]

CIVILIZED AMERICA.

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.']

-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.

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

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-
<jourse alone that individuals can escape from such miscon-
ceptions as those.

This mistaking of manners for principles is a common
error of most persons in foreign countries. Young
females are too apt to imagine that those of their own
sex who talk freely must think coarsely and act loosely.
Familiarized at length with their conversation, and fasci-
nated by their manners, they view their supposed conduct
with less severity, and begin to think that the imagined
immorality is not so immoral. The reserve of foreign
girls in their intercourse with men strikes the lively
English, or less fastidious American, lasses as mere affec-
tation, when viewed in comparison with the style of their
discourse. Thus, while the effect of a good example is
lost, the mischief of a fancied precedent supervenes. The
novice listens to words which develop an occult action

74 THE WOMEN OF AMERICA.

in her own mind ; and an enthusiastic abandon to her
new sensations prepares her for many of the dangers to
which enthusiasm is sure to lead.

It is a common saying in France, that ^^une Anglaise,
unefois comprornise, jette son bonnet par dessus le moulin^
And it is too true that Enghshwomen do often plunge
deeper and deeper when they have made one false step.
The first mischief happens unawares, and they who have
mainly depended on forms for protection are helpless
when those forms are set at nought. Estimating such
poor defences far beyond their worth while they stood
intact, their real value, when once they are violated, is
altogether forgotten ; and it is when the saving influence
of appearances is most required that it is least attended
to. A woman who foregoes a principle, from the more
potent influence of a passion, has often too much pride
in the sacrifice not to make it known. Devoted to the
object for whose sake she may have erred, her impru-
dence follows in the track of his vanity ; and exposure to
pubHc scorn producing a loss of self-respect, her fall is
like the rush of waters over a precipice. Foreign women
" manage these matters better.^' Immeasurably inferior
to those of England in the deeper qualities of sentiment,
they take a more pliilosopliic and a safer course. But far
wiser in their estimate of consequences, they are rarely
carried into excess. An Englishwoman, feeling herself
dishonoured in the eyes of the world, and the world's
opinion being often to her as potent as conscience itself,
she frequently follows up one improper attachment by a
series of errors. A foreign female, trusting to her
own heart for applause or censure, and meeting ho
reproach from that supreme court of appeal, looks
round her, under the consciousness of an illegal liaison,

HOME-SICKNESS. 75

as serene and unabashed as a vestal virgin feeding the
sacred lamp.

Returning to the immediate subject of my inquiry,
I regret that I had few opportunities of studying the
female character in America, apart from the influences of
town life ; but I have met, in both the Northern and
Southern States, exquisite samples of beauty, delicacy,
and good taste. Woman in the country has a more con-
genial atmosphere for the development of her better
nature. Rural associations soften, without weakenina'
the mind ; and manners in women have their source in
inward feelings rather than in outward example. Men
require the polish of society to attain the refinement
which is a female instinct ; and the reserve which may
render a man awkward, and even vulgar, imparts to
women a gentle and graceful air, as fascinating as elegance
itself

One of the most remarkable features in the American
female character, shared by the ladies of both city and
village, is that imaginary love of country, or rather, let me
say, that longing for it, which is designated, during
absence, by the disagreeable term " Home-sickness."

The word sick is, in all its applications, a very nauseous
word. It is, however, a very favourite one in America.
You never hear of any one being ill or unwell. Indisposed,
having rather a finer sound, is sometimes used ; but the
usual word to express all ailments is " sick." I need not
say, to those who have been at sea, what associations are
connected with it. And when sentiment is intended to
be engrafted on it, as in this compound word home-sick,
it always conveys a revolting notion. But as scriptural
phraseology, old English practice, and countryfied habit
may be cited to justify its use, I will let the good or bad

76 THE WOMEN OF AMERICA.

taste of its adoption pass ; and merely say something on
the custom which makes it so general.

It is absolutely matter-of-course — an indispensable
necessity — for every American woman, absent from her
native place for ever so short a space of time, to fancy,
or to feign, or at any rate to boast that she is home-sick.
I never knew one in Europe who did not tell me she was
so. I never knew one in America who had been in Europe
^ho did not tell me she had been so. A lady even in
any part of the Union distant from her birth-place is sure
to become so. I am certain that one of the great
sources of pleasure to American ladies when they start on
their travels, is the anticipation of that very sickness ;
and that the delight of a return home is much lessened
by the sickness being cured.

It is absurd to suppose that every American w^oman is
happy in her native home. It is certain that many sources
of enjoyment are, in certain cases, much more abundant
elsewhere. But it is also a fact, that American ladies who
travel in Europe being persons of a certain degree of
'wealth, some of them very wealthy, have no chance of
being considered abroad as of a tithe of the importance
they assume at home. Finding themselves comparatively
of small account, they naturally become disappointed with
foreign life, long for their native element, and dignify their
mortified vanity w^ith the title of home-sickness.

Love of home, as an abstract sentiment — attachment to,

" One's own, one's native land,"

as an instinct — do in my opinion exist very strongly in
the generality of mankind. But when they do really
exist, they are by no means confined to the female sex.
The Switzer, " who loves the hill that lifts him to the

WANT OF GENUINE SENTIMENT. 77

storm/' is supposed to be acutely sensible to that maladie
du pays which makes him sigh when the " Ranz des
vaches " strikes on his ear, and through it reaches his
heart. We admit this to be the national peculiarity of
the Swiss ; though in doing so we may be stretching a
point for the sake of romance. No people so generally
quit their native country as the Swiss and Savoyards, and
none more readily enter the service of foreigners from
motives of gain. But as I love to believe in the romance
of real life in all possible forms, I will not push the inquiry
too far. I am content to give the Swiss all the credit
they have obtained for their amor patricB. They, of all
people, ought to be pre-eminent for love of home, because
it is the chosen haunt of freedom, the centre of pastoral
enjoyment, and because fewer of the heart-deadening
vices of great cities are to be found there than elsewhere.
Influences like these may be supposed to have acted in
the way in question on the natives of such a land. And
if the home-sickness I am discussing was common to the
merely rural population of America, and that it was
shared by male and female ahke, I might never have
inquired into, or never written upon it. But when it is
claimed as a peculiar trait of character, and boasted of as
a proof of an indigenous sensibility in the ladies of the
Atlantic cities, where romance finds no resting place and
sentiment no sanctuary, this vaunted home-sickness is
nearly as nauseous to me as the notion of the " sweating-
sickness,''' by which all Englishmen, in all parts of the
world, were stated on one occasion (during the days of
Queen EHzabeth) to have been simultaneously attacked.

If even this sickly absurdity was a harmless affectation,
I should only make it the subject of a joke. But it is
productive of great mischief. I have known instances of

78 THE WOMEN OF AMERICA.

American wives making their American husbands give up
situations of honourable profit and associations of happi-
ness in Europe, to return to some really inferior position
at home. I have known some, and heard of several
cases, of American women parting from their European
husbands, and going back to their unsociable circle of
Yankee relatives ; and also of Englishmen and other
foreigners, married to American girls, being forced to
rehnquish all the advantages of European life, to accom-
pany their wives to the ungenial soil in which they never
can be acclimatized.

I fear that this boasted passion of American women for
their birth-place is but a forced effort of sentimentality.
It is at best an epidemic, another instance of the want of
originality in the American mind. And admitting it to
exist in some cases — for there are no doubt exceptions to
the general pretext of its existence — it is strongly indica-
tive of coldness in the American female heart.

Love of country or of kindred is at best but a secondary
passion, in comparison with love of husband and of
children. The woman of true sentiment finds her home
where they are. Their country is her country, and their
people are her people. But wanting that high order of
attachment, she may possibly possess the inferior kind in
question. Deficient in affection, she may be strong in
adhesiveness ; and she may be fond of place, in proportion
as she is indifferent to person.

To counteract this ruling love of home, some stronger
faculty must be developed. That is, I beheve, to be found
in love of distinction, in ambition, in short. I think it
very likely that not one of the American ladies who have
married lords or ambassadors, or secured a position among
real aristocracy, and in tridy fashionable society, are

GENERAL GOOD SENSE. 79

frequently or strongly assailed by any symptom of home-
sickness ; at any rate, I have never heard but of a single
instance of any lady so situated returning, even on a tem-
porary visit, to her native country.

The often exposed extravagance of " Woman's Rights
Conventions," and the unseemly innovations in woman's
dress, are confined to so small a circle of the "strong
minded " or loose-mannered among the sex, that it would
be an insult to the refined and educated ladies of America to
include such matters as among their characteristic objects.
That several of the female enthusiasts who take part in the
public struggles for a great social change, are goaded to
their efforts by a sense of man's injustice and unequal
laws, is a fact ; and much latitude may be allowed for
even somewhat coarse displays of power in the attempt to
obtain what they believe to be their due. But these
bands of political Amazons meet with little sympathy
from the more feminine portion of their sex. The latter
shrink with shame from the exposure, even while they
may sympathise with the demand ; and possibly some
may put up silent prayers for a success which they would
not openly advocate. They are satisfied to enjoy the
lavish attentions and cordial respect which they so well
merit and so amply receive from men. And if they look
forward to the legal extension of rights which they think
nature meant them to share, they patiently follow their
career of present usefulness, and modestly wait for the
development of causes which are constantly at work to
better their social condition.

On one most important point of " Woman's Rights " —
the facility of divorce — the sex in America has long been
more favoured than in England. Recent legislation with
us has, however, secured an advance in that inestimable

80 THE WOMEN OF AMERICA.

privilege to ill-treated wives. While the partial abolition
of actions for pecuniary redress to injured husbands frees
the females of Great Britain from a gross outrage, which
had inexpressibly lowered their condition, in comparison
with those of the United States.

It will have been seen that I have avoided drawing any
comparison between the moral characteristics of women
in the two countries. Similarity in language, religion,
and domestic duties, makes distinctions in leading attributes
difficult to trace. The contrasts are much more in man-
ners than in morals ; and those are consequences of
opposing systems, rather than of differences in natural
traits or tendencies. Women are in both hemispheres
creation's greatest charm and man's chiefest treasure. To
him who has known and studied them their appreciation
is easy. And he who esteems them for their good and
graceful qualities may hope to be pardoned (as I do) for
venturing to point out foibles or criticise defects.

CHAPTER III.

COMPARISONS^ AND CONTRASTS BETWEEN ENGLAND AND AMERICA.

The National Conceit encouraged by Leading Public Men — Instances — Misap-
plication of Terms — Marriage, Murder, and Cowhiding in High Life —
Selfishness of the Social System — Contrasts between England and America.

The ignorance of the Americans is most cruelly fostered
by those who take the lead in offering instruction, and who
must know better than they teach. The constant com-
parison of themselves and their country with the nations
of Europe, is at times extremely ludicrous. The before -
cited slang phrases of "nature's noblemen," "the chivalry
of the south," " the high-minded, whole-souled people of
America," are continually dinned into the public ear, until
all sounds less flattering pall on it altogether. The stump
orators and the newspaper writers prodigally use this
phraseology, and the listeners are excusable for behoving
themselves "the wisest, virtuousest, discreetest, best."

These remarks have been suggested by instances of
this rhodomontade, not from mere vulgar babblers, but
from leading men. At a public dinner at Cambridge, in
the State of Massachusetts, the chief seat of learning in
this country, Judge Story gave the following toast, in
honour of a Boston lawyer, who made an " oration "
previous to the feast. " The orator of the day ; the
statesman while he is a lawyer, and because he is a

82 ENGLAITD AND AMERICA CONTRASTED.

lawyer : he is himself tlie great sublime wliich he draws."
This was by no means meant as a piece of jovial pleasantry,
but as a serious compliment, received and responded to
as such.

In an address to the students of the South Carolina
College, by Mr. W. C. Preston, President of the college, I
find the following passage : —

" Industry is tlie prolific mother of many virtues. "We have heard
of *the forest-born Demosthenes,' of 'Nature's darling,' of the
' blind old man of Scio's rocky isle.' These three were men of genius,
certainly ; but they — Henry, and Shakspeare, and Homer — were also
men of labour."

The reader will naturally exclaim on reading this
passage, " a new Demosthenes I '' " Henry who % '' " What
Henry % " " "Who is Henry, this greater than the great '? "
But not one in a thousand will know that the person here
put in company with Shakespeare and Homer — ay, and
put first on the list — was a certain individual called Patrick
Henry, one of the back- wood agitators of the American
Revolution, an obscure, though undoubtedly a gifted man,
whose rough, bold style of speaking had great effect in
those stirring days, but of whose speeches no report exists.
What can be thought of the taste of a modern President
of a college in so burlesquing fame by such a solecism 1
But Judge Story and Mr. Preston were quite outdone
by Mr. George Bancroft, the schoolmaster, historian, col-
lector, naval secretary, and subsequently minister to the
Court of St. James's, who, in an oration at Washington on
the death of General Jackson, had the hardihood to
exclaim, " He bowed his mighty head, and without a
groan the spirit of tJie greatest man of Ms age escaped" to
the bosom of his God ! ''

The way in which military men and their exploits are

AMERICAN BOMBAST. 83

spoken of is the extreme of burlesque. "One of the
greatest captains of the age '^ is a common means of desig-
nating several of their generals. The dedication of a
pamphlet to General Scott, long before he commanded
the raid against Mexico and achieved these successes
which give some meaning to his prenom of Winfield, was
couched in terms so inflated and ludicrous, that I regret
having lost the extract I made from it.

This, as a sample of individual hero-worship, was
amusing enough, but scarcely so much so as the following
passage in reference to a little skirmish, in which Scott
took a part, a few hundred men being engaged on either
side, forgotten even in Canada, where the affair took
place, and probably never heard of by ten individuals in
a thousand in England : —

" The battle-ground of Lundy's-lane, where, on tlie evening of the
night of the 25th Julj, 1814, the Americans fought one of the

bravest and bloodiest battles on record The battle of

Preuss-Eylau took place in the splendour of a snow-storm ; that of
Lundy's-lane was fought amid the thunders of Niagara." — The
Southern Literary Messenger for December, 1845.

Preuss-Eylau and Lundy's-lane ! Burlesque can cer-
tainly go no further than this. But the following passage
from a speech of Henry Clay, in the Senate, February 5,
1850, equals it : —

" In respect to the recent war with Mexico, all must admit that, for
the gallantry of our armies, the glory of our triumphs, there is no
page of history which records more Irilliant successes. For skill, for
science, for strategy, for ability and daring fighting, for chivalry of
individuals and masses, that portion of the American army which
was led by the gallant Scott stands unrivalled, either by the deeds of
Cortez himself, or by those of any other commander in ancient or
modem times."

After this, can General Scott be blamed if he beheves

Q 2

84 ENGLAND AND AMERICA CONTRASTED,

himself (as is generally said of him by his countrymen)
the " tallest '^ man in America, both in the English and
American sense of the word '?

Nothing is more common than persons saying that they
were disinchned to visit Europe, because being accustomed
to the " first society " in their own country, they could not
condescend to mix in any but the highest circles abroad.
An oil merchant once gravely assured me that he thought
an American merchant was " about equal to a Europyan
prince ; '^ and a tailor who keeps what is called a slop-
shop, actually came to consult me on the best means of
being presented at the Courts of London and Paris, and
" gittin' to have a talk with Victoria and Lewis Phillips/'
I met this worthy citizen a few years afterwards driving
about the streets of a German watering-place ; but I did
not ask if he had effected his object with regard to the
Queen of England or the King of the French. And
apropos to his ambitious yearnings, I recollect an adver-
tizement in the town which he inhabited, calling a meeting
of journeymen tailors for the purpose of regulating their
hours of work, and "to assert ^Am' position i?i society.''

It is highly inconsistent in the upper portion of the
wealthy classes in the United States to claim at one and
the same time equality with nobles and princes, and
superiority over the gentry of Europe. Their only claim
to the pretension of such an equality is in the circum-
stance of their being repubhcans, among whom no here-
ditary distinctions exist. This of course deprives them
of all right to superiority of rank over others, unless
they happen to possess some office in public affairs, which
gives them a temporary title. For Americans not in
public employment there is no scale of precedence, and
they must consequently be classed in foreign countries

AMERICAN "HIGH-LIFE." 85

with persons of the same pursuits as they themselves
follow at home. It is very absurd in the Americans not
to be satisfied with this inevitable rule, more particularly
in England — for assuredly the clergy, lawyers, physicians,
merchants, and manufacturers there, are in all respects
equal if not superior to the corresponding classes w^hich
form the gentry (so to speak) of the United States. There
being there no higher class, it is preposterous for those
persons (wealthy or w^orthy though they may be) to con-
sider themselves on a social footing with the aristocracy
of Europe, by whom they are at times, either from courtesy
or curiosity, invited and entertained. And how^evcr we
may approve the high spirit, supposing it to exist, which
might make a cotton-spinner or ship-owner of Boston or
New York, or a slave-breeder of Carolina, feel himself the
equal of a British peer, we must laugh at the inconsistency
of his at the same time holding himself superior to his
fellow-citizens at home, who may not have yet obtained
admission to the "fashionable" circles there.

The people at large have no notion of the style of the
*' high life " in England, which they talk of so much and
parody so often. Even among the more educated, those
who have not travelled in Europe know little of the forms
of social life beyond the seas. They of course, as I have
elsewhere shown, make egregious mistakes in the appli-
cation of words and the estimate of things, relative to
which they w^rite and speak with slap-dash confusion.
" High life " is one of their most favourite phrases applied
to their wealthier circles, and it looks ludicrous enough
Avhen it meets the eye in such paragraphs as the fol-
lowing : —

Maeeiage in High Life — being an account of a union between
tlie -smi of an auctioneer and the daughter of a soap-boiler.

86 ENGLAND AND AMERICA CONTRASTED.

MuEDEE IN High Life — a statement of a street-fight -with
bowie-knives, both the assassin and the victim being country
attorneys.

But one of the most amusing is one which I copy
verbatim, only suppressing the names and residences of
the actors in the scene described : —

" CowHiDiNG IN High Life. — Our city was thrown into great
excitement Saturday afternoon, in consequence of a cowhiding

scrape in high life, the parties eu gaged being Doctor H and

Professor L . The former acted the part of cowhider, and the

latter that of the cowhided, the best way he could."

The phraseology of the Court Journal or the Morning
Post is borrowed and at times misused in the most absurd
manner. Notices of private balls, music parties, marriages,
&c., are burlesque travesties on those in the English news-
papers ; and the two following accounts of a soiree and a
ball are good specimens : —

" Magnificent Peivate Paett. — The most splendid private
party — its extent and princely appointments considered — ever given
in this country, was probably that which took place on Thursday

evening at the chateau of Mr. D , in Boston. Invitations to the

number of five or six hundred had been given out for a week pre-
viously, and it was for many days the topic of discussion and a

matter of high anticipation. The chateau of Mr. D is thoroughly

European in its architecture, internal and external, and in its furni-
ture — in both particulars rivalling almost every other private resi-
dence in the country. On the occasion of this party, the chateau
was thrown open in its whole extent, and no less than six large
rooms were devoted to the reception and uses of the company. The
whole was most magnificently furnished, and decorated in regal
style, excelling altogether, we are told, most of the French and
German chateaus of the present day. The various halls and apart-
ments were brilliantly lighted in the most showy and costly style.
The gates and entrance-halls, excelling baronial grandeur, were
attended by serving-men in liveries,* who waited upon and announced

* This was certainly the first time that servants in livery were exhibited in
any Boston house.

AMEKICAN JOURNALISM. 87

•tlie guests. But above all the other arrangements, the most magni-
ficent and reclierche of all, was the banqueting saloon, which was a
scene of brilliancy and splendour not easily to be described, and
probably seldom if ever excelled in any private mansion in this
country or in Europe. The golden and silver plate, the Sevres china,
the magnificent display of Bohemian cut-glass of numerous colours,
the candelabras, &c., &c., gave a richness to the whole which
astonished and dazzled the beholder. The viands and dishes, the
achievements of the culinary and confectionery art, were in perfect
keeping with all the other arrangements of the evening — elaborate
and artistical." *

"Fashionable Intelligence. — Ball or the Boston Light
GiTABD. — The Boston Light Guard, Captain G. Clark, junior, gave
their annual ball last evening, at Thorndike Hall. It was one of those
magnificent aff"airs which now and then make lustrous the gay world.
The amiability and grace, the loveliness and accomplishments, the
wit, gallantry, and fashion of the city, were out in fullest measure.

* This article drew forth the following commentary from another paper, almost
as amusing as itself: — '* The above is from the Bunker Hill Aurora. We know not,
and care not who is the individual referred to ; but we trust for the credit of
Republican America, that the accoimt is exaggerated or untrue. * Regal style,'
* baronial grandeur,' * serving-men in livery,' * gold and silver plate ! ' It
would be a wholesome state of public opinion, which would discountenance sucli
wretched aping of the ostentation of the heartless aristocracy of Europe ; dis-
countenance it, not from any unworthy sentiment of envy, or from the levelling
spirit which would bring down the comforts and luxuries of life to a uniform
standard, but because such displays are fi-aught with danger to the Republic, are
inconsistent with the principles on which our institutions rest, and should there-
fore be characterized as they deserve to be by eveiy good citizen.

" 'Servants in livery !' The man who, for the miserable purpose of parade and
style, insists that his domestic assistants should put on the insignia of servitude
and degradation, debases himself in the act, and shows that he carries in his own
character the stuff of which a menial might be made, if circumstances had placed
him in the ranks of the poor instead of the rich. Of course the case is for different
where a man has been bred under monarchical institutions, in the vile superstition
that such arrangements are all in the order of Providence — and that all men are
7iot born free and equal, so far as their claims to be saved from unnecessary
debasement are concerned, and in the respect of a common humanity. But here,
in this land of Republican institutions, dependent on universal suffrage for their
safety, and where the ballot of a bootblack carries as much weight as that of his
employer, this attempt to acclimate the selfish customs, which have carried blight
and disease into the tottering political and social systems of the Old World, should
be rebuked and discountenanced — a mode of treatment not inconsistent with
the largest toleration."

88 ENGLAND AND AMERICA CONTRASTED.

We never revelled our eyes among so many brilliant eyes, sylph-like
forms, swelling bosoms, dimpled cheeks, and swan-like necks, in all
our born or otherwise days. It was a picture to touch the coldest
eye, as with magic. The bewitching blonde, and the fascinating
brunette, were there in lovely array, and at the hour of midnight

* A thousand hearts beat happily, and when
Music arose with her voluptuous swell,
Soft eyes looked love to eyes that spake again ;
And all went merry as a marriage bell.'

" The hall presented a grand appearance. The brilliant lights, and
the still more brilliant company, shone in the utmost splendour.
Swords were placed in several windows, which imparted effect to the
beauty of the hall.

" Among the ladies present who were pre-eminently noticeable for
beauty, grace, taste, and accomplishments, were: — Mrs. Captain
Clark, an elegant lady, and a superior dancer; Mrs. Lieutenant
Drake, who very justly attracted much attention ; Mrs. Lieutenant
Cummings, an ornament to the company ; Miss Eogers, who was
much admired for beauty and grace ; Mrs. Lieutenant Coverley, the
most elegantly dressed lady at the ball ; Mrs. M. H. Stevens, as
agreeable, popular, and graceful as ever ; Miss ]Sl orton, a charming
lady and a superior dancer ; Miss Churchill, graceful and pretty ;
Mrs. White, of Eoxbury, dressed with much taste ; Miss Smart, a
fine dancer ; Mrs. Dr. Kennedy ; Miss Austin, a beautiful woman
and an elegsmijiffuranfe ; Miss Wilson, pretty and graceful ; Miss
Spear, popular ; Miss Lyon, much sought after ; the Misses French,
matchless ; Miss Meekum, elegant ; Miss Clark, Captain C.'s sister,
the most elegant dancer present.

" There were a host of others present, which our time or limits
will not permit us to mention.

" Among the officers in uniform we noticed General Andrews and
staff; Colonel Holbrook, and Lieutenant- Colonel Boyd ; and officers
of the Salem Cadets, Boston Artillery, Eoxburg Artillery, Boston
and Cambridge City Gruards, Warren Infantry, Mount Washington
Guards, and other corps ; also several of the Ancient and Honourable
Private Battalions, and Mr. F. A. Eowland in continental uniform.

" The new uniform of the Light Guard is a magnificent one, and
was the subject of general eulogium.

" We left the party at a late hour, in the highest state of enjoy-
ment." — Boston Bee J March 5, 1851.

CONFUSION OF TERMS. 89

The faux pas of delinquent individuals are repeatedly
set forth without a due understanding of the shades of
fashionable crime. I read the other day an indignant
paragraph relative to a Baptist clergyman who tampered
with the virtue of one of his "helps," a young unmarried
woman, which w^as headed " Seduction and crbi. con."
A doctor who practises mesmerism was indicted and tried
in the Municipal Court of Boston for having abused the
confidence of one of his patients, a girl of seventeen, and
his offence was called " adultery .""

There are many words applied, to this day, in America
in a sense foreign to their present meaning in England,
but in accordance with that which they bore a couple
of centuries back, when the New^ World w^as in pro-
gress of being peopled. But these words must not be
confounded with others, the signification of which was,
and is still, the same in both countries, but which are
used in a less extended sense in one than in the other.
I may find a place in this volume for something further
on this subject; but the w^ords clevei' and smart may
serve as an example of the point I wish to illustrate at
present.

" A clever man '' means in England a man of talent ;
in America it means a man of kind temper and good
heart. "A smart man" in England and in America
means one and the same thing — a quick, sharp, intelligent
individual. But England abounding in men of superior
talent, the word clever is applied to distinguish them from
the men of mere smartness ; while America possessing in
comparison but few such, the inferior epithet is considered
quite strong enough to describe those who are above
the common. Had America produced any considerable
number of really clever men in our sense of the term, the

90 ENGLAND AND AMERICA CONTRASTED.

term in that sense would not have fallen into disuse. It
was the men who were wanting, not the word.

Among the phrases in every-daj use among the best
people, two or three occur to me at this moment, which
sound vulgar enough to an English ear, but are only
adaptations of a nautical phraseology common to a
seaboard people.

" Where does such a one hail from ; '' is an ordinary
question ; and the expression '• He, or she, has been
liawled up," instead of " laid up," as with us, is very
generally used. " Such a one has had quite a siege of it"
is a usual way of referring to a long illness, and no doubt
had its origin in the Revolutionary war, when most of
their towns sustained that operation. The favourite
expression of being *' used up " is tantamount, or some-
thing more, to our slang phrase of being done up. It
is stronger than being hioched 2ip, which, by the way,
is considered a most offensive vulgarism in the United
States.

There is something curious in the management and
spelling of French words (of which they are very fond)
accents being rarely used, or at times improperly.
Recherche, for instance, is always printed recherche ;
Charge d'affaires is invariably contracted to charge ; Eaic
de Cologne is, in like manner, called Cologne ; and so on
in many instances. I have seen a stationer's advertize-
ment announcing an arrival of ^papiteries, a word which
not one reader in many thousand understands, but which
was therefore sure to attract inquirers and purchasers.
Bureau is universally used for chest of drawers ; and it
is also adopted in its other sense in the state departments
at Washington, to designate the offices for public affairs.
The word boudoir is very commonly used in a sense tan-

tamount to dressing-room, or, in more direct Yankee
phrase, "wash-closet/' A railway station is always
called the depdt — mostly pronounced the deepo, but
very often depott — and the word levee (pronounced
always levi'e) is applied to a reception of company by
any private individual of an evening where no supper
is to be expected. An introduction is never spoken of
in America. No one is said to be introduced by or to
another. Every one is presented; because such is the
phraseology of the Enghsh Court, to imply an intro-
duction to its highest dignitaries.

The style of invitations and replies to invitations varies
from what is usual in England : and in some instances
savours of over-civility, in others of incivihty, though
neither is intended, e,v. (jr. :

Mr. asks the favour of Mr. 's company at dinner, &c., &c.

Mrs. asJcs the pleasure of Miss and brother's company,

&c., &c.

Mr. regrets that he must decline Mrs. 's polite invita-
tion, &c., &c.

Mr. and Mrs. regret they cannot accept Mrs. 's polite

invitation, &c., &c.

In neither of the two last-mentioned instances is any
reason given for the " declension.''''^*

Miss accepts Mrs. 's kind invitation for, &c., &c.

Mr. vrill have the honour of visiting Mrs. on, &c., &c.

Mrs. regrets it is not in her power to visit Mrs. on,

&c., &c. Mr. has the honour of accepting.

Mrs. requests the pleasure of Miss 's company, with a

very few persons, socially.

* An amusing anecdote was current in London a few years back of an American
lady who was said to have apologised, in a high quarter, for being a little too late
to dinner, on account of her " being occupied in writing declensions to several
polite invitations."

92 ENGLA^s'D AJs^D AMPnUCA CONTRASTED.

" A previous engagement/'' the usual excuse for refusal
iu England, is never pleaded in America unless it really
exists. There is a conscientious matter-of-fact in fashion
there that will not allow so slight a deviation from the
strict rule of right. On the same principle, no lady
refuses to receive a visitor in the morning by virtue of
the common fiction of Enghsh phraseology, "Not at

home.'' The servant invariably tells you that Mrs.

is " engaged," or " very much engaged." This is done
frequently in a most unciviHzed (if not meant to be an.
uncivil) way ; the " help " admitting the visitor to the
drawing-room, taking the name or card to whatever part
of the house the lady may be in, and bringing back

the unceremonious reply that " Mrs. is very much

engaged." And so Mrs. undoubtedly is, ninety-nine

mornings out of a hundred, either fixing something with
the cook, sewing with the seamstress, or dusting with the
chamber-girl. But it is astonishing that those fashionable
ladies cannot make a small compromise between strict
veracity and the convenance of society, and adopt our
"Not at home ; " every one knowing that it merely means
^^ Madame ne revolt fasl^ — and every one of common
sense feeling that the value of words consists in what they
mean, not in what they say.

Small instances of punctihousness like the foregoing do
not, however, merit any serious disapproval when they
are accompanied by gay and lively manners. It is the
solemn foppery and cold self-sufiiciency which makes it so
objectionable. Most people in other parts of the world
wish or strive to make themselves agreeable to others.
I really could not see in America any apparent feeling of
that kind. No man seems anxious to gratify the taste
or humour the weakness of any one else ; or to oblige his

AMEKICAN SELFISHNESS. 93

neighbour for his neighbour's sake. No one puts himself
out of the way for another, except in the case of places
being always given up to ladies in public conveyances or
places of entertainment. Among men it is everyone for
himself Yet there is a tacit understanding that prevents
any one from taking offence, or being hurt at this absence
of attention. If no sacrifice is made, none is expected.
Nothing, indeed, is more annoying to your true Yankee
than an act of supererogatory civility which demands a
return. For the return must be given, in kind or in
equivalent. Nothing for nothing is their favourite prin-
ciple, as I have elsewhere remarked. They do not seem
to comprehend the delight of receiving a favour without
calculating its intrinsic value ; or of a spontaneous act
of good nature done without previous intention.

Everything in America is a matter of business. A
dinner is a transaction of barter, for which another equally
good is expected. It is an obligation, regularly entered
at the debtor side of the social account, to be balanced
and wiped out only on payment made. I once remarked
to a gentleman my surprise at never meeting any young
men at the Boston dinner parties.

" How could they return a dinner 1 '^ was the significant
question, which solved the mystery.

The. selfishness generated by this system accounts for
the amazing coolness with which one Yankee suffers
another to impose on him. He scarcely ever grumbles ;
rarely remonstrates ; and it may be said, never resists. He
pays the overcharge, or admits the cheatery ; because he
knows that impunity is the common right, and that what
he submits to in one instance, he will exact in another,
for all the Yankees are traders of some kind, either in
stock, goods, land, or money. They all buy and sell.

94 ENGLAND AND AMERICA CONTRASTED.

No one lives on a fixed income to which he is born and
which he leaves behind him. Therefore each is sure
sometime or other to have his revenge. Outwitted in
one bargain, he outwits in another. What he overpays
to his tailor or boarding-house-keeper he overcharges to
his next customer or cHent. It is not worth while to
quarrel about an exaction for which he can recompense
himself, nor wise to set an example which would be sure
to re-act upon him. Thus non-resistance is essentially the
principle of the social compact, as resistance is that of
pohtical life. The Americans, so jealous of their govern-
ments, are the self-made slaves of a social surveillance.
They would have no objection to a despot ruler, if
they could individually tyrannise upon some one else.
They have no love of freedom — no hatred of slavery —
from any fine feeling of independence and philanthropy.
Liberty to their notion is merely a privilege of white
people, equally the right of all in a political sense,
but very imperfectly enjoyed by any in the relations of
society.

But as regards the more serious aspect of the question
with which this chapter opened, I must remark that the
Americans are constantly making comparisons of their
own institutions, morals, and manners, with those of what
they still condescend to call the mother country. But
they are ill-fitted for this task. Purblind from vanity,
whenever they undertake it, they can distinguish the
faults of England, but not her merits. They are per-
petually putting her on trial ; but they don't give her fair
play. While they find her guilty on the good counts of
the indictment, they will not acquit her on the bad ones.
When they compare the state of things in their own
country with that in ours, they take the worst points

AMERICAN LITTLENESS. 95

abroad and balance them against the best at home. They
entirely mistake the matter.

The wholesale difference between the countries seems to
me to be this :

Most of the better qualities of man's nature are brought
out by the working of things in England, and that as tlie
consequence of our national faults. All the lower qualities
are developed in America, in spite of the national advan-
tages.

Englishmen are at once, in well-balanced degrees, men
of business and politicians. Americans are absorbed by
business and by what they call politics, which is nothing
more than a business of a mean and contracted sort. The
mere business occupations of Enghshmen would neces-
sarily make them in most respects similar to Americans,
w^ere it not that the politics of England are of so elevated
a kind that they throw their influence into all the pursuits
of life, and raise the community into a lofty and expansive
sphere of thought.

But, as the domestic political questions agitated in
America chiefly hinge on some sordid consideration —
almost all being matters of pecuniary profit and loss, such
as banks, tariffs, currency, commerce, manufactures — the
nobler aspirations of intellect are dragged down by. their
attraction, and the trader in politics is of necessity a retail
dealer. He sets up in his business as another man opens
a shop. He only w^orks for the lucre of gain. Even
allowing him to have some for eshado wings of patriotism,
little that elevates man's nature enters into his view. The
material interests of the country are alone his object ; and
his individual share in the chances and emoluments of
ofiice is the chief point for which he struggles.

Many of the evils of the English system are greatly

i)6 ENGLAND AND AMERICA CONTRASTED.

modified, if not entirely obviated, by the institutions of
America. The oppressions of high rank, and its debasing
patronage ; the subserviency of the middle classes ; the
degradation of the lower. But, on the other hand, no
high-minded motives to action exist ; no examples of them
in action, no stirring impulses of principle and passion,
which foster generous rivalries among men.

Democracy secures great physical enjoyment to a
people, but it cramps the nation's intellect. The pulse of
the social system throbs, but the blood feebly circulates.
There is being and motion, but no vigorous ebb and flow.
The waters of life seem stagnant, though they swarm with
reptile animation.

The framers of the republic, in wishing to establish a
state of things opposed to the European system, falsely
believed that the opposite to wrong must of necessity be
right. That is no doubt good logic, but it is not practical
truth. Extremes are opposites, but not always contrasts.
The South Pole is as cold as the North. Straining
after a too lofty point of excellence is as fatal as stoop-
ing beneath its lowest. When Washington, Franklin,
Jefferson, and the rest founded a republic on the ruins of
monarchical forms, they should have laboured to bring the
people's minds to a level with the new institutions, instead
of attempting to uphold the same tone of feeling as that
which prevailed under the old ones.

They should have adopted a new vocabular}^ for national
topics. Words being only the types of thought, a change
of expression should have followed the total change of
thought.

The standards up to which the new republic should have
been taught to act are probity, industry, justice. Such
words as fame, glory, greatness, in their old and general

AMERICAN SHORTSIGHTEDNESS. 97

sense, should have been altogether laid aside. They are
associated with exaggeration of sentiment and excess of
civilization, out of the comprehension and the reach of the
New World.

The people of America should be taught that if they
will insist on putting themselves on a par with England,
they must take her example for better for worse. They
must have her inequalities of rank with her concentration
of power ; her debt with her conquests ; her vices with
her wealth ; her worst ills, in short, with those concomi-
tant glories which dazzle the beholders to blindness.

They should also strive to emulate her good qualities.
They should value public services, and grant rewards to
merit. They should make sacred the national faith, and
hold it above all price. They should reverence the law,
and do honour to its functionaries. They should take
pride in the national character, and love their country.

These are among the strong points in the English
mind. But in America every one of these items has
its contrast.

They treat their leading men as a soldier uses his
sword — as the tool that works out his ends. He kisses
and praises it while it is bright and sharp ; when blunted
and rusty he throws it aside. Public motive is as nothing ;
personal interest is everything. There is no respect for
government, as an abstract principle ; none for the law,
as per se entitled to respect ; none for religion, as a
fundamental portion of national virtue. All — govern-
ment, law, religion — are so many loose elements of utihty,
portions of the moral machinery which keeps the country
moving. As such they are valued as long as they serve
the public purpose. There can, of course, exist no instinct
of loyalty, properly so called ; and as there is no deep-

98 ENGLAND AND AMERICA CONTRASTED.

founded sentiment of patriotism in the people's heart,
nothing can be more unUke in moral analogy than the
people of England and those of the United States.

In the material laws which regulate a nation's affairs, as
far as property, capital, and revenue are concerned, the
contrast is quite as striking. The destiny of America, like
that of every other country, requires the accumulation of
a certain amount of money to carry out the purposes of
civilization, and there seems to be a corresponding instinct
in the minds of the people sufficient to attain that end.
They make money by impulse. It is their being's aim.
It is to their social existence the very breath of life. Like
any other necessity of nature, it is struggled for with
intense avidity.

In England there are thousands who never think of
making money, who, born to a certain inheritance, are
satisfied to be worth so much a year, and to live on its
amount in contented monotony. The object of that
class of proprietors is to fix and tie up capital ; and the
laws made under their influence for the settlement of pro-
perty have naturally had that tendency.

In America there are no such persons ; and, conse-
quently, the laws there have a directly opposite drift.
There is not there an individual, I might say, who does
not in some way or other strive to increase his store. All
are men of business or speculators. It is considered dis-
graceful in a man not to endeavour to add to his fortune,
be its amount what it may.

Calculation of property in England is always made
according to annual income. In America it is invariably
in relation to the amount of capital, and that amount is
subject to continual fluctuation. But while this gives a
powerful and constant impulsion to industry, it leads to

AMERICAN PATRIOTISM. 99

an enormous quantity of failures. Money is always
changing hands. Everything is converted into cash.
Property of all kinds is for ever shifting, and real estate
has no fixed ownership. There are very few family places
preserved from, generation to generation ; no trees
planted by an ancestor to be held in veneration by his
descendants ; no spots of local endearment, sacred to the
memory of b3'^-gone days. No one who buys a property
looks to it with the fondness of European possession. The
respective owners only think of improving for the pur-
pose of selling. Each one is sure that his successor will
do so if he himself does not. He never walks his fields
proud of having endowed his line with a portion of the
world. He does not tread the earth with the firm footing
of proprietorship. He does not build like one providing
for after-generations. He raises his house as the wild-
bird makes its nest, conscious that when his brood is
fledged its first impulse will be to fly. He knows nothing
of the ties which bind the denizen of the Old World to the
home of his fathers. Patriotism with the American is
not a passionate regard for the soil and its associations.
It is a mere abstract notion made up of personal interest,
prejudice, and pride, and falsely denominated love of
country, because the dictionary calls it so.

Several Americans are to be met with who, having been
in Europe, are comparatively well-informed ; but travel
has improved them but imperfectly and superficiall}^
Their minds are too unplastic to be moulded into graceful
forms of thought. The most common efi'ect of travel is to
make them discontented with what they return to at
home, or doggedly obstinate in feigning to find all things
abroad inferior. Very few adopt the models of social life
which they have observed in Europe. The utmost they

H 2

TOO ENGLAI^D AKD AMERICA CONTRASTED.

generally do is to assume a superiority in small matters
of convenance over their untravelled neighbours, and even
that is done clumsily enough. I knew one gentleman, a
certain Mr. Ben. P. Poppleton, who, after a short visit to
England, thought it " aristocratic " and advisable to sink
the Ben., and put on his visiting cards " Mr. Poppleton
Poppleton." And the instance inserted in this chapter of
the " Baronial " party in Boston is another proof of absurd
want of tact in travelled gentlemen.

Indeed, the best bred persons with whom I have asso-
ciated in the United States seemed to have their good-
breeding from nature. Foreign example had done little
for them. Some of them, and I might specify Judge
Story and Mr. Harrison Gray Otis, had never crossed
the ocean, but gave proofs of that inherent sense of the
polite, which shows that it is indigenous to all countries.
These rare examples were proportionably precious, and
have left a vivid recollection in my mind, and for their
sakes I lamented that such men formed part of a system
incompatible with the refinement which they were well
calculated to enjoy.

But the great majority of their countrymen find no
privation in what must have been a serious one to them.
They can easily dispense with, and many of them really
despise, the elegances of Kfe. They imperfectly enjoy
the interchanges of good fellowship. They know nothing
of the mutual concession which constitutes the charm of
European society. Visiting is to them a duty — enter-
taining their neighbours a task — hospitality in its true
sense a fiction. They have no convivial instincts. They
drink together in a gross fashion, standing up in a bar-
room, for the sake of the " drink," not of the company.
They do not use as we do the word sociable. They always

AMERICAN INDIFFERENCE. '^ |.q'j.

substitute for it the word social. And this, which appears
a ])iistake or an affectation, is really a pregnant adaptation
of the type to the thought it expresses. Spending an
evening sociably means, in England, a reunion of joyous,
unrestrained companionship. Spending an evening socially
means, in America, just what it does in it; philological
sense, a number of people herding together, without any
definite object beyond the act of meeting each other.

But the absence of familiar intercourse is a great
security against disputation, quarrelling, and the contempt
which familiarity proverbially breeds. The most intimate
neighbours in England often become enemies from the very
freedom of their intercourse, showing them to each other
en deshabille, or in the nakedness of natural defect. The
Americans do not know or like each other well enough to
quarrel. They are formal and indifferent ; always dressed,
or at any rate (morally speaking), en demi-toilette.

American unsociability has thus its advantages. And
inasmuch as it is the most effective bar to the corruptions
incident to a vulgar display of wealth, it may still for a
long time save the population of the New World from
what they look upon as the pernicious and demoralizing
luxury of the Old.

The marked distinctions between classes in European
life form the most direct and striking contrast with the
American scheme of polity. The ardour with which
Englishmen of large possessions enter into the turmoil of
pubHc affairs, the avidity with which they pursue party
politics, and grasp at the emoluments of office, are
peculiarities widely opposed to the habits of the men in
the United States, whose position most nearly assimi-
lates to theirs. Those persons, whether proprietors of
estates on the banks of the great rivers, or in the

la^ ^^ ^ ^^ 'iN(^LlND AND AMERICA CONTRASTED.

interior of the country; or large capitalists nominally
retired from business, in a great majority keep altogether
clear of political strife, leaying the field to the struggles ot
the adventurers, already described, and taking pride in their
abstinence from its toils, honours, or disappointments.
Englishmen of hereditary wealth have their social station
ready made ; but the American millionaire has to labour
for his, harder than he did for the money that is his claim
to it. Riches bring him no real enjoyment, without the
attainment of an admitted superiority over those who
follow his own career.

But it is obviously impossible, as I have before shown,
that a separate " order " can be formed. There are not,
and cannot be any distinctive classes in the United States.
There are no rich and no poor, as in England, as
opposing portions of the body politic. They blend
together in a common crowd, and the fluctuation of
property produces a frequent change of individual position.
All industrious citizens are, as a general rule, more or less
wealthy, that is to say, above want, and in the enjoyment
of a competence. There is no class of hopelessly indigent ;
no solid but impure foundation of penury on which a
structure of wealth and oppression can uprise. The com-
bination of rich men, who have been or may be poor,
drawing an imaginary circle around them, and believing
themselves to be " select," are but a portion of the mass
of labouring industry which peoples the United States.

While in England there is a manifest upward movement
in the popular mind, a downward tendency is evident in
America among the wealthier portions of the community.
They are day by day losing ground. The generation
that made the Ee volution, the Enghsh-born men and
their colonial sons who fought the battle with the

AMERICAN MEANNESS. . 103

mother country are worn out. The instinct of the
British distinctions of rank and title is no longer in the
minds of their descendants. Democracy is working its
way year by year, and at every step treads out some
old prejudice of class which was inherent in those who
died for freedom, or came gloriously through the struggle
that secured it. This is, as far as it goes, a downward
course of things, but it is by no means tantamount to
national deterioration. It is but a descent from a factitious
elevation to a more wholesome level. The upward strain-
ing for a false position is the true mischief ; and, as I have
endeavoured to show, it is this vain and false essay that
causes the main social evils of the United States. The
masses are chafed and irritated by the pretenders to
superiority ; by their hollow semblance of equality, and
their efforts to establish by secret and insidious means
what they have not the manliness openly to advocate.
These aspiring malcontents, wanting the dignity of noble
blood, the lofty disdain of patrician Greeks or Komans
which held the vulgar as profane, the elegant refinement
of the literati of the Italian republics which scorned
plebeian coarseness, can only sustain their pretensions by
intrigue and corruption.

But even that they manage meanly. They have no
boldness in their measures ; no liberality in their expen-
diture. They cabal and coalesce to carry a point, and
when defeated they sneak out. They do not show a
daring front to the foe their own false pride has created.
They are usurpers without spirit. A tyrant should be
brave, and a conspirator prodigal. Coriolanus scorned
the mob ; Cataline bought them up. The " aristocratic "
cotton spinners or shipowners of New England or New
York do a paltry business with a trembling hand. The

104 ENGLAND AND AMERICA CONTEASTED.

people are too strong for them. Defeat is their desert
and their destiny.

It must not, however, be supposed that wealth is in
itself an object of popular dislike, any more than its pos-
sessors for making a just use of it. On the contrary, the
people reverence money, and do honour to the rich.
Their sympathies are all in favour of accumulation of
property, and though they will not make laws to fix
or fetter it, they would debar no man from its fair enjoy-
ment, nor interfere with his personal expenditure. Public
opinion is opposed to luxury and its corrupting influences ;
but any one who pleases may ruin himself by extra-
vagance, and his only public punishment is the pubhc
scorn.

Again, it should be understood that the Democratic
party are by no means in the habit of choosing the low,
ignorant, or degraded to take the lead. An unworthy
individual may be voted occasionally under some tem-
porary excitement into a prominent place, or thrust into
office by some abuse of executive patronage ; but wealth,
education, or refinement, are no bars to preference, as I
have already amply shown. It is, however, rather abroad
than at home that the rich American has the best chance
of indulging his ambitious tastes. By a large expenditure
he can obtain a footing in good society in England, and
deceive his high associates into a belief in his home
importance. If he fancies himself when in England the
equal to the British peer who dines with or entertains
him, what matter ? The delusion does no harm to the
one. It may improve the other, or, at the worst, it only
makes the pretender ridiculous ; but the same sentiment
carried back to America makes him dangerous. How
far better would it be for such a one to be content

AMERICAN DEFICIENCES. 105

with the privileges common to all his fellow-citizens.
What more is really required for personal distinction
than to be respected for industry, honoured for patriotism '?
A republican not satisfied with this, and struggling to
separate himself from the public at large, virtually abdi-
cates his share of their sovereignty. Standing aloof from
the polling boths, the public meetings, the legislature, and
the offices of State, and discontented with being a unit,
he makes himself a cipher.

Strangers in America must all be struck with the
obvious disproportion between inanimate and human
nature. The greatness of the country strongly contrasts
with the deficiencies of the people. The magnificent scale
of creation seems unsuited to the beings who possess it.
Certainly the pursuits of mankind in the New World are
wanting in grandeur. The mechanical arts are of neces-
sity in constant progress, energy and ingenuity have
ample scope, but the moral greatness of man is nearly
undeveloped ; and all this is in keeping with the scheme
of American progress.

But a common error of Americans is the belief that,
because their country is vast, their destiny requires them
to do great things in a grand style ; and an inflated
imitation of England is the result. They do not compre-
hend that England, in despite of circumscribed limits, is
forced by the impulse of civiHzation to act on a large
and lofty plan. Bursting the cramped bounds of geogra-
phical position, she has a mighty mission to fulfil. Ex-
ploring and peopling the remotest parts of the earth,
flooding them with knowledge from her reservoirs at
home, a vast machinery is required, and infinite powers
of mind to direct its operations. Commercial and military
means, science in its manifold fo;-ms, a hterature com-

106 ENGLAND AND AMERICA CONTRASTED.

mensurate with all, must be in continual movement, well
guided to the objects in view. But America has no such
mission. To clear the forest, hunt the wild beasts, scatter
the savage tribes, and rout the hordes of a less hardy race
than their own ; then to till the soil, dig in the mines, and
work out the rude ways of physical existence — these form
the elements of American civihzation. She has to do the
labour of the world. All the higher duties of human
improvement are done for her. The exercises of lofty
thought, and the elegancies of art, all come from Europe.
She has no such indigenous standard of taste and know-
ledge as that in which they have their source. She
obtains the little that she wants of them ready made.
Yet a servile and jealous admiration of the Old World
leads to attempted imitations, uncouth and clumsy. She
is shrewd enough to see this, and envies or hates what
she cannot succeed to rival.

The importance of the United States, as long as the
Union lasts, will consist in a conjunction of small causes
tending to one powerful result. Her fame must not be
founded on her conquests, or on literary or artistic distinc-
tion. Trade, manufactures, agriculture, must be its basis :
excellent and honourable pursuits, adapted to the genius
of a people which, if it rightly knew its interests, would
not emulate a lot more elevated but less happy.

CHAPTER TV.

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 — Objectiqn to the Lottery
System — Connoisseurs — Amateurs— Speculators — Rosa Bonheur's "Horse
Fair."

The text on which I would write a chapter in connec-
tion with this subject has been furnished by a speech of
a certain Rev. 0. Dewey, at a meeting of " The Apollo
Association" of New York, of which I read an account in
the papers of that city.

The Reverend orator, in moving the adoption of the
Annual Report of the Committee of Management, remarked,
says the newspaper, that " those who spoke with contempt
or incredulity of the genius of our countrymen in the arts
of design, needed only a sight of that collection to do
involuntary homage to the power and skill of the artists
by whom they were produced/' Mr. Dewey spoke of
" the opinion of a venerable friend of his, now no more," —
he did not mention the name, but it was inferred that he
alluded to the late Dr. Channing— " that the Anglo-Saxon
stock, transplanted to this region, acquired, under the
American sky, a temperament more finely strung, a
delicacy of fibre, a more exquisite susceptibility of the
nervous organisation, which peculiarly fitted our people to

108 THE FmE ARTS IN AMERICA.

excel in what are called the Fine Arts. He thought that
this opinion was confirmed by the recent rapid growth of
the art of design, by the sudden outbursts of genius with
which we have been lately startled, and by the numerous
generation of artists of the noblest promise, at ths
moment engaged in the pursuit of excellence." He
alluded to a visit he had made to a collection of pictures
in the same building, and remarked, that " he should be
well content if in preaching all his lifetime he could do as
much good to others as an hour or two spent in the
presence of these works of art had done to him."

I sincerely hope, for the memory's sake of Dr. Channing,
that he was 7iot the person alluded to by Mr. Dewey ; and
the only excuse that can be made for that Reverend
gentleman's rhapsody, is the large degree of ignorance
which pervades the American mind on the subject in
question. It is possible that Dr. Channing, in one of the
amiable abstractions in which he at times indulged, and
judging by his own peculiar sensitiveness, did say or write
something of the nature above quoted ; but it seems really
monstrous that so direct a contradiction of fact, so essen-
tially absurd an assertion, could have been seriously and
soberly repeated by any man of practical knowledge or
conscientious feeling. But it is thus the American people
are self-deluded, played upon, or quizzed. The Fine Arts
are most imperfectly understood by them. The professors
of their various branches are few, and mostly of mediocre
talent. The public taste is at a low par, and the pursuits
of the population afford scanty opportunities for its culture.
As a general rule in concert or auction rooms the worst
music and inferior pictures are the most popular. Df
sculpture there can be but little practical knowledge.
Greenough, Powers, and Crawford resided in Italy ; and

SELF-LAUDATION OF AMERICANS. 109

the specimens of their talent sent to their native country,
have few there to admire, and fewer still to appreciate
them.

It is most unjustifiable in those " Patriotic " orators, like
the one I have cited, and others alluded to in another
chapter, to give the Americans such inflated notions of their
natural capabilities. Fact, reason, the plainest common
sense give the lie to such flatterers, who actually check the
incipient wish for improvement in those delightful studies,
by persuading the people that nature has done it all —
that " their fibres are more delicately strung than other
people's," and who only speak truly by accident wlnen
they say, like Mr. Dewey, that they " are startled by these
sudden outbursts " — of the grotesque abortions of what he
facetiously calls " genius/'

I might multiply quotations to a large amount to show
that such nonsense is not confined to the hasty utterance
of speakers, but that it is common to writers in the best
of their periodical works ; and that the prevalent feeling in
the country is to discourage the importation of really good
specimens of European art, ancient or modern, without
large supplies of which America, of course, can never
largely produce good artists.

A critic of great celebrity in the " Boston Courier "
remarks, — " If the famous old Dutch Van der Velde
painted better sea pieces than Bonfield's, he deserves his
fame." The " old Dutch " here alluded to is of course
one of the three Vandenveldes ; but even the old one
would be degraded by a comparison with this unheard-of
artist.

The " Knickerbocker Magazine " has the following
passage : —

" Our citizens begin to look at home for excellence. Durand is

110 THE FINE ARTS IN AMERICA.

busy with 'perfect transcripts from Nature ; so is Cole, and a dozen
others whom we have not space to name. Citizens of America!
Encourage all that may serve to encourage American Art, so that,
by-and-by, we may exclaim, whenever it is proposed to bring us
pictures from abroad, ' What, send to Europe for good paintings !
Fetch coals to Newcastle. '^ "

And the " National Intelligencer," in the same year,
exclaims, —

" The day is not far distant when we shall have such abundance of
talent and skill in our own country, that no person will have an
apology, or the will, to go abroad in search of worthy artists or
superior paintings."

This lamentable deficiency in judgment common to
those writers who strongly influence if they do not
entirely lead the public taste, is of course a positive
injury to its more practical professors. The natural
vanity associated with the half-formed talent thus be-
praised, throws back the uneducated, inexperienced
aspirant upon his comparatively superior but still imper-
fect organization. He is not aware of his manifold
defects, while quite conscious of the qualities that properly
directed would lead him far on the road to fame. He
believes most conscientiously in his own genius, and in
the fitness of his cramped locality for its full development.
He has no home authority to show him his delusion ; and
if the words of truth and warning reach him from afar,
they fall dead on his ear, or are attributed to prejudice
and envy.

It is nevertheless the fact that it is alone from com-
munion with the finer feelings and high- wrought fancies
of mankind that the pure fabrics of refinement are formed.
Great painters, sculptors, and musicians are the oflPspring
of luxury, the overgrowth of civilization. The artist of

ARTISTS OF MERIT. Ill

America is but a weed or a wild flower in his natural
state. To give liira grace or delicacy he must be removed
to the hot-bed of Europe ; and if many specimens fade in
the transplanting, they almost all pine and wither when
sent back to their original soil. I have known several
artists in the United States, but scarcely one of a joyous
temperament. This class of men, so animated and
vivacious in Europe, are there diappointed and dyspeptic.
To find an American artist what an artist ought to be
you must meet him in Italy, France, or England. There,
in his true atmosphere, his talents appreciated, his labours
rewarded, his feelings sympathized with, he has a fair
chance for happiness, even if he be not pre-eminently
successful. In his own country he must be little better
than a drudge, with incompetent critics and niggardly
patrons, excluded from " fashionable " society, and too
often with little to live on but nauseous doses of unprofit-
able praise.

There are doubtless some artists in the country even
now of deserved reputation, and several of promise.
Healey, Cropsey, Ames, .Terry, Page, Eliott, Keusett,
Church and others have studied in Europe with profit.
Healey, with whom I renewed my acquaintance in Paris,
Ames in Rome, and Cropsey in London, had each found
respective!}^ in those cities a fertile field for their
exertions. But I know of no names, with the exception
of those of Allston, Stewart, and Newton, which have
established as yet a real celebrity in America, and an
admitted artistic rank in Europe.

A foreigner of skill now and then pays a flying visit to
the United States, paints a few portraits in the chief places,
departs, and leaves a blank, which is, after a time, tempo-
rarily filled up. Some of those wandering strangers, possibly

112 THE FINE ARTS IN AMERICA.

contributors to the very Collection which drew forth the
Rev. Mr. Dewey's laudation, do infinite injury to public taste
by their distorted " outbursts " of what is like nothing on
earth, and it is to be hoped unlike everything in heaven.
It is true, that in Europe, and particularly in England,
many very bad specimens are also to be deplored. And
the American artists must meet some toleration for
imitating, in their ignorance, those fashionable pink and
blue, and green impossibilities — as far as Nature is
concerned.

The United States are not, however, entirely without
good pictures. A few gentlemen of cultivated minds who
have travelled in Europe, and been familiarized with the
works of the great masters, have brought back specimens,
both ancient and modern, of tolerable merit, but rarely any
of them chefs-d'ceuvre. Occasional dealers now and then
cross the Atlantic with a batch containing much that is
spurious and a little that is genuine. Old pictures of the
Italian, Dutch, Flemish, and French Schools do find their
way to America, and are to be at times picked up. But
hitherto speculators in this bnanch of the arts have not
made much of their ventures, and their only chance of
profit has been from indifferent, glaring, showy things,
copies of ancient and modern works bought for little
or nothing in Europe, and sold in America at com-
paratively high prices. Moderately good pictures of a
better class find some purchasers on fair terms ; but
getting a large sum for a really fine work of art is out
of the question. The experiment has been tried by
several persons, but all have failed in their object. I
have heard of rare instances in which three or four
hundred pounds have been paid for a picture of some
pretension ; but I have never been lucky enough to

ARTISTS OP MERIT. 113

see one in either a public or private collection that
would in my opinion have fetched so much money in
Europe. A good many of respectable merit are to be met
with. I have seen undoubted examples of Teniers,
Ostade, Vandenvelde, Euysdael, Paul Brill, Moucheron,
Weenix, Kalf, Van Aelst, and others of the old Nether-
land masters ; besides Vernet, Boucher, Watteau and his
school ; and once or twice a Murillo and a Vandyke ; but
I have never seen an unquestionable specimen of a great
Italian artist in the United States. Some so-called
Guides, Caravaggios, Domenichinos, Salvators, and Cor-
reggios are to be met with ; and I have looked at two or
three rubbed-out and daubed -up fictions, that might pos-
sibly have been originally original, but are now mere
patchwork.

Many of the best productions of the best native painters
are scattered throughout the Union. Allston, the fore-
most among them, was a man of rare qualifications, but
by no means perfect in his calling. Sentiment, suavity,
seen through a rather hazy and vapoury medium, rich-
ness of colouring — his leading characteristics — were not
combined with correctness of drawing or largeness of
conception. Though often classed by American writers
among historical painters, his best works are of a less
ambitious character, chiefly consisting of landscapes and
ideal heads. The latter especially are of much beauty,
and possess great charm both in composition and colour.
His more elaborate productions, such as " Saul and the
Witch of Endor," " Miriam/' and the unfinished attempt
at a picture of grand size on the subject of Belshazzar's
Feast — all three now in Boston — must be considered as
less successful, though showing always evidences of power
and beauty. His chief merit lay in his peculiarity of

114 THE FINE ARTS IN AMERICA.

colouring, the character of which was derived from the
Venetian School, for which he had a great admiration.
He visited Europe early in life, reaching London in the
year 1801. He returned to America in 1809, married
there a sister of Dr. Channing, and went back to England
two years later. Many of his pictures were painted in
England where they remain ; among them " St. Peter
liberated by the Angel/' " Uriel in the Sun," and " Jacob's
Dream.'' On his final return to the United States, in 1818,
he married a second time, and took up his residence at
Cambridge, near Boston, where he lived retired, and where
I occasionally met him in society, always gratified by
his pleasing and gentlemanlike demeanour, and highly
instructive conversation.

A strong impression has been undoubtedly produced
upon later American artists by Allston's genius. He has,
however, had few direct imitators, owing partly to certain
of his defects before glanced at, and also to the ideahty
which marks his productions, the temperament of his
followers leading them to more matter of fact transcripts
of nature than to imaginative creations. Many are very
successful in portrait painting, possessing vigour of tone
and good mechanical execution. Page, Eliott, Huntington,
and Ames are favourable illustrations of these qualities,
having less of the conventional, drawing-room style than
some popular English portrait painters of the present day.
Page would deserve a still higher place than he holds, but
for a proneness to a murky imitation of Titian's pictures,
as many of them now exist ; shadows of unreal depth,
and an atmosphere of discoloured varnish, but without, the
freshness and transparency of what must have been the
original tone. The prevalent taste in England for the
neatly finished, cleanly painted style, refuses to acknow-

ARTISTS OF MERIT. 115

ledge the reproduction of defects of time and deterioration
of tints, as proofs of talent or examples of taste.

To the great credit of the true art and as a good
augury for its progress in America, I believe no instance
of that retrograde crochet called pre-Raphaelism, has yet
been offered for public reprehension by any native painter.
Next to producing chefs-d'ceuvre is certainly the merit of
avoiding those burlesque distortions which English artists
of high powers may indulge in, as a whim of exuberant
self-confidence ; which even Leys, the greatest modern
master of colour and fine effects, may consent to par-
tially adopt, but which would be fatal to any artist not so
thoroughly established in public opinion as among the
foremost of the craft.

Living American figure-painters are frequently true to
nature in their colouring, though too often faulty in draw-
ing ; not, however, from wilful perversion of judgment,
like those intrepid English caricaturists of the human form,
but from the great difficulty of which they universally
complain, of obtaining good living models, particularly of
females," so abundant in most European towns, and
especially in Italy. Landscape painters have a wider and
a never failing field to study. Church, Kensett, and more
recently still, Cropsey, are well known in England for
bold and faithful rendering of transatlantic scenery.
Specimens of the last-mentioned artist have been seen
and highly praised in the London exhibitions for the
last two seasons ; though the brilliancy of American
forest foliage may seem exaggerated on his canvas, to
those who have not travelled in Autumn among the

* Mrs. Trollope mentions an amusing fact of an American artist being obliged
to have a silk flesh-coloured and tight-fitting costume for his female models,
converting them in fact into figures fit for the poses plastiqueSy though obviously
useless for artistic purposes.

1 2

116 THE FINE ARTS IN AMERICA,

splendid inland scenery of New England, New York, or
the more southern states.

Gilbert Stewart, the most esteemed of American
portrait painters, commenced his studies in London under
Benjamin West ; and after his return from Europe, he
resided during the latter part of his career in Boston.
Copley and Smybert preceded him and he was followed
by Sully, but their names do not stand so high as his
in the estimation of the younger American painters.
Stewart showed occasionally, but not always, vigour of
colouring and high finish in his portraits, the best known
of which is that of Washington, a full-length, pronounced
to be a good likeness of the illustrious subject at the time
it was painted, but not a favourable presentment of the
hero in his earlier years.

Newton painted chiefly tahleaiia,' de genre, conspicuous
for brilliancy and force of colour, skill in composition, and
considerable elegance and refinement of feeling. I know
of nothing approaching to him in those attributes among
his compatriots, if I may not except a charming cabinet
specimen by Allston, " Lorenzo and Jessica,'^ the property
of a family in Boston, who hold it deservedly in high
value.

To this brief mention of American painters which their
countrymen will surely consider too meagre, and which I
hope English readers will not find over-tedious, I should
gladly add some more ample notices of the best-known
sculptors, had I materials at hand, or subjects within
reach to enable me to do justice to their merits personal
and professional. Sculpture is decidedly the branch, of
art in which American talent, taste, and industry have
been most favourably displayed. Men of distinguished
merit have produced within the last quarter of a century

powers' "greek slave." 117

works of great celebrity. The " Greek Slave " has done
more honour to the United States than the Ashburton
treaty and the annexation of Texas have caused them
discredit. For the bad faith of diplomacy they have
found compensation in the truth of art. The chicanery of
paper and parchment is redeemed by the honesty of
marble ; and the chisel has given permanent renown,
while the pen traced records that ought to be torn up and
scattered to the winds.

I can scarcely imagine any one with an acute feehng
for art seeing the above-named famous statue for the first
time without emotion, such as I freely yielded to when I
gazed on it, in the artist's studio in Florence, he himself
beside me showing his work with unaffected pride, and
descanting on art with copious yet unstudied eloquence.
I frequently look back to that event as an epoch worth
remembering in my Art-experiences, so to call those
pleasant passages in the ever shifting ways of a busy life.
Powers displa^^ed all the treasures of his studio with great
courtesy. His " Eve " was particularly prominent among
them. But notwithstanding its more voluptuous style of
beauty, and probably more perfect feminine formation, the
effect it produced on me was far less than that of its
simply elegant rival in the same room ; the touching
sentiment of grief and shame in the face, the languid
attitude, the stor3^-speaking chain on the wrists, producing
a rush of affecting associations, unconnected with a single
sensual idea.

In my opinion, ventured with sincere diffidence. Powers
has not since equalled this exquisite conception, his first
and greatest triumph. He may have done better things
in actual manipulation ; but of the mere mechanical working
out I am but poorly qualified to judge. For myself I am

118 THE FINE ARTS IN AMERICA.

quite satisfied with his one great production, whether as
seen amidst crowds in the original Crystal Palace or
alone in the apartment of a private friend, the possessor
of a counterpart repetition. And there is a striking
analogy to this in the first picture of Wappers of
Antwerp, " the Siege of Leyden," in which the principal
figure of the heroic but care-worn Yanderwerf made an
impression more deep than any since produced by the
ambitious efi'orts of the artist, who, in abandoning his
native town and the rich examples of the Flemish School
which were his early inspirations, has found nothing and
done nothing in the splendour of Paris, to improve his
skill or increase his reputation.

Greenough was also living in Florence at the time I
have alluded to. I had previously known him in America
and others of his family, all remarkable for artistic talent
and cultivated taste. His hospitable mansion was a
museum of Art-treasure, and his studio contained groups,
single figures, busts, and bas-rehefs of a high order of
beauty, most of which have since then crossed the ocean
to adorn his native country, to which he returned soon
after only to die, too early for his fame, well-established
as it was.

