, were held throughout the country, to encourage transatlantic resistance ; and as the contest went on, Ireland, catching inspiration from the example of the New World, took that noble attitude of resistance which gained for her in 1782, under the guidance of Grattan and his patriotic associates, the legislative and commercial independence which was destined to so short a life. But from that period of a common sympathy — which ought not to be affected by success or failure — Irishmen have never ceased to look towards America with affection ; loving the people who won the freedom for which they vainly sighed, and regarding that country as the natural havQn for hopes too often shipwrecked in the tempests of hard fate that beat upon their native land. Any one who has travelled in Ireland, not merely with eyes to see her former wretchedness, but also with ears to hear her complainings, must have remarked the en- thusiasm towards America that mingles with them. By the less-elevated ranks, the small farmers, artisans, and peasantry, the United States are considered as a sort of half-way stage to Heaven, whither some of the kindred or friends of almost every family have already repaired ; and whence they receive accounts, that even when unex- aggerated or falling short of the truth, paint this new- found home, in comparison with their own domestic misery, as the very El Dorado of Spanish romance.* Infants suck * ** The Irish on their arrival in America cannot believe their own eyes ; they feel as though under a spell. They do not dare to describe to their friends iu Europe the streams of milk and honey that flow through this promised land. ♦' An Irishman who had recently arrived, showed his master a letter wbioh he B 2 4 THE IRISH IN AMERICA. in, as it were, with their mother's milk, this passionate admiration of the New World: They are cradled in eulogiums on its excellence. Its praises are the lullaby of the child. The boy is taught to venerate its greatness ; and the man talks of and sighs for its far-off shores, with a fervid admiration that knows no bounds. The poetic mind of the Irishman, his warm heart, and ambitious temperament, all unite to give the colours of enchantment to the fairy-land he pants for. The beauty, the affection, the glory he pictures to himself form the arch of the covenant which Heaven seems to have made with the poor exile. Long before he trusts his fate upon the ocean he sees America, in the visions of night as well as in his day-dreams, more verdant than his own green fields, more fertile than the valleys, more sublime than the mountains. But, above all things, he reckons with too ardent security, on an ardour equal to his own, in the noble race with which he has peopled his fancied elysium. Often do his sentiments literally and unwittingly respond to the exclamation of Miranda, in " The Tempest : " — "How beautiful Mankind is! O brave New World, That has such people in it ! " Everything relating to the Revolutionary struggle has a thrilling interest for the people of Ireland. It is not merely for the memory of their own countrymen, Montgomery and others, who heroically fell or conquered in the cause of freedom, that they retain regard. The name of Washington is held in reverence without Hmit. Who can read the following anecdote, recorded by had just written to his family. 'But, Patrick,' said his master, 'why do^ you say that you have meat three times a-week, when you have it three times a-day ? ' 'Why is it?' replied Pat; *it is because they wouldn't believe me if I told them so.'" — Society, Manners, and Politics in the United States. By Michaei. Chevalier. American translation. IKISH YEARNINGS TOWARDS AMERICA. 5 Mr. Hackett, the comedian, without a cordial wish to grasp the hand, and share the emotion, of such men as composed the audience of the Dubhn theatre 'i — " The first night of the performance of * Eip Yan Winkle,' when in the midst of the scene where he finds himself lost in amazement at the change of his native village, as well as of himself and every- body he meets, a person of whom he is inquiring mentions the name of Washington. Eip asks, 'Who is he?' The other replies, * What ! did you never hear of the immortal George Washington, the Father of his country ? ' At these words, the whole audience from pit to gallery seemed to rise, and with shouting, huzzaing, clapping of hands, and stamping of feet, made the very building shake. These deafening plaudits continued some time, and wound )ip with three distinct rounds. To attempt to describe my feelings daring such an unexpected thunder-gust of national enthusiasm, is utterly impossible. I choked, — the tears gushed from my eyes, — and I can assure you, it was by a great efifort that I restrained myself from destroying all the illusion of the scene, by breaking the fetters with which the age and character of Hip had invested me, and exclaiming, in the fulness of my heart, * God bless old Ireland!'" That touching scene was, beyond all doubt, a fair specimen of the almost universal Irish sentiment, in regard to America and to the founder of its greatness. That sentiment is, on numberless occasions, made evident, not in Ireland alone, but wherever Irishmen are to be found, in whatever quarter of the globe. It is, in fact, unquestion- able, that the Irishman looks upon America as the refuge of his race, the home of his kindred, the heritage of his children and their children. The Atlantic is, to his mind, less a barrier of separation between land and land, than is St. George's Channel. The shores of England are farther off, in his heart's geography, than those of New York or Massachusetts. Degrees of latitude are not taken into account, in the measurements of his enthusiasm. Ireland, 6 THE IRISH IN AMERICA. — old as she is, and fond as he is of calKng her so, — seems to him but a part and parcel of that great continent which it sounds, to his notions, unnatural to designate as the new world. He has no feeling towards America but that of love and loyalty. To Hve on her soil, to work for the public good, and die in the country's service, are genuine aspirations of the son of Erin, when he quits the place of his birth for that of his adoption. No nice dis- tinctions of nationality, no cold calculations of forms, enter into his mind. Ea;ile and alien are words which convey no distinct meaning to him. He only feels that he belongs to the country where he earns his bread. His birthright has hitherto been but a birthright of suffering. The instinct of naturalization is within his soul. And he cannot conceive that the ocean which he is crossing, should be more powerful to deprive him of, than his own heart-yearnings are to secure to him, all the rights and privileges which that instinct seems to claim. His first foot-print on the soil of the New World is to him a virtual seal placed on the bond of his fidelity. The first breath of air he inhales is a cordial to his heart, for he knows it is the air of freedom. He never before felt himself really a man ; for the bhght of petty proscription had, ever until now, hung over and around him. He never before knew the obligations of the word allegiance ; for a host of small impediments stood between him and the object to which he owed it. Now he comprehends and acknowledges it. He feels himself to be identified with that to which his fealty is due. He considers himself an integral portion of the State. He is at once, in heart and soul, if not in form, a citizen. And may it not here be asked, Is the man who thus comes into the country, — a part of it by impulse, a patriot THEIR RECEPTION IN AMERICA. 7 ready-made, — a fit object of doubt and odium 1 and might it not be more generous, just, and politic to meet half-way his ingenuous views, to stretch out to him the hand of brotherhood, to join in the bond of fellowship which his heart has already ratified ? Might not a fairer estimate of his character than that which generally prevails, and a higher trust in human nature itself, combine, and safely too, so as at once to invest him with the title he aspires to, and the rights which it confers, thus making him in reality what he beHeves himself to be, and giving him the best of all inducements to learn and uphold the real interests of the country he would thus belong to, and removing the dangerous chance of his being misled and imposed on by the temptations which induce the immigrant, while an alien, to give to a faction an adherence which is due to the commonwealth ? This is, however, as will be seen, put merely hypotheti- cally ; and is thrown out, rather to induce reflection than to provoke discussion. It may, however, serve as an index to the tenor of what is to follow, and to the opinions of the high authorities I mean to refer to, in practically treating the question of naturalization. The expectations of the new comer, romantic rather than reasonable, are too often cruelly checked in the first moments of his arrival. He gives his hand, — and an Irishman's hand almost always has his heart in it, — to the designing persons by whom, from various motives, he is watched for and caught up ; but the cordiality of his grasp meets a cold return. He speaks in the fulness of sincerity ; but no voice responds in the same key. His uncouth air, his coarse raiment, his blunders, and his brogue are certainly unattractive or ludicrous, to those who consider him only as a machine for doing the rough 8 THE IRISH IN AMERICA. work of the State, or as an object of political speculation. The Irishman soon sees the fact of his position, for he is sensitive and shrewd beyond most men ; and it may be imagined how keen and how bitter is his annoyance. No man is sooner than an Irishman thrown back on his own feelings. The recoil is in proportion to the exuberance ; and in the same degree in which they are originally warm and social, they become morose and gloomy when thus repelled. His natural gaiety overcomes this effect at times, or enables him to conceal what pains him so acutely. But the inward utterance of his disappointment is deeply echoed in his heart ; and he is too prone to resent, or even avenge, a wrong done to his feelings, which, did it affect his interests alone, he would despise. " Taciturn vivit sub pectore vulnus!' By a rapid transition, on finding himself slighted and despised, he assumes the offensive, becomes violent, throws himself into the open arms of faction ; drinks, swears, joins in riots ; and, fancying that the hostile outpourings, by which a " party " assails him, speak the sense of the nation at large, he withdraws his proffered sympathy ; and, seeing that he is stigmatized as an alien, — for he has learned the meaning of the word, — he falls into the circle of his fellow-countrymen, becomes one of the mass of ignorance and intemperance which disgraces the Atlantic cities, and is soon, in fact, little better than a colonist, in the land which he sought with that kind of reverence that propels a repentant sinner into the comforting bosom of the Church. Yet, though baffled and disappointed, the ardent love of liberty rarely deserts the Irish heart, and it as rarely sinks into despair. Few of the exiles return to the old country. They, in a vast majority of cases, hold fast, and work their NATURALIZATION". 9 way. Nor do they cease to love America. But they love it now, not with the rapture of an abstract passion, but with a practical and business-Hke regard, as the birth- place of their children, and the field for the exercise of their own patient industry. Thus, in the very best aspect of his fate, the immigrant drags on, for five long and weary years, in a probation of drudgery — which, to those who do not suffer it, seems a mere span — in a state of manifest inferiority to the citizen, who employs, makes a tool of, or, perhaps, bribes and buys him, for purposes of electioneering debasement. This cannot, certainly, increase the alien's self-esteem, or make him more fit for the exercise of a citizen's privileges. It must, indeed, add to his sense of degradation. Year after year he becomes, no doubt, more and more acquainted with the workings of party machinery. But those years do not teach him to love the country one whit more than he loved it on the day of his landing ; and he has not that pride of conscious respectability and value, which leads the real freeman, however lowly his station, to take a wide and exalted view of public affairs. The longer the alien remains in this chrysahs state, may he not become the less suited for the enjoyment of the light and air, when he breaks his shell, expands his wings, and flies into his new political existence 1 Cramped, narrowed, and prejudiced, he is immersed in the low tricks of the intriguers, who have pounced upon and beguiled him ; and more irritated and angry against those who, inde- pendent of strict party grounds, are adverse to him on those of his birth alone. A deep-rooted sense of wrong, and a hatred to those who do it, are nourished in his heart and instilled into his children ; and a large portion of the population is thus, for one generation at least, 10 THE IRISH m AMERICA. alienated from the rest, and driven, as it were, into a second exile from all the social advantages of citizenship. The theory of the naturalization laws of course is, that the five years shall be years of instruction for the duties of citizenship ; but, in the actual want of such instruction, is not the effect of the delay too likely to be such as I have described 1 Yet, with all this, the Irishman can hardly bo made a bad or a disloyal citizen, or prevented from embracing the first opportunity to serve the country, as is proved by the readiness with which he enlists in the naval or military force. In thus stating impartially, and with a thorough know- ledge of Irish character, the effects produced on great numbers of emigrants from that country, I am by no means making a reproach, on the score of feeling, or want of feeling, against those who are ignorant of the history of Ireland, who know the character of the people only through the medium of these very exiles, and who have had no means of scanning the hearts which beat under so coarse an exterior. Every candid Irishman, who under- stands any portion of human nature beyond his own, will admit, that his over -ardent temperament is very likely to beget suspicion as to his sincerity, in those who do not partake of it in anything like the same degree ; while his familiar, free-and-easy manners are little in accordance with the reserved and cautious habits of the majority of the American people. Taking things for granted is the curse of the generous-hearted, in all climes and at all times. No one suffers more from this too common mistake than the Irish immigrant, who, when he finds himself deceived in his sanguine estimate of men and things, makes no allowance for those who fall below his fancied standard, and who look askance or stand aloof REGARDED WITH SUSPICION BY NATIVES. 