One very remarkable work of Art, by far the most
finished of its kind produced in America up to the time of
my leaving the country, was Mr. Dick of New York's
reduced copy in line engraving of Raphael Morghen's print
of Leonardo da Vinci's " Last Supper.'' The plate is of steel,
the execution admirable, the price so low, certainly not
more than half what such a work would cost in England,
as to be quite unremunerative to the artist, and forming
a painful contrast between the estimated value of works
of Art in the United States, with that of mere mechanical

"APOLLO ASSOCIATION." 119

productions, which are paid for at rates exorbitantly
high in comparison with corresponding articles in
Europe.

The chance of success for a School of Design, a National
Academy, or any such institution in America, is remote, if
it be not entirely hopeless. The fostering protection of a
government, and the private taste by which such an
institution could alone be nurtured, are wanting, and
not likely to be supplied. The scattered elements of
patronage in the various States could never be concen-
trated for an object of no absolute pecuniary profit.
Sectional jealousies would intervene, even if individual
liberality made a move in the more civiHzed portions of
the country. But the consent of the great Western
States, those enormous swamps of semi-culture, could
scarcely be obtained. In fact, such a project has never,
I believe, been broached in public ; and whenever I have
heard it privately alluded to by artists or amateurs, it was
always as a matter for despair, not hope. The utihtarian
principles of Democracy are undoubtedly unfavourable to
a liberal encouragement of the Fine Arts. Yet it seems
but flying in the face of the Creator to neglect the gifts of
genius which he has bestowed on particular men. A taste
for poetry, painting, sculpture, or music is a dispensation
from Providence, who saw it good that it should be
cultivated, or it never would have been.

The " Apollo Association " before alluded to has found,
I believe, no very extensive patronage since it has been
merged in an "Art-Union ;" and it met at its establishment
strenuous opposition beyond the circle of its supporters in
New York. An application was made to the legislature of
that state to procure an alteration from the rather fanciful
name of the institution to that of the " American Art-

120 THE FINE ARTS IN AMERICA.

Union; " but the member of the Senate to whom the petition
was entrusted, had grammatical scruples as to whether the
proposed name was good English, and refused to present
the petition on that ground. This senator bore the appro-
priate appellation of General Root, was formerly a school-
master, and was particular in his parts of speech. The
name of the institution was, however, subsequently
changed as desired, under the patronage of some less
critical legislator. I am not prepared to say, what has
been the progress of the Society in the various towns of
the Union. An agent who attempted to do something
for it in Boston informed me, several months after his
mission commenced, that he had not obtained one
subscriber. The disposal of the pictures and engravings
by lottery, a principal feature of those institutions, was a
fatal objection in the New England States, where gambling
in such a shape is held in pious horror, by a community
that unscrupulously risks large stakes in every variety of
the desperate game of stock-jobbing, and whose open
bettings on Presidential and other elections is wide-spread
and notorious.

The number of persons at all qualified to be con-
noisseurs in the United States is small. There are a
few collections in the chief cities, but not one gallery that
I know of, with the exception of that belonging to
Colonel Hunter of Hunter's Island, some twenty miles
from New York, a place little known and rarely
visited, but offering many attractions to the lover of
nature and the admirer of art. The late Mr. Robert
Gilmour of Baltimore was a genuine amateur, of know-
ledge and spirit, whose example did much in his native
town towards diffusing a fancy for painting, although he
could not, perhaps, do much towards the formation of

KOSA bonheur's "horse fair." 121

taste. That is not to be propagated by inoculation, and
the natural kind is not epidemic in America ; but the
encouragement given by one wealthy and liberal amateur
sets the fashion to others within his sphere. And I hope
this has been the case in New Orleans, where a gentle-
man of the name of Robb has by this time, no doubt,
a respectable collection of Art, which began by the pur-
chase of some of Joseph Bonaparte's pictures at Borden-
town, near Philadelphia, in 1846, and of a duplicate ot
Powers's celebrated statue of the Greek Slave, for which
he paid the artist the liberal price of a thousand pounds
sterling.

American speculators sometimes make lucky purchases
of pictures in Europe. One gentleman has lately bought
Rosa Bonheur's marvellous " Horse Fair," with the reser-
vation of its being shown for two years to the public at
so much a head. But, even under this condition, I hope
that many a young American artist may find inspiration,
in the study of the most powerful cattle-piece ever painted.

While the subject of Art-education is attracting so much
attention in France and England, and one of our most
brilliant writers upon it having so recently published
among the proceedings of the Association for the Promo-
tion of Social Science, his suggestions for fixing a standard
of Art for our schools, it is likely that the American public
may be awakened to the importance of some corresponding
national movement. But improbable as it is that Mr.
Ruskin's views will be carried out, and while so many
doubts may exist as to their feasibihty even in this country,
it is not to be expected that the United States will for a
long time to come enter on the consideration of the
possible influence of Art on the masses of the people, in-
volved as the question is with the uses and danger of luxury ;

122 THE FINE ARTS IN AMERICA.

and, great as Mr. Ruskin's experience has been, he admits
that "there is not 3^et sufficient data to justify us in con-
jecturing how far the practice of Art may be compatible
with rude or mechanical employments."

That observation applies with much greater force to the
United States than to England. The utmost that can be
looked for there, is the more general spread of taste in
the wealthier portions of the community, and some
approach to an appreciation of Art in the w^orks of such
eminent painters as are within their reach. It would be
vain to expect on a large scale the acquisition of works
of great European masters at the national expense,
the only real school of study to lead to extensive
improvement. Congress would be little disposed to vote
" appropriations " for such a purpose to an amount of
sufficient magnitude. And jealousies as to the distribution
of the funds and the " location '' of the works purchased,
would be sure to interfere with, if not mar entirely, such
a project were it ever to be seriously and liberally enter-
tained.

Washington, the political capital of the country (where
"political capital" in another sense is turned to such account)
is too insignificant in point of population and too much
isolated from the course of its great commercial currents
to be accepted as the depository for one large national col-
lection of works of art. The Atlantic cities would have con-
flicting claims on the score of numbers, of literary taste, of
situation, difficult to be reconciled ; and as to the semi-
civilized "West, or slavery-blighted South, the question has
at present no application whatever to them.

The imperfections of our National Gallery, in London,
notwithstanding the large sums voted by Parliament, and
the many contributions of pictures from individuals, may

ART-EXHIBITIONS. 123

satisfy the most ambitious or envious American connois-
seur of the immense difficulty of a successful emulation
with England in such a matter. And he must fall back
on the consoling sentiment before quoted, that bringing
fine paintings from Europe to the United States would be
only " fetching coals to Newcastle.^'

It would, however, be very feasible and very advisable
to establish exhibitions on the plan of those at Dublin
in 1853, and Manchester in 1857, uniting the works of Art
widely dispersed throughout the country, which their
possessors would no doubt take an honourable pride in
lending, and which the public would be sure to hail with
pleasure and consult with undoubted advantage. The
facility by railroad for safely conveying pictures, statuary,
and objects of virtu from the remotest portions of the
Union makes such a project of easy execution, and
assuredly there are materials to be thus obtained
quite enough in amount, and of quality sufficiently good
to compose a most satisfactory and interesting combination ;
several of the museums and athenaeums possessing already
most respectable examples. From my personal knowledge
of some of the artists before mentioned, and of several
amateurs, though death has been busy with those whose
society was among the chief pleasures of my American
experience, I am satisfied that such a plan, well-
considered, and carried out with energy and spirit (as
all enterprizes of association are in the United States),
would meet great and general support, and form an era
in the progress of Fine-art study and its eventual exten-
sion.

I am not aware of the actual proportions of success or
failure which attended the Crystal Palace exhibition of
New York. Whatever they may have been, it was but

124 THE FINE AKTS IN AMERICA.

an experiment, and it will no doubt be followed in due
course of time by repetitions, better arranged and more
carefully conducted than their original. The recent
catastrophe, the destruction of the building by fire, is
discouraging, not only for speculators but for exhibitors,
particularly of works of Art, which cannot, from theunde-
finable nature of their intrinsic worth as marketable com-
modities, be subject to the valuation of insurance companies.
But the private possessors of pictures or statues, or of the
more fragile productions of taste, always acquire and
retain them at some hazard. Those of much merit in the
United States have arrived there through the perils of
flood, and in a lesser degree of fire, and a certain small
amount of additional risk is worth running for a
great national object. Besides, experience has shown the
necessity of increased precaution on the part of managing
committees, directors, supervisors, and the inferior em-
ployes. Responsibility inspires prudence ; and if the
matter now in question was well explained to be one of
national concern — with an insinuation of rivalry with
similar English enterprizes — a modification of the general
carelessness, and probably a notion of emulative taste,
would be better securities against accidents than any yet
devised, acted on, or neglected.

The great frequency of unaccounted-for conflagrations
in the United States certainly deserves severe reproach.
But it is only fair to admit that instances continually arise
in Europe of similar mishaps. Industry in America is so
active, production so prompt, and money so easily obtained,
that equal care is not to be looked for as that exerciseil
in older countries where less buoyancy and a minor spirit
of adaptation to circumstances exist. But the burning of
the New York Crystal Palace has had a contemporaneous

ARCHITECTURE. 125

parallel in that of the Exchange of Antwerp; a more severe
loss to architectural taste than that of any temporary
building with its contents in the New World would be.
Bales of merchandize, fabrications of mechanical skill, and
the miscellaneous objects of a public exhibition are serious
misfortunes to the owners and insurers. But they are
all easily replaced, and the necessity gives an additional
impetus to trade in the respective articles destroyed. But
there is no comparison between such a calamity and that
of the total destruction of an ancient edifice, almost unique
in construction, with the quaint traceries of Moresque
design, surmounted by an iron and glass covered dome, a
harmonious chef-d'ceuvre of modern skill and elegance,
besides frescoes of admirable execution by existing artists,
who might have witnessed, and probably did so, on that
fotal night the ruin of years of labour and the pride of a
life, w^hich they may never have sufficient inducements to
repeat. The destruction of this beautiful building, irre-
spective of its cost and the impossibility of reproducing
its details on the same site, leaves a sad blank in the fine
old city, and breaks a link in the chain of historical asso-
ciations which find no parallel in America. I have alluded
to it incidentally, but not with the notion of throwing an
additional damp on the undertaking I have suggested, by
pointing out the insecurity of the most well-Avatched and
highly valued monuments of art, in the Old as well as the
New World.

On Architecture in America, to which this digression
might naturally lead, I shall not attempt a discussion. I
have in a former portion of this w^ork spoken with praise
of the several handsome public edifices of Washington
and other cities. The Girard College, near Philadelphia, is
also a building of great beauty, and of much greater

126 THE FINE ARTS IN AMERICA.

extent than the celebrated Bank of that city — a marble
temple dedicated to Mammon, and which reminded some
Enghsh traveller of *' a painted sepulchre." Among the
numerous churches there are edifices of just pretension
in every variety of style, and among them stands con-
spicuous the Roman (DathoHc Cathedral of Baltimore.
Criticism in the journals of the Union has not been
sparing of its instinctive severity ; and one highly original
and learned, but somewhat eccentric, writer in the "North
American Review/' has dealt out his strictures against the
bad taste of contemporary and compatriot architects, with
a heavy hand. Such bold Philippics from a native
authority may produce a salutary effect, which the most
elaborate and conscientious comments from a foreign pen
would fail in, unless indeed the commentator lavished
unqualified encomium, and that alone, on every subject he
might venture to touch on in the United States. No
hint at defects, no suggestion for improvement will be
tolerated there from such a source. The national pride —
a satirist would call it self-sufficiency — scorns advice and
revolts at censure. The national epidermic texture is so
fine — a plain speaker would say the Americans are so
thin-skinned — that the slightest scratch of criticisms festers
to an angry wound. And no amount of candid eulogy on
what appears to the European observer really admirable
would heal the mischief done. Nine hundred and ninety-
nine notes of honest admiration would not atone for a
single mark of blame. What then will be the chances for
this book, should it reach or approximate to the same
amount of pages !

Two articles germane * to the matter of this chapter,

* Americans will I hope excuse my using this word although it is not admitted
by Noah Webster.

EXTRACTS ON" PAINTINGS. 127

fall under my notice just as I thought I had brought it
to a close ; and I cannot better wind it up than by
inserting them.

The first, in the "London Literary Gazette," of
October 30, 1858, which will, I trust, be read and
pondered on, and possibly acted on, in America, is as
follows : —

" We are enabled to announce the formation, under what appear
favourable auspices of a ' Society for the Encouragement of the Fine
Arts.' The programme will be issued in a few days ; meantime we
may say that the professed objects of the society are to create a true
sympathy between artists and those to whom they minister, and to
elevate the aspirations of both in the mutual relations so established ;
towards this end to attempt the diffusion of sound principles of art
and criticism amongst the public by means of lectures, discussions,
and classes for study, illustrated by important examples selected from
the works of eminent masters of all schools ; to award annually
prizes, medals of honour, and other testimonials to the producers
of works in painting, sculpture, architecture, music, and poetry,
such works having been produced in public within the twelvemonth
preceding the distribution ; conversaziones to be held monthly
during the session, to which ladies will be admitted ; two exhi-
bitions of paintings, sculpture, &c., in each year — one of ancient,
the other of modern art — to be open free to the public on
certain days of the week, and certain days on payment ; a perma-
nent exhibition of engravings, and a library of reference, illus-
trative of the arts of design of all ages ; the establishment of
provincial councils, with honorary secretaries, under whose auspices
will occasionally be held meetings and exhibitions, with distribution
of prizes in their respective localities."

The other article is in the " New York Commercial
Times," of October 9, 1858. The opening sentence is
a candid confirmation of what I have stated in the course
of this chapter; yet I do not transcribe it by way of
certificate to the justice of my own opinion, but as offering
a most favourable contrast to the tone which I alluded to

128 THE FINE ARTS IN AMERICA.

as SO reprehensible in American writers some time back ;
nor do I mean to "endorse" either the orthography, the
style, or the metaphor of the writer.

" Art is becoming something better than a mere affectation among
us ; and this, considering the poverty of our national, as well as
of our private collections of masterly works, compared with those
which foster the taste for the beautiful in all the principal cities
of Europe, is a hopeful symptom that, even in our own day, may
the happy influence named by critics the aesthetic, twine luxuriantly
with perennial blossoms the sombre stems of our rather matter-of-
fact and not over-refined existence."

After this salutary paragraph comes its sequel, in some
critical remarks on two pictures ; the first of which I
confess appeared to me, when I saw it in London, hard,
cold, and unimaginative, bringing no recollection of the
sublime effect of the object represented ; while the exag-
gerated phraseology of the pictorial criticism (leaving it
at first doubtful whether a great waterfall or an eminent
oculist is meant) shows but small improvement on that
of the " olden time " of ten or a dozen years back. The
remarks on the second picture are in the same vein, and
from the description of the work so praised, I doubt if it
would convey a just impression of the " Sports on the
Corso," to those who have seen it metamorphosed for the
nonce into the " Race-course,^' which the critic seems to
consider its permanent purpose, or of the real appearance
of those " rampant steeds " or " powerful horses," or the
"jockey-footmen," "statuesque in attitude and reminiscent
of Achilles " — beings of the species groom whom I fail to
" realize,'' either from their titles or their associations.

" We hail, with pleasure, the return among us — laurelled with
merited praise — of Church's fiue painting of the Emperor of
Cataracts, now on Exhibition by Messrs. Williams and Stevens. Of

CRITICISMS ON- PAINTIls^GS. 129

the many painters who had hitherto grappled with this great subject,
none had quite succeeded in expressing upon canvas the chief feature
of the scene — quantity ; — for in this dwells the grandeur of Niagara.
The best embodiment of this we remember to have seen was,
perhaps, in a series of pictures not very widely known — those fine
water-color ones painted by the late Major Davis of the British
Army, the progress of which, up to their completion, we had the
pleasure of watching, some dozen years ago, in the Major's barrack-
room studio at Montreal, where he was then quartered. The water
in his sun-set picture glided swiftly, and there was moisture in the
spray, and emerald light in the curtain-water ; but the eye rested
mainly on the vermilion bars of light topping the dark line of woods
on the Canada shore, or wandered to the fiery glare thrown by them
on rock and tower in the foreground. Pire had the mastery over
water in that clever picture. Then after a lapse of years, came
Church, who, setting fearlessly to work, painted water — "water,
water, everywhere ! " — giving us, on a canvas of seven feet by three
and a half, an idea of space and quantity seldom before achieved in
treating similar subjects. Boldly rejecting the law which hitherto
had chained artists down to the Table Eock, where Prometheus-like,
they struggled long and hopelessly with the cruel vulture conven-
tionalism, Mr. Church handled for his objective the pure element
which constitutes the mighty cataract ; and so nobly has he succeeded
that, on gazing intently for a while at his picture, the head grows
dizzy, and you involuntarily press your feet well down to the fioor,
as people do when led suddenly to the verge of a precipice. The
water wheels, and rushes, and glides past you as you stand, and it is
some time before you can take in the freshness of the spray, rising
from " amid the infernal surge " where Iris sits ; the painting of
which prismatic goddess is a triumph of art.

" There is a certain hardness about this painting, which time will
soften away with its mellowing hand. It is exhibited at a disad-
vantage, however— by gas-light — the proprietors being limited for
room with the indispensable top-light.

" In an adjoining room, and favoured by the light of day, is to be
seen for the same twenty-five cents you have paid for your trip to
Niagara, a gorgeous painting which takes you straightway to Eome,
where, on the Corso or race-course, effete Italians are indulging in
the excitement of a carnival horse-race, conducted according to their
degenerate ideas of what a horse-race ought to be. In this picture

VOL. ir. K

130 THE FINE ARTS IN AMERICA.

fifteen feet by nine, Mr. Barker has succeeded in giving that charming
effect of atmosphere so difficult of achievement in the oil material, so
that, on your entering the room, it strikes you as being a fine fresco,
executed in tempera or body-color. Grooms in resplendent velvet
jerkins and hose, and thrown into all conceivable postures of action,
are endeavouring to restrain rampant steeds, snorting and tearing
about in eagerness for the start. The foreground incident on the
left, is that of a powerful horse, which has fallen across the ropes and
come headlong to the ground, bringing with him his groom, to whose
assistance there bounds another of these Koman jockey-footmen in
splendid vesture. The attitude and expression of the prostrate groom
are faulty, failing in conveying the impression of suddenness. He
looks as though roused by morning from a pleasant dream, stretching
himself and yawning like a man whose duty, but not inclination,
prompts him to rise for the day. In the middle ground of the right-
hand division of the picture, there is a finely drawn grey horse,
ramping aloft on his hind legs, and held down with difficulty by a
vigorous groom, statuesque in attitude and reminiscent of Achilles.
The drawing of the animals, in general, is by no means faultless,
dislocation being in several instances apparent in the muscular
development ; but the sunlight effect on the architectural portions of
the picture, and on the carnival figures crowded into the pavilions in
the back-ground, is very fine, and the painting of some of the
accessories — such as the gaudy plumes, which nod and float so
naturally from the head-gear of the restless steeds, evinces mechanical
skill of a very high order. The honest purpose and industry of the
artist are evidenced by the many clever studies exhibited on the wall,
from which life-sketches the figures of this striking picture are for
the most part taken."

CHAPTER y.

EXTREMES OP SAVAGE AND CIVILIZED LIFE.

THE INDIAN TRIBES.

The Indians an inferior race — Exaggerated accounts of them — Their gradual
extinction — Ill-treatment by the first Discoverers of America — Hypocrisy 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 — Hopelessness of their Present
Condition.

I KNOW of no subject strictly national in the United
States which seems to possess so little interest at present
as the situation, political, social, and moral, of the abori-
ginal inhabitants of the country. The Indian tribes are
gradually fading from the earth, dissolving like shadows
in a distant obscurity. They have nothing inherent in
their character to gain for them an abiding place in the
feelings of mankind. They have altogether failed to bear
out the fantastic imaginings of poets and romance writers.
Had they really possessed the attributes ascribed to them,
they would have taken a permanent stand in the admira-
tion and affection of the world. But a couple of centuries
have made it evident that they are truly an inferior race
of beings, incapable of anything great, unable to w^ork out
a destiny, or stamp a character beyond that of a sluggish
and dogged originality, deficient in dignity, and unfit to
blend with the plastic elements of civilization.

The Indian character in its present aspect does not
stand forward in bold relief It has neither strength nor

K 2

132 THE INDIAN TRIBES.

solidity. It is expiring without a struggle ; and it will
leave no monument behind it. It shows neither the
energy of savage life nor the capabihty of refinement.
Hovering on the borders of both, it is a melancholy
mixture of their worst features. Lingering on the edge
of the forest, or prowling round the outskirts of the city,
groups of these neutral anomalies inspire a sort of com-
passionate curiosity in the observer, whose only wish is
that they may quietly become extinct, and escape the fate
of a violent extermination.

On the discovery of the New World the novelty of
everything made all things matter of wonderment and of
course of exaggeration. An imaginary El Dorado was
but one of a series of fictions. The native race which
peopled the south of the vast continent was but a portion
of the great family ; and their civilization was as much an
exception to the state of the populations at large as was
that of Greece or Eome to the rest of Europe two thousand
years ago. The Enghsh and Dutch in the north were
resolved to vie with the Spaniards in Mexico and Peru ;
and, to counterbalance the glory of gold and silver, pre-
tended to have encountered a race of heroes amidst the
ice and granite of New England and the forests and
swamps of Virginia. Pocahontas on the one hand, and
King Philip on the other, were magnified into miracles of
sentiment and courage. The most commonplace feelings
of humanity, when developed by some chance circum-
stance in the conduct of the dull barbarians, were repre-
sented by the artful adventurers who pioneered the march
of emigration as traits of moral sublimity. The figurative
language of the Indians in the fanciful translations sent
home, resembled the eloquence of Homer's demi-gods or
Ossian's heroes. Everything, except the discovered land

EXAGGERATED ACCOUNTS OF THEM. 133

itself, was on a small scale in those times ; but seen at a
distance and through a mist, the " Pilgrims," the Bucca-
neers, and their savage foes were enlarged far beyond
their proportions, and invested with imaginary attributes
which it took a long time to reduce to the truth. But
whatever may have been the claims of the Indians of
between two and three centuries back, there is nothing
more mistaken than the belief in the heroism of these
people as they now exist. There is not a spark of genius
or enterprize among them. A degraded independence,
sloth, dirt, and licentiousness, form the sum total of their
characteristics. They have been basely treated by the
white Americans, defrauded of their possessions, tricked
in every bargain, remorselessly shoved out of the way of
the civihzation with which they could not coalesce. But
the process has been so calmly and plausibly performed,
under the mock solemnity of treaties, evaded rather than
violated, that it has excited but little observation. No
glaring outrages on the part of the spoliators, nor brilliant
feats of despair on that of the victims, have roused the
sympathies of other men. Oppression has flowed over
them like the tide on a sandy beach, leaving no token of
its course.

It would, perhaps, have been better for the Indian tribes
had the white men made slaves of them. It would, in
that case, have been the interest of the masters to encourage
the propagation of the species : and with their progressive
increase, and the cruelties that must have been practised
to keep down its dangers, a sympathy in their favour
would have sprung up and flourished, in at least the same
degree as that excited for the blacks. But the invaders
soon found out that the Indians were as unfit for slavery
as they are unworthy of freedom. Banished, step by

134 THE INDIAN TKIBES.

step, into a barbarous remoteness, they have neither
deteriorated nor improved. Like animals of the lowest
stamp, they live and die untamed. Belted in their soli-
tudes by the advancing lines of civihzation, they perish as
the forest trees which have been girdled and let to rot ;
and do not even fall with a crash like them, when they
are finally struck down by the woodman's axe.

The ignoble scuffles, called wars, between fragments
of the different tribes and the United States' troops,
have been marked by personal courage and inhuman
cruelty. But the courage has had no elevating results,
and the cruelty has not sunk the perpetrators lower
than they were before. The Indians of North America
have never produced a man of great qualifications
for any branch of Government, civil or military. No
literary talent has appeared among those who have been
educated, and even among them the strongest passion
seems to have been a longing to relapse into savage life.
No warrior has shown any warlike quality beyond a
barbarous bravery shared in common with the brutes.
The habits of the people are revoltingly gross. They are
not touched by the examples of improvement, even when
they are the closest to it. The breath of refinement passes
over them like the air of Heaven across a stagnant lake.
They have not one instinct of ambition. The passive
endurance of pain, insensibility to all the higher orders
of pleasure, a stupid indifierence to the arts of civilized
life, such are their most elevated traits. Bark canoes and
ragged tents, or huts still less habitable, the chace, fishing,
basket-making, little efforts of ingenuity in bead or shell-
work, are their only distinction on earth or ocean. The
best that can be said of them is that they are harmless if
let alone. The worst, that they are ready instruments in

HYPOCRITICAL REGAED FOR. 135

the hands of civilized men for the base and bloody purpose
of border warfare. I never could conceive on what pos-
sible grounds certain white Americans have been proud
of having Indian blood in their veins. He who rests
his claim to family distinction on the chance union of his
ancestor with a squaw must have sprung from a low stock
indeed.

The treatment of these unfortunate beings by the white
invaders of their country, composes a dark chapter in the
history of Christian exploits. In an early passage of this
book, I made some remarks on the subject relative to
the transactions of the first settlers in New England.
Their unscrupulous conduct is reflected in the hypocrisy
of their descendants. The following is an extract from a
somewhat recent message of Governor Briggs of Massa-
chusetts to the legislature of that state : —

" I cannot forbear to call your attention to the remnants of the
Indian tribes who yet linger among us. These poor remains of a
race, who were once the lords of our mountains, and valleys, and
islands, are objects of peculiar interest, and should attract special
attention and care. A few years since they were sunk by intemper-
ance, that curse alike of the savage and civilized man, to the lowest
depths of wretchedness and degradation. The temperance reforma-
tion has been to them a great blessing. Their condition has much
improved. They cultivate their lands much better than formerly,
have schools among them, organized churches and religious teachers
of their own. Some of them are good fishermen and whalemen.
Necessity has compelled them to abandon the pursuits of their
fathers, and but very few can speak or understand their native lan-
guage. They look up to the government of the state for encourage-
ment and support. Nothing which the paternal care of the legis-
lature can do, to improve their condition, elevate their character,
protect them in the enjoyment of their lands, and shield them
from the encroachments of unprincipled white men, should be
omitted."

136 THE INDIAN TRIBES.

The cheateries of the Dexters and Witters of the olden
time * finds a fitting parallel in this mockery on the part
of the Briggses of to-day. I have had no recent oppor-
tunity of judging of the progress towards extinction of
these wretched " remnants " of the Indian tribes, " who
yet linger" in Massachusetts. Statistics are not very
demonstrative nor very rehable on such a point. I can
only say that such specimens of the race as came under
my view in New England, New York State, in the
neighbourhood of the lakes, in Canada, and in the
Cherokee and other "deputations" from time to time
at Washington, entirely bore out the notions I have here
expressed. But I would not wilHngly treat lightly nor
too superficially a subject which excited formerly so much
romantic interest, and which may now be connected with
political considerations which I cannot fathom.

I am aware that efforts have been constantly made to
arouse the dormant attention of the public to the Indian
nations ; that essays have been written, lectures delivered,
and works illustrated with great industry and talent, but I
believe with small success, as far as they were meant to bear
on more than a temporary awakening to a question, the
intrinsic insignificance of which is wearing it out. Many
speculative views have been put forth on the origin and
primitive history of the aborigines of North America, with
little practical result. The cloud-land has been peopled
with imagined shadows. The gross customs, violent
passions, cruel wars, and rude productions of the savages
have been described so often and so minutely that it is
possible injustice may have been done to their distinctive
character, which a minute study of their inner life, had it

* See Vol. I., p. 33.

THEIR RELIGIOUS NOTIONS. 137

been more accessible to civilized observers, might have
modified. But the impression has been made, and it
seems now indelible, and is but strengthened by every
passing sketch and detailed account from time to time put
forth by travellers or essayists. It has been stated by
some of those worthy of attention and credit, that the
Indians have been misunderstood and misrepresented ;
and that an investigation into their intellectual nature,
with the same spirit of inquiry applied to other races of
men, would show that their existence in the wilderness is
not unworthy of philosophic regard. That may be true ;
and to those who will brave the perils and privations of a
sojourn among the scattered wanderers beyond the Missis-
sippi, live a sufficient time in the coarse shelter of their
encampments or their huts, join their wild hunting parties,
or mix in their brutal wars, with no higher object than to
kill or be killed, some new traits of character may be
developed, to add to the treasures of ethnology, and give
new proofs of the anomalies of human nature. But as no
one subject of improvement in art, science, literature,
commerce, or agriculture can be studied among a race
without records, collections, books, manufactories, or
" model farms," our knowledge about the Indians is likely
day by day to become more obscure, and our wish for it
more feeble. Their dreamy traditions and mythological
lore have little chance of feeding the lamp of inquiry, or of
sending any new light into the mysteries of their history
or their faith, even though that may be, as has been con-
jectured, the wreck of an early revelation.

The religious behef of the Indian tribes acknowledges
one Supreme Being, to whom they attribute all good
and all power. They beUeve in the immortahty of
the soul, and many of them admit the existence of an

138 THE INDIAN TRIBES.

intelligent evil spirit.' They never by any form of prayer
directly ask God for anything, but merely return thanks
for benefits received. They believe that brutes have souls
as vrell as men, and that all animated nature teems with
spirits, while their superstitions are curious and numerous.
They have no written or established laws, but they have
customs with all the practical force of law, which are
generally most scrupulously observed.

With such a foundation for rational religion, it sur-
passes all ordinary understanding how such a people has
existed, as might be said, without reasonable results.
Language, the most miraculous of human acquirements,
affords still more cause for wonder. An examination of
their dialects and vocabularies leads to the conclusion that
such an abundance of words implies a vast copiousness of
ideas in the people. These languages show (according to
M. du Ponceau, who profoundly studied them) order,
method, regularity in their complicated grammatical forms,
which differ essentially from those of the ancient and
modern languages of the Old World, that of the Cherokees,
written and printed, being distinct from all the others.
Yet with these evidences of original thought and intel-
lectual progress, it is argued that sufficient proofs are
evident that those mysterious and unfinished races could
never have been a civihzed people.

Their oratory, as exemplified in the speeches of Logan,
Garangula, Pontiac, Witherford, Tecumseh, and other chiefs,
has been long well known, and even supposing it in some
measure indebted to the embellishments of interpreters
and reporters, affords remarkable proofs of natural
eloquence ; but it is admitted that they are deficient in
all the higher faculties belonging to nations of the white
race. Their music scarcely merits the name. Their

PERSECUTION" IN THE GOLD REGIONS. 139

poetry in the original is out of my reach, and even in the
imaginative adaptations of modern American skill, beyond
my comprehension, as well as their mythologic machinery
and vapoury allegories ; and finally, I believe, in common
with almost all who have investigated the subject, that the
whole race display in every variety of reasonable example,
a total incapacity for civihzation.

We daily receive accounts of the conflicts between
Indians and the adventurous bands who brave all dangers
in the distant regions where enterprize has led the inde-
fatigable white man, and where gold has fixed his destiny.
In Texas, Mexico, California, Oregon, and New Columbia
the aboriginal tribes keep up a desultory and hopeless
conflict, as they did before in Florida, and with no result
to look to but despair and extermination. Conquest now
extending back from the shores of the Pacific, the Indians
are driven at both sides to and fro, into desert wilds
where subsistence must be scanty, the hunting grounds of
the West becoming nearly bare of animals. Two of the
most numerous and formidable tribes, the Camanches and
the Apaches, are struggling at once against the Americans
and the Mexicans. While the subdued remains of the
Cahfornian tribes are undergoing a terrible persecution
from the gold-seekers, who force them to work until
exhaustion and fatigue make their labour worthless, then
drive them away to perish, or shoot them down like dogs
if they attempt to obtain food by plunder.

The Indians are, in a w^ord, the most unfortunate of
still existing races ; with no history to look back upon,
no hope to lead them onward ; an enigma in creation as
if born without a purpose, and dying without a sign.

140 THE BROOK FARM INSTITUTE.

THE BROOK FARM INSTITUTE.

In illustration of the proverb that " extremes touch/'
the subject I have now to treat of seems to present itself
in close and apt connexion with the foregoing. The
wandering and unrestrained existence of the American
savage forms one end of the line of human institutions.
At the other is placed what must be considered its total
opposite ; an example of the latest efforts of cultivated
men to bring the species under specific and unswerving
rules, assumed to be the perfection of philosophy in
action, and the most advanced state of social economy.

The practical working of this system is well worthy of
consideration. The evils of society on its old basis of
classification are so patent and so deplorable, that every
scheme of amelioration deserves a fair trial, every theory
merits examination, and every experiment a record.
Attention has been long since drawn to this subject in
Europe by eminent writers, and attempts have been made
even in England to reduce the new doctrines to practice.
But the Old World presents insurmountable difficulties.
Traditional and historical bias is all against what seems
an extravagant wish to infringe on existing establishments,
for an impracticable scheme of what would be at best a
doubtful good. The sentiment of a graduated social scale,
the prejudices of most men, and the interests of many,
repel the efforts at conversion, by enthusiastic pro-
pagandists of insufficient social weight to effect great
changes. For utiHzing vague and untried theories vast
means and numerous adherents were required. Fourier,
the most distinguished among the Apostles of change,
insisted on considerable numbers as absolutely necessary
to do justice to his plans of association. Large bodies of

ITS ESTABLISHMENT. 141

individuals were nowhere however to be found, to brave
the ridicule and run the risk involved in an extensive
wholesale experiment. But before Fourier, St. Simon,
Owen, and a few others, threw themselves boldly on the
flood of philosophic speculation. They buffeted the billows
for awhile ; but they swam against the stream, and all
their schemes were swamped, or burst like bubbles on the
waters. Shifting the scene from England to the United
States, the same result awaited Owen after some bold but
futile struggles. And the field was left open to native
adventurers, more likely to meet sympathy from the
population, and sure at any rate of fair play, if not of
general favour.

Among the principal converts to the belief in " Asso-
ciation,'^ as the only true means of social happiness, was
the Rev. George Ripley, a highly educated and talented
man, of I know not what particular sect of Christianity,
but a firm believer in the doctrine which he endeavoured
to carry out. America, no doubt, offers the finest oppor-
tunities for the trial of all social experiments. Untram-
melled by class restrictions, encouraged by the general
toleration for all opinions, and impelled by the ever-active
love of novelty and change, plenty of people are always to
be found in the United States with inclination and means
to make the wildest essays in every variety of adventure.
Associates soon came forward to enable Mr. Ripley to put
his scheme into practice ; and the seductive promises of
their programme met with a ready response from a number
of persons sufficiently provided with funds, and willing to
embark them in the venture. A locality was chosen, and
an estate of about 300 acres purchased at West Roxbury,
three or four miles from Boston, called Brook Farm,
affording ample space and every requisite facility for the

142 THE BROOK FABM INSTITUTE.

purpose required ; and public attention was invited bj
the settlers, proud of tbeir plan and certain of its success.
The world at large has heard much of late years of
SociaHsm and Communism, new words with certain varieties
of application, taking the place in ordinary parlance of the
older and better understood term agrarianism, a distri-
bution of lands or other property in common. A system
which would make the rich, poor, but would not make the
poor, rich ; its basis is the equal distribution of property,
allowing of no individual accumulation, but securing every-
thing for the common good. For carrying out this abstract
proposition, Charles Fourier put forth in several works "
his plans for the congregating together large communities,
which he called Phalanges, and he detailed a plan of social
organization which was called after him, and is known by
the now admitted word Fourierism. It is not necessary,
and it would be somewhat puzzling, to separate the tangled
connexity between the several systems above alluded to.
The simplified plan of the Brook Farm Institute was meant
to be, as I presume, a well-digested mixture of the whole ;
and the following article, which may be considered as the
manifesto of the FAMILY, appeared in a journal called
the "Dial," and contains a not uninteresting abstract
of their views and objects, for those who may deem the
subject worth considering.

"PLAN OF THE WEST ROXBURY COMMUNITY.

" In the last number of the Dial were some remarks, under the
perhaps ambitious title of * A Grlimpse of Christ's Idea of Society ; '

* Th^orie des Quatre Mouvemens et des Destinies Gen^rales (1808) ; Traite
d'Association Domestique-Agricole. 2 vols. Svo. (1822) ; Le Nouveau Motide
Industriel et Soci^taire (1829); La Fausse Industrie (1835). Besides a pamphlet
against St. Simon and Owen ; and several articles in the Phalanstere and the
Phalange, two journals established in France for the propagation of Fourier's
doctrine.

PLAN OF THE COMMUNITY. 14.S

in a note to which it was intimated, that in this number would be
given an account of an attempt to realize in some degree this great
Ideal, by a little company in the midst of us, as yet without name
or visible existence. The attempt is made on a very small scale. A
few individuals, who, unknown to each other, under diiferent disci-
plines of life, reacting from different social evils, but aiming at the
same object, — of being wholly true to their natures as men and
women, have been made acquainted with one another, and have
determined to become the Faculty of the Embryo University.

" In order to live a religious and moral life worthy the name, they
feel it is necessary to come out in some degree from the world, and
to form themselves into a community of property, so far as to exclude
competition and the ordinary rules of trade; while they reserve
sufficient private property, or the means of obtaining it, for all
purposes of independence, and isolation at will. They have bought
a farm, in order to make agriculture the basis of their life, it being
the most direct and simple in relation to nature.

" A true life, although it aims beyond the highest star, is redolent
of the healthy earth. The perfume of clover lingers about it. The
lowing of cattle is the natural bass to the melody of human voices.

" On the other hand, what absurdity can be imagined greater than
the institution of cities ? They originated not in love, but in war.
It was war that drove men together in multitudes, and compelled
them to stand so close, and build walls around them. This crowded
condition produces wants of an unnatural character, which resulted in
occupations that regenerated the evil, by creating artificial wants.
Even when that thought of grief,

I know, where'er I go
That there hath passed away a glory from the earth,

came to our first parents, as they saw the angel, with the flaming
sword of self-consciousness, standing between them and the recovery
of spontaneous Life and Joy, we cannot believe they could have
anticipated a time would come when the sensuous apprehension of
Creation — the great symbol of God — would be taken away from their
unfortunate children, — crowded together in such a manner as to shut
out the free breath and the Universal Dome of Heaven, some opening
their eyes in the dark cellars of the narrow crowded streets of walled
cities. How could they have believed in such a conspiracy against

144 THE BROOK TAEM INSTITUTE.

the soul, as to deprive it of the sun and sky, and glorious apparelled
Earth ! The growth of cities, which were the embryo of nations
hostile to each other, is a subject worthy the thoughts and pen of
the philosophic historian. Perhaps nothing would stimulate courage
to seek, and hope to attain social good, so much as a profound history
of the origin, in the mixed nature of man, and the exasperation by
society, of the various organized evils under which humanity groans.
Is there anything which exists in social or political life contrary to
the soul's Ideal ? That thing is not eternal, but finite, saith the
Pure Eeason. It had a beginning, and so a history. What man has
done, man may undo. ' By man came death ; by man also cometh
the resurrection from the dead.'

" The plan of the Community, as an Economy, is in brief this : for
all who have property to take stock, and receive a fixed interest
thereon ; then to keep house or board in commons, as they shall
severally desire, at the cost of provisions purchased at wholesale, or
raised on the farm ; and for all to labour in community, and be paid
at a certain rate an hour, choosing their own number of hours, and
their own kind of work. With the results of this labour, and their
interest, they are to pay their board, and also purchase whatever else
they require at cost, at the warehouses of the Community, which are
to be filled by the Community as such. To perfect this economy, in
the course of time they must have all trades, and all modes of business
carried on among themselves, from the lowest mechanical trade,
which contributes to the health and comfort of life, to the finest art
which adorns it with food or drapery for the mind.

" All labour, whether bodily or intellectual, is to be paid at the
same rate of wages ; on the principle that as the labour becomes
merely bodily, it is a greater sacrifice to the individual labourer to
give his time to it : because time is desirable for the cultivation of
the intellect, in exact proportion to ignorance. Besides, intellectual
labour involves in itself higher pleasures, and is more its own reward
than bodily labour.

" Another reason for setting the same pecuniary value on every
kind of labour is, to give outward expression to the great truth, that
all labour is sacred when done for a common interest. Saints and
philosophers already know this, but the childish world does nbt ;
and very decided measures must be taken to equalize labours, in the
eyes of the young of the community, who are not beyond the moral
influences of the world without them. The community will have

,PLAN OF THE COMMUNITY. 145

nothing done within its precincts but what is done by its own mem-
bers, who stand all in social equality ; that the children may not
* learn to expect one kind of service from Love and Good will, and
another from the obligation of others to render it,' — a grievance of
the common society stated, by one of the associated mothers, as
destructive of the soul's simplicity. Consequently, as the Universal
Education will involve all kinds of operation necessary to the com-
forts and elegancies of life, every associate, even if he be the digger
of a ditch as his highest accomplishment, will be an instructor in
that to the young members. Nor will this elevation of bodily labour
be liable to lower the tone of manners and refinement to the commu-
nity. The ' children of light ' are not altogether unwise in their
generation. They have an invisible but all-powerful guard of princi-
ples. Minds incapable of refinement will not be attracted into this
association. It is an Ideal community, and only to the ideally
inclined will it be attractive ; but these are to be found in every
rank of life, under every shadow of circumstance. Even among the
diggers in the ditch are to be found some who, through religious cul-
tivation, can look down, in meek superiority, upon the outwardly
refiined and the book-learned.

" Besides, after becoming members of this community, none will
be engaged merely in bodily labour. The hours of labour for the
Association will be limited by a general law, and can be curtailed at
the will of the individual still more ; and means will be given to all
for intellectual improvement and for social intercourse, calculated to
refine and expand. The hours redeemed from labour by community,
will not be reapplied to the acquisition of wealth, but to the pro-
duction of intellectual goods. This community aims to be rich, not
in the metallic representative of wealth, but in the wealth itself,
which money should represent; namely, leistjee to live in all
THE TACULTIES OF THE SOUL. As a Community, it will traffic with
the world at large, in the products of Agricultural labour ; and it
will sell education to as many young persons as can be domesticated
in the families, and enter into the common life with their own
children. In the end, it hopes to be enabled to provide — not only
all the necessaries, but all the elegancies desirable for bodily and for
spiritual health ; books, apparatus, collections for science, works of
art, means of beautiful amusement. These things are to be common
to all; and thus that object, which alone gilds and refines the
passion for individual accumulation, will no longer exist foj desire,

VOL. II. L

146 THE BROOK FARM IITSTITUTE.

and whenever the Sordid passion appears, it will be seen in its
naked selfishness. In its ultimate success, the community will
realize all the ends which selfishness seeks, but involved in spiritual
blessings, which only greatness of soul can aspire after.

"And the requisitions on the individuals, it is believed, will make
this the order for ever. The spiritual good will always be the con.
dition of the temporal. Every one must labour for the community
in a reasonable degree, or not taste its benefits. The principles of
the organization therefore, and not its probable results in future
time, will determine its members. These principles are co-operation
in social matters, instead of competition or balance of interests ; and
individual self-unfolding, in the faith that the whole soul of humanity
is in each man and woman. The former is the application of the love
of man ; the latter, of the love of Grod to life. Whoever is satisfied
with society, as it is ; Avhose sense of justice is not wounded by its
common action, institutions, spirit of commerce, has no business with
this community ; neither has any one who is willing to have other
men (neediug more time for intellectual cultivation than himself)
give their best hours and strength to bodily labour, to secure himself
immunity therefrom. And whoever does not measure what society
owes to its members of cherishing and instruction, by the needs of
the individuals that compose it, has no lot in this new society.
"Whoever is willing to receive from his fellow-men that, for which he
gives no equivalent, will stay away from its precincts for ever.

"But whoever shall surrender himself to its principles, shall
find that its yoke is easy and its burden light. Everything can be
said of it, in a degree, which Christ said of his kingdom, and therefore
it is believed that in some measure it does embody his Idea. Eor
its Gate of entrance is strait and narrow. It is literally a pearl
hidden in afield. Those only who are willing to lose their life for
its sake shall find it. Its voice is that which sent the young man
sorrowing away. * Go sell all thy goods and give to the poor, and
then come and follow me.' * Seek first the kingdom of Heaven, and
its righteousness, and all other things shall be added to you.'

" This principle, with regard to labour, lies at the root of moral and
religious life ; for it is not more true that * money is the root of all
evil,' than that labour is the germ of all good.

" All the work is to be offered for the free choice of the members
of the community, at stated seasons, and such as is not chosen, will
be hired. But it is not anticipated that any work will be set aside to

PLAN OF THE COMMUNITY. 147

be hired, for which there is actual ability in the community. It is
so desirable that the hired labour should be avoided, that it is believed
the work will all be done freely, even though at voluntary sacrifice.
If there is some exception at first, it is because the material means are
inadequate to the reception of all who desire to go. They cannot go
unless they have shelter; and in this climate they cannot have
shelter unless they can build houses ; and they cannot build houses
unless they have money. It is not here as in Eobinson Crusoe's
Island, or in the prairies and rocky mountains of the far west, where
the land and the wood are not appropriated. A single farm, in the
midst of Massachusetts, does not aff'ord range enough for men to
create out of the earth a living with no other means, as the wild
Indians, or the United States' army in Eiorida may do.

" This plan of letting all persons choose their own departments of
action, will immediately place the Genius of Instruction on its
throne. Communication is the life of spiritual life. Knowledge pours
itself out upon ignorance by a native impulse. All the arts crave
response. * Wisdom ceies.' If every man and woman taught only
what they loved, and so many hours as they could naturally com-
municate, instruction would cease to be a drudgery, and we may add,
learning would be no longer a task. The known accomplishments of
many of the members of this association have already secured it an
interest in the public mind, as a school of literary advantages quite
superior. Most of the associates have had long practical experience
in the details of teaching, and have groaned under the necessity of
taking their method and law from custom or caprice, when they would
rather have found it in the nature of the thing taught, and the con-
dition of the pupil to be instructed. Eacli instructor appoints his
hours of study or recitation, and the scholars, or the parents of the
children, or the educational committee, choose the studies for the
time, and the pupils submit, as long as they pursue their studies with
any teacher, to his regulations.

" As agriculture is the basis of their external life, scientific agricul-
ture, connected with practice, will be a prominent part of the instruc-
tion from the first. This obviously involves the natural sciences,
mathematics, and accounts. But to classical learning justice is also to
be done. Boys may be fitted for our colleges there, and^even be carried
through the college course. The particular studies of the individual
pupils, whether old or young, male or female, are to be strictly
regulated according to their inward needs. As the children of the

L 2

14S THE BROOK FARM INSTITUTE.

communitj can remain in the community after they become of age,
as associates, if they will ; there will not be an entire subserviency
to the end of preparing the means of earning a material subsistence,
as is frequently the case now. Nevertheless, as they will have had
opportunity, in the course of their minority, to earn three or four
hundred dollars, they can leave the community at twenty years of
age, if they will, with that sufficient capital, which, together with
their extensive education, will gain a subsistence anywhere in the
best society in the world. It is this feature of the plan which may
preclude from parents any question as to their right to go into this
community, and forego for ever all hope of great individual accumu-
lation ybr tlieir children; a customary plea for spending life in
making money. Their children will be supported at free board
until they are ten years of age, educated gratuitously, taken care of
in case of their parents' sickness and death, and they themselves will
be supported, after seventy years of age, by the community, unless
their accumulated capital supports them.

" There are some persons who have entered the community without
money. It is believed that these will be able to support themselves
and dependents, by less work, more completely, and with more ease
than elsewhere, while their labour will be of advantage to the com-
munity. It is in no sense an eleemosynary establishment, but it is
hoped that in the end it will be able to receive all who have the
spiritual qualifications.

" It seems impossible that the little organization can be locked on
with any unkindness by the w^orld without it. Those who have not
the faith that the principles of Christ's kingdom are applicable to
real life in the world will smile at it as a visionary attempt. But
even they must acknowledge it can do no harm in any event. If it
realizes the hope of its founders, it will immediately become a
manifold blessing. Its moral aura must be salutary. As long as
it lasts, it will be an example of the beauty of brotherly love.
If it succeeds in uniting successful labour with improvement in mind
and manners, it will teach a noble lesson to the agricultural
population, and do something to check that rush from the country to
the city, which is now stimulated by ambition, and by something
better, even a desire for learning. Many a young man leaves the
farmer's life, because only by so doing can he have intellectual com-
panionsliip and opportunity; and yet, did he but know it, profes-
sional life is ordinarily more unfavourable to the perfection of the

PLAN OF THE COMMUNITY. 149

mind, tlian the farmer's life ; if the latter is lived with wisdom and
moderation, and the labour mingled as it might be with study. This
community will be a school for young agriculturists, who may learn
within its precincts, not only the skilful practice, but the scientific
reasons of their work, and be enabled afterwards to improve their
art continuously. It will also prove the best of normal schools, and
as such, may claim the interest of those, who mourn over the
inefficiency of our common school system, with its present ill-in-
structed teachers.

" It should be understood also, that after all the working and
teaching, which individuals of the community may do, they will still
have leisure, and in that leisure can employ themselves in connexion
with the world around them. Some will not teach at all ; and those
especially can write books, pursue the Pine Arts, for private emolu-
ment if they will, and exercise vdrious functions of men. — Erom this
community might go forth preachers of the gospel of Christ, who
would not have upon them the odium, or the burthen, that now
diminishes the power of the clergy. And even i^jpastors were to go
from this community, to reside among congregations as now, for a
salary given, the fact, that they would have something to retreat
upon, at any moment, would save them from that virtual dependence
on their congregations, which now corrupts the relation. There are
doubtless beautiful instances of tlie old true relation of pastor and
people, even of teacher and taught, in the decaying churches around
us, but it is in vain to attempt to conceal the ghastly fact, that many a
taper is burning dimly in the candlestick, no longer silver or golden,
because compassion forbids to put it quite out. But let the spirit
again blow * where it listeth,' and not circumscribe itself by salary
and other commodity, — and the Preached word might reassume the
awful Dignity which is its appropriate garment ; and though it sit
down with publicans and sinners, again speak * with authority and
not as the scribes.' "

The editor of the "Dial'' seeing the difficulties in
perspective against the success of the Brook Farm
experiment, followed up this announcement of its principles
and objects by the following prophetic remarks :

" The very liberality, and truth to nature of the plan, is a legiti-
mate reason for fearing it will not succeed as a special community in

150 THE BEOOK FARM INSTITUTE.

any given time. The vineyard does not always yield according to
the reasonable expectation of its Lord. When he looks for grapes,
behold it brings forth wild grapes. Por outward success there must
always be compromise, and w^here it is so much the object to
avoid the dangers of compromise, as there very properly is here,
there is perhaps danger of not taking advantage of such as nature
offers.

" One of these is the principle of antagonism. It is fair to take
advantage of this in one respect. The members may be stimulated
to faithfulness and hope, by the spectacle of society around them,
whose unnecessary evils can be clearly seen to be folly, as well as
sin, from their retreat. The spirit of liberality must be discrimi-
nated from the spirit of accommodation. Love is a stern principle,
a severe winnower, when it is onewith the pure Eeason; as it must
be to be holy, and to be effective. It is a very different thing from
indulgence. Some persons have said that in order to a true experi-
ment, and to enact a really generous faith in man, there should be
any neighbourhood taken without discrimation, with the proportion,
that may happen to be in it, of the good and bad, the strong and
weak. But we differ as to the application in this instance. They
are so little fenced about with rules and barriers, that they have no
chance but by being strong in the spirit. * Touch not, taste not,
handle not,' must be their watchword, with respect to the organized
falsehoods they have protested against ; and with respect to means of
successful manifestation, the aphorism of St. Augustine, ' God is
patient because he is Eternal.'

" To be a little more explicit. The men and women of the world,
as they rise, are not at the present moment wise enough, in the
Hebrew sense of the word wisdom, even if they are good-intentioned
enough, to enter into a plan of so great mutual confidence. To all
the evils arising from constitutional infirmity and perversion they
must, especially at first, be exposed. There will always be natures
too cold to satisfy the warm-hearted, too narrow for the enjoyment
of the wide-visioned, some will be deficient in reason, and some in
sensibility, and there will be many who, from defect of personal
power, will let run to waste beautiful hearts, and not turn to account
great insight of natural wisdom. Love, justice, patience, forbear-
ance, every virtue under heaven, are always necessary in order
to do the social duties. There is no knot that magnanimity cannot
untie ; but the Almighty Wisdom and Groodness will not allow any

PLAN OF THE COMMUXITY. 151

tower to be builded by the children of men, where they can under-
stand one another without this solvent magnanimity. There must
ever be sincerity of good design, and organic truth, for the evolution
of Beauty.

" Now there can be only one way of selecting and winnowing their
company. The power to do this must be inherent in their constitu-
tion ; they must keep sternly true to their principles.

" In the first place, they must not compromise their principle of
labour, in receiving members. Every one, who has any personal
power, whet?her bodily or mental, must bring the contribution of
personal service, no matter how much money he brings besides.
This personal service is not to amount to drudgery in any instance,
but in every able-bodied or sound-minded person, it should be at
least equivalent to the care of their own persons. Exchange, or
barter of labour, so as to distribute to each according to his genius,
is to be the means of ease, indefinitely, but no absolute dispensation
should be given, except for actual infirmity. * My Eather worketh
hitherto, and I work,' is always the word of the divine humanity.

" But granting that they keep the gate of entrance narrow, as
the gate of life, which is being as liberal as the moral Law, a subtle
temptation assails them from the side of their Organization. AVoe
be unto them if they lean upon it ; if they ever forget that it is onl}^
what they have made it, and what they sustain it to be. It not only
must be ever instinct with spirit, but it must never be thought, even
then, to circumscribe the spirit. It can do nothing more, even if it
work miracles, than make bread out of stones, and after all, man
liveth not by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the
mouth of God. Another temptation assails them, clothed as an angel
of light. The lover of man finds in his benevolence a persuasive advo-
cate, when the Devil proposes to him to begin by taking possession
of the kingdoms of this world, according to his ability- In their
ardour for means of success, they may touch the mammon of
unrighteousness. They will be exposed to endowment. Many per-
sons, enlightened enough to be unwilling to let the wealth, they
have gained by the accident of birth or of personal talent, go to
exasperate the evil of present society, will be disposed to give it, or
to leave it as a legacy to this community, and it would be asceticism
to refuse it absolutely. But they should receive it greatly. ' Thou
shalt worship the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve* l^o
person who proposes to endow the community as a University, or as

15^ THE BKOOK FARM INSTITUTE.

tlie true system of life, understands what he does, unless he surren-
ders "what he gives, unconditionally, in the same spirit of faith, with
which the members throw themselves in, with their lives, their pro-
perty, and sacred honour. At all events it would violate their prin-
ciple of progress to accept anything with conditions ; unless indeed
it may be considered a condition, that they remain an association,
governed by the majority of members, according to its present
general constitution.

" It were better even to forego the advantage of good buildings,
apparatus, library, than to have these shackles. — Though space cannot
now be given to do more than state these points, it might be
demonstrated that to keep to them, is essential to independence,
and can alone justify the conscience of endower and endowed.

" Another danger which should be largely treated is the spirit of
coterie. The breadth of their platform, which admits all sects ; and
the generality of their plan, which demands all degrees of intellectual
culture to begin with, is some security against this. But the ultimate
security must be in numbers. Some may say, ' already this taint
has come upon them, for they are doubtless transcendentalists.^ But
to mass a few Protestants together, and call them transcendentalists,
is a popular cant. Transcendentalism belongs to no sect of religion,
and no social party.- It is the common ground to which all sects
may rise, and be purified of their narrowness ; for it consists in
seeking the spiritual ground of all manifestations. As already in
the pages of this periodical, Calvinist, and Unitarian, and Epis-
copalian, and Baptist, and Quaker, and Swedenborgian, have met and
spoken in love and freedom, on this common basis ; so it would be
seen, if the word were understood, that transcendentalism, notwith-
standing its name is taken in vain by many moonshiny youths and
misses who assume it, would be the best of all guards against the
spirit of coterie. Much as we respect our friends of the community,
we dare not hope for them quite so much, as to aver that they
transcend, as yet, all the limitations that separate men from love and

mutual trust.

Serene will be our days and bright,
And happy will our nature be,
When Love is an unerring light

And Joy its own security. /^

And blest are they who in the main
This faith, even now, do entertain ;
Live in the spirit of this creed ;
Yet find the strength of Law according to their need.

PLAN OF THE COMMUNITY. 153

" We had intended to subjoin some further remarks, by way of
inquiry, into the possibility of other portions of society, not able to
emancipate themselves from the thraldom of city life, beginniug also
to act, in a degree, on the principles of co-operation. Ameliorations
of present evils, initiation into truer life, may be made we believe
everywhere. "Worldly wisdom, for its own purposes, avails itself of
what is outward in the community plan; at least of the labour-
saving element. Why may not the children of light be equally
wise ?

" There may be some persons, at a distance, who will ask, to what
degree has this community gone into operation ? We cannot answer
this with precision, for we do not write as organs of this association,
and have reason to feel that if we applied to them for information,
they would refuse it, out of their dislike to appear in public. We
desire this to be distinctly understood. But we can see, and think
we have a right to say, that it has purchased the Parm, which some
of its members cultivated for a year with success, by way of trying
their love and skill for agricultural labour ; that in the only house
they are as yet rich enough to own, is collected a large family,
including several boarding scholars, and that all work and study
together. They seem to be glad to know of all, who desire to
join them in the spirit, that at any moment, when they are able to
enlarge their habitations, they may call together those that belong
to them."

Wishing to judge for myself as to the authenticity of
this plausible experiment, I took advantage of the arrival
in Boston of my old friend Sir John Caldwell, one special
object of whose journey from his estate in New Brunswick
was to pay a visit to a faithful Irish servant, who, having
unfortunately become addicted to drink, was unfit for his
duties, and as a last hope of reformation had been placed
by his kind master in the Brook Farm institution, or
" Retreat," as it was sometimes called. Sir John being
well acquainted with Mr. Eipley, I required no further
introduction, so we proceeded together one fine spring
day, I think it was in 1842, to West Roxbury ; I having

154 THE BROOK PAEM INSTITUTE.

previously " read up '' a little of my Fourier, and endea-
Youred to extract from his vague and confused opinions,
and the wild peculiarities of his style, some fixed idea as
to the practicability of his doctrines when applied to the
actual condition of mankind.

The neighbourhood of Boston, particularly at the side
where the village of Roxbury is situated, abounds in
beautiful landscape scenery, highly cultivated. Brook
Farm possessed a full share of external advantages. The
grounds were naturally attractive ; and the busy stir of
persons employed in agricultural pursuits, and about the
various buildings, one very large one being then far
advanced in its construction, gave an air of established
population, uncommon on the sparsely peopled farms I had
observed elsewhere. Nothing could exceed the general
cordiality Avith which we were received, not only by Mr.
Ripley, but by the whole of his family or phalanx, or the
alacrity with which we were at once conducted into the
inhabited houses, and shown the extensive building called,
in the language of Fourierism, the Phalanstery, destined
to accommodate several hundred (indeed, I believe, 2000)
persons, the material type of the social superstructure
which is (as promised in the programme) "to approach more
nearly to the ideal of human society than anything that
has as yet existed." We were led through several of the
buildings adapted to handicraft employment, such as
tailoring and shoe-making, and to the carpenters' shops,
a candlestick and lamp factory, and others ; and then to
the printing office, whence the " Harbinger, a journal of
pohtical and social progress,'' was sent forth, to make
known to all men the peculiar doctrines of the Institution.

After this round of inspection, which was but a common-
place exhibition of the ordinary pursuits of artizanship,

PLAN OF THE COMMUNITY. 155

the hour for dinner sounded, and I confess it appeared to
me the most interesting portion of our time, not for the
indulgence of mere animal appetite, but as affording the
best opportunity of examining the social construction of
the phalanx, the . test of its possible adaptation to the
intercourse of one hundred individuals (for that was about
the number of associates) of all varieties of character,
ages and pursuits, educated under a system totally opposed
to this, which was still only on its trial, though the Brook
Farm Institution had been established four or five years,
and wore at this period a flourishing air of success and
permanency.

The half-hour consumed in the disposal of the repast
was sufficient to satisfy me completely on the main point
in question. Several of the party were evidently persons
of educated habits, but the great majority were of the
most common stamp, in mien, manner, and dress. Great
general simplicity and plainness of costume made it hard
to distinguish the differences between the females. But a
very handsome one who served at table with others of less
personal attractions was, I was told, a young lady of
highly respectable family ; and another, nearly as good-
looking and as delicate, was pointed out as one of the
washerwomen of the establishment. Some of the women
better suited from their appearance to those menial occu-
pations had their seats at the long table, and like the coarse
men who were intermixed, complacently received the
attentions of the ladylike " waitress," who did her minister-
ing most gently and cleverly, nor could I detect the
slightest indication of a smile to tell that she was perform-
ing a practical joke, or a single movement to betray
dislike of her inappropriate functions. The plainest food
was certainly the order of that day. Soup made of beans,

156 THE BROOK FARM INSTITUTE.

salted beef, with the inevitable lumps of fat boiled pork,
potatoes, ordinary and sweet, with other crudely dressed
vegetables, water, of which each individual had a mugful!
placed beside him, and, to crown the feast, large quantities of
some indescribable pudding, consisting, I should imagine,
chiefly of Indian corn. I fancy the general bills of fare
offered but little variety to this enumeration. These
Ripleyites may have peculiar enjoyments, but the
pleasures of the table are assuredly not included in their
philosophic code.

By far the most interesting incident of this dinner was
the manner in which Sir John CaldwelFs old servant bore
himself in the novel position of a partaker of the meal at
the same table with his master, exactly opposite to whom
he sat. The evident struggle between new-born pride
and long-felt humility was most amusing ; but the senti-
ment of respect, gratitude and affection, strugghng through
all, was very touching. The poor fellow^ worked hard to
assume an air of social equality, but he moved uneasily on
his chair ; and he constantly seemed on the point of
starting up to offer to his old employer the wonted services,
.as though not satisfied with the less devoted attentions of
the " waitresses," or w^itli the recommendations he offered
across the table of such dishes as he thought the least
unpalatable. As for himself, he positively ate nothing ;
but en revanche^ he took repeated draughts of the cold
water, which had never been his favourite beverage, with
a certain air of ostentatious display, as if to show what a
thorough and teetotal reformation had been effected in his
habits. This was observed by Sir John, who, on his part,
gave back glances of approval, more worth than more
substantial prizes to the reformed one, who had, I believe,
taken no pledge beyond the compact made with himself to

PLAN OF THE COMMUNITY. 167

repay by good conduct the generous anxiety of his friend
and benefactor.

After dinner we were introduced to the library, where
there was a goodly array of books, and to the reading-
room, where newspapers were lying ; and there was a
concert-room, and I even believe a ball-room, in embryo.
The general appearance of the furniture, as far as I saw,
was very ordinary indeed ; and the appointments of the
table quite in keeping with the inferior nature of the viands
and the quality of the cooking. There was however
a contented air throughout the company. Everybody
seemed the right people in their proper places. And the
frank, cheerful, and confident bearing of Mr. Hipley, the
superintendent, or principal, or President of the Com-
munity, whatever his title may have been (for that I
forget), was that of a man in the prime of life, quite suited
to the habits of the civihzed world, to take the lead in his
present speculation, or to cut his way through the tangled
paths of earth's remotest forests. While I pictured him
in this latter aspect, in a backwoodman's dress and accou-
trements, axe in hand, felling the age- worn trunks of giant
trees, somebody told me that his then actual duty in the
general division of labour among the Phalansterians, was
to convey the milk in a cart to Boston, or as the case might
be, in cans upon his shoulder, from street to street, for
delivery at the doors of their customers ! This was really
un peufort. It threw an air of burlesque over the whole
concern. It was like playing a comedy on a grand scale
in the open air. A system that either imposed such an
absurd occupation on such a man, or even sanctioned his
choosing to appear in such a masquerade, could not be a
sound one. And this touch of the grotesque led to a train
of serious reflection, which quite convinced me that the

158 THE BROOK FARM INSTITUTE.

experiment I had witnessed, must on its present plan, and
in its present dimensions, prove an utter failure.

There were several individuals of the " Society,^' male
and female, who had evidently moved in circles far more
cultivated than that in which they had cast their temporary
lot. A few eccentric persons might possibly find pleasure
in the position ; and for the large number of their
associates, unlearned, uncouth, and in many instances
penniless, the *' phalanstery " would doubtless become a
most desirable refuge. The easy terms on which they
were admitted and retained, afforded the most liberal
inducements ; and whether the scale of the establishment
were narrow or expanded, such a combination for the
mere labouring or working classes ought to be produc-
tive of excellent results. But educated gentlemen and
ladies could not by possibility, with but a few such unusual
exceptions as I have specified, descend to such low and
degrading occupations, or assimilate their tastes, habits,
and thoughts, to such an intercourse as would conduce to
the general harmony or comfort. The only chance for a
union in common of material interests with such a diversity
of moral attributes, could be found but in large numbers,
as was indeed the sine qua non of Fourier's plan. I
therefore think that the project has never yet been com-
pletely subjected to a trial. When a couple of thousand
individuals can join together and devise some scheme of
joint-stock labour that will combine with a perfect free
choice of social intercourse, avoiding all forced attempts at
moral amalgamation, which is repugnant to natural feeling
and acquired tastes, then the still undeveloped theories may
be subjected to the test of practical experience, and until
then the visionary scheme must be viewed as the abortive
offspring of an uneasy mind. The Brook Farm estabhsh-

PLAN OF THE COMMUNITY. 159

ment was soon broken up, and its incongruous elements
thrown back into the general mass. I have heard of no
other attempt to realize the scheme.

And thus it may be fairly concluded that the two
extremes of savage and civilized life are equally unsuitable
to the natural constitution of mankind ; and that the old,
beaten, and established rules of society, imperfect certainl}^
but still in a constant process of improvement, though not
susceptible of perfection, are the lot of our nature, which
it is our duty and our interest to fulfil.

CHAPTER yi.

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 Calde-
rou 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.

I HAVE intimated in the introduction to this work, and
proved, I hope, during its progress, that my observations
were not to be confined to the portion of the country
where ray official appointment had " located " me. As a
fixed point for the basis of my inquiries, a moral fulcrum,
so to speak, from which my critical leverage might be
directed, New England has been perhaps too prominent
in these pages. I am aware of the danger to style,
method, and materials from such a cramped companion-
ship as was mainly my lot for seven years. But as I
escaped from it as often as possible, my opportunities for
judging of , other parts of the Union were not infrequent.
I made many excursions both of pleasure and on business
into the neighbouring states, to the lakes, to Canada, and
to those portions of the southern regions where friendship
and hospitality proved attractions forcible enough to leav6
in brief abeyance my repugnance to a sojourn in the
strongholds of slavery.

OCCASIONAL EXCURSIONS. 161

It was always a relief to go for a while from Boston.
Within three years of my first arrival there, I made an
effort, founded I thought on fair claims, to obtain a
permanent removal ; but in that I failed, and for four
years more I was obhged to continue my residence,
until enabled to make arrangements which allowed me
finally to give up America altogether, as far as I was per-
sonally concerned. Day after day, during this period, all
the effect of early impressions became weaker, and every
hope of more expanded sympathy as stunted as the
plants on the seashore. Some of the best men among my
first acquaintances were dropping off, the elder in the
course of nature, the younger from the force of circum-
stances or the love of change. I therefore threw myself
as much as possible into such public proceedings as I had
a right to mix in, and I enjoyed, whenever I could, the
society of strangers who brought me introductions from
Europe, the British North American provinces, or other
parts of the world, to whom our house was, as far as was
within the ability of my family, a resource and a rallying
point. There were scarcely any resident English with
whom we could form a close intercourse, but one family
did for above the latter half of our sojourn establish
itself in Boston, consisting entirely of ladies, who in three
generations united everything of talent, accomplishments,
and goodness in its purest sense, that could give grace
to society or value to friendship. Scattered now widely
over the earth, and some, alas ! no longer upon it, the
intimacy formed in those days has survived all the
chances and changes of life, and the recollection of it
goes far to redeem that of the chilling influences which
surrounded but could not check its growth.

Some extraneous incidents varied the usual routine of

VOL. II. M

162 EUROPEAN TRAVELLERS AND VISITORS.

life. Artists of high musical reputation occasionally came
amongst us, and greatly were we indebted to the good-
nature with which several of those contributed their
talents to delight us and our friends. Braham, in the
fulness of years but with voice of still marvellous power,
Madame Cinti-Damoreau, Artot, Ole Bull, Wallace, and
Vieuxtemps were among those who, with several Euro-
pean performers, settled in Boston, such as Paggi, an
almost unrivalled master of the hautboy, at present a
highly successful teacher of singing in England, lent an
attraction to our soirees musicaies, and opportunities to
our American guests of hearing what the term in reality
means. Among those latter there were a few with whom
we maintained most friendly relations, which still stand
the test of time and separation. Several persons con-
nected with European literature, more or less celebrated,
were always most welcome visitors, and of the several
lecturers, English, Irish, or Scotch, not one is entitled to
a higher place in my regard for his genuine qualities of
head and heart than the lamented George Combe, the
practice of whose life was the truest illustration of the
soundness of his philosophy.

In the crowd of trans- Atlantic visitors who came to
exercise their talents, all for purposes of money-making
one way or another, either by direct means in America
or reaction at home, it was impossible to avoid an inter-
mixture of charlatanism and undue pretension. The latter
was amusing, the former harmless ; both often more suc-
cessful than legitimate pursuits and unassuming manners.
I had specimens enough of all kinds to study from, «^nd
not a few to wonder at.

Of all the foreign arrivals the one which gave me the
sincerest pleasure was that of Sir Charles Bagot, who

ARRIVAL OP SIR CHARLES BAGOT. 163

came out in the year 1842 to fill the post of Governor-
General of Canada, vacant by the almost sudden death of
Lord Sydenham, who was cut oflf in the midst of a stirring
political career, leaving to his far less astute successor the
difficult task of managing party complications that almost
bade defiance to not over-scrupulous talent, and was
altogether beyond the control of conscientious government.
As soon as Sir Charles reached New York in a British
ship of war, I wrote to ask him to make Boston his route
to Canada, instead of the usual one by the River Hudson ;
and on receiving his assent, I went to New York to meet
him and accompany him on his journey. Most happy I
was to pay this small mark of respect to one of my best
and staunchest friends, to whom I had been long indebted
for many acts of kindness, and who was, moreover, one of
the most genuine specimens of high breeding and good
feeling I had ever known. The last time I had seen him
in England he was seriously ill ; but his Atlantic voyage
seemed to have worked wonders on his constitution and
appearance. He looked well fitted for the hard work he
had. before him in colonial struggles ; and I was glad to
afford him some useful suggestions (from my previous
personal experience of Canadian men and measures)
during our night voyage on the Sound, and the railroad
journey from Stonington to Boston.

Sir Charles Bagot had been many years before minister
at Washington. He was, therefore, not unacquainted
with the manners of New England, and during the two
days he now spent in its capital, he conformed with
perfect tact to the habits and feeUngs of the people.
It was a rare sight for them, a living Governor-General
of those provinces, which had been a very few years
before the subject of most bitter and hostile feeling, and

164 EUEOPEAN TEAVELLEES AND YISITOES.

the scene of actual conflict. But the cordial and con-
cihating address of the new-comer carried all before it ;
and I was glad to see that my prediction as to the good
effect of this flying visit was entirely borne out by the result.

The General Court, as the two branches of the legis-
lature are called, was luckily just then assembled. On
the day of our arrival I conducted Sir Charles Bagot to
the Government House, introduced him to the Governor,
Marcus Morton, and the Senators in their Hall of meeting,
and next to the Speaker of the House of Representatives,
who courteously placed the " distinguished stranger," and
his suite of aides-de-camp and secretary, on seats close
to his own presidential chair. Several of the curious
members came down to me from their benches, while the
debate of the day went on, requesting me to name the
different persons of the group. And great was the
astonishment of those uncouth legislators when I pointed
out the Governor-General, whose distinctive appearance
(besides the handsome person which he had from nature)
was a rough pilot coat, and a woollen " comforter " care-
lessly wrapped round his neck. Any of his suite, of 'less
height and not particularly striking in personal appearance,
but in handsome frocks and figured scarfs (the usual
morning costume of well-dressed young men before the
present coarse and cut-away garment came into fashion),
chimed in much more with the Yankee notions of what
was suitable to the individual of highest rank. And the
inquirers were sorely puzzled as to which was which.

"Do tell!" cried one.— " That the Guv'nor-Giniral ! "

" Well, did you ever ! " exclaimed another.

" Get along ! " said a third, with an incredulous smile.*

* I must guard against this being considered as generally applicable to the style

AFFABILITY OF Sill CHARLES BAGOT. 165

And when I seriously assured them that he I designated
was the man, they looked complacently at their own black
broad-cloth coats, cassimere " pants," and satin waistcoats
(the unvarying official, or holiday, or Sunday, or travelling
uniform of the American male population) quite satisfied
with their superiority to the Britisher, in every attribute
of taste, " fashion," and " high life." At my house the
following evening, the Governor, Mayor, and other
functionaries, had the advantage of meeting Sir Charles
in unofficial companionship, and he gained the respect of
every one by his affable manner, and (aided by a slight
prompting from me) the readiness with which he adapted
his remarks to the personal position and public concerns
of "particular men, and things in general.

So far so well. Governor, Lieutenant-Governor, ex-
Governors, etc., were gratified. The Governor-General
was amused. He won golden opinions from all, and he
paid them back with good will. But one little trait I
cannot help mentioning now, at this far-distant period of
time, when my excellent and truly distinguished visitor is

of the Massachusetts legislature. Among the three or four hundred members, the
great majority were artizans or farmers, intelligent and acute, but several, such
as Messrs. Stevenson of Boston, WLalley of Roxbury, Palfrey, Horace Mann,
Robert C. Winthrop (the latter three particularly), were, subsequently as mem-
bers of the federal Congress, among the best speakers and most cultivated
politicians of the Union. Mr. Winthrop has filled the chair of Speaker at Wash-
ington, and Mr. Horace Mann's eloquent speeches have commanded a wide-spread
fame.

I may here repeat an anecdote told me by Mr. Webster, in one of his most
agreeable moods, of one of the over-curious originals of the genus above mentioned :

At a large supper-party which the great statesman gave in Boston to some scores
of these country members, he courteously asked, one of them if he had been well
supplied and how he had fared ? " Oh, first rate ; but Mr. Webster, sir," was
the reply, " though your cider was fine, I say damn your pickles ! " alluding to
the Champagne, tasted for the first time, and the Olives, which his indiscriminate
curiosity had tempted him to try.

Another of those primitive worthies assured their hospitable host, that although
he " admired to partake of fine cookery once and away, he preferred falling
back on first principles — bacon and eggs ! "

166 EUROPEAN TRAVELLERS AND VISITORS.

removed for ever from the angry reproaches he would
certainly have incurred had the anecdote escaped me at
the time : —

Among the pohte attentions paid to Sir Charles Bagot
by several of the leading citizens, was the placing at his
disposal a neat open carriage, spirited horses, and smartly
dressed though unliveried coachman, by Mr. Harrison
Gray Otis, an old acquaintance, who had been a member
of Congress during Sir Charles's mission to Washington.
With a double sense of civility this truly fine old Yankee
gentleman insisted on my taking his place in the carriage,
to be Sir Charles's guardian and guide in the suburban
excursion ; and I in my turn requesting him to suggest
our route, he said, " Oh, by all means take his Excellency
to Bunker's Hill, to let him see the monument." — " Cer-
tainly, of course ;" exclaimed Sir Charles, with prompt
acquiescence. So to Bunker's Hill the coachman drove ;
but as we cleared the pave, and reached the long wooden
bridge leading to Charlestown, my companion turned to
me and jocosely exclaimed, " Certainly, of course, since
my worthy old friend was so emphatic on the point, but
what the devil is Bunker's Hill ? "

We looked at each other and both burst out laughing,
I could scarcely tell why, he did not know for what ; but
there was something very ludicrous in it.

" Do you really say," asked I, "that you don't know
anything particular about Bunker's Hill % "

" Well, upon my soul I am ashamed to say I do not,
though I have some recollection of its being a place I have
heard something or other about — so, do let me hear what
it is famous for, and what does that monument mean 1 ^'
looking at the imposing but yet unfinished granite column,
to the completion of which {jpar parenthese) I had the

bunker's hill. ]67

pleasure of indirectly contributing, by my daily attendances
at the ladies' fair held for that purpose some time later.

It undoubtedly was too bad in a man of Sir Charles
Bagot's position and experience, a former minister to the
United States, to have, under any circumstances or through
any lapse of time or memory, been uncognizant of the
claims of that memorable spot to high celebrity. But it
only afforded another proof of the insignificance attached
by a certain idiosyncracy of mind in England, regarding
everything connected with America, beyond the facts that
it was once an English colony, which waged a successful
rebellion ; and is an independent state, with rival interests,
uncongenial feelings, and a cotton-growing, tobacco-chew-
ing, sherry-cobler drinking, Lynch-law practising, and
slave-holding population. This was, I firmly believe,
until very lately, the sum and substance of many a well-
informed, highly educated Tory mind (and such was Sir
Charles Bagot's) on the subject matter of American
history and its great " battles," from Bunker s Hill to
Lundy's Lane ; ignoble names, which fail to stamp them-
selves on the memory like Thermopylso or Salarais. I
admit it is a pity, and really a shame, that such should be
the case ; and it would be hard to convince any American
that it could possibly be so. They are quite convinced
that every spot of their soil, and every event of their
career, and every one of their "great men" ought to be
and must be familiar as household words to " all creation."
But I can safely aver, as a smaller instance of this British
ignorance on such matters, that a son of a close by colonial
governor coming to Boston about this time, had never
heard of Daniel Webster ; and I admit, with some remorse,
that I myself on meeting the ex-presi(ient John Quincy
Adams at the very first dinner-party I assisted at in that

168 EUROPEAN TRAVELLERS AND VISITORS.

city, knew so little of who or what the individual was,
that I confounded him with Mr. Quincy, the President of
Harvard College.

I saw Sir Charles Bagot set out for Canada, in high
spirits and apparently entirely recovered health, at which
I sincerely but prematurely rejoiced; for my next meeting
with him showed a sad and desperate change.

Next on the list of English worthies whom I had the
good fortune to receive and associate with during my
voluntary banishment, was General Miller, of South
American celebrity, whose name stands high on the
muster-roll of those warriors which the revolutionary
waves threw up from time to time on their surface.
Miller's career of disinterested and, I fear, unprofitable
gallantry, is well known from his published Memoirs.
But Ayacucho, like Bunker's Hill, may have already
faded from the minds of many who should well recollect
the heroic conduct by which that decisive victory was
gained. Miller, notwithstanding his devoted services to
his adopted country, always remained an Englishman in
heart and feeling. His mild manners could scarcely be
reconciled with the remembrance of his many adventurous
feats of war. While his instructive and interesting con-
versation, and more particularly his sketches of the
manners, domestic life, and political statistics of the
Sandwich Islanders, among whom he passed his long
exile, marked him as the very best man to fill the post,
which he soon afterwards obtained, of Consul-General at
Honolulu. I have a most Hvely and pleasant recollection
of the weeks he spent at Boston, and in the summer
season at Nahant, and our frequent meetings in the cottage
I occupied there, and our rambles on the rocks, his mind
seeming always to revert to that distant scene of his

MILLER. — MACDONKELL. 169

longing memories, which he reached at last, whence I
have at intervals heard from and of him, and in which, if
it is to be his permanent resting-place, I hope this page
will be a not unwelcome revival of former days, and a
corrected proof — in typographical phraseology — of true
regard.

Another of those living '*' God-sends,^' well worthy to
take his place beside those already mentioned, and
offering at once a parallel and a contrast to the last,
was Sir Richard Graves Macdonnell, now Governor of
Adelaide, in South Australia, but who filled the office
of Chief Justice of the Colony of the Gambia in Africa,
at the time he crossed the ocean, a voyage of many
thousand miles, merely on a pleasure trip of three or four
months, to the United States and Canada. This short
respite was necessary from the dangers of such a climate
and such a place as he had for years to contend with, and
to survive which no small power of mind and frame was
required ; while a cheerful and complacent philosophy
alone could make any one bear up against the necessity of
a return. The bold and firm character of Sir Richard
Macdonnell was subsequently well proved when, promoted
to the post of Governor of the Gambia settlement, he
became unavoidably involved in hostilities with the sur-
rounding savages, against whom he was forced to act at
the head of his military force, with a courage and vigour
that commanded success under great difficulties. Justly
appreciated by the Home government, his talents assured
his advancement. He was removed from the pestilent
shores of Africa, first to the Island of St. Lucie, soon
after to St. Vincent's, in the West Indies ; and a little later
to the important and lucrative position which he continues
to fill at present. There he has a fitting field for his

170 EUEOPEAN TKAVELLEES AND VISITOES.

energetic temperament ; laying the foundations of what
must be a future empire ; and establishing the free insti-
tutions which alone can consolidate it. After my return
to Europe I had frequent opportunities, both in England
and Ireland, of witnessing the sense entertained of the
public services and private worth of the subject of this
slight sketch, and I bade him God speed on the voyage to
his distant destination, sure that it will prove a further
step to well-won distinction.

It was a pleasant sight one day, when the sounds of
saluting cannon told that a ship of war was coming up the
bay into Boston harbour, to discover the British frigate
Spartan, with the flag of England floating in the breeze ;
and the barge manned by real British tars pulhng to shore,
with a rosy-cheeked and bright-eyed httle middy at the
stern, whose early air of authority seemed to anticipate his
fitness to walk the quarter-deck at a future day, as he
does by this time perhaps, in command ot some gallant
vessel, worthy of the boy-sailor grown into a man. The
Captain of the Spartan, was the Honorable Charles
Elliot, a son of Lord Minto, young for the post he filled,
but becomingly modest, and giving promise of the cool
and determined valour which marked his conduct as
Commodore in the recent conflicts in the Chinese waters.
Such arrivals were rare in Boston. The Spartan was
on her course from the station at Halifax in Nova Scotia,
to join the West India fleet, and she carried the Bishop of
Newfoundland and Bermuda, who was going from one
portion of his widely divided see to the other, touching at
the nearest port of the United States, for his private pur-
poses and to my great satisfaction. Having been well-
acquainted with several branches of the Bishop's family in
Europe, I was prepared to enjoy the society of this

ARRIVALS FROM EUROPE. 171

accomplished prelate, whose inherited taste for literature
was natural in a son of William Spencer, one of the most
refined and graceful of England's minor poets. There was
also at this time in Boston Mr. Calderon de la Barca, then
Spanish minister afc Washington, and his lady, whose
admirable work on Mexico has given her an honourable
rank among female authors ; besides Mr. Godley, who has
since then filled, and does still fill, an important place in
the Home government. With these elements for au
agreeable circle of English, we were for a time quite
independent of other society ; and it was thus that con-
stant reliefs, so to call them, were coming — but unluckily
also too soon going ; and if they could have been fixed
residents instead of mere " transients," we need not have
longed for a return to the Old World.

There are several other names well-known, and one at
least famous, whose bearers have recorded in print their
visits to the United States, and whom I knew there more
or less intimately. Among them were Colonel Maxwell,
(besides Mr. Godley just mentioned), Lord Carlisle and
Mr. Dickens, whose genius was a better claim to a popular
ovation, than " all the blood of all the Howards," even in
the person of so worthy a representative, and dearly as
Jonathan " loves a lord." Then there was Colonel
Estcourt, commissioner for running the boundary-line of
the Ashburton treaty, one of the most charming and
estimable of men, who prematurely died in the Crimea,
with the rank of General and a high staff-appointment, to
the great grief of Lord Raglan, who quickly followed him
to the grave. Colonel Estcourt was accompanied by his
secretary, Mr. Scott, a still farther back acquaintance of
mine by several years, and who is now Lieutenant-Governor
of the colony of Natal. I wonder if he remembers, as I

172 EUROPEAN TEAVELLEKS AND VISITORS.

still do with something of shame, the wretched Sunday-
dinner which the whim of my fine lady cook, and the
impracticable difficulties of the Sabbath in New England,
forced me to inflict on him and Colonel Estcourt !
Straggling members of our legation at Washington passed
through from time to time with many Canadian travellers,
who were in some cases more English than the English.
Several officers made Boston their route in returning
home. Among the latest of those was Sir James
Macdonnell, the glorious defender of Hougomont, and
the last, who may be classed in the same category of
eminent men, was the successor of Sir Charles Bagot, who
came out from England as Sir Charles Metcalfe, passed a
few days in Boston, where every due mark of respect was
paid to him, went on to Monti'eal, and after a brief term
of government, quite worthy of his high reputation, re-
turned a lord without an heir, a wreck with an incurable
malady, to which he succumbed in London, making the
fourth Governor-General, including Lord Durham, cut ofi*
by death within five or six years.

These recollections have crowded on me unpremedi-
tatedly. My pen could not refuse to trace thoughts of
which my mind was full ; and I was unable to resist the
impulse of offering a tribute to some of those who gave
to the most highly vaunted portion of Civilized America a
genuine air of civilization.

But, passing from those sketches of individuals, I must
revert to one great international event, the establishment
of the line of the Royal British and American mail steam-
ships. This enterprize was conceived, undertaken, and
effected with extraordinary ability and energy within a
short time after my first arrival in Boston. As that
city was fixed on as the American point of operations,

FIRST LINE OF STEAMERS. 173

Liverpool being the corresponding port in England, the
success of the first experiment, like the first blow in a
battle, was a full half of the triumph. Every speculation
in the United States is greatly affected by, and often
much dependent on, the judicious preliminary arrange-
ments by which it is ushered in. I had already learned
this lesson. The agent for the new steam-ships knew it
still better. And I felt pleased to co-operate in the early
measures to give eclat and prestige to the undertaking
which excited so much interest. A pubhc meeting
or a public dinner being an essential test of popular
approval, a demonstration of the latter nature w^as decided
on. But somehow the indefatigable agent lacked the due
influence in the first instance to rouse the leading citizens,
and the whole affair was up to a late moment near
failing altogether. By redoubled exertion, however, and
putting the matter into the proper hands, a rapid change
of feeling was produced, a grand dinner given at the
expense of the city, came off in Fanueil Hall, presided
over by the Mayor, Mr. Chapman ; and the arrival of the
Unicorn, the pioneer boat of the line, was celebrated
with great spirit. Not satisfied with this, a second
banquet on a far larger scale was organized on the arrival
of the next ship, the first of the regularly established line.
This really remarkable celebration took place at East
Boston, under a huge mass of canvas, which could be
scarcely called a tent, stretching from a long row of beech-
trees to the front of a large hotel called the Maverick
House. Two ranges of its piazzas filled with all the fashion
and much of the beauty of the city, were enclosed under
the canvas covering ; and between the Hotel and the
long, raised table under the trees, for the more distin-
guished individuals, places were arranged to accommodate

174 EUROPEAN TRAVELLERS AND VISITORS.

between 1400 and 1500 convives, and every place was
filled.

Of the many public feasts I partook of in America,
there was nothing to be compared to this one, as to
numbers, picturesque arrangement, and the quality of the
chief performers. Among these were Judge Story, Mr.
Webster, Mr. Bancroft, and several others of great local
importance. Numerous speeches were made. And the
impression of that scene and its many stirring associa-
tions is not likely to have faded from the minds of any of
those who took part in it.

The immense success of the steamship-enterprize, called
the Cunard line, after the contractor, led to a rival under-
taking, called the Collins' line, the headquarters of which
was New York. This was followed by that established by
Mr. Croskey of Southampton. Another by Mr. Vander-
bilt of New York ; still others running from Glasgow and
Liverpool to Philadelphia and Quebec ; and last, but by
no means least in interest, Mr. Lever's recently formed
Hne from Galway via Newfoundland, at the inauguration
of which on the starting of the first ship, the Empire
Queen, from Southampton for Galway, in the month of
May, 1858, I had the pleasure of assisting. I thus made
one at each of the opening celebrations of the first and
the last of these chains of communication between
England and America ; and I only hope they may be
continued by many more, until the countries are bound
together by a combination of commercial forces which it
will be impossible to break through. But there let the
good wishes of rational philanthropy find its limit ; nojr
by imagining impossible results lessen the value of those
which are feasible.

Every one of the new facts, whether they may be

PUBLIC FEELING. 175

classed as personal or material, "which brings England
closer as it were to America, is hailed there with an
exaggerated display of true wonderment but unreal joy.
The establishment of steam navigation, whether in single
ships or in a regular line, the coming of a great author,
a celebrated actor, singer, or dancer, the ratification of a
treaty, or the fixing of a submarine cable, all meet, in
certain gradations of development, the same immoderate
triumph. If this were the spontaneous burst of irrepres-
sible affection it would be not only acknowledged, but
perhaps responded to on the part of England with modi-
fied warmth. But there is a national instinct which tells
her people that those of America do not and cannot love
them. In every one of the instances alluded to some
little symptom is betrayed, to show that self is at the
bottom of all, vanity at the top, and sympathy nowhere,
lleflection and experience satisfy us that the only* true
element of union between the Old and the New World
is a common interest. To maintain that in every fair
and honourable way should be the leading policy of both ;
to acknowledge it frankly their pride ; for it is reasonable
as it is true, creditable as it is natural. What more so,
than such a partnership between two nations '? And how
useless the feigned assumption of a congeniality which
would not form a tie half so strong or binding 1 The
members of a mercantile firm do not and need not love
each other with brotherly love ; but they hold together
for mutual benefit, when family attachments are often and
often torn asunder. Sympathy has no existence between
America and England. No power of steam or electricity
can convey a spark of it above or below the ocean.
Private and individual friendships may and do exist,
uninfluenced by the rapidity or slowness of their inter-

176 EUROPEAN TRAVELLERS AND VISITORS.

change, because the heart's feehngs are independent of
distance and time ; nor can quickened communications of
business or pohtics, although they may prevent a threat-
ened material mischief, create a new moral sentiment.

I remember on the occasion of one of those celebrations
being hurried into the utterance of the phrase that
" England and America formed two populations and but
one people." It was a mere rhetorical flourish, repented
of as soon as spoken ; and, having been startled at its
appearance in print, I may be pardoned in quoting it
now, to guard against the possibility of its being one day
quoted by some critic who might think it worth while to
refute my present written opinions, by a former one spoken
inconsiderately but with the best intentions. In truth I
was in those early days of intercourse myself somewhat
deceived, as I believe many conscientious Americans were,
into *the belief that friendly speeches and conciliatory
writings might produce great good on the public mind.
I soon felt the error. It was labour in vain. All that
has been published or preached on either side the Atlantic
for twenty years has in this sense done no good. Acts
have been stronger than words. Political cheateries and
commercial frauds have belied the fine phrases of social
companionship. The most studied after-dinner orations and
most eloquent leading articles, from the highest English
authorities of diplomacy or the press, fall still-born when
they attempt to soothe or flatter the American mind.
While the slightest shade of reproof, the mildest remon-
strance, the most kindly jest excites virulent resentment
and aff'ected scorn. A bowl of the milk of human kind-
ness, or the cream of the most good-natured joke, is
turned into curds by one drop of insinuated sarcasm.

It is, from these causes, impossible to excite an aflec-

UNDUE EXPECTATIONS OF SYMPATHY. 177

tionate sympathy between the countries. A continued
strain of honeyed elocution or eulogy cannot be maintained
on the part of vigorous speakers and writers, who are not
insensible to the defects inherent in»human nature, who
can see the weak points in nations, and whose acute sense
of the ludicrous must at times have vent in a sly smile or
a pointed paragraph. With a man or a people who can-
not occasionally stand such trifling tests of temper, it is
impossible to be on terms of thorough friendship. The
Americans freely " poke fun " at each other, but they will
not allow a Britisher the same privilege. A light pleasantry
the other day in a London newspaper on their wonderful
over-doing of the trans- Atlantic telegraph celebration, was
fiercely denounced as " laughing at their enthusiasm.^' Now
there was no laugh and no enthusiasm. An exaggerated
self-laudation drew forth a gentle joke. But though the
rejoicing was premature the joke is permanent. It will
never be forgotten or forgiven. An ocean of praise
would not wash out the "damned spot.'' Columns of
conciliation would be as inefficient to propitiate the public
feeling of America towards England, as was O'Connell's
celebrated hall of the same inappropriate title, to deceive
the English mind as to the meaning of Irish agitation.
I hope to see those futile efforts abandoned altogether ;
that the mockeries of ''brother Jonathan'' and "our
cousins " may fall into disuse ; that England and America
may, if they like the famiharity, respectively call each
other " John Bull" and " Uncle Sam," the national jocose
appellatives ; that all whining and coaxing appeals to
sympathies and sentiments may be renounced, and the
plain, sound, language of common sense be used, to point
out the mutual advantage of fair play and honest conduct
in the transaction of a gigantic business for reciprocal

VOL. II. N

178 EUROPEAN TRAVELLERS AND VISITORS.

profit. America would respect us the more and not like
us the less. She cannot and will not love us. She dis-
beheves our praise and despises our advice. And who,
after all, can be surprised at her increduKty or her
arrogance 1

America knows well that for seventy years England
has viewed her commercial progress with mixed feelings
of astonishment and jealousy, her political institutions
with dislike, her social organization with disdain. A
shrug, a frown, or a sneer, were the outward and visible
signs of what England thought and felt. Did she conceal
her thoughts and feelings 1 No. On the contrary, no
opportunity was lost in giving them utterance, and that
in no measured phrase. The style of all the travellers,
tourists, or essayists, whether in books, reviews, or news-
papers of any influence, was in unison. Blame and
ridicule formed the staple of all those ; and the few
who accorded faint praise, or larded with overstrained
encomium, utterly failed to produce any countervailing
effect.

This is plain truth, evident and undeniable. It was
all perfectly natural. Why not avow, or why attempt to
excuse it *? These were the true sentiments of England
in reference to America. Time has modified them, no
doubt. Partial improvement has rendered them inappli-
cable to an altered state of things. But is there not enough
left for censure and for sarcasm 1 I think there is : so
do all English observers whose experience has been
contemporaneous with, or even later than mine. It is,
therefore, in vain that benevolent, or interested, attempts
are made to delude the Americans into a belief in the
sincerity of unlimited admiration, on the part of any
English subject who really knows the entire working of

BEST INTERNATIONAL POLICY. 179

institutions, which in theory are admirable, and in practice
of great but still imperfect utiHty.

But that admission is not enough for American pride,
or, if it must be so expressed, for American arrogance.
The people at large ayIU not allow the imputation of the
least failure or defect. They will not be satisfied with
anything administered to them by British hands ; honey
or gall are alike unpalatable. You can offer them nothing
with success ; they reject each crumb of comfort, and even
refuse to be crammed with praise. Every such aliment
must be home-made and self-administered. They will not
be fed on fragments, and the joint must be of native pro-
duce. In short, to parody the form of oath administered
to witnesses in courts of law, they must have " the hog,
the whole hog, and nothing but the hog."

This enormous appetite for self-laudation is, like that
for extended territory, the natural and inevitable result
of circumstances and position, and, however censurable,
may be easily explained. The almost immeasurable
breadth of land between the Atlantic and the Pacific
gives unbounded notions of power to those who believe
it to be of right and by destiny all theirs. Their
isolation from the Old World, the novel forms of their
social and political state, their heroic struggle and com-
plete success against the mightiest people on earth, the
absence of all immediate standard of comparison with any
but races of flagrant inferiority — the Indians, the Negroes,
and the Mexicans, and others of the Spanish stock — the
virtual homage paid to them by every ship-load of emi-
grants who cross the ocean to find refuge on their soil and
in their institutions, their cherished ignorance, and other
causes which it would be but tautology to enumerate,
explain their inveterate disease of chronic arrogance.

N 2

180 EUEOPEAN TEAVELLERS AND VISITORS.

Nothing of outward application can cure it. The remedy
must come from nature, and be self-born and self -admi-
nistered ; and that will only be when the inevitable fate
of empires falls upon them, when the disruption of their
Union and wars among its population bring home to them
the ills and miseries of humanity, on a scale proportionate
to their overgrown greatness.

Until then all the faults of to-day will assuredly con-
tinue and increase. They will follow their own course and
have their own opinion of it and of themselves. Well,
then, I say let them have it. Let them boast of their
superiority over everything, and believe it if they can.
Only let strangers who think differently persist in their
right of saying so as well. If we cannot conciliate the
Americans, we may at least instruct ourselves, and in
thoroughly understanding them give ourselves a better
chance in the close intercourse which we will, in spite of
all our differences of opinion, maintain together. Inter-
changes of cotton, tobacco, or corn, for fabrics of calico,
iron, or wool, may be made without fine phrases or ful-
some compliments. We can go to each other's plantations
or warehouses without bullying too high or bowing too
low ; all we require from each other is civility and prompt
payment. As they despise our praise, let us doubt their
promises, avoid giving them credit, and refuse their
factory shares and railroad bonds at any 'price.

CHAPTER VII.

THE SOUTHERN STATES.

The Direct Route from North to South — New York — Philadelphia— Baltimore —
Wilmington — Characteristics of Society — Public Works — Kit Hughes, a re-
tired 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 Affair — Conclusion of Episode — Historical Parallel.

The Southern States, with their " peculiar institution,"
had always something repulsive to my feelings even in
name. Without that fearful drawback, had such an
exemption been possible, I should have considered them
almost a paradise. The natives of those regions wherever
I met them in the North were, with few exceptions,
delightful contrasts to the general run of the pure original
Yankees. I always thought it unfair, although it is
inevitable, that they should be mixed up in that common
designation. At home, in their own cities or on their
own plantations, their bearing was comparatively, I might
almost say, distinguished. Unbounded and courteous
hospitality was the unvarying rule, and it had no objec-
tionable feature but the eternal presence of the tobacco
fiend in one shape or another — the cigar, the quid, or the
spittoon. No house desecrated by the uses of this baneful
weed could be entirely agreeable to one who neither
smoked, nor chewed, nor spat. But that one nuisance
apart, and the workings of the " institution '^ concealed,

IS'Z THE SOUTHERN STATES.

the Southern States and their inhabitants were most
desirable resources from the cold and passionless North, at
the season when fever and pestilence lie dormant.

I made several excursions to the south and towards
the west. But I never felt inclined to penetrate too deep,
nor stay too long. The Dismal Swamp and the Alleghany
Mountains bounded my researches on either hand, and
satisfied my thirst for practical knowledge. I took on
trust all I heard or read of the wide world beyond those
barriers. As to the absorbing question of the South I
saw enough of it both in its worst and its least revolting
features to enable me entirely to make up my mind ; to
one who considers slavery as an abstract moral question,
a long residence among slaves and their owners is by no
means necessary. All the possible palliatives of slave-
holding logic are thrown away upon him who abhors
slavery on principle ; and such a one need never step
across Mason and Dixon's line.* It was not therefore in
search of proofs of the iniquity or of arguments against
it that I occasionally " went South,'' as the phrase goes ;
but, as I said in the preceding chapter, to enjoy the
society of friends, whose cordial quahties would have
tempered a moral atmosphere more sombre if possible
than that.

One considerable advantage on those southern journeys
was that my road passed through the places most worthy
of remark and most agreeable for a foreign wayfarer —
New York, Philadelphia, and Baltimore. It would be
unjust to the inhabitants of the other cities to take the
manners and habits of the Bostonians as a type of the
general society elsewhere. In New York there was far

* The boundary between the Free and the Slave States, so called from the
engineers who traced it.

DIRECT ROUTE TO THEM. 183

greater variety, more largeness, less provincialism ; every-
thing wore an air more European, chiefly because there
were more natives of Europe in the best circles, and also
from the greater taste for luxurious expenditure which
prevailed. The houses were more richly, if not more
tastefully furnished, there abounded equipages of preten-
sion, the dinner parties and other forms of entertainment
were far more liberally composed, music was well
encouraged, the theatres better supported, and an easier
tone among the inhabitants, showed a consciousness that
they were moving in a far wider sphere.

The swarming activity of several hundred thousand
persons is always to me a glorious matter of contempla-
tion. The pleasure of being a stranger in a great metro-
ipolis where you can over and over again lose yourself, and
of looking in hundreds of faces, not one of whom you can
recognize, even though you may have been before hustled
together with many of those in some other crowd, is very
exciting and consoling. You enjoy society and soUtude
at one and the same time. You feel that you are sur-
rounded by your fellow-creatures, without the necessity of
knowing or the risk of being intruded on by any one of
them. You can read human nature by wholesale without
the task of spelling it in detail. The big book is open
before you, and physiognomy requires no dictionary to
explain it. If men only wore their hats as women do
their bonnets half another volume of character would be
exposed, and a surer test be shown in their phrenological
developments.

The general society of New York was most pleasant
and amusing. Barring some few peculiarities of tone and
manner which it presents in common with the whole
Union, it was much more like that of England than what

184 THE SOUTHERN STATES.

I had been accustomed to in the portion of the country
which had more general claims to homogeneous distinction.
Several subjects of public and private interest occupied
me amply, and individual intimacies threw their influence
over every hour. In short, New York was always most
agreeable. I left it on every occasion with regret and
returned to it with pleasure.

Philadelphia, too, though far inferior in attraction and
resources, improved much on better acquaintance. The air
of regular formality in the laying out of the narrow streets,
all formed on one unvarying rectangular plan, the rows
of trees at each side, their luxuriant foliage in summer
time forming a complete canopy, the closely planted
squares, the exterior cleanliness of the dwellings, their well-
kept brickwork and marble doorways, and the public
buildings composed entirely of the latter material, all
formed a picture of somewhat oppressive though elegant
monotony. In comparison with the more irregular plan
of New York, Boston, and Baltimore, Philadelphia has
been awarded the palm of beautiful and pleasing effect.
Such was not the impression it ever produced on me. I
confess that its uniformity was to me its greatest defect.
And it was only when by degrees I had formed acquain-
tanceships of great value in " the Quaker city " that I
understood how the unreserved gracefulness and decorous
gaiety of the inhabitants contrasted with the rather too
subdued air of their out-door appearances.

In one respect both New York and Philadelphia possess
an advantage which many a first-rate European town may
well envy — an almost inexhaustible supply of fresh water,
which is often prodigally turned loose into the streets,
from overflowing fountains, fed from enormous reservoirs
which seem to defy exhaustion, at least as long as the

PHILADELPHIA — BALTIMOEE. 185

Croton and Schuylkill rivers do not shrink beneath their
beds. Boston also has, by expensive constructions,
acquired a sufficiency of the clear and purifying element,
drawn from one of the neighbouring ponds which furnish
London with supplies of ice, called too exclusively and
fancifully "Wenham Lake/^ The public spirit and
munificent contributions of money which combine to
accomplish these enduring works deserve all praise. And
I could not refrain on visiting the Fairmount and the
Croton reservoirs, close to Philadelphia and JSTew York,
and looking down upon the two great cities they supply,
from recalling to my mind the magnificent aqueducts of
Italy, and marvelling again and again at that wondrous
instinct which makes men imagine and complete, for the
benefit of other generations, undertakings which there is no
certainty, and often no hope, of they themselves enjoying.
These great doings, and not the narrow legislation which
deprives nations of their rights and man of his dignity,
are the subjects that demand the reverence of posterity,
for what has been really and truly the wisdom of its
ancestors.

Of Baltimore I have already spoken, as of the other
cities, and I could long dwell on the recollections it recals,
if only my own eyes or those of its surviving inhabitants
who composed the circles I mixed with, were to fall on
these pages. But general readers must not be wearied by
a tedious tale of personal partialities or individual feelings.
Trusting that they will bear with much of what I am
about to print, I hope that they will give me credit for
a great deal that I have cast aside. Many a note-book
and numerous private papers are day by day turning up
among the scattered materials I select from. They oflTer
tempting inducements for detail. Had my means been

186 THE SOUTHERN STATES.

less ample, my task would have been easier, and my
progress less tedious. Vemharras de richesses is in some
cases a serious obstacle. Not that I think the proverb
can justly be applied to the downright material wealth
which the word "riches'' emphatically designates. For
I hold that the more money a person has the more at
ease, the less embarrassed, and the happier he ought to
be, unless some perversion of character mars the right use
of life's greatest privilege, that of indulging one's own
tastes and contributing to the well-being of others. This
is, however, a " parenthesis " which has no exclusive
apphcation to Baltimore, its warm-hearted, hospitable
men, and its proverbially lovely women. Among the
former, the best known among Europeans was probably
the lively, amusing, perhaps I might say eccentric Kit
Hughes, who was for many years American Charge
d'Affaires at Stockholm and in the Netherlands. He
wound up his long diplomatic career during the latter
period of my residence in the United States ; and I saw
him, not long before his death, at Baltimore, looking well,
and showing still later at Washington, when I last met
him at a large entertainment in the President's House,
the same bustling animation and vigorous loquacity, which
made him remarkable when I first fell in with him at a
crowded ball at the King's Palace in Brussels. But Kit
Hughes belongs to my European recollections, and must
lie among them till the day, if it ever comes, when they
may possibly see the light.

I must not pass over without mention another capital
city, which I have however often passed by without a
visit — Wilmington, the chief place of the pigmy State
of Delaware, one of the original Thirteen which braved
the power of the Mother Country, shared in the dangers

WILMINGTON — STATE OF DELAWARE. 187

and the glorj of the Revolution, and gained its right to
independence, recognized by the constitution, and secured
by that provision which gives to each State, no matter
what the amount of its population, an equal number of
Senators in Congress, thus preserving a balance of influence
on all vital questions of legislation which no other arrange-
ment could have secured. If Delaware has the smallest
amount of population, it has also the least amount of
manifest crime of all the slave-holding States. The number
of " persons held to service " is so insignificant, that it
is scarcely worth while for the white people to retain the
distinction to a share in the stigma. Skirting the little
town of Wilmington as the railway train between Phila-
delphia and Baltimore stops at the station, one looks up
the pretty street, but never thinks of penetrating further.
It is a little mockery of a metropolis, but it has all the
right and title to the dignity ; and the whole State, with
its 80,000 inhabitants, is as much a standing proof of the
Democratic principle, as the petty German principalities
are of the Monarchical. It supphes no contingent to the
National Army of the Union as they do to that of the
Confederation ; but its voice in Congress is far more
important than any one of theirs in the Diet. And it
most assuredly furnished, in one of its Senators while
I was in America, and in a member of diplomacy when
the same individual was subsequently sent to Europe,
one of the best specimens of an American gentleman
— and I may take the liberty of adding, one of
the rarest specimens of American beauty in his
most charming wife. Worthy of the name of the freux
Chevalier of old, — they had nothing to fear, and were
above reproach !

The Httle State of Delaware is most remarkable in one

1S8 THE SOUTHERN STATES.

respect — it lias always kept clear of debt ; furnishing a
great contrast and a standing reproof, though on a small
scale, to its comparatively important neighbour Penn-
sylvania, whose prodigal expenditure and doubtful struggles
to redeem its character are so notorious.

I have thus rapidly once more brought my readers with
me into the slave-holding regions, and have just touched
on the verge of " repudiation," by the direct road from the
North to the South. But there are many inducements to
occasional deviation from it, which I frequently indulged
in. One of the most refreshing of those byways, a place
alhided to in my earliest chapters, is Newport, in the
State of Rhode Island, at all times the pleasantest, and for
some years past the most fashionable of all the sea-
bathing resorts in the Union. There was a peculiar charm
about this place, in the freedom with which social inter-
course was carried on among the numerous visitors and
the families settled there, in villas and cottages, which
year by year sprang up with surprising rapidity. Unlike
the repulsive seclusion "which prevailed at Nahant, and
which finds in some degree a counterpart in certain small
unsociable watering-places on the coast of England, New-
port was alive with animation and hospitality. Were I to
send a European across the Atlantic, in search of the best
aspect of American manners, I should certainly fix on
Newport as the spot to go to, if possible, without touching
at any other ; and having spent his couple of summer
months in its enjoyments, I should say to the traveller,
" thus far and no further." There is nothing in the way
of seasonable pleasure that may not be had there except a
library and a theatre. But one is there quite indeperi*-
dent of such food for the mind. Indeed, there is but
little time for serious thought, or regulated amusements.

NEWPORT AS A WATERING-PLACE. 189

It is a scene of listless relaxation or constant exercise in
and out of doors. Bathing in the beautiful harbour,
riding and driving on the admirable roads, dining and
dancing day and night, walking and talking morning and
evening, sailing on the water or lounging on shore, there
is no chance for study, or opportunity for dramatic enter-
tainment. No one has need of such resources. Time is
killed not with the determined hate which we feel against
an enemy, but in the hghtsome mood of sportsmen bringing
down their game. The habitues of Newport, and such
places (there are few anywhere so pleasant), like the
player in Hamlet, " murder in jest."

The main portion of the visitors, when I first knew
Newport, were Southerners, as they are called ; and it
was among them that I first learned the real distinction
between them and the North-eastern and Down- eastern
tribes, who are, however, fast -spreading in all directions,
and giving their character of mind, if not exactly their dry-
ness of manner, ta the Union at large. Families and single
men of education and experience in the world, who knew
Europe, and in certain points had profited by their know-
ledge, some with wives of European birth — and all, for the
time, divested of the slave-holding taint — members of the
diplomatic corps from Washington, with their ladies, or
unmarried as the case might be, a stray consul or two,
Canadian travellers, with varieties of fashionables from New
York, Boston, and elsewhere, crowded the lodging-houses
and hotels, which, being built of wood, furnished supplies
of room as extensive and almost as quick as the demand.
One appaUing catastrophe occurred in the burning down
of one of those large and handsome, though somewhat
fanciful-looking caravanseras. It happened on a Sunday,
when the several hundreds of " boarders " were at church

190 THE SOUTHERN STATES.

or on the sands, so the loss of hfe was happily confined to
one person, the proprietor, who unfortunately perished in
his anxiety to save some remnant of property. The
destruction of this hotel was a striking instance of the
danger of laro;e wooden constructions of the kind, and the
reckless want of caution to guard against such accidents.
The fire broke out in the kitchen, a detached building, but
close enough to allow the flames from the chimney to
communicate with the main body of the house. And at
noon in this fine summer's day, with the numerous estab-
Hshment of servants in readiness, and the whole population
of the place looking on, two hours totally completed the
conflagration, and left not a stick unconsumed. There
was but one imperfect fire-engine to be had, and that
arrived when the progress of the fire was beyond resistance,
and no water, though the Atlantic was rolling in upon the
beach hard by. The scene of confusion was exciting
without being exactly alarming, for no danger was appre-
hended for anyone till the discovery of, the charred body
of the proprietor told the remainder of the busy household
the peril they had escaped. Heavy articles of furniture were
flung out of the windows, loose dresses floated through the
air as their female owners snatched them up and escaped
through every doorway ; men were seen in every part of
the building, running along the piazzas, scrambling over
the roof, and in all points showing the agility and
courage of practised firemen, most of them having, no
doubt, done duty as such in the volunteer companies of
the various towns they belonged to. But in all this
apparent chaos, there was everywhere method and disci-
phne, no shouting, or swearing, or any useless expenditure
of lungs or limbs. One object alone was in view, to save
every article within their power, and by strenuous efibrts

FIRE AT NEWPORT. 191

of precaution, to prevent the fire from igniting the inflam-
mable materials of the neighbouring houses. This was
completely effected, the one doomed building was the only
one injured, its one hapless occupant the only victim. A
huge blank, with smoking embers, showed where the
flaunting '' Ocean-house '' had stood. A few hours and all
had subsided, a few days and the rubbish was cleared
away, a few weeks and a new building was planned,
contracted for, and commenced, and in a few months a
phcenix rose from the old ashes, body and wings com-
plete, with turrets, balconies, and battlements, looking as
ready to be burned down as those they replaced had
erewhile been. And such was a fair instance of the
innumerable similar accidents of daily occurrence through-
out the country, and strikingly emblematic it was of the
style in which public speculations, private fortunes, and
political parties are raised up, consumed, and built over
by others, to be in their turn mismanaged, squandered
and dispersed.

For several seasons my family made Newport in part
their summer residence. I took every opportunity of
joining them, and many happy days were passed there,
with friends from Boston before alluded to, and their
connections, and some from those southern latitudes
from which I have made this digression ; every new
visit increasing our liking for the place, chiefly for the
sake of its society, and gradually weaning us from
Nahant, where the society was oppressive enough to over-
power the attractions of the place.

Rhode Island is, next to Delaware, the smallest state of
the Union. This work, being neither a manual of statistics
nor a regular book of travels, I do not dwell much on
questions of population or distance, and my sketches of

192 THE SOUTHERN STATES.

localities and events are desultory and without order.*
Chronology has not been strictly attended to as yet, and
its violation must be pardoned as I go on. But flowing
out of circumstances, and in connection with situations,
certain historical memoranda find their place, and I may
be excused for inserting here, as a matter of curiosity
for the political reader, particularly at a season when
questions of Parliamentary Reform are rife, and one not
likely to have excited much attention in England — an
episode of Rhode Island,

DORR'S REBELLION.

One of the most remarkable occurrences during my
residence in the United States, was the insurrectionary
movement grandiloquently called the " RebelHon '^ in
Rhode Island, instigated and headed by Thomas Wilson
Dorr, and consequently bearing his name. This afiair
might have become as serious as it was remarkable, but
for the insignificance in point of population and influence
of the State in which it took place, and of the unworthi-
ness of those with whom Mr. Dorr attempted to work
out his views. The importance of the principle at stake
was degraded by the Httleness of the field of action.
The efforts for redress became ludicrous from the mean-
ness of the actors. Dorr's rebelhon is a byword of
contempt. The Rhode Island question Uttle thought of
and less understood. Yet both are well deserving of a
place in the public mind, and in history.

* la the Appendix will be found some documentary details on such points as
should be specifically brought before readers who may require condensed infor-
mation on the power and resources of the country.

CHAKTEli OF RHODE ISLAND. 193

The political condition of the State of Rhode Island
presented for sixty years one of the strangest anomalies
possible, in comparison with that of the other states of
the Union of Avhich it forms an integral part. While every
one of those others was established on principles of broad
republicanism, on the sovereignty of the people, extended
suifrage, equality of rights, and the will of the majority,
Rhode Island existed in virtue of a royal charter, acknow^-
ledged a privileged class, tolerated a quasi " aristocracy,"
and was governed by a positive oligarchy, more absolute
in law than that of England is in practice.''

The charter of Rhode Island was granted by Charles 11.
in 1663 ; and w^as, up to the year 1842, the written
fundamental law of the state. It conferred the right of
self-government in the largest sense, the only restriction
being that the colony was not to enact laws incompatible
with those of England. The intention of the royal donor
was undoubtedly to transfer the power he himself possessed
to the people of the new colony, for their sole benefit.
And such was the result of the early working of the
political machine. Half-yearly elections of all officers,
executive, legislative, and judicial, gave the people the
entire controul over their own affairs, as long as they
retained the unrestricted liberty of suffrage ; but the

* In the debate in the House of Commons, February 8 1850, on Lord John
Russell's introducing a bill for colonial government, Mr. Roebuck was reported to
have said, that ** One of the most despotic ministers this country ever had, under
as despotic a monarch as this covmtry ever saw — Lord Clarendon, in the reign of
Charles II., conferred upon Rhode Island so liberal a constitution that it
continued to be the constitution of that part of the United States to this day.
It was 80 specifically given that the colonists were enabled to elect a body which
formed the governing body at the present hour,"

It was strange that a gentleman of such great and generally such accurate
information on the subject in question, should have forgotten the terms of the
Rhode Island Charter, and also that it had been abrogated, by the adoption of a
new constitution, nearly eight years before the time he made this speech.

VOL. II.

194 THE SOUTHERN STATES.

supreme power being vested in the General Court, as the
representative body was styled, it was not wonderful that
with increasing wealth and population came the desire of
undue authority and the abuse of privilege.

At the time of the granting of the charter, the people of
Rhode Island numbered about 2500. The rapid growth
of prosperity in the agricultural colonists generated the
pride in landed possessions which is everywhere inherent
in owners of the soil. To make land the test of respecta-
bility and the foundation of political influence was the
early object of the colonists. The General Assembly,
acting on this feehng, passed a law, the very year they
obtained their charter, 1663, restricting the right of voting
for representatives to individuals and their eldest sons,
possessing one hundred and thirty-four dollars' worth of
real estate.

After the American Revolution and the complete esta-
blishment of the Federal Union by the peace of 1783, the
royal authority over the colony was of course repudiated,
and Rhode Island became a free and independent state.
Most of the other states adopted new forms of government
at that time ; but Rhode Island continued to exist under
the colonial charter. No question or objection was then
raised, within or without the state, to her form of govern-
ment, and she duly took her place as a member of the
Federal Union. The charter government does not appear
to have raised any strong opposition until the year 1811,
when a bill, introduced into the senate for an extension
of suffrage, was defeated in consequence of a change of
administration before the views of its promoters could take
effect.

In the year 1824, dissatisfaction at the old order of
things widely spreading, the General Assembly directed a

THE " FREE SUFFRAGE PARTY." 195

" Convention '' to be called, when a written constitution
was submitted to the people, wdio by their representatives
rejected it by a majority of 1538 votes, it being considered
inadequate to the requirements of the times, to the change
which had taken place in the state from an agricultural
to a manufacturing and commercial population, and incon-
sistent with the fundamental pacts of the other states of
the Union. Various ineffectual efforts were made to
remed}^ this state of things, from the year last mentioned
up to 1841, both by petitions to the General Assembly and
b}^ motions within that body.

Among the members conspicuous as leaders of the
" Free Suffrage Party " was Thomas Wilson Dorr, wdio
was elected to the Assembly, as a Whig, in the 3^ear 1833.
The agitation which he energetically fomented soon re-
moved him beyond the pale of the Conservative party,
and he became distinguished, in his narrow sphere of
action and in proportion to his talents, a Reformer as*
comparatively remarkable as John Bright is now, in the
wide-spread circle of which he forms the centre.

An extension of the suffrage in Rhode Island was by
this time on all hands admitted to be just, expedient, and
desirable. Time was however required to accustom people
whose ancestors for 200 years had, like themselves, lived
freely and prosperously to a change even for the better ; and
a great deal depended on the person who undertook the task
of enlightening, without possessing the power of conciliat-
ing, the mass. The agitation began about the year 1833,
but Dorr's ascendancy and the serious struggle dated from
1840. "The Rhode Island Suffrage Association'' wa^
formed in that year ; and its declared object was " a
liberal extension .of suffrage to the native white male
citizens of the United States, resident in Rhode Island." It

]9C THE SOUTHERN STATES.

will be observed that neither naturalized citizens nor free
coloured persons were included in the proposed reform.

In June 1841, the General Assembly, yielding to the
pressure of public opinion, resolved to call a Convention
for the purpose of abrogating the charter and forming a
constitution, and directed the delegates to be chosen on
the 31st August. But on the 5th of July the suffrage
party held a " mass meeting " at Providence, the capital
of the state, and called an opposition Convention, for the
purpose of forming a constitution of their own, the dele-
o-ates to be chosen on the 28th of August — three days
before the rival, and what was certainly the legal Conven-
tion. Here then the two parties had decidedly joined
issue, and the eyes of the whole Union began to be turned
towards the contest.

The leo-al Convention met on the 2nd of November
1841 ; and having considered the subject of suffrage they
adjourned, in order to ascertain the washes of the people,
to February 14, 1842.

The " People's Convention '' led by Dorr were more
decisive and more prompt in their proceedings. They
assembled November the 16th in the same year, completed
their constitution and gave it out to the people, to be
definitively voted for on the 27th of December next follow-
ing and the five succeeding days. On the 12th of January
1842, the People's Convention again met, reported upon
the votes given for their constitution, and declared that it
had been adopted by a majority of 13,000 and odd
votes, and should be established " by all necessary
means." Dorr and his party had announced that they
would accept of no constitution framed by the legal Con-
vention however liberal it might be ; which was just as if
Mr. Bright and the Radicals of England were to pledge

THE HOSTILE CONVENTIONS. 197

themselves to-day (November 1858) to reject any lleform
Bill, however sweeping, which might be introduced by
Lord Derby's ministry in the approaching session of Parlia-
ment. Such an unreasonable excess of factious feeling did
great mischief to the cause of the suffrage party, not onl}^
in Rhode Island but throughout the other states of the
Union. Little sympathy was created for the Dorrites,
and they were left to carry out their measures in complete
isolation.

In the meantime the legal Convention was busily em-
ployed preparing the plan of a constitution, and on tlie
21st 22nd and 23rd of March 1842, pursuant to the direc-
tion of the legislature, it was in due form submitted to the
people for their adoption. The suffrage party, having the
easy means in their hands to ensure the defeat of this new
constitution, joined a portion of the " freeholders '' — the
out-and-out Tories as they would be called in England,
who would not consent to any deviation from their be-
loved old charter — and by the united efforts of these two
extremes the " Landholders' Constitution" was rejected by
a small but a sufficient majority of 67G votes.

It must be observed that the difference betw^een the
rival constitutions was very slight indeed on the subject of
suffrage, the only point of any importance. By the
" People's Constitution " every male white citizen of the
United States, who had resided in the state of Rhode
Island for one year and in the town wdiere he voted for
six months, was permitted to vote. By the " Land-
holders' " two years' residence in the Union, one in tlie
town where the individual voted, and ten clear days'
registry of his name, were the conditions of eligibility. In
both the property qualification was abolished, except in
the case of naturalized citizens. But universal suffrage

198 THE SOUTHERN STATES.

was thus virtually admitted on all hands for all other
males of the age of twenty-one years, Indians, convicts,
paupers, and insane persons alone excepted/''"

The suffrage party, having prima facie evidence of their
right, their Convention having been accepted by a majority,
and that of the landholders unequivocally rejected, they
proceeded at once to the election of a governor and other
state officers and members of a new legislative body, and
on the 18th of April 1842, Thomas Wilson Dorr was
declared to be governor by a majority of 6417 votes, and
all his adherents were chosen for the legislature, there
being no opposition on the part of the old charter govern-
ment, who seemed satisfied to rest their power on posses-
sion as their best and firmest title.

Governor Dorr, as he was now called, proceeded

* At a time when the question of Universal, or Manhood, Suffrage is so
widely canvassed in England, it may be well to di-aw the public attention to its
existence and practice in the United States, and to this particular case of Khode
Island, where it has been most recently established, on as broad a basis and with
as few restrictions as are deemed compatible with safety. And when so many
persons are giving their opinions on this subject, " moi aussi, je pretends avoiv
mon francparler" as was long since said on another by an old French author.

The two main and manifest arguments in favour of Manhood Suffrage are : —

First, the increased difficulty it pi-esents against the purchase of votes at elec-
tions. One liundred men may be bought ; five hundred bribed ; but half a
million are beyond all pecuniary corruption.

Secondly, by giving the franchise to the people at large you raise them in their
own self-respect ; you teach them that human intellect is held superior to mere
property; that man has his rights independent of factitious accessories; and
above all things you save the populace from becoming a mob — for by giving them
a voice in choosing their representatives you secure them a place in the graduated
scale of parliamentary government and national sovereignty. But assuredly these
proud privileges should be based on a reasonable amount of education ; and their
exercise secured by the Ballot.

Whether such a change from the present system is compatible with the esta-
blished rights of all classes, or what is the proper time for making it, are ques-
tions too serious to be entered on, without ample practical information and" a
thorough knowledge of details which are far beyond my reach. But I firmly
believe, from long and close observation, that the system works well on the
whole in republican America, though even there ifc is, and must always be, liable
to great abuses.

THE EIVAL GOVERNORS. 199

Avitliout delay to establish his new-born authority. His
first effort was to have himself inaugurated, and to
obtain jDossession of the state property and archives.
This was not so easily to be accomplished, as Governor
King (an appropriate name for the chief of the charter
state) showed no symptoms of Avant of firmness in the
maintenance of his trust.

" Which king, Bezonian '? '' a rather hackneyed quota-
tion, might now have been aptly applied to the inhabitants
of Rhode Island, rather puzzled as they must have been
between the legitimate and revolutionary potentates. As
far as numbers may be considered a test of opinion, it
must in fairness be said that they were pretty nearly
divided in the opening scenes of this electioneering con-
test. The number of males over twenty-one years, bond
fide inhabitants of the state, was in round numbers 21,000.
The suffrage party had announced 13,000 as the amount
of voters for the People's Constitution. Their opponents
put forward many positive and some very plausible asser-
tions, as to the frauds committed for the purpose of swel-
ling that list. Admitting these charges to be true to a
probable extent, and allowing tv/o or three thousand even
as the number of fraudulent votes (and that being an
excessive number in all reasonable consideration). Dorr's
adherents amounted fully to a moiety of the whole 21,000,
and might perhaps have exceeded it. Therefore their
claim on that ground may not have been so preposterous
as it was represented to be by his opponents. The second
and most untenable ground contended for w^as, that " a
constitution does not require to be voted for under any
sanction of the existing government." That doctrine
is so dangerous, and might be so subversive of any or
all established institutions, leaving it in the power of an

200 THE SOUTHERN STATES.

irregular and unscrupulous majority to sweep them all
away by a boisterous vote, paying no regard to the rights
of the minority, and setting at defiance all established
forms of legality, that even advanced liberals shrunk from
upholding it in the case now in question.

But it appeared to me at the time that the main cause
of the little support given to Dorr, beyond the circle of his
<ictive partizans, w^as the manifest selfishness of his objects,
in proclaiming his and their determination not to accept
even a most liberal constitution at the hands of their
opponents, an excess of factious violence only to be paral-
leled by the Irish Roman- Catholic priest who declared, the
other day, that his country " was not prosperous and did
not wish to be prosperous," and by the memorable decla-
lation of his (and my) countryman, that " he would be
drowned and nobody should save him ! "

Dorr found it impossible to obtain active sympathy or
sufficient supplies to carry out his plans. He was not idle
however. He repaired to New York, the best field for
recruiting for any cause, how^ever illegal and desperate,
and having purchased a sabre and a cocked hat in that
city, he returned to his native state, and he made a mock-
triumphal entry into the quiet and prettily situated town
of Providence, on the 4th of May 1842, in an open
barouche drawn, according to precedent, by four white
horses, his plumed hat on his head, his sabre by his side,
and a sort of " undress uniform," as it w^as described,
distinguishing him from his companions in their less equi-
vocal civil costume. He was escorted bv about 500 armed
men, and his irregular followers on this occasion were
numbered at about 2000. He had issued orders for the
militia of the state to assemble and do " escort duty " on
that occasion ; the call was to some extent obeyed, and it

THE CRISIS OF THE STRUGGLE. 201

was rumoured that ball cartridges were served out to
the men.

The new legislature were assembled in a large un-
finished building, intended for a foundry. A military
guard was in attendance on it. The seal of the state was
copied, and a fac-simile engraving provided. Governor Dorr
delivered his message in due form, of considerable length,
fearless and uncompromising ; and the first legislative
act of the assembly was a manifesto informing the presi-
dent at Washington, and the various governments through-
out the Union, of the formation of the new order of things.
The next move was a proposition made by Dorr to take
forcible possession of the state house, where Governor
King was installed and guarded by his friends of the
militia force. This was rather starthng. The hesitation
of all parties except the governor was prophetic. The
crisis had evidently arrived, but the nerve to take advan-
tage of it was wanting. The bull of legalized power was
rampant, but there was no one to take it by the horns.
Dorr was not a host in himself. Alone he could not
flutter the Volscians. But though discouraged he betrayed
no symptom of dismay. If the feather in his hat was white
(as I am pretty sure it was) it was the only one of that
colour that he " shew/' as my Yankee friends would say.

The plot certainly began to thicken, and the denouement
to approach. The members of Dorr's parliament " voted
down " his proposed martial movement, or " tabled it," in
another form of Yankee legislative language. They how-
ever appointed agents to take possession of the public
records, but the latter would not come to be caught, and
the agency was a sinecure. The session lasted two
inglorious days, and the hitherto impotent assembly
adjourned, re infectd, on the 5th of May, to meet again

20-2 THE SOUTHERN STATES.

at Chepachit on the next 4th of July, the memorable
Anniversary of Independence, the great national holiday.

In the meantime the charter legislature, with laudable
caution for the avoidance of a conflict, assembled at
Newport. The " revolution,'' as it Avas amusingly called,
"came upon them," in the words of a chronicler, "so
suddenly, that it was impossible to tell who were in favour
of the laws, and who were against them.'' In their
uncertainty and alarm, the legal authorities sent a
pressing application to the Federal Government for aid.
But poor President Tyler had plenty of domestic dilemmas
at Washington. He could not refuse to recognize the
rights of the " charter-party," but he threw himself on
the elastic support of the Federal Constitution, which,
yielding as it always does to every pressure, satisfied
him that he could render no absolute physical aid unless
hostihties had actually commenced.

This was a great relief to both the jDarties. It gave
breathing time ; and each of them hoped the other " might
think better of it." But still the affair went on. Measures
were taken by Governor King to organize the militia.
Governor Dorr went off" again to New York ; while
his friends held meetings to rouse the rather sluggish
spirit of the people.

Up to this period Dorr had not committed any overt act
of war. The sword and the cocked hat were more typical
of intended hostihties than positive evidences of rebellion.
But on the 1 Gth of the same month of May that had been
ushered in so ignominiously, he returned once more from
New York, now furnished with men, money, and some of
the materiel of war. He was met at the railroad station
by a cavalcade of about 1200, a large portion of which
was armed, and the formidable addition of four pieces of

HOSTILITIES COMMENCED. 203

artillery, Avhicli were placed in front of a private house,
where he fixed his head-quarters, in the close neighbour-
hood of the arsenal.

The capture of this important stronghold was Dorr's
first avowed object. The following morning Governor
King called his council together, and orders were issued
for the gathering of every man who was willing to fight in
defence of " law and order," the old talismauic watchword
of power and privilege.

It was announced by Dorr that he meant to attack the
arsenal at two o'clock on that day, Tuesday, May 17.
At about one a signal gun was fired, by way of warning
to the enemy ; and a detachment of 100 men commenced
the aggressive movements by marching to the armoury of
the state artillery company, and, intimidating the few
persons who guarded it, they took forcible possession of
two brass six-pounders, and brouglit them triumphantly to
Dorr's head-quarters.

The whole city now presented a scene of real prepara-
tion for battle. Men of all classes, old and young, buckled
on their accoutrements and flew to arms. About 500 were
j)laced within the arsenal, and the rest took up several
positions under leaders suddenly chosen for the exigency.
Everything wore the certain air of civil war. Dorr's
nearest kindred were among his opponents. His father,
brothers, and uncles, formed part of the garrison of the
arsenal ; but though this was made known to him, he did
not for a moment swerve from his intention to attack the
place when the proper moment arrived. His force of
desperadoes was constantly increased. The day, evening,
and night, wore away, without the threatened assault
taking place. Dorr perhaps expected that his firm and
threatening aspect would produce a capitulation. In tliis,

204 THE SOUTHERN STATES.

if it was so, he was however disappointed. Keeping his
band together, and in good order, no excesses against the
undefended portions of the city occurred, though most
horrid rumours of intended outrage were spread abroad,
and great terror was excited among the alarmed and
watchful inhabitants. The spectacle was a strange one,
in this little community, ordinarily so peaceable and well-
conducted, of the various armed bands of unaccustomed
belligerents maintaining their several positions with all the
steadiness of disciplined veterans.

The night passed by. At dawn on Wednesday morning,
the 18th, Dorr marched out at the head of his whole
force, and took up a position wuthin musket-shot of the
arsenal, his artillery in front. The bells of the various
churches rung out the alarm, and a dense fog concealed
the movements of the citizens hurrying to and fro to their
points of rendezvous, and threw additional doubt and
mystery around. But suddenly the vapoury screen that
separated the threatened arsenal from the hostile force
was dissipated by the rising sun, and Dorr w^as distinguished
ordering and urging his troops to apply the matches to the
pieces of ordnance so close and apparently so dangerous.
But no hand was raised, no foot was advanced, all seemed
paralyzed, when Dorr himself seized the match from one
of his men, and fired the priming of the nearest gun. It
burned and fizzed, innocuous, and was followed by no
explosion. Another and another attempt was made with
like result, by the astonished and infuriated chief, and as
he could only heap upbraidings and imprecations on his
faithless companions, who from cowardice or conscience
had plugged (not spiked) the several guns, they were seen
rapidly to disperse, leaving their leader alone in inglorious
solitude. All fled confusedly away. He followed. All

A VICTORY AKD NO BATTLE. 205

escaped. But had the long-threatened enemy been as
blood-thirsty as Dorr so plainly showed himself to be,
they might with ease have utterly destroyed him and his
recreant crew. Not a shot was fired on them. Ko one
sallied out or assailed them in the streets. They dispersed
without a wound being inflicted, and they left all their
cannon and camp equipage as trophies of the battle that
was to have been fought, and the victory that could not
be said to have been won. Great comfort and much
rejoicing took place in the city which had so narrowly
escaped the threatened danger ; and the inhabitants,
looking back through the vista of their two centuries of
history, felt that the founder, Roger Williams, had been
inspired by a prophetic as well as a grateful piety in giving
it the name of Providence.