11 from his companionship. But this is not altogether fair on his part. How can a cool New-Englander, for example, who has never experienced misfortunes, or lived under a state of things which make a man long for another country in preference to his own, — whose only idea of emigration is connected with money-making, without a single tinge of sentiment, — the " far west '^ of whose imaginings brings no notions but those of forests, prairies, floods, swamps, aUigators, and rattlesnakes, — how can such a man place implicit faith in the tear-filled eye, the glowing cheek, the overflowing discourse of a stranger from beyond the ocean, who, on touching the soil of that western world in which he has come to seek Jiis fortune, professes to love it like the land of his birth, talks to the inhabitants as brothers, and assumes an interest in the welfare, and a pride in the greatness of the country, as though it were to all intents and purposes his own '? Is it not excusable if the uncon- vinced Yankee looks and listens with caution to this new comer, or even if he considers him a cheat, calls his warm talk " blarney," and sets him down as an interloper 1 Such sentiments as these once excited, it is difiicult to dislodge them from the mind. And when the transition in the feelings of the foreigner, arising from his discovery of those sentiments, has fairly set in, a reciprocal tone of dislike and acrimony is sure to be the result. It is need- less to point out how much this unfortunate state of misunderstanding is fostered by taunts and jibes on the one hand, and by the angry spirit of disappointment superinduced on the other. The fierce zeal with which the Irishmen, who have acquired the rights of citizenship, enter into political strife cannot fail to excite extreme jealousy in those 12 THE IRISH IN AMERICA. native partizans, who see themselves outstripped in violence, and robbed of their privileges of railing and rioting. Even the more sober and tolerant cannot endure the boisterous patriotism of those sons of Erin, nor feel quite at ease on seeing that those who had been a few years previously the despised subjects of a foreign sovereign, should now so soon enjoy an equality of rights with the offspring of home-born repubhcans, who gained their privileges at the cost of their lives and fortunes, in a long and doubtful struggle. This particular cause of dissatisfaction is common to persons of every station throughout the country. Then comes a particular discontent on the part of the working classes of the community against those hardy labourers from beyond seas, who come into the market to do more for less money, to live in a w^ay which lowers the general respectability of the working-man, thus causing at once a decrease in wages, and in the consideration accorded by the employer to the labourer, and doing a double mischief on the score of their profits and their pride. They know not, or probably give small credit if they do know them, to the motives which induce the Irish labourer in America to undergo privations, that in many cases make his condition little better than it was at home. But when it is, as it ought to be, widely understood that the Irishman braves reproach and contumely, and denies himself many of the enjoyments his earnings might procure, that he may be able to remit a portion of them to his suffering relatives in the old country, how lofty is his moral elevation ; how does his pious attachment to his ancient " kith and kin '^ give assurance of his fidelity to the new relations he has made for himself in his new home ! How often is the fable of " The Cock and the Jewel " acted DOCTRINES OF NATURALIZATION. 13 over in that distant country, as well as in all other parts of the world ! What numberless instances occur of worth despised and merit trampled down, from ignorance of their value, or because they are found in ignoble places ! The naturalization of foreigners has been, from the most ancient times, a point of considerable jealousy with all civilized countries. The old Greek states indulged the most narrow views on this subject. Intermarriage was forbidden between citizens of the various republics, and no person was allowed to hold land within the territory of any state but his own. When the Olynthian republic introduced a more liberal and beneficial policy, it was considered as a portentous innovation.* And, as a most remarkable stretch of gratitude to the Athenians, for their assistance in the war against Phillip of Macedon, the Byzantines infringed their ordinary strictness, and granted by law to their allies the right of intermarriage with their citizens, and the power of purchasing and holding lands in the Byzantine territories. In the palmy days of Athens herself the privilege of citizenship was deemed a very distinguished favour, and could only be obtained by the decree of two successive assemblies of the people ; and the laws enacted the penalty of death to any stranger who intruded his voice into their legislative proceedings. The Romans of the republic were noted for their peculiar jealousy of the jus civitatis, or rights of a citizen. In the time of Augustus the same anxiety existed to keep the people untainted of foreign blood. f And it was not until the reign of Caracalla that, for purposes of a more extended taxation, the freedom of the city was commu- nicated to the whole Roman world. J * Mitford's " History of Greece," vol. v. p. 9. t Suetonius, " de Aug." sect. 40. Ij: Gibbon, voJ. i. p. 267. 14 THE IRISH IN AMERICA. From those remote days to the present time, conflicting opinions and contradictory enactments have prevailed on the subject of the naturahzation and ahen laws ; and there is, perhaps, no other of equal importance to the well-being of states which is, at this day, involved in so much doubt and delicacy. It is not necessary to enter at large into the consideration of a matter which has called forth much reasoning and a variety of argument from some of the most distinguished jurists of both hemispheres. The main foundation of all legislation or usage on the subject seems to be, that almost all civilized nations admit the principle of expatriation. Cicero regarded it as one of the firmest bases of Roman liberty, that the citizen had the privilege to stay or renounce his residence in the state at pleasure. And the principal modern writers on public law, as Gi'otius, Puffendorf, Wyckefort, and Vattel, have spoken generally, though perhaps rather loosely, in favour of the right of a subject to emigrate and abandon his native country, unless there be some positive restraint by law or he be at the time in possession of a public trust, or unless his country be in distress, or in war, or stand in need of his assistance. It is the doctrine of the English Common Law, that natural-born subjects owe an allegiance which is intrinsic and perpetual, and which cannot be divested by any act of their own. However repugnant this may be to our notions of the natural liberty of mankind, or however in- consistent with the principle declared by some of the State Constitutions in America, yet, as the question has never been settled by judicial decision, and as the judges of the Supreme Court have discovered much embarrassment in its consideration, it seems admitted that, until some legis-^ lative regulations on the subject are prescribed, the rule of NATURALIZATION IN THE UNITED STATES. 15 the Common Law must prevail ; its only relaxation being in the case of persons who for commercial purposes may acquire the rights of a citizen of another country, the place of domicile determining the character of a party as to trade. The naturalization laws of the United States have been subject to great^nd frequent variation. The terms upon which any alien, being a free white person,* can be natu- rahzed, are prescribed by the Acts of Congress of the 14th of April, 1802, ch. 28 ; the 3d of March, 1813, ch. 184 ; the 22nd of March, 1816, ch. 32 ; the 26th of May, 1824, ch. 186 ; and the 24th of May, 1828, ch. 106. Previously to the first of those Acts, which has fixed the main point of the term of probationary residence in the country, it fluctuated considerably. In 1790, only two years' previous residence was required. In 1795, the period was enlarged to five years ; and in 1798 to four- teen years. In 1802 it was reduced back to five years, where it yet remains. The alien is required to declare on oath before a State Court, being a court of record, with a seal and clerk, and having Common Law jurisdiction, or before a Circuit or District Court of the United States, or before a clerk of either of the said Courts, two years at least before his admission, his intention to become a citizen, and to renounce his allegiance to his own sovereign ; the latter stipulation being admitted by the best jurists in the country to be grossly inconsistent with the generally * The Act of Congress confines the description of aliens capable of naturali- zation to " free white persons." It is presumed that this excludes the inhabitants of Africa and their descendants ; but it may become a question, to what extent persons of mixed blood are excluded, and what shades and degrees of mixture of colour disqualify an alien from application for the benefits of the act of naturali- sation. 16 THE IRISH m AMERICA. received doctrine of intrinsic and perpetual allegiance. The prescribed declaration need not be previously made, if the alien resided before the 18th of June, 1812, and has since continued to reside, nor if he be a minor under twenty-one years of age, and shall have resided in the United States three years next preceding his arrival to majority. It is sufficient that it be made at the time of his adminission, and that he then declare on oath and prove to the satisfaction of the Court, that for three years next preceding it was his bond fide intention to become a citizen, and then the five years' residence, including the three years of his minority, will entitle him to admission as a citizen on complying with the other requisites of the law. At the time of his admission his country must be at peace with the United States, and he must before one of those Courts take an oath to support the Consti- tution of the United States, and likewise an oath to renounce and abjure his native allegiance. He must, at the time of his admission satisfy the Court by other proof than his own oath, that he has resided five years, at least, within the United States, and one year, at least, within the State where the Court is held ; and if he shall have arrived after the peace of 1815, his residence must have been continued for five years next preceding his admission, without his having been at any time during the five years, out of the territory of the United States. He must satisfy the Court, that during that time he has behaved as a man of good moral character, attached to the principles of the Constitution of the United States, and well disposed to the good order and happiness of the same. He must, at the same time renounce any title or order of nobility, if any he hath. The law provides, that children of persons duly naturalized, being minors at that time, shall, if dwelling in STATES ALIEN LAWS. 17 the United States, be deemed citizens. It is further provided, that if any ahen shall die after his declaration and before actual admission as a citizen, his widow and children shall be deemed citizens. A person thus duly naturalized becomes entitled to all the privileges and immunities of natural-born subjects, except that a residence of seven years is requisite to enable him to hold a seat in Congress, and no person except a natural-born citizen is eligible to the office of governor in some of the States, or to that of President of the United States.''' I cannot enumerate the various enactments in the several States of the Union, which regulate the particular rights and privileges of aliens or foreign-born citizens. Great toleration and latitude of construction prevail in some, while extreme rigour formerly existed in others. Before the adoption of the present constitution the power of naturalizing resided in the several States ; and the con- stitution of New York, as it was originally passed, required all persons born out of the United States to take an oath, on being naturalized, abjuring all foreign allegiance in all matters ecclesiastical as well as civil. This was intended to exclude the Eoman Catholics, who acknowledge the spiritual supremacy of the Pope. It was law in the beginning of the last century that every Jesuit and Popish priest who should continue in the colony after a given day should be condemned to perpetual imprisonment ; and if he broke prison and escaped, he should when retaken be put to death. Mr. Smith, in his " History of New York,'' (page 111,) declares his opinion, that the law (as well as the ♦ An able historical review of the principal discussions in the federal courts on this important subject in American jurisprudence, is to be found in Chancellor Kent's ** Commentaries," vol. ii. 3rd New York edit, part iv. sect. xxv. VOL. II. c 18 THE IRISH m AMERICA. punishment) should be perpetual. As late as 1753, the legislature of Virginia passed an act placing Popish recusants under the most oppressive disabilities. It should not however be forgotten that the charter of Rhode Island, of 1663, declared that, "no person within the colony, at any time thereafter should be in any wise molested, punished, disquieted, or called in question, for any differences in opinion in matters of religion that do not actually disturb the peace of the colony." And the Cathohc planters of Maryland having already, in 1649, declared by law that " no person professing to believe in Jesus Christ should be molested in respect of their reli- gion/^ they procured to their adopted country the distin- guished praise of being the first of the American States in which toleration was estabHshed by law ; and, while the Puritans were persecuting their Protestant brethren in New England, and the Episcopalians retorting the same severity on the Puritans in Virginia, the Catholics, against whom the others w^ere combined, formed in Maryland a sanctuary where all might worship and none might oppress, and where even Protestants sought refuge from Protestant intolerance." New Jersey and Carolina fol- lowed the bright example just quoted ; and Pennsylvania, under the auspices of its celebrated founder, went to the most large and liberal extent, declaring that " no men on earth had power or authority to rule over men's con- sciences in the concernments of religion ;" and that " no persons acknowledging a Deity and living peaceably in society should be molested or prejudiced for their religious persuasion.^' It appears from these " illustrious examples/' as they * See Grahame's " History of tlie Rise and Progress of the United States." AMERICA A UNIVERSAL REFUGE. 19 are justly called by Chancellor Kent, in his " Commen- taries," that various portions of America became, even in its infant state, asylums for the enjoyment of the principles of civil and religious liberty, to the persecuted votaries of those principles from every part of Europe. And such surely was the great design of Providence in the formation and fashioning of that glorious continent, and in leaving its discovery to a period when the day- break of literature and science shone on a race of men wise enough to comprehend the blessings of such a place of refuge, and learned enough to improve its advantages ; so that, when ill- fortune, or the wrong-doing of wicked rulers in the Old World, drove them from their natural home, they had one ready-made for their exigencies, and of ample scope for all comers from generation to genera- tion. JSTor must the justice of Heaven be arraigned, because poverty and suffering exist in Europe, wildernesses and desolation in America. A wise beneficence has so ordained, that misery should impel population ; and that the wilds of the New World should bring out the poor and not the rich for their redemption. For, hard-working men, tried in the furnace of ill-fortune, are the fitting stock from which to people a new world. A striking passage in Carlyle's "Miscellanies," free from his usual contorted style, pays a fine tribute to the value of labour ; and another, of plain but powerful reasoning, is to be found in the celebrated work of a philosopher, recently dead, to the deep grief of his many friends, which might be quoted as an apt illustration of the analogy between the value of physical suffering and the moral uses of adversity." Every philanthropist that lives must rejoice that such a * " The Constitution of Man," by George Combe. c 2 20 THE IRISH IN AMERICA. harbour of safety for the oppressed of the earth exists, as is to be found in the vast countries upon whose outermost verge the Atlantic cities stand. And, while nature itself and the force of things invite thitherward all men who can improve their civil or religious condition, hov/ strange and deplo- rable is it, that societies should be formed in those very cities so many social barriers against the primal necessity of America's actual condition ! Looking at what has been already done by the aid of foreign labour, the great pubhc works of these cities, the canals, railroads, and indeed every enterprize of physical power, and seeing w^hat yet remains to be accompKshed before the continent can have fulfilled its destiny, the interruption of immigration would be an actual decree against improvement, — a ban on civili- zation, — a fiat for the perpetual existence of the wilder- ness, and for the everlasting establishment of savage life. But not more impossible was it for the despot king of old to stem the rising sea than it is for any combination now to stop the living tide of emigration that rolls from the shores of the Old World, following the course which nature itself points out, across that ocean over which the wanderers are piloted by the joint instincts of self-preservation and love of happiness. Statistical details are not easily pro- cured to give, with any approach to accuracy, a statement of the increase of emigration from Europe. It has, how- ever, been officially ascertained that hundreds of thousands of foreign passengers have arrived yearly for several years past, and the Irish population may now amount to four millions. That fact may startle even those whom it does not frighten. But, let it act as it may on the hopes or fears of the naturalized or native population, "'^ " The cry is still, ' They come ! '" THE KNOW-NOTHINGS. 