Every one believed that all was over, and Dorr's rebellion
was a subject of derision throughout the Union. But the
character of the man was misunderstood, and his means of
mischief underrated. Another act was yet to be played
before the farcical melodrama was finished.

The usual measures after the suppression of paltry
riots or petty insurrections were taken by the authorities.
Parties w^ere sent out to scour the neighbourhood to look
after the vagabond refugees and let them escape. A
reward of one thousand dollars (a too low valuation) was
offered for the capture of Dorr, who was not likely to be
sold for such a price. Martial law w^as proclaimed when
sedition ceased to exist. Fiery proclamations and a
great display of forethought was made — when the danger
seemed past and gone. This is the common course of
things in such small cases.

All this apparent vigour led to no act of violence.
The authorities were too glad to have got rid of Dorr and

206 THE SOUTHERN STATES*

his people, and to be quittes pour la peur. Many of his
adherents, ashamed of the part they had played, and
somewhat terrified at the lengths he was willing to go to,
returned to their allegiance, and announced their repent-
ance in the public papers. Dorr was at times heard of
from the neighbouring states of New York, Massachusetts,
Connecticut, and New Jersey. His opponents imagined
him to be a mere w^andering fugitive, without means or
purpose. They fell into the old and common error of
despising their enemy. With incessant activity, he was
labouring night and day to recover from his late dis-
comfiture. Taking advantage of the lull, and not looking
to a renewal of the storm, the legal party, having all their
own way, assembled another Convention in the month of
June ; the old rejected constitution was reproduced, and
adopted with little opposition, and it is to this day the law
of Ehode Island.

But w^ithin a month of Dorr's flight, and when all
seemed quietly settling down, the citizens of Providence
had good reason for renewed apprehension. Constant
depredations on all possible kinds of military stores became
frequent. Every night brought some account of arms and
ammunition being stolen ; in one instance 50 kegs con-
taining 1200 lbs. of gunpowder, and several small pieces
of ordnance, disappeared from on board the shipping at
the wharves. This proved organization and complicity
both by land and water. Secret meetings w^ere discovered
in many quarters of the state, and the presence of Dorr
in Connecticut, on the borders of Rhode Island, was
publicly known ; and what was more appalling w^as the
avow^ed protection he received from Governor Cleveland,
w^ho positively refused to give him up when called upon to
do so.

A YANKEE SEBASTOPOL. 207

It will be recollected that the " People's Convention "
had fixed on the 4th of July for their reassembling at
Chepachit. This small town is situate sixteen miles from
Providence, and close to the boundary line between Rhode
Island and Connecticut. Nothing was easier than to pass
over from the latter state, men, arms, and ammunition ;
and by the latter end of June, a force of fully 1000 men
had taken possession of the town, and made prisoners of
several of the inhabitants. Dorr himself took the com-
mand on the 28 th, and immediately commenced the
erection of an extensive outwork, composed of earth, and
mounted with sundry pieces of ordnance of various
calibre, thus anticipating by several years the theories of
Mr. Fergusson in England, and the practice of General
Todleben at Sebastopol. Here w^as a direct invasion of
territory, a really overt act of insurrection, and undeniable
commencement of hostilities ; yet a renewed demand to the
Federal Government for assistance was peremptorily
declined as before by President Tyler, whose sympathies
were doubtlessly, as in other cases, wavering between the
parties.

I pass over the minute details of the panic at Provi-
dence, the way in which it was recovered from, the pro-
ceedings of the rival legislatures, the heroism of Mr.
Penning, who had succeeded Mr. King in the " Guberna-
torial Chair," the declaration of martial law throughout
the state, the closing of the banks and public schools, the
churches converted into barracks for the warriors that
were, and hospitals for the wounded that were to be, the
hurrying to and fro of steamboats and locomotives laden
with troops, and "the flight of government despatches,
which," in the language of the chronicler before quoted,
" bespoke all the horrors of a civil war. About 3000 men

208 THE SOUTHERN STATES.

in arms assembled in the streets of Providence on Sunday,"
date of the month omitted, " and the sounds of drum and
fife disturbed the usual quiet of that holy day. On
Monday the troops were marched into line, surrounded by
dear friends who bade them a solemn adieu." Then came
the marching of four columns of 500 men each, and a
32-pounder, Avhich valuable weapon was to " carry much
farther than any piece the}^ (the rebels) had, and rout
them from their hiding-place," enabhng their assailants to
keep at long range.

" The camp," as described by the chronicler, " was upon
an elevation looking down the main road for about half a
mile. Six pieces of artillery, loaded with ball and scraps
of iron, were levelled down this road, and from the
determined character of Dorr it was feared he might
pursue a reckless course, in which a terrible massacre
would be the consequence."

The crisis, hke the Campbells, was now coming. The
Whig army neared the Locofocos, as the Crusaders neared
the Infidels. They saw in the distance the country-
town, as the Christian host saw the holy city.

" Ecco apparir Gerusalem si vede,
Ecco additar Gerusalem si scorge,
Ecco da mille voci unitamente
Gerusalemme salutar si sente."

Substitute Chepachit for Jerusalem, and what is the
difference 1

The momentous epoch had arrived, —

" The pregnant hour — not ancient Eome could match it —
Big with the fate of Fenning and Chepachit ! " - ^>

The hour that was to try the mettle of the men and the
metal of the 32-pounder— when at this supreme moment

A BRILLIANT AFFAIR. 209

— this excruciating juncture — the news transpired that the
venerable father of Dorr had gained the presence of his
refractory son, and, hke Yolumnia of old, appealed with
streaming eyes to the banished but invading hero — not to
spare the sacred city, but to save his precious self The
relenting modern, Hke the ancient Eoman, resisted long,
and young Dorr vowed to the old gentleman that he was
resolved " to leave his bones upon the spot ! " This
terrible vow, like that of another mock-heroic patriot to
" die upon the floor,^' was happily unconsummated. At
the last critical moment, when Fenning and his columns
loomed in the distance, Dorr relented, repented, and
consented — to run away. " And this he did,'' says the
chronicle, " surrounded by his bod}^ guard, and leaving his
dupes in the camp — to be taken prisoners."

But it seems that some of these desperate fellow^s did
actually screw up their courage so far as to put their
fingers on their triggers, and by " involuntary muscular
motion " (Professor Faraday's profound and philosophical
explanation of table-turning), one musket did go off, in
a contrary direction from the flying chieftain ; for the
official account by the victors stated that " a scout party
advanced, were fired upon from the camp, and a ball
passed through one of their coats witJiout injury ;^^
Chepachit being so close at hand the rent was no doubt
quickly gathered in.

This was the whole amount of casualties in that brilliant
morning. An insidious attempt at embellishment was
made in the Gazette by the assertion that " but two or
three lives were lost." It was certainly difficult to accu-
rately count the bodies, or to say on which side the two
or three had fallen, for it was notorious that not one of
the infuriated combatants received a scratch.

VOL. II. P

210 THE SOUTHERT^ STATES.

The touching account of the capitulation of Providence,
is thus given in the Bunker Hill Aurora, not BoreaUs.

" Every heart ached with anguish as morning dawned
with more than the usual quiet ; anxiety w^as pictured
upon every countenance ; a deathlike stilhiess prevailed in
every household. At length their minds were relieved by
an express rider, who came at full speed at headquarters.
He could only say that 'Dorr's fort had been taken by the
military, and two men killed.' He then fainted from
exhaustion "—and remorse at the bounce about the men
in buckram.

" Two days had elapsed," according to the above cited
journal, "when it was announced that the troops from
Chepachit would return with their trophies and prisoners.
Thousands of ladies assembled in the streets, and the rose
and myrtle were strewed in their path, until they were
literally covered with wreaths and boquets." The waving
of handkerchiefs, and the glad recognition of some dear
friends, amply repaid the despondency of the parting."

An amnesty was proclaimed, and the prisoners were
discharged. .

Dorr, determined to play the game out to the last,
returned voluntarily and alone to Providence, doubtless
expecting to be held harmless. But he reckoned in every
sense, without his host. He was arrested, tried for high
treason, condemned to imprisonment for life ; and the last
I heard of him was by a newspaper account, his being

♦ This is the Yankee translation for bouquets. The word is adopted into that
language, but the vernacular orthography which rejects the letter u is not
sanctioned in this instance by Noah Webster, who howevei', in one of his e^la-
nations of the word tells us it is an '* aromatic odoi' in wine." I never could
understand the inveterate hati^ed of the Americans to the letter u. Even the
word plough is always spelt after the old fashion, plow. This is a kind of chiro-
graphic preraphaelism, odd and unsatisfactory ; and it is in contradiction to the
true derivation of the word from the Danish ploug.

HISTORICAL PARALLEL. 211

employed in the " hard labour " of painting fans, in '* a
frock coat and the prison pants of grey and black/'
emblematic of the spirits he was in no doubt. "He is,"
the account goes on to say, " very fleshy ; his countenance
of an obstinate, determined cast ; and the general appear-
ance of his head resembles BONAPARTE/'

Here this strange, but rather uneventful history, might
close, had it not been for the vague and unexplained
reference to the immortal name just cited. No particular
individual of the family being specified, we are left in
doubt as to which Bonaparte head that of Dorr had a
resemblance, and also as to the special development which
suggested the comparison. Whether the expression of
the writer was applicable to physiognomic or phrenologic
peculiarities we are left to conjecture. But arguing from
certain analogies of conduct, I am inclined to believe that
Dorr's craniological formation — if that is what was meant
— must be in no small degree similar to that of the present
exalted head of the imperial dynasty, rather than that of
its founder, who is moreover familiarly designated in
America, as I have already had occasion to mention, as
" Gineral Bonypart."

Historical parallels are very arbitrary, and sometimes
loose in their conclusions, from those of Plutarch down to
those of our own days ; and it is in no light mood that I
would venture to trace a resemblance between cases so
incongruous, and individuals so diff'erent in comparative
position, as Thomas WilKam Dorr and Louis Napoleon
Buonaparte. But the partial similitude forced itself upon
me at every pause in the foregoing sketch, and if my
readers can admit the parallel to be partly just, they will
excuse such deficiencies as may be too apparent. We
know on high authority, .pertinent to the question, that

P 2

212: THE SOUTHERN STATES,

there is but a step from the subhme to the ridiculous. I
wish my readers to take that one step with me between
Paris and Providence ; and then " look on this picture and
on that."

Louis Napoleon, filled with patriotic zeal for the welfare
of his country, and somew^iat suspected of personal
ambition, aimed at its highest honours. Dorr had the
same stimulants for his vie^vs in regard to his native state.
Both made two boldly conceived, but ineffectual, attempts
to attain their object. One of these attempts in each case
w^as very near succeeding. The preparatory means for
exciting public sympathy were, proportion gardee, very
similar ; Buonaparte's tame eagle and Dorr's cocked-hat,
being equally emblems of authority and power. Had
Buonaparte's pistol sent its bullet into the officer who
resisted him at Boulogne, or had Dorr's cannon thrown its
ball into the arsenal, one might have hurled the King of
France from the royal throne, the other the King of Rhode
Island from the gubernational chair. Louis Napoleon
swam for his life, and Dorr ran for his, after the failure of
their respective coups. Each showed pluck in making two
attempts in which both were again foiled. Chepachit was
to Boulogne in its results what Providence had been to
Strasbourg. Allowing liberally for differences of time,
w^hich is but fair between two hemispheres, Buonaparte
and Dorr were elected to the supreme authority in the two
republics of France and Rhode Island ; and — the first as
President, the second as Governor — they owed their elec-
tions to the exercise of universal suffrage, which was in
each case (but that might be calumny) pretty generally
believed to have been slightly tinctured with bribery and
corruption. Both these chief magistrates swore to preserve
the constitution. One of them forgot his oath, the other

CONCLUSION OF EPISODE. 213

was. not allowed an opportunity to violate his; but each
possibly considered these pledges as matters of form, taken
pro Jiac vice, for the temporary good of the country, or the
individual, and having nothing to do with conscience. The
refuge afforded to the two adventurers on every occasion
of their failures, by the neighbouring governments of
England and Connecticut, was a striking feature in the
career of each ; as well as those states being the rallying
points for their partizans, and of departure for their expe-
ditions. While the imprisonment to which each was
subjected, under the sentences of the highest tribunals in
their respective countries,- — the Supreme Court in Rhode
Island, the Chamber of Peers in France, with the similarity
of their occupations in captivity — one painting fans, the
other writing pamphlets,^ — ^both for the purpose of raising
the wind, — bring the parallels down to a common termina-
tion, though the laws of geometry w^ould never allow them
to meet, nor the possibilities of politics admit of their
being carried farther.

And here ends my episode, which having carried me
much farther than I expected, and retarded me a good
de^.! in my progress south, I must in another chapter
resume my journey, though by a different route, and a
good way out of the regular road.

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 — Plantation on
Chesapeake Bay — Washington — Virginia — Richmond — Slave Auction — James
River — Ethnological Study — A Night Alarm — English names of Plantations
— Depreciation of Slave Labour — Uncertainty of Political Opinion.

The course of the river Hudson in its whole extent
from New York to Albany, a distance of 150 miles, pre-
sents a series of magnificent views, and the banks are
adorned with many villas beautifully situated, and showing
in their surrounding embellishments proofs of great wealth
and good taste. Within these mansions are to be found
domestic circles, combining thoroughly good society with
that tone of independent hospitality which gives a welcome
without an air of patronage, or the indifference of manner
that betrays it to be a mere matter of form. I still
remember the pleased surprise which I so much enjoyed
on my earUest visit to this neighbourhood ; and when the
novelty wore off, the enjoyment was more perfect because
it seemed more natural.

It may be well supposed that I was glad as often as
possible to make another deviation, by such an attractive
route, from the beaten path between New York and the
Southern States. T have gone over the ground and

DEVIATION FKOM DIRECT ROAD. 215

steamed up and down the river several times, both alone
and accompanied by members of my family or by private
friends. I have enjoyed the ever-varying views at all
hours, by sunrise and sunset, in the blaze of day, in the
quiet lustre of the moon, and when the deep shades of
night wrapped every object in mystery and gave memory
and imagination full employment. I have marked and
remarked again and again, but never to satiety, all the
sahent points of scenery, and recalled the historical asso-
ciations connected with them. The memoranda of the
guide-books, and the descriptions of travellers and other
story-tellers, do ample justice, and sometimes more than
that, to those exquisite scenes. Few can refrain from
enlarging on beauties which require no magnifying lens ;
and they are constantly held up to the readers of acknow-
ledged romance and assumed reality, in comparison with
those of the better known European rivers. But compa-
risons, proverbially odious, are never more so than when
they are applied to the grander objects of nature, in
contortions of ingenious description, deteriorating and
glorifying with an equality of bad taste and blunted
feeling.

Every individual mind has its own way of observing
and enjoying. Some are " nothing if not critical." In
others the pride of nationality overcomes the love of truth.
Many look at all things with a scientific or artistic eye,
and must always have their hammer or their pencil in
hand. The moralists who find sermons in stones, or the
sceptic who seeks proofs in them to refute a theory or
shake a belief, he who traces the streams on the surface
of the earth or he who follows out the strata below, are all
of them working for an object, and studying nature not
admiring it. These are the wandering utilitarians of the

216 THE SOUTHERN STATES.

world, unconscious of their mission, which is as positive
and defined as that of the engineer who designs, or the
mechanic who constructs, the palpable progress of civili-
zation.

But there is a class — and I belong to it — who never
seek a region of romance but from the impulse of genuine
and Hstless love, who roam in its wild paths, tread the
forest and lounge by the river, careless how or why they
came there ; who hear the concert of the rustling leaves,
the murmuring rill, the sighing breeze, the singing birds,
feel all to be harmonious with not a note, a ripple, or a
zephyr out of tune. They mount precipitous banks of
mingled rock and earth, and tread on the treasures of
geology without knowing their intrinsic value, as the Indian
walks over plains or bathes in waters rich in mineral
wealth, ignorant of the precious quality of the stones
beneath his feet.

Beings such as those love nature with a real lover's
love. Like him who is absorbed by a passion for an
adored mistress, they neither investigate nor look for
developments of science or proportions of art. Exact
symmetry or regular blending of light and shade are
beyond the sphere of their admiration, which has no
cunning to detect discrepancies or suggest improvements.
They gaze on the object they adore, unconscious how the
adoration was born, and uncalculating how it is to end.
They take all on credit, and find all good, leaving to time
and fate the ungracious task of analyzing, and, as it may
be, of undeceiving them.

But these genuine lovers, whether of inanimate .or
living nature, are surely not the dreamy nonentities that
the sons of science may suppose them. In their large
and wholesale worship they imbibe deep draughts of

THE CATSKILL MOUNTAINS. 217

true religion and philosophy. Neither mind nor heart
is narrowed by sordid and disparaging doubts. They
give themselves up to a pure unquestioning faith, to live
and to die in which is the greatest boon that heaven can
grant to man.

It was in a mood like this that I ascended the Catskill
range of hills, and looked down on the vast and varied
expanse of country all around. Nothing was w^anting to
make it grand in the utmost sense of the word. Land
and water were there in all their beautiful irregularity,
w^ith every combination to satisfy the most enlarged or
most contracted mind. I never thought of rule or
compass as I stood on the topmost heights of those eleva-
tions or looked down upon the plain from which they
uprose.

" I'd call them mountains, but can't call them so
For fear to wrong them with a name too low,
Meanwhile the vales beneath so humbly lie
That even humble seems a term too high."

On the same side of the great river, but three miles
towards the interior, are the Esopus falls, near the manu-
facturing village of Saugerties, but far enough to be out of
sight of its intrusive buildings, and deadening the noise of
its machinery by the incessant roar of the eternal waters.
These falls form an object of the highest order — I scarcely
know which to call it, of beauty or sublimity. It realizes
the idea of something between both. I care not to
describe the differences between it and other objects of
the same nature, more celebrated because more known,
but still in its obscurity possessing beauties that deserve a
wide renowm. The great affluence of the New World in
magnificent displays of water, whether in lakes, rivers, or
cascades, makes it difficult to do justice to those which

218 THE SOUTHEKN STATES.

must be ranked as minor in degree. The same may
perhaps be said of Europe and its streams or waterfalls.
But having seen many in both hemispheres — Niagara,
Trenton, Montmorenci, Schaffhausen, Tivoli, Terni, Gaver-
nie, and many others — I can even now turn back on the
memory of the Esopus, and picture its foaming waves,
rolling down a gradual descent for full two miles, of width
proportioned to the volume of water, through a valley of
enchanting scenery, and record the impression it made
as one of the most vivid and lasting of my life.

I could dwell long on such memories as these, and tell of
many a place as worthy as those alluded to as pilgrimages
by Nature's worshippers ; in scenes of easy access, where
European feet but rarely tread. But I fear to follow
where other writers may have been before me, and I
reluctantly leave unmentioned the names of those hospit-
able entertainers whose kindness gave me facilities for
seeing so much of the abounding beauty of the neighbour-
hood. One point is so remarkable, not only for the exceed-
ing grandeur of the scenery but for the importance of the
institution there established, that it cannot be absolutely
left without mention, although detailed description is
entirely useless. I speak now of West Point, the site of
the Military Academy, combining in itself the purposes
of Woolwich and Sandhurst, for the instruction of the
cadets of all branches of the United States Army. Small
as that army is, being now I believe altogether under
15,000 men, it has one incomparable advantage over all
others that I know of, in the fact that every one of its
officers must have passed through a severe course ^of
study at West Point, and they consequently form in them-
selves a body of well-trained, scientific men ; and I have
no doubt the influence of their knowledge and example

UNITED STATES ARMY. 219

on the soldiers they command is proportioned to their
own habits of disciphne, of the love of their profession
which must result from a thorough military education
from their earliest days.

Individuals of brilliant talent have often displayed the
highest power of adaptation to duties and services to
which they had before been unused. America has herself
given ample instances. But as a rule we must not expect
the ardent volunteer who fights bravely in the ranks to
show a great capacity for command on emergencies
requiring skill as well as courage. I have never seen any
portion of the regular United States Army, except small
detachments of artillery in isolated forts, kept upon the
narrowest scale of a peace establishment. The regiments
are so scattered along the extensive frontier line to the
North and West, and so distributed in the swamps of
Florida and other parts still haunted by the Indian tribes,
that none are left and indeed none wanted in the sea-
bord cities, or the larger of the interior towns. The
officers, as well as the men, are therefore little accustomed
to the softening influences of society. Their lives are
chiefly spent in forts and camps, or on the rough service
which the warfare with savages requires ; and it is only
when on short leave of absence, or with recruiting parties
here and there, that they are to be met with. But those
whom I have occasionally known, at Washington and
elsewhere, gave most favourable impressions of their tone
and bearing, as well as their valuable acquirements. I
never saw anything of the dandy-heroic style to be met
in other countries, which makes one doubt whether the
individual should be classed as a petit maitre, or a
Hercules ; whose brigand-looking beard and moustache
is coupled with a mincing gait and lisping utterance. The

220 THE SOUTHEEN STATES.

real military men of the United States were manly and
soldierly, plain in dress and unaffected in manner ; and I
always longed for an opportunity to see them with their
regiments, where they would no doubt have appeared to
still greater advantage.

Of the naval branch of the service, unconnected however
with Y/est Point academy, I saw many more specimens,
on board their ships, commanding in the navy yards, and
in general society, and it is among them I found as a
general rule the most striking indications of knowledge of
the world and liberahty of sentiment, joined with cordi-
ality of manner and genuine pohteness. What the educa-
tion of West Point had effected for the military, mixing
with other nations had produced in the naval officers.
Professional duty gave a fixed impulse to their characters,
and they were left unspoiled by the deteriorating influ-
ences of political manoeuvring and party warfare.

I greatly envied the residents on the banks of the
Hudson ; but they were not all capable of justly appre-
ciating the scenes they moved in. On one occasion, when
visiting with a large party a particular farm commanding
a fine view of the river and the distant Catskills, and
having been courteously shown over the various improve-
ments and products in the fields by the owner, one of the
admiring group, a British peer who was received with
" all the honors," remarked, while gazing on the glorious
prospect,

" This is indeed a beautiful country 1 "

" Yes, Lord," replied the gratified agriculturalist, " we
are doing all we can to make it so.''

Such a site (or sight) was certainly thrown away on
such a proprietor. And I may record, as a pendant to
his reply, another answer made to an inquisitive friend

THE "EMPIRE STATE.'' 221

of mine, in the steamer that took us up the river from
Tarrjtown to Poughkeepsie, which name is a disagreeable
corruption from the Indian word Apokeepsing, signifying
safe harbour. Among the crowd on deck was an unmis-
takeable arrival from the Emerald Isle, a comfortable,
farmer-looking man, who keenly examined the banks,
right and left, as if spying out a good " location." My
companion, having soon discovered the whereabout of
many of the passengers, said to me jocosely, " I must
now examine your countryman ; " and, approaching the
stranger with an inquiring glance, he remarked that " the
view was very agreeable."

" Upon my word, Sir," replied the other, with any
breadth of brogue, " it's a very fine country."

" I see you are a native of it % " returned the
questioner.

"No, Sir, but I mane to be so shortly," answered the
sanguine immigrant, and I hope that was the worst
blunder he made, while effecting his intention of becoming
naturalized and settling in Yankee land.

It was thus that I wandered about the Hudson in
irregular and " truant disposition ; " picking up an anec-
dote here, making an observation there, and on all occa-
sions adding to my collection of notions — as the Yankees
call their merchandize — of men and things.

I more than once penetrated far into the "Empire
State," as New York is sometimes imperiously designated.
More methodical tourists would find room for details of
certain places that rank high in public estimation, such as
Saratoga, which at one time or another during the season
must be visited by every one who has any pretension to
ton. It was not at all to my liking ; and pitying the
patients who were forced to drink its nauseous waters.

222 . THE SOUTHERN STATES.

I could not understand the taste of those who in high
health preferred its crowded walks and crammed hotels,
its heat and dust and its dribbling fountains, to the
inspiring air of the broad beach and the roUing tides of
Newport, or any other of the sea-side resorts for whole-
some pleasure. From this fashionable furnace I was
always glad, after a few days mixing with the motley
crowd, to proceed, by any route, in any kind of con-
veyance, across the country that intervened between it
and the Southern States, and I felt my freedom in the
midst of slavery when I touched on " Susquehanah's
banks " and once more entered Maryland.

Readers are alwa^^s liable to be misled by writers who,
self-deceived, give comparative accounts of places and
people, and hope to do so with an impracticable
impartiality. A stranger in a foreign country can, even
during a long residence, know but a small portion of the
inhabitants on terms of great intimacy ; and in spite of
every effort he must be more or less affected in forming
an estimate of the whole by what he himself experiences
at the hands of a few. I am satisfied that I am like all
others liable to these impressions ; but although I can
scarcely hope to take an unprejudiced view of anything in
which the heart is more concerned than the head — if
physiologists will admit the old and vulgar notion that
they are independent in action and distinct in attributes
— that the brain in fact is something less than they
assume for it, and the heart something more than a mere
muscle— I may possibly pronounce a just opinion when
I say that the people of Maryland and its chief city Balti-
more are the most cordial, generous, and liberal portion of
the Union. Nice distinctions of manners are somewhat
difficult to. define, between communities which are only

AMERICAN RESIDENCE. 223

separated by a short geographical distance, but whose
laws, rehgion and customs are ahke. I therefore cannot
attempt to trace with precision the difference between
commercial cities a few hours apart, or States that are
separated by an imaginary border line. But as mannei's
are no doubt greatly influenced by institutions, the
distinctions between free and slave states are at once,
discoverable. And I therefore had no hesitation in
deciding that the whole tone of feeling in Maryland and
Virginia is more frank and genial than that in New York
State (I have spoken of the city already) — which shows
a w^ell-bred and cultivated medium between them and
Massachusetts. In one word, as far as personal feeling is
concerned, had I to choose my permanent lot in the
United States, and were slavery extinct in the precincts
of Maryland, it is there I should wish it to be cast. As
things are I prefer New York. Least of all I should hke
New England.

But I am wandering in some degree into the field of
comparison which a few pages back I so strongly con-
demned. I therefore will cast all other recollections from
my mind, and dwell for a while on the memory of that
fine plantation on one of the creeks of Chesapeake Bay,
where some of my happiest days of American residence
were passed. Two thousand acres of rich varieties of culti-
vated land and noble forest, rose from the side of an
extensive sheet of water, over and on which myriads of
wildfowl were without cessation whirling in gyral flight,
or sailing about in countless numbers. This creek is the
head quarters of the canvas-back duck, so precious to
gastronomy and so sought for by sportsmen. And how
exciting it was at early dawn or at the close of evening,
to watch the indefatigable fowlers, or join in their sport,

224 THE SOUTHERN STATES.

creeping along the marshy sedges, or stealthily lying in
boats till the dark cloud of flapping wings covered the
lake with deeper shadows, when the flashing volley from
many guns, at a given signal, brought down the feathered
victims by dozens, scattering their plumage on the wind,
and causing the frightened flocks reposing on the surface
.to rise up with the thunder of thousands of outspread
pinions and screams of terror, wheeling round and round
in high air from an instinct of security, then dropping
down again, in happy ignorance, on the element that gave
but a temporary rest from the watchful and unwearied
enemy ! The manoeuvring of the little boats, the plung-
ing of the dogs, the anxious eff'orts of the men to pick
up the dead, and pursue the wounded into the thick
reeds whence the sagacious spaniels brought them out
without a feather ruflled, made up the picture of
waterfowl shooting, which was often watched from the
shore by two or three graceful female figures, in them-
selves a group that completed the picturesqueness of
the scene.

These were the occupations of early spring, when the
new crops of wild celery were thick sprouting in the beds
of the lakes, down to which the doomed canvas-backs
were diving at all hours, feeding on that favourite but
fatal esculent, which gives them the peculiar flavour that
constitutes their superiority to all the others of their tribe,
and consequently causes their wholesale slaughter. The
Chasse was at times varied by excursions into the woods,
where partridges, with legs feathered like the grouse of
Europe, and twice the size of our English birds, whirred
wildly past, on wings so strong, and into coverts so
formidable, that I was rarely tempted to follow them,
contenting myself with occasional shots at straggling

PLANTATION ON CHESAPEAKE BAY. 225

quails in the open grounds, or the squirrels which ran and
leaped amid the trees, so pretty and so valueless that an
instinct of sporting-destructiyeness could alone excuse one
for killing them.

In the torrid midst of Summer, when all was
still, and the sheltering branches canopied the languid
observers, the waters of the creeks and the distant bay
showed many barks, looking lazy, and as though panting
for a breeze to swell their sails ; and frequently during
the idle day long sweeping columns of smoke floated
gracefully in the sky, from the passing steamboats or the
trains which traversed the wooden bridge, far away
between the inlets that ran up into the surrounding
country, the faint noise of the wheels sounding hke warn-
ings of the crashing thunderstorms that frequently burst
around. The depths of the woods were irresistibly in-
viting at this enervating and scorching season ; although
the singing birds were few, their voices feeble, and mus-
quitoes abundant, while snakes were rather too often on
the paths or in the grass. But it was when Autumn
tempered the fierce heats that the forests showed all their
splendour, when the glowing foliage reflected back the
sunset from colours more deeply crimson than the clouds,
with dazzling varieties of tint, almost incredible in works
of art to those who have not wondered at them in nature.

Standing on an elevation in the midst of this glorious
landscape, flanked by terraces, surrounded by gardens
and shrubberies, and with a back ground of far-stretching
forest, and views of great extent on every side, the
Mansion-house was seen, built in the best style of the
architecture of two centuries back, of deep red bricks, every
one of them imported from England as ballast in the
merchant ships of those times, and looking as proudly

226 THE SOUTHERN STATES.

feudal as residences of the old country, while the human
accessories of the picture more entirely realized that
epithet than anything to be seen there at the present day.
The slave population, in their various out-of-door pursuits,
dotted the fields with the strong contrasts of black faces
and white or coloured dresses, and groups of little children
creeping or running about, their skins shining like
polished ebony in the sun which never seemed too hot for
them, spoke the language of slavery by evident signs that
wanted no voice to explain them. It all seemed very
natural and very picturesque. There was nothing repug-
nant to the moral sense in the visible state of things.
But still there was no escaping from the oft-recurring
thoughts which rose up reproachfully against all the
upholders of the system, however affectionate their treat-
ment of one's-self or indulgent their sway over their
unfortunate living " chattels.''

Five miles through the grounds and neighbouring
woods, across tangled grass, rough weeds and rougher
roads — no well-trimmed coppices and smooth-laid avenues,
no park, no neat-built wall, no cottage lodges, no counter-
parts in short of English wealth and taste — driven in the
old family coach, by a gray-headed negro of about the
same date as it, and drawn by a pair of sleek long-tailed
horses as black as the driver — and we reach the little
station on the Philadelphia and Baltimore railroad. In a
couple of hours more, we are again among the stirring
busthng streets of the monumental city. About the same
lapse of time takes us to Washington, flying past
Bladensburg, the scene of a small British victory and. of
many a bloody duel, glancing to the left at the dome of
the capitol once more, and we are quickly ensconced in
one of the new hotels in Pennsylvania Avenue.

• WASHINGTON. 227

Washington had always for me the advantage of
neverfailing novelty. The changes in diplomacy and
politics brought a constant succession of new persons,
and new subjects of public interest and congressional
discussion ; while a large portion of the established society
of the place, and its unceasing hospitality, secured for
it an air of old acquaintanceship of the most agreeable
kind.

The latest of those visits to which I referred in previous
passages was during the negotiations of the Ashburton
treaty, a period of real business and liard work, of an
exciting but by no means of a soothing nature. Almost
all the leading men in those transactions were widely
scattered when I next sought the seat of government, for
objects far different and less useful. My stay was shorter,
but I made the most of my time, in keeping up former
acquaintanceships and adding to them, so as not to leave
the gaps too wide, which were constantly made by death
and other removals. The whole personnel of several of
the legations was altered. Some of the ministers, secre-
taries, and attaches had been translated to European
posts. Among the missing was poor Mr. Fox, who, after
years of longing for a change had not the energy when
the opportunity came to avail himself of it ; but remained,
totally inactive, and, for many months after he was
replaced by another minister, occupying the lonely house
which no conviviality cheered and in which he never
saw the sun shine, and where finally he was one day
found by his servant lifeless by the side of the bed
from which he had fallen. I greatly missed his quaint
sallies at some houses where he used to visit in other
days. But the American guests found ample compen-
sation for the wit with which they had not much

Q 2

^28 THE SOUTHERN STATES.

S3^mpathy, at the well served and hospitable board of
Mr. Pakenham.

New and inferior men now filled the cabinet ; for Mr.
Tyler, when obhged to cut loose from Webster, had to
pick up recruits almost at random among the doubtful
waverers between the two great parties who, like him-
self, had but a chance possession of official honours sure
to be of very short duration. This most badgered of Pre-
sidents had however one great object in view, for the
glory of his term of service, and for his own glorification
and the disappointment of his enemies. Increase of terri-
tory, annexation by any name or any means, had become
now the estabhshed principle of every occupant of the
Presidential throne. He who could obtain most, not only
secured a large share of public approbation for himself,
but left to his grasping successor, whoever that might be,
the fewer chances for rivalling his acquisitive policy. To
gain great accessions of territory was however most diffi-
cult for any chief magistrate, keeping up all the while a
pretext of moderation and disinclination to excess, negoti-
ating long, intriguing ever, playing fast and loose, refusing,
like Csesar, the proffered crown, and only regretting,
when the moment came for grasping it, that it was but in
their case a figurative emblem, and that the " purple ^^
of supreme dignity could be nothing more brilliant than
a black cloth coat and satin waistcoat of the same
sombre hue.

The effect of the Ashburton treaty was to give a large
amount of land to the Union, to which the nation had
always laid what it was taught to believe a just claim.
Obtaining possession of it was therefore only, in the
view of the people at large, securing what was their
own. President Tyler got no credit for that, nor even

THE TEXAS QUESTION. 22f

for the means, already recorded, by which the affair was
brought about, and which were known to be the work 0/
Daniel Webster and his associates. It became therefore
incumbent on Tyler for his fame's sake, to turn himself in
some other direction, and Texas lay most invitingly and
irresistibly before him.

This was at the period the absorbing question at
Washington. I heard little of any other political topic,
and it naturally attracted my particular attention.
Although I was in no way personally connected with its
consideration, I found it on examination so rich in a
certain sort of interest, that I studied and watched its
progress, and shall not fail to place the results of my
investigation before my readers.

Having now a long wished-for opportunity of pene-
trating as far southward as I ever meant or wished to
go, I left Washington one fine summer morning at six
o'clock, taking my passage in the steamboat on the
Potomac river for Aquia Creek landing fifty miles down.
The fine broad stream presented no object so interesting
as Mount Vernon, the residence and burial-place of the
real " father of his country," which I have on a former
occasion alluded to ; and looking back on the city of his
creation, its fine position leaves an impression on the
mind which I have in an early chapter faintly attempted
to describe.

At Aquia Creek landing commences the railroad to
Richmond, the capital of Virginia, and which I may with-
out libel pronounce to have been when I travelled over it
the very worst in the world. It had at that time but
recently come into use ; and bad as it is it must be con-
sidered a blessing by all travellers who have read Charles
Dickens's "Notes," and his description of the old stage

280 THE SOUTHERN STATES.

road which the railway has happily made matter of
history. The six hours passed in traversing the swamps
and pine-barrens, with here and there a straggling
negro village and a dining-place of execrable desolation,
prepare one to enjoy in the fullest sense the arrival at
Richmond, its fine position, handsome suburbs, and excel-
lenthotel.

But the hospitality of the inhabitants left little oppor-
tunity for such home enjoyments as belong to those who
take their ease in their inn. Each of the few introductions
I brought with me brought more invitations than I could
accept during my short stay ; but I availed myself of
opportunities of meeting some of the chief persons of the
place whose society had but one drawback. Need I refer
to it again for my English readers, or can such of those
Virginian gentlemen whose eyes may by chance fall on
this passage pardon, or even understand, the loathing with
which I look back on those terrific showers of expectora-
tion, which deluged the open fire-places of the dining-
rooms in which at that season there were no fires 1
Wine could have no flavour for the palates which had
become tobacco proof and unsusceptible of taste. Yet
conversation was lively, frank, and full of matter. True
to the general rule I had laid down for myself, during
my whole residence in the Union, I avoided touching on
either of the tender " institutions '^ tobacco or slavery,
and I obtained much and valuable information on other
subjects of local interest on which my entertainers and
their friends were less sensitive.

I visited several of the neighbouring plantations, and
drove about the country which in every direction is very
beautifiil, and in many respects brings strongly to recol-
lection the South of France,— the dry, sandy soil, the

RICHMOND. 231

abundance of flowers and flowering shrubs, vines, roses,
magnolias, with peach, apple, and pear trees ; and long
strings of mules dragging carts and cars of primitive
construction laden with casks, not filled however with
generous wine, but with that noxious leaf, to distil the
pestiferous juice of which men's mouths perform the uses
of an alembic.

Tobacco being the great staple of the State, and Rich-
mond the chief place for its manufacture and sale, one is
at every turn oppressed with its presence in every shape,
and its importance in every society. A residence in
Bordeaux long, long ago, almost made the name of wine
distasteful, from the perpetual recurrence of its various
qualities, growths, and prices, in the conversation of the
great merchants whose tables were luxuriously furnished
with the delicious liquid. The charm of a short visit to
Richmond was much impaired by the unceasing references
to, and the unavoidable evidences of, the abominable
weed. Molasses at New Orleans, or pork at Cincin-
nati, must doubtless have the same efi'ect on " transient ''
visitors.

But while in Richmond I made it a point to walk
through the tobacco market, which is in fact its exchange ;
and a factory, where hundreds of negro workmen were
busily employed, singing by lamplight in parts and
choruses of simple yet most effective harmony. And I
wandered frequently by the river's side listening to some
poor fellow, in an idle hour strumming his banjo accom-
paniment to one of those melodies since made so familiar
in England, while a group of grinning companions, fancy-
ing themselves happy, gambolled about, as a manacled
somnambulist might dance unconscious of his chains.

It is impossible to be in Virginia, and look round into

232 THE SOUTHERN STATES.

the present state of the country, and back into its early
records, without lamenting its material decay and its moral
deterioration, from the days when the first bold cavaliers
planted the cross of St. George upon lands of teeming
luxuriance and apparently exhaustless wealth. Had it
been the will of Providence that the soil should have con-
tinued to be cultivated by freemen, what a noble race
would now be its occupiers, and what a rich inheritance
would they possess! But even through the blight of
slavery the planters of to-day show proofs of chivalric
descent, and the worn-out land is garnished with forest-
trees whose gigantic growth springs from a depth of soil
that cupidity cannot reach and where tyranny itself can
only find a grave. Nothing more forcibly strikes a Euro-
pean in these latitudes than the great breadth of the
leaves of the various kinds of oak and other trees, which
are however crowded together too thickly to allow of a
proportionate expansion of stem. - .'■.:

Curiosity is often attributed to a higher motive, when it
seeks out objects that had better perhaps be left unseen.
Love of information or the amelioration of ill are no
doubt genuine impulses to many of those who penetrate
the haunts of guilt. But without sheltering under such
motives my own morbid longing in regard to one particular
spectacle, I confess that I was anxious to witness in the
public street another branch of that vile trade which I
had already seen in the seclusion of the " jails " at
Alexandria and Baltimore. Had Bacon Hved to write
his Essays somewhat later than he did, he would
assuredly have added to his list of " things to be se^n
and observed, such as masks, feasts, weddings, funerals,
capital executions, and suck shows '' — the sale of a
human being in the common market. Without anj^

SLAVE AUCTION. 233

advice from such high authority, and in spite of certain
inward shrinkings, I had made up my mind to "assist"
for once at the legahzed crime, and the motives of my
resolution to do so must be taken as one takes a wife, for
better for worse.

Having ascertained which was the day appropriated to
the matter in question, and finding that the main street was
the authorized locahty, I walked down it, peering anxiously
at each side into every recess between the houses which
seemed fitting for such a purpose, but without discovering
any symptom of a market-place, less innocent than those
appropriated to the sale of slaughtered or living cattle.
No sign of extraordinary movement among the people
gave notice of anything unusual. Business was conducted
in the shops, groups were chatting and laughing in the
streets, horsemen were trotting or carelessly walking their
generally handsome and spirited animals of a good breed.
Several open carriages drove up and down, with well-
dressed ladies, from more than one of whom I received
smiles of recognition, and all looking so lovely and so gay
that it was hard to think that a deed of real darkness was
enacting, under the smartly coloured awning beside which
a happy party had stopped, and to which my attention
was just then excited by a murmuring and monotonous
voice within, while a man with the authoritative air of a
police constable drove aw^ay three or four dusky-skinned
urchins who were endeavouring to peep inside. As most
of the shops had awnings in front, as is usual everywhere
in hot weather, the one I particularly noticed was remark-
able from its having canvas " walls " like a marquee, at
three sides, thus forming a tent closed entirely to the
street, and only opening within, in communication Avith
the house, from which it projected.

234 THE SOUTHEEN STATES-

I immediately suspected that this must be the place I
sought, and my first feeling was one of pleasure at the
thought of the actors being so ashamed of their work as
not to do it in the open light of heaven. I boldly stepped
in at an aperture close to the wall where the constable
stood, and he made no objection, taking me I suppose for
a purchaser. Inside was the auctioneer, not elevated in a
rostrum, but standing on the ground, and six or seven
white men were sitting with their backs to the ofiice, inside
of which were a few more, and a group of young negroes,
perhaps half-a-dozen, of both sexes, while in front of this
audience, standing on a table touching the outside wall of
the tent, his back to the street, his face looking full upon
the unabashed bidders, w^as a remarkably fine looking
man, jet black, about thirty years of age, in the working
dress of a plantation slave, his hands folded before him,
his attitude calm, the expression of his countenance one
of stern indifference. It had none of the eloquent combi-
nation so exquisitely depicted in Powers's statue. But
notwithstanding the contrast between the naked marble
and the coarse-clad human figure, the difference of sex, and
a mere effigy with a living victim, the one brought the
other so forcibly to my mind that they appeared in it as
companion illustrations of the one repulsive fact. I had
only seen these two specimens of the horrid trade, in art
and in nature, and as I could not separate them in my
feehngs at the time, so do they rest united in my memory
to this day.

When I entered the tent the sale was going on. The
auctioneer made no attempt to excite any emulation jn
the impassible group of bidders. His tone was subdued,
his manner quiet, his words as few as possible, and they
seemed uttered without any reference to the chattel he

SLAVE AUCTION. 235

was disposing of or the rival candidates for its purchase.
The first words I distinctly heard were " three hundred
and twenty," and they went on monotonously and in the
same muttered tone, without a word from any other
person present, or, as far as I could observe, a glance,
a nod, or a motion, to indicate an advance in the bidding;
yet certainly some comprehended sign must have passed
between the auctioneer and the competitors to authorize
his utterance of the "forty, fifty, eighty, four hundred
and twenty — fifty, four hundred and sixty, sixty — sixty,
sir, he is yours ; '' which finished the business and handed
over the object sold to the buyer whoever he was. No
one claimed him, he jumped down from the table, walked
sullenly into the inner room, or shop, or office, by the side
of the auctioneer, when the other white men rose from
their chairs and followed, in a silence to me "more solemn"
than any which had ever accompanied a toast to the
memory of a departed celebrity.

I stood for some short time alone under the canvas,
in the heated and tobacco-tainted atmosphere, for all
tKe other persons present had been of course smoking
or chewing. I scarcely knew at first what was my
exact state of feeling. I had entered the tent with a
throbbing heart, greatly excited with indignant emo-
tion. But the calmness of the proceedings, the passive
air of everybody concerned, the mechanical words, and
tones and movements, when they did move off", seemed to
fall on me with a stupifying effect, as though I had
been morally drugged and made insensible to pain even
of thought.

After a pause, recovering myself a little, I walked out
through the now unguarded aperture into the burning sun,
across which no cloud was passing to shut out earth's

236 THE SOUTHERN STATES.

burning shame. I turned the matter over in my mind,
and laboured for an explanation of the unexpected pecu-
liarities of what I had witnessed. The smallness of the
sum which the poor negro fetched, in comparison with
the usual price for so fine an animal as he was, I accounted
for under the probability of some physical defect — for
his points and paces had no doubt been well examined
into before the auction began — or he might have been
*'ugiy" {anglice, ill-tempered) — or perhaps had joined in
a " Stampede " '"' and was a recaptured fugitive from
bondage and consequently a doubtful bargain. The
quickness of the bidding, mysterious as the process was,
the sudden retreat when the sale was over, the absence
of any announcement that the work of the day was at
an end, the non-production on the stage or table, of
the other negroes who seemed ready ranged for sale, like
cattle in a pen — all this was unaccountable to me. Could
it be that the presence of a Britisher had had any effect
on those rough-looking fellows, and that some awakened
pang of conscience smote them, or " made their tongues
cleave to their palates," as the arch-hero -hypocrite of the
Enghsh commonwealth declared his did, when he attempted
to speak in favour of the doomed monarch on whose fate
that brutal silence set the seal 1 And might the dread of
a rebuking record have broken up the imperfect scene,
and stopped, till the intrusive stranger had retired, the
consummation of the sacrifice 1 I should gladly believe
in these conjectures, and grasp at the hope that however
the southern slaveholders may bluster or swagger, there
is one vulnerable corner in their hearts, which a sudden

* This American word, now generally applied to the escape of bodies o
negroes from the horrors of the peculiar institution, means in its original sense
the furious galloping of frightened herds of wild animals on the western prairies.

JAMES RIVER. 237

and trifling accident may touch with compunctious twinges.
But I cannot fairly indulge in such a dream, or at best,
the impression, if made at all, would be so slight and
insufficient, that the relapse into dogged defiance would
make it more desperate and relentless than it was
before.

The incident which I have just related, though a matter
of every-day occurrence, and nothing in itself in com-
parison with the heart-rending separations of families,
husbands and wives, parents and children, of which I
continually read and heard, brought slavery home to my
mind in such exasperating reality that the effect was, I
admit it, probably disproportioned to the cause. However
that may be, my dislike towards the place assumed so
decided a tone, that I suddenly determined to take leave
of Richmond ; and rather abruptly declining some invita-
tions for parties to come, I resolved to accept one, to spend
a couple of days on a plantation about a dozen miles off"
on the banks of James River, and I accordingly proceeded
there in the carriage of the owner, a gentleman from a
northern state, married to a southern heiress and resid-
ing on her property.

As we left the town behind us and entered immediately
into the midst of bold country scenery, with which the word
rural as applied to the English landscape scarcely assimi-
lates, I felt relieved from a whole train of unpleasant
phantasies, and I knew that at any rate I should not again
meet slavery in its last-seen revolting phase. The floral
productions of the soil in this part of America are most
profuse and varied. The luxuriant plants, the richly
coloured roses, sweetbriar, kalmias, azalias, magnolias,
catalpas, rhododendrons, all with leaves and blossoms on
a much larger scale than those of Europe, ripe fruits in

23 S THE SOUTHERN STATES.

every hedge-row, swarms of the gaudiest-tinted butterflies
and humming-birds Hke flying blossoms, trees and shrubs
bearing beautiful flowers, the acacia, the dogwood, and
many others that it would be difficult to classify, with tufted
creepers festooned among the stems, all pouring a perfect
flood of fragrance on the air, make a whole of various and
almost intoxicating charms.

A road leading from the highway to the manor-house
for a couple of miles, brought all this show of natural
beauty into full view ; and the grass as we crossed at
times out of the rugged path seemed alive with hzards
and various-coloured snakes and smaller reptiles. Some
cattle were scattered thinly in the unenclosed fields, and
the whole visible character of the plantation was want of
culture, capital, and population. No gangs of negroes
worked lazily in the fields. Two or three men, evidently
house -servants, were about ; and one very old negro
woman was lingering near, as if intending to address her
master on his way, till a man whom I saw at once was
the overseer or driver, carrying the invariable long-
thonged whip common to such persons, darted from the
shrubbery, cracked his lash, and with angry gestures
drove the enfeebled old creature into a grave-covered
inclosure close by, her final and fitting resting-place.

" Don't mind it," said my companion by my side, in
answer to an involuntary look, for I had not spoken. —
" Hell not harm her. She is terribly difficult to manage,
poor thing ! She knows I must take good care of her as
long as she can crawl, and she has nothing on earth to do
but eat, drink, and sleep. But, thank God ! she is almost
the last of them.''

" You seem to have but few nearoes 1 " said I.

" I wish I never had had any — but I am fast getting

AN ETHNOLOGICAL STUDY. 239

rid of them," replied my host, and I soon learned that he
was so repugnant to the whole system of the South that
he was by degrees depriving himself of all chance of cul-
tivating his land, by manumitting some and selling to
humane masters others of his slaves, so as not to separate
families, with the intention of disposing of the estate, and
removing altogether to the North, where other important
interests claimed his presence.

As we approached the house, which was, like so many
others in the States of Virginia and Maryland, built of
English bricks and quite on the old English model, his
wife met us at the door, and in front of it was one
of the prettiest sights I had seen in those parts — a
double, cradle-formed carriage of wicker-work (drawn on
wheels by a sable nurse), containing two children, each
less than two years old, sitting opposite to each other, one
hly-fair, blue-eyed, and with auburn curls ; the other,
black as jet and woolly-headed — but both with features
of the most dehcate infantine beauty. It was impossible
to say which was prettier. Humanity could not have
been put in more agreeable contrast or ethnology studied
from lovelier models. The question of races had a capital
starting-point from the close companionship of these two
little innocent beings. What equahty of cultivation might
have done for them I cannot imagine ; but I saw unmis-
takeable signs in the bearing of the unconscious pair, of
innate superiority on the one side, and a yielding instinct
on the other. The little white thing, when they got out
of the carriage to walk and roll on the grass, in every
toddling step took the lead of the other, though they were
exactly of the same size, and of equal strength and
agility ; and the relative air of command and submission
seemed as marked, as in the case of the two mothers who

240 THE SOUTHERN STATES.

looked on and smiled together, but with all the difference
of manner and expression which suited the mistress and
the slave. Habit alone would have produced this in the
adults. It might have been individual temperament in
the children. The whole scene formed, however, a very
neat practical text on which to frame a somewhat compli-
cated problem.

My short visit to this plantation enabled me to learn
much, from excellent authority, as to the local policy and
habits of the State, and the general system of the South.
All this has been so ably treated by English writers, that
I forbear to enter on disquisitions that have been ably
liandled already. But in wandering about the lonely and
almost abandoned fields, I could see clearly how the
culture of tobacco had exhausted the originally fertile soil,
while there was an additional proof before me of the
ruinous pride which leads most Virginian proprietors to
attempt the management of estates four or five times too
extensive for their capital, and consequently unprofitable
and generally desolate in the same proportion. If an
owner of a thousand acres of cleared land would be
satisfied to farm only two or three hundred, he might be
comparatively rich, while the empty honour of cultivat-
ing the whole keeps it almost barren, makes him little
better than a beggar, and throws him into the ignoble
and abominable trade of slave-breeding for the southern
market. My sagacious host was assuredly following the
most humane as well as the most profitable plan, in
freeing himself from his chattels and his land at one and
the same time.

Nothing could be more awfully impressive than the
deep darkness of the nights and the almost unearthly
stillness of everything, as I looked from my open windows

A NIGHT ALARM. 241

to relieve the stifling closeness of the lofty room. But
the atmosphere without was no better than the air within.
Whether I sat gasping at the window, or paced the matted
floor, seemed all the same. Nothing was discernible
beyond the white, gravelled terrace below, as my gaze
vainly strove to penetrate into the murky distance. The
river lay in that direction, but I neither saw nor heard it.
Thick clumps of trees and numerous shrubs almost
covered the house with their foliage, but they made
neither sound nor sign. No breeze stirred their leaves,
or moved their branches. It was only by the heavy
odours that I knew there were flowers and blossoms
abroad. Though millions of fireflies were on the w^ing,
their brilliance showed only its own light on a back
ground of impervious shadow. To sleep during such
heat was impossible ; and I became at once feverish and
fatigued under the monotonous oppression. I opened
the two doors which led out on different large lobbies.
The house was as silent as the grave. A lamp burned
below in the hall, but its flame seemed to serve no purpose.
Again I sat at the window and leaned forward, when a
faint, earthy sound seemed to come from the far distance,
and rustle through the void. It was welcome whatever
it might be, and as it gradually increased I thought I
could distinguish the measured fall of many feet on the
grass-covered ground. It was not the regular tramp of
men or horses on a level road, but a rather stealthy tread,
that suddenly and irresistibly brought a notion of
treachery with it. And then with electric rapidity the
memory crossed my mind of the accounts I had lately
heard of night risings among the slaves on isolated plan-
tations, attacks on houses, and cruel murders by those
savage insurgents.

242 THE SOUTHERN STATES.

I involuntarily went again into the lobbies and listened,
but no one was stirring. I returned to the open window.
The regular footfalls were nearer, the darkness as deep as
ever, but no sound of alarm, no rush of violence, only one
heavy measured tramp.

In such a case one has nothing to do but wait for what-
ever event may come. If in one's own house, it is natural
and right to look out for the mischief, if there is any,
seize your weapon, and stand prepared, or rouse your
servants and seek the cause of suspicion. A stranger,
unarmed, and ignorant of the ways and means of a new
place, cannot take the initiative, to disturb his hosts ; and
it is well that a sense of social etiquette prevents persons
from making such a mistake as I should have made, had
I sounded the alarm on the present occasion. The mys-
terious sounds gradually died away as I sat in my arm-
chair, like a Roman Senator of old, waiting the assault
of the city. As total silence returned I began to feel
drowsy ; and as my eyes closed, and the faintest possible
echo seemed sighing itself dreamily away, I felt a gentle
breath of air stealing upon me— in a little more, a pale
streak of light appeared on the horizon, the fireflies seemed
self-extinguished — and just as the sun was sending up
his earliest beams I threw myself upon my bed, and was
soon sound asleep.

When I joined my host and hostess at breakfast, they
expressed a hope that I had rested w^ell ; and on my
replying in the affirmative the master of the mansion said,
he saw my light very late from my window, and he feared
that I might have been disturbed by the patrol.

"Oh, that was it!" said I to myself — and I then
remembered having heard (though this was the first
instance I had met with of it) how the unfortunate con-

SCENERY OF JAMES RIVER. 243

science-haunted planters were obliged, in the midst of
peace, in all times and seasons, thus to keep watch and
ward through each other's grounds, armed to the teeth,
and never for one hour safely and soundly sleeping in
their beds, lest their desperate victims might take advan-
tage of the least neglect, and with blade and brand carry
retribution into the homes of their oppressors.

It was a brilliant morning in June when I said farewell to
my kind, and I need scarcely add hospitable, entertainers,
and took a boat from the little cove at the bottom of the
plantation, paddled by one of the house negroes to the
middle of the river, where the steamer that left Richmond
at six o'clock stopped to pick up passengers. "We were
soon going down the stream, but against the tide, at the
rate of twelve miles an hour, comparatively slow for
an American river boat, but favourable for my wish to
observe the scenery, and converse with the few passengers
who like myself w^alked the deck, all the way to Norfolk,
distant from Richmond about 120 miles.

The scenery of James lliver for nearly half of its
course south of Richmond is very pleasing. The breadth
is not too considerable to destroy its picturesqueness, and
the banks are sufficiently raised, and the view beyond
diversified enough to justify its being called beautiful.
Thick groves of young trees, looking as if regularly planted
by the hands of man rather than the remnant off-shoots of
primitive forests, skirt the shores all along. The foliage
is as usual, broad and massive, and clumps of weeping
willows with long thick branches, as graceful though more
solid than those of Europe, were mixed here and there
with the stately trees. The colour of the river, in conse-
quence of heavy rains, was a mixture of orange-tinted
brown, and it formed a fine contrast with the deep green

R 2

244 THE SOUTHERN STATES.

of the woods and the hghter shades of those skirting
fringes just alluded to, and the accidents of hght and
shade, produced by the sun-beams, the passing clouds,
and the bright azure of the sky ; while the broad wings
of flocks of turkey-buzzards showed rich and mellow,
against the verdant back-ground of the leaves among
which they hovered. These lazy-pinioned vultures float
over the woods in large numbers, or sometimes balance
themselves on the topmost branches of the loftiest trees,
and form a striking feature in the scene.

There are but few houses along the banks. Many miles
intervene between the residences of the planters. Now
and then an old red-bricked, high-roofed, small- windowed
mansion is seen, standing on some blufl", at the bends of
the river or in the coves which are scooped into the
woods, with a few poplars or a rugged grove around
it, looldng so hke the old world as to startle the Euro-
pean observer. But the surrounding landscape is in all
its features French ; these houses harmonize with it well ;
and the Garonne and the Loire are brought continually to
recollection.

There are no villages — the scattered huts of the labourers,
or " nigger quarters " as they are technically called, making
up the hamlets of the scene. Many schooners come up
and down the river, all sail set, some lazily working their
way, others towed by their little boats, a couple of hands
in each. And descending lower towards Petersburg, a
large ship is to be seen going for its cargo to that station,
above which the river is navigable but for small craft. It
now grows wider and wider. The banks recede. The
country appears even less populous than before. But we
see the great capabilities for a large inland navigation, and
are astonished that so httle progress has been made. It

ENGLISH NAMES OF PLANTATIONS. 245

was long doubtful whether Norfolk or New York would
have become the great commercial port of the United
States. James River possesses many advantages over
the Hudson. It is never frozen ; and had Mr. Jefferson's
project of connecting it with the Ohio by a series of
canals been feasible, so as to command the immense con-
nection calculated on with the vast and fertile West, there
is no doubt it would have taken the lead. A rival states-
man, De Witt Clinton, had however more influence in his
own locahty than even Jefferson possessed, and the great
Southern statesman saw himself foiled in his design.
The completion of the Erie Canal gave the undisputed
superiority to New York, and indeed the monopoly of the
important Western connection, until the construction of
the railroad between Boston and Albany brought a
new^ rival into the great field of internal traffic, and
turned a large portion of it into an entirely new
channel.

The names of the plantations on James River are
almost all English, as Wilton, Berkeley, Brandon, West-
over, &c. Wyanoke is, I think, the only exception in
which the euphonious Indian appellation is retained ; and
Sandy Point alone is adorned with a residence in the
cottage style, giving quite a gay and modern air to the
place. Jamestown Island, ninety miles from Richmond,
is the oldest English settlement in Virginia. It contains
1500 acres, and is owned by an individual who farms it
very much in the English fashion. It is a low, swampy,
sandy, and unhealthy place ; but the proprietor's house
and " quarters " close to the water, with the ruin of
an old square red-brick tower, thirty feet high, with its
arched doorway, the remains of the first church ever,
built in the country, bring notions of antiquity and of

246 THE SOUTHERN STATES.

early adventure to the mind, more strongly than any
other standing rehcs which I had seen in America.

The small intermediate landings on the river are wild
and desolate. A rickety pier formed of loose planks
projects from the shore, a log hut with a high heap of
fire-wood for supplying the steamboats, a few ragged
negroes, an uncouth vehicle or two for the accommodation
of straggling passengers, and a narrow road cut into the
forest and showing a long vista with nothing to see at the
end of it, are the characteristics of these stopping-places,
which tell forcibly a tale of scanty population and a poor
and unimproving country.

The manifest decline of Virginia, this noble district of
the New World, which excites more than any other the
interest and the sympathy of England from the irresistible
force of old association, is mainly owing to that inherited
curse of slavery, of which it felt the first advantages, as
they were supposed to be, only to reap the earliest evils
of its establishment as a fixed institution. The naturally
aristocratic spirit of the first settlers was always repugnant
to the democratic tone of the New England Puritans ;
and it must have required an overpowering amount of
wrong-doing at the hands of the Royahst Governors,
to rouse the descendants of the Cavaliers to such a
partnership of resistance and rebellion, as that which
ended in the incongruous Union which exists to this day.

Among the leading differences between the newly
associated populations was the love of labour in the
northern and the love of idleness in the southern. The
introduction of slavery into Virginia encouraged in a fatal
degree the slothful tastes of its inhabitants, and while the
large increase of the evil enabled them to carry on their
agricultural pursuits without personal exertion and with

DEPRECIATION OF SLAVE LABOUR. 247

great temporary profit, it laid the sure foundation for that
actual deterioration which is so much to be deplored.

The value of slave labour, the sure test of the value of
property, has been long decreasing. The price of a strong
and healthy negro does not I believe now generally exceed
500 dollars. They may be hired (like horses) from their
owners at the rate of 40 or 50 dollars a year for field
labour, and as house servants at from 70 to 100 dollars.
This, taking the chances of death or escape into con-
sideration, is a doubtful investment of money. Yet such
is the pride in the possession of landed property that few
proprietors ^vill sell their slaves, except those who breed
them expressly for exportation. Thus immense estates of
eight, nine, or ten thousand acres are kept in the hands
of men, and often of widows, with little skill, insufficient
capital, and scarcity of hands, and doomed to the most
slovenly and nearly profitless cultivation ; while a reckless
expenditure necessarily brings on debt, involvement, and
ruin. The most hopeless of the evils against which these
planters have to contend, is the unavoidable necessity of
employing not merely slave but negro labour. For
generally ignorant themselves of farming, and devoted
to the exercise of idle hospitaHty or to horse-racing, they
are forced to leave the management of their estates to
unprincipled overseers, unwilling or unable to conciliate
the workmen even though they be free, and who give
grudgingly not half the value in labour for their scanty
wages. Under such a system nothing can thrive, and all
is gradual and inevitable decay.

I should have been glad, had circumstances allowed of
it, to prolong my stay and extend my excursions further
into Virginia than I was able to do on this or subsequent
occasions. The three great natural divisions of this State,

248 THE SOUTHERN STATES.

the tide-water region, the central valley, and the western
portion, have all their peculiar attractions, and I have,
though too hastily, visited them all, from the Alleghany
range to the Ocean. The soil of the counties lying at the
base of the ridge of the Blue Mountains is by far the
most fertile and generous in its yield, wheat being the
principal product of the Central Valley. The estates in
this district are not so large as those I have already
spoken of Slaves are comparatively few in number ; and
labour is there not considered as a positive disgrace to
the white man. The abundance of mineral springs makes
this region a place of great resort. They are named of
various colours, white, blue, and red sulphur springs,
warm and cold, and of great varieties of characteristic
quality. Never having occasion or curiosity sufficient
to induce me to taste those disagreeable liquids, I am
ignorant of their respective merits ; but as resorts for
pure air, lovely scenery, and pleasure in many ways, I
am sure the season at those places must be a period of
great enjoyment. From Harper's Ferry to the borders of
the Dismal Swamp the extent is considerable and the
contrast striking. It is to the latter point that I am now
approaching, and I am about to bid farewell to Virginia
with regret, chequered as its pleasant remembrances are
with the one overwhelming drawback of slavery and its
concomitant train of ills. For even its partial amelioration
but one hope was suggested by the most sanguine of its
inhabitants with whom I had opportunities of conversing.
That is, the gradual creeping in of white labour and
Yankee enterprize, in the establishment of manufactories.
Several cotton mills are in operation in Virginia ; and the
opposition to a protective tariff formerly so violent in all
the southern states has been very much modified of late

UNCERTAINTY OF TOLITICAL OPINION. 249

years. Many settlers from New York and New England
are gradually obtaining a footing in the upper districts of
Virginia, doing the field work themselves, and causing a
sensible diminution in the Negro population, which is
largely disposed of to Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas.

Recent events, the struggle between North and South
in Kansas, and the contest between Free Soil and Slavery
extension, throw great doubt upon every movement, and
perpetual instability upon all reasoning connected with
the subject. The extreme uncertainty of pohtical opinion
in the Union, and the rapid 'shiftings of party organization
make it impossible to foresee, and unwise to calculate upon,
results or even probabilities. But fluctuations this moment
in action (November, 1858) may before another year
change the whole expression of the national countenance,
every feature of which appeared three months ago so
steadily fixed in favour of Slavery, filibusterism, and
Buchanan.

Norfolk, the seaport of Virginia, where I spent a part
of a day, gave me the impression of being the most
miserable place of any name or note which I had seen in
Civihzed America. It may have resources within itself
which I cannot imagine. It appeared to me to contain
not one point of attraction except being on the ocean's
verge. But the Atlantic breezes prove no guarantee
against the dreadful attacks of yellow fever which make
the place so notorious. I heartily pitied Mr. Gray, my
colleague, whose consular duties had fixed him there for
twenty years I believe, as well as the 8000 inhabitants of
all colours ; and I could not consent to sleep in the town
for even one night. I took my berth on board the steamer
for Baltimore, and occupied a hard couch in a comfortless
cabin, crossed over the harbour in her to Portsmouth at

250 THE SOUTHERN STATES.

four next morning ; waited for the railroad cars from
Weldon till six, started at that hour, passing five ships of
war lying ready for sea, ran close to Old Point Comfort
and the rocks called the Rip-Raps, the Potomac light-
house at midday, Annapolis, the legislative capital of
Maryland (so to call it) at six, lying low by the water's
edge in a magnificent sunset, and was again in Baltimore
— almost feeling myself at home there — and then on at
once by the old straight and beaten track to my official
station at Boston.

CHAPTER IX.

THE ANNEXATION OF TEXAS.

Description of the Country — Diplomatic History of the Question — Bad Faith of
American Statesmen — Mutual Vituperation.

It is not within the scope of this work to attempt a
regular historic detail of the events among which the
author Hved, observed, and wrote. Occasional sketches
of passing transactions have been introduced ; but it
seemed desirable, towards a true understanding of the
management of public affairs, to take up one or two
striking measures of contemporaneous diplomacy and
statesmanship, and, while thoroughly sifting them, to
show a picture composed from their own words and deeds
of some of the leading politicians of the country.

With that view, I have already dwelt on the subject of
the North -Eastern Boundary, and its settlement- by the
Ashburton treaty in 1842. As a far more striking, and
still more important question, one involving the whole
future fate of the Union, and compromising the public
characters of most of its leading men for several years, in a
series of notorious transactions, I have, after a somewhat
laborious study of the matter, prepared the following
essay on the Annexation of Texas. And I would seriously
and respectfully bespeak attention to it, less for its intrinsic
interest to European readers, than as a revelation of
political morals in America.

252 THE ANNEXATION OF TEXAS.

The United States have two established national mottoes.
The one, political, i^E pluribiis unum. The other, social, is
" Go ahead ! " The people seem not to know how danger-
ous the practice of the second is to the theory of the first.
Nor do they, indeed, ever show any acute perception of
the reciprocal action and re-action produced between
politics and morals.

A moiety or more of the population consider caution in
all national movements as a very despicable quality.
They have implicit reliance on the cunning of their leaders
to work the country safe through all small difficulties, and
an overweening confidence in the power of the masses to
overcome all great ones. Vow populi vow Dei is not with
them a mere rhetorical flourish. It is a profound axiom
of their faith. They believe in agitation as they beHeve
in Providence. They think it their safeguard in all perils.
And perhaps it is so, as long as it is practised wisely ;
but the wholesome exercise of political excitement on fit
occasions is not enough for them. They overwork them-
selves in everything. They are shrewd without being
reflective ; keen observers, but shallow reasoners. They
" mark " everything almost ; but they neither " learn "
nor " iitwardly digest '' anything thoroughly. They can
live only in hot water. Like their " locomotives," they
are always fuming, smoking, and screaming. There is
nothing they love so much as creating a panic — except
taking advantage of it. But their greatest glory is to
have a " crisis." The Annexation of Texas was a very
serious one. It was successful. Impunity made them
reckless. From Texas they went to Oregon, thence '^to
Mexico, thence to California. They can go no further :
perhaps it may turn out that they have gone too far.

Accession of territory has been the ruin of many

DIPLOMATIC HISTOEY OF THE QUESTION. 253

empires. Thei'e is no food so likely to whet the appetite
that feeds on it ; and a great deal of it may be swallowed
before the national apoplexy comes. Taken in moderate
meals it is very nourishing ; devoured in large quantities
it is fatal. Nations in this aspect may be classed as rumi-
nant or gluttonous. England chews the cud, like a cow ;
America devours, like a boa constrictor.

The acquisition of distant and isolated colonies may be
freely indulged in by a powerful parent state. They can
be safely let loose and cast off on occasion like the boats
from a storm-beaten ship. But an overgrown mass of
contiguous territory is like an unwieldy vessel. If her hull
is too heavy, her masts too lofty, and her sails too large,
the billows and the wind are too much for her — and she
goes to pieces or goes down.

These figures are, I admit, more in accordance with
Yankee custom than with classical taste. A speech or an
essay in America is considered incomplete unless illus-
trated by some allusion to a ship or a steam-engine.
They are, like many other good things, as often abused
as used. But I give up rhetoric and come to facts.

The United States having, without any mischief to their
Union, acquired enormous additions of territory to the
south and west, in the vast districts of Florida and
Louisiana, and also some on the north-east, in portions of
New Brunswick and Canada, by skilful but not always
by honest negotiation, imagined that their country, like
their cupidity, should be boundless. In going for any-
thing they are not satisfied with less than the whole of
what they seek ; and when they acquire that whole, they
instantly begin to long for more. However scrupulous
they may be in beginning a bargain, they always satisfy
themselves that the end justifies the means. Therefore it

254 THE ANNEXATION OF TEXAS.

is that although they may commence a purpose with
real or pretended moderation, they stop at nothing for its
accomplishment.

The Texas question, which amply illustrates this posi-
tion, was beyond comparison the most serious of the
incidental subjects which have been introduced into the
foreign policy of the United States since the establishment
of the Republic.

This question had been in one shape or another before
the country for full a quarter of a century. Repeatedly
agitated, it had at intervals lain in abeyance ; but the
interests it involved were always of great importance,
even before the public mind was turned towards them,
with an intensity proportioned to the issue that was
inevitable.

In briefly sketching the history of this question, so as to
make it intelligible to all general readers, I shall avail
myself of a mass of state papers, political and private
correspondence, party pamphlets, arguments sound and
false, details authentic and spurious, egotism, selfishness,
sophistry ; — and marvellous will it be to see into how
small a compass so much matter may be reduced.

I will strive to unravel the web which the " knaves,
fools, and other concretes " * of opposing parties have so
industriously tangled. The merits of the question, as far
as the objects and policy of the United States are con-
cerned, really lie in a nutshell. The only difficulty is to
break and throw aside the crustaceous covering of special
pleading, and pick out the little kernel of truth.

Texas, a portion of the vast region extending along the
Gulf of Mexico, from the Atlantic Ocean to the Rio Bravo
del Norte, and originally known by the general name of

* Watts's " Logic."

DIPLOMATIC HISTORY OF THE QUESTION. ^55

Florida, was founded as a separate province of New
Mexico in the year 1690 ; and appertained with the rest
of that country to Spain, by right of discovery and pos-
session, for full three hundred years, from about 1530 till
the recognition of Mexican independence by the court of
Spain in 1836.*

Louisiana, a French colony, and an appanage of the
French crown from its formation as such in the middle of
the seventeenth century, was, in the year 1762,- ceded by
France to Spain without any specific designation of boun-
daries, and in the year 1801 it was retroceded by Spain
to France by the treaty of St. Ildefonso.

Texas was then, as it is now, the western boundary of
Louisiana, but the line of frontier was, up to that period,
undetermined by treaty. The general description of the
retroceded country in the treaty of St. Ildefonso was that
it included the colony of Louisiana " with the same extent
as when it was in the possession of France.'' The River
Mermento, between the Mississippi and the Sabine, was
always considered the dividing line between Louisiana
and Texas ; the respective governors agreeing, in order
to avoid disputes, that the territory between the Mer-
mento and the Sabine should be considered as neutral.f

The region comprised between the sources and the
mouths of the River Mississippi was discovered by
the celebrated La Salle and his fellow-adventurers,
between the years 1682 and 1685,;j: although some

* The western boundary of Texas had been always matter of much dispute.
Mexico considers the river Nueces as the boundary ; but the pretensions of the
United States having extended to the Rio Grande, led to the war with Mexico,
which virtually began on the 13th January, 1846, the day on which President
Polk ordered the army of General Taylor to advance and take possession of the
disputed territory.

t See letter of Don Luis de Onis to Mr. J. Q. Adams, of March 23rd, 1818, in
the American State Papers. ,

X Some MSS. of La Salle, particularly his "Mdmoire" proposing his expedition

256 THE ANNEXATION OF TEXAS.

Spanish writers and diplomatists have put forward claims
to previous discoveries by travellers of their nation.'"' In
the early part of the last-mentioned year La Salle made a
landing on the coast of Texas, where he built a fort. He
was killed by some treacherous followers of his own, on
an expedition in search of the Mississippi, in March, 1687.
The few individuals left in the fort erected by him on the
shores of the Bay of St. Bernard were dispersed by a
Spanish force from New Mexico ; some of them captured,
others killed by hostile Indians, and all vestiges of their
temporary possessions destroyed. The Spanish Govern-
ment soon after established entire military possession of
the country, thus freed from the French intruders ; build-
ing, in the year 1698, the Presidio or fort of San Antonio
de Bexar, and in 1716 that of Espiritu Santo, since called
Goliad, and a few years later the Presidios of San Miguel
de los Adeas and Oresquezar, and the town of Nagog-
doches, without any opposition from the French.

The title of Spain to the whole of the province of Texas
was as indisputable as to that of the rest of Mexico.
Spanish settlements existed on the Rio del Norte, the
western boundary of Texas, a century before La Salle
had discovered the Mississippi or landed on the shores of
Texas.

Louis XIV., however, with empty assumption and im-
potent munificence, made a pretended grant of certain
portions of this country to Monsieur Crozat in 1712.

down the Mississippi, and some letters at Chicago, in April, 1683, fix the date of
his discovery to have been 1682. These MSS. and the account of the first expe-
dition by the Chevalier Henri de Touly, prove that France never claimed Texas
to the Kio Grande del Norte, as asserted by Bancroft (for party purposes) in his
History of the United States.

* These asserted discoverers of the Mississippi were Don Alonzo de Soto, in
1541; of Florida, Don Juan Ponce de Leon, in 1512; Vasquez de Allezon, in
1525; Panfilo de Narvaez, in 1527; &c.

DIPLOMATIC HISTORY OF THE QUESTION. 257

This grant and the enterprise it authorized had no result.
About the year 1720 the governor of Louisiana made a
feeble effort, with a subaltern named La Harpe and a
detachment of twenty men, to effect a settlement on the
eastern frontier of Texas ; but this attempt received no
support from the French Government. Spain retained
the possession of Texas undisturbed for more than a
century later than that period. Some few map makers
put forward occasional pretensions to French claims ; but
France had not even a shadow of right to such, for there
can be no shadow without some substance. The courts
of France and Spain never had any dispute about these
matters.

Spain, however, had not brought the vast territories of
Texas under actual settlement. Numerous tribes of
Indians occupied portions of the country. The governors
of Mexico under the Spanish crown had no power to push
civilization so far to the eastward, nor were the French
occupants of Louisiana able to colonize the wild tracts
west of the Mississippi, even if they had possessed any
right to do so. When France, therefore, became again
the owner of Louisiana, in 1801, Texas was still an unex-
plored and undisputed wilderness. But the gradual
increase of population, dropping in from the western and
southern portions of the United States, gave year by
year some slight importance to the hitherto unpeopled
district.

The American general, Pike, who visited the country
in 1807, and published his observations on it, reckoned
the whole number of inhabitants at that period at 7000
souls, of whom 2000 resided at San Antonio, the capital.
He states the general population of the province to have
been "composed principally of Spanish Creoles, some

258 THE ANNEXATION OF TEXAS.

French and Americans, and a few civilized Indians and
half-breeds.'' The Mexican authorities by degrees invited
settlers, making them liberal grants of land, with good
titles on easy terms, and Texas soon became in fact an
Anglo-Saxon colony of old Spain.

France did not take possession of Louisiana under the
new cession from Spain until the year 1803, and then
only for the purpose of transferring it to the United
States of America during the same year, for the price of
sixty millions of francs.* This important transaction was
effected while Mr. Jefferson was President and Mr. Madison
Secretary of State.

It was entirely unexpected by the Court of Spain. It
excited strong feelings of indignation in the king, who
immediately issued a protest against it, as opposed to the
meaning and spirit of the treaty of St, Ildefonso. But
Napoleon Buonaparte being at one side of the question
and Ferdinand VII. at the other, it is unnecessary to say
which party prevailed. Spain had only to submit, and to
enter, with the best grace she could assume, into a negotia-
tion for a treaty of boundary with the Government of the
United States, as well as for the settlement of claims of
its citizens for spoliations committed on their commerce.
The negotiation continued for sixteen years ; Spain during
the whole of it being influenced by repugnance to the
near neighbourhood of democracy, — the Republic by an
insatiable longing after territorial encroachment. Spain
had not forgotten that most of the conspicuous statesmen
of the United States had long fixed their attention on her
South American provinces, and anticipated, if they ^ did
not actually co-operate in the revolution which was one

* The Louisiana Treaty was signed at Paris, iu April, 1803.

DIPLOMATIC HISTORY OF THE QUESTION. 259

day to tear them from her grasp. Miranda's expedition
in 1798, General Wilkinson's projects about the same
time, Aaron Burr's designs still later, and, in the spring of
1818, the enterprise of the Lallemands, were recent in
the public memory. And the disposition of persons still
more important, and by whom the public mind of the
repubhc was to be influenced on this subject, could be no
secret to the statesmen of Madrid, and their diplomatic
agents in the New World.*

The government of the United States soon began to
put forward pretensions that France had never acted on
as to the western limits of Louisiana. The Rio del Norte,
which included the entire province of Texas, was the
boundary pertinaciously insisted on in repeated diplomatic
notes and other state papers by Jefferson, Madison, Monroe,
John Quincy Adams, Henry Clay, Jackson, Van Buren,
and Forsyth, while acting as Presidents of the Union or
Secretaries of State. This right was asserted in many
forms, as " undoubted,'' " demonstrable," " clear," " unques-
tionable," " incontestible ;" f but the whole of this almost
incredible mass of assumption and assertion was founded •
on the pretext, and no other, that France had at some

* See the " Memoirs of General Wiikiuson," " Aaron Burr's Biography," and
'* Jefferson's Correspondence," There is a remarkable passage in one letter of
JefFei-son's to A. Stewart in 1786, where he says, " Our confederacy is the nest from
which all America, North and South, is to be peopled ; " and he recommends the
"■ not pressing too soon upon the Spaniards, until the population is sufficiently
advanced to gain their possessions piece by piece." In another letter from Mr.
Jefferson to Mr, Bowdoin, in 1807, he says, "We e:5pect from the friendship of
the Emperor (Napoleon) that he will either compel Spain to do us justice, or
abandon her to us. We ash but one month to be in the city of Mexico."

t Mr. J. Q, Adams pushed these pretensions to their utmost length of absur-
dity, in his letter to Don Luis de Onis, of March 12th, 1818, in which he
exclaims, " Well might Messrs. Pinckney and Monroe write to Mr. Cavijllos, in
1805, that the claim of the United States to the boundary of the Rio Bravo was aa
clear as their right to the island of New Orleans " — which notoriously belonged
to them by recent right of purchase and was then iu their actual possession

260 THE ANNEXATION OF TEXAS.

time or other put forward a " claim " to the territory of
Texas as being a portion of Louisiana, and that a few
maps, avowedly unofficial and undoubtedly spurious, were
to be found, which traced a Hne of boundary in accordance
with this pretension.*

The inconclusive arguments of successive governments
and negotiators w^ere however of no avail on this point.
Spain was inflexible. The minister, Cavallos, and his
successor, Pizarro, who bore the brunt of the negotiation,
would not yield a boundary even so far westw^ard as the
River Colorado, to which at the very farthest it was pre-
tended that La Salle had pursued his predatory course.
The published private letters of Mr. George W. Erving,
United States minister at the Court of Madrid during the
latter part of the negotiation, as well as the various
diplomatic notes, entirely substantiate this. And Mr.
Erving, finding it impossible to persuade or intimidate
Spain into any concession, proposed to his government to
remove the negotiation to Washington, in hopes no doubt
that a more powerful influence might be there brought to
bear on an individual diplomatist than he was able to
exercise over an entire cabinet. Mr. Erving's suggestion
was adopted by his government, and acceded to by Spain.
Full powers were given by the latter to Don Luis de Onis,
the minister to the United States, who remained firm to
his instructions. A voluminous correspondence between
him and his crafty opponent, Mr. John Quincy Adams,
then Secretary of State, led to the conclusion of a treaty
on the 22nd of February, 1819, for the purchase of the

* There is every reason to believe that Jeflferson certainly meant the boundary
of Louisiana to be the ridge of mountains in which the Mississippi has its
source. The terms of the purchase mark this boundary. No part of the country
beyond the mountains ever formed, or was really supposed to form a portion of
Louisiana.

DIPLOMATIC HISTOKY OF THE QUESTION. 201

Floridas by the United States from Spain, and for the
settlement of the hmits of Louisiana, by which the
River Sabine was agreed on as the south-western
boundary of that territory, and Texas was consequently
confirmed and admitted to be, what it always had been
in right and fact, a province of Mexico and a possession
of Spain.

Yet, twenty years later, in defiance of history, fact,
diplomatic negotiation, legislative enactments, and execu-
tive ratification, an immense party in the United States
had the effrontery to speak, write, and publish orations,
essays, and books, on what they called the r^-annexation
of Texas to the United States ; and this imaginary
re-annexation was adopted as the rallying-cry of this
great party. Enough has been said to show that the pre-
text that Texas ever belonged to France, either by right
of discovery, conquest, 'or possession, or to the United
States by right of purchase, was entirely unfounded.
Many of the ablest men in the American Congress have
repeatedly refuted the asserted claim.* But it long stared
the world in the face, and it was never abandoned by its
inventors until Texas was annexed.

The most notable among the advocates of this preten-
sion was Mr. Robert J. Walker, considered as among the
leading individuals of the Democratic party in Congress.
He was one of the senators for the State of Mississippi, and
having been put forward by some of his constituents as a
candidate for the office of Vice-President at the election
in 1844, they required his opinion on the Texan question,
and his reply took the published form of a close-printed

* Amongst those may be particularly specified Mr. Robert C. Winthrop and Mr.
Kennedy, members for Massachusetts and Maryland, Their speeches abound in
passages of admirable reasoning and eloquent invective against this impudent
pretension.

262 THE ANNEXATION OF TEXAS.

pamphlet. In justice to this gentleman, subsequently
Secretary of the Treasury at Washington, and the party
he represented, and to enable every one to understand the
grounds on which the question was argued in the United
States, I give the. folio wing extracts : —

Is it expedient to re-annex Texas to tlie American Union ? This
is the greatest question, since the adoption of the constitution, ever
presented for the decision of the American people. Texas was once
our own ; and, although surrendered by treaty to Spain, the surrender
was long resisted by the American government, and was conceded to
be a great sacrifice. This being the case, is it not clear that, when
the territory which we have most reluctantly surrendered can be
re-acquired, that object should be accomplished ? Under such circum-
stances, to refuse the re-annexation is to deny the wisdom of the
original purchase, and to reflect upon the judgment of those who
maintained, even at the period of surrender, that it was a great
sacrifice of national interests.

Texas, as Mr. Jefferson declared, wag as clearly embraced in the
purchase by us of Louisiana as New Orleans itself; and that it was a
part of that region is demonstrated by the discovery, by the great
La Salle, of the source and mouth of the Mississippi, and his occu-
pancy, for ^France, west of the Colorado. Our right to Texas, as a
part of Lousiana, was asserted and demonstrated by Presidents
Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, and John Quincy Adams. No one of
our Presidents has ever doubted our title ; and Mr. Clay has ever
maintained it as. clear and unquestionable. Louisiana was acquired
by a treaty with Trance, in 1803, by Mr. Jefferson ; and, in the
letter of Mr. Madison, the secretary of state, dated March 31, 1801*,
he says, expressing his own views and those of Mr. Jefferson, that
Louisiana " extended westwardly to the Eio Bravo, otherwise Bio
del Norte. Orders were accordingly obtained from the Spanish
authorities for the delivery of all the posts on the west side of the
Mississippi." And in his letter of the 31st January, 1804, Mr.
Madison declares that Mr. Laussat, the French commissioner^ who
delivered the possession of Louisiana to us, announced the " Del
Norte as its true boundary." Here, then, in the delivery of the
possession of Louisiana by Spain to Prance, and France to us, Texas
is included. In the letter of Mr. Madison of the 8th July, 1804, he

DIPLOMATIC HISTORY OF THE QUESTION. 263

declares the opposition of Mr. Jefferson to the " relinquishment of
any territory whatever eastward of the Eio Bravo." In the letter
of James Monroe, of the 8th November, 1803, he incloses documents,
which, he says, " prove incontestahly " that the boundary of Louisiana
is " the Eio Bravo to the west ; " and Mr. Pinckney unites with
him in a similar declaration. In a subsequent letter — not to a
foreign government, but to Mr. Madison — on the 20th of April,
1805— they assert our title as unquestionable. In Mr. Monroe's
letters, as secretary of state, dated January 19th, 1816, and June
10th, 1816, he says, none could question " our title to Texas ; " and
he expresses his concurrence in opinion with Jefferson and Madison
" that our title to the Del JN'orte was as clear as to the island of
New Orleans." In his letter, as secretary of state, to Don Onis, of
the 12th March, 1818, John Quincy Adams says, " The claim of
France always did extend westward to the Eio Bravo. * * * She
always claimed the territory which you call Texas as being within
the limits and forming a part of Louisiana." After demonstrating
our title to Texas in this letter, Mr. Adams says, " Well might
Messrs. Pinckney and Monroe write to Mr. Cavallos, in 1805, that
the claim of the United States to the boundary of the Eio Bravo was
as clear as their right to the island of New Orleans." Again, in his
letter of the 31st October, 1818, Mr. Adams says, our title to Texas
is " established beyond the power of future controversy." *

Here, then, by the discovery and occupation of Texas, as a part of
Louisiana, by La Salle, for France, in 1685 ; by the delivery of posses-
sion to us, in 1803, by Spain and France; by the action of our
government, from the date of the treaty of acquisition to the date of
the treaty of surrender (avowedly so on its face) ; by the opinions of
all our presidents and ministers, connected in any way with the
acquisition, — our title to Texas was undoubted. It was surrendered*
to Spain, by the treaty of 1819 ; but Mr. Clay maintained, in his
speech of the 3rd April, 1820, that territory could not le alienated,
merely by a treaty; and, consequently, that, notwithstanding the
treaty, Texas was still our own. In the cession of a portion of
Maine,t it was asserted, in legislative resolutions, by Massachusetts

* The reader is particularly referred to page 299 of this volume, for an extract
from Mr. Adams's speech at Bridgwater in Massachusetts, in 1844, in which he
completely refutes the above-quoted letter in 18L8.

t This alludes to the settlement of the north-eastern boundary question, by
the Ashburton Treaty of 1842.

264 THE ANNEXATION OP TEXAS.

and Maine, and conceded by this government, that no portion of
Maine could be ceded by treaty without the consent of Maine. Did
Texas assent to this treaty, or can we cede a part of a territory, but
not of a state ? These are grave questions ; they raise the point
whether Texas is not now a part of our territory, and whether her
people may not now rightfully claim the protection of our govern-
ment and laws. Eecollect, this was not a question of settlement,
under the powers of this government, of a disputed boundary. The
treaty declares, as respects Texas, that we " cede to His Catholic
Majesty." Commenting on this, in his speech before referred to,
Mr. Clay says it was not a question of the power, in case of dispute,
" of fixing a boundary previously existing. * * * It was, on the
contrary, the case of an avowed cession of territory from the United
States to Spain." Although, then, the government may be compe-
tent to fix a disputed boundary, by ascertaining, as nearly as practi-
cable, where it is ; although, also, a state, with the consent of this
government, as in the case of Maine, may cede a portion of her
territory, yet it by no means follows that this government, by treaty,
could cede a territory of the Union. Could we by treaty cede
Elorida to Spain, especially without consulting the people of Elorida ?
and, if not, the treaty by which Texas was surrendered was, as Mr.
Clay contended, inoperative.

This is no question of the purchase of new territory, but of the
re-annexation of that which once was all our own. It is not a
question of the extension of our limits, but of the restoration of
former boundaries. It proposes no new addition to the valley of
the Mississippi, but of its reunion, and all its waters, once more
under our dominion. The treaty which struck Texas from the
Union, inflicted a blow upon this mighty valley; and who will say
that the west shall remain dismembered and mutilated, and that the
ancient boundaries of the republic shall never be restored ? Who
will desire to check the young eagle of America, now refixing her
gaze upon our former limits, and repluming her pinions for her
returning flight ? What American will say that the flag of the Union
shall never wave again throughout that mighty territory ; and that,
what Jeff'erson acquired, and Madison refused to surrender, shall
never be restored ? Who will refuse to heal the bleeding wounds of
the mutilated West, and reunite the veins and arteries dissevered by
the dismembering cession of Texas to Spain ? To refuse to accept
the re-annexation, is to re-surrender the territory of Texas, and dis-

BAD FAITH OF AMERICAN STATESMEN. 265

member the valley of the West. Nay, more, uader existing circum-
stances, it is to lower the flag of the Union before the red cross of
St. George, and to surrender the Florida pass, the mouth of the
Mississippi, the command of the Mexican Gulf, and, finally, Texas
itself, into the hands of England.*

A reference to the negotiations which led to the Florida
treaty of 1819, and a cursory glance at the provisions of
the treaty as regarded the question of boundary, will put
the extracts just quoted in their true point of view. Their
reasoning is not worthy of remark. And their style no
one could condescend to criticize — not even in considera-
tion of respect for " the Hed Cross of St. George," and
unaffected compassion for that most be-plucked of all
bipeds since the days of Diogenes' cock — the unfortunate
" young Eagle of America," from whose carcass and
giblets these ranters will pull every feather by-and-bye.

The almost interminable correspondence on the subject
of the boundary between the United States' ministers and
those of Spain, whether at Madrid or Washington, can
leave no doubt in any impartial mind that the claims of
Spain to the rights of sovereignty over Texas were just
and valid ; and that those of the United States were what
Don Luis de Onis designated them in his correspondence
with Mr. Adams, "amazing and extraordinary preten-
sions," " inconsistent and exorbitant," " exceeding in mag-
nitude and transcendancy all former demands started by
the United States." f

This was the guarded and courteous language of diplo-
macy. In ordinary parlance much stronger might have
been most justly used.

* Letter of Mr. Walker, of Mississippi, relative to the re-annexation of Texas.
I Philadelphia, 1844, pp. 5, 6, 8, 9.

' t Letters from Don Luis de Quis, of Nov. 16th and Dec. 12th, 1818, and

January 16th, 1819.

2G6 THE ANNEXATION OF TEXAS.

Mr. Adams, finding that all his sophistry was baffled by
the plain reasoning of De Onis, his threats of- discontinu-
ing the negotiation unavaihng, and his pretended
ultimatum without an end, after refusing to enter on the
examination of the many historical and official documents
offered on the part of Spain, and being driven one by one
from every position he had attempted to maintain, at
length consented to abandon the Rio Grande del Norte,
the Colorado, and all the other boundaries contended for,
and actually proposed (October 31st, 1818) the River
Sabine, which the Spanish minister accepted ; and the
treaty was signed (as before stated) on the 22nd of
February, 1819, and ratified by the President, Mr. Monroe,
three days afterwards, February 25th.

But the treaty was not ratified by the King of Spain
until October 24th, 1820; and finally by the Senate of
the United States, February 19th, 1821, just two years
from its being originally signed by Don Luis de Onis and
Mr. Adams. Much discontent and angry discussion arose
from the long delay in the ratification of the treaty by the
government of Spain. This delay had two causes. The
ostensible and minor one was the necessity of certair
eclair cissements relative to grants made by the Crown ol
Spain, to some of its own subjects, of lands in Florida pre
vious to and pending the negotiations for its cession to the
United States. The occult and important cause was the
fact of several hostile expeditions having been prepared by
private individuals in the United States for aff'ording armed
assistance to the South American insurgents, and from
the belief of Ferdinand VII. and his Ministers that^Jihe
United States only waited for the ratification of the
treaty to acknowledge the independence of all the revolted
colonies — a well founded belief, as was proved by the

BAD FAITH OF AMERICAN STATESMEN. 267

result, for in 1823, the United States recognized Mexico
as a Sovereign Republic, thirteen years before she con-
quered her right to the title. Don Luis de Onis has been
unsparingly abused for his asserted mismanagement of the
negotiations for the Florida treaty, on the grounds of his
apparent admission, in the wording of some of the articles,
that the United States had ceded to Spain, or exchanged
for portions of her possessions in Florida, certain territories
in Texas.

These flippant strictures on the conduct of De Onis are
most unjust. They proceeded from a careless examination
of the treaty and the correspondence which preceded it ;
and from taking for granted the bare-faced assertions of
certain American writers. De Onis argued admirably,
and entirely put down the pretensions of Mr. J. Q. Adams.
The wording of the treaty by no means bears out the
censure alluded to. De Onis received the approval of his
sovereign, new honours, and a fresh diplomatic appoint-
ment. The true reasons of the delay in the ratification
of the treaty are stated above. They were not, as is
supposed, at all produced by dissatisfaction with the treaty
itself.

I will only make one concluding observation on the
management of this transaction, and it shall take an
interrogative form.

Does any one living believe it probable, or almost
possible, that the United States of America would at any
time have rehnquished a claim to any territory to which
it had any foundation of claim ; and more particularly
when the party it contended with was feeble, and unable
to afford any effectual opposition except that of great and
all prevailing Truth 1

But let us just glance at the wording of the treaty itself.

'ZQS THE ANNEXATION OE TEXAS.

The treaty consists of sixteen articles.

The 2nd article stipulates that His Catholic Majesty
" cedes to the United States all the territories belonging
to him east of the Mississippi.''

Article 3rd settles the boundary line west of the
Mississippi, from the mouth of the River Sabine in the
Gulf of Mexico to the northward and westward, and con-
tains a clause for incorporating the people of Louisiana
with the citizens of the United States.

In Articles 5, 6, 7, and 8, mention is made of the
territories ceded by Spain to the United States, that
is, the Floridas. But in no one of the sixteen articles
is there the slightest allusion to territories ceded by
the United States to Spain, or exchanged for other
territories.

Article 3 certainly does contain the following stipu-
lation : —

" The United States hereby cede to His Cathohc
Majesty all their rights, claims, and pretensions to the
territories lying west and south of the said line "—of
boundary. And this abandonment of " claims and pre-
tensions," which alone constituted the assumed existence
of any right on the part of the United States, is unblush-
ingly called, over and over again, by the highest authorities
in the United States, by men coming from all sections of
the country, and belonging to all shades of parties, the
"cession of territories," the "alienation of territory''
&c. Passing over many of those instances on the part
of numerous inferior and ignorant persons, in and out
of Congress, and confining myself to those on the partof
individuals of note, I. find, —

In the first place, Mr. Clay, declaring, in the passages
just quoted by Mr. Walker from his speech in Congress

RAD FAITH OF AMEEICAN STATESMEN. 269

in April, 1820, that "territory could not be alienated by
treaty ; " and that, notwithstanding the treaty just before
effected, " Texas was still all their own." And that there
was in the treaty " an avowed cession of territory from
the United States to Spain/'

It is indeed painful to contemplate a man of such noble
qualities as adorned the mind of Henry Clay thus warped
by the national bent to argue public matters unfairly.
How justly retributive does it seem, that this very question,
which was the rock on which he meant to build his
pohtical fortunes in 1820, should be that on which they
split in 1844 ! Conscience could not hold stubbornly out
for a quarter of a century. He dared not maintain' the
doctrines regarding Texas during the Presidential election
of that year, which he had long before proclaimed in
Congress. When questioned and cross-questioned as to his
opinions, he hesitated, shuffled, and contradicted himself.
He wrote one letter for the north, another for the south,
and left both unsatisfied. And consequently he failed in
the great object of his life's ambition. The men who so
freely quoted him to sustain a wrong, would not vote for
him to maintain the right. And how bitterly must he
have repented, that such persons as Mr. Walker might
boast of his great authority to establish one of the most
untenable assumptions of political fraud !

In the debate in the Senate, January 29th, 1850, on
Mr. Clay's motion relative to Slavery, and called his " Com-
promise," Mr. Foote "protested against the assumption
that there is any doubt of the title of Texas to all the
territory which she assumed in her organic law "—which
claimed to the Rio Grande del Norte. Mr. Clay rephed
that "his proposition was not to take absolutely from
Texas the territory which she claimed. He had expressed

27 U THE ANNEXATION OF TEXAS.

his own opinion that the title of Texas was good to the
territory in question/'

But Clay had the bad excuse of a bad example.
Mr. Monroe, the President, in his message to Congress,
December 7th, 1819, announcing the conclusion of the
Florida treaty, says : —

" For territory ceded by Spain, other territory of great
value, to which our claim was believed to be well founded,
was ceded by the United States."

" Was believed to be well founded," was the reservation
which justified the deception in one portion of this
sentence. But what palhative appears for the other ?
" Other territory of great value was ceded by the United
States," when it was, in fact and truth, notorious to the
whole world that the United States ceded no territory, and
had none whatever on that occasion to cede,

Mr. John Tyler, following Mr. James Monroe, longo ah
intervallo in every sense, in his message to the Senate,
April 22nd, 1844, informs them that "he had negotiated
with Texas a treaty for the annexation of the country to
the United States." And that " if it should meet with
the approval of the Senate, the government wdll have
succeeded in reclaiming a territory which formerly
constituted a portion, as is confidentl}^ believed, of its
domain."

" Confidently believed ! " *' reclaiming a territory."
These are moderate but misleading expressions. The
territory was no doubt re-claimed; but Mr. Tyler intended
that he should be supposed to have meant, that it would
be redeemed, recovered, re-annexed, in short. And as
to the " confident behef " — none of the beHevers being
specified, no one was " compromitted during the pendency
of the transaction," to use his own favourite phraseology.

BAD FAITH OF AMERICAN STATESMEN. £71

Next comes Mr. Polk, Mr. Tyler's successor to the un-
expected honours of the Presidential throne. In a
letter dated April 23rd, 1844, in reply to a summons
made on him for his opinion on annexation, he states as
follows : —

" I have no hesitation in declaring that I am in favour
of the IMMEDIATE RE-ANNEXATION OF Texas to the territory
and government of the United States. I entertain no
doubts as to the power or expediency of the re-annexation.
The proof is clear and satisfactory to my mind that Texas
once constituted a fart of the territory of the United States,
the title to which I regard to ham been as indisputable as

that TO ANY OTHER PORTION OP OUR TERRITORY. In my

judgment the country west of the Sabine, and now called
Texas, was most unwisely ceded away. It is a part of the
great valley of the Mississippi, directly connected by its
navigable water with the Mississippi Eiver, and having
once been a part of our Union, it should never have been
dismembered from it."

But Mr. Charles J. Ingersoll, Chairman of the Commit-
tee of the House of Representatives on Foreign relations,
actually out-Polks Polk in this matter. In his speech
in Congress, January 3rd, 1845, he expressed a
hope "that Congress would show the world that the
United States will have the right, and will maintain it, to
replace Texas where it was, from the Treaty of Louisiana,
in 1803, to the treaty of Florida, in 1819 — an integral
and essential part of this Union.*'

I have no doubt but that Mr. Charles J. Ingersoll knows
the meaning of the word " integral ; " but I doubt if the
spirit of the word from which it is derived is, politically
speaking, in his mind or his heart.

And how many notes of admiration, or rather of

27^ THE ANNEXATION OF TEXAS.

amazement, might not be appended to the monstrous
passages I have quoted !

But to carry out these assertions of right into entirely
practical wrong, the following doctrine is simultaneously
with them put forth by Mr. Walker.

In our treaty of 1803, by which we have seen, Texas was
acquired by us from France, we pledged our faith to France and to
the people of Texas never to surrender that territory. Such was our
pledge to France and to the people of Texas, by the treaty of pur-
chase. And if our subsequent treaty of cession to Spain (1819) was
not unconstitutional and invalid, it was a gross infraction of a
previous treaty, and of one of the fundamental conditions by which
Texas was acquired.

Here, then, are many grave questions of constitutional power.
Could the solemn guarantee to France and to the people of Texas be
rescinded by a treaty with Spain ? Can the government of the
United States, by its own mere power, surrender any portion of its
territory? Can it expatriate and expel from the Union its own
citizens who occupy the territory, and change an American citizen
into a citizen of Spain or Mexico ? These are momentous questions,
which it is not necessary now to determine.*

There is no disguise here. It is an absolute avowal,
though put in a questionable shape, that the treaty of
1819 with Spain, that well-considered result of sixteen
years' negotiation between the countries (" fraudful nego-
tiation," as it is with great naivete called by an American
author t) had become altogether inoperative and unbinding
on the United States, and that under the unproved and
empty pretence, so long vainly attempted to be established,
to a boundary other than the one solemnly agreed on, the
United States would be justified in claiming, and of course
seizing on, the vast region of Texas between the Sabine
and the Rio del Norte. Thus taking advantage (admitting

* Mr. Walker's Letter, p. 6.

t " Texas and the Texans." By Henry Stuart Foote. Philadelphia, 1841.

BAD FAITH OF AMERICAN STATESMEN. 273

for argument sake the monstrous reasoning) of their own
" unconstitutional " act, and " gross infraction of a previous
treaty/' for the spoliation of Mexico, the secured successor
to all the rights of Spain to the region in question, under
the treaty of peace of 1836.

Be it further remarked, that in all the reasoning thus
put forward, " Texas " and " the people of Texas," are
mentioned as though they had been specifically included in
the purchase of Louisiana, whose territory and whose
people were alone referred to in the treaty with France of
1803 ; although by the subsequent treaty of 1819 with
Spain for the settlement of limits, the River Sabine was
established as the western boundary of Louisiana, proving
beyond all possibihty of cavil that the United States had
no rightful claim to one foot of ground in Texas, or to the
allegiance or citizenship of any one individual among its
inhabitants. One may dispassionately ask, can effrontery
and dishonesty go farther than this '? And further, with
all due respect, what hope can there be for a country the
leading statesmen of which adopt and carry out such a
system '?

And whence proceed these lamentable instances of bad
faith and bold imposture in the public men of the United
States 1 These are indeed " grave and momentous
questions ;'' and the necessity of discussing them is an ill
argument for human nature and political liberty. Without
stopping now to thread the labyrinth into which these
questions lead, I must for the present be satisfied with
saying that while legislators and rulers in other countries
seek their inspiration from above, those of America look
for it from below. A higher order of civilization leads to
a loftier ambition. Men who have their rewards in a
proud sense of national and individual honour act from

274 THE ANNEXATION OF TEXAS.

the unseen springs of secret impulse. But those who
are governed by the world's opinion — the baser, as well as
the better part of it— move in subserviency to the eyes
that are fixed on and the fingers that are pointed at them.
Lacking the strength of mind and the amount of virtue
required to bear the public gaze and to brave the popular
dissent, they are moved by those general principles of
selfish ignorance which influence the mass of mankind.
Want of courage in the public men of America is the
main source of their want of honesty.

For the refutation of most of the statements and
opinions contained in those passages above cited, I am
satisfied to depend on the plain facts of the case. But
with reference to one of the individuals so deeply con-
cerned I cannot refrain from bringing forward other and
more recent evidence of contradiction, namely, his own
openly pronounced addresses to his constitutents, and in
his place in Congress.

The late Mr. John Quincy Adams had been for many
years held up as a great authority in the United States
for all matters of diplomatic or legislative fact. Having
been, in default of a majority of the popular vote,
appointed by Congress to fill the oflSce of President of the
United States for one term in the year 1825; and being
at the next election altogether rejected by the people, and
subsequently foiled in his desire of being named as a
Senator from Massachusetts, and of obtaining even the
less important office of Governor of the State, he
descended from the quiet dignity of retirement, to become
a violent and mischievous member of the House of Repre-
sentatives, for a paltry country district. He was till his
death, at upwards of eighty years of age, one of the most
active and quarrelsome members of Congress. He mixed

MUTUAL VITUPERATION. 275

in every petty question, only to mar it. He was identified
with nothing great, except the question of abohtionism,
and even that he contrived to make Httle by his acri-
monious personahties. To the garruhty of age he united
the indiscretion of boyhood. And, in his bitter hatred of
General Jackson, he became entangled in a tissue of
crimination and recrimination with that veteran in
foreign and domestic broils, and several other persons,
touching this very Texas question.

When rogues disagree, honest men do not always get
their own ; but truth is very often elucidated by the
quarrels of the untruthful. The present enquiry is an
eminent instance of that fact.

In a lecture of two hours' duration delivered in 1844 in
one of the American towns, Mr. Adams had the infatua-
tion to run a muck against his personal enemies, and at
the same time to expose his own official duplicity in a very
extraordinary way. He launched forth, on this occasion
and others soon after, into a strain of peculiar invective
against the memory of General Jackson, on account of his
efforts to obtain Texas for the United States; and he
laboured hard, though it was in truth an easy task, to prove
the futility of all the arguments of the advocates of annexa-
tion. Not only, be it observed, those arguments which are
founded on questions of international law, constitutional
power, or political expediency, but those springing from
the claims of former rights to the territory, of which he
had been himself a most dogmatical asserter ! A few
passages from his latest reasonings may be instructive
when placed in juxta-position with his former sophistry ;
for they will give a fair instance of the hollowness of
American diplomacy, in this echo from one of its most
noisy mouthpieces.

T 2

276 THE ANNEXATION OF TEXAS.

In one of his vituperative speeches on November the
6th, 1844, commenting on the letter (of which I have
given an extract) from Mr. Polk of the preceding month
of April, and in which the writer went on to state that
" the Spanish government had been ready to recognise a
line far west of the Sabine, as the true western boundary
of Louisiana, as defined by the treaty of 1803 with
France," Mr. Adams says, and says truly, —

" In all this, Mr. Polk proclaims nothing but his profound ignorance
of the whole subject. There was no boundary of Louisiana defined
by the treaty of 1803. The reference was to former possession and
other treaties, as you may see by referring to the treaty. Prance
and Spain had never agreed upon the boundary. On the side of
France there was nothing hut claim. On the side of Spain there was
claim and possession ; Texas itself, and every settlement in it, bore
Spanish names, and were under Spanish government."

On the 23d of January, 1845, in the debate in Congress
on the proposed resolutions for the annexation of Texas, Mr.
Adams according to the published reports " reverted to the
right claimed to annex Texas, by virtue of the treaty of 1803,
which it was said gave us that territory. He went into a
lengthy argument, and brought up a great many historical
reminiscences, to disprove this position. He referred to
the fact that in 1802 Mr. Madison, then Secretary of
State, was charged by the President (Mr. Jefferson) in
the course of the negotiation then pending for the cession
of Louisiana, to give Spain a guarantee of all her territory
beyond the Mississippi, and that one of the reasons why the
subsequent negotiation between G. W. Erving and Pizarro
was broken, was because Mr, Erving was not empowered
to give the same guarantee, to show what Mr. Jefferson
thought of the Louisiana treaty, and the territory we
acquired thereby. Mr. Adams read an extract from one

MUTUAL VITUPERATION. 277

of Mr. JefFerson^s letters, to be found in the third volume,
page 511, of the biography written by his grandson, in
which he (Mr. Jefferson) speaks of the boundary of
Louisiana as being in the highlands west of the

Mississippi, &c.

" We have some claim (says Mr. Jefferson) to go to the Eio del
Norte, and a better to run as far east as the Eio Perdido. What is
the difference in a land claim, asked Mr. Adams, between some
claim and a better ? (Laughter.) Mr. Jefferson said, also, that if we
take advantage of the war in which Spain was engaged, we should
get Florida, the good claim, if we did not get the other.

As to the argument that by the cession of Louisiana, the people of
Texas acquired rights which it was not competent for the United
States to deprive them of, it was plain that all this was an after-
thought, a mere device conjured up for the occasion."

In this style does this " venerable " statesman, one of
the fathers of the country, not only repudiate and turn
into ridicule the conduct of Jefferson, Madison, and
Munroe, those former fathers (who together with himself
make up the four fathers of the Florida treaty), but he
stamps with indelible shame his own efforts to swindle and
to bully Spain out of territory which he at length admitted
was known by himself and all the others to be hers by
right, and which it was actually proposed at one period of
the negotiation solemnly to guarantee to her.'"' And in a
published letter to some abolitionists of Bangor, in the
State of Maine, July 4, 1843, he says, "Have we not been
fifteen years plotting rebellion against our neighbouring
republic of Mexico for having abolished slavery throughout
her dominions 'i Have we not aided and abetted one of
her provinces in insurrection against her for that cause ?

* Lest Mr. Adams's assertion should not be considered good evidence of this
fact, I can refer the reader to Mr. Erving's diplomatic correspondence to confirm
it. Am. State Papers, vol. iv.

278 THE ANNEXATION OF TEXAS.

And have we not invaded openly and sword in hand
another of her provinces, and all to effect her dismem-
berment and to add ten more slave states to the
Confederacy 1 "

Mr. Adams, with all his undoubted talents and acquire-
ments, has been but of questionable advantage to either
the youth or the manhood of his country. If, as a school-
master, he taught the young idea how to shoot, as a
diplomatist, he taught the more matured intelligence how
to cheat. In both cases it must be admitted he had apt
scholars, for they often hit the mark. But no lessons of
high morality or proud integrity have been mixed with
his public teaching. Even, when from motives of personal
hate, he ranged himself at the right side, his influence was
as nought. The Texas question did not want his aid.
Those who saw its real merits repudiated his testimony in
its favour. The law of morals and the morals of law
equally rejected him.

" Serael malus semper praesumitur esse malus."

But I will pass over this incorrigible offender to Mr.
Charles J. Ingersoll, who, in reply to one of his venomous
attacks, thus handled his conduct with regard to Texas : —

TO THE PUBLIC.

Numerous petitions, last session of Congress, referred to the com-
mittee of Foreign Affairs, concerning Texas, fixed my attention on
that subject.

Since I first considered the subject, several years ago, I have
always pronounced the surrender of Texas unlucky, unwise, inex-
plicable. But neither Mr. Clay's condemnation of it, General
Jackson's, nor Mr. Erving's, induced me to censure anyone for it.
On the contrary, till Mr. Adams's deliberate and offensive attack

MUTUAL VITUPERATION. 279

stimulated me to search for proof of his guilt or folly (which I am
about to exhibit), I really thought, and said, he was guilty of nothing
more than one of his frequent blunders. About to convict him, as
he has left me no alternative but to do so, all I ask of the impartial
of all parties is to read his outrageous attack, made with ungovern-
able acrimony, as my justification for the severity of a retort which,
less bitter, will, perhaps, be more poignant than the attack. The
reaction shall be, mathematically at least, equal to the action.

At the time of my publication, and during all the last session of
Congress, nothing came from him on the subject of what he calls
Tex-ass. He reserved it, he says, for summer study at home ; and
early last month the autumnal result appeared, in three 'philippics,
spoken and printed at Boston, Bridgwater, and Weymouth, in which
General Jackson, Mr. Tyler, Mr. Polk, Mr. Calhoun, Mr. Irving,
Mr. A. Y. Brown, and myself, are arraigned as conspiring to calum-
niate him : convicted, sentenced, and executed, as far as hard words,
bitter thoughts, and fustian diction go ; and his victims are pulve-
rized, ground to impalpable powder, subjected to "Waterloo defeat,
blown to atoms, imbedded like insects in the amber of his eloquence,
grasshoppers stuck in the snouts of beasts. This is his own rhetoric.
He says that the viperous breath of slander is shed upon him from
my forked tongue. I am " the politician of the Eive Points,"* whose
rattlesnake malignity against him had an origin congenial to that of
the hero of the hermitage.f I am hypocrite, slanderer, sycophant :
until at last, rising to the grand climax of vituperation, in a catas-
trophe which must injure one or the other of us, Mr. Adams indig-
nantly snatches from the village newspapers their rubric of the press,
and bravely declares that, whatever I may think of his qualifications
for public affairs, he has shown that he does not want those necessary

'* To put in every honest hand a whip,
And lash the rascal naked round the world."

Before I defend myself — which is a minor consideration with the
world — I shall endeavour to make it acquainted with Mr. Adams's
connection with what he calls the Tex-ass robbery. His voluminous
defence consists in what he deems full proof that we have neither
right nor claim to that country. The letter I now publish, from
John Quincy Adams, Secretary of State, is addressed by him in that

* The lowest and most disreputable part of the city of New York.
t General Jackson.

280 THE ANNEXATION OF TEXAS.

capacity to the late G-eorge Graham, Commissioner of the General
Land Office.

Mr. Adams's letter to Mr. Graham must be introduced by a short
explanation. The two brothers, Generals Charles and Henry Lalle-
mand, pining in want, obscurity, and idleness, schemed the erection
of a Spanish kingdom in Mexico and Texas, of which Joseph
Bonaparte was to be monarch. One or both of them went to Texas
on an errand which produced Mr. Secretary Adams's letter of instruc-
tions to Mr. Graham, despatched to that country secretly by Presi-
dent Monroe, to prevent any surreptitious occupation of any part of ib
by French, Spanish, or any other intruders. From the Mississippi to
the Sabine, from the Sabine to the Colorado, from the Colorado to
the Bravo, from the mouth of that river, on the Gulf of Mexico, to
its northern source beyond the Green Mountains, even to Lieutenant
Fremont's peak beyond the south pass in Oregon, — all this did Mr.
Adams insist upon in June, 1818, as the United States, which he
gave away in February, 1819, six months after, because, he says,
they had no right, made no claim to it, and whoever says so is liar,
knave, and fool.

Now the argument of all Mr. Adams's denunciation of General
Jackson, of Mr. Tyler, of Mr. Polk, of Mr. Calhoun, of Governor
McDuffie, of Mr. Brown, of Mr.Erving, and of me, the whole argument
of not less than a volume of print, the result of all his Midsummer
Nights' Dreams is, that the United States had no right to Texas
beyond the Sabine ; that they made no claim to Texas beyond the
Colorado ; that they never dreamed of Texas as far as the Bravo ;
and that, as to the Santa Fe settlements on the north of that river,
it would have been the grossest injustice and absurdity to make any
pretension to them. Mr. Adams has been in the habit, I have under-
stood, of terming General Jackson a Tennessee barbarian. In his
Braintree philippics, the General's double-dealing, imposture, folly,
ignorance, profligacy, mendacity, — in one word, his villany, — in this
Texas aifair, are painted in the blackest colours. He is called
Tiberius Caesar, Louis XL of France, Ferdinand the Catholic of
Spain ; robber, thief, hickory hero, and the like ; Medusa, with a
Gorgon's head ; Ate, hot from Hell ; Alaric, the pest of natiems ;
Attila, the scourge of God, are conjured into Adams's jargon, the
whole strain of elaborated allegation, with what he pronounces over-
whelming proofs, that, as Texas never did belong to the ITnited
States, and never was claimed by them, it was monstrous injustice

MUTUAL VITUPERATION. 281

to Mexico for Greneral Jackson, by what Mr. Adams calls his God-
defying villany to rob that country from Mexico ; and it is monstrous
traduction of Mr. Adams for Greneral Jackson to express his astonish-
ment that our government gave it up by the Florida treaty. General
Jackson is expressly compared by Mr. Adams to a horse thief for
doing so ; and setting forth the defence of this horse-thief, as Mr.
Adams says he heard him make it in Boston, he pronounces it a
much better justification for stealing the horse than General Jackson
has for what Mr. Adams calls stealing Texas from Mexico. What are
we to think then of the statesman, or honest man, or any man, who, after
spending a whole summer, with his unquestionably superior advantages
and the best opportunities of making good his case, is thus easily con-
victed, by the records of his own department, by a letter under his
own signature, every line of which bears intrinsic evidence of Mr.
Monroe's wary patriotism, and of Mr. Adams's peculiar diplomacy ?
And what shall we say at that sting at a benefactor who warmed him
in his bosom, when Mr. Adams writes of Mr. Monroe, that he was
more than indifferent as to Texas.

I am not now arguing the Texas question. All that I am attempt-
ing, at present, is to defend myself from Mr. Adams's outrageous
attack, in which many eminent personages are implicated as con-
spirators with me to rob a neighbouring country of its possessions,
and an honourable man of his reputation. And our best offensive
defence is to convict him, as this letter of his does.

* Mr. IngersolVs Address to the Public, December 1th, 1844.

I think my readers will be not only obliged to me for
giving this ewpose of the want of integrity, and of even the
decencies of consistent fraud, in the highest functionaries
of the United States Government ; but amused, if not
much edified, at this mild specimen of the manner in which
the most prominent men of the country carry on their
warfare against each other. But the great fact which I

* The author of this letter, Mr. Charles J. Ingersoll, an active member of
Congress, must not be confounded with his brother Mr. Joseph Ingersoll, who
was a few years back United States' Minister in London, a worthy specimen of an
American gentleman, though he was, I believe, (like his immediate successor,
Mr. Buchanan, and the present incumbent) originally " a Philadelphia Lawyer."

282 THE ANNEXATION OF TEXAS.

have beeD anxious to establish, and I think I have done
it eflfectually, is that neither Jefferson, Madison, Monroe,
Adams, nor Clay, had the least belief in the justice of
the claims with which for sixteen years they vexed and
harassed the Court of Spain, which they abandoned with
reluctance, and for the assertion of which by their
congenial successors, their own ineffectual and false
assumptions were made the pretext.

From this branch of the subject I now return to an-
other, as heavily laden with the bitter fruits of American
diplomacy.

CHAPTER X.

ANNEXATI0:N' of TEX as— (Continued).

Mexican Affairs — War of Independence — War with Texas — Battle of San Jacinto
— Overtui'es for Annexation rejected by the United States — Texas turns to
Europe for Aid — President Tyler's Policy — Election of Mr. Polk — Kesolu-
tion for the Annexation of Texas — Final Consummation of the Work.

The opposition in the United States to the acquisition
of Louisiana in 1804 was very formidable to the govern-
ment. It was fiercely objected to in the northern portions
of the Union as giving extension and stability to slavery,
at all times very odious there. And it was, moreover,
considered to be in actual violation of the Constitution,
which, it was asserted, gave no authority to the Union, as
it existed then, for the acquisition of foreign territory.

The measure was, however, carried. Yet while Jeffer-
son defended its policy as wise and necessary, he himself
admitted that the letter and spirit of the Constitution
were both strained to their utmost, if not stretched too far,
to meet the exigency of the case. Defending this measure
on the principle of necessity — the salus populi, to which
all acts of legislation are justly subservient — he proposed
an act of indemnity for the past transaction ; and even
an amendment of the Constitution, for the purpose of
admitting the incorporation of Florida with the Union,
the anticipated sequel to the purchase of Louisiana.

284 THE ANNEXATION OF TEXAS.

The prosperity which in a few years accrued to the
newly admitted territory — which was soon divided into
the three States of Louisiana, Arkansas, and Missouri —
silenced all objections and converted all opponents. And
the minds and eyes of the people, traversing with a glance
the turbid waters of the Mississippi, were quickly and
firmly fixed on the immense and fertile plains beyond
them, with an admiring and a covetous gaze. Ignorant
of the value of these unknown tracts, they had hitherto
looked with indifierence on the efforts of the govern-
ment to extort them from Spain. But their great im-
portance being now palpable and understood, a general
desire for their possession began to spread throughout
the Union.

Hardy adventurers were, little by little, taking posses-
sion of the soil under Mexican grants. A few Spaniards
and some American buccaneers roamed over the country.
A desperado named Long, and another called Lafitte, " the
Pirate of the Gulf," became distinguished among the
vagrant population. The former of these men, with
perhaps a hundred followers, went so far as to put forward
a mock declaration of independence. He lived to see the
country shake off the yoke of Spain, and was soon after
assassinated in the city of Mexico, to which place he went
for the purpose of sharing in the triumph of success.

Mexico commenced in 1821 her war for Independence
against Spain ; and it was terminated, gloriously for the
cause of freedom, in 1836, on the 12th of December of
which year a treaty of peace, concluded at Madrid,
acknowledged the independence of Mexico, and her right
to all the revolted territories in her possession.

But as early as 1825, during the war, and about two
years after the recognition of Mexican independence by

WAR FOR INDEPENDENCE. 285

the United States, as soon in fact as decency permitted
the open avowal of their policy in making that recognition,
but in manifest contempt of the national rights and of the
protest of Spain, John Quincy Adams, President, and
Henry Clay, Secretary of State, tried a first attempt to
secure a transfer of Texas, from the rebel province of
Mexico, whose title was of course unsound until victory
changed the doubtful revolt into a successful revolution.
For occupation of territory in war gives no title until the
occupation is made permanent by a treaty of peace. Mr.
Clay, by letter dated March 25th, 1825, strongly urged
Mr. Poinsett, the United States' minister at Mexico, to
carry out the views of the President, by persuading the
Mexican Government to substitute for the River Sabine,
" either the Rio Brasses de Dies, or the Rio Colorado,
or the Rio del Norte," as the western boundary of
Louisiana.

On the 15th of March, 1827, Mr. Clay renewed his
soft-persuasions, through the minister at Mexico, saying,
that " the President (still J. Q. Adams) thinks the present
might be an auspicious period for urging negotiations to
settle the boundary of the two Republics. The boundary
we prefer,^' continued Mr. Clay, " is that, which beginning
at the mouth of the Rio del Norte at the sea, should ascend
the river, etcetera, to the southern bank of the Arkansas
to its source in latitude 40° north ; and thence to that
parallel of latitude to the South Sea.'' He adds, that
" the government might be disposed to pay a reasonable
pecuniary compensation (which he fixed at a million of
dollars), and that the treaty might provide for the incor-
poration of the inhabitants into the Union."

Mexico not being willing to grant the required accom-
modation, nothing was effected by the quasi- Whig adminis-

286 THE ANNEXATIOI^ OF TEXAS.

tration of Adams and Clay ; and it remained for their
democratic successors, President Jackson and his Secretary
of State Van Buren, to try their skill in the matter.

Mr. Van Buren accordingly wrote to the then United
States' minister at Mexico, August 25th, 1829, as follows :
— " It is the wish of the President that you should, with-
out delay, open a negotiation with the Mexican govern-
ment for the purchase of so much of the province of
Texas as hereinafter described. The territory of which a
cession is desired by the United States, is all that part of
the province of Texas which Hes east of a line beginning
at the Gulf of Mexico, in the centre of the desert, or
grand prairie, which Hes west of the Rio Nueces. The
treaty may provide for the incorporation of the inhabitants
into the Union." And the sum of five milHon dollars was
ofiered as an equivalent.

But Mexico still decKning, General Jackson again re-
turned to the charge. Through Mr. Livingston, then
Secretary of State, on the 20th of March, 1833, he renewed
to the minister at Mexico the former instructions on the
subject of the proposed cession.

On the 2nd of July, 1835, Mr. Forsyth, then Secretary
of State, repeats those instructions by desire of the per-
severing general, and expresses " an anxious desire to
secure the very desirable alteration in the boundary with
Mexico."

On the 6th of August, 1835, Mr. Forsyth once more
instructed the United States' minister at Mexico to
" Endeavour to procure the following boundary : beginning
at the Gulf of Mexico, proceeding along the eastern b^k
of the River Bravo del Norte to the 37th parallel of
latitude, and thence along that parallel to the Pacific."
" This noble and glorious proposition of General Jack-

WAR FOR INDEPENDENCE. 287

son," as Mr. Walker triumphantly calls it in his letter,
received no more favour than the less glorious one by
some degrees — of latitude — of Mr. Adams, or than any of
the others. And with this last-dated seems to have ended
all attempts at the proposed purchase. The United States
were thus doubly foiled. They could not persuade the
benighted Spaniards that it was their interest to give up
for nothing — nor the besotted Mexicans that it was theirs
to sell for next to nothing, in comparison with its value —
either the whole or part of the magnificent territory, con-
taining 300,000 square miles of the richest and most
fertile soil in the world.

Through the whole period of the negotiations the war
between Spain, the mother country, and Mexico, the rebel
colony, was fiercely raging. The rebelhon had had no
absolute result. Even as late as July 27th, 1829, the
Spanish General Barradas, with an army of 4000 men,
had captured the Mexican city of Tampico, which he held
until the 20th of September following. Yet, on the 25th
of August, 1829, the fate of this important expedition
being undecided, and the question of Mexican inde-
pendence still entirely in doubt, the administration of
Jackson and Yan Buren proposed, as we have seen, the
purchase of Texas from Mexico ; the treaty being still in
full force by which the United States had confirmed the
right of Spain to the much coveted territory, and while
the war for its severance from the mother country was
fomented, and mainly carried on, by the enterprize and
valour of American citizens.

That the war was so encouraged and assisted by
the people of the United States, with the ulterior object
of obtaining possession of Texas, admits of not the
smallest doubt. The premature recognition of Mexican

288 THE ANNEXATION OF TEXAS.

independence in 1823, the haste with which negotiations
for the purchase were commenced by one administration,
and the perseverance by which they were followed up by
its successor, the inducements of protection and pecuniary
aid held out to the Mexicans during their hazardous
struggle, are proofs sufficient of the motives w^hich urged
the United States, in the apparently generous support
which they gave to the revolt. No one who has looked
into this question will give them credit for a single action
or motive really " noble or glorious." That many deeds
of personal bravery were acted by the American settlers
in Texas, and by the volunteers who joined them from the
States, is true. But it is equally so that the government
and the country at large were influenced only by ambitious
and selfish views, and by that inordinate thirst for terri-
torial dominion which could be quenched in nothing less
expansive than the Pacific Ocean.

It will have been observed that in all the attempts to
carry out this object, not one of the Presidents, Secretaries
of State, or ministers, talk of the proposed arrangement with
Mexico as aught but " a transfer of Texas to the United
States," " a settlement of the boundary between the two
RepubHcs," an offer of "compensation" to Mexico, "a
purchase of a portion of the province of Texas," " an
alteration in the boundaries with Mexico."

Not an allusion is made to " r^-annexation," to "r^-
acquisition," to " r^-possession," "the restoration of ancient
boundaries," or " the recovery of what was once their own ;''
thus giving the lie by implication to all that had been said
before, and by anticipation to the profligate adoption^ of
those phrases, which subsequently formed the staple of
the arguments put forth by the leading organs of the
annexation party in support of their project. The truth

WAR FOR INDEPENDENCE. 289

slipped out in Mr. J. Q. Adams's speech in Congress
before quoted. All the revived claims, in virtue of the
pretended acquisition of rights by the cession of Louisiana,
were " plainly an afterthought — a mere device conjured
up for the occasion/'

And how well did the inventors of this device under-
stand the temper of the people they would delude, and
how unscrupulously did they labour to delude them !
Knowing the fearful risk to the existence of the Union
involved in the acquisition of Texas, these advocates of
annexation strove, in defiance of truth and reason, to
persuade the ignorant throughout the country that Texas
had been once " their own," and that justice demanded
that they should " again" obtain it. This is a precisely
parallel case to the whole mass of false declamation
poured out a few years previously on the question of the
north-eastern boundary between Maine and the British
North American provinces, by which the people of the
United States were roused into spurious enthusiasm, and
actually forced into a belief in their right to the territory
claimed, which at last became as rooted as their religious
faith.

Seeing how the United States behaved to Spain in
reference to this Texas question, let us now glance at their
conduct as regards Mexico, while tracing the proceedings
of the latter State in reference to Texas itself.

During the conflict with the mother country, and as
the best means of organising and consolidating the
national resistance, the rebel government of Mexico
adopted, in the year 1824, a Federal Union similar to
that existing in the United States ; establishing several
independent State Governments. Texas, being incor-
porated with the province of Cohaquila, was recognised as

290 THE ANNEXATION OF TEXAS.

one of those independent States, and as such admitted
into the confederacy.

A succession of domestic revolutions, and a number of
Presidents in a short time, were the fruits of, and the
obstacles to, the rapid triumph of the new RepubUc.
Mihtary leaders quickly rose and disappeared, the general
accusation against them, on the part of their several
rivals, being that they had, each and all, been guilty of
violations of the Constitution of 1824. A series of
tyrannical despotisms all over the country, and an almost
paralyzing anarchy, seemed to call imperatively for one
bold Dictator, to swallow up all the rest. This fearful
desideratum was obtained, in the person of Santa Anna,
an intrepid and unscrupulous soldier. He ralHed the
discontent and desperation of the country into a success-
ful opposition against Bustamente, the President of the
Republic in ] 833 ; and on the latter being deposed and
banished, Santa Anna succeeded to the Presidency, almost
immediately issuing a decree, by which all the States'
governments were abohshed, and the whole power of the
government concentered in himself.

All the separate States of the confederacy submitted,
with the exception of the provinces of Zucatea and Texas.
The first of these raised a force of 5000 men to oppose
the decree. But after a vain resistance and great slaughter
they were defeated and reduced to entire submission.

Texas hastened to join issue with the hitherto successful
Dictator. She flew to arms ; gallantly opposed the first
attack of Mexican invaders on her territory, and after
several conflicts with far inferior numbers, defeated General
Cos and made him and his division prisoners.

The United States, constant to their poHcy of fostering
every efi'ort that might bring the possession of Texas

WAR WITH TEXAS. 291

nearer to their reach, gave ample assistance to the re-
cusant province, in men, money, and munitions of war.
Without this aid the Texans could not have successfully
coped with the enterprising and experienced Santa Anna,
backed by the undivided force of Mexico, for the war
against Spain had now virtually ceased.

Santa Anna in person soon took the place of his defeated
General Cos, but only to follow his fate. After some
rapid military operations, attended with ferocious cruelty,
the worst of which was the butchery, in cold blood, of the
Texan Colonel Fannin, Colonel Bowie, the celebrated in-
ventor of the national weapon, the knife that bears his
name, and nearly five hundred other prisoners of war,
Santa Anna was ingloriously surprised by the Texan force,
under Houston the newly-chosen President of the young-
Republic, and captured with the whole of his army, at
the affair called by courtesy the battle of San Jacinto, in
the month of April, 1836.

This action was decisive of the war. Some feeble efforts
and many empty threats were put forth by Mexico at
various periods since that event ; in defiance of the recog-
nition of Texan independence, under the hand of Santa
Anna and his chief ofiicers, as the condition of their
release from captivity."^' But that independence was from
that day entirely established, and out of all danger, except
that arising from the persevering efforts, insidious and

* The convention signed by Santa Anna and his officers was never ratified by
the Mexican Government after Santa Anna's return, a sufficient evidence of bad
faith on the part of the defeated despot. This document among other articles
contains the following one : —

" Fourth. That the President (Santa Anna), in his official capacity as Chief of
the Mexican nation, and the Generals Don Vincete Tilasola, Don Jose Urea,
Don Joaquin Kamirez y Sesma, and Don Antonio Gaona, chiefs of armies, do
solemnly acknowledge, sanction, and ratify the full, entire, and perfect indepen-
dence of the Republic of Texas, with such boundaries as hereafter set forth and
agreed upon for the same."

u 2

292 THE ANNEXATION OF TEXAS

open, of her grasping neighbour the United States of
America.

It will be seen from the foregoing sketch that the war
of Mexican Independence against Spain continued fifteen
years, from 1821 to 1836 ; and that the war of Texan
Independence lasted three years from 1833 to 1836 ; and
that no treaty of peace was ratified between the two
powers (Mexico and Texas), although the war had been
virtually at an end since the battle of San Jacinto.*

The United States, from motives sufficiently evident,
acknowledged the independence of Mexico in 1823, in
about two years after the commencement of the war
between that country and Spain. And on the 25th of
March, 1825, two years after that recognition, Mr. J. Q.
Adams the Whig President, through Mr. Clay his Secretary
of State, began the negotiation with Mexico (in full revolt
at the time) for the acquisition of Texas, thus endeavour-
ing to establish the principle, that the acknowledgment of
Mexican independence by the United States, absolved the
latter from all international obligations to Spain, as far as
that question was concerned. Such was the doctrine on
which the negotiation with Mexico was based. Now, the
United States, under the Democratic President Jackson,
acknowledged the independence of Texas in 1836, three
years after the commencement of her war against Mexico.
And we have seen that in 1836 the war was, for every
pm^pose of independence, finished, by the defeat of the

It must be mentioned that Texas, considering the war as nominally existing,
followed the bad example of Mexico, and attempted occasional marauding
expeditions across her frontier, wretchedly planned, miserably conducted, and
always failing. The most remarkable of these was that attempted in the summer
of 184 1, known as the Santa Fe expedition. Nothing could exceed the ignorance
and incapacity with which this abortive foray was conducted until its final
capture by the Mexican forces, according to the accounts published by some of
the American and English adventurers engaged in it.

REJECTED BY THE UNITED STATES. 293

Mexican President, the capture of his army, and the signa-
ture of a convention equivalent to a treaty, by himself
and his chief officers. If in the former case the United
States were justified, as they pretended, in treating with
rebelhous Mexico (in 1825) for the cession of Texas,
assuredly the reasons for treating with independent Texas,
for the cession of any part of her territory, or the annexa-
tion of the whole of it, were infinitely stronger in 1837.