21 And SO tliey will, with bounding hearts and lofty aspira- tions ; and, however it may affect or disturb those who oppose, from principle or prejudice, this crowding influx of foreigners, " nought now can change Their nature, or revoke the high decree Unchangeable, eternal, which ordained Their freedom." But, it is nevertheless true that a powerful party has been organized and is in actual operation, with the avowed object of throwing back upon the Old World, if not the milHons who have already arrived in the New, at least the hundreds of thousands who are standing expectant on the European shores, waiting for circumstances or a wind, — as the birds of passage whose instinct points out their congenial resting-place across the waste of waters. The avowed object of this short-sighted party, which has adopted the ambiguous but not quite inappropriate name of Know-Nothings, is the repeal of what they stigmatize as " the odious and destructive laws of naturalization now in existence.'' They say they are " determined to enter the lists with renewed energy and increased hope." " We have waited long enough,'' is their cry ; " we have already given a sufficient precedence to party, and we will now assert the claims of country. Let every American who loves her, do the same, and we shall soon see her redeemed, regenerated, disenthralled. But let us be divided on this most vital of all questions, ayid she will fall an easy fveij to the stranger r — Native American newspaper. I place no note of admiration, nor of astonishment, after the words put in itahcs ; but it w^ould be difficult to express one's surprize at the sentiment they embody, firmly 22 THE IRISH m AMERICA. believing in the sincerity of the writer and of those to whose sympathies he speaks. " An easy prey to the stranger." Had America indeed been in the perilous crisis here assumed ; had a foreign army touched the frontiers ; had hordes of aristocrats arrived, with their blandishments of rank and title, one could understand the appeal of the " Native American." But when " the stranger " here denounced is the embodied mass of foreign industry that clears away the forests, tills the fields, works on the Avharves, and forms one of the main features of national strength and prosperity, one laments the fatal mistake, which makes a body of ardent patriots labour so hard to produce that " division " they deprecate so much, and raise a bitter enemy in the very heart of the land. The authorities conspicuously quoted for the purpose of raising the bugbear alarm at foreign influence, are Washington, Jefferson, and Madison. High ones, no doubt ; oracles almost, respectively, to various shades of political parties in the Union. " History and experience prove, that foreign influence is one of the most baneful foes of a republican government," says Washington, most truly, in his memorable " Farewell Address." " Foreign influence is a Grecian horse to the Repubhc. We cannot be too careful to exclude its entrance," exclaims Madison. " I hope we may find some means in future of shielding ourselves from foreign influence, political, commercial, or in whatever form it may be attempted," were the words of Jefierson. But it would not be fair to hold him respon- sible for the half-expressed and hasty utterance of a sympathy with the wish of Silas Deane, "that there THE IMMIGRANT QUESTION ARGUED. 23 were an ocean of fire between the New and the Old World ! '' But taking at their full value the opinions so plainly expressed by these three great sages of the revolutionary history — and joining, as every lover of his country ought to join, heart and soul, in the sentiment that deprecates the introduction of foreign influence — what living man of common sense and common candour will construe it to bear upon the admission of Irish or German labouring men to the privileges of citizenship, after the term of pro- bation prescribed by the laws ? When Washington " most devoutly wished,"' (to use his own emphatic expression in his letter to Mr. Morris, dated " White Plains, July 24th, 1778,'') "that they had not a single foreigner among them but the Marquis Lafayette,'' did he mean anything beyond the annoyance he experienced from the troublesome claims, for promotion and emolument, of the French and German adventurers who crowded the army '? And are these patriot sentiments of repugnance against the influ- ence of foreign monarchs, and the insidious evils of aristocratical corruption, to be distorted into a hostility against the peasantry, the artizans, the manufacturers, or the agriculturists of Europe, bringing out with them the skill and industry which alone were wanting to make America what it now is, and without which it never could have reached its present eminence ! Little could those high authorities have then imagined, that their words of wisdom would ever have been inscribed on the banners which they now make so conspicuous, but which, per- verted from their true sense, as they are, they cannot be said to adorn. But what were the real, general notions on this important subject of some of the most eminent men, differing in 24 THE IRISH IN AMERICA. many other points of political opinion 1 A memorable debate took place on the question of natm-alization in the Federal Convention on Monday, August 13th, 1789, on the motion of Mr. Wilson and Mr. Randolph, to strike out " seven years," and insert " four years,'' as the requisite term of citizenship, to quahfy for the House of Eepresentatives. Mr. Williamson moved to insert " nine years," instead of seven, and observed, truly, but not quite relevantly to the class of men who, b}^ industry and in time, might reach the honour of being raised to a seat in Congress, " Wealthy emigrants do more harm by their luxurious examples, than good by the money they bring with them." Colonel Hamilton, meeting this truism by a broader view of the question, said ; " The advantage of encourag- ing foreigners was obvious and admitted f and he moved that the section be so altered as to require merely " citizenship and inhabitancy,'' as the qualifications. Mr. Madison seconded the motion. " He wished to invite foreigners of merit and republican principles. Ame- rica was indebted to emigration for her settlements and prosperity. That part of America which had encouraged them most, had advanced most rapidly in population, agriculture, and the arts." Dr. Franklin said ; " When foreigners, after looking about for some other country in which they can obtain more happiness, give a preference to ours, it is a proof of attachment which ought to excite our confidence and affection." And he declared himself opposed to all restric- tions on naturalization.* * For the whole of this debate, see the " Madison Papers," vol. iii. EMINENT OPINIONS ON THE QUESTION. 25 Washington was President at this period, and Jefferson was in France. But the opinions of the latter on the question then debated are proved by a passage in his letter to Kosciusko on a subsequent occasion, when speaking of the salutary labours of the first Congress during his first presidency, he says ; " They are opening the doors of hos- pitahty to the fugitives from the oppressions of other countries,'^ — in allusion to the repeal of the retrograde enactment of 1798, (which had changed the term of pro- bationary residence from five years to fourteen) in pursu- ance of a strong recommendation in his own message. But, if still stronger proof is required of Jefferson's sentiments on this point, it is to be found, and will be reverted to to the end of time, in that immortal document, the " Declaration of Independence," drawn up by his own hand. Enumerating the acts of tyranny of King George the Third against the colonies, he exclaims ; " He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States ; for that purpose ohstriicting the laws for the naturalization of foreigners, refusing to pass others to encourage their migration hither, and raising the conditions of new apportionments of lands.'' Further testimony can scarcely be required, beyond this great act of attainder against the sovereign, to show the impolicy, to say no more, of any such " obstructions " to the evident design of Grod himself ; or to prove that the mind must be narrow, — granting the purposes to be honest, — of those who suppose that the "brave New World" was made for the sole use of those who chance to be born on its soil. It seems a mockery, when the exclusionists declare that they would allow '• the industrious and enterprizing foreigners to enjoy the fruits of their earnings under their own vine and fig-tree ; " but that " the son 26 THE IRISH IN" AMERICA. of the bondwoman should not be heir with the son of the freewoman ; in other words, that they have no title to equal privileges with us in our glorious heritage, and that, in according them every privilege short of the elective franchise, we are acting with great and munificent liberality r '"' One may ask if any "party'' can really exist in America so forgetful of the past, so insensible to the present, so indifferent to the future, as to wish to confine any set of free men, in any country on earth, to the privi- lege which is conceded to the negro slave, ay, to the ver}^ beast of burthen, of lying down in idleness and repose, after the work of the day is done. Or can any portion of a thinking community expect that a class could be found, in the stir and bustle of a free country, to abjure the right of ever giving a vote for the representative, whose duty it is to pass laws to protect the lives of themselves and their children, the property they have purchased, and the institutions of which they form a part % Living authorities might be accumulated in reprobation of this " munificent liberality ! " But this cannot be requisite. The thing sought is as impossible as the arguments used in support of it are absurd. I shall content myself with one quotation more. It is from the speech of William Henry Harrison, at that time the President elect of the United States, delivered before a large meeting of the people, at Lancaster, in the State of Ohio, in the month of October, 1840. " * I am accused, fellow-citizens,' said he, ' of entertaining unfriendlj feelings towards foreigners, who emigrate to this country with a view of becoming citizens, and of a desire to throw obstructions in the way of their naturalization. Nothing can be more false than this * The " Spirit of Seveuty-six." GEKEEAL HARRISON S OPINION". 27 charge I have been more than forty years before my country, and my votes and my speeches are a true index of my opinions, on this as well as other important subjects. If those, who thus accuse me, will point out a single vote, or any expression of mine, which can in the least support this assertion, I will agree, that I am bound to come forward and explain. But they cannot do this. No such vote was ever given by me ; no such opinion expressed. On the contrary, I have ever felt the warmest sympathy with those who have fled here, from the Old World, for refuge ; and I have always given my support, whether in the national councils or as a private citizen, to all the laws which have passed to render their condition better, of their naturalization moee east.'* But lest this extract from a newspaper report might have been spurious, or partially incorrect, I put on record here the following frank and generous reply, from the same individual, to a respectful letter written to him by Mr. Francis J. Grund, of Philadelphia, asking his sentiments on this mooted question. " North Bend, Septemler 2^tli, 1840. " Through the whole course of my political life, I am satisfied, that no sentence ever fell from my lips, which could be construed into an unfriendly feeling to the Europeans who have emigrated hither, to eujoy the advantages which our free institutions afibrd, or a wish to extend the period, which is fixed by the existing laws, for their full admission to the rights of citizenship." Foreigners and natives had thus reason to be satisfied, that, during the Presidency of General Harrison," no innovation of the nature threatened would be attempted to any extent, or with any support that would encourage an agitation of the question. And it was not till the chance-presidency of Mr. Filmore, and the formation of the Know-Nothing party, with which he was identified, * General Harrison, it will be remembered, died at Washington just one month after his inauguration. 28 THE HUSH IN AMERICA. that avowedly hostile measures were taken to any extent against the Irish or other immigrants. What, then, should be done by every lover of the country and of the various classes of its population, to improve and consolidate the well-being of each, so as to insure the satisfaction and happiness of the whole ^ Nothing, most assuredly, could tend more effectually to this great object than the softening of asperities, and setting the different opposing parties right with respect to the characters and objects of others. It must be admitted that the Irish have to encounter considerable prejudices, — no matter from what causes arising, — in almost every section of the Union, though in different degrees. In some places they are openly and even violently expressed ; in others, the feeling is slightly visible on the surface of common intercourse : but there is no observing Irishman, perhaps, who has not had, on some occasion or other, cause to notice the annoying fact. It must be remarked, that some of the different portions of the Union are much more congenial than others to the habits and feelings of Irishmen ; and all seem to agree, that New England, taken on the whole, is the hardest soil for an Irishman to take root and flourish in. The settled habits of the people, the untainted English descent of the great majority, discrepancies of religious faith and forms, and a jealousy of foreign intermixture of any kind, all operate against those who would seek to engraft them- selves on the Yankee stem, in the hope of a joint stock of interest or happiness. The bulk of Irish emigration to the Western States is comprised chiefly of agricultural labourers. Rigidly excluded in former times from improving - by education his acknowledged quickness of intellect, the emigrant of this class has been hitherto fitted only for the IRISH AGRICULTURAL LABOURERS. 29 performance of offices requiring mere muscular exertion. Without any of those incentives to improvement possessed by the educated man, the beings we now speak of were doomed to a hopeless state of social inferiority. Their incapacity to perform any work requiring the application of intellectual power marked them out as hewers of wood and drawers of water. The high wages and good living, in comparison to what they had been accustomed to in Europe, ought to have given them more comforts, and raised them in the moral scale. But the pernicious addiction to whiskey-drinking, common to those poor people, and the highly reprehensible habit of allowing it to them in large quantities, by the contractors for some of the public works, have, until lately, kept them in a state of mere brute enjoyment, so to call their degraded con- dition.