On the 4tli of August in that ^^ear (Mr. Van Buren
being the Democratic President), the republic of Texas —
weak, disorganized, threatened still by Mexico, doubting
her own ability to maintain her hard- won independence,
aware of the oft-repeated efforts of the United States
to obtain the junction of her territories to the great
Union — formally proposed the so long-wished-for annexa-
tion, through her accredited minister at Washington,
General Memucan Hunt.

On the 25th of August, Mr. Forsyth, Secretary of State,
in the name of the President, peremptorily decHned the
proposal."*

The grounds for this immediate rejection of the pro-
posed annexation were strange enough, when considered
in connection with all that the United States had been
labouring so hard to effect for thirty-four years pre-
viously, ever since the acquisition of Louisiana in 1803.

Mr. Forsyth informs General Hunt, in the first place,
that "two large additions (Louisiana and Florida) have
been made to the domain of the United States since the
adoption of the Constitution. In acquiring them this
government was not actuated by a mere thirst for sway
over a broader space. The circumstance of their being

* The coirespoudeuce is contained in the fourteenth volume of the ** Ilegister

of Debates."

294 THE ANNEXATION OF TEXAS

colonial possessions of France and Spain renders those
transactions materially different from that which would
be presented by the annexation of Texas. The latter is
a State with an independent government, acknowledged
as such by the United States, and claiming a territory
beyond, though bordering on the region ceded by France
in the treaty of the 30th April, 1803."

But the second section of Mr. Forsyth's official refusal
is still more startling.

He goes on to say, " So long as Texas remains at war
while the United States are at peace with her adversary,
the proposition of the Texan minister-plenipotentiary neces-
sarily involves the question of war with that adversary.
The United States are bound to Mexico by a treaty of
amity and commerce, which will be scrupulously observed
on their part, as long as it can be reasonably hoped that
Mexico will perform her duties and respect our rights
under it. The United States might justly be suspected of
a disregard of the friendly purposes of the compact if the
overtures of General Hunt were to be even reserved for
future consideration ; as this would imply a disposition on
our part to espouse the quarrel of Texas with Mexico — a
disposition wholly at variance with the spirit of the treaty,
with the uniform policy and the obvious welfare of the
United States."

The history of diplomacy furnishes no instance of
greater want of candour, nor the history of States a
greater absence of generosity, than is contained in the
above paragraph, well known to be not merely the dicta-
tion, but the production of Mr. Martin Van Buren. -.

Well might Texas be indignant and disgusted. After
all her efforts to effect a separation from Mexico, for the
oft-avowed purpose of meeting the wishes and views of

REJECTED BY THE UNITED STATES. 295

the United States by a junction of the two countries, after
all the sacrifices on the one hand and the encouragement
and promises on the other, Texas found herself at the very
moment of success, and having overcome all obstacles,
heartlessly thrown aside, to sink or swim on the political
ocean, without pilot or chart by which to shape her
perilous course.

And what were the excuses for the rejection of her
offer?

First, that Texas was at war with Mexico.

And in what position was Mexico while the United
States laboured hard for successive years to obtain from
her government the annexation of Texas ? Was she not
at war with Spain ? And if it were then right and fair
to annex to the United States a large portion of Mexico,
what possible objection could there be against a Union
with Texas — on this ground of war 1

But the war was notoriously at an end — and the excuse
was in every sense a mockery.

But secondly, says Mr. Van Buren, by his organ Mr.
Forsyth, " the United States was bound to Mexico by a
treaty of amity ; and to do anything implying a disregard
of the friendly purposes of the compact would be at
variance with the uniform polic?/ of the United States."

This was gravely asserted by Mr. Van Buren as Pre-
sident in 1837, the very man who, as Secretary of State
in 1829, opened a negotiation with Mexico for the annexa-
tion of this very same territory of Texas, while Mexico
was at war with Spain, and while a "treaty of amity"
existed between the United States and Spain.

One is really puzzled whether to be more amazed at
the sophistry or amused by the coolness of this trans-
action.

296 THE ANNEXATION OF TEXAS,

The truth of the case was this. Van Buren, cunning
and timid, a stickler for appearances, dared not in the
face of the world venture on the annexation of Texas so
soon. The acknowledgment of independence was too
recent — its object too obvious. The policy was to delay
awhile, till the decencies of public law and the pro-
prieties of comity were to a certain degree satisfied —
and then !

Even Mr. Walker, in his peculiarly unintentional candour,
admits the fact, while making it an argument for his own
case.

" It is true," says he, " that in 1837, within a few weeks or
months succeeding our recognition of the independence of Texas,
and before her recognition by any foreign powers, it might have
subjected us to unjust imputations, and therefore might have been
deemed mexpedient, at such a time, and under such circumstances, to
reannex Texas by a treaty to this Union." Letter, p. 7.

The Italics are Mr. Walker's own, and he could have
got but small credit for them from Mr. Van Buren.

Had General Jackson been President in 1837 he pro-
bably would have been less scrupulous than his wary suc-
cessor, although he figures also in this long chapter of
inconsistencies, in a way to show that notwithstanding his
arduous efforts to obtain possession of Texas in 1829,
1833, and 1835, he saw no necessity at all for its occupa-
tion in 1820. In a recently pubhshed letter of his, to
Mr. Monroe, at that time President, General Jackson
gives his approval to the Florida treaty and the boundary
it gave to Louisiana, declaring his opinion emphatically
that "a hostile army would never attempt an invasion of
the United States from the side of Texas." Yet it is on
military grounds only, and from the bugbear apprehension

TEXAS TURNS TO EUROPE FOR AID. 297

of a British invasion, vict Texas, that Jackson afterwards
lent his voice to swell the chorus for annexation. But if,
in reference to this transaction, Jackson showed some of
the waywardness and forgetfulness of old age. Van Buren
played the not more dignified part of an amorous coquette,
leading on, by every art, the proposal he longed for, and
rejecting it when made, from pretended scruples, hoping
by protracting consent to make triumph more secure.
Festina lente is hoAvever a deceptive practical axiom,

" If you will not when you may,
When you will she may say nay,"

has great proverbial wisdom in its moral. There is many
a slip 'twixt cup and lip. Delays are dangerous; and in
this case they proved almost fatal.

Texas — foiled, deceived, and spurned by the government
of the United States — turned at once to Europe for the
realization of her hopes of independence. Eecognised by
England, France, and other countries of the old w^orld, the
feeling of her growing force and the sense of her interests
were awakened in the young Republic ; and she went on
gradually attaining, but with various fluctuations between
old attachments and new connections, an understanding of
what was wisest and best for her to do.

The modern history of Texan policy was known in
England, through the pubhcations of Mr. Kennedy and
others, far better than that of those remote periods — those
dark ages of American diplomacy — on which I hope I
have succeeded to throw some light. I do not therefore
now enter into details of what was done, or into specu-
lations as to how it was done on the part of the British
and Texan governments,, to strengthen and consolidate
their commercial connection. I will confine myself to the

298 THE ANNEXATION OF TEXAS.

proceedings of the United States, the progress of which
was so abruptly checked in the manner described.

Van Buren and Forsyth were the victims of miscalcu-
lation—nothing more. They fully imagined that they
had time enough before them to carry the affair to a suc-
cessful termination, and in Mr. Van Buren's own pecuhar
way. They reckoned with a blind confidence, approaching
to fatuity, on Van Buren's being re-elected President for
a second term. And had he been so they would assuredly,
in fitting time and season, have brought to bear a renewal
of the proposal they had once rejected. But the pohtical
wheel turned round the wrong w^ay for the completion of
their schemes. The election of 1840 ended in Van Buren's
entire defeat ; and General Harrison was chosen to take
his place by a large majority of the States.

Harrison was inaugurated on the' 4th of March 1841.
Within a month from that day he died. And Mr.
John Tyler, the Vice-President, was called on, in accord-
ance with the forms of the Constitution, to fill the
Office of Chief magistrate of the Union, for the unex-
pired remainder of the four years constituting the Pre-
sidential term.

The struggles of this " accidental " President between
the two parties he had successively betrayed and by which
he was successively rejected, will form curious matter
for American history. I have now only to touch on that
one memorable transaction of his career by means of
which he contrived to cause more risk to the future secu-
rity of his country than by all his previous attempts,
which only damaged the stability of the two dominant
parties, but left all great national principles unharmed.

On the 22d of April, 1844, Mr. Tyler sent a message to
Congress, announcing that he had concluded a treaty with

PRESIDENT TYLERS POLICY. 299

the Texan Government, for the annexation of that repubUc
to the United States.

The particular manner in which this treaty was nego-
tiated, the way in which Mr. Tyler and his Secretary of
State, Mr. Upshur, coaxed the government of Texas to
make the proposal, the undignified correspondence com-
menced by Upshur, and carried on after his melancholy
death by Mr. Calhoun, the paltry fabrications about English
interference, and the rejection of the treaty by the Senate
of the United State have been related and commented on
by many good authorities ; and with the exception of a
few Tyler newspapers — and there existed none such of any
weight or character — these riieasures met with general
reprobation even in the United States. Mr. John Quincy
Adams was not, in American phrase, a very reliable
authority on any subject opposed to his immediate pre-
judices. But on this occasion he so felicitously and cha-
racteristically described the doings of Mr. Tyler, that I will
transcribe the passage and adopt it as genuine history.

" You are aware that Jolm Tyler, the Vice-President of the United
States, acting as President, and self-styled President of the United
States, during the last session of Congress, laid before the senate for
their consideration and action, a paper, purporting to be a treaty for
the annexation of the republic of Texas, including several states of
the republic of Mexico, assumed by the constitution of Texas as
forming part of her territories, hut never having been so, to these
United States. The history of the negotiation of that treaty, if ever
written, will unfold a series of transactions surpassing in profligacy
anything which ever sullied the annals of this confederation. It was
rejected by a majority of more than two-thirds of the senate, and
thereby the honour of the country was redeemed by that body. The
whole transaction was in flagrant violation of the constitution, and
its consummation, had it been effected, would have been itself a
dissolution of the existing Union. It was an attempt fraudulently
to intrude upon the free states of the Confederation a new swarm of

300 THE ANNEXATION OP TEXAS.

states, with constitutions stained with human blood, tainted with
perpetual hereditary slavery, and repudiating the self-evident truths
of the Declaration of Independence, of 4th July, 1776. And to this
swarm of God-defying states, this unhallowed league and covenant
pledged a right of admission to the senate of two slave-trafficking
senators to each state, an& into the House of Eepresentatives, and
the electoral colleges of President and Vice-President a double repre-
sentation of all the slaveholders of the intruding states. To have
submitted to such a compact of infamy, would have been to sink
yourselves into the vilest and most helpless of slaves, nor would you
have submitted to it while a drop of republican blood circulated in
your veins."

And this passage from Mr. Adams's speech at Bridge -
water in Massachusetts introduces a main feature in the
mora] aspect of the Texas Question, which I have hitherto
avoided, as unnecessary to be mooted in the consideration
of its merely historical or diplomatic bearings. I allude
to the fact so well knowm, that the curse of slavery was
introduced into Texas, and that to perpetuate it was one
of the chief objects of the annexation of the country to
the United States. But of this by and bye.

On the rejection of the treaty of annexation by the
United States Senate, a new and bold device was imagined,
namely the admission of Texas into the Union, by con-
current resolutions of the two branches of Congress ; and
the most active measures were resorted to by Mr. Tyler
and the adherents of Mr. Calhoun, to prepare the Ame-
rican people by the most tempting arguments to entertain
the question in the newly proposed form. And this was
attended with complete success, in as far as the Democratic
party was concerned. N

Scorned and scoffed at by the whole country, without
any influence beyond the circle of mean expectants on
whom he had still the power of conferring offices for the

PRESIDENT Tyler's policy. 301

year or less remaining of his own term of service, Mr.
Tyler clung to the belief that by pressing forward his
plans for the annexation of Texas he might secure his
election as President in November, 1844, for which office
he had the weakness to get himself nominated by some of
his clique. In this hope he utterly failed. He was
obliged for very shame's sake to retire almost at once
from the contest he had so foolishly tempted, for he soon
discovered that he had not the remotest chance of obtain-
ing a single electoral vote out of the 275, on the majority
of which the election depended.

But in withdrawing his name he could not unfortu-
nately take back the great mischief with which it had
been identified. The proposed annexation of Texas,
which even the most rabid of the Democratic party would
have spurned sooner than take Tyler along with it, was
now seized on as the only effectual principle on which
that great party had any certain chance of combatting
the claims of Henry Clay, and of the enormous influence
of the Whigs, who had unanimously chosen him for their
candidate at the convention held for the purpose of such
nomination at Baltimore in the month of May, 1844.

" Annexation of Texas " became from that moment
the watchword of the Democratic party. Every other
object was merged in that ; every other rallying-cry
drowned in its vociferous utterance. It rang from one
end of the country to the other. Raised in the south,
it was re-echoed from north, east, and west, until its
reverberations centered in the heart of the Union, to be
thence sent out again in loud appeals to the most excitable
passions of the people at large.

The effects of this movement were astoundino;. Indi-
viduals and mass meetings, clubs, legislative bodies even,

302 THE ANNEXATION OF TEXAS.

who a few short months before had denounced the pro-
posed measure as fraught with danger to the country,
unconstitutional, unwise, inhuman — now suddenly changed
their note, and yelped in full cry in favour of the plan,
with all its anticipated risk and prognosticated ruin.
There was never known such an entire abandonment of
opinion, such total abnegation of principle for party's-
sake.

But the principle being adopted and proclaimed, who
was to be fixed on as the leader capable of carrying it into
operation '? There was the rub.

A Democratic convention assembled for the solution of
this difficulty at Baltimore, the scene of the late Whig
meeting, and in a few weeks after that had chosen its
candidate, with the confident expectation of triumph, a
number of Democratic names were put forward as candi-
dates for the nomination. Calhoun, Buchanan, Cass, and
various others, with more or less claims to consideration,
were on the list, but Martin Van Buren was believed to be
the man on whom the choice would fall.

The result entirely falsified this belief. Van Buren had
already sealed his fate by one of those compositions which
have signalised his political career, and which might
justify the displacing the word " Jesuitism '' from the
American language, ^^ and substituting " Van Burenism "
in its stead. He, too, as well as Mr. Polk, had been ques-
tioned about Texas. But he had not answered as well —
at least for his own purposes. With the recollection of
his former coquetry before his eyes he had not the bold-
ness, as Jackson had, to repudiate his former opinion— "br
the words in which his presumed opinion had been

* See Webster's Dictionai-y.

ELECTION OF MR. POLK. 303

couched. He nibbled at the bait held out to him, but he
could not take it all, or all at once. He answered in his
usual verbose, hesitating style. He blew hot and cold.
He was, in fact, too feeble for the crisis, and it ruined him.
He was rejected by the convention.

Among the other prominent candidates there was not
one with sufficient influence to rally a majority of the
votes. Sectional and personal prejudices ran so high as
successively to swamp them all. The convention was
coming fast to chaos. Every day their proceedings
became more and more confused. The Whigs, who
w^atched the affair, w^ere in raptures. The Democrats,
who wailed over it, were in despair. Betting became
almost stagnant. Henry Clay for the Presidency against
the whole field of his competitors was offered at any odds.
All were offerers ; there were no takers. When a sudden
inspiration fell upon the assembled convention — a gleam
of reflected light from the memory of the W^hig conven-
tion of four years previous — which, rejecting the strong
men, Clay and Scott, had unanimously chosen an " avail-
able^' nullity. General Harrison, as their candidate, and
had triumphantly elected him to the Presidential chair.
To adopt this example now was easy for the Democrats.
No feelings of gratitude, attachment, or respect to indivi-
duals stood in their way. To fling aside their best men,
all those whose former services gave them, claims, was a
matter of no difficulty ; and there were plenty of inferior
individuals in the ranks from amono* whom to choose.
What they wanted was not a lever of great might to
heave the party into power, but a small and steady pivot
round which its machinery might revolve. " Polk ! "
shouted some one by chance. Echo caught the word,
unconscious of the name ; and by acclamation Polk was

304 THE ANNEXATION OF TEXAS.

chosen. Who he was scarcely anybody knew ; but what
Httle was known of him was in his favour. He was a
sateUite of Andrew Jackson, and there was no disgrace
in attending the movements of that star of magnitude.
He was of good moral conduct, was not accused of whist
playing, and was believed to be no great drinker of wine.
He had served for a session as Speaker of Congress, and
in that station had heroically borne a gross personal
insult from Clay without demanding redress ; and on the
Texas question he had gone the whole hog ! This was
enough. He was unanimously nominated, and, to his
own astonishment and that of the wondering country, in
about six months more he was President elect of the
United States.

I will not pause here to moralise on the result of this
strange and unlooked-for election. I have alluded to it
merely as an episode to the great question on which it
depended. But two minor points connected with it must
be noticed. Mr. Dallas was chosen Vice-President, and
the Oregon question was tacked to that of Texas in order
to form a united shibboleth for the party. Polk and
Dallas were the names invoked : Texas and Oregon the
things typified. But the second mentioned in each case
were mere accessories of their antecedents. Polk for
Texas, and Texas through Polk, became two absolute
articles of the American Democratic creed.

Poor Mr. Tyler complained bitterly that Mr. Polk had
stolen his thunder ; and that he had not only also purloined
his favourite hobby, but ridden on it up to the very portal
of the " White House," which he was just then prepared
to evacuate. But he still resolved that the annexation of
Texas should be, by hook or by crook, the great work of
his small administration. And, accordingly, no sooner

KESOLUTION OF ANNEXATION. 305

was Congress re-assembled in December, 1844, than
another Tyler-Texan message was laid before it. And
on that hint the House of Representatives spake. Hold-
ing Tyler still cheaper than ever, the Democratic members,
nevertheless, fell seriously to work to carry out the scheme
of his policy. Long and animated debates took place, on
a dozen or more different sets of resolutions, proposed by
as many different men, for the immediate annexation.
Among these sets one did at last prevail. They were
proposed by a Mr. Brown, and they were finally carried
by a majority of about twenty members.

From the House these resolutions were carried into the
Senate, and referred to the committee on foreign affairs,
consisting of five members of that body, who, through
their chairman, made a report early in the month of
February, decidedly rejecting the resolutions by a majority
of four members to one. A debate on receiving this
report came on, on the 13th of February, and mixed up
with it came the consideration of a bill proposed by Mr.
Benton, in lieu of the resolutions sent up from the House
of Representatives, rejecting the principle of immediate
annexation, and calling for the appointment of commis-
sioners to negotiate with the government of Texas suitable
terms for the accomplishment of the union, in fitting time
and season.

The debates in the Senate on these conflicting propo-
sitions were animated and acrimonious. But they ended
on the 27th of February in the adoption of a resolution for
annexing Texas to the United States, which, having been
immediately approved by the House of Representatives,
and subsequently receiving the sanction of the President,
acquired all the force of a law.

Mr. Tyler, being at the last gasp of his accidental

306 THE ANNEXATION OF TEXAS.

honours, despatched a messenger in "haste, post haste" to
Texas with this news. The following extract from the
"Globe" newspaper at Washington, the great organ of
democracy and annexation, thus treats this worthy finale
of the proceedings : — ,

Me. Tyler's Haste. — We understand that Mr. Tyler mounted
one of his relations as an express, to hasten to communicate to Texas
that he, as President of the United States, had made his election as to
the alternatives contained in the late act of Congress, looking to the
admission of Texas into the "Union, and that he had chosen that
alternative which it is known could not have commaijded a majority
in the senate, and had rejected that which carried the majority in the
house up from twenty-two to fifty-six.

Mr. Tyler knows well that Congress did not intend to intrust the
discretionary power of the act to his hands. He knows well that, if
he had appointed the commissioners necessary under one of the
alternatives of the act, they would not have been confirmed to carry
out his instructions. He has, therefore, seized upon that portion of
the legislative enactment, which, if acceeded to by Texas, may involve
future difficulties in our own Congress, and mar the concord now
existing among the friends of the measure, which can alone insure
its happy consummation. He has taken the alternative, meant by
the law to be conferred on the American President, whose duty it
will be to effect the measure, from him, and given it to the Texan
executive.

But, apart from all considerations of public policy, what will the
country think of the propriety and decorum of this attempt to forestall
the action of the chief magistrate chosen by the people with an
especial eye to this question, and to whom alone it is notorious the
discretion confided in the act of Congress was intended to apply ?
It is clear that, as Mr. Tyler began his presidential career in virtue
of an accident, that he means to take the benefit of the whole chapter
of accidents, to blend himself with results having their origin in the
counsels of G-enerals Jackson and Houston, and which his inauspigjous
management has so far marred in their progress.

And such is the history of the Texas Question in those
essential points which have involved the foreign policy of

MOTIVES FOR THE ANNEXATION. 307

the United States. The motives which urged so many of
the leading men and so large a portion of the people to
persevere per fas aut nefas, for so long a period towards
the attainment of the project, may briefly be classified
under three distinct heads.

First. — The hope of thereby extending and perpetuating
the institution of negro slavery in the United States,
and of finding in Texas a better market than else-
where for their slaves.

Second. — The certainty of greatly increasing the value of
the public stock of Texas and of the public lands
heretofore granted or sold by the Mexican govern-
ment.

Third. — The immoderate passion for national aggran-
disement, common to the inhabitants of all parts of
the country.

The first of these motives is of course more prevalent in
the Southern or slave states than in the other parts of the
Union, but even in the free states of the North and East
it had many supporters. Mr. Calhoun, the Secretary of
State, openly avowed it in his notorious letter to Mr.
King, the United States' Minister at Paris, that most un-
becoming document, scarcely worthy of notice in England,
but which satisfied many persons in America that Mr.
Calhoun was entirely unfit for any post which should
unite a sense of diplomatic discretion with broad views
of policy.

Nothing could so completely prove the worthlessness of
some of the advocates of Texan annexation on this ground,
as the meanness with which they strove to evade that

X 2

308 THE ANNEXATION OF TEXAS.

portion of the question, or the hypocrisy with which they
argued against their own principle, with the view of
deceiving the opponents of slavery. Mr. Walker, quoting
another strenuous upholder of this " peculiar institution of
the south '' and advocate for " re-annexation '' — par nobile
fratrum — favoured the world with some specimens of
patriotic and philanthropic reasoning ; but I have trans-
ferred the extract from his memorable letter to the
chapter in this work which treats at large the question
of negro slavery.

The second motive of these plotters for annexation was
shared by a large body of speculators in land scrip.

The third class of motives for annexation was common
to the universal mass of the American people. And were
it not for political antipathies on the one hand, and
personal enmities on the other, both supported by the
zealous apprehensions of the abolition party throughout the
Union, the whole country would no doubt have voted with
one heart and one voice for this prodigious extension of
national territory, and have hailed joyfully the coming
events, without giving a thought to the deep shadows in
which they were shrouded.

The annexation of Texas met with very strong, and
in some instances very violent opposition in the United
States, not only on grounds of policy and expediency,
but of constitutional principle. But, unfortunately, the
question became one of party, and therefore, like all such,
was generally argued with the vehemence of factious
hatred rather than patriotic zeal. So little respect is
paid to individual opinion, and so little confidence placed
in public men, that whatever they say carries no con-
viction with it, out of their own circle of interests and
opinions. They are viewed merely in the light of lawyers,

UNCONSTITUTIONAL NATUEE OF PROCEEDINGS. 309

making the best case they can for the party that pays
them best.

It was, therefore, in vain that Chancellor Kent, Mr.
Gallatin, and other veterans solemnly pronounced the
proceedings of Congress, tending to the annexation of
Texas, by joint resolutions instead of by treaty, as entirely
unconstitutional, and also that no power is conferred by
the Constitution of the United States for the admission
of a foreign state into the Union.'"* Materials enough to
form many volumes have been furnished on this topic,
in the shape of reports, protests, speeches, messages, and
essays. Daniel Webster was understood to be the author
of a series of resolutions to the same effect, promulgated
by an anti-annexation convention held in Boston. But
his connection with the proceedings was enough to make
them fall still-born. Notoriously the pensioned agent in
the United States' Senate, of the wealthy manufacturers
and holders of manufacturing stock of that city, his
voice was stifled in the cotton, from the profits of which he
was paid. And so with the rest. Unless among their
own party, the "great men'' of the Union are small
indeed.

* Chancellor Kent on Annexation and the Invasion of Mexico. —
Chancellor Kent has given his judgment, both upon the pending war with
Mexico, and its primary cause, the annexation by Congress of Texas. In a letter
to Hon. Gan-ett Davis, he says, " I acknowledge your speech of January last on
the Annexation of Texas. I have perused it with much satisfaction, and I deem
it perfectly conclusive that the annexation of Texas by concurrent resolution of
Congress was unwarrantable, and a usurpation of the treaty-making power ; in
every view violent, unjust, unconstitutional, and most pernicious and unprincipled,
and will lead to the ruin of the Union."

Chancellor Kent had previously written a letter to Mr. Davis, on the receipt of
a copy of his speech against the Mexican war, made in the House of Representa-
tives, in May, 1846, in which he declared hia hearty concurrence in the sentiments
expressed by Mr, D. He avowed, in terms of peculiar distinctness and strength,
that Mr. Polk had himself begun the war against Mexico, in violation of the con-
stitution, and that an independent Congress would impeach him for it. — [Western
Citizen, Paris, Ky.]

310* THE ANNEXATION OF TEXAS.

No powerful expression of public feeling hostile to
annexation took place in the free states. The Boston
Convention stands alone. The Whigs elsewhere appeared
to have been paralysed by their failure in the struggle for
the presidential election a few months previously, They
thought it vain to attempt to stem the torrent ; and they
placed all their reliance on the members of their party in
the United States' Senate, where the decision of the

question rested.

And now, in conclusion of my task, I must revert to
my starting assertion, that the real merits, objects, and
ends of the Texas Question, as far as the United States
were concerned, lay in a nut shell. This homely ligure of
speech I now mean briefly to develope. Having stripped
the question of its extraneous coverings it nakedly
amounts to this :

Is the balance of political power, and with it the seat of
government, to be transferred from the Atlantic states of
the Union to those of the West 1

This was the real question, hidden under a mass of
verbiage, sophistry, and contradiction, the question never
once fairly mooted, or openly argued by the parties
concerned. It is too comprehensive, and too vast in its
consequences on the future fate of the country, to be
embraced by the narrow vision of party men in the United
States. It was obscurely hinted at, bul never largely
discussed. Local interests and personal objects absorbed
the keenest intellects engaged. The slave holder of the
South, the farmer of the West, the manufacturer and ship
owner of the East and North, no doubt entered deeply
into the aifair. But their depth is but shallowness com-
pared to the fathomless profound in which the great
future of this prodigious country is hidden. While they

THE REAL QUESTION AT ISSUE. 311

fritter away their minds in dribblets of legislation, the
mighty flood of human progress is moving onward, rapidly
but unfelt, and only visible in the quick-recurring pheno-
mena of political events, which, though viewed as mere
ordinary accidents, are links in the chain of the world's
destiny.

^^-

CHAPTER XL

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.

There is a prevalent opinion in Europe that the
Americans are an unhappy people. It has also been
stated that " there is less misery and less unhappiness in
America, than in any other part of the world/' This
latter opinion strongly bears out my own repeated notion
of the medium tone predominant in the whole colouring of
social and moral existence throughout the country ; and
it may require some comment.

Happiness is a state of feeling very difficult to define.
It is not, like health, susceptible of a general application
to all human beings. It depends in a great measure on
temperament, on the capability of enjoyment, on the
depth or shallowness of each individual's philosophy. It
is an abstraction, out of the reach of measurement or
calculation. When composed of negative advantages, such
as the absence of suffering, it must be called only con-
tentment. But all the positive goods of life, health,
wealth, domestic affection, and every combination of
refinement, will not make happy those who want the
buoyancy of spirit and the fulness of heart, that leap and

NON-ELASTICITY OP AMERICAN CHARACTER. 313

gush forth, to meet the blessings which Heaven has
showered on them.

It is certain that the American people within the
bounds of civilization are strikingly deficient in that
elasticity of character. Their moral movements seem
without a spring. Those of their physical action are
analogous. Beginning in early youth, children show little
or none of the mischievous vivacity so common in Europe.
The games of boyhood are tame in comparison with ours.
The attempts at rounders, hockey, or football, are lazy
parodies on what we perform — or have performed.
English cricket, Scotch golf, or Irish hurling are not
played by natives of the United States. I believe some
English gentlemen in New York have lately got up
cricket matches, in which no doubt a few adventurous
Americans may mix ; but I never heard of a Fives Court ;
and it was not until the year 1846 that the first racket
court (if I am rightly informed) was built in that city. I
I never saw or heard of a running match, jumping match,
or leaping with the pole. There are no packs of hounds
to be followed on foot by the country people. Fox-hunting
is altogether unknown ; and coursing is equally, so, for the
excellent reason that there are no animals of the genus
lupus on the American continent corresponding to those
in Europe called hares. The non-existence of these manly
sports which make the young people of Europe so gay,
and which keep middle-aged people from feeling (although
unfortunately they cannot keep them from growing) old,
is the main cause of that anxious and care-worn look
which gives the Yankee his proverbially melancholy air.

An Enghsh professor of gymnastics at Boston once
attempted, during my residence there, an exhibition of
foot-racing, throwing the sledge, climbing a greased pole,

314 ARE THE AMERICANS A HAPPY PEOPLE?

and catching a soap-tailed pig. It was a total failure, and
attracted no attention. The prize on the top of the pole
was reached by a boy dragged up by ropes. And even
the pig (an American one of course) refused to run. He
was, in the words of the newspaper account, " too lazy
and comfortable by half;" but the editor added, in
characteristic phraseology, "the whole affair was conducted
in a very orderly and gentlemanly manner."

The Americans are certainly far from being a happy
people, as we understand the term. In the northern and
Eastern portions of the Union they are from cHmate a
wintry people ; but the want of physical energy gives to
their amusements the air of southern indolence. The
great fun of the boys is " coasting " dow^n hill on the
frozen snow, lying flat on little square boxes called " belly-
flumps." They rarely pelt each other with snow-balls ;
and the young men I may literally say never skated in
my time of residence, that exercise being confined to mere
boys. The girls have no enjoyment in the winter season
beyond being driven out in sleighs, the name for the
European traineaux, wrapped up in cloaks, and shivering
with cold. No woman, I verily believe, ever ventured
for pleasure on an ice-covered pond in America. Long,
bracing walks in the environs of towns or country resi-
dences are not practised. But boys and girls alike slide
in the streets on their way to or from school ; and the
" side-walks " are covered with the inconvenience of this
recreation, not less inelegant for young females than dan-
gerous for passers-by. In the south there is still less
chance than towards the north of the species of enjoyment
I allude to. The enervating heats of summer, and the
sickliness of autumn, leave but little vigour for the active
pursuits of the temperate months which follow ; while the

NEGATIVE ADVANTAGES. 315

insecurity of person and property in the atmosphere of
slave-influence maintains a tone of anxious watchfulness
that debars the free population from the real advantages
of freedom.

But, notwithstanding all this, I do not consider the
Americans to be, strictly speaking, an unhappy people.
They are so deficient in all strong emotion, whether for
weal or woe, that their pleasure cannot become joy, nor
their grief amount to suffering. They laugh and weep,
are glad or sorry ; but true to the general principle in all
things, the community at large, with occasional exceptions
springing from religious fanaticism, cannot be said to rise
or fall from the ordinary level that precludes all sus-
ceptibility of either an elevated or depressing nature.
Undoubtedly this middle state of existence is far better
for the mass of mankind than the whirl of passionate
feelings which keeps both body and mind on the rack ;
but ardent individuals, who live on excitement and flourish
in excess, have little to look for in America but dis-
appointment, except in the resources of gambling and
dissipation. Politics and Trade being the absorbing
legitimate pursuits, and politics being on the narrowest
scale, no mind has much chance of expanding, even should
the ambition for expansion exist, but in the winding and
too often devious ways of commercial adventure.

One guarantee against actual unhappiness in the
American is the absence of anxiety on the score of
his own or his family's well-doing in the world. He
is quite free from the gnawing inquietude of the
great mass of Englishmen with children to provide for
and but scant means for their provision. With every
avenue to home occupation choked up, almost the only
resource for them are the distant and unhealthy colonies,

316 ARE THE AMERICANS A HAPPY PEOPLE?

at the cruel cost of long separation which parental tender-
ness fears will be eternal. The Yankee looks on his
young brood complacently as it grows quickly into man-
hood, rough and ready for anything, and with infinite
variety of resources and abundant fields for the exercise of
industry and talent.

This absence from deep domestic care lessens no doubt
the strength of feeling for those beings who are so
helpless, for we always love best those who are dependent
on us. But it leaves the mind free from agitation, and
at liberty to follow those public pursuits which no one
trammelled with private cares can properly attend to. It
is thus that the Americans, whatever their professions or
trades, become almost all pohticians. To business they
devote their minds ; to politics their affections. They
become active thinkers, but without ennobling subjects for
thought. They are absorbed in petty questions ; they look
grave, but they are not consequently unhappy. Their
excitement is intense though without endearment. They
do not indulge in the more graceful and more frivolous
enjoyments to which the European resorts, in their hours
of relaxation, which are rarely " hours of ease.^^ They have
nevertheless great pleasure in their gravity, and in mental
wrestlings with subjects that leave the heart untouched.

This is not pleasure in the European sense ; nor would
it quite satisfy Democritus or his disciples, who hold
laughing to be the best business of life. But do the four
players at a whist table, or the two antagonists in a game
of chess, present a lively picture of enjoyment '? No ; yet
the members of the " Portland," like Mr. Morphy and his
rivals, have no doubt their thrills of excitement, and are
as happy after their fashion as the gayest and fastest
dancers in town.

MYSTERIES OF MATERNITY. 317

The Americans ought not therefore to be ranked as an
unhappy people. They possess one great element of true
happiness in a general placidity of temper, although it
arises from a negative cause. Whether the flutter of
heart and the throbbing of brain, under deeper and fiercer
excitements, are more noble and more desirable is a
question of temperament not of philosophy, and every
individual must answer it from and for himself

As every European must be struck with the absence of
youthful spirit which characterises the population of the
United States, so does the progress of population itself
appear to the stranger a very mysterious matter. Few
give themselves the trouble to search for statistical
details of its aggregate increase. The newspapers, which
are in every one's hands, abstain, on a point of delicacy,
fi'om ever announcing the birth of a child ; while marriages
and deaths occupy their columns without reserve. The
impression, therefore, at first is — at least it was mine — on
looking over the daily journals, that the wealthier orders
of society, who in Europe are sure to have every addition
to their families announced to the public, are in America
a very unprolific class. This idea was much strengthened
by the extreme rarity of the appearance which indicates
an increase of population. Neither the shadow nor
substance of such a coming event is shown to the vulgar
gaze. No lady allows herself to be publicly seen while she
is visibly enceinte. A rigid confinement to her house, and
even to her " chamber,'' is observed for a considerable time
preceding her confinement, which thus bears a double
signification, while her deUvery is of a two-fold nature —
from her maternal burden, and from a term of solitary
imprisonment.

It has frequently happened to me to miss ladies from

318 ARE THE AMERICANS A HAPPY PEOPLE

the parties of the circle in which we moved, and on
inquiring after them from some mother or sister, to be
told they were " in the country," or " visiting," and on
meeting them, in probably a year or more, to find them
accompanied by a nurse with a fine, fat baby, or they
themselves holding some little waddling " responsibihty "
(to use one of their favourite words for designating
children) of whose existence I had never heard.

These children soon go from the nursery to the school-
house. If they are boys they run through their boyhood
with marvellous rapidity. As soon as they can read they
begin to study the pubhc papers. About the same period
they are turned loose into the streets, and they struggle
into newsrooms, election- wardrooms, places of business,
markets, caucuses, etcetera. They walk in political pro-
cessions, with miniature banners and small music. They
enter at once into public life. They, in fact, do almost
everything which is unbecoming to their early years, and
very little, and that very imperfectly, which would give a
grace to them. Their sports, as I have before stated,
are mere caricatures of the sports of England, and abso-
lutely painful to one who remembers the animation of the
old world, whose greatest blessing is its spirit of long-
enduring youth.

A "Boston boy" is a melancholy picture of pre-
maturity. It might be almost said that every man is
born middle-aged in that and every other great city of the
Union. The principal business of life seems to be to grow
old as fast as possible. The boy, the youth, the young
man are only anxious to hurry on to the gravity and 1?he
care of " the vale of tears." There is a velocity in their
movements, as though the hill they mount were a mere
mole-hill, and that their downward course commenced

AMERICAN BOYS AND YOUNG MEN. 319

before the youth of other countries had gained a third
of the upward path. The toils of hfe — the destiny of the
poorer classes in Europe — form the free choice of the rich
man of America, always excepting the indolent Southern
planters.

The boys are sent to college at fourteen. They leave
it, with their degrees at about seventeen. They are then
launched at once into life, either as merchants or attornies'
clerks, medical students, or adventurers in the Western
States of the Union, or in foreign countries. The interval
between their leaving school and commencing their busi-
ness career offers no occupation to give either gracefulness
or strength to body or mind. Athletic games and the
bolder field-sports being unknown, nothing being done that
we do — I mean, alas ! that we used to do — at home, all
that is left is chewing, smoking, drinking, driving hired
horses in wretched gigs with a cruel velocity, or trotting
on jaded and hard-mouthed hacks, at a speed that makes
humanity shudder, and with an awkwardness that turns
our pity for the one animal into contempt for the other.
I doubt if there exists an American gentleman who could
take a horse over a three foot rail in England, or an Irish
potato trench. Yet they constantly talk of such or such
a one being " a good rider."

Young men made up of such materials as I describe
are not young men at all. The weird sisters, who wore
beards, were not more counterfeit presentments in one
sense than they are in another. Their chief ambition is
to grow bald or gray. They are thought nothing of till
that consummation happens. They think nothing of them-
selves. They know that till they become rich they have
no influence ; and there is nothing more absurd than those
meetings called " Young Men's Conventions." They are

320 ARE THE AMERICANS A HAPPY PEOPLE %

a mockery. No act of theirs can be valid, for their title
is a false one. The class I treat of feels this. They as
soon as possible plunge into the cares of the world. They
follow business like drudges, and politics with fierce ardour.
They marry. They renounce party-going. They give up
all pretension in dress. They cannot force wrinkles and
crow's feet on their faces, but they assume and soon
acquire a pursed-up, keen, and haggard look. Their air,
manners, and conversation are alike contracted. They
have no breadth, either of shoulders, information, or
ambition. Their physical powers are subdued, and their
mental capabihty cribbed into narrow limits. There is
constant activity going on in one small portion of the
brain ; all the rest is stagnant. The money-making
faculty is alone cultivated. They are incapable of acquir-
ing general knowledge on a broad or liberal scale. All
is confined to trade, finance, law, and small, local provin-
cial information. Art, science, literature, are nearly dead
letters to them. But the foregoing opinions must be
taken like all those given wholesale and on general con-
cerns, with the usual " grain of salt," in this case a very
large one.

I have shown how in some respects the Americans
possess negative advantages that stand them in the stead
of active happiness. But there are also positive privileges
which lead to a certain kind of enjoyment which they
prize very much. The facihty for change in many ways
stands foremost among those ; and I have certainly met
with no people so prone to exercise that volatile right, in
the most serious as well as the lightest sense. Religion
and pohtics are byewords of versatility. A man may be
anything, everything, or nothing, as far as sect or party
is concerned, with ever-shifting inconstancy. And there

POLITICAL UNSTEADINESS. 321

is one particular practice which exemphfies the passion
for variety, in a strange and amusing way. I mean
the common and legahzed habit of changing their
names."

While the turbubent struggles of public life in the
United States startle the observer ; while election riots
and bloody personal encounters shock the European sense
of all that is stable and secure ; there are small analogous
traits in the quieter pursuits of the American mind that
stamp it as the most unsteady of all human combinations.
Among these, none is more striking and few are so absurd,
independent of political or party versatility, as the mania
for the changing of names ; not merely of surnames — a
thing rarely effected in England, and then only as a
necessity, attended by the acquisition of property by
bequest, inheritance, or marriage — but of Christian names
also, chajiged at will, and on the payment of a small
fee ; not always from dishonest designs, but often from
mere caprice, good or bad taste, or love of variety
— from any motive, in short, that might induce an
individual elsewhere to change a house, a horse, or a
picture.

This very common custom, besides leading to infinite
confusion as to personal identity, the verification of facts,
and the titles to property among a people so wandering,
affords a painful illustration of the little real respect as yet
generally prevalent among them for family records or
family associations.

In Europe, attachment to a family name is a sacred
sentiment. If it has been rendered eminent by an indi-
vidual, or even reputable by a succession of honest bearers,

* Portions of this chapter have alreaJy appeared in a London weekly periodical.

VOL. II. Y

322 ARE THE AMERICANS A HAPPY PEOPLE 1

few would change it, even if they could. It may not be
euphonious ; yet we are endeared to it for the sake of
those by whom it was borne before us. It may not be
celebrated ; but we hope to preserve it unsullied. It may
have been disgraced; and, in that case, we resolve to
redeem it from the stain. Even when its change for some
other brings an increase of worldly wealth, we feel that
the donor who has coupled his gift with the hard condition
of displacing our own patronymic by his has " filched from
us our good name," and we think that we pay a high price
for our good fortune. In fact, it is only in very rare
instances . of some gross individual infamy, that families
abandon their cognomen, except in compliance with the
condition of some valuable bequest that forces the change
upon an heir or a legatee.

But who in the (old) world would ever, under any
circumstances, think of changing his Christian name for
any other whatever '? Many an EngUshman dislikes his
familiar appellation, wishes his godfathers and godmothers
had had more music in their names, or more forethought
for his sensitiveness ; but, however harsh or ignoble his
Christian name may be, he is usually satisfied with it, and
cherishes it — even as a parent does an ugly child — as a
part of himself, and in honour of the old relative who
inflicted it on him at the font.

The general subject of the invention or adaptation of
surnames in England is amusing, and instructive too. It
has been calculated that there are, in existence among us,
between twenty and thirty thousand surnames, derived
from almost every possible combination of pergonal
qualities, natural objects, occupations and pursuits, locali-
ties, and from mere caprice and fancy. But once
established, they are handed down from generation to

LEVITY AND CONCEIT. 323

generation, with respect if not reverence ; occasional
changes in orthography taking place to hide their original
meanness ; or, as Camden says, " to mollify them
ridiculously, lest their bearers should seeme villified by
them/' In America, however, these changes are not
confined to slight alterations in spelling, but are adopted
bodily and by wholesale.

But I have had frequent occasion to remark that there
is, comparatively with Europe, little or no sentiment in
America, religious, personal, or local. Of the want of the
first two, the subject now in question affords ample proof;
for their existence would assuredly prevent the repeated
occurrence of this practice.

Levity and conceit are the undoubted chief causes for
this perpetual ringing of the changes on names. It would
be scarcely possible, in most cases, to trace the custom to
any reasonable or respectable motive. The changes them-
selves are, in the majority of instances, abundantly
ludicrous ; but the forwardness with which the commonest
persons thrust themselves (by implication) into known
and well-considered families, and endeavour to identify
themselves with eminent individuals, is equally re-
markable.

Here are a few examples from the yearly Hst published
by the legislature of Massachusetts. I should like to have
each individuars head subjected to a phrenological exam-
ination, to ascertain if it would bear out my notion of
the respective characters of those name-changers. The
following eight would show, perhaps, a vain-glorious pride
dashed with great effrontery : —

James Colbert becomes Colbert Mortimer ;
Caleb C. Woodman „ Emerson Mortimer ;

Y 2

324 ARE THE AMERICANS A HAPPY PEOPLE \

Hazau E. Fitz becomes Kazan WelliugtoD.
Lyman Cook „ Lyman Van Buren.

Diodate G. Coon

John Pickard
Noyes Coker
John Lawrence

Diodate Calhoun.
Daniel "VYebster.
Edward Byron.
George Washington.

Every one will understand the motives of such a choice

if choice was to be made — of names so gilded with

historic and literary fame as those of Mortimer, Wellington,
Washington, and Byron. But many, man}^ Enghshmen
are not aware that there are, or have recently been, in
existence American pohtical celebrities called Van Buren,
Webster, and Calhoun.

The bump of patriotism must be lamentably deficient
in those who abandon the peculiarly national prenomen
for any other : as Jonathan Kimball Rogers, who takes
that of John K. Rogers, and Jonathan Kendal that of
Henry Kendall.

This is like giving up Yankee Doodle for Hail,
Columbia ! the former air smacking of vulgarity, and the
other having a fine flavour."'

The romantic and lackadaisical developments must be
strong in the following young ladies ; several of them
having abandoned their good old English name — not, be it
observed, for the sake of a husband — but evidently under
the inspiration of the last sixpenny novel ; and, from

Sarah Bobbins, becoming Adelaide Austin.
Euncy Fellows „ Caroline Follows.

Euth Wedge „ Sophronia Bradford.

* The very ordinary tune, Yankee Doodle, was adopted during the Revolution
as the national air, from its having been played by a country fifer as a quick-step
during the march of a small detachment of gallant countrymen to the fight of
Bunker's Hill— a glorious title to distinction, and far superior to that of the
composition which has superseded it among the fashionable society of America.

CHANGING OF NAMES. 325

Sarah Lombard becoming Amelia Livingstone.

Mary Carter „ Aravilla Carter.

Judith Bray „ Maria Bray.

Betsy Townsend „ Malvina Townsend.

Sally Prescott „ Phidelia Prescott.

Alice Hubbard „ Alvina Calista Hubbard.

Nancy Tarbox „ Almeda Taber.

Bachael Hawkes „ Almira Aurelia Hawkes.

/"S'ltga^} " SabnnaA,nes (of ditto).

Polly Woodcock drops a syllable, and becomes Polly
Wood ; and Alice Bottomly, from motives of delicacy, I
presume, alters the spelling of her surname to Bothomlee.

But no particular taste for melody can have influenced
the spinsters following :

Anna Maria Bean becomes Eliza Patch.

Valeria Pew „ Mary Pew.

Serenetha Goodrich „ Mary French.

Tryphenia Van Busk irk „ Prances Coffin.

Miss Clara Frinck cannot be blamed for changing to
Clarissa Wilson, or Abby Craw for becoming Abigail
Sawtell. Triphena Moore, Derdamia Finney, Othealda
Busk, and the Widow- Naomi Luddington are unexcep-
tionably elegant and need no change ; yet changed they
are to other as fanciful appellations. What could have
induced Mrs. Betty Henderson (no second marriage giving
cause) to change to Betty Grimes '? Or where was the
occult motive that influenced Philander Jacobs to change
to Philander Forrest ; Ossian Doolittle to Ossian Ashley ;
Jeduthan Calden to Albert Nelson ; or Allan Smith to
go to the very end of the alphabet and become Allan
Izzard '?

Under sundry unfathomable influences, Horace Fish

326 ARE THE AMERICANS A HAPPY PEOPLE ?

and his wife Rhuhemah take the surname of Tremont ;
Curtis Squires that of Pomeroy Montague ; WilHam H.
Carlton that of Augustus Carlton ; Ingebor Janson that
of Ingebor Anderson ; George Hoskiss that of George
Puffer. John Jumper shows good taste in becoming
simple John Mason.

Daniel Ames merely changes a letter, and is Daniel
Ernes. Dr. Jacob Quackenbush, finding his name un-
wieldy, sinks a couple of syllables and the quack at the
same time, and is transformed to Jacob Bush, M.D.
Nathaniel Hopkins, betaking himself to rural life, I
suppose, becomes Sylvanus Hopkins. But I cannot
perceive what John Cogswell gains (except additional
trouble) by inserting two more very unmusical mono-
syllables, and becoming John Beare Doane Cogswell. A
pure instinct of cockneyism running in the blood must
have influenced Isaac Burley Home to change to Isaac B.
Orne, and Wilham Helstone to William Elstone.

I am sorry to perceive that some Irishmen have been
infected by the epidemic ; and, while renouncing their
country, try to get rid of their national distinctions. For
instance, Patrick Hughes changes to William Hughes ;
Timothy Leary changes to Theodore Lyman ; Mason
McLoughlin becomes Henry Mason ; and six other persons
of his name following his bad example, a whole branch of
the family tree of the McLoughlins is lopped off.

As a pendant to this antinational picture, a group of
five Bulls abandon the honest English patronymic of
their common father, John, and degenerately change it
to Webster.

A good excuse may exist for the family of Straw, the
man of it, as well as his wife and seven children (Cynthia,
Sophilia, Elvina, Diana, Sophronia, Phelista, and Orestus),

HUMOUKOUS REASONS FOR CHANGING NAMES. 327

for becoming so many Nileses ; while another, called
Death, petition (through a member named Graves)^ and
are metamorphosed into Mr. and Mrs. and the Misses
Dickenson. Masters Ashael G., Jothan P., and Abel S.,
their sons, also change from Death to Dickenson ; but,
strange to say, retain their villanous prenomens and
unmeaning initials.

One Mr. Wormwood, with some fun in him, asks to be
allowed to change his name for some other ; " certain," as
he says, " that no member of taste will oppose his
request."

Another individual, Alexander Hamilton, also petitions
for leave to change, on the double ground of the incon-
venient length of seven syllables in writing or speaking (a
true go-a-head Yankee), and on his inabihty to "support
the dignity of a name so famous in history ! " It must be
observed that this smart mechanic did not refer to the
Conqueror of Darius, but to the greatest Alexander he
had ever heard of, Hamilton, Secretary of the Treasury to
Washington ; and I only hope (for the sake of American
amour propre) that a portion of my readers may know
who is meant.

To these instances of ever-shifting alterations, I may
add one of a Miss Hogg who became Miss Howard ; of
another, a highly-estimable family, the Crowninshields of
Marblehead, whose original name was Grunsel ; and still
another, the former Tinkers, who are the present Bucking-
hams. So much for them !

In looking at this scanty number of examples, and
reflecting that such arbitrary changes are every year
taking place over the whole extent of the Union to a very
large amount, we may imagine, apart from the absurdity
of the custom, the confusion and the mischief it occasions.

328 ARE THE AMEEICAI^S A HAPPY PEOPLE ?

Yet, however strange it appears, to us, it is perhaps more
wondprful that, considering the facility of the operation, it
is not still oftener practised. A recent American paper
tells us of a family in the town of Detroit, whose sons
were named, One Stickney, Two Stickney, Three Stickney;
and whose daughters were named. First Stickney, Second
Stickney, &c. The three elder children of a family near
home were named Joseph, And, Another ; and it has
been supposed that, should any more children have been
born, they would have been named Also, Morever, Never-
theless, and Notwithstanding. The parents of another
family actually named their child Finis, supposing it was
their last ; but they happened afterwards to have a
daughter and two sons, whom they called Addenda,
Appendix, and Supplement.

Whatever exaggeration there may possibly be in these
last-quoted instances, there is certainly, in New England
as well as in the less established parts of the Union, a
curious taste for grotesque, though less startling, com-
bination in names. In what degree fathers or godfathers
are responsible for this, or whether existing individuals
have capriciously altered their children's Christian and
surnames in the present generation, I cannot determine.
It is equally puzzling to account, on either hypothesis, for
such names as strike the eye on the shop-signs or door-
plates, or in the newspapers of New York, Philadelphia,
Boston, and elsewhere. For instance : Apollo Munn,
Quincy Tufts, Orlando Tomkins, Bea Tiffany, Polycretus
Flag, Sylvester Almy, Peleg Sprague, Rufus Choate,
Abiza Bigelow, Jabez Tarr, Asaph Bass, Azor Tabor,
Hiram Shumway, Ransom Sperry, Nahum Capon, Elihu
Amadon, Gigeon Links, Zichri Nash.

Gideon, Hephzibah, Hasiph, Gibeon, Uriah, Seth,

CONFUSION IN NAMES OF TOWNS. 329

Elnathan, Jeduthan, Virgil, Pliny, Horace, Homer, with
Faith, Hope, Charity, and all the other virtues, are
common prenomens all over the country. Many of these,
while making us smile, recall associations Scriptural and
classical, or of our own historic and puritanical absurdi-
ties ; while some of the fancy names of America remind
us of nothing. Mr. Preserved Fish was a well-known
merchant of New York. Shame on his parents for
baptizing hina in ridicule, and on himself for not having
wiped away the mark ! But pei'haps the most whimsical
of all is that of a young lady of a country town in the
state of Massachusetts, Miss Wealthy Titus. Attractive
and auspicious compound ! Pray Heaven she will change
it, and that without losing a day, like her imperial name-
sake ! And who knows but that every one of those
eccentric appellations here recorded are, by this time (like
Uncle Toby's oath), blotted out for ever !

However that may be in regard to individuals or
families, the national nomenclature, as far as the names of
places are concerned, gives a permanent proof that the
Americans are at once a remarkably imitative and un-
imaginative people. In the immense catalogue of the
names of counties, towns, and cities, there is hardly one
they can claim as their own invention. They are all of
foreign or Indian derivation. The inconceivable repetition
of certain names of towns is, without joke, " confusion
worse confounded." There are one hundred and eighteen
towns and counties in the United States, called Washing-
ton. There are five Londons, one New London, and I
don't know how many Londonderrys. Six towns called
Paris ; three Dresdens, four Yiennas, fourteen Berlins,
twenty-four Hanovers. There are twenty odd Hichmonds,
sixteen Bedfords, about a score of Brightons, nine

330 ARE THE AMERICANS A HAPPY PEOPLE 1

Chatbams, eleven Burlingtons, sixteen Delawares, fourteen
Oxfords, as many Somersets, a dozen Cambridges, twenty-
five Yorks and New Yorks, and other English names in
proportion. There are twelve towns with the prefix of
Bio", four Great, and sixteen Little. There are nine
Harmonys, double as many Concords (but no Melody) ;
thirteen Freedoms, forty-four Libertys (and plenty of
slavery). Tw^enty-one Columbias, seven Columbuses, and
seventy-eight Unions. There are one hundred and four
towns and counties of the colour Green, twenty-four
Bro^vns, twenty-six Oranges, and five Vermilions — all the
hues of an autumnal forest ; but they shrink from calling
any of them Black, though they sometimes would make
white appear so, especially in the Repudiating States.
Fifteen Goshens, eleven Canaans, thirty Salems, eleven
Bethlehems, testify to the respect in which Scriptural
names are held ; while homage has been done to classic
lands in sundry log-hut villages, some of them fast
swelHng in population and prosperity. ^^ Ilium fuit" is
belied by the existence of sixteen Troys. There are
twelve Romes, and eight Athenses ; but only one Romulus
— and I have not had the good fortune to meet with
any of the Athenians.

Many great writers have been honoured in these
national baptisms. There are several Homers, Yirgils,
Drydens, and Addisons, a couple of Byrons, but not yet
(nor likely to be in any sense) a Shakspeare. There are,
however, five Avons, three Stratfords, a Romeo, a Juliet ;
besides, defying classification, four Scipios, six Sheffields,
twelve Manchesters. There are one hundred and fifty
towns and counties called New somethings, and only six
Old any things. The most desperate effort at invention is
to be found in repetitions of Springfields, Bloomfields, and

PATRIOTIC NAMES OF TOWNS. 331

Greenfields, All the cities of the East are multiplied
many times, with the exception of Constantinople, which
does not figure in the hst at all ; but, in revenge, there is
one Constantino. There are very few attempts at giving
to Yankee humour a local habitation and a name. But
I have discovered the funny title of Jim Henry attached
to a soi-disant town in Miller County, State of Missouri ;
and I am sorry to perceive the stupid name of Smallpox
fastened (not firmly, I hope) on one in Joe Davis County,
Illinois.

The comparative popularity of public men may or may
not be inferred from the number of times their names
may be found on the maps. It is remarkable that there
are ninety-one Jacksons, eighty-three Franklins, sixty-
nine Jeflfersons, thirty-four Lafayettes, fifty-eight Monroes,
fifty Maddisons, fifty-nine Parrys, thirty-two Harrisons,
twenty-seven Clintons, twenty-one Clays, sixteen Van
Burens, fourteen Bentons ; but there are only three
Websters.

The indigenous fruits, shrubs, and trees give titles to
many of the streets in cities and towns, but to few of the
towns themselves. There is one Willow, a few Oaks (out
of forty odd varieties of the forest king), and not one
Persimmon, nor, as far as I can learn, a Pepperidge, one
of the most beautiful of American trees.

A New York newspaper, writing on this subject,
suggests the propriety of passing a law prohibiting the
use of a name for a town or county that has ever been
used before for the same purpose. But immediately
recoils, like Fear in the Ode,

" Even at the sound itself had made."
And well it might. For if the notion were followed up

332 ARE THE AMERICANS A HAPPY PEOPLE ?

new towns might be numbered, as streets often are at
present, and some such arithmetical combination might
occur as a letter addressed to

Mister Jonathan Snookinson,
Sixty-Fourth Street,

Forty- First City,

Nineteenth County,

State of Confusion.

It is not to be apprehended (the Kansas difficulty
notwithstanding) that the Union will actually come to
such a pass. Better certainly that it were dissolved
altogether, and every one of the twelve hundred and
forty-six national stars, that is, thirty-four each for each
of the thirty-four States, cut up (hke Juliet's moon)
into lesser ones — the stripes being given to each State
according to its deserts, and then,

" Who would escape whipping

? "

PRACTICAL JOKING— POLITICAL HOAXING.

Independent of those somewhat elaborate methods of
indulging in amusement, by the aid of legislative authority,
and at the expense of good taste and good sense, the
Americans have real resources for capital fun, in their
quaint humour and their love of practical jokes. Tho-
roughly men of business and of action, the latter seem
the most natural methods for giving vent to any exube-
rance of spirits that words are insufficient to develop e.
A good many instances of those gaieties might be cifed
in contrast with the gravities of which I have given
specimens ; but one or two must suffice, to show how
mistaken are the pictures which represent the whole

EXTRAORDINARY WAGER. 333

people as insensible to anything lively or vivacious. The
Phi Beta Kapjja dinners at Cambridge may be referred
to as instances of their rare but genuine festive pleasantry,*
and many of the election freaks throughout the country
are still more evident examples of droll devices and
mirthful agitation. Among these, the curious wagers that
are laid vary, by their ludicrous conditions, the otherwise
too eager gambling for money rushed into on occasion of
such events. One of the most original of these was that
between two ardent politicians, respectively candidates for
the State Senate and for Congress, by name and title
Colonel R. J. Burbank and Major Ben Purley Poore ; the
first a Fremont " Freesoiler,'^ the latter a Fillmore
" Know-Nothing,'^ the wager being for a barrel full of
apples, the loser undertaking to transport the same in a
wheelbarrc^w from West Newbury to Boston, a distance of
about forty miles, the feat depending on the Presidential
election, and the greater or lesser amount of votes polled
by their respective favourites. As Fremont was the
fortunate man and Fillmore the beaten one (both, how-
ever, being out- voted by Buchanan), Major Ben Purley
Poore, feehng himself bound to pay the penalty of
his confidence in the defeat of "freesoil, freemen, and
Fremont" (although released from his pledge by his
courteous adversary), manfully set out, on the day
fixed upon by the conditions, to perform his stipulated
engagement, a real debt of honour, with nothing sordid
or mercenary either in its principle or practice.

The excitement on this ludicrous occasion was intense
throughout the line of country traversed by the loser, to
whom, as he advanced on his road, thousands of spectators

* See vol. i. p. 77.

334 ARE THE AMERICANS A HAPPY PEOPLE 1

awarded the best compensation for his bad luck and the
troublesome redemption of his promise, in shouts of
laughter, complimentary addresses, and all sorts of con-
vivial entertainments, in return for the one which he
afforded the pubhc. As he "progressed" towards the
accomplishment of his journey, and during the two days
of its continuance, the telegraph announced his advances
hour by hour, the newspapers gave reports of them, the
whole population wdthin any reasonable distance of the
line of march hurried to the best places for seeing the hero,
who conquered the whole country by his good-natured
submission to the penalty of his defeat. He was met at
Charlestown, a before-mentioned suburb of Boston, by
a delegation from the city, his escort of the Boston
" Independent Volunteers," headed by the Boston " cornet
band." Next came the Major, dressed in a fancy costume,
a brown hat, green baize jacket, and blue trowsers ;
Avheeling his barrow, which wdth its load of apples weighed
one hundred and eighty-five pounds. Above it floated
the American Eagle, handsomely painted on a banner,
and another flag was borne close behind with this
inscription, " Major Poore — may the next administration
prove as faithful to their pledges as he was to his ! "
Behind was an open carriage drawn by four horses, and
occupied by the two judges. A countless crowd follow^ed
the procession through the streets, sending forth loud
acclamations as the dust-covered, sweltering, and jaded — ■
but still smiling — Major, harnessed by a strap to his
barrow, with blistered hands and shoulders, triumphantly
deposited his load in front of the Tremont Hotel, withoiit
having drojpped a single apple on the whole length of
route. Many a hand shook his on that proudest moment
of his life; while many a tongue uttered a pitying

A POLITICAL HOAX. 335

transposition of his names, from Ben Purley Poore to Poor
Ben Purley ! — a change which the legislature would
doubtlessly have confirmed in consideration of his memo-
rable and unique exploit, which was celebrated on the
spot of its accomplishment by a sumptuous banquet, wine
without stint, and humorous speeches without end.

It is pleasant to contemplate a small incident like this
in tracing the character of a people. If political feeling,
one of the master-passions of the American mind, would
more frequently take this turn, and so control the other
— the money-making spirit — as to let good humour and
jollity predominate, much would be done towards mel-
lowing down the national pecuharities. And the next of
the instances which I am about to give shows that these
are not confined to individual eccentricity, but that
numbers of serious-minded citizens can at times relax into
a combination of sustained and well-imagined drollery.

In this pleasant city of Boston (as I must call it for
the nonce) dwelt, and I hope they dwell there still, a pair
of gentlemen, whose names I forbear to state, because
they were not, like the two just mentioned, voluntary
subjects of a practical joke, but unsuspicious victims of an
innocent conspiracy, whose direst ramifications led only to
the perpetration of a hoax. One of these persons was a
druggist, called Doctor by courtesy, the other a com-
mercial traveller — no doubt a colonel or captain, like
almost every one else — and they were specimens of the
excessive rage for politics which, acting on an equal
amount of personal vanity, sets certain people half crazy,
and prepares them for almost any amount of delusion.
Some of their friends and admirers put their heads to
work, and concocted a plan for persuading these ready
believers that a series of consultations between the

336 ARE THE AMERICANS A HAPPY PEOPLE i

opposite political parties had led to respective resolutions,
to nominate them as rival candidates for the approaching
Presidential vacancy. It would be too long to enumerate,
even if I knew it, the elaborate series of deceits practised
in the carrying out of this pleasantry. But I believe
that it was acted with infinite skill and great humour, up
to its final scene, a regular public meeting in some usual
place, with all the concomitants of secretaries, committees,
proposers, seconders, and supporters, speeches of marvel-
lous mock gravity and exceeding drollery — in the style of
a celebrated burlesque scene enacted every night in a
London Tavern : the whole wound up by the opposing
orations of the two candidates for the national dignity,
which in no way suffered from being thus subjected to
such a parody, and in the separate processions formed to
escort the illustrious rivals to their respective homes.

To those who may doubt the possibility of any two
men, not actually mad, being susceptible of such excessive
self-delusion, it may -appear that they were after all
associate wags, pretending to be deceived, but all the
while performing a wholesale hoax on a large body of
quizzed confederates. Even so, and admitting it to be
the case (though I do not think it was so), it would be
only a stronger proof of the depth of humorous
originality in the Yankee character, and would forcibly
illustrate the admirable portraitures of the people, in the
comic sketches given of them in prose and verse by
several celebrated Transatlantic authors. And I have
thus to the best of my abihty answered the question put
by myself, " Are the Americans a happy People '? " by
proving, at least to my own satisfaction, that they are
by no means the reverse of it.

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 — Imminent
Preachers — Dr. Channing — Mormonism — Millerism — Camp Meeting — Burst'
ing of the Bubble— Shakersism— Contrasts in Fanaticism — The Sacred Scroll
— Angelic Nomenclature.

The words at the head of this section of the chapter
suggest such a multitude of serious, ludicrous, pious, and
preposterous associations, that I dare not venture to
plunge into the question, but will merely skim its surface,
as the swallow dips his wings in that of some unfathomable
lake.

The reader may remember that this was the first
subject of real importance on which I made a decided
mistake in the early days of my American experience. I
then learned a lesson ; and I have profited by it, so far
as to have renounced all notion of examining the conflicting
elements which form the concrete idea of Religion in the
United States. I am by no means qualified for such a
task, either by taste, education, or study. I have ever
regarded theological disputation with amazement, and
sectarian feuds with contempt. I am not equal to the
first, nor disposed for the latter ; and I think no writer
is competent for either, unless he feels somewhat of the

VOL. II. 2

338 RELIGIOUS SECTS.

inspiration of a prophet, or the ardour of a partizan.
Nothing short of that can impart due dignity or fitting
animation. The tame tractarian or hikewarm contro-
versiahst fails to arouse or stimulate the mind ; and
if Religion is made common-place, its expounders meet
with indifference or scorn. I therefore leave to others
to elucidate this theme ; but he who rushes without
thorough preparation into the sacred mysteries of Faith,
Doctrine, and Doxology, is likely to be as vapoury and
incomprehensible as a comet careering into illimitable
space.

The most important attribute of religious practice in
the United States is the estabhshment of the voluntary
system. Its greatest privilege, the absence of any con-
nection between Church and State. Its best distinction,
the total disassociation from political party. It is thus
entirely uncontrolled by extraneous embarrassments ; and
left free for its exercise upon the human mind, to flourish
or decay, rise or fall, expand or shrink, by its own intrinsic
action, without curb to restrain or spur to accelerate its
movements.

Religion in this aspect is truly sublime ; a great
spiritual fact between Man and God, with no earthly
impurities to disfigure, and no worldly influences to
corrupt it. But so active a principle in such a boundless
field must necessarily develop itself in many incongruous
forms ; and along with the brightest and purest emanations
of faith are mixed the dark and dreary phantoms of
fanaticism. Whether it is better to leave religion in that
state, or to subject it to the restraint of laws and regu-
lations, I do not presume to say. One thing is I think
clear : the evils of unrestricted religious feehng are almost
entirely felt in individual cases ; while the conflicts of an

THE FOUNDERS OF THE REPUBLIC. 339

established church with separatists and dissenters carry
mischief into the whole body politic, and embitter the
fountains which should give refreshment and comfort
to all.

The founders of the American Republic thought political
government more likely to work well when not encumbered
by alliances w4th any religious system. The Church,
therefore, was not endowed with distinct rights or settled
revenues, nor dignified with a .position as one of the
integral portions of the State. In dissevering the political
connection with England, they did not wish to identify
themselves with any particular form of worship. Among
the leading patriots were men of various sects of
Christianity, and possibly some who merely followed its
precepts without actually believing its tenets."*^ They
found it inexpedient to endanger their unanimity by
letting controversial questions arise ; and they no doubt
thought that the plan which regulated the nations of the
old world offered no security for benefit to lleligion or
advantage to the State.

When England accepted the Reformation, it was
absolutely necessary to establish its church as a barrier
against the still powerful Church of Rome ; and it has

* A question was long since raised, and publicly discussed by at least one
lecturer, as to the religious opinions of Washington. It has been stated, on the
authority of Jefferson, in his posthumous works, that Washiogton was not a
Christian. A clever English writer, indignant at this assertion, endeavours to
refute it by quoting a passage from Washington's celebrated farewell address,
which enounces the great truth that " of all the dispositions and habits which
lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports.
A volume could not trace all their connections with pi'ivate and public felicity.
Reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can pi-evail
in exclusion of religious principle,"

It is needless to remark that this particular passage is not sufficient to settle
the question raised by Jeffei'son's assertion. Other grounds for its refutation no
doubt exist, and may have been stated elsewhere.

z 2

3i0 PvELIGIOUS SECTS.

been ever since required, as a breakwater against the
surging floods of dissent. But conscience was left free in
America to preserve men's duty to God, while the State
only enforced that w^hich they owe to society. From this
wide latitude of belief it follows, that the principle of
toleration, though practically in constant action, is never
avowed nor boasted of by any of the religious divisions
towards the others. Without tangible power in reference
to rival sects, they have only the privilege to hate, but
not to persecute. They do not attempt to coerce opinion,
nor does political disability in any shape attach to any
form of religious belief. The State is thus freed from one
prolific source of discord, while society is not seriously
damaged by theological divisions that can in no way
affect its political interests. And assuredly Christianity
in its largest and best sense has not suffered from this
independence. In no country of the world is there more
religious fervour than in America, and no where a more
strict observance of forms. The true religious sentiment,
that has its source and life in the hearts of men, is out
of the pale of calculation ; but the numerical force of
observers of church discipline, in all its varieties, is, I
have no doubt, greater in the United States than any-
where else.

I have not made this question so far a study as to be
able to give extensive tabular views of its statistics. Diffe-
rent portions of the Union show inequalities in the various
sects, but the principle of entire liberty of conscience is
never anywhere infringed. And in the midst of the most
rigid observance of forms and ceremonies, the wildest
professions of disbehef exist and flourish.

The immense majority, perhaps nine-tenths of the
population, of America, are Protestants of one denomination

SPIEIT OF FANATICISM. a41

or another. I believe an approximation to their respective
numbers maj be fomid in the census ; and the points on
which they differ from each other are not of vital
importance, though sufficient to breed heart-burnings and
contentions in abundance. These are however by some
considered very advantageous to the spread and pre-
servation of the Faith, from the jealous watchfulness of
all, and the prodigious stimulus given to the zeal of the
different ministers. Among the many sects of Methodists,
Baptists, Presbyterians, Congregationalists (orthodox and
unitarian), Evangelical Lutherans, Episcopalians, Uni-
versaHsts, besides Roman Cathohcs and Quakers, and
the numerous minor sects, it may be well supposed that
the odium theologicum is perpetually in action. And the
monstrous displays of proselytizing, which throw the
country into ranting and raving tumult, under the form of
revivals, awakenings, and other deplorable scandals, bring
disgrace and shame upon the very name of the Religion
they desecrate. The frightful descriptions of those peri-
odical outbursts require no addition. The burlesque
exhibitions of human weakness and hypocrisy mingled
together are almost incomprehensible ; and in witnessing
their terrific eff'ects on multitudes of people, the marvel is
that there can be any limit to the epidemic insanity, and
that the whole world does not go mad.

The fanaticism let loose on these occasions baffles con-
troul, and the varied symptoms of the disease are not
easily defined. The intolerant dogmas of the Roman
Cathohcs are by no means so repulsive. These may be
softened by philosophy, but those of the Puritans defy
such influence. Thei/ are hard, cold, and inflexible. The
superstitions of imagination turn into vapoury forms, hke
morning mists converted into clouds. But those of reason

34;i RELIGIOUS SECTS.

are frozen as thej rise, and they fall down like hail
showers on the brain that gave them birth. Religious
fanaticism proceeds in some instances from a profound
intellect losing itself in the depths of theological enquiry.
In inferior minds it is caught by mere association, as
a malignant disease. Genius runs to madness from in-
tensity of thought. Fools grow rabid from its shallow-
ness. Yet the symptoms are nearly the same in each,
and in recognizing a bigot we never ask how he became
one. The perversion of reason is the loss of dignity, and
our contempt for the individual levels all distinctions.

The excitable elements of the American mind are made
as much a matter of speculation as the waste lands which
spread for countless leagues beyond the settled portions of
the Union. Thousands of men enter into holy orders of
one kind or another, adopt the title of Reverend and
some peculiar garb of outward sanctity, and dash into the
exercise of their profession, either as followers or founders
of sects, outrunnino; each other in the race which seems to
have no fixed starting-place, no limits, and no goal.
Where these extraordinary persons come from, under
what authority they act, or by what principles they are
guided is all matter of mystery ; and it is to it that they
in a great measure owe the monstrous influence they
acquire and abuse. That there are to be found among
the itinerant crowd some virtuous and pious men I have
no doubt. That many of them work themselves up to a
belief in their extravagant notions I can understand,
catching the contagion from their crazy proselytes,, as
physicians who carry the plague into a lazaretto in their
clothes may there imbibe it into their system. But
I still beheve that the enormous majority of those ranting
vulgarians, who mount into pulpits or penetrate into

THEOLOGICAL BASHl-BAZOUKS. 343

parlours, scattering threats of damnation and pictures of
hell, like incendiaries flinging firebrands into a powder
mill, are heartless hypocrites, living on the weakness and
wretchedness of their dupes.

I had few opportunities and less inclination to see such
persons as those in private life. Having on frequent
occasions the gratification of meeting such men as Dr.
Channingj Bishops Wainwright, Eastburn, and Fenwick^
Dr. Gannet, Dr. Choules, Mr. Pierrepoint, Mr. Lothrop,
and other duly appointed divines, eminent in their
different sects, I could not tolerate those Bashi-bazouks of
theology, whose blasphemous maraudings carry confusion
into the regular ranks of the Christian clergy. Twice
only was I tempted to attend their preachings. The first
time it was to hear a famous holder forth, who had
changed his profession of an attorney for the sharper and
more profitable practice of divinity. He was very good-
looking, eloquent, and persuasive. But, w^armed by his
subject and measuring his growing influence on the
audience, chiefly composed of women, many of them
young, handsome, and " fashionable," he launched out at
last into the broad sea of denunciation, and wound up a
sketch of a ball-room " in high life," by declaring that
(before he entered the ministry) he had often watched, to
see the floor visibly open before his eyes, and the flames
of hell rush out to swallow up the dancers !

So much for Kirk ! thought I. Now let me listen to
Elder Knapp.

So to the church " loaned " to Elder Knapp I repaired
— through streets so densely crowded and with such
threats of disorder that a troop of cavalry volunteers was
on duty — and there, in a high pulpit, and to a nearly
sufi*ocated congregation, did this notorious mountebank

344 RELIGIOUS SECTS.

declaim for more than an hour, in a strain of mixed
fluency, coarseness, irreverence, and revolting drollery,
which was at once disgusting, painful, and laughable in a
most extraordinary degree. One of the choicest bits of
his oratory was the description of a reprobate gradually
sinking into the " miry clay " of sin, bit by bit, inch by
inch, from the feet to the ancles, knees, and hips, up to the
arm-pits — over the shoulders, to the chin, feature by
feature to the crown of the head, until the livino; burial
was complete, all with a graphic brutality of effect that
told in a quite inconceivable way, on the sobbing,
groaning, gasping listeners, whose bonnets swayed back-
wards and forwards from side to side, and whose hands
were clasped, opened out, upraised or slapped together, as
might have been done by maniacs in bedlam.

After a pause, copious draughts of water, and profuse
wipings of his face with a coloured handkerchief (silk, or
cotton, or both), he resumed his address, lecture, -or
sermon, when he saw that his audience had recovered
from its effervescent state. This man had certainly the
talent of knowing mankind — the gentler portion of it
perhaps best. He was a poet, too, up to

" Every mood of the lyre,"

a living illustration of CoUins's ode. He certainly spoke
in prose, but he inverted the position of MoHere's hero, by
acting poetry without knowing it

He now began with a most comical leer and a jocular
airj to teach his hearers the folly of pride and to give an
illustration of its humiliation. This moral was conveyed
through the medium of a story of which the hero and
heroine were a certain Colonel " off in the far West " and
his wife. These it appeared were a veiy proud though

A STIFF-NECKED COLONEL. 345

not an irreverent pair. They approved of Elder Knapp's
doctrines, acknowledged themselves of his congregation,
lent him a large barn for his preachings, but would on no
account consent to disgrace themselves by walking,
through the only way which led to it — a building known
as the "Pork House,^' where the slaughtered animals
hung up in large numbers, preparatory to the process of
salting — long resisting all the persuasions of the Reverend
Elder to renounce their obstinate objection. The sketch
given by the preacher of this stiff-necked Colonel and his
equally unmanageable helpmate, the way in which they
rejected his imploring appeals that they would humble
themselves by going through the degrading passage to the
temporary place of prayer, the various emphatic in-
tonations with which he pronounced their dogged deter-
mination, not to go " through the porh-house,'' — " No
indeed, they would not go through the pork-house '' —
" they wouldn't go through the pork-house " — " others
might, but thei/ would'nt go through the pork-house " —
*' they wouldnt go through the pork-house" — was irre-
sistibly ludicrous. Some smiled, many tittered, but the
majority of the audience laughed outright. In the words
of the French reports of debates in the Chamhre des
Deputes, in the good old times of Constitutional govern-
ment, there was hilarite (jenerale dans la chamhre ; and
when the climax came of the gradual yielding of the
recusant Colonel and his wife, before the triumphant
efforts of the Elder to soften their obdurate hearts, and
they actually did walk arm-and-arm through the ob-
noxious pork-house to attend the service, I expected
every moment a burst of boisterous applause.

Elder Knapp must have been a strolling player in the
ordinary sense of the term, even before he entered on the

346 RELIGIOUS SECTS.

career in which I witnessed his performance. He did his
part well ; and there happened to be present another
individual better able than I was to appreciate the
admirable acting of this very low comedian.

During the opening portions of the service, when every
pew was choke full, and the aisles thronged with standing
listeners, I had observed the beadle, (or whatever the
officiating officer w^as called) making way down the centre
from the door to the pulpit, and with his head turned
back from time to time^ evidently introducing some
individual of stature so short as not to be recognized
among the crowd. But arrived at the foot of the pulpit
(in a pew close to which I had been courteously granted
a seat), I discovered that the stranger so pioneered was
Mr. Braham, who was at that period astonishing and
delighting the Boston public by his unrivalled vocal per-
formances, particularly in sacred music. A place was
made for him beside some females on a bench just before
the pulpit ; and the gentleman whose pew 1 sat in asked
me in a whisper if the great singer was going to give us
an anthem after the sermon ? I told him very truly that
I did not know. But the notion Was quickly settled in
the negative, when the sermon was over, and Elder
Knapp came leisurely down from the pulpit, with a
serious face once more, and stopped short in front of
Mr. Braham J who had just risen from his hard and
uneasy seat, and was preparing to go with the retiring
crowd. But the Elder accosted him in a soothing and
benignant tone, asking him, quite audibly to the persons
around,

" How do you feel^ brother 1 '^

*' Very well, thank you ; but rather warm,'' was the
reply* And after a mementos pause, the colloquy went on.

THE ANXIOUS BENCH. 847

" I hope the evening's exercises have been agreeable
to you.'^

" Oh, very — but the seat was none of the softest/'

"I guess it warn't. How did you feel about the
sermon 1 "

" Well, I was sorry I couldn't see your face."

"Brother, my words were more noticeable — How did
you hke them ? "

" Very much ; I thought all that gag* about the pork-
house capital. Good evening ! "

" Have you nawthin' to say to me, brother 1 '^

" Well, nothing particular. Good evening ! "

" Nawthin' particklar I why, how's that ? Don't you
desire to commune 1 '^

" To commune '? 0, that^s the way you call it — no,
thank you — not here, certainly."

'* Then what on airth brought you here, brother 1 "

"Why, to hear you preach to be sure* Good
evening ! '^

" Don't you feel anxious '? "

" Anxious ! about what 1 not a bit.'^

"Then why did you take your seat on the atixious
bench ? "

" What the deuce is that '? I don^t know what you
mean. Do let me pass, I shall be smothered here. Good
evening ! "

And so, turning his persecutor in flank by a dexterous
movement, the puzzled vocalist escaped into the crowded
aisle and was immediately lost to the astonished Elder.
Those who had the pleasure of knowing Mr. Braham may
imagine the kindly and amiable expression of his face and

* The word gag in theatrical parlance means humourous mattef interpolated
nto the dialogue by the actor.

31.8 EELIGIOUS SECTS.

his easy and composed manner during this closing scene
of Elder Knapp's burlesque, and his humourous way in
relating how he had accidentally occupied the " anxious
bench," a rough form invariably appropriated to self-
accusing sinners, who sought in the confessional rehef for
their over-burdened consciences.

The two specimens I have given of unlicensed religious
irregulars — I know not whether they were infra- or supra-
lapsarians — sufficiently account for my not farther pursuing
my observations in the same direction. I heard some ex-
cellent preachers among the Episcopalian divines and the
Unitarian ministers. The most noted among them, Dr.
Channing, I first saw in the pulpit. His mild and pleasing
features, his calm yet energetic dehvery, his voice, which
surprised me by its fulness and depth of tone comparatively
with his feeble frame, were all very impressive ; and the
sermon he delivered was remarkable, from its being an
eloquent and laboured argument to prove that the attri-
butes of God, though called in Scriptural phrase the King
of Kings, were more in accordance with those of the
President of a Republic than of a Monarch, in the human
sense of the term.

In private society Dr. Channing was the type of earnest
suavity, if I may venture to describe his manners and
conversation by one phrase.

The extravagant tenets and profligate practice of
Mormonism grew into celebrity about the period of my
arrival in America, and the murder of the Prophet Joe
Smith attracted more particular attention to them, and
brought his successor Brigham Young and his brother
" Saints " into the notoriety which persecution always con-
fers on its victims. The enormous iniquities of this erratic
sect have been over and over exposed of late years by

THE ORGIES OF RELIGION. 349

close observers and by its own disgusted dupes. But one
other extensive, yet only ephemeral, infatuation which ran
its meteor course in a few months, has scarcely had, I
believe, a chronicler sufficiently serious and reliable to have
given so accurate an account of it, as would be likely to
take hold in the public mind of Europe.

It is by no means my intention to attempt any detailed
account of MILLERISM, though I had both opportunity
and curiosity for witnessing some of its wildest orgies. It
must suffice to mention that the author of this great
delusion, a minister of some denomination or other, living
in the State of New York, most probably half fool half
fanatic, had published a prophecy stating that the World
(as has been so often predicted before and since his time)
was to come to an end on a certain given day — but I
even now forget the year.

The effect of this announcement would have been
marvellous, had it not formed only one in the oft-recurring
cases, where the ardent and uneasy fancies of American
nature rush like whirlwinds through the national mind,
and happily drop into a total calm with the prompt
transition that proverbially follows a storm. Thousands
of the people in the Northern and Eastern States adopted
the belief in this prophecy, joined in large associations
preparatory to the coming day of doom, sold property of
all kinds and disbursed the proceeds with the recklessness
of idiots ffinging money into the sea. The only general
object seemed to be that each individual should retain
sufficient funds for bare support until the final hour, which
was calculated with the precision of an eclipse, and that
each should be provided with a dress of light material
suited to the season, which was summer, and in this
floating garment, technically called an " Ascension Robe,"

350 ■ EELIGIODS SECTS.

they should all at their common rendezvous stand pre-
pared for the moment supreme, and at the given signal,
whatever that might be, all in one great gathering take
their bodily flight to Heaven !

I attended more than one of the meetings of these poor
people in the city of Boston ; and one more particularly
in the country near Salem, that pretty and most English-
looking town, where a scattered encampment w^as formed
of the " Millerites," and where scenes of incredible absur-
dity were enacted in the open air, in tents of various
sizes, one of them, a real monster- marquee, being sufficient
to contain 5000 persons, a parodical illustration of charity
covering a multitude of sins. Whole troops of " clergy-
men," so called, were there, on platforms elevated so as
to allow of their being seen and heard by the crowd, or
distributed in the smaller tents, which were of the most
irregular construction, and pitched about the great
common at random. Everyw^here there was singing of
hymns in horrid discord, prayers in all gradations
of sound, low murmurings, deep bowlings, and loud
yellings ; groups in close converse, single figures in
trances, extasies, and convulsions ; contortions of feature
and hmb, attitudes the most grotesque and unreserved,
countenances of fierce energy and imbecile exhaustion ;
all the varieties in short in which the degradation of
man's nature could be exposed. There was much in this
exhibition to excite, and some things to amuse the sane
observer. But taken all in all it was " a sorry sight,''
and I left the place, after some hours of wandering ^.nd
wondering, with an impression of deep melancholy it was
not easy to shake off.

I often turned my thoughts back on that scene, and
speculated as to what was the efi'ect produced on this

MISREPEESENTATION DISCLAIMED. 351

mass of mental distortion when the great bubble burst
and " Father Miller," as he was called, confessed that he
had made a miscalculation ; and the terrible last day
passed over as uneventful as the one which preceded or
that which followed it. Did that perturbed torrent of
fanaticism quietly subside into rational thought, and those
inflamed enthusiasts return into paths of useful industry ?
If so, and making allowance for some irretrievably consigned
to the asylums and hospitals, these very Millerites, having
just escaped from the verge of insanity, and touched,
without breaking through, the " thin partitions " which
divide the bounds between wit and madness, may after all
be now absorbed in the duller and less excitable millions,
and actually form the necessary leaven for mixing with
the mass, and raising up the national mind to the pitch
required to carry forward its great destinies,

Here the inquiry must pause, and here I part with the
immediate subject it embraces ; only disclaiming the wish
of giving a distorted notion of religion in America, in
putting forward these extreme instances of its uncon-
trolled excess. And to complete the sketch which other
hands may work up into a picture, I must make mention,
in passing, of the society or sect which forms the antithesis
to both Mormonism and Millerism in the quiet extra-
vagance of its belief and practice, and gives it a place at
the other end of the line, which connects the various
classes of religious fanaticism,

Shakerism, although the word is not legitimately
adopted into the language by any good authority, is the
generally received designation applied to the belief and
practices of the singular sect of Christians, called Shakers,
from the strange agitations and movements of their
religious dances, but who call themselves the Millennial

352 RELIGIOUS SECTS.

Church, or United Society of Behevers. A great deal
has been from time to time written about them ; but so
quiet, industrious, and unobtrusive has been their obscure
existence, that they have for late years seemed to be in a
great measure forgotten, except in the immediate neigh-
bourhood of their several establishments. It is now
above a century since the Shakers took their rise in
Lancashire, and near eighty years since their first settle-
ment in America was fixed at Lebanon in Columbia
county in the State of JSTew York, under the guidance of
their celebrated founder. Mother Anne Lee. They have
now no less than three " locations ^^ in that state, — four in
Massachusetts, one in Connecticut, two in New Hampshire,
two in Maine, four in Ohio, and two in Kentucky ; eight
establishments in all, containing an aggregate number of
between six and seven thousand souls. When it is con-
sidered that the society is entirely independent of, and
opposed to, the laws which regulate the increase of
population, that strict celibacy is the foundation of their
order, and that it is opposed to their principles to send
out missionaries for the propagation of even their
opinions, or recruiting in any way their numbers, their
gradual accession of members is certainly a remarkable
testimony in favour of the morality and industry which
reign among them. Their system thus forms a most
decided contrast to that of Mormonism, whose fundamental
principle is the peopling of the world, and whose hopes
of happiness hereafter are based on the amount of
the progeny they leave behind them on earth. The
economic system of the Shakers is also widely distinct
from that of Communism or Socialism. And the
simplicity of their Hves, their inoffensive conduct, and
whole moral organization, would meet with something

RISE AND PROGRESS OF SHAKERISM. 353

more than mere respect, if it were not that their extrava-
gant superstition sinks them far below the scale of beings
guided by sound views of life and rational principles of
beHef

Their principal practical pubhshed work is entitled
" A Summary View of the Rise and Progress of the
Society," printed in Albany in 1823. And certainly they
not only clearly explain their theological doctrines on
scriptural grounds, but they do speak out with startling
perspicuity, in developing their objections against the
divine command to increase and multiply, or at least
against the ordinary feelings which have secured a w^illing
obedience to it in mankind in general, from the creation
to the time that is. For the way in which they argue
out their theory for the due modifying the commandment,
and the somewhat inconsistent explanation of the fall of
Adam by the seduction of Eve, I must refer the curious
to the book itself, which is however to be by no means
recommended for " general circulation," though doubtless
written in a spirit of ignorant yet argumentative sim-
plicity.* But even the struggle against man^s nature and
God's law, which is the primum mobile of Shakerism,
would scarcely be classified with religious fanaticism, were
it not connected with the assumption of divine inspiration,
and the power of prophecy by its members.

To put forth these claims upon what they must believe
substantial grounds, they published another volume in the
year 1843, with a title which they could not have believed
to be as blasphemous as it must appear to all rational
minds. It is called "A Holy, Sacred, and Divine Roll

* A much less objectionable and somewhat insidious abridgment of this woik
(inasmuch as it omits without disavowing all the grossly revolting passages)
appeared at New York in 1851, called " A Brief Exposition of the Principles and
Regulations of the United Society of Believers, called SHAKERS."

VOL. II. . A A

354 RELIGIOUS SECTS.

and Book (I omit some of the words) revealed in the
United Society at New Lebanon." This, with an appendix
subsequently published, contains such a mass of incom-
prehensible absurdity, as to throw very far into the shade
any of the modern (or indeed ancient) impostures, which
have lately been got up (or revived), perhaps in rivalry
with these conscientious delusions of Shakerism.

The four angels who proclaimed the revelations in
question to Brother Philemon Stewart, who signs himself
"inspired writer," and about seventy others, male and
female, declared their names to be Assan de la Jah,
Michael Van ce Ya'ne, Ga'bry Ven Do Yas'ter keen,
and Ven den de Pa'rol jew' le Jah. " These," say these
angels, " are our names in our own tongues ; and although
we know that the words of this book will be considered
by many as being produced in the wildest of enthusiasm,
madness, blasphemy, and fanaticism, yet we do declare
unto all flesh that this roll and book contains, " &c. —
which it requires all the faith of a Shaker to believe, and
the stoHdity of a Stoic not to laugh at.

The publication of this enormous nonsense must, one
would suppose, have struck a death blow to the United
Society ; but the spirit of vitality and permanency within
it, having withstood the rude trials of nearly a century,
it may still outlive, and possibly flourish on, this last
suicidal attempt on its own existence.

CHAPTER XITL

SPECULATIVE PHILOSOPHY.

Mental excitability of the Americans — Their Speculative Ardour — Phrenology —
Mesmerism — Neurology — Dr. Joseph K. Buchanan — His Lectures — Phreno-
logy in Action — Reading Character from Handwriting — The same result
from mere Contact with the Paper — Kemarkable Instance of this Faculty —
Discredit attached to Mesmerism — Spirit Rappings.

The amazing mental excitability of the Americans,
which leads to the excesses of rehgious fervour exemphfied
in the last Chapter, is also exhibited in offshoots from every
branch of scientific and metaphysical inquiry. To push
every such speculation farther than it has reached else-
where, to surpass the philosophers of England, and estabHsh
for themselves a more extended fame, if not as discoverers,
at least as improvers, are powerful impulses. They lead
to admirable results in the mechanical arts, almost all the
inventions in European machinery being simplified or
otherwise improved on their adoption in the United States.
But the same principle applied to purely scientific opera-
tions is less successful, as mere manual ingenuity alone is
not able to cope with mental power, and they become still
less manifest when they lead to the ambitious grappling
with those deep studies of the brain, which the profound
and practised intellects of the Old World pursue with
continuous and untiring energy.

A A 2

356 SPECULATIVE PHILOSOPHY.

Among subjects of this nature, phrenology has many
votaries and some professors ; and the admirable lectures
of George Combe attracted crowds of Hsteners, and
created numerous practitioners, but it was not fairly
dealt with by scientific men. Mesmerism also had
rapid and wide-spread success, but having unfortunately
fallen into far inferior hands, and being caught up by
insufficient amateurs, without knowledge or taknt to
develope its wonderful mysteries, it fell quickly into
disrepute, and was almost entirely scoffed or slandered
down, by sarcastic or unprincipled criticism ; while esta-
blished professional monopolists set their faces of course
against what appeared so doubtful, and which was
certainly to them so dangerous a novelty.

It was left to one individual to partially turn the
tide of opposition against phrenology into rational
inquiry, and for a while at least to allow the un-
prejudiced to see and judge for themselves as to the
nature of the science under a new title, and the lengths
to which its practice is susceptible of being carried.

During one of the winters of my residence in America
Dr. Jos. R. Buchanan of Louisville, Kentucky, arrived in
Boston, and delivered a series of lectures on the science
of Neurology, of which he claimed to be the discoverer.
Greatly pleased with his manners, which were unassuming
and self-sustaining, and forcibly impressed from some
experiments in my own family, with the truth of his
theory, I entered cordially into acquaintanceship with
him. It was not in my power to follow his course of
lectures with the attention required for the mastery of so
comprehensive a system of mental and physiological
study. But I made one at some of his private soirees,
and conversed frequently with him, always receiving a

DR. BUCHANANS LECTURES. 357

large measure of instruction. And when Dr. Buchanan
left Boston to return to his home in the West, I hoped,
rather than expected, that he would come back as he
intended, the following winter, to see the results of the
knowledge he had imparted to a few staunch believers,
including some physicians, the greater part of the
Faculty, however, having set their faces altogether
against him. But he was not a man to be daunted by
discouragement. He took an enlarged view of his subject
arid the opposition it was sure to provoke. He returned
according to his promise ; and he soon organized a
regular class consisting of about fifty persons, whose
subscriptions formed a fund sufficient to satisfy the
pecuniary objects of Dr. Buchanan. He was evidently
impelled to his new career by motives far superior to
that of mere gain. He had all the subdued energy of a
rational enthusiast. Convinced of the truth of his system,
he seemed determined to carry it out to the utmost
limits of his capacity ; and his conduct was calm, steady,
and resolute. Whether his theory was sound or unsound
his practice was unexceptionable. I did not find it con-
venient to attend any of the public lectures during his
second visit to Boston ; but I was acquainted with several
ladies and gentlemen who did so, and who expressed
great satisfaction at the manner in which they w^ere
conducted. I could not trace, during his two sojourns of
several months each in Boston, the slightest instance of
those disreputable tricks of quackery to which other
professors of the doubtful sciences too frequently have
recourse, to attract a forced attention on the part of an
incredulous public or a hostile profession.

Dr. Buchanan was certainly treated with some ilhbe-
rality by the " American Academy of Medicine," a rather

358 SPECULATIVE PHILOSOPHY.

too extensive title adopted for a society formed of some
of the physicians of Boston. Its members, in their zeal
for established principles and against innovation failed
to discriminate between the quacks, who had previously
astonished and at times disgusted the public, and the
gentleman, scholar, and man of science, who now claimed
courtesy and a fair trial for his experiments. There
was something far too respectable in his bearing and
practice to lead to any risk of gross or insulting oppo-
sition on the part of the learned doctors to whom he
appealed. But they met his advances with every
negative proof of reprobation. They instituted a com-
mittee of mock inquiry ; and when he had two or three
times appeared before it, unprepared to produce rapid
results on a subject requiring long and serious exami-
nation, they cut it short, professing themselves satisfied
that his theory was unreal and his experiments uncon-
vincing, before he had done more than just broken ground,
for the erection of that structure of mingled reasoning and
fact, which, had sufficient time been allowed to him, he
was sure to raise.

His efforts were thenceforward confined to the promul-
gation of his theory within a small circle of unbiassed
persons, whose professional profits could not be injured,
and who had no selfish prejudices to be shocked by a
fair inquiry. The pubhc curiosity soon subsided, as it
always does in America, after the first rush of novelty was
over. Dr. Buchanan, suited by his conduct, his acquire-
ments, and his manners, to mix with the best society, was
never seen in the "fashionable '' circles of the so-called
" emporium of literature." His wife, a gentlewoman of
good connections, her father having been a judge in her
native state, was altogether unnoticed except by a very

PHRENOLOGY IN ACTION. 359

few chance acquaintances. In short the neglect of such
amiable individuals, while every mark of attention was
lavished upon all the " distinguished " newcomers in the
least degree notorious for wealth or political trickery, was
one in many proofs of the want of respect for unpre-
tending worth which is too common in the United States.
It is not my intention to insert here any particulars
relative to the science of Neurology, I being totally
incompetent to do justice to such a subject, and Dr.
Buchanan's writings being, I believe, well known in
England. The philosophy of mind and the mystery of
its operations through the agency of the brain have long
claimed the attention of the most powerful intellects.
System after system has been invented, practised, and
superseded by others. Phrenology has become the
admitted foundation from which all investigations into
the relation of matter and mind must take their rise. The
discoveries of Doctor Buchanan, consist in enlarging the
limits of phrenology, so as to render it applicable to more
extended purposes, and in showing the mode in which it
could be apphed to objects of utility. Dr. Buchanan
possessed even then his entire confidence in the result of
his experimental investigation of the functions of the
brain, and stated that he had ascertained much more in
relation to the subject than any of his predecessors in
physiological or pathological science.

" I am prepared," he says, in one of the pamphlets which he has
frequently published since then, " to teach the true physiology of the
brain, and to give the function of its smallest organs with a precision
which it would once have been deemed chimerical to expect. Yet
every proposition which I advance shall be accompanied on the spot
by experimental demonstration, as palpable and satisfactory even as
those of chemistry."

360 SPECULATIVE PHILOSOPHY.

" It is iu my power to excite, in a few moments, any portion of
the brain either large or small ; to put that portion into full and
vigorous action, as an efficient portion of the character of the
person upon whom I operate; and then, at will, suspend its
action, and excite the action of its antagonist organ, or of any
other organ, or group of organs that I choose to bring into
play."

To condense the learned and technical descriptions of
this discovery, it may be briefly designated " Phrenology
in action." Turning that science to practical account, it
utilizes the discoveries of Gall and Spurzheim. By simply
touching the developments on the skull their corre-
sponding organs in the brain are excited, and the indi-
vidual is played on by the Professor as one might play
on an instrument. The wonders of phreno-magnetism
are performed without any recourse to mesmerism.
Persons in the natural state, without any previous
preparation or external influence, are made to exhibit
efiects that were heretofore supposed impossible, except
to those in the mesmerised state. And faculties are
discovered to exist and to be demonstrable, in individuals
noway changed from their ordinary and e very-day
appearance and manners, that give to them more the aid
and powers of inspiration, than of anything previously
considered as the common attributes of humanity.

In how far these experiments may harmonize with
or diff*er from those of electro-biology, I am unable,
from want of personal observation, to say ; and the
publications by Dr. Buchanan, and the numerous
notices of his experiments in newspapers and periodical
works devoted to science, must be referred to, by those
who may be interested by this mention of him and
his pursuits. There is only one demonstrable branch of
the subject which I mean to dwell on, which being entirely

CHARACTER DEDUCED FROM HANDWRITING. 361

free from all scientific or medical agency, can be compre-
hended by every inquirer, and is susceptible of experi-
mental proof by any and every one.

I allude to the faculty possessed by some individuals of
a highly impressible temperament (which term as applied
by Dr. Buchanan to physical excitability is tantamount
to the French word impressionnable applied to moral
sentiment), of reading the character of individuals from
the mere contact with a wTitten document, but without a
sight of the handwriting.

The power of judging of character from seeing hand-
writing alone, without any previous knowledge of the
individual, is common to many persons in a moderate
degree.

Shelley, in his posthumous Essays and Letters, has
thus touched on the question of handwriting in this con-
nexion in his description of Tasso's cell at Ferrara : —

"The handwriting of Ariosto is a small, firm, and pointed
character, expressing, as I should say, a strong and keen, but
circumscribed energy of mind. That of Tasso is large, free, and
flowing, except that there is a checked expression in the midst of its
flow, which brings the letters into a smaller compass than one
expected from the beginning of the word. It is the symbol of an
intense and earnest mind, exceeding at times its own depth, and
admonished to return by the chilness of the waters of oblivion
striking upon its adventurous feet."

Indeed few persons look on a handwriting for the
first time without forming a slight and passing notion
of some of the most leading characteristics of the writer.
We say such a handwriting is bold or cramped, elegant or
vulgar, and so on ; and we naturally attach to the
person the idea arising from his penmanship. But beyond
that few can judge with accuracy ; and even in so con-

362 SPECULATIVE PHILOSOPHY.

tracted an opinion as that, many errors are made. But
Dr. Buchanan possessed in the most extraordinary degree
I ever knew the faculty of reading character from such
indications. I have heard him in the presence of several
persons well acquainted with the individuals whose writing
was exhibited to him, deliver opinions as to their pursuits
in life, age, habits of thought, manners, and peculiarities,
moral and intellectual, of an accuracy startling, and almost
always minutely correct.

I need scarcely say that on those occasions it was quite
certain that Dr. Buchanan was entirely unacquainted
personally with the individuals thus analysed, and never
before had specimens of their handwriting submitted to
him. They were of various descriptions of persons,
friends, and relatives in Europe, where Dr. Buchanan had
never been, and some of them men in public life, EngUsh
and foreign, whose writing he had never seen before. To
be certain of that, Dr. Buchanan's assertion would have
been as convincing to me as any amount of testimony ;
but, for the satisfaction of those who were not so well
acquainted with him, every possible precaution was taken.
He lays claim to no peculiar qualifications, mental or
physical, for such power beyond great apphcation and
repeated experiments. He says that his skill is based
upon simple mathematical principles, and that it may be
easily acquired. He maintains that all the muscular
movements of the body sympathize with, and are pro-
duced by cerebral action, and that he has ascertained that
every manual motion giving a peculiar formation to written
characters, must proceed from the nature of certain organs
in the brain, and the degree of relative activity ; all the
influences in short which create mental characteristics.
Fully impressed with this conviction, Dr. Buchanan, on

REMARKABLE CASE IN NEUROLOGY. 363

seeing a specimen of handwriting, immediately forms a
notion (and I can vouch for his frequent most surprising
accuracy) of the size, shape, and phrenological develop-
ments of the individual's head. Having these before him
in imagination, he proceeds to give his opinions as to the
character of the writer, taking, from many minor and
minute traits in the writing, notions of his age and pursuits
in life.

This, however, forms no portion of the study of
Neurology. I have mentioned it incidentally with refer-
ence to the branch of that science, which exhibits
impressible persons as endowed with the marvellous
faculty of reading character from the mere contact with-
out handwriting, which they do not look at at all, with still
greater depth, and infinitely more delicacy of perception,
than is evinced by Dr. Buchanan, who has the chirography
before his eyes.

Four or five persons so organized have on as many
occasions given me proofs, in the presence of various
others, that this power is very general, and not confined
to individuals of one sex, or to any pecuHarity of physical
temperament.

Assisted by Dr. Buchanan, I took notes on the spot of
several of those experiments. I always chose among my
letters those from individuals publicly known to well-
informed Americans, such as composed Dr. Buchanan's
class, of whom some were present on each occasion.

I will subjoin the notes of one of the experiments,
being sufficient as a specimen of the whole. The general
accuracy of the character thus given will be obvious to
every one acquainted with the person it concerns. I tried
on the occasion I allude to, three letters, which I placed
successively in the hands of a young lady, highly sensi-

364 SPECULATIVE PHILOSOPHY.

live, and of most pleasing and modest manners. She was
previously unknown to me or mj family. She never
looked at the handwriting of the letters, which she
pressed between her palms. I suppress the observations
on two of those, not by any means from their being
failures, for they were quite the contrary — but the
following is a verbatim copy of the words she uttered
during the quarter of an hour occupied in the examina-
tion of the one I choose to record. The letter being
placed in her hands, after a short pause, she spoke as
follows, Dr. Buchanan correctly writing down her words,
which I have copied from his manuscript still in my
possession.

" I have a fancy I should like this person, kind-hearted,
generous, not deficient in mirthfulness. I feel happy —
and hopeful — I think the person could see the bright side
of things where there was a bright side to be seen. He
must have a good deal of inw^ard peace. May have a
quick perception of the ludicrous — don't think he would
make ill-natured remarks. Might make good-natured
remarks which might wound — would give and take a
joke. I think he might be lively — not sluggish — quick
in movement — would be so near his friends in heart that
he would not feel they were at a distance from him.
I should think he might be critical — would see a little
defect quickly with a searching eye. I don't think he
would be severe on the person, though he might be in his
criticism. Has a great deal of warmth, and much deeper
feeling than he has credit for. Has not much patience.
Would be, I think, a quick-tempered person, and one who
would not patiently bear an insult. Eather sensitive on
the point of honour. Might have much indignation at
any baseness. Great deal of sincerity. After a burst of

REMARKABLE CASE IN NEUROLOGY. 365

indignation might laugh at himself, and think he had
used more warmth than was necessary. I don't see
finished drawings, but fancy he could sketch. ''

Here it was intimated to the speaker that it was a lady
whose character she was describing. She continued : —

" I am not surprised to hear it is a lady- — I feel such a
genial influence. She might be an older person but a
younger spirit than Dr. Buchanan (who was about thirty
years of age). A good deal of serious and deep thought.
Might relieve a fit of sadness by writing. Can write
verses, but would write prose better. She has descriptive
powers. I don't think she has been without her struggles
and trials. Has a good deal of hope and ideality. When
unhappy flies to ideality and finds relief. Is it a person
who has written a good deal '? Beautiful scenes pass
before me, as when reading beautiful descriptions. One
scene with a waterfall seems very pleasant to me. Has
she lost any near friends 1 I don't think she forgets
them. She chngs more dearly to those who are left. Has
she travelled '? I cannot tell whether she has, or if it was
imagination.

'' A great many only know the outside of her character.
It has great depth and much to respect. I feel a great
interest in her. I don't think she says much of her griefs,
but feels them. It seems to me that she may feel at
times as if she is in a very elevated condition without
being so. I think she bears her trials well. It is only
when you know her intimately that you know what deep
grief she has felt. Her mirthfulness and cheerful spirit
are great blessings to her great elasticity of mind. She
laughs. There's a good deal of power of endurance, and
a good deal of restraint and great sensibility. What gives
a charm to her writing is that she feels what she writes.

366 SPECULATIVE PHILOSOPHY.

Would enter into character quickly. Wouldn't make
people feel awkward in awkward situations. Would make
every one feel at ease. Doesn't she hate affectation 1 I can
imagine her with affected persons putting on coarse and
rough ways — her feeling of disgust would drive her to the
other extreme. Would have a great feehng for true
dehcacy and timidity, and set such a person at ease, and
draw them out. Has a good hearty love of nature. Knows
how to admire —gets warm when admiration is excited —
has considerable versatility. I should think she was very
susceptible of pleasant influences. Would not yield to
unpleasant ones — creates an atmosphere w^here unpleasant
influences cannot penetrate. If she says ' I won't,' hard
to make it ' I will.' Gentle, but firm — more gentle by
nature than she always shows. How I should like to be
with her on the rocks at Jerusalem, the sun going down
and the moon coming up ! She is the right kind of person
to take it all in. How she would have looked at the
person who said, ' It is pretty, isn't it *? ' She'd enjoy a
thunder-tempest. Doesn't she love children ! She is
honest and hearty — not worldly wise. I don't think she'd
care for persons of the world, yet for the few she'd love."

Here the young lady, who had been greatly excited,
flushed and animated, became suddenly exhausted ; and Dr.
Buchanan took the letter from between her hands. Great
was the astonishment of all present, and particularly of
the young lady herself — and not trifling was the disap-
pointment and vexation of some of the American listeners,
when I opened the sheet of paper and read the namex)f
the writer, the clever and impulsive Mrs. Trollope.

However science may classify and distinguish the
several phenomena of mental philosophy, ordinary ob-
servers too often confound them together. Phrenology,

DISCREDIT ATTACHED TO MESMERISM. 367

Neurology, and Mesmerism, are only parts and parcel in
the vulgar view, of the system which includes table-
turning, spirit-rapping, and all the rest of the ftimily of
occult and mysterious facts or fictions, as the case may be.
Not one of those subjects has suffered so much on this
account as Mesmerism. It partakes so much of the
mixed principles of reality and imagination, it speaks in
such united tones to the reason and the fancy, its curative
qualities are so blended with its shadowy marvels,
delirium with clairvotjance, and manifest truth with
positive imposture, that it required some powerful mind,
some weighty intellect combined with a serious, impres-
sive, and persuasive manner, to bring before the world in
a new generation this sublime discovery, and relieve it
from the meretricious trickeries of Mesmer himself, and
the wretched puerilities of many of his followers. Even
in England it fell into incompetent hands. Quacks and
dupes made it odious or ridiculous in practice ; and not
even the admirable work of Mr. Chauncy Townshend,*
which unites all the charms of style with depth of
research, acuteness of observation, and the courageous
utterance of truth, could sufficiently countervail against
the want of a practical expounder of his written reve-
lations. In America it fared still worse. The book just
mentioned and several others on the subject, of great
merit, but none of them equal to it, had a certain circu-
lation. But the people are too impatient and too much
occupied with too many other things, to give sufficient
attention to the silent study of any subject, however
striking. They require philosophy to be put into action.
They must have lectures and experiments, to speak

* " Facts in Mesmerism, with Reasons for a dispassionate inquiry into it/'
By the Rev. Mr, Chauncy Hare Townshend,

368 SPECULATIVE PHILOSOPHY.

plainly and briefly to their senses; and unless the
practical agent is endowed with such qualities as I have
before enumerated, the theory he would illustrate has no
chance of becoming an established article of the public
faith. And so it was that mesmerism fell quickly into
disrepute and was utterly neglected, while the popular
mind caught up with eagerness, and followed with intense
avidity, the next in succession of those manifestations —
niarvellous, at any rate, whatever may be their cause or
their consequences — which have become conspicuous in
the present century ; and table-turning, not to speak it
profanely, turned the tables on all that went before.

I cannot say whether this newly discovered or recently
revived phenomenon, whichever it may be, became popu-
larly noticed in the first instance, in Europe or America ;
or if the observations which led to its notoriety were not
simultaneous in both hemispheres. That however is only
of consequence, inasmuch as an American origin would
have been prima facie evidence of imposture, to the
European sceptic ; while, in the other case, the American
people would, in this, like everything else, have pushed
experiment and belief to an extravagant stretch, to outdo
any marvellous development first witnessed in the Old
World. But that table-turning is a fact, extensive as
humanity itself, witnessed, practised, and believed in by
millions, cannot now be gainsayed. To explain it with
any degree of satisfaction to plain, sound minds, equally
opposed to baseless theories, or the flippant ipse diwit of
any one "philosopher," is a task to be yet performed.
Yet thousands upon thousands are every day satisfied to
pin their faith upon some such oracular decision. It does
not even require the sanction of a name to satisfy the
ignorant million or the educated mass. A breath of

SPIKIT EAPPINGS. 869

denial, if it comes authoritatively and in sympathy with
a general prejudice, suffices to calm a whole "multi-
tudinous sea " of uncertainty. And people in general are
so glad to get rid of a troublesome inquiry or a startling
innovation, that they are delighted to invest with super-
human influence the most shallow charlatan who pretends
to settle a question by a stroke of his pen. But a
numerous and very powerful class of observers and
inquirers are not to be thus dealt with. They are not
those who only think they are thinking, but those who
do really think. Those who will investigate before they
decide ; and who, even should they decide wrongly, are
far superior to those who blindly adopt the oftentimes
erroneous decisions of others.

Another class, still more numerous, observe, examine,
and reflect, but find it impossible to make up their minds
absolutely, on matters so incomprehensible and so little
susceptible of rational and positive proof. These (like
those political hangers-on on chance, who are ironically
called by too grave a name) are really and in sober
seriousness waiters on Providence — beings who, while
"fools rush in'' and self-made judges irreverently pro-
nounce eo! cathedra sentence on the inscrutable acts of
Heaven, stand patiently by, watching the progress of
events they can neither fathom nor control.

The greatest of those combined marvels is assuredly
the " manifestation,'' which commenced about ten years
ago, in the State of New York, familiarly denominated
" Spirit rappings," an ignoble title, which from the very
first threw an air of grotesque vulgarity on the mystery
it was meant to designate. The supposed communications
from spirits in another state of existence to persons with
whom, in life, they had been connected by ties of affection

VOL. II. B B

370 SPECULATIVE PHILOSOPHY,

or friendship, form a subject too solemn for light treatment,
and too startling for unhesitating belief. There are,
nevertheless, milHons who either scoff at the bare idea,
or who devoutly adopt it as true. It need not be told
that Europe contains numerous adepts, but in the United
States they are not to be counted. They are not, like the
usual large associations, a defined and established sect, with
a specific title, and rally ing-signs of brotherhood, bound
by common ties or forms. Yet they do positively present
an almost innumerable body of believers, professing the
highest principles of morahty, and maintaining, in what
they consider to be a new revelation, the strictest attach^
ment to the Religion of Christ. It is by no means the
low and ignorant, such as Mormons or Millerites, that
constitute this host of believers, divided into thousands
of " circles," with untold media of many distinct attributes,
Men of high attainments, unblemished character, and
considerable talent are to be found among them, with
numbers of intelhgent, sincere, and disinterested people,
and no doubt large accessions of the simple, credulous,
and weak-minded, as ready to believe in a mystery from
the force of example, as to deny a truth at the dictation
of a sceptic. This kind of persons counts for nothing in
a question such as this. But throwing such entirely aside,
there are multitudes of whom statistics can take no note,
to command the attention of the world at large.

Such a movement as this ought scarcely to be ignored.
If deserving of notice at all, it is at least worth inquiry ;
and the method of inquiry should be worthy of the matter.
By what means it should be entered on, by what rules
regulated, or by whom conducted, are questions difficult
to answer, in connexion with a subject which has no con-
centrated focus nor responsible condition to which inquiry

SPIRIT RAPPINGS. 371

could be applied. Most wild and illogical attempts have
been made to stifle the matter altogether as a mere cheat,
and various imaginary explanations given, one more
utterly futile than the other, of the numerous category of
" Sights and Sounds," which have long become familiar as
associated with this mystery. The author of a work, with
the title just quoted, ^^'^ was, I believe, the first to bring the
question fairly before the British public, and he has
treated it in a manner strictly popular, and both instructive
and amusing. This gentleman, an Englishman, travelling
in America four or five years back, during the very height
of the excitement caused by the Rochester " rappings,"
was led to give his attention to what was considered " the
mystery of the day ;" and his volume presents a most
lively picture of it in a very rational light. Mr. Spicer
says, with truth and candour, —

" A matter which seems fraught with powerful interest to the
estimable and intelligent cannot easily be put aside with scorn. I
must own it appeared to me, in common probably with all British
novices, in its early aspect, idle and puerile, a scientific bubble
waiting puncture. In the meantime, however, manifestations mul-
tiplied. It soon became easy, next pleasant, to listen; — and, inas-
much as it is considerably safer to affirm what a mystery is not than
what it is — let it suffice to say, that I have seen, heard, and learned
enough, to force me irresistibly — even against my will — to the con-
clusion that the mystery in question has its origin in no mechanical
skill — in no human intelligence, however shrewd and penetrative —
in no hitherto recognized law of physics — in no material organism
whatever.'*

Having myself witnessed many instances of the exer-
cises of the initiated — not in America, but in England —
amongst educated, honourable, and trustworthy persons of

* " Sights and Sounds : the Mystery of the Day ; comprising an entire History
of the American * Spirit ' Manifestations." By Henry Spicer, Esq., London.

B B 2

372 SPECULATIVE PHILOSOPHY.

both sexes — I am quite prepared to add my testimony,
that however there might have been ^/elusion, co/lusion
was impossible ; and that, although the " rappings "
always seemed to come from beneath the table, every-
thing else was most assuredly above board. What to
think of it, I know not. What to say of it, still less.
Had my experience been in America, perhaps I should
have formed a more decided opinion. As it is, I dismiss
the subject, with a few concluding remarks :

1st. If " spirit rapping '' be a trick, the knowledge of
it by many thousand persons scattered all over the
earth, without the possibiHty of acquaintanceship or com-
munication, is nothing short of inspiration.

2nd. It is equally miraculous that the secret has never
been betrayed and never discovered.

3rd. If it were really a trick put in action by machinery,
or other material organism, it would always succeed.
Professed conjurors never fail. Therefore occasional failure
is the best proof of constant truthfulness, Let others
explain if they can the cause of the occasional failures,
and they may come at the secret of the frequent success.

4th. Men of high intellect and strict integrity have
faith in, and are guided by, the indications derived from
" Spirit rapping.'' That is no guarantee against folly on
their part, but it is against fraud ; and it is certain that
their practices with the spirits in no ways impair their
pursuits in the flesh.

CHAPTER Xiy.

EDUCATION— LITERATURE— TflE DRAMA.
l*ublic Instruction in 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 Scholarship-
Writers unduly extolled— Recent Progress of Literature — Mr. Ward's
" Views of England " — An American Notion Of John Bull — Poverty of the
American Drama — Miss Cushman, English Actors in America — Anecdote of
Mr. Braham — American Italian Opera.

Whether regarded with reference to the system on
which it is founded, or the plan on which it is carried
out, education is decidedly the strongest point in the
social condition of America. The State which, whether
wisely or the contrary, rejected an alliance with the
Chui'ch in any shape, has completely identified itself
with public instruction in all its forms. The federal
government is not charged with its management, which
has been assumed and is maintained entirely as the
prerogative of each separate state of the Union. Had the
control of such an extensive institution been given to
the general government, it must have been accompanied
by some power of local taxation, adverse to the funda-
mental axioms of the federal partnership ; and by the
system adopted, a total separation is formed between
secular and religious teaching, the Church and the schools
performing their duties entirely distinct from, and not
clashing with each other.

374 EDUCATION — LITERATURE — THE DRAMA.

And although immense importance is justly attached to
the general education of the people, and a remarkable
degree of emulation kept up between the different states
in the maintenance of the great principle, its pursuit is
not followed to unwise lengths ; in other words, the people
are not over-educated. The several states have adopted
different educational schemes ; but they all seem to work
in the right spirit, and are all entitled to a great
measure of public respect and admiration on this
score.

Statistical tables must be referred to for data on which
to judge of the large and liberal view which has presided
over this great question of national education, and
numerous publications may be^ consulted, rich in details
of its theory and practical working. The admirable
reports of Mr. Horace Mann, Secretary to the Massa-
chusetts Board of Education^ form so many text-books on
the management of public schools ; and there is not one
of the many establishments throughout the country,
starting from that basis and ascending to the universities,
that has not put forth its quota of most useful infor-
mation.

It is really no idle boast^ but absolute and honour-
able fact, when we are told that the principle which
lies at the foundation of the educational system of the
Union is that all the children of the state shall be
educated by the state ; that the theory of the govern-
ment being founded on the inteUigence of the people,, a
wise education is necessary to its existence ; and that
the great question for national consideration is the best
mode of disseminating intelligence and virtue among
the people. On that one text, " Educate the people/' a
long series of practical essays have been exhibited, and

SCHOOLS AND UNIVERSITIES. 375

the great duty it inculcates is, beyond doubt, most
worthily, if not with entire perfection, performed, in
schools, colleges, and universities.

But there are due bounds to the extent of education, as
well as limits to the advantages it can bestow. In-
struction in America is on a far more limited scale
than that devoted to the superior classes in England,
while the education afforded to the lower grades of the
people puts to shame the insufficient teaching hitherto
so grudgingly afforded to the English poor. The
requisite instruction for the miUions of American citizens
is confined to a sound plain system. Whole years of early
life are not wholly devoted to the drudgery of acquiring the
dead languages, whose inflnence would be almost entirely
lost in the rough ways of transatlantic life. Children
go to school in early years, and leave the universities
generally about the age at which an English youth matri-
culates. The United States contain many good scholars,
and the universities possess Professors in all branches of
hio;h attainments. But it would be inconsistent with
the whole existing state of things to expect a body of
deep and solid learning such as is maintained in Great
Britain. Even there learning is not followed without
the strong inducements, of adequate reward for time,
trouble, and devotion to study. The endowments for
university success, in the shape of scholarships, fellow-
shipsj and the higher dignities, rich church livings^
well-paid cathedral offices, the Bench of Bishops, and
the House of Lords, those brilhant prizes for the aspiring
and industrious European student, have no existence in
America ; nor is there a class of wealthy men nursed
in hereditary love of scholastic distinction, and emulous
of that gained by members of their families in gene-

370 EDUCATIOi^ LITERATURE THE DRAMA.

rations gone by, and the fruits of which have descended
to themselves*

But to balance this comparative deficiency in the
higher walks of intellectual culture, let this one fact be
marked. Almost all native-born Americans are able at
least to read, write, and cipher, while the great majority
have received much more than the mere rudiments of
education comprised in those primary acquirements. The
great mass of the exceptions, whether children or adults,
is to be found among the European immigrants, who
bring with them the ignorance that is inseparable from
the political systems they left behind them.

A severe censor might perhaps with justice observe,
that this wide-spread system of education has scarcely
produced such corresponding results as its founders and
supporters expected, and now look for in vain. Too much
however must not be exacted from any human institution,
nor from Human Nature itself The purpose of those
early establishments, the common schools, the colleges
and universities, is to teach the elements of knowledge,
but they cannot make men wise. They impart the means
of understanding the difference between right and wrong,
but they cannot abolish vice or consolidate virtue. That
must be left for a more advanced teaching, and a more
extensive acquaintance with the world. And it is just at
that turning point in the road of Hfe that American
precept and example are both found wanting ; that the
political system as exemplified by the highest authorities
is such as I have shown it to be; and that a com-
mercial career developes analogous defects, which may be
more evidently pointed out before this volume comes to
a close. The youth of all nations is beyond measure the
most interesting portion of the population ; and though

ESTIMATION OF SCHOLAKSHIP. 377

it is certainly very little so in America, compared with
that of European countries^ it is yet impossible to look on
the millions of the junior adults, just taking their places
in the throng, without lamenting the fate that awaits
those among them, whose previous reading may have
given them some lofty aspirations, and exalted notions of
mankind, which their quick-coming experience must so
soon demohsh and belie.

But hurrying from this picture, and taking a more
advanced view of " Young America," as it works out its
way through life, I may here briefly touch upon a subject
the most congenial to my own individual tastes, and to
the pursuits which after a very long cessation I have
resumed, — that of —

LITERlTURfi— AND ITS PROI^ESSOHS IN AMERICA.

A mistaken notion exists among certain enemies to
republican institutions, that scholarship and a love of the
arts is a total bar to advancement in the United States,
and that prejudices against those higher acquirements are
so strong, as to exclude their possessors from all chance of
success in public life.

This is gross exaggeration. More value is certainly
placed by the people at large on those acquisitions which
they can appreciate, than on others of which they are
ignorant, and the utility of which they doubt. A mere
reputation for classical or scientific knowledge is a feeble
recommendation for places in the government, or official
appointments abroad. But such tastes or pursuits are no
obstacles if coupled with business talents, facility in
public speaking, or active habits of life. There are

378 EDUCATION — LITERATURE — THE DRAMA.

many instances in support of this assertion. Hugh
Legare, who died in Boston in 1843, filled the offices of
Attorney-General of the United States, and Secretary of
State ad interim. He was an excellent scholar, and an
elegant though a pedantic writer. Edward Everett and
George Bancroft, both of them Ministers at the Court of
St. James's ; Alexander Everett and "Washington Irving,
who held the same post in Spain ; Fenimore Cooper for-
merly Consul at Marseilles ; Howard Payne, at Tangiers ;
Wheaton, at Berlin ; Lothrop Motley, Secretary of
Legation at St. Petersburgh ; Paulding, Secretary of the
Navy ; Watson Webb, charge d'affaires at Yiennaj and
several others, all owing their places to their reputation
as writers of books, or in newspapers, entirely with the
approval of the people composing their several political
parties, and the concurrence of their opponents, except in
an occasional instance of flagra,nt partisanship.

it is true that men of letters, as a class, are an ob-
scure and uninfluential portion of the population. But
the people are nevertheless proud of them to a certain
extent. They like to have them puffed in the papers far
even beyond their merit. They are pleased to be told
that American authors of small comparative talent are
equal to the greatest geniuses of English literature • and
this is often and often told them by contemporary critics.

In a sketch, in Graham's " Philadelphia Magazine," of
Mr. Bryant, editor of the " New York Evening Post,'' whose
pleasing verses are familiar to many readers in England,
I find the following passage : " William Cullen Bryant is
a great poet, not so to be regarded by us, his countrymen
only, but by the world, and in all future ages I If every
human soul be, as some contend, a portion of the eternal
and unseen, how large a portion of the divine essence

WRITERS UNDULY EXTOLLED. .^79

exists in men like Shakspeare, Spencer, Milton, Byron,
Wordsworth, and Bryant."

Unless I greatly mistake the character of the amiable
and cultivated gentleman thus absurdly eulogised, he did
not feel obliged to the writer who placed him in so false
a position.

Here is another specimen from the " Boston Post ; "
but I know not how likely the object of the puff would
be to repudiate it : " The Scripture Piece, by WilHs "
(the lively and sparkling magazine and newspaper writer),
" which we have copied from the last number of the ' New
York Mirror/ is worthy of any pen past or present."

But the climax of these and the like exaggerations is
perhaps furnished in the following notice of a lady, whom
I res-ret to sav I never elsewhere saw or heard a mention
of, any more than of the work, whether it was in prose or
verse, on which it seems her fame is founded :^-

Mrs. Brooks was one of the most remarkable women that ever
lived. To great attainments in literature, she joined a powerful and
original genius, and a character of singular energy and individuality.
Both in England and the United States, she has been considered, by
all who have read her writings thoughtfully, as unmatched among
poets of her sex.

That a mind of so much power and brilliancy should have
departed, that one of the lights of our literature should have been
quenched, we consider an occasion for the most sincere regret. But
the image of that mind, stamped on her productions, will not depart.
The light that illumines the records of her genius will not be
quenched. Her memory will never return to the dust ; her mind,
even on earth, will have no grave and no tomb. Silently and surely
her genius will work its way into the great public heart of the
country, and her fame grow with time. And we cannot conceive of
the period when an American, in reviewing the causes which have
conduced to place his country in a proud intellectual position, and
assisted in giving to it the immortality which springs from literature,

380 EDUCATION — LITERATUKE — THE DRAMA.

shall cease to regard with peculiar gratitude and admiration the
name of the authoress of " Zophiel."

It must be however understood, that this absurd bom-
bast is not the outpouring of a generous enthusiasm ; for the
vast majority of the individuals so lauded are left Unnoticed
in the towns and villages where they reside and scribble.
No one seeks them out, offers them assistance, or thrusts
honours on them. If, however, from any particular cause
of private friendship, one of these deserving persons receives
a government appointment, the public voice blows a far
louder trumpet blast before the new employe than he has
any just title to.

But there are no gradations in the regard, or rather let
me call it, the curiosity, which pays homage to men of
merit. Those who receive any notice at all, must be the
very first in their line. A high celebrite is sure of a
triumph wherever he goes. But many are undervalued
and wholly overlooked, because they have not the reputa-
tion of the first order of intellect, or of some marked
eccentricity of character. The Americans are incapable
of marking degrees of merit in artj science, or literature.
They cannot discriminate on relative claims. Some of
their clever men rot in obscurity from the public want of
this appreciating power. If one of them happen to gain
a European name, a fulsome adulation is for a short time
lavished on him. But the crisis is soon over. There is
no constancy in the public opinion, for it is not based on
judgment or affection. It is lightly formed and hastily
changed. No one can maititain a hold upon the popular
mind who is not a political partisan aiid the slave of his
party. Were I so disposed I could here point out one,
at least, of those remarkable instances which are notorious
in the United States. But it would not be becoming in

RECENT PROGRESS OF LITERATURE. 381

me, who have known and mixed with many of the writers
in that country, to throw any disrepute in Europe, on men
who are known there and esteemed for their hterary
claims alone, their political " proclivities " (their own
favourite word) being uncared for, whatever be their
present or their former party, or however ready they
might be for another change. From feeHngs of the
same nature I should decline, even were I confident of
possessing the necessary ability, to offer any judgment
on the relative merits or defects of existing authors.
Criticism of that kind would be disfiguring to a work
like this, which, in dealing with topics of political or social
organization, is by no means intended to trench on the
repose of a single student, by intrusion of either praise or
blame, to which he might after all be equally indifferent.

It is now nearly twenty years since I first landed in the
United States, having then, as I thought, given up for
ever the pursuit of literature as a profession. In taking
it up again, I certainly have to thank that country for the
motive, and for the inspiration, such as it is, and instead
of passing strictures or lavishing eulogy with rather old-
fashioned notions on the many men who have acquired
celebrity since those days, I prefer leaving this renewed
eflfort of my own to their consideration and indulgence.
Even they, in the full tide of their success, with youth,
hope, and ambition to urge them on, know the difficulty of
composing any book however imperfect. They will there-
fore at any rate feel some sympathy with the workman,
let them think as they may of the work.

In the great start which American hterature has made
within the last dozen years, various books have appeared
on subjects of high interest to the world at large —
theology, jurisprudence, history, poetry, besides travels

382 EDUCATION — LITERATURE — THE DRAMA.

to various parts of the earth, and novels on many subjects.
These all address themselves to the attention of all nations.
Writers on England, such as Cooper, Colman, Willis,
Irving, Lester, Mintern, and others, have been extensively
read, and differently appreciated among us. But the
subject seems to have been nearly worn out, as far as
it might have been thought worthy of attention in
America, probably from a tolerably extensive idea enter-
tained there of the decline and fast-approaching fall of the
British Empire. One work, however, has lately come
under my eye, which treats of the question somewhat at
large ; and a few specimens of it may be given here, as
samples of the way in which some American writers, who
are so sensitive on the score of English works on America,
pay back the great trouble and friendly feeling with
which the latter have been produced, in the hope that the
lessons of European experience, learned under monarchical
auspices, might be productive of advantage to the great
republic.

The work in question is called " English Items : or
Microscopic Views of England and Enghshmen ; " and its
author, Mr. Matt. F. Ward, is stated by the American
reviewers (in reference to a former work) to be "an
intelHgent and accomplished writer, a man of talent and
cultivation, with an active mind and keen powers of
observation and description/' Being, as he unaffectedly
describes himself, "an unknown individual from Arkansas "
(which by the way is always pronoimced in America,
Arkansaw), "accustomed to attack rampant bears at home,
the cavortings* of the British Hon seemed much less terrible
to him than to some of his more civiKzed countrymen,

* Probablj' meaning curvettings.

MR. ward's "views OF ENGLAND.'' S83

who had never seen angry beasts out of cages.'' He pro-
ceeds at once in his process, which he announces as quite
a novel one, to tame this pampered and angry animal — a
good deal, I presume, in the fashion of Mr. Rarey, whose
book he had probably studied — " by seizing him (the
lion) fearlessly by the throat, and at once strangling him
into involuntary silence." Yet Mr. Ward assures his
readers he " is not a harsh man by nature ; " although he
admits he '* would take keen dehght " in seeing such
recreant Americans as "affect the society of transient
Englishmen/* and " who become the flunkeys of flunkeys
and toadyize toadies, so tortured that their sufiferings
might prove a warning to all, sufiiciently destitute of
manhood to follow the example." Page 13.

From this avowal of humane severity to his own
compatriots, we need not be surprized at the friendly
castigation he gives to the countrymen of that poor half-
strangled British hon. But to fully understand its nature
and extent, I must refer the reader to the volume itself It
abounds in passages that might be studied with very good
effect, points out errors in our social system, faults in our
manners, and blemishes in our character, and gives advice
that we should " avail of," as Mr. Ward would (like any
other American) say with the true fearless tone of supe-
riority, which carries a certain force with it, not however
calculated on the principle of "weight for age." He
accounts for the Englishman's objecting to the haste with
which Americans dispose of their dinner, by stating that
he, the Enghshman, "being himself endowed with the
voracity of a shark, the gizzard of an ostrich, and the
dilating powers of the Anaconda, he imagines that every
one must, from necessity, gorge his food as he does
himself" But the matter upon which Enghshmen seem

384 EDUCATION — LITERATURE — THE DRAMA.

to Mr. Ward most unreasonable is, that in their assumed
character of "moral regulators of American domestic
economy," they presume to disapprove of the practice of
spitting. "In what does it concern John Bull," exclaims
he, " if each western farmer and southern planter should
be pleased to fill with tobacco-juice a pool that would float
a whole hogshead of the weed 1 He might not approve
of it, he might even be disgusted by it, but I would have
him taught better manners than to sneer at it. When he
is convinced that we have attained such a position in the
world as to enable us to spit with impunity, he may still
attack the habit, but will no longer attempt to ridicule it.
If spitting be, as the English would fain have it, a
nationality, let us boldly spit it into respectability. I
beheve it is often inconvenient to him w^ho indulges in it ;
but for the life of me I cannot discover anything about
it so especially offensive. A spittoon is certainly rather
an unsightly sort of an article, but I have no recollection
of ever being seriously affected by witnessing the ejection
of the amber-coloured juice, by the most inveterate
devotee of the weed. I contend that it is superlatively
disgusting to the English merely because it is an
American habit. Hating us with an intensity that help-
less rage can only know, it is their chiefest delight to cavil
at us. And finding nothing more serious to object to,
our earlier traducers seized upon this, and each hireling
caterer to the morbid feeling against America in England
attempts a facetious improvement on the stereotyped
jokes of his predecessors. But," continues Mr. Ward in a
really heroic vein, " if we in America must spit, let us
spit out courageously before the whole world. I beseech
again, let us spit fearlessly and profusely. Spitting on
ordinary occasions may be regarded by a portion of my

AN AMERICAN S NOTION OF JOHN BULL. 385

countrymen as a luxury ; it becomes a duty in the
presence of an Englishman. Let us spit around him —
above him — and beneath him — everywhere but on him"
(as an experienced traveller in steam-boats and railway
carriages I w^ish that exception w^as generally observed),
" that he may become perfectly familiar with the habit in
all of its phases."