* This is the true source of every excess here- tofore committed b}'' Irishmen in America. Goaded by the stimulus of ardent spirits, their natural excitability of temperament knows no bounds. The memory of their ancient feuds in the old country revived by some chance word, they rush into conflict with their fellow-countrymen, or, in the words (scarcely exaggerated) of the song, — " Get drunk, meet their friend, and for love knock him down ; ' ' and present to the amazed, amused, but disgusted American * " I happened, a few days ago, to be on the line of a railroad in process of construction, where the labour was done by Irish new-comers. They are fed and lodged ; and hear their bill of fare ; — three meals a-day, and at each meal plenty of meat and wheaten bread ; coffee and sugar at two of those meals, and butter once a day. In the course of the day from six to eight glasses of whiskey are given thertiy according to the state of the weather. Besides which they receive forty cents a day under the most unfavourable circumstances, often from sixty to seventy-five cents." — Chevalier, p. 108. The italics in this passage are mine ; and I hope, that many native Americans, who are disgusted with Irish degradation, will remark, and some mayhap, will blush at it. 30 THE IRISH IN AMERICA. spectators a scene unparalleled, except between tribes, in open warfare, of the savages on their borders. These broils, happily of rare occurrence at present, tended much to lowxr the standard of the Irish character ; but the improved deportment of those who have been long- in the country, and the better description of emigrants who have of late years left Ireland, decrease every day the chances of such disgraceful outbreaks ; while the cer- tainty of comparative regeneration among the millions still in the old country, under the influence of temperance and liberal government, is a guarantee for the moral ^vorth of those who may hereafter emigrate. A deep and fatal error, — the main cause of which has been already adverted to, — among the immigrant Irish, is the energy wdth which they associate in clubs and societies, having laudable but mistaken views. The motto, " Union is strength,'^ is, in this case, a fallacy of the worst kind, and affords a parallel to that other Union at home, which hitherto produced little but weakness and discord. The more an Irishman abstracts himself from those associations exclusively Irish, the greater is his chance of amalgama- tion with Americans, among whom his destiny is cast, and in whose fraternity he is, after all, to look for the meed of his industrious career. It may be safely observed that those Irishmen who have thriven best in the United States are those who have taken an independent stand, and, separating themselves from all clannish connexions, have worked their way alone. Such a man w^as the late Mathew Carey, of Philadelphia, the record of whose life is, to his enterprizing fellow-countrymen, an example more valuable than a legacy, and to his own memory a monument more honourable than a marble statue. Among those native Irishmen who were to be found IRISH WANT OF INDEPENDENCE. 31 running a course of similar respectability and success, should be mentioned Judge Porter, of Louisiana, who, after having sustained high offices in that State, attained and admirably adorned the rank of Senator of the United States. Mr. James Boyd, of Boston, late a member of the legislature of Massachusetts, and the author of an able Essay on Irish Character, may be mentioned as a living instance of the honourable standing, which industry and talent can attain for an Irishman, even in the least congenial atmosphere. In the " Address,'' just alluded to, this intelligent and respected citizen observes : — " One of the first duties, which we owe to ourselves and to the public, is to live on our own resources ; to be, like the country of our adoption, independent, and to feel and to live as if we knew we were so, as far as reason and the nature of things permit. Absolute independence I do not, of course, mean. Such a course is neither attainable nor desirable. We must live by and for each other. Still there] is a degree of comparative independence, so necessary in the present organization of society, that he, who does not possess it, can never be a free man in any country. " Now I hold, that this state of comparative independence is within the reach of every Irishman, who comes amongst us, who is of sound body and mind. That state of things, which enables us to give something valuable to others in exchange for that which we receive from them, is the state of comparative independence ; and, to qualify us for admission into this state, nature has made ample provision. She has given us strength to labour, and freedom of limb and person. Exercising these natural gifts, every man can do something that is valuable to some other. By judiciously using the compensation thus earned, we can put ourselves in possession of all the necessaries of life to begin with ; and a prudent economy, and living wdthin our means, will enable us, in time, to command the comforts and elegancies with which this country abounds. Possessing and enjoy- ing, rationally, this comparative independence, we have a natural wealth, which, so long as we have health, no vicissitudes can take away."— p. 22. 32 THE IRISH m AMERICA. This little pamphlet abounds with passages of the same good sense as the above ; and it contains advice on most important subjects of conduct, from which the settler in America might frame a code of inestimable value. The newspapers pubhshed almost exclusively for Irish readers contain a fund of spirited articles adapted to their particular views. It is to be lamented that these papers, acting to a certain degree on the defensive, and driven to retaliation by a series of insulting attacks, are sometimes led into a style of recrimination that never adds strength to a good cause. They are also far too sectarian in their tone, — at least if their object is to circulate beyond the pale of a sect. To do honour to their country and its patriot leaders, to their faith and its pure apostles, is in the highest degree praiseworthy. But newspapers are not the fitting channel for polemical disputation. Great and valuable, however, is the service done to the cause of morals and true piety by the papers devoted to the enforce- ment of that principle of Temperance, which is all in all for Ireland, and to the Irish in America an unspeakable blessing.''' Among the many virtuous Roman Catholic ecclesiastics, who took a distinguished part in urging on this moral reformation among their labouring fellow-countrymen, during my residence in America, the Rev. James McDer- mott, of Lowell, was conspicuous. His labours were un- ceasing, his zeal untiring, and his success complete. I quote from a letter of the reverend gentleman, which I cannot, in justice to the subject I have taken in hand, withhold from the public. " ' I know not,' observes Mr. McDermott, * of one habitual Irish * Among those papers tlie New York "Freeman's Journal" and the Boston ** Pilot " have been long foremost. ENCOURAGEMENT TO TEMPERANCE. 83 drunkard in this place, and there are but very few who drink ardent spirits at all. The temperate drinkers, as they style themselves, begin to join our society, one by one. A change ot* circumstances and condition is the happy effect of change of habit. Their homes are now clean and comfortable, and they are happy and respected by the authorities and the citizens. To the officers and board, who are a light to this city and this land, we owe a debt of gratitude, which time can never cancel. In them I have always found protection and support, and a kind co-operation in all my humble efforts to promote the happiness of the flock intrusted to my spiritual charge. To our enlightened Board of Education, the Irish citizens are deeply indebted for an honest liberality in the appropriation of the school fund, and in the provision made for the education of their children. We have one grammar and five primary schools established exclusively for the Catholic children, supplied with competent and approved teachers, who get a liberal salary ; and the committee acknowledge, that the children are as docile in their deportment, and as studious as any in the country. The Irish here are sensible of their advantages, and are determined to deserve them. Let the other cities of the Union do as our own happy Lowell has done, and the next generation will never blush at the brotherhood of an Irish American.' " 'No exhortation can be required in addition to this plain, yet powerful, statement of facts, to cause this example of Lowell and its benevolent magistrates to be extensively followed. If, as is now admitted by all rational observers, the domestic grievances of Ireland are to be redressed by her own sons, so in like manner should the elevation of the Irish character in America be accomplished by the same agency. The encouragement given to temperance by the Irish Catholic priests is a point of manifest first-rate im- portance. But other auxiliary measures, in which they cannot take so prominent a part, might effect great good. For instance, the establishment of affiliated emigrant societies, scattered throughout the country, — not for the purpose common to some of the social clubs, of keeping alive 34 THE IRISH IN AMERICA. exclusive sentiments not in harmony with those of the in- habitants at large, — but for obtaining interesting statistical details and correct information as to the best means of obtaining employment for new comers, and for distributing this information among them so as to prevent their con- gregating, as they are so much in the habit of doing, in cities, where they obtain only a precarious subsistence, and to encourage their spreading themselves into the interior, with the assurance of permanent occupation and ultimate independence. The " Freeman's Journal " urged the adoption of this plan in several articles of great force, to the effect of the following extract : " There is no possible enterprise that could promote the happiness of the emigrant so much as the establishment of such a society. "We are thoroughly persuaded of this from personal knowledge, as well as from the information of others. We have seen our fellow- countrymen thriving and happy in settlements in the interior of the country, where the industrious man would always be sure to draw from the earth the reward of his labour, and might feel assured that, unless some extraordinary affliction should befall him, his children would never want at least the necessaries of life. This might be the condition of even the very poorest emigrant, who possesses industry, if he ouly knew where to go upon his arrival in this country ; and we have often felt pained by the contrast which the destitute condition of many of our countrymen in this city presented, especially in the winter season. Again we call upon our benevolent fellow- countrymen to unite in this great work of philanthropy, and pre- vent or remove a vast amount of moral, intellectual, and physical degradation." Another praiseworthy and a most successful effort to ameliorate the condition of the Irish in America, is the agricultural colony, so to call it, established by BisKop Fenwick, formerly of Massachusetts, near the town of Lincoln, and about eighty miles from Bangor, in the State AGEICULTUKAL COLONIES. 85 of Maine. The design of this settlement would appear to have been formed on the model of the colonies established by the Dutch, in Belgium, during the fifteen years of forced union to that country, between 1815 and 1830. But even if not, the details of those abortive attempts, — excellent in design, but greatly mismanaged, like every thing in the way of practical government tried by Wilham I., the first king of Holland, — might be advantageously studied, as a warning of the evils to be avoided in the progress of the undertaking. These details are to be found in the statis- tical works of Mr. Ducpetiaux, of Brussels, one of the most industrious and useful of writers in this particular branch of social economy. The Irish settlement in Maine, from its complete success and the high state of moral discipline adopted by the people, is likely to become a model for all such establishments, and an example which, it is to be hoped, will by and by be extensively followed in the various States of the Union. Although every project for the information and protec- tion of emigrants must naturally embrace the new comers of all nations, still it is to the Irish more particularly that these efforts should be directed. They constitute a large proportion of the whole amount of immigrants ; and, with a due regard to the exigences of the country and the aptitude of Irishmen to supply them, it must be conceded that no foreigners reach America whose services are more required, or whose labours are more richly remunerative to the land of their adoption ; who sympathize so entirely with its institutions, or who could be with such facility made of the country, while they were admitted into it. The Germans, from the nature of their education, are accustomed more to the study of ancient feelings than to the indulgence of present impulses. Their theories are D 2 36 THE IRISH IN AMERICA. founded on old forms of government and old notions of society. They have but little practical experience ; and the consequence is a mass of abstractions in the national mind. It possesses, however, from this tone of education, a great simplicity. The sensations of the people are not overstrained or overexcited, as is the case in countries such as Ireland, were a perpetual agitation was so long kept up. And consequently great elements of good are contained in the public character, if they were properly brought out. But, by the policy of the various German governments, they become inert and dull ; and the people, unaccustomed to the exercise of their power, bend before the tyranny, or at least resolve to fly from what they despair of being able to resist. They seek a shelter from the storm, rather than an open field for exertion. And it is on this principle that they emigrate to America ; and on their arrival shun the great marts of commerce and corruption, and retire to the quietude and seclusion of remote rural settlements. The Irishman, on the contrary, is an ardent, enter- prising, and, above all, a social animal He loves to work or, if need be, to fight his w^ay through life. And, if left to himself on arriving in America, he would not settle in, but bustle through the existence of, some populous city. He has been all his life accustomed to a densely peopled neighbourhood. His little island, not larger than the State of Maine, contains six or seven millions of inhabitants. To make such a man love solitude, or seek the wilderness, — to teach him " To sifc on rocks, to muse o'er flood and fell, Where things that own not man's dominion dwell," or to make him comprehend the abstract meaning of the POLITICAL REQUIREMENTS. 37 fine distinction in Cowper's sublime and simple senti- ment, — " God made the country, and man made the town," you must hold out great inducements, appeal rather to his pride than his reason, and arouse him to the task of con- quering difficulties, rather than soothe him by the prospect of enjoying repose. Nothing is of more importance to men who are made for the enjoyment of certain rights than the due under- standing of what they comprise. " Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are the inalienable rights of man,'' says the Declaration of American Independence ; but, without irreverence to that great charter of freedom, it may be observed that a definition of the clause might be a puzzling task to the most profound jurist. The natural rights of man, a phrase in everybody's mouth, may be taken strictly to mean the rights of man in a state of nature. But this would by no means satisfy those theo- rists who, confounding all the principles of society and government, build structures of law and justice (so to call them) no more solid than the air-built castles of the day- dreamer. A serious study of the subject is not within the reach of every individual ; but surely an utter neglect of it is unpardonable in those who take on themselves the office of instructing the pubhc mind. It is, then, of abso- lute necessity to the common weal, that persons properly suited to the task should be appointed to give a certain degree of general information to all foreigners who seek America with a view to final, settlement. Instead of leaving them exposed to the designs of schemers as ignorant and far more culpable than they are, they should be met on their arrival by qualified agents, at once put on 38 THE IRISH IN AMERICA. their guard, taken by the hand, set in the right road of conduct, gradually instructed in the primary poHtical knowledge adapted to their capacity, and warned against the evil ways into which so many, from want of those precautions, have fallen. These, and many other obvious duties, would, I presume, be gladly undertaken by persons of all pohtical opinions and religious persuasions, for a fair remuneration. There is every probability for the future, of seeing a more improved class of Irish in every emigrant ship which leaves Ireland or Liverpool ; and the pleasure of instructing the intelligent disciples of Father Mathew's doctrine, will be proportioned to their respectability. A premium for temperance might be established, in a diminution ot the probationary term at present required before natu- rahzation, proportioned to the period during which, according to satisfactory proof, the postulants have in- flexibly held firm to the pledge ; and thus, the benevolent wishes of General Harrison, for making the naturaliza- tion of foreigners ''more easy',' be gradually brought into effect. I will now transcribe, for the consideration of all m}'' American readers, the following passage from the pen of Mr. Goodrich, the celebrated Peter Parley : — '• Let us by no means join in the popular outcry against foreigners coming to our country and partaking of its privileges. They will come, whether we will or not ; and is it wise to meet them with inhos- pitality, and thus turn their hearts against us ? Let us rather receive them as friends, and give them welcome to our country. Let us, at least, extend the hand of encouragement and sympathy to the Irish. Their story, for centuries, is but a record of sorrow and oppressions. They have been made to feel, not only how cruel, but how universal are the miseries which follow a bad government ; and, even when leaving their native soil, they are obliged to carry with them the PETER parley's OPINIONS. 39 bitter memory of their country's wrongs. Shall not those who come to our shores, afflicted with such sorrows, find in the friends and sharers of freedom, both welcome and release ? Let us beware of adding to their wrongs. Let us remember, that there is other tyranny than that of chains and fetters, — the invisible but cruel tyranny of oppression and prejudice. Let us beware how w^e exercise this towards the Irish; for it is wicked in itself, and doubly mis- chievous in its tendency. It injures both its subject and its object, and brings no counterbalancing good. "Let us especially be guarded against two sources of prejudice, to which we are particularly liable. In the first place, in our personal experience, we are familiar with the most ignorant and unfortunate of the Irish nation. We see, in servile employments, those who have been exposed to all the debasing influences that degrade man- kind. Is it fair to draw from these a standard by which to judge of the whole people ? Let us rather ask ourselves, where there is another nation, who have been so long trampled dow^n; w^ho have been born in poverty, and nursed in adversity ; who have inherited little from the past but sorrow^ and can bequeath nothing to the future but hope ; — where is there a people so wronged, that has yet preserved so many virtues ? How gallantly, indeed, do Irish wit, and cheerfulness, and hospitality, and patriotism ride on the wreck of individual hopes, and sparkle through the waves of adversity ! "Let us beware of prejudice from another source. We read English books, papers, and pamphlets portraying the Irish as an untamable race, only to be ruled by the harsh inflictions of power. Let us, Americans, see that our minds are not driven from the moorings of justice by this sinister current in which they are placed. Influenced by such considerations as these, let us, by all fair means, bring about a good understanding between the Irish emigrants and society. Let us deal gently with them, even with their errors. Thus we shall win their confidence. Thus they may be persuaded to take counsel of the good and the wise, and not throw themselves into the arms of those who flatter their vices and minister to their passions but to use and abuse them. "Let this reasonable and just policy mark our conduct towards the grown up Irish among us ; and, in regard to their children, let us, individually and collectively, use our best endeavours to bestow upon them the benefits of education. But let us remember, that even an attempt to educate the Irish will fail, if it be not founded in 40 THE IRISH IN AMERICA. a recognition of the elements of their national character — quick per- ception, a keen sense of justice, and ready resentment of wrong. If over these, prejudice, suspicion, and pride have thrown their shadows, let us adapt the instruction we would offer, to the light they can bear. In this way, a numerous people may be redeemed from misery to happiness, and rendered a blessing to our country. Let us thus deal with those Irish who have left their native home to find a dwelling among us ; and, in regard to the millions that remain in ' the green and weeping island,' let us hope for the speedy dawn of a brighter and better day. A youthful queen now sways the sceptre of Britain; and what may not humanity hope from the generosity of youth, and the heavenly charity of Woman ?" — The ToTcen^ pp. 173 —177. Two leading characteristics of the Irish in America— the first inborn, the second acquired — are hatred of England, and approval of slavery. Ignorant men, kept in their ignorance by bad government, can scarcely be blamed for inherited prejudices which, from their earliest childhood, are part of the system they live under. Good or bad, for prejudices are of both kinds, they must gain strength, if not fairly combated and shown to be mistaken. And assuredly the long misrule of Ireland, and the conduct of what Gustavo de Beaumont truly called its " mauvaise aristocratie,'''^^ justified the antipathy of the Irish peasantry against the nation which furnished their governors and stimulated their domestic oppressors. Demagogues and priests fomented this feeling. England and Protestantism were denounced together ; and the Saxon heretic was the bete noire of the Irish papist. The latter on arriving in America found ample space for his smothered animosity, and a congenial audience in his own countrymen, and the " rowdy " associates wio * '* L'Irelande, Social, Politique et Religieuse" in which, however, the acute and accompHshed author failed to do justice to the many honourable exceptions among the objects of his censure. IRISH PREJUDICES. 41 patronised and preyed on them. And the immigrant, in the midst of this vicious circle, beheved he was taking the surest means to popularity, the more rabidly anti-English he became. He had no opportunity of being influenced by the more rational portion of the people, whose interests tell them it is neither politic to quarrel with England nor wise to openly abuse her. At public meetings and in newspapers the most virulent opinions were long, and are in a lesser degree, to this time, put forth ; and were the Irish in America as potent as they are violent a war between that country and England would be any day inevitable. The other peculiarity alluded to, their approval of slavery, is repugnant to every sentiment of right. It is not natural to the Irish mind in Europe ; but is easily accounted for in its transatlantic state, where a strong personal influence, acting on Koman Catholic submission to moral thraldom, prepares the professors of that faith to approve of the physical slavery of a subordinate race. A galling sense of inferiority to the dominant Anglo-Saxon population makes Irishmen too happy in finding another portion over which they can in their turn domineer ; and they would, if possible, place the negro lower than he is, that they might on his degradation rise above the level assigned to themselves. This is, as far as I can judge, the only way of accounting for that lamentable blot upon the Irish in America. They are not by nature a cruel people, although revenge is one of their marked national traits. But the poor negroes have never done them harm, do not stand in their way, and cannot presume to even an equality with them. Having then no wrongs, no rivalry, and no insults to avenge, and no early habits of thought (as the Yankees have) to make a black skin abhorrent to their 4^ THE IRISH IN AMERICA. taste, I find everything wanting to otherwise account for, and nothing whatever to justify, the Irish American's too evident adhesion to pro-slavery doctrines. One small section among them, the banished remnant of the Irish rebels, who have sought indemnity in the New World from the punishment awarded to them in the Old, I look upon as an entirely exceptional fragment. Their frantic doctrines in either hemisphere I consider as symp- toms of mental aberration. Having renounced the home- born hopes, early cherished under a conscientious delu- sion, scouted for their undiscriminating ravings against England in every civihzed portion of the Union, they are driven into remote districts of semi-barbarism, where, with national exaggeration, they go beyond even the native tyrants in a laudation of atrocities against which their natural instincts would revolt. I sincerely compassionate those forlorn and desperate exiles. I view them as wrecks driven before the whirlwind of fate ; and I will not, by any mention of names already too notorious, disturb the obscurit}'' which is their best remaining refuge.* The antagonism to England must, in homely phrase, be allowed to have its fling. It cannot be controlled. It is in vain to oppose it by direct means. There is no chance whatever of thoroughly disabusing the Irish mind in America, and showing with practical efiect that the foun- tains of wrath had better be dried up. The actual gene- ration must be left hopelessly to die out in its enmity. It * I had intended to insert here a letter from Daniel O'Connell to some mistaken Irishmen in America, who addressed the Repeal Association in Dublin, in terms favourable to the system of slavery. It was a scathing reproof for their unworthy adherence to such a cause. But it is so powerful a document and contains so many cogent arguments against the " peculiar " and cursed institution, that I have determined to embody it in the portion of this volume which I mean to devote to that subject. PROSPECTIVE. 43 is for a future time, and in Ireland itself, that the birth ot a wiser and better feeling must be looked for. If the course pursued by the government there of late years is firmly and mildly carried out ; if viceroys so truly liberal as Lords Carlisle and Eglinton are allowed to act up to their benevolent impulses — irrespective of party, and no matter under what colours ; if the landlords, taking the tone from the government, will go heart and soul with the stream of improvement which has lately begun to flow ; if the obstructive partisans of either creed will cease to swim against it, and rabid Orangemen and ribald priests subside into rational beings working for the common good, a race of men may be born and trained, who, when they emi- grate to America, will sail past the English coast without muttered curses on their lips, and land in the New World with feelings of generous forbearance in their hearts. This would be indeed a happy change, which would allow those adventurers to devote their energies to their own prosperity instead of wasting them in rancorous efforts to perpetuate ill-will between America and Eng- land. Circumstances already tend towards this much to be desired result. The fevered excitement of former years wants food for continuance. The main question which kept it alive — the proposed Repeal of the Union — is altogether quashed since O'Connell's death, and the mani- fest incapacity of his followers in the trade of agitation. The manner in which that phantom project was pursued in America forms a curious episode in the history of the Irish settlers there. I happened to be placed in the very centre of its development, and under circumstances some- what peculiar. I will here give a sketch of its origin and progress. 4i THE IRISH IN AMERICA. AGITATION FOR REPEAL OF THE UNION. O'Connell had no sooner fairly entered on the great struggle in Ireland, than his countrymen in America took the field as auxiliaries, with the view of strengthening his moral force, and of furnishing additional funds to secure the triumph which he pretended or possibly strove to believe, and which they really believed to be certain. The movement began in. Massachusetts where, how- ever, the Irish were not of sufficient weight to promise any immediate effect on the other parts of the Union. New York is undoubtedly the head-quarters of the national Irish party, not only in general political influence, but in the individuals who might give popularity to any under- taking connected with old country objects. Emmett, O'Connor, M'Nevin, are historic names, and anything originating with them and others of wealth and standing in the " Empire State,'' might naturally be expected to excite attention and obtain success. But there is no pres- tige in such patronymics as M'Hugh, M'Ginniskin, and Murphy ; and it was with persons so called, and others of no note or position, that the repeal movement originated. Great, then, must have been the attraction possessed by the attempted object, to have procured for it such immense and rapid success as it obtained. The first repeal meeting of a merely preliminary nature took place in Boston, at an inferior hotel, on the evening of Tuesday, October 16th, 1840. A general meeting, called by advertizement, and con- sisting of from 1500 to 2000 persons, was held at Boylstbn Hall on the following Monday, October 22nd, when several Irishmen and three Americans addressed the excited REPEAL AGITATION. 45 audience, and resolutions were passed for the organisation of a society, to be called " The Triends of Ireland/' A committee and several sub-committees were formed, to obtain a constitution and by-laws, and obtain members. At the next general meeting, November 30th, resolu- tions were passed to discourage the wear of articles of British manufacture, to establish a monthly assessment of twelve cents on each member of the association, for the purpose of paying the current expenses ; the balance, together with the amount of initiation fees, to be trans- mitted to the Treasurer of the Repeal Association in Dublin. A board of directors was chosen ; also a com- mittee to be specially employed in inducing influential Irishmen in other places to form similar associations. At another general meeting on December 28th, an address to the Irishmen and friends of Ireland in New England was agreed on, embodying the spirit of the whole objects of the association as far as they were made public. And the example thus set by the obscure Irish inhabitants of Boston was followed in rapid succession by other places in Massachusetts, by the states of Rhode Island, Pennsyl- vania, and New York. Within a very short period the epidemic extended itself throughout the Union. Large meetings, numerous associations, voluminous addresses, extensive correspondence, and lavish subscriptions were the results. The wide-spread movement was hailed with joy and hope in Ireland. It gave great encouragement and important pecuniary support to the home agitation ; and it early excited the attention of the British Govern- ment, whose diplomatic agents in the United States were called on to observe and report the progress of measures that assumed a threatening and rather dangerous aspect. 46 THE IKISH m AMEEICA. The dimensions assumed by the repeal agitation became somewhat formidable in the early part of the year 1841. One of the least agreeable features of it was the frequent appearance, at the Irish meetings and dinners, of indivi- dual Americans holding official positions, who thus counte- nanced, if they did not actually join in, proceedings that were invariably accompanied by open insult to England and the Sovereign. The annual festival observed on St. Patrick's day, the l7th of March, was remarkable at Boston by the presence of the Mayor of the city and of Mr. John Davis, governor of the state. "Success to Repeal " was one of the regular toasts. " The health of Queen Victoria," which I had the pleasure of hearing pro- posed and well received at the dinner the previous year, was on this occasion omitted, and thus this banquet always previously considered as a purely charitable demonstration, was perverted into a political meeting. I had received an intimation of what was to take place, and I consequently declined making one of the party ; nor did I ever afterwards attend the annual celebration of the day, except on one occasion at New York, when every- thing objectionable was avoided. All these exciting efforts of the Irish in America, the great pecuniary sacrifices they entailed on the whole of the emigrant community, and the money contributed by persons of all classes to an incredibly large amount, were utterly thrown away. The excitement evaporated, the money swelled that real sinking fund, the Irish Rent, and the question of Repeal itself sank into gradual insignificance and final extinction. The spasmodic struggles of the suc- cessors of O'Connell met with sympathy but no support in the United States. None of the emigrants were tempted to return home and throw themselves into the wretched POPULARITY EASILY ENDANGERED. 47 struggle. But when the horrid accounts of the quick succeeding famine crossed the Atlantic, all the genuine feelings of national sympathy burst forth ; and all that was left after the prodigal contributions for Repeal, was subscribed to the utmost extent of individual means, to arrest the progress of starvation in the poor " old country," which had now reached the climax of misery. This "Repeal of the Union" movement seriously affected the popularity which I had the good fortune to gain among my countrymen in America, by some very small proofs of good feeling towards them, which their warm-hearted- ness magnified much beyond their true value. It was of course somewhat extravagant of any portion of them to expect (even supposing me to approve of their great object, which I did not) that I could with any propriety in my official capacity sanction their proceedings by attending political meetings, designate them as they might, held in flagrant opposition to the British Government, and for the furtherance of a project which was nothing less than, a dismemberment of the empire. But my dechning to do so gained me a plentiful shower of hebdomadal abuse from an " organ " of the most violent and vulgar of those deluded persons. It was, however, only amusing to see myself held up in this print as " the servile tool of the tyrant Victoria," as " not an Irishman at all," or as " an Englishman in disguise." I was not seriously damaged by those absurd attacks, for my part was generously taken by the " Pilot," a well conducted paper, edited by rational men, and of wide circulation and considerable influence among the Irish throughout the Union. Thus foohshly assailed and ably defended in pubHc, I little knew that all the efforts of my own neutrahty to 48 THE IRISH m AMERICA. keep me right on the subject of Repeal at home and abroad, were in some degree counteracted by certain private proceedings, which it might be fairly said were undermining my domestic citadel, for their scene w^as in my kitchen, and the chief engineer, my cook. And this mention of a trivial and ludicrous episode in the progress of a serious subject, must be taken only as an illustration of the "mixed yarn'' presented by Irish character in almost every aspect it assumes. The individual alluded to in the last paragraph, by name Mrs. Brodigan, was a woman worthy of a place in records of more assumption than these pages ; and she might, in a fitting sphere, have figured in the annals of the " strong minded " as a heroine of historical reality. I rarely saw her, and never spoke wath her but once, for there w^as something too formidable in her stalwart frame and haughty bearing, and more particularly still, in the deep diapason of her voice, that struck me, I confess, with a sense of mingled awe and repugnance. This amazing vocal organization was the striking peculiarity of this "wonderful woman." The te^^rible manner in which it was exercised when she summoned our numerous family of cats at feeding time was most thrilling ; and the rush with which those favourite domestic quadrupeds bounded along the garden, flung themselves from the branches of the trees or the tops of the walls, where they might be disporting at the time, or galloped down stairs from various parts of the house, seemed more the efl'ect of some galvanic fascination that the natural sympathy with a persuasive call. The lyre of Orpheus might have been more musical, but certainly not more magical. One evening, soon after this female Stentor joined our household, we remarked a hollow rumbling noise (as the THE ENEMY IN THE CITADEL. 49 family sat in the drawing-room), which, as it was previous to the spirit-rapping manifestations, I must pronounce the most astonishing effect of auricular evidence ever before experienced. Whether it was a diapason-diapente, or a diapason-diatessaron, or whether the sounds were concrete or discrete, it would have required the skill of a musical doctor to decide. My wife's maid entering the room, I asked her what it was that so puzzled us 1 " Oh, sir, it's only Mrs. Brodigan reading Childe Harold to the other servants," was the reply. This, perhaps, would have been worth telling if it were only as an incident of Irish recreations in America ; but the fact it revealed was a new proof of the power of our cook over human as well as fehne nature ; and it prepared me for hearing, some time later, that, under her auspices, a regular series of political confabulations was held in the basement rooms of my residence, forming her undisputed territory, and communicating through the garden with a back entrance to the common. And there it was, in the very premises of Her Britannic Majesty's most inno- cent, and, I admit, in that instance, most ignorant, Consul for the State of Massachusetts, that the plans originated, and were secretly debated, for the disruption of her united realm. I was credibly informed, when a happy change relieved us of the services of our very imperfect, but highly poetical and pohtical culinary practitioner, that Catholic priests, Custom House officers, and other persons among the " repealers " were frequent assistants in those councils ; and that it was to their influences, directed by the super- intending energy of our Mrs. Brodigan, that were owing the fabulous sums collected from the earnings and savings of servants and working people of both sexes, towards the support of the mischievous agitation which kept VOL. II. E 50 THE IRISH IN AMEEICA. Ireland in suspense and England in anxiety for several years.* That delusion is now, and I trust for ever, dispelled, and England having turned into the true path of justice to Ireland, I hope the Irish in America will have the good sense to fix their minds on their actual duties in the country of their adoption, trusting the destinies of their native land and its inevitable rapid improvement to the Providence that Shapes our ends, rough hew them as we will. * Some wandering Irish scribes, escaped to our colonies from the United States, favoured me with several libellous attacks in their low prints touching these clandestine meetings, as though they were held under my auspices, and another stated that I had personally joined in one of the public repeal gatherings as a supporter of the project, to the astonishment and alarm of some of my New Brunswick and Nova Scotia friends, till I was able to satisfy them. I cannot dismiss the subject of the redoubtable Mrs. Brodigan without mentioning that her successor in our kitchen, Mrs. Kimbal, a Yankee lady (widow of a military band-master) of comparatively mild demeanour and gentle manners, soon afforded a soothing contrast to the exercise of the Irish artiste's literary pursuits. One evening quick-following Mrs. K.'s installation in the apartments and ofi&ces vacated by Mrs. B., I felt rather dozingly inclined under the influence of some such magical harmonies as those which murmured in the ears of Trinculo and his " strange bed-fellow " in the Enchanted Island. ** What sounds are those ] " asked I of the servant who entered the room, and who replied — " It's only Mrs. Kimbal, Sir, playing a tune on the double flageolet." Of such various stuff and varying accomplishments are the cookmaids of the New World composed. CHAPTER 11. THE WOMEN OF AMERICA. Progress of Female Influence — Scarcity of Monster-women — Right Appreciation of the Sex— Superiority of Women in America — Their Foibles in Manner and Dress — Precocity — Flirtations — Marriages — Independence of Children — Matchmaking unusual in America — American Women in Eui'ope — Home- sickness — Woman's Rights' Conventions. The important position occupied by the female sex in the actual state of civilization makes the relative defi- ciencies and merits of the women of America a subject worthy of serious inquiry. "Whether it has been from their own exertions, or from the instinctive workings of the social system, of which they form everywhere so material a portion, women have acquired of late a place in the general scale, if not more prominent, assuredly more influential than at any anterior period of the world. Our queens are no longer the heroines of history, nor our wives and daughters the adventurers of romance. Mothers do not send their sons to battle, teUing them to conquer or be borne back on their shields. Matrons plunge no daggers into their own bosoms, nor swallow red-hot coals for virtue's sake, nor do virgins drive nails into the heads of tyrants for that of country. The ferocity of patriotism is left to men. The coarser half of creation is not stimulated to duty by the excitement of unfeminine passions in the other. But the whole body of society has been at once refined and elevated in modern e2 52 THE WOMEN OF AMERICA. times by female influence, silently working under the surface of the moral world, like the warm springs which trickle beneath the earth, melting and crumbling into fertility the harshness of original formations. The assumption of power on the part of women has in all ages produced a reaction to their disadvantage. The homage paid to the boldness of the EHzabeths and Cathe- rines of history — I choose modern instances to bring the truth more home — was given grudgingly, and was revenged by numberless ungenerous reprisals on the true privileges of the sex. Thus has its progress in the abstract been checked, by the violence done to taste and delicacy by those monster-women who have stood out in relief on the page of time. Nature has happily limited the production of those prodigies. They have been too few to entitle their sex to contest the palm of force and fierceness with ours. The real use of those heroines has been to teach men that women are not incapable of the highest reach of mental strength, and to show how good it is for the w^orld's well- being that they should be cultivated to a proper standard, that would expose the disproportions of a forced over- growth. Men have discovered that an appreciation of female excellence is not unmanly ; that the idolatry with which chivalry worshipped it was as absurd as the little value set upon it by Islamism w^as unjust. It has also been found that the Jewish estimate is not the real one ; and that the true station of women is to be traced alone in the unwritten instincts of Christianity, which tells us that neither sex is meant to be the slave nor the tyrant of the other. A community of feeling, reciprocal confidence, an equahty of rights, modified by a wise distribution of duties, LITERARY ATTAINMENTS. 53 are admitted to be tlie natural law of God and the true interest of mankind. The abounding instances of mental power on the part of women have taught men the folly of claiming it totally for themselves ; at the same time that the physical construction of both sexes proves what was meant to be the attributes of each. The women of America are, beyond all comparison, superior to the majority of the men in appearance and manners, particularly in the chief towns, the society of which gives the tone to the country at large. They pos- sess an ingenuous and easy air, which is nearly equivalent to the good-breeding of Europe. Their coldness, so much complained of, is less of manner than of feehng. They are generally educated, in the common acceptation of the word ; but the system they are taught by is a mis- taken mixture of the pedantic and the superficial. On a slender foundation of Latm they raise a slight super- structure of modern languages. But, soon forgetting their classics, they too often speak English ungrammati- cally, and they have but little knowledge of the others. Writing and arithmetic are the strong points in female education. Most American women are excellent account- ants, and many of them display hand- writing (or, as they always call it, chirography) that would do honour to a counting-house clerk, and looks as regular and studied as copperplate. Most of the younger women have a lively turn for light literature. They have not much acquaintance with history or other serious reading, and but a smattering of many scientific things, picked up from casual lecturers. They are taught the usual accom- plishments of the sex. They are ordinarily but poor musicians, and know little of drawing ; but they dance well, and ride tolerably. There are many defective 54 THE WOMEN OF AMERICA. points which, forcibly strike one recently arrived from the refinements of the Old World. Among these, the loud- ness and harshness of the voice are the most disagreeable, and certain phrases, familiarly used by the best among the ladies of Yankee land, fall on the English ear as inexcusable vulgarisms. No amount of vivacity or naivete can reconcile us to the long-drawn-out " Oh, yes ! " or, " Did you ever ! " or, " Yes, indeed 1" or, "Do tell!" or, "Well, now! ".of a New England helle ; or the sharp " I know it," or " No two ways about that," " and no mistake," &c. ; or the frequent violation of grammar and pronunciation. " It warn't," " Anywheres," " Not as I know of," " Going a housekeeping," "Tm a coming," " How have you ben"?" " I'll do it right off," and a dozen such expressions, have shocked me " time and again " (to use one of their pet ones) coming from some of the sweetest lips in the United States. But the " filagree phrase and silken term precise " of attempted fine speaking are still worse. Nothing is more provoking than to hear an agreeable woman saying what gives her an appearance of underbred affectation, for ordinary minds are always afraid of homely words. " Gar- ments " for clothes, " mansion " for house, " a vehicle " for a carriage, " domestics " for servants, " the atmosphere '' for the air, " where did you worship '? " for what church were you at '? "I opine " for I think, are in every day use. A drunken fellow is always called "an incorri- gible inebriate." " Corsets," a word scarcely English, instead of stays, " elastics " for garters, " hose " for stock- ings, and similar conceits, are very general. And I know at least one instance of one of the " exclusives " who Is prone to talk of her " people " — not meaning her kindred, as Ruth did when she spoke to Naomi — but her scanty FEMALE BEAUTY. 55 household, consisting of a waiter {Anglice, footman), a cook, a "sempstress" (no lady has a ladyVmaid), and a chamber-girl [Anglice, house-maid). But most ladies who have been in Europe do not shrink from saying "legs'^ almost as freely as they talk of " limTbs.^' And some of them would scarcely hesitate to ask for the breast of a chicken, though almost all call it the "white meat," in contradistinction to the "dark meat," as all ladies and gentlemen designate the legs of poultry. I must mention that I have rarely heard servants called "helps" by anyone above the class which owns the epithet ; but I am afraid that the substitution of "rooster" for cock is altogether national. The fine writing of all classes is amusing at times. But I must reserve that subject for special notice, and return to the ladies, going a Httle deeper into a topic which is too interesting to pass over lightly, and too delicate not to be tenderly touched. First, then, as to the much-vaunted beauty of American females. I can vouch for their being generally very pretty, and frequently an extremely handsome face is to be met with. Their figures are ordinarily very slight, their feet small, and their ankles well-turned, as far as may be seen below their mysterious flounces ; for women of all ages, grades, and colours, with marked Asiatic taste, wear trou- sers, much more generally than in Europe. But among the younger, both married and single, there is a prevalent habit of dress more general, if possible, than that, namely, the forming their robes into the sem- blance of embonpoint which can deceive nobody, and which imitates humanity badly. The admitted deficiency of round- ness of form in American women arises, I have been told, from a notion which was much encouraged until a very few 66 THE WOMEN OF AMERICA. years ago, that the shghtest appearance of it was in a high degree indeHcate. The consequent compressions, by means of assassinating whalebone, was the cause of many a premature death, and of most defective figures to the squeezed-in survivors. Frequent instances of con- sumption brought on by this usage, as well as by the general abstinence from wholesome exercise, have been laid to the charge of the climate, and the latter has acquired a bad name from effects mainly arising from a very mistaken modesty. The gradual, but somewhat stealthy introduction of the nude in statues and pictures, by European masters, who preferred the human form to the drapery that conceals it, has been the means of an awakening in the female mind of America. Gazing on a group of Graces or a cast of the Venus, many an observing maiden has found out that Nature, as copied by good artists, had certain charming inequalities which their looking-glasses had never revealed to them. The true sense of the beautiful rose up in many a breast. The passing visits of Englishwomen, models for what was represented in marble or on canvas, excited admiration — perhaps a little envy ; and, to supply an appearance which the chisel or pencil can copy so well, many were fain to have recourse to the contrivances of the mantua-maker. No woman, disguised in this fashion, possesses that com- bination of face and shape which entitles her to the epithet " beautiful." And of all the lovely faces, rising from the forms on which the gauze or silk so gracefully hangs, I have seen comparatively few possessing the flush of deep sentiment for which Englishwomen are pre-eminently remarkable. I cannot, therefore, in honesty concede to the American THEIR EARLY EDUCATION. 57 ladies that supremacy in personal attractions whicli some of their own countrymen, and many foreigners, ascribe to them. They are very pretty and very pleasant; but their general want of sentiment, as distinguished from mere sentimentality, in both look and manner is, I think, easily accounted for. My experience in this sub- ject is amply borne out by all that I have learned from others. I may state, then, without exaggeration, that female children of the most respectable parentage live, even before they are said to have quitted the nursery, in public. Their play-ground is the streets, where they run about in summer, and slide along in winter. They travel with their parents, go to watering places and large towns, and the great majority inhabit hotels or boarding houses. They breakfast, dine, and sup from the tenderest age at the table dilute, or, as it is called, "the ladies' ordinary." There they mix in the world, like persons of full growth. They acquire imperceptibly an easy familiarity and self- command, which make each of them a little specimen of a woman cut short. I do not recollect to have ever seen a bashful girl in the United States. The universal habit of going to day-schools and dancing schools, kept by men, and frequented equally by boys, familiarises them with the streets and the public gaze, and early overcomes the instinctive shrinkings of the sex, besides mixing them up with every petty subject of local politics which men and boys discuss, to the exclu- sion of almost all topics of graceful information. The vivacity with which children of both sexes enter into political feelings is almost incredible. I have known boys of eight years of age keep regular balance sheets of votes during election contests, calculating and speculating on 58 THE WOME^ OF AMERICA. the result like grown up men : and in one instance I was informed by a lady that her daughter of about ten years old, on hearing of Mr. Clay's defeat at the Presidential election, came home from school, went to bed, and lay crying there the whole day. At the age of twelve or thirteen, when female children rejoice in the appellation of " Misses," they begin to enjoy all the privileges of self-management. They go to school until a more advanced period ; but they go there alone, take what route they like best, return home unattended, and in the intervals of the class hours, from morning till dusk, they are entirely their own mistresses. At about fifteen — and then they are styled "Young Ladies " — they begin to visit, go to parties, made up of both sexes, all of their own age or thereabouts ; give them in their turns, sending out their invitations quite independently of their mothers. From these " young- parties " every one bordering on years of discretion is excluded. Girls over twenty are considered as quite passees. No one, in fact, is tolerated who could prove the least restraint to the company, except the mother of the entertainer, or aunt, or grandmother, whose indulgence is sure to offer no check. Now, from the earliest age at which those " Misses '^ begin their preparation for their career as " young ladies," until their progress is finished, by matrimony or old- maidishness, a never-ceasing series of what they call flirtations, but which takes the most decided form of w^hat we call coquetry, is carried on with intense ardour. As far as I could observe or learn, the initiative in these affairs is generally taken by the female partners in the adventure. The intrepid defiance of what is considered in Europe a prudent reserve shows great courage, but THEIR FLIRTATIONS. 59 is not always successful. To make conquests, — so to call the poor result of attaching a young fellow as a partner for the balls, or an escort to the lectures of the season, or a companion for walking about the streets, — is the business of a "young lady's '' life. To reckon the number of her "beaux" is her pride; to cast them off, her pastime. She is not, however, much to blame for this levity. They are common-place and insipid to an inconceivable degree. They are certainly little worth loving, for they know little of love but its' name. They can but feebly make it, and imperfectly inspire it ; for the power of doing the first earnestly is essential towards effecting the latter completely. There- fore the girls rarely experience the delight of a genuine passion. Their dangling admirers amuse, and may even at times interest them ; and no doubt the general rule has its exceptions. But I say positively, from various testimony, that a generous affection is very uncommon in what pass for love affairs in the northern portions of America. In the natives of the fiery and ardent South great indeed is the difference. Many an instance has come to my knowledge of proposals of marriage made and rejected, after a due course of "flirtation'^ for several months, and all the appearances of attention and attachment. But the attention Avas mere chit-chat ; and the attachment as loose and temporary as the term admits of its being. I have before stated that no one — at least no native — ever died of love in this country. I now add, that no young man ever blushed at being refused ; and no young woman ever wept at rejecting the " beau " who proved his pre- ference by offering her his hand. The truth is that the whole thing is, on the part of the male sex, a matter of 60 THE WOMEN OP AMERICA. business ; on that of the other a matter of coquetry ; on both an affair of calculation. When a young fellow has served his clerkship in an attorney's office, or got himself dubbed Doctor, or worked a certain number of years in a counting house, or made a sufficient number of voyages as supercargo, he thinks it necessary to settle in business. Even if he has some money himself, a good connection with the promise of a fortune is required in the partner whom he chooses for life. He looks about in the circle of " fashionable society," and fixes on some girl with a rich father, or an independent income ; dances, rides, walks, and talks with her ; proposes for her ; but neither cares for, loves, nor longs for her ; and, consequently, when she says "no," there is no harm done on either side. He goes to the next street, or perhaps the next house, on another venture. She readily receives a new admirer. A few jokes among their mutual friends, and all is over. The man feels no disgrace in having committed the effrontery of proposing for a girl without being pretty sure of her consent ; the woman no shrinking from the public knowledge that she subjected another being to humiliation, and possibly to regret. The affair is talked of and commented on, like the result of an election ; and the defeated candidate prepares for another trial, unscathed and unabashed. In fact, there is nothing injurious to the rejected suitor, in an event so very common to all his friends ; while the young lady has only added another leaf to her laurels. It is considered quite essential to a belle of any celebrity that she can boast of a certain number of proposals ; and, strange to say, her doing so does not cause any deterioration to her value in the marriage mart. The men know that her heart has not been touched ; that it COLDNESS OF HEART. 61 is, in fact, quite as good as new. And they are as ready to bid for it as they would be at an auction for an undamaged bale of cotton, which is enhanced in value in proportion to the number of competitors. It would be almost impossible to exaggerate, in describing the rage for flirtation which prevails among American females. Girls, misses, young ladies, married women, all rush headlong into the stream. But they do it with impunity, for the current is not violent ; and there is no cataract over which they might be hurried. From men so absorbed in business, and so calculating, there is small risk to be run. They have neither the time nor the inclination to do serious mischief Besides this, the other sex partakes strongly of their caution and their coldness. A young woman knows her business as well as her suitor knows his. Hers is to get a husband. She is quite devoted to that object. Her flirting is less from innate love of admiration, than from her pride in the amount (not the value) of her conquests. There is, there- fore, no more danger of vanity leading her into impru- dence than there is of passion forcing her to misfortune. The parents, who have themselves passes par la, put no restraint on the connection — or whatever it may be called. They have no fear of actually evil results, and they see no impropriety in such a system. But it often happens that engagements are contracted, arising out of chance acquaintanceship, very unpalatable to the fathers and mothers, at one or the other side. Some of the finest and most cultivated girls make matches for themselves, quite out of the " fashionable '' circle ; and what are looked on as sad instances of mesalliance are of every-day occurrence on the part of youths belonging to " the first families." 62 THE WOMEN OF AMERICA. It is quite startling, until one gets accustomed to it, to witness the way in which young girls go on, or get along, to use the American phrase. Their intercourse with men is without restraint. They invite them to their homes, receive their visits, walk with them and ride with them alone, at all times and in all places. They go to parties and return home in the same carriage with any man of their acquaintance, quite unattended by any female relative or friend. We used to be much amused at first, in several of the cities, to see young couples come into ball-rooms arm-in-arm together, taking it for granted they were affianced lovers ; and were not a little amazed at the first instance which came to our knowledge, of a youth twenty years of age being invited to escort a dashing belle to a soiree, in the same carriage, without any third person. We soon, however, got accustomed to the general habit, the frequency of which no doubt lessens the chances of bad consequences. As children choose their own schools, so do " misses " select their own companions, and young ladies make their own marriages. They form their attachment often with persons wholly unknown to their parents. They are perfect mistresses of their own destiny, and they have no one to thank or to blame but themselves, let the result be as it may. Parents very rarely refuse their consent to a match for which the daughter has made up her mind. This is one striking cause for the apparently happy marriages which are seen in America. For the woman's pride is roused ; and she will endure much before she admits that she has made a bad choice. But really these men are generally unexception- able husbands. They observe their duties strictly ; and although there is small risk of their killing their helpmates with kindness, or making them too happy, yet there is DOUBTFUL MOKALS. 63 still less of their treating them ill. They never smother their wives — either with pillows or kisses. But they stupify though they do not suffocate them ; and they break them down, after a few years of monotony and dulness, nearly to their own level. The married women continue for awhile, it is true, their spinsterly amusement of flirtation. But they do it quite on the old principle, without much danger. Accidents do sometimes happen, no doubt, but they are rarely discovered. The extreme caution of the national character is a great safeguard, and is admirably played off against the cunning which seeks out a secret. A true Yankee coquette will never commit herself in writing. Her billets are mere ceremonious notes. She never trusts her servant or has a confidante. To her husband she is rigidly attentive and subservient ; and certainly, an immense majority of the married women of America consider fidelity to their lords and masters like a point of reHgious doctrine, and observe it as such. Miss Martineau says, in her work on America, that she doubts the boasted purity of morals in New England. She assures us that "there are sad tales in the country villages, and more in towns in a rank of society where such things are never heard of in Eng- land.'' She adds, that she " knew more cases of lapse in highly respectable families in one State than ever came to her knowledge at home.'' And yet she admits that 'Hhe bottomless vice," as she quaintly calls it, "cannot by possibility be yet paralleled in America." There is some inconsistency in these statements, and I think some exaggeration too. But she had closer oppor- tunities for observing this particular point than I could possibly command, ^he number of marriages between young women and 64 THE WOMEN OF AMERICA. elderly men, often with men old enough to be their grand- fathers, gives a notion of sordid motives ; and the shrinking from observation which is universal in Old England, is here nearly [unknowQi A couple rarely seeks to escape from the crowd when they leave the altar, nor do they hurry into some romantic solitude, to pass the first weeks, or even days, of their union. Married to-night, they see friends to-morrow, and appear in the visiting circle at their own home, at the common table of the boarding house, or in the public room of the hotel, wdth amazing nonchalance. It is in vain to reply to this that there is no indelicacy in the solemn union of two human beings according to religious rites ; that it is only an impure mind that conceives any such feeling ; or other cant reasoning, on a matter beyond the influence of cant. In spite of this cold and coarse philosophy there is a charm in refinement which it cannot afi'ect. The days of retirement, snatched from the world's gaze, when the heart is full of happiness, and the lightest sounds seem intrusive, are worth years of publicity, to all but those who calculate time, love, and sentiment, by one common rule of profit and loss. But the honeymoon of a Yankee must be passed in his hive. He never thinks of flying to rural shades, to hum among the flowers. He sticks fast to the cells where his treasures are hoarded. The w^edding day once over, he hastens to his counting-house, and begins to work double tides, to make up for the four-and-twenty hours he has lost. And the young creature who has entered, or who ought to have entered, with him on a new world of thought and feeling, is left to stare and be stared at, commented on and criticized, in the midst of curious visitors, the centre of a common-place circle. What a desecration is this of the beginning of wedded SCANDAL AVOIDED. 65 life, the entrance to the temple of human happiness ! As I have looked upon lovely girls, at dinners or dances, a day or two after their marriage with some elderly Croesus or young aspirant for wealth, I have wondered how they have been chilled into insensibility, or what spell a husband can cast over his bride, to check the spon- taneous love-glance due to him, or the blush which slie owes to herself This may be thought romance, or nonsense. And there are many who think them convertible terms. But I am nevertheless satisfied, that true modesty prompts on such occasions the observance of its outward signs. Yet form is the great essential in the code of Yankee manners. I do not say morals, though on some points I think I might almost go that length. One cannot help looking with suspicion on people who go to church three times on Sunday ; aye, or even twice, when the fact is that the second service, is attended to kill time on the dullest day in the week, or as affording facility for the afternoon nap. The coolness with which men lay their heads back in the pew, or place them on the ledge in front of it, and settle quietly to sleep when the sermon begins, is really amusing. But the ladies certainly have not this indecorum to answer for. They are always, both in and out of church, wide awake. Their quickness in the discussion of most trifling subjects is very remarkable. They have great readiness for repartee ; and while their constitutional caution and conventional delicacy prevent their saying anything Hbellous or broad, they can whisper scandal very cunningly, and have a sufficiently agreeable taste for badinage. Their scrupulous observance of propriety does not allow 66 THE WOMEN OF AMERICA. of their speaking very ill of each other. They know that their minutest movements are closely observed by neigh- bours as quick- sighted and inquisitive as themselves. They are consequently always as much on their guard against others, as they are on the w^atch for them ; while, in consequence of the general circumspection, each is afraid of transgressing beyond the visible bounds to which others go. Thus married women are all apparently discreet, and I truly believe they are very rarely the con- trary in fact. But the inconsistency of opinion is remarkably displayed in the latitude allowed to unmarried women. I have witnessed freedom of manners in America quite at variance with what I had experience of during a long residence on the Continent of Europe. But I soon came to the conclusion, that there was little harm done. It was all talk, very small too, for I am sure the ladies had the most of it. • Courtship is sufficient to sanction a great intimacy ; but as soon as an engagement of marriage is actually announced, the affianced ones are considered as still more largely privileged to do what they are pleased to do. Their parents view the matter as one of mere business. The engagement of a daughter is considered like the entrance of a son into a mercantile partnership. The discretion of the young couple is their only restraint. Parents or friends attempt no interference with them. They are constantly together, in all the open semblance of man and wife, walking arm-in-arm in the streets, paying visits, going to parties and public places, and taking excursions of several days' continuance, from toNvn to country, or vice versa. In these they are generally accompanied by a friend, destined to fill the office of SORDID MOTIVES IN MARRIAGE. 67 bridesmaid at the proposed wedding; and they return, no doubt as innocently as they went. It might be supposed that after such close companionship, notorious to every- body, a " breach of promise " would be impossible. This is by no means the case. Engagements are very fre- quently broken off, after months or years of this amazing familiarity ; and the emancipated fair one finds a husband as easily as she could have done before, or as though she were a divorced wife or a widow. Although marriages are usually made in the spirit of every other matter of trade, many matches are formed in which interested motives are not the sole ones. A young lady, heiress to a large fortune and the owner of one of the prettiest places near Boston, was of course the mark of attraction to half the bachelors of her acquaintance. Not as pretty as her country residence, but of a high temper, she gave her heart (in American parlance) to a good-looking young fellow among the crowd, and they w^ere duly affianced. But hearing, through some female gossip, that he had avowed his affection to be placed more on her fortune than on herself, she broke off the match, and immediately married a lackadaisical schoolmaster without a dollar. I never looked at this lady without feeling respect for her pride, nor at her husband, without thinking she was too heavily taxed for her impetuosity. If I am rightly informed, money is rarely given down to any amount, with girls as a marriage portion, even by the wealthiest parents. A rich old man, or an industrious young one, proposes for the person of his choice, mostly, no doubt, from the prospect of pecuniary good. But marriage is rather a speculation than a bargain. The property of every father of a family is well known. The children are sure, except in some very uncommon instances, 68 THE WOME]^ OF AMERICA. to enjoy it after his death, share and share aUke. The suitor calculates on so much, and takes chance for what more he may hope to get, according to the future accumu- lations of his father-in-law. The latter generally purchases or builds a house, and furnishes it handsomely for the fiancee. And there very often ends her good fortune and her husband's expectations. For bankruptcy and ruin are so frequent, even in cases of individuals of a large business, that this marriage speculation is very much of a lottery. There is undoubtedly a feeHng among the Yankees, by which they persuade themselves that it is ungene- rous to expect money down with one's wife ; and, on the other hand, that it is indelicate to require a settlement on the part of the husband. But the truth is, that neither the fathers nor the lovers will consent to bind themselves in undertakings that would lessen their authority over the dependent members of their famihes ; or tie up any portion of their property, even for the security of the beings they might be supposed to love best. The pride of authority and the spirit of trade forbid this ; and the spirit of calculation approves of it. The six per cent, regular interest on a mortgage is considered but a paltry return, while double that amount can be realised on shares in manufactories, or treble or more in commercial specula- tions of various kinds. But risks and loss often follow on such latter investments ; and widows and children are many a time the sufferers. Individuals are every day pointed out to me who have been reduced from wealth to comparative beggary ; while others (the great majority) have become rich "per saltum, from beginnings too small for counting. " In connection with this portion of my present subject, I must say that the disappointment frequently following THEIR DOMESTIC MANAGEMENT. 69 the hopes of a large fortune with a wife, never, I believe, leads to ill-treatment on the part of the husband. It is looked on as an unlucky speculation, or a bad debt, falHng on the firm, of which the woman has become a joint partner. As such, she suffers her share of chagrin, but no more. The marriage having been a matter of trade, its vicissitudes, be they what they may, are nothing more nor less than so much profit or loss, of which each party reaps the benefit or bears the burden, share and share alike. All the details of housekeeping, keeping accounts of expenditure, hiring servants, etcetera, with the exception of going to market and buying wine, are in the province of the mistress of the house. Her duties are admirabl}^ performed. Order, cleanliness, and good management, are conspicuous in every family. Much of the domestic work is performed by the ladies, old and young ; and; although this tells much in favour of their housewifery, it certainly (as I have mentioned elsewhere) tends greatly to spoil their servants. There are many minor points connected with the routine of everyday life, in which women are, in all countries, essentially alike. Those of America are not inferior to any in the care of infants, or in the attention to externals required by children of a larger growth. Everything involving the duties of the nursery and the laundry (generally entrusted to servants elsewhere) is well done. It is in the guardianship of the mind, and the formation of manners, in the due authority of love and experience, which should teach children respect and con- fidence, that the mothers of America are imdoubtedly deficient. Girls who had little reverence for their parents have small chance of inspiring it in their offspring. An 70 THE WOMEN OF AMEKICA. instinct of affection and support soon gives place to seeming indifference on the one hand and independence on the other. The infant is cared for, the adult left to shift for itself. I have known American ladies assert as a principle, that though a parent owes love and the most assiduous care to their children, the duty is by no means reciprocal. In fact, that the connection being, on the part of the offspring, an involuntary one, they are not in any way bound to consider it as sacred. This terrible doctrine is, I believe, broached, if not absolutely laid down, in Godwin's " Political Justice." One great evil common to European mothers is avoided by this otherwise lamentable system. The husband- hunting and match-making which betray them into so many absurd and humiliating efforts to provide for their daughters, are of course unknown in a country where every girl makes her own choice, and where the maternal influence goes for nought, or next to it. American women have been frequently and justly reproached with extravagance in their dress ; and good taste is not so striking as extravagance. I have already alluded to the flaunting style of their street costume. The passion for finery seems universal. But when instances present themselves, as they sometimes do, of a subdued love of ornament and a well-chosen w^ardrobe, they give still greater pleasure than in countries where they are more prevalent. I know ladies in America, whose inherent sense of refinement in such matters might fit them for the best circles of Europe. A direct comparison of the women of America with those of any other country would be, perhaps, invidious. But a few words on the relative characteristics of English and American females as contrasted with those of the COMPARATIVE MORALITY. 71 continent of Europe may not be mal apropos, as illustrative of opposite systems. Englishwomen, educated at home, and living in com- parative seclusion, then let loose into society, or what is technically called " brought out " in Paris, Rome, or Naples, are positively no longer the same beings in a moral sense. Nature is not so powerful in forming character as circumstances are for deforming it ; and no more painful trial can await a young woman, married or single, than to be so launched on the great ocean of hfe. I wish to avoid the ticklish question of comparative morality. It is not necessary to boast of the domestic virtue of England. Knowing that it eminently exists, I can also attest that the attributes of female excellence are to be found in the various countries of the Continent in a very high degree. English or American women going abroad for the first time have, however, a different, and erroneous, notion on this subject. Founding their opinion on the fact that there is a less acute sense of delicacy in the continental mind, they jump to the false conclusion, that virtue is held light in a ratio with the levity of language. This is a great mistake. Laying aside any discussion on the abstract question, of what is female virtue, it may nevertheless be doubted that its existence is proved, or that its interests are advanced, by an over- strained reserve in diction or manners. Majesty deprived of its externals, is wittily said to be " a jest.^' The same observation will not apply to virtue in its intrinsic sense, any more than in its orthography. It depends not on outward show. On the contrary, a pruriency of thought, arising from the want of real virtue, is both evinced and encouraged by a prudish avoidance of phrases and actions, 7^ THE WOMEN OF AMEBICA. innocent in themselves, and rendered impure only by the associations they are coupled with. But young Englishwomen or American girls going abroad, know nothing of all this. Accustomed from early life to great freedom of intercourse with the other sex, they are notwithstanding in language extremely reserved. The Spartans taught virtue by exposure, which we should consider indecent. We instil deUcacy by concealments which they beHeved to be conducive to vice. We can judge only of the latter system. Let us see how it works. A young Englishwoman, on her first introduction to foreign society, finds herself shocked by modes of expres- sion in women of the highest ton, from which females of the inferior grades in England would shrink. While, on the other hand, she hears from men, whose fastidiousness on some points of manners seems prudery in comparison with the free intercourse of the sexes in England, phrases and allusions which no gentleman there would allow to escape him in a lady's presence. All this inconsistency only proves that delicacy and decency are but conventional words, and the feelings they typify dependent on no general rule. But both English and foreign women mistake the matter altogether, and accuse each other of impurity on grounds equally opposite and erroneous. I remember an anecdote, related by Madame de Genlis in one of her works on England, which is admirably illustrative of this subject. She paid a visit one day in London to a young lady, accompanied by a friend of hers, a Frenchman. The hostess proposed to show Madame de Genlis a fine view from the window of her bed-room, which adjoined the saloon ; and she led the way, followed MISTAKEN VIEWS IN EUROPE. 73 by the comtesse, whose steps were, as a matter of course, trodden by her male friend. The EngHsh lady, on perceiving this intrusion, showed such an excess of confusion and shame, that Madame de Genhs could not avoid exclaiming (to herself), " How impure must be the mind that could attach a notion of impropriety to the mere association of a man and a bed in the same room ! A Frenchwoman would not have noticed it, or if she did, would not have thought it w^orth remarking." Now there was neither impurity on the one hand, nor impropriety on the other. A sense of modesty was not proved or disproved by those contrary indications : no more than it is by some Englishwomen refusing to waltz, from a sentiment of delicacy, and many German ones (as I can vouch for) attributing their objections to a consciousness of improper feeling. It is by long inter-