After all this it will be admitted that spitting is
indeed an exhausting subject as w^ell as habit ; and I
believe, had I read Mr. AVard's lecture before my " dia-
tribe " was printed in Volume I., I should have cancelled
it, and have suppressed those censures against tobacco,
which seem how^ever a common ingredient in all English
wTitings on America, from Mrs. Trollope's book at Cincin-
nati to Lord Carlisle's lecture at Leeds.

There may be individual Britishers so sensitive as not
to be pleased with Mr. Ward when he tells them that " an
Enghshman knows no excitement so intense or joy so
thrilling as a smoking plate of ox-tail soup ; " that " he pities
those who cannot gobble food like an ostrich ; " and " that
the gizzard of a cassowary is the pet object of his
ambition " — but Mr. Ward fails to mention how John
Bull would like it dressed — and after enumerating several
other rather gross delights peculiar to that same old
gentleman, he winds up a chapter as I do my extracts, by
stating that " all the nobler impulses of man are yielding
to those animal propensities, which must soon render
Englishmen beasts in all but form alone."

This precious volume, printed at New York, was
probably meant as a luxury of American domestic litera-
ture. But it would be very unkind of the author to
confine its circulation to his own country, instead of
extending it to that for whose latitude it is specially

386 EDUCATION — LITERATURE — THE DRAMA.

suited ; and for the people who, though too far gone to
be improved, would assuredly be infinitely amused by a
London edition of it, although the author assures his
countrymen that "the only way to affect the under-
standing of the English is to punch their heads ; " and
that " mutual enmity is the only feeling that can ever be
entertained with sincerity between the two people."

I am not aware of any other recent works in this vein
pubhshed in America. As to the newspapers of the
Union, from which some choice morsels of anti-EngUsh
abuse might be culled, it would be out of the question to
enter into an analysis of them in the space now left to
me, doing anything like justice to the versatility of
talent, the varieties of style, or the immense extent of
information they contain. The perpetual shiftings of
pohtical opinion and the unreserved treatment of all
private and personal questions, give to those newspapers
a great degree of irregular and almost undefinable interest,
the best testimony to which, despite their manifold faults
and glaring inconsistencies, is their enormous circulation
and large profits.

Dramatic writing, as far as I could observe or learn, is
by far the weakest part of national literature in America.
There are many causes for this deficiency. The main one
is obviously the great quantity of the material exported
from England, not raw, but admirably manufactured, and
which, owing in great part its origin to France, and passing
through the hands of skilful translators and adapters ^An
London, gives to New York, Boston, Philadelphia, and
the other cities of the Union, pictures of the feeUngs, man-
ners, and interior life of the two greatest peoples of Europe.
In subjects drawn from the same sources the writers of
America could not successfully compete with those of the

POVERTY OF THE AMERTCAN DRAMA. 387

Old World. They might show as much talent, but their
ignorance or very superficial knowledge of the same
scenes of thought and action, entirely incapacitates them.
Life in America itself is not sufficiently varied ; there is
too much sameness of pursuit and too few inequalities of
condition to afford sufficient examples of such individual
character as are adapted for effective representation on
the stage. Some farcical type may be and is often chosen,
of well-known peculiarity, and as far as the sketch goes
it is not unfrequently amusing. But as it is almost always
a regular Down-east Yankee, and as no native writer or
actor would venture to depict the slightest shade of the
unfavourable side of national character, these snuffling,
grotesque and over-generous heroes afford no great enjoy-
ment, and give as imperfect a notion of what the " real
thing" is, as an exaggerated Jack Tar at a minor London
theatre.

These I think are among the leading causes for the
poverty in national American comedy. Several authors
have tried tragedy ; and as the whole field of " all crea-
tion '' was before them where to choose, it is strange that
a literature so rich in romance has produced next to
nothing in serious dramatic writing. This can be by no
means for want of encouragement from the public. All
the principal theatres of the Union are crowded whenever
Mr. Forrest appears in " Metamora," an Indian chief, or
another character, a Thracian gladiator, the principal parts
in two melo-dramatic plays called tragedies, and to which
that popular actor imparts a great interest by a style
at once powerful and pathetic, well suited to his American
audiences, though I believe it failed to produce the same
effect in England, before more classical critics and in the
plays of Shakspeare or our great early writers.

c c 2

388 EDUCATION— LITERATURE THE DRAMA.

Other American tragedians of considerable merit have
appeared in England \\dth success. Among them Daven-
port and Wallack, the nephew of Mr. James Wallack, long
so great a favourite with London audiences, and for some
years past manager of a theati'e in New York. But the
one individual who has gained a really great and decided
reputation in England is Miss Charlotte Cushman, who has
given a celebrity to American histrionic talent that no other
performer of either sex has approached. This lady is a rare,
indeed I believe an unique instance of female dramatic
genius in the United States working its own way to fame
and fortune, unaided by even the national pride which might
well have chosen such an object for its patronage. Miss
Cushman played for years in her native town of Boston,
and in almost all the principal theatres of the Union,
without attracting any particular notice, either on the
stage or in society, though her talent was evident and her
private conduct such as to command the highest respect.
She might however have gone on to this day, toiling in
her arduous profession, fighting her battle with the world,
for the sake of her family and her own support, neglected
and undervalued, had it not been that some European
admirers of her talent, who were also staunch friends on
the score of her estimable domestic qualities, strongly
urged her to try her fortune in England, the only place
where the first could find a fair field, and the latter be sure
of their just appreciation. Miss Cushman's immediate and
immense success, from the first night of her appearance, in
London, is known to every one. The freshness and vigour
of her acting placed her at once in the foremost rank
among living actresses of the English drama, and she has
for years held her ground. America, true to the instinct of
imitation which I have all through these volumes pointed

MISS CUSHMAN — ENGLISH ACTORS IN AMERICA. 389

out, received the now celebrated artiste on her return with
such applause as celebrity coming from England is sure to
command. On her periodical visits to Yankee land she is
certain of the reward best worth receiving there, a large
accession of dollars, besides a superabundance of praise
proportionate to the early infliction of dull discouragement.
Miss Cushman is I beheve permanently settled, with the
various members of her family, in England, and always
hailed with genuine enthusiasm, on her now too rare
appearance before a British audience.

One of the truest pleasures to a lover of dramatic per-
formances in America was the continual succession of
arrivals of some among the best of English actors and
actresses, besides those great ornaments of operatic art
which Italy sends over so abundantly. During my time
in Boston, and on occasions of my visits to others of the
Atlantic cities, to Washington and in Canada, I had
frequent opportunities of seeing the chief favourites of
London, Mr. and Mrs. Charles Kean, Mr. and Miss Yan-
denhoff, Mr. and Mrs. Keeley, Buck stone, Macready,
Bertie, known under the nom de guerre of Ranger, and
who was, as I was informed, a native of New York,
Ryder, and several others of less established repute.'"'
They always found a tolerable company ready to act with
them. Among the regularly established members of those
companies were Finn, an admirable low comedian, lost by
the burning of a steam-boat ; Field, exceedingly good in
genteel comedy ; Placide, almost a rival to our inimitable
Farren ; Chippendale, Murdoch, Burton and others.

* Among these was Butler, an energetic actor of no mean talent, whom I was
gratified to see several times in a play of my own, which he had revived in
England, but which had incurred an awkward and unmentionable fate several
years before, when Edmund Kean so unfortunately broke down in the principal
character at Drury Lane.

390 EDUCATION — LITERATUKE — THE DKAMA.

Braham acted in some English operas, but age was
working unfavourable changes on his personal appearance
for the stage, while in the concert room or in private
society his amazing " make up/' and great elasticity of
mind and manner, seemed to set Time at total defiance.
The way in which he bore his great reverses of fortune
was surprising to those who had known him, as I had,
during his career of high prosperity, in his handsome villa
at Brompton, before his losses forced him to cross the
Atlantic, to give the Americans about their first notion of
what a great English singer, and a thorough artiste, really
was. I have already mentioned a shght anecdote con-
nected with a mistake made as to Mr. Braham's religious
intentions. I cannot resist relating another in connexion
with his personal appearance, so much less advanced than
his actual age at the time.

At a soiree, of which Mr. Braham's singing was the
main attraction, a very old and well-know^n " Merchant
Prince " of the Republic, who however had no higher title
than Colonel, begged me to introduce him to the eminent
performer, whose fine execution of " The Death of
Nelson" was receiving the usual meed of applause and
compliments from the company. The old Colonel, with
much suavity, and with eyesight probably dimmed by
fifty odd years of commercial study in Eastern chmates,
shook hands with his comparatively boyish-looking con-
temporary — for certainly any passing observer might have
taken Mr. Braham as he then stood for about forty —
thanked him for the treat he had afforded, and remarked
that he came of a musical family.

Mr. Braham, who probably thought that the Colonel
inverted the fact, and that the remarkable musical talents
of all his children were rather inherited from him— only
smiled.

ANECDOTE OF MR. BRAHAM. 391

. The Colonel next observed, " I well recollect your
name, sir, having had the pleasure of hearing, on my
first visit to England, half a century ago, a public singer
who, I presume, must have been your grandfather."

" My grandfather ! my grandfather ! " echoed Mr.
Braham, with a slight laugh.

'' Well, possibly I may go too far back — your father ?
NoT' (as Braham shook his head) "or some other relation ?
the name I cannot forget, for you, sir, have made it too
famous — and I certainly recognize the family voice. I
can scarcely remember the date, but I think it must have
been — "

** For Heaven's sake, my dear Mr. Grattan, rescue
me "—exclaimed Braham — "your venerable friend here
takes me for my own grandfather — or my father at least.
Pray introduce me to that beautiful woman."

And I did so incontinently — and she was indeed a
beautiful woman — and heartily did she join in Mr. Braham's
hilarity at the genealogical mistake, which was at once so
droll and so flattering to him.

Braham was by no means a man likely to have his
head turned by popular applause. But some of his fellow-
countrymen were rather spoiled by Yankee demonstrations,
before they had time to understand their evanescent nature.
One celebrated tragedian was so far carried away in his
admiration of the Trans- Atlantic paradise and people,
that he intended to renounce England altogether ; and
before leaving Boston, after several of his serious per-
formances in the theatre, he played a little farewell farce
in a private room, he being himself the sole actor, and
the audience composed of the elite of the fashionable
society, to whom he sent invitations. The agreeable
object of the reunion was to give some readings from

392 EDUCATION — LITERATURE — THE DRAMA.

Shakspeare ; and it would have turned out very well, no
doubt, if done in a quiet and unassuming way. But as
the company arrived, they were ushered in by a regular
staff of stewards or managers, composed of young
lawyers or doctors, and walked up in regular succession
to pay the homage of a bow or a curtsey to the host,
who sat on a sHghtly elevated platform, and received with
admirable gravity the obeisances of his guests, as they
passed before his chair. It was not as broad a piece of
mock-heroic as the levee of the false Duke in "The
Honeymoon," but it was quite sufficient to make one
celebrated Sefiora burst out laughing as she made her
reverence, and to cause great indignation in her Hidalgo
husband, who followed close, and was furious when he
perceived the nature of the expected ceremony.

But this was a trifling matter in comparison with Mr.
Macready's closing scenes in America, on his return from
Europe, I believe for an intended settlement ; when, in
consequence of his quarrel and correspondence with
Forrest, the real tragedy was enacted at New York, in
which several of the rioters were shot down in the streets,
the expulsion of the English tragedian from the Park
Theatre being followed by his flight, disguised as a
trooper, before the infuriated mob, and his seeking refuge
in Boston, whence he took his final leave of the Kew
world— delighted to find shelter under the old British
flag, and disenchanted of the visions which whilom
prompted him to renounce it for the stars and stripes,
his being one of the first giving him no exemption from
the latter.

The progress of musical taste in the United States has
of late years been prodigious, and analogous to all the
impulses by which the country shoves itself "a-head.''

AMERICAN ITALIAN OPEKA. 393

Looking back on the rather disparaging tone in which
I have written — as I felt — in reference to that subject in
early passages of this book, I am glad to insert here a
very recent article on tlie performances in the new
Opera House in New York, taken from a paper of that
city, and I shall merely add that the account, no doubt
accurate, contained in it, would very much sui-prise me, if
anything, however extravagant, on any subject whatever
in America could now produce that effect.

Italian Opeea by Daylight. — During the past two Saturday
mornings the Academy of Music in this city has witnessed a spectacle
which has never been paralleled in the world. "We refer to the
immense crowd of crinoline that has been gathered there to hear the
opera by daylight. The two matinees have been attended by as many
as 8000 persons, nearly all women and children. The almost total
banishment of the sombre masculine attire, and the gay dresses of
the ladies, the buzz of their voices, and the music of their laughter,
their tremendous struggles to get in and. their no less extraordinary
efforts to get out, made up a scene of delicious novelty. The matinee
is a great thing ; it is curious, refreshing, and amusing in the highest
degree. We do not believe that such an audience as that which
assembled at the Academy on last Saturday could be collected in any
other capital. In Paris they have occasionally morning concerts ;
recently in London the experiment of operatic matinees has been
tried, but without making any very great impression upon the public.
The concerts at the Crystal Palace have drawn large audiences ; but
the people went as much to see the building as to hear the music ;
and although matinees of all sorts are fashionable in England, yet
never was John Bull astonished by such a display of the feminine
part of his family as that which the Academy day performances has
shown to Jonathan. True, the most extraordinary eiforts have been
made to augment the attractions of the daylight Opera. Yet after
all it is really hard to account altogether for its extraordinary success.
It grows, however, chiefly, we apprehend, from the peculiar organiza-
tion of society here, and the marked attention that is paid to the
musical education of our children. As has already been remarked,
when the opera was first introduced here by Malibran there were
only a few families that were sufficiently cultivated to appreciate

394 EDUCATION — LITERATURE — THE DRAMA.

such a luxury as the music of the great composers expressed by one
of the greatest of artists. Then music was not taught in the free
schools ; then there were but two first-class private academies for
the polishing up and finishing off of young ladies. Now there are
forty or fifty, each one of which employs several professors of different
branches of the musical art. The proficiency of American ladies in
music is known all over the world. Nearly all of them play well,
many of them are charming singers, and they are genertilly first-rate
critics — learned equally in laces and cadenzas, ribands and roulades,
JlcJias and Jiorituras. All are passionately fond of the opera ; and,
many of them being unable to instil into the minds of their masculine
parents, guardians, husbands, or tender weaknesses, a degree of art
enthusiasm equal to that with which their lovely bosoms burn, they
hail the matinee with delight, regard Ullman as a benefactor of his
species, and give him the next place in their affections after the youth
who leads the Grerman* and the fashionable clergyman with the
interesting bronchitis. They can go to the matinee in morning
costume — that saves money and time ; they can go alone or
with children, thus obviating the necessity of disturbing the
post-prandial slumbers of the paterfamilias; they can fill up
the terrible interval between lunch and dinner, when all the men are
down town, and they can have their opera and return in good season
for the duties connected with the household. Then, the prices are
much less, and the expense of a carriage, which is almost a necessity
for an evening performance, is saved. The younger branches of the
family can receive at the matinee instruction and amusement at the
same time. The fair daughters of Brooklyn, Jersey city, and other
suburban localities, are even more enthusiastic than their metropolitan
sisters, the luxury of an operatic performance being an unusual treat
to them."— iVew; Yorh ReraU.

* Meaning the German Cotillon.

CHAPTER XV.

HENRY CLAY.

His Political Honesty — His Views of Slavery — Chosen Presidential Candidate — •
Defeated at the Election — Triumph of the Denxocrats.

Henry Clay was unquestioricably the individual, of
all those I met with in the United States, who approached
the nearest to the character of " greatness " — the epithet
so lavishly and so ludicrously applied to public men in
that country. He stood out far before the rest, in an
attitude of independent talent, and also of easy conscious-
ness of superiority. His manner charmed and subdued
all comers. He evidently knew his power and relied on
it, without the necessity of forcing his claims to distinction.
There was no assumption of dignity, no haughtiness, no
effort. He did not speak a word, nor look one look, for
effect. The ordinary manoeuvring of eminent men, to gain
a position and to maintain it, was foreign to his habits of
thought or action. These seemed to move in spontaneous
unison. Decision of mind was stamped on every phrase
he uttered. Careless, yet commanding and controlling,
he neither took you by storm, nor conquered you by sap.
He gained you, as if by magic. You subsided, as it were,
into the ^sphere of his attraction, like Gothe's fisherman
sinking into the water-nymph's embrace — the flood
received and closed over you without a ripple, and you
were lulled into almost unconscious subjection. . ,

396 HENRY CLAY.

The power of Henrj Clay in thus gaining the attach-
ment of others, was perhaps without a parallel ; and it
was assuredly owing to nothing artificial. Nor was it the
consequence of those external gifts of nature whose
influence appeals to the eye rather than the understanding
or the heart. Clay was ill-favoured, in the usual acceptation
of the term. His features were common-place, and by no
means prepossessing. His mouth was unusually wide and
straight cut across his face. His upper lip was long. His
bald, high forehead, scanty hair combed down at sides
and back, and eyes, light coloured and of no very marked
expression, formed a combination singular, but possessing
no element of personal beauty. He was tall and thin ;
not actually graceful in his movements ; but they betrayed,
in his rather slovenly bearing, a self-satisfied composure,
which had a nameless fascination for observers who prefer
nature to constraint.

Clay's manners were not highly polished. His voice
was pleasing, his accent not too deeply tinctured with the
Western burr, and it \vas quite free from the nasal twang
of Yankeeism. But he could not be mistaken for any-
thing but an American, born, bred, and fashioned in the
very heart of the country, of which he was in person and
character a most striking illustration. He was, in fact,
the best embodiment of the national type. Physically
brave, morally resolute, of mighty talent, and generous
heart, he stood foremost in the phalanx of American
worthies, took the first place by right, and kept it.by
courage. The inelegant pursuits of his early life, as " the
mill-boy of the Slashes'' (his familiar sobriquet), the
druggist's assistant, the lawyer's clerk, and the West-
country attorney, formed a rough foundation for his
after celebrity ; and he was of a nature too proudly

HIS POLITICAL HONESTY. 397

simple to place on it layers of forced and inharmonious
refinement. He was neither vulgarized by youthful pur-
suits, nor spoiled by the conceits of civilization. His
mind was too original to take its impressions from
external signs. He was instinctively well-bred, and
might have formed for himself a code of conduct, while he
would have scorned a manual of etiquette. His copious
conversation was free from all conventional trick. He
talked without guile. He was straightforward and plain-
spoken. You knew the man and his opinions at once.
In carrying out his objects discretion never ran into
overstrained reserve ; and the greatest purposes of his
private or political life were followed with a candid
energy, which inspired confidence even when it failed to
bring conviction.

In Clay's whole career everything was large and nobld.
No reptile littleness could live in the atmosphere he
created. The mean subterfuges of public affairs were
foreign to his manly method. In debate, in council, even
in his very despotism, as the driver rather than the leader
of his party, there was something that defied obstruction
— an arrogant simplicity, that embodied, as it were, the
first principles of political science in all their primitive
force. Washington commanded reverence ; Franklin
inspired respect ; Jefferson, Webster, Calhoun extorted
wonder, but Henry Clay, take him for all in all, was
the noblest specimen of a purely American statesman.
Washington, Franklin, Jefferson were but revolted
colonists, with minds formed on the institutions of monar-
chical England. Webster and Calhoun were republicans
born and bred. So was Clay, like those his two great
rivals. But as he wa$ far their superior in life, he has not
left his like — not even his likeness behind him.

398 HENRY CLAY.

When I first met this eminent man in Washington in
the spring of 1840, he was in his sixty-third year. He
was then still in his prime as a great public character, as
senator, orator, and candidate for the office of President ;
besides being the life and soul of society, mixing familiarly
with the circles he adorned, and throwing a charm over
the amenities of private life. I brought him a letter of
introduction, and he received me in his bedroom, in the
boarding-house where he lived and " messed,'' with the
famihes of Mr. Henderson of Georgia, a brother senator,
and Mr. Saltonstall, a representative in Congress for one
of the districts of Massachusetts. In this first interview
with Mr. Clay, in his small and scantily furnished
chamber, I occupying the only spare chair, and he care-
lessly sitting on the bedside after full two hours' talk, on
subjects of serious importance at that moment to the
United States and England, I felt that I had been in
close intercourse with one of the world's celebrities, and
assuredly one of the most fascinating of mankind. Daily
during my stay at that period I met Mr. Clay, either in
his own house — so to call the residence shared with his
equally hospitable friends— or at the many parties which
were given just then. There were no topics of public
interest respecting which he did not afford me great and
valuable information. The North-Eastern boundary dis-
pute, of which I have already said so much, was at that
time (previous to Lord Ashburton's mission) very promi-
nent ; and the subject was pushed to a very dangerous
length, by the virulent speeches of inferior men, such as
Caleb Gushing, and others, with whom hatred of England
was the uppermost feeling.

I took an early opportunity of pointing out to Mr. Clay
the desirabiUty of his speaking on the question in the

HIS VIEWS ON SLAVERY. 399

Senate, and sending on his autliority from the Capitol
hill some words of conciliation to the excited country.
The next day he spoke ; I unfortunately was not aware of
his intention, but he sent to me that same evening to my
hotel a corrected copy of the proof sheets of his speech,
which embodied everything that any reasonable British
subject could expect such a man in such a position to put
forth. I was much gratified and very grateful for this.
It completely crushed for the time the paltry efforts of
the mischief-makers, and prepared the public mind for the
overtures of the British Government, which ended in the
treaty of 1842.

The subject of slavery frequently made part of my
conversation with Mr. Clay. The most remarkable point
which I can recollect was his deliberate statement that
by infallible results of his favourite scheme of colonization
in Liberia on the Western shores of Africa, and the
inevitable laws of population, the final emancipation of the
negroes in the United States would be accomplished in —
one hundred and fifty years ! This appeared to me so
out of all bounds of reasonable calculation, that I only
remarked I did not think it would satisfy, not merely the
Abolitionists of America, but even the anti-slavery philan-
thropists of Europe ; and I touched no more with him on
the subject.

It must be remembered that Mr. Clay was a slave-
holder, born in a slave state, and all his life in an
atmosphere of slave-owning prejudices. Many of his votes
in Congress had been of great service to the slavery
cause, and he was an owner of slaves to the day of his
death. Yet he never concealed his abstract disapproval
of the abomination he practically upheld ; and, as far
back as the year 1827, he had anticipated the opinions

400 HENRY CLAY.

SO strongly expressed to me, in a speech which contained
the following passage : —

If I could be instrumental in eradicating this deepest stain on
the character of our country, if I could be only instrumental in
ridding of this foul blot that revered State that gave me birth, or
that not less beloved State that kindly adopted me as her son, I would
not exchange the proud satisfaction which I should enjoy, for the
honour of all the triumphs ever decreed to the most successful
conqueror,*

In this Henry Clay was less consistent than Calhoun,
on the great subject in question. But it must be admitted
he had many faults ; and I am not composing a funeral
oration — all praise, nor a biography — all apology. But
for every fault he had a hundred enemies, for every
failing as many detractors. If his great talents excited
hatred, his very imperfections caused him to be loved.
A whole host of envious libellers perpetually assailed him.
He liked whist, and played it well. For this he was
called a "gambler" and a '' blackleg y He had been
concerned in some duels ; he fought two, and in the
period of my acquaintance with him, was ready and very
near to fight another. For this, the habit of his country
and his time, done in accordance^ with that code of honour
which was binding on his most distinguished contem-
poraries in America and throughout Europe, he was called
a "murderer." I have seen extracts paraded from
speeches or letters of Jackson, Webster, Jefferson,
Randolph, Harrison, all depreciating, and some abusive
of the great subject of their jealous or envious hostility.
But he weathered the storms of political and personal

* Speech in the House of Representatives at Washington, January 20, 1827.
Mr. Clay was born in Virginia, in a district of country familiarly called Tke Slashes ;
but he removed early to Kentucky.

CHOSEN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE. 401

enmity, and carried everything before him in his own
party — the old Whigs of that day— when in the year
1844, his claims threw all minor aspirants into the shade,
and he was fixed on by the Baltimore convention on the
1st of May in that year, as the Whig candidate to try
the question with all comers.

Happening to be in Baltimore on that occasion, I can
look back on the exciting scene of the week that day
begun, when no less than three Political Conventions took
place for the choice of three Presidential Candidates ;
when Clay^s nomination was a triumph, Polk's a surprise,
and Tyler's a joke. The Whig procession through the
streets to the place of celebration on the 2nd of May,
was by far the finest thing of the kind that had taken
place since the Boston meeting at Bunker's Hill, in 1840,
to confirm the nomination of General Harrison. At
this Baltimore gathering there were more important
men and better speakers. But of all the Whigs in the
pageant, the only painful exhibition was the figure of
Daniel Webster, gloomy, downcast, and a forced par-
ticipator for party's sake in a demonstration he must
have loathed on personal accounts, for he had only then
tardily withdrawn from^ Mr. Tyler's cabinet, with his
political character tarnished and all his great prestige
destroyed.

Enthusiastic self-delusion mounted to its highest, which
was nearly its usual pitch on such occasions. Not a
doubt was felt among the partizans of Henry Clay
throughout the Union of his certain success over the
insignificant and scarcely known antagonist James K.
Polk, set up against him by the Democrats. Opposition by
such a supposed nullity was considered a mockery — only
not quite so absurd as that of the nomination of Tyler by

VOL. II. D D

402 HENRY CLAY.

his little set of adherents ; his name being almost imme-
diately withdrawn, and the great contest, disencumbered
of his candidature. Birney, the choice of the Abolition
party, counted as nothing.

Mr. Clay was at Washington, occupying a house in one
of the suburbs, receiving the homage of his numerous
overjoyed friends, for there was not a deputation or an
individual who hastened to congratulate him— so prema-
ixiYelj — who did not in some measure feel identified with
the fancied success of their idol. I confess that I myself,
though a mere outsider, a looker on, could not help par-
ticipating in the hopes which promised to Henry Clay the
reward of his long life of public service, the object of his
heart's ambition. After seeing the two rival demonstra-
tions, poor in comparison with that of the Whigs, and
enjoying a week of the overflowing hospitality of the
Baltimoreans of all parties, I repaired to Washington for
one day, to call on Mr. Clay and see him in the most
prominent and exciting position he had as yet occupied.
I found him in the midst of his friends and admirers,
looking radiant, and in the highest elation. He appeared
in altogether a new aspect. He had on all previous
occasions been like a great general engaged in some
mighty battle. Now he stood like a conqueror, benig-
nant! y beaming on his followers, and with a smile of
compassion for his beaten foe.

This was the last time I ever saw Henry Clay ; and
it has always been pleasing, I might say consoling^ to
recal him to ray memory as he then stood, so cordial, and
most truly dignified in bearing and in words. For some
months his progress through wide districts of the Union,
chiefly in the south and west, was a succession of fetes
and celebrations. Had he died on one of these occasions

DEFEATED AT THE ELECTION. 403

he would have required no other apotheosis. It would
have been perhaps as well for his poHtical fame and his
personal happiness that he had.

The rest is melancholy enough. No sooner had the
real machinery of party malignity been set in motion
than the tactics of unscrupulous detraction and hatred
were widely displayed. The national genius for vitupe-
ration was let loose, and the whole country disgraced, as
it too often is. The flood-gates of scurrility were opened,
and a torrent was poured forth to blacken and degrade
the reputation of the individual who did more than any
other man living then — I need not say or since — to mould
into elevation the unplastic materials of the popular mind.
These hostile efibrts were successful. Clay was defeated
at the election. No means were left untried. Frauds were
largely practised beyond doubt. At one side certainly —
probably at both — in Louisiana, Pennsylvania, and Georgia,
and many prosecutions and convictions took place. In
the city of New York, it is beyond reasonable doubt
that numbers of Irish, under false claims of naturalizJa-
tion, cast votes to which they had no legal right ; and
the want of a registry law, which exists in Massachu-
setts, was not at that time (nor am I sure there has
been one since) established in the great Empire State,
the elections in which decided on this occasion the fate
of Henry Clay.

Independent of the personal interest I took in this election
on his account alone — for I had no sort of predilection
for either of the rival parties — it was my duty to obtain
the best information I could as to the probable result. I
had several peculiarly authentic sources for doing so, and
from almost the very first week after the struggle began,
in direct opposition with the reports sent by every mail to

D D 2

404 HENRY CLAY.

England by the many monied authorities of the Whig
party, I foresaw and was able to predict every one of the
results in the various states of the Union, fluctuating as
they were upon the whole, but up to the latest days of the
contest unfavourable to the Whigs, and what I regretted
for his sake, not theirs, to the chances of Clay.

A rather remarkable instance of the miscalculation
with which all the pohtical parties in America allow their
hopes and interests to deceive them, and which would
argue a great deficiency in true business-like sagacity,
was furnished on the all-important subject of the election
for the State of New York, on this occasion. It was, if
not the very latest, at any rate almost the last, from which
returns had been publicly announced! These were up to
that time so close as between the two great parties, that
the thirty-six Electoral Votes of New York State would be
decisive of the contest. The various counties in that
large state cover an immense surface, and the distances
being great, and the communications not very good,
delays, disappointments, and accidents, kept back the
official returns, while those of the rival parties frequently
contradicted each other, causing great confusion, excite-
ment, and uncertainty. This had continued for some
days, and Boston presented in a much more than ordi-
nary degree the picture which I had frequently witnessed
before.

The Democrats were doubtful. The Whigs rampant
with confidence. Every possible demonstration of it was
given by them in public and private. Dinner parties
abounded just then, and I certainly never saw them so
well sustained, and so animated, as during that brief but
stirring crisis.

I was a frequent guest at those entertainments, for though

TRIUMPH OF THE DEMOCRATS. 405

suspected by my Whig acquaintances of rather leaning to
Hberahsm in my general views, I never in any way mixed
myself up with the politics of the country, and I was
often allowed to partake of their hospitalities, which were
rarely extended to any but persons of their own couleur.
On the 7th day of November, in this rather memorable
year 1844, I made one of twenty who w^ere handsomely
entertained by a gentleman who had been Governor of
the State, the rest of the cojivives being selected from the
leading men of the Whig party then in Boston, and all
waiting impatiently from hour to hour, for the last report
which was to be decisive of the New York vote. Con-
versation was flowing as freely as the Ex- Governor's w4ne,
every one seemed joyous, not a frown nor a wrinkle (from
care) disfigured one brow — each guest was communicating
to his neighbour his own particular views of congressional
policy, or the places he would accept or ask for under the
new administration. I have no doubt that several missions
abroad, and offices at home, were filled up by anticipa-
tion that evening, when, (as some physician of old might
have said) the hallucination having passed its anabasis, and
reached its acme, a sound of martial music came floating
across the common, and into the windows which opened
in upon our symposium. The quick ears of the expectant
part}'- caught the well-known and accustomed strains of
triumph. A voice exclaimed that the brass band was
coming to give a joyous serenade to the Governor and his
guests. Several rushed to tlie windows ; some out upon
the door-steps ; and all looked across the common.
Beyond it in the distance, torches were now seen looming;
and by their light, a stragghng, but rather long procession,
with banners floating, while shouts rose up and rent
the air.

406

HENRY' CLAY.

Strange was the infatuation of those sanguine-minded
Whigs ! They beHeved and declared that it was a sudden
gathering of their own adherents ; and I have no doubt
a scene of general congratulation and affectionate em-
bracing would have taken place, had not one of the party
who had impatiently ran across the common, as hastily
returned, with just breath enough to proclaim the cruel
truth, that it was the hated Democrats, the loathed
Locofocos, who had got up this hurried procession, on the
arrival of a courier with the news that the decisive vote of
the New York counties was full 5000 majority for Polk !

This really was a shock. Every heart sank at the
announcement. Every tongue was silent. I felt that I
was out of place in such a scene of thorough sadness.
So I slipped away unobserved, sincerely regretting the
change that was passing over my late vivacious and always
good-tempered companions, and grieved outright when I
thought of Henry Clay.

I think it worth while to record the numerical result of
this election of 1844. The States which cast their votes
for Clay were —

Massacliusetts
Hhode Island
Connecticut .
Vermont .
New Jersey .
Delaware .
Maryland
North Carolina
Tennessee
Kentucky .
Ohio .

Total

Votes.
12

8
11
13
12
23

105

DISSOLUTION OF THE WHIGS. 407

For Polk :—

Votes.

Maine 9

New Hampshire 6

New York 36

Pennsylvania. • 26

Yirginia 17

South Carolina 9

Georgia 10

Alabama 9

Mississippi ...... 6

Louisiana 6

Indiana 12

Illinois . 9

Missouri 7

Michigan ....... 5

Arkansas 3

Total 170

The official Popular Vote (by which the Electoral
Colleges were chosen) showed for Clay, 1,297,912 ; for
Polk, 1,336,196 ; for Birney (the AboUtionist), 62,127.
By which it appears that Polk's popular majority was
only 38,284 votes, and it must be remarked that Clay,
though defeated, received more votes by upwards of
20,000, than General Harrison in 1840.

The consequences of this election were most disastrous
to the Whig party, Henry Clay's ascendancy being
gone for ever, and no other member of it possessing
the power to stem the tide of Democratic influence.
Some visionary hopes were entertained of it being pos-
sible to bring him forward again as a candidate for the
Presidential office. But they were soon abandoned, and
in 1848, a man far inferior. General Zachary Taylor,
on the strength of some gallant actions fought in the

408 HENRY CLAY.

Mexican War, was chosen by the Whigs as their candidate.
This was the last lucky move for the soon-to-be extin-
guished party. They elected their man, who, dying
within a year, was succeeded by Millard Filmore in right
of his office as Vice-President of the Union. At the
termination of his " accidental " service, Franklin Pierce,
the Democratic candidate, another Mexican General (of
volunteers), beat the Whig nominee. General Scott, by an
unprecedented majority of 254 electoral votes to 42.
And Henry Clay, having lived to see the great party, of
which he had been the main support and the glorious
ornament, shattered to fragments, died at Washington on
the 29th of June, 1852, in the seventy-sixth year of
his age.

There were two important aspects in the life and
character of Mr. Clay in which I never had an opportunity
of personally observing him. The first, his career, as an
eloquent advocate unsurpassed in that branch of his pro-
fession, though by no means considered on a par with
Webster and others as a profound lawyer. The second,
his domestic relations with a numerous family, to whom
he was greatly endeared, by ties of affection which death
too often severed, for I believe he had the misfortune to
survive six daughters, and three out of as many sons,
the latter of whom fell in that war with Mexico of which
his father was one of the most constant and energetic
opponents ; sharing this great afliliction in common with
Mr. Webster, whose youngest son, a youth of much pro-
mise, also perished in that unjust, if it cannot be called
that inglorious contest.

CHAPTER XVI.

SLAVERY.

Importance of the question — Long avoided by the People at large — The Abolition
Party — Tribute to its generous Enthusiasm — English Abolitionists — Abettors
of Slavery in the Northern and Western Free States — Dangers of Emanci-
pation — 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 Free Blacks in the Slave
States — Their Situation in the Free States — O'Connell's Denunciation of
Slavery and its Abettors among the Iri^h — Fugitive Slave Law of 1850 —
Eepeal of the Missouri Compromise in 1854 — Triumph of the Slaveholding
Power — Possible change before 1860 — Arguments in favour of Slavery — The
Ancient and Modern Slave — The Kansas struggle — Aggressive Policy of
Southern States — Slave Trade with Africa.

The most momentous question affecting the existence
of the United States is uinyersally admitted to be that
of Negro Slavery. Not merely as a question of morals,
but more imminent still as endangering a collision with
some European State, and as it affects the newly acquired
Western territories and the island of Cuba. It is at
present the subject of primary interest, both home and
foreign. It is becoming year after year a more prominent
topic of debate in Congress and discussion everywhere.
It has led in Kansas to incipient civil war. Yet it does
not, after all, seem to rouse the attention of the country
at large in a degree equivalent to its magnitude. It is not
that the Americans do not (in their own phraseology)
realize the truth. But so deeply is the whole White

410 SLAVERY.

population at once impressed with and oppressed by it,
that until the memorable debates ending in the Compro-
mise Acts of 1850 they fled from it, and would if possible
have banished it from their minds, as some men shun
every allusion to the inevitable doom of all.

Slavery is an evil which America dares not even now,
notwithstanding its perilous development in Kansas, look
boldly in the face. She considers it irremediable ; a
destiny born with her ; an inheritance forced on her ; a
disease of her nature. She feels that she must perish
under it ; and fears that the application of any experi-
mental remedy would but hasten the catastrophe. The
prevailing wish of the people seems to be to lie down
despairingly, and let this huge cancer eat into the vitals of
the State. Under the influence of this feeling the noto-
rious rule of Congress was passed in 1838, prohibiting the
reading of petitions to the House of Representatives in
favour of abolition — thus sacrificing an important popular
right from a morbid fear of the subject, and proving the
baneful influence of negro slavery on the best privileges of
freedom. The large afiirmative vote which carried this
"rule" was composed of slave-holders, and of members
from the free States who supported them on this question.
A third party, more generous than the last-mentioned, and
bolder than either, not only hate slavery, but work for
liberty ; denouncing the crime of holding human beings in
bondage, and at all hazards demanding its immediate
cessation. These are the Abolitionists, whose numerical
strength in Congress is insignificant, but whose moral
influence is everywhere immense.

I doubt if this vast question has ever been fairly treated.
There is something so shocking in the naked fact of
slavery, and the cruelties inseparable from it are so abhor-

SUBJECT NEVER FAIRLY TREATED. 411

rent to humanity, that the chief labourers for its removal
are hurried by their ardour beyond a reasonable energy.
Urged too far by zeal they are often deaf to the claims of
justice, and the warnings of prudence. They hold no
measures with the iniquity they combat. They neither
give nor take quarter. It is this intense seriousness of
purpose that secures for the abolitionists so much of our
respect, and makes their efforts so powerful. It is in vain
that slave-holders and their abettors assert that the
violence of the abolitionists has retarded the partial
emancipation which had otherwise taken place before now.
Admitting this to be true — and I beHeve it to be so in
reference to Maryland, Delaware, and Virginia — it is no
less certain that the impulse given by abolitionist zeal to
the feelings of mankind is striking at the strongholds of
slavery in States much more remote, which would have
been little affected for a long time to come by the gradual
process of manumission which those might have adopted,
for convenience, not for conscience, sake.

John Randolph, an eccentric enthusiast, sincere in his
abhorrence of slavery, introduced resolutions into the
Virginia Legislature, in 1822, for the emancipation of the
negroes. They were lost, and not renewed. Other Vir-
ginians who supported them were influenced by the cogent
reason that tobacco could be cultivated on easier terms by
free labour than by the costly system of slavery. The
violent denunciations of the abolitionists in the North did
certainly produce a corresponding obstinacy in the slave-
holding mind, and many who would have listened to
reasoning humbly urged, turned restive and revolted
against the form of argument which branded the insti-
tution as a crime and its upholders as criminals.

But a much stronger motive to resistance influenced

412 SLAVERY.

the Virginian planters, as it did in a more direct degree
those of Louisiana, when the enormously increasing
demand for cotton in England caused a proportionate rise
in the value of slave labour and of slaves. Although
cotton was not grown in Virginia, Maryland, or Delaware,
slaves were " raised " there as an article of commerce, for
exportation to where the increasing produce of the raw
material superinduced a frightful consumption of the
beings engaged in its culture, necessitating a supply from
States where population unfortunately progressed. Slaves
rapidly rose in value five or six fold. Breeding them
became a trade far more lucrative than agriculture. To
encourage their growth, attend to their feeding, and keep
them in health were important duties in the interest of
their owners. They were well clothed and well cared for.
And these simple facts fully dispose of the vaunted benevo-
lence of those, who boast of their country having made
the slave trade with Africa piracy — because they do
silently and more cheaply at home what they had no
further inducement to do with profit abroad.

But neither Virginia nor Maryland, in entertaining
projects for giving freedom to their slaves, admitted
slavery to be a criminal institution. The question was
debated on pecuniary grounds alone ; while the abolition-
ists of the North took it up as one of morals, religion, and
duty. They have thus put it straight to the heart of the
Christian world. The right and the expedient are with
them convertible terms. And while their indiscretion
assails the bulwarks of slavery, their self-sacrificing ardour
partially redeems the country from the selfishness of every
other public movement.

Notwithstanding this tribute to the abolitionist party,
I am far from thinking that they have a triumph near at

AT THE TIME OP THE INDEPENDENCE. 413

hand. There is still time enough to examine the question,
and to inquire what has been and what is hkelj to be
done. In attempting to do this with candour and moder-
ation, it must be first of all admitted that the existence of
slavery in the United States is not to be entirely attributed
to the cupidity of the present race of men, or their
fathers.

When the country shook off the yoke of England it
might certainly have wiped away the stain left on it
during its dependence. Slavery having been introduced
by England at an epoch when the true principles of liberty
were but imperfectly understood, it was continued even at
the period of the Declaration of Independence, because it
was not uncongenial to the notions then prevailing of the
rights of man. Among the signers of that immortal docu-
ment there were upwards of twenty slave-holders, and
they easily persuaded Jefferson to omit from the " Decla-
ration" the clause he had inserted in the first draught of
it, imputing the existence of slavery in Virginia to George
the Third, as one of the crimes which proved him to be a
tyrant unfit to rule over a free people. The founders of
American freedom struggled and triumphed, not for
mankind in general but for themselves. Pro aris et focis
was their watchword — a thrilling, but, after all, a selfish
rallying cry. The great human family had none of their
sympathy. It was left for a still later day to instil the
genuine love of liberty into the pubhc mind of England.
The time has not even yet arrived for America to feel it
thoroughly.

Had the world at large been alive to the enormity of
Negro slavery at the period of the Revolution, the sagacity
of Washington, the benevolence of Frankhn, the shrewd-
ness of Jefferson could not have resisted the impulse. All

414 SLAVERY.

these great men were slave-holders, without shame or
remorse.* The public conscience in either hemisphere
still slumbered. The culpability was of the age, not of
individuals.

England was the first among the nations to awake to
the true sense of the question. The light broke suddenly
upon her. She started at its glare ; but boldly confronting
it she took the right path, and persevered in her course
till the goal was won. But let us for a moment reflect on
the many obstacles which beset the abolitionists of Great
Britain. Let us consider how many virtuous men, steeped
in the prejudice of habit, stood out against Clarkson,
Wilberforce, and their fellows ; and with clear consciences
maintained the propriety and the policy of slavery, quoted
scripture, treated emancipation as a mischievous chimera,
and denounced its supporters as fools and fanatics.

If we allow our minds thus to revert for a while to the
state of majorities in and out of Parliament little more
than a quarter of a century back, we may be tolerant to
the American slaveholders of the present day. The first
and best excuse for them is that they are unconscious of
their guilt. Born and bred in the system, they form a
part of it, and it forms a part of them. They beHeve, as
our fathers believed, that slavery is in accordance with
God's Providence, the negro's destiny, and their own
rights. They are convinced of the inferiority of the race,
not merely in intellect and sentiment, but in moral
feeling. They deny their susceptibility to the misery

* Even Franklin writes to his mother as follows, in reference to his two slaves :
" I have hired out the man to the person who takes care of my Dutch printing-
office, who agrees to keep him in victuals and clothes, and to pay me a dollar
a-week for his work. The wife behaves exceedingly well, but we conclude to sell
them both the first good opportunity, for we do not like negro servants."

Such, and no dislike of slavery, was the impulse of the great philosopher. We
must not be too harsh against him, or his contemporaries.

ITS IMMEDIATE ABOLITION, RUIN. 415

which bondage inflicts on the white man. They treat
with scorn the sympathy professed for the slaves by a
small minority in the free States ; and they triumphantly
point to the overwhelming masses of their fellow citizens,
by whom that devoted band of philanthropists is
denounced and has been persecuted.

For my own part, I hold as utterly harmless in this
great iniquity the southern slave-holders, in comparison
w4th their abettors in the North and West. Inasmuch as
ignorance, custom, and their best life-interests are joined
in a conspiracy against their reason and conscience,
I consider them in a measure blameless ; while I view
with scorn those who, influenced by selfishness alone,
strive to perpetuate the crime, and encourage the instru-
ments by whom its profits are worked out.

It cannot be denied that immediate manumission to the
three or four millions of southern slaves would be in a
pecuniary sense entire ruin to their masters. There is no
source from which the owners could receive compensa-
tion for this loss. Deprived of the services of their
slaves, they would have no means to cultivate their
estates. The land and the labourers are co-existent parts
of the property. If separated, both would be lost to the
nominal owner of a part. The slaveholder's only capital
is his gang of slaves. Deprived suddenly of the right to
their services, his land would lie idle. And so must they,
for he would have no means of paying them wages. He
would be at once beggared, and they assuredly would not
work for a former tyrant and a present pauper. He
could find no one to buy his estate. Those only who
would be likely to do so, his own neighbours, would be in
the same predicament with himself. Strangers, with
money and industry, neither of which is possessed by the

416 SLAVERY.

southern proprietor, would not be willing to run the risk
of a purchase which they knew not how to turn to
profit. The northern merchant or manufacturer who
traffics in cotton would be unable to cultivate it ; and for
a considei'able time at least no such purchasers could be
expected for the plantations which would become as so
much waste and desert land. In the great revulsion
consequent upon immediate emancipation a general
insolvency must necessarily follow ; and with it would
come despair and desperation on the part of the white
population, and frightful anarchy on that of the black.

What floods of suffering might overflow the land may
not be calculated. Its duration, its results, its remedies,
are themes for the imagination to work on, but reason
shrinks from so severe a task. The brute ignorance of
the negro slaves would make their instant liberation a
fearful experiment. What they would do it is in vain to
conjecture. What they might do it is appalling to
contemplate. Nothing is to be expected from their
sagacity or their forbearance. There can be no hope
founded on their natural good temper and good feeling.
The existence of such qualities in servitude is no
guarantee for their continuance in freedom. The servile
kindliness of nature which distinguishes the negro slave is
developed by dependence, and may be the consequence
of it. The trained spaniel which fawns on a master
would be a far different animal if turned wild into the
woods. The emancipated slave would have a terrible
account of wrong to settle with his late enslaver. And
it may be here observed that but small analogy exists
between the state of the American slaves and those of the
British West Indian islands of days gone by. The Ame-
rican masters, without being intrinsically worse men, are

UNDER BRITISH RULE. 417

cruel when compared to what the English Creoles were.
The latter formed a portion of a great empire where a
generous philosophy prevailed, and where even those who
argued abstractedly against Emancipation were, in their
own despite, affected by the sentiments of the country
at large. Good treatment of the colonial serfs by their
masters was latterly an enforced necessity ; for the eyes
of the mother country were on them, and Christian
precepts were inculcated by the irresistible dictum of
fashion. No well-bred EngHshman could dare to be a
harsh master ; and the vulgar were sure, with rare
exceptions, to follow in the track of the refined. The
Negroes had consequently few fierce enmities to en-
courage, and not many scores of ill-treatment to avenge.
Enfranchisement was long an admitted principle. It was
retarded from avowed expediency rather than assumed
right. The Negroes were prepared for it, less by the
apprenticeship system, which had not time enough to
exert much influence, than by the relaxing hold of the
owners, who saw the approaching change long before
their slaves expected it, and whose indulgence, prompted
by policy, or perhaps by fear, was attributed by the
ignorant objects it benefited to those better feelings
which excited their gratitude and affection. Emancipa-
tion therefore was to them a holiday. They hailed it as
a religious solemnity. They celebrated it as a festival of
justice and virtue. They admitted their former masters
to partake of what was felt to be a mutual blessing ; and
the best equality of their new condition was the escape
from an irksome state of things, oppressive to both
parties.
. What a contrast is presented to this picture by the
relative position of master and slave in the southern

418 SLAVERY.

states of North America. Masters naturally harsh, slaves
unnecessarily debased. Nothing done to soothe the one
or satisfy the other. The whip and the fetters in actual
use, the club and the knife in perspective. Cruelty for
the present, revenge for the future. Brutal enslavement
or bloody freedom. The mind sickens at what is, and
shudders at what is to be — what seems, at least, in-
evitable, unless Heaven opens at once the eyes and the
hearts of the oppressors, and shows them their danger
and their duty. What that duty is in its full extent
who may presume to dictate, or who even venture to
suggest ?

It must at any rate, I think, be admitted, that the
suggestions, if made at all, should be put forward with
temperate consideration, when offered by foreigners ; and
that the dictation of remedies from such sources should
be avoided altogether. The question is too practical, too
real, too vital to America, to give any chance of its being
decided there as one of mere morals. As one of political
safety or of personal interest, it belongs to Americans
alone ; and as such they most certainly will allow no
interference with it.

In the imperfect state of human nature, the material
interests of nations are not regulated by motives of mere
conscience. When man becomes regenerated, and "peace
and good will" is on earth, such influences may have
sway. Let those who beHeve in the reahzation of. that
dream act up to their behef, and strive to better' the
existmg evil by appeals to virtue and mercy. For my
part, I honour their impulses, but I do not partake their
hopes. But I am still less confident in the efficacy of
threats of violence and vengeance, hurled from the plat-
form of a London conclave, against the distant plains ot

MAIN EVILS OF EXISTING SYSTEM. 419

Carolina, or the Valley of the Mississippi. I have said
enough to show, that I not only excuse, but sympathize,
with the abolition energy which has roused the world's
indignation in this great cause. But to utilize the enthu-
siasm of philanthropists should now be the work of
statesmen. To attempt impracticable things is worse than
doing nothing ; and I believe immediate, aye or proximate,
emancipation to be utterly impracticable. What may be
by degrees effected towards its consummation it would be
idle to enlarge on. I will rather confine myself to the
recapitulation of some of the main evils of the existing
system, all of which require, and are I believe susceptible
of, change.

1st. The breeding of slaves for sale like cattle, and the
consequent encouragement to their rapid increase.

2nd. Their total ignorance, and comparative want of
useful instruction, religious or secular. ^

3rd. The barbarous and brutahzing floggings.

4th. The separation of families.

5th. The abandonment of the free blacks by their former
masters, from whom they have purchased their
liberty, and by the white population in general,
making them objects of contempt and loathing to
the unemancipated.

6th. The domestic slave trade, between breeder and
dealer, and between state and state, openly legal-
ized in America, while the same trade is pro-
nounced by Law to be piracy if carried on in
Africa or on the high seas.

The magnitude of the question at issue deters me from
extending my remarks upon it, lest I might fall into a line

420 SLAVERY.

of reasoning which others are more able to follow. The
subject is almost inexhaustible, and is likely to carry any
writer too far, and alas ! most uselessly, away. Declama-
tion and argument have been exhausted. The fact itself
is there in glaring evidence, blazing like a pillar of light
upon the sky, and showing all earth the way to the
iniquity, if not the means for its extinction. I shall
therefore now confine myself to tracing a few particulars,
and pointing out some documents in connection with
them, which may refresh the memory of some, and
perhaps give information not before possessed by other

readers of this imperfect sketch.

•
" According to the official decennial enumerations of the United
States, the following appear to be the number of slaves : — In 1790,
697,897; in 1800, 893,041; in 1810, 1,191,364; in 1820, 1,538,064;
in 1830, 2,009,031 ; in 1840, 2,487,355 ; and in 1850, 3,204,089.
So that upwards of one-seventh of the entire population of the
United States are slaves. In the last ten years (1840 — 1850)
42,369 or 10* 96 per cent, has been the increase in slave population."

Three remarkable documents connected with slavery
are frequently referred to in America, as marking certain
epochs and important enactments in its congressional
history. These are the "ordinance" passed by the
Continental Congress, on the 13th of January, 1787 ; the
"Missouri Restriction Bill," in 1819, and the "Missouri
Compromise," in 1820, (which may be considered under
the head of the one and the same transaction) ; and "the
Wilmot Proviso," in August, 1846.

The following is the clause restricting slavery in the
territory north-west the Ohio, embodied in the ordinance
of 1787, on the motion of Nathan Dame, a delegate from
the State of Massachusetts.

" There shall be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude in the

PLANS FOR EMANCIPATION. 421

said territory, otherwise than in the punishment of crimes, whereof
the party shall have been duly convicted ; provided always, that any
person escaping into the same, from whom labour or service is law-
fully claimed in any one of the original States, such fugitive may be
lawfully claimed, and conveyed to the person claiming his or her
labour or service as aforesaid."

After the adoption of the Federal Constitution, the
question of the restriction of slavery in any new state
applying for admission into the Union did not arise in
congress until the 13th February, 1819, when a bill
was introduced into the House of Representatives, "for
authorising the people of the territory of Missouri to
form a constitution and state government, and for the
admission of the same into the Union/^ An amendment
was immediately moved in a committee of the whole
house, by a member from the State of New York, to limit
the existence of slavery in the New State, by declaring all
free who should be born in the territory after its admission
into the Union as a State, and providing for the gradual
emancipation of those then held in bondage. A debate
of two days, in which Henry Clay, then speaker of the
House, took a prominent part in opposition to the amend-
ment, ended in the amendment being carried by a majority
of twelve, the votes being for it 79, against it 67. The
final question on " ordering the bill to be engrossed for a
third reading," w^as decided in the affirmative, by 97 votes
against 56.

The House and the country were quite taken by surprise
by these results. The Senate came to the rescue. The
obnoxious amendments were there struck out of the bill,
on February 22. On the 2nd of March the House refused
to concur wdth the Senate by a majority of two (78 to ^Q).
So the bill was lost by disagreement between the two
Houses.

423 SLAVEKY.

The next congress however passed a bill in the following
year, 1820, to admit Missouri into the Union, Avith the
celebrated "Compromise" section, restricting slavery in
all territory of the United States, (except the state of
Missouri) north of latitude SG'' 30'. The House adopted
the compromise on the 2nd March, 1820, the votes being
90 against 87.

During the session of 1819 just referred to, a bill to
establish the territory of Arkansas was passed. A restric-
tion as to slavery, the same as that introduced into the
Missouri bill, was proposed, but defeated by the casting
vote of the Speaker, Henry Clay, the numbers being 88
against 88.

The people of Alabama territory were authorized to
form a state constitution during the same session, 1819,
no opposition being made to the bill, which contained no
restrictions as to slavery ; the members most objecting to
its establishment feeling that surrounded by slave-holding
states, as Alabama was, the intercourse between the slaves
and free blacks could not be prevented, and a servile war
would be the almost inevitable result. This triumphant
march of slaveholding w^as extended and consolidated by
every successive struggle, the last being the annexation of
Texas in 1845 ; until the commencement of the war
against Mexico in 1846, when, a bill being introduced into
congress on August the 8th of that year, for placing
3,000,000 of dollars in the hands of the President, Tyl^r,
to carry on negotiations with Mexico, Mr. Wilmot, one of
the members for the state of Pennsylvania, moved and
carried the following Proviso :

" Provided, That, as an express and fundamental condition to the
acquisition of any territory from the republic of Mexico by the United
States, by virtue of any treaty which may be negotiated between

PLAN OF MR. CASSIUS CLAY. 423

them, and to the use by the Executive of the moneys herein appro-
priated, neither slavery nor involuntary servitude shall ever exist in
any part of said territory, except for crime, whereof the party shall
first be duly convicted."

The agitation into which this successful check against
the further spread 6f slavery threw the Union was very
great. The infamy of re-estabhshing slavery in Texas,
a portion of the country which ow^ed its best title to fame
from having abolished it, did seem for awhile to bring
conviction to the A.merican mind. It could not of course
touch the slaveowner's conscience. The conquest of
Mexico, the acquisition of vast portions of its territory,
the peopling of California and the wonders of wealth
accruing from it, all opened a vast field for the progress
of civilization, of which this chapter treats of only the
worst and perhaps the most difficult parts. Returning to
the consideration of the question as far as it involves
material interest alone, I will put on record the following
striking passage from a letter addressed to the slave-
holders of the State of Kentucky, by Mr. Cassius
M. Clay, a relative of Henry Clay, and a man who has
become celebrated by his conversion to the doctrine of
Abolitionism, and by the courage with which he has met
and overcome repeated personal dangers in proclaiming
the creed he has adopted.

" The competition of unrequited service, slave labour, dooms the
labouring white millions of these States to poverty ; poverty gives
them over to ignorance ; and ignorance and poverty are the fast high-
roads to crime and sufiering. Among the more fortunate property
holders, religion and morality are staggering and dying. Idleness,
extravagance, nnthriftiness, and want of energy, precipitate slave-
holders into frequent and unheard-of bankruptcies, such as are
unknown in free States and well ordered Monarchies.

" The spirit of uncontrolled command vitiates our temperaments,

424 SLAVERY.

and destroys that evenness of temper, and equanimity of soul, which
are the sheet anchors of happiness and safety in a world of unattain-
able desire and inexorable evil. Population is sparse, and without
numbers there is neither competition nor division of labour, and of
necessity, all mechanic arts languish among us. Agriculture drags
alono- its slow pace with slovenly, ignorant, reckless labour. Science,
literature, and art are strangers here ; poets, historians, artists, and
mechanists, the lovers of the ideal, the great, the beautiful, the true,
and the useful : the untiring searchers into the hidden treasures of
unwilling nature, making the w^inds, the waters, the palpable and
the impalpable essences of things tributary to man ; creating grati-
fication for the body, and giving new susceptibility and expansion
to the soul, they flourish where thought and action are untrammeled ;
ever daring must be the spirit of genius ; its omnipotence belongs
only to the free.

" A loose and inadequate respect for the rights of property of
necessity follows in the wake of slavery. — Duelling, bloodshed and
Lynch law leave but little security to person. A general demoraliza-
tion has corrupted the first minds in the nation ; its hot contagion
has spread among the whole people ; licentiousness, crime, and bitter
hate infest us at home ; repudiation and the forcible propagandism of
slavery, are arraying against us the world in arms. I appeal to
history, to reason, to nature, and to conscience, which neither time,
nor space, nor fear, nor hate, nor hope of reward, nor crime, nor
pride, nor selfishness, can utterly silence. Are not these things true ?
A minute comparison of the free and slave states, so often and ably
made, I forbear ; I leave this unwilling and bitter proof to each
man's observation and reflection. — There is, however, one considera-
tion which I would urge upon all, because it excludes all * fanaticism
and enthusiasm,' Kentucky will be richer in dollars and cents by
emancipation, and slaveholders will be wealthier by the change.

" I assert, from my own knowledge, that lands of the same quality
in the free, are from 100 to 150 per cent, higher in value than In
the slave states— in some cases, probably six hundred per cent.
higher! Lands six miles from Cincinnati, in Ohio, I am credibly
informed, are worth sixty dollars per acre, whilst in Kentucky, at
the same distance from that city, and of the same quality, they are
worth only ten dollars per acre ! Now the slaveholders of the state
are, with rare exceptions, the landholders of the state; they there-
fore absolutely increase their fortunes by liberating their slaves even

MR. M^DONOGH S SUGGESTION. 425

without compensation. Thus, if I own 1000 acres of land in
Fayette, it is worth 50,000 dollars ; say I own twelve slaves worth
5,000 dollars, the probable ratio between land and slaves ; if my
land rise to the value of the free state standard, which it must do,
my estate becomes worth (losing the value of the slaves, 5,000 dols.)
95,000 dollars.

" If it rises to 150 dollars per acre, three times its present value,
as I most sincerely believe it would do in twenty years after eman-
cipation, the man owning 1000 acres of land, not worth fifty-six
dollars per acre, would be worth under the free system, 145,000
dollars. iS^ow this assertion is fully proven by facts open to all.
Kentucky was settled by wealthy emigrants— Ohio by labourers.
Kentucky is the senior of Ohio by nearly one-half the existence of
the latter. Kentucky is the superior of Ohio in soil, climate, minerals,
and timber, to say nothing of the beauty of her surface — and yet
Ohio's taxes for 1843 amounted to 2,361,482 dols. 81 cts., whilst
Kentucky's tax is only 343,617 dols. 66 cts. Thus showing Ohio's
superior productive energy over Kentucky. Ohio has 20 electoral
votes to our 13, and outstrips us in about the same ratio in all
things else. A comparison of the older free and slave states will
show a more favourable balance-sheet to the free labour states ;
whilst the slave states have greatly the advantage in climate and soil,
to say nothing of the vastly greater extent of the territory of the
slave states."

Another very remarkable, and still more practical,
appeal to the self-interest of slave-owners is to be found
in a published statement by Mr. John McDonogh, a
wealthy citizen of New Orleans, which details at great
length the system by which he successfully enabled his
slaves to work out their own deliverance, by purchasing
their freedom. This was effected by dint of hard extra
labour, carried on with astonishing perseverance and
industry for no less a period than fifteen years or more.
But the length of time thus required according to
Mr. McDonogh's estimate, for the bit by bit enfranchise-
ment obtained at so dear a price of continual labour,
seems to have prevented any extended adoption of the

426 SLAVERY.

plan. It has been tried, but as often I believe abandoned,
by several of the Louisiana planters ; and the failure is
there invariably attributed to the indifference for freedom,
and by implication the contentment in thraldom, of the
poor negroes. This plan of Mr. McDonogh, so successfully
carried out, offers a curious and instructive instance of
calculation on his part, of energetic industry on that of
his slaves, and of mutual confidence and honest fulfilment
of their contract on both. Mr. McDonogh's plan of
sending his liberated slaves at once out of the country,
and shipping them off directly to Liberia, has the immense
advantage of removing them from the" ignominy sure to
attend on their remaining in a slave state under the
masquerade pretext of Freedom. The monstrous treat-
ment by the slaveholders of the deluded wretches to
whom they give or sell a patent of mock liberty is almost
the worst feature of their conduct. The Spartan exposure
of drunkenness in their helots was an innocent trick com-
pared to the treacherous encouragement of vice and misery
given by the Americans to the victims, whom in making
free they defraud of the comparative bliss of bondage.

Even in the Free States the position of the free blacks
is a shameless violation of their rights as men and citizens.
I may mention a few points in connection with that
branch of the subject, and in relation to the State of
Massachusetts, the head-quarters of the Abohtion Move-
ment, and the place where the Negro has the best chairce
of fair play and good treatment.

Within three years of the estabHshment of the Federal
Constitution, Massachusetts abolished slavery within its
territory, and the example was quickly followed by those
other States which are known as Free.

The amount of population in the State of Massachusetts,

POSITION OF FKEE NEGROES. 427

according to the census of 1850, was 994,499, of which
number about 8000 were coloured persons.

In the eye of the law there is not any difference in
Massachusetts between a free white and a free coloured
man, except as regards serving in the miUtia, from which
coloured men are prohibited by an Act of Congress ; and
in respect to naturalization — the Act of Congress of April,
1802, confirming the description of aliens capable of
being naturalized, to " free white persons." It may how-
ever become an important question, and a difficult one
to answer, to what extent persons of mixed blood are
excluded, and what shades and degrees of mixture of
colour disqualify an alien from participation in the benefits
of the Act of Naturalization.

An Act of the Legislature of Massachusetts of February
25th, 1843, repealed so much ot the 75th and 76th
chapters of the " Revised Statutes," as caused restrictions
upon intermarriage between the white and coloured races.
Another bill, but which it became unnecessary to pass into
a law, the object being attained without a legislative
enactment, provided against the regulations previously
subsisting, which forced coloured persons to occupy places
in railroad carriages of inferior accommodations to those
appropriated to white persons. So that negroes may now
travel from one end of Massachusetts to the other, or on
the longer voyage of life itself, side by side with whatever
white person may choose their companionship.

But a far more important Act (of March 24th, 1843)
prohibited under pain of fine or imprisonment, any judge or
justice within the commonwealth from taking cognizance
of any case under the Act of Congress, of February 12th,
1793, entitled " An Act respecting fugitives from justice,
and persons escaping from the service of their masters ; "

428 SLAVERY.

and also prohibited any sheriff or constable from arresting
or detaining in any gaol, or other public building belonging
to the commonwealth, any person claimed as a fugitive
slave.

These were undoubted proofs of a growing disposition
in the State favourable to coloured persons, whose moral
condition has consequently much improved there of late
years. They are, nevertheless, subjected to many restric-
tions, from the still violent prejudices subsisting against
them, among all classes of the population not of the
Abolitionist party. They have the right to vote at
elections, but they never attempt to . set up a candidate
from among themselves for the most trifling post. They
are, like other citizens, liable to serve on juries ; but they
are never called on to fulfil this duty, which is tantamount
to a prohibition against exercising it. They are never
appointed to any of the offices of the State, though, if
elected, there is no legal restriction against their admission
to any. And altogether, the badge they bear is one, if
not of actual servitude, at least of degradation. And
such is the picture of their position in all the Free States
of the Union.

I will, in reference to this subject, reproduce in the
Appendix a document of remarkable power both as to
moral truth, logical reasoning, and eloquent invective.
The publication having been hitherto confined to the
columns of the Irish newspapers of the day, it has bben
no doubt but httle read in England, and still less in
America. In the hope of aiding in its circulation, and
preserving it in a somewhat more durable form, I am
happy to give it a place in this work ; but no eulogy of
mine could give additional weight to so admirable a
production. It is not only from the pen and the brain of

FUGITIVE SLAVE LAW. 429

a great thinker, but from the heart of one who, at any
rate on this subject, felt honestly and truly. A few of
the points touched on differ somewhat from my own views
already expressed. But I will further request the obser-
vation of the reader to the fact, that even O'Connell,
bold, ambitious, and energetic as he was, did not venture
to dictate a remedy against the enormous wrong which he
branded with such reprobation.

This splendid manifesto embodies almost all the prin-
cipal arguments against the existence of negro slavery.
To urge reasons against its extension would, at the
present date, be superfluous. The debates in the United
States Congress and the convulsion in the public mind,
consequent on the adoption of the Fugitive Slave Bill,
dated September 20th, 1850, and the struggle going on
in Kansas at the present day, prove indisputably that
the everlasting duration of the institution of slaver}^ is the
object and purpose of a large majority of the people of
America.

The passage of a law in Congress in 1854, called the
Kansas and Nebraska Act, which contained a clause
repealing the Missouri Compromise Act, was one of the
most flagrant violations of right that the history of legis-
lative abuse can furnish. Triumphantly carried by the
slave-holding interests, and basely acquiesced in by the
Free States at the north and west, it seems at once to
stamp the retrograde views of the country at large, and
to forbid any sanguine hope of real reaction against
further encroachments by the south. It was decidedly a
test question of principles, and it set the seal for the time
upon the charter of slave-holding dominion. All the
canting professions of pretended lovers of freedom avail
nothing against their submission to the out-spoken

480 SLAVERY.

approvers of slavery. If resistance was ever to be made
it was on that vital question. How the free soil and
abolition interests mean to recover their lost position I do
not know. Split into party divisions under new names,
Republicans, Americans, and wdiat not, they can show no
effectual front against the compact phalanx of proslavery.
which has at least the candour to say what it thinks and
the courage to do what it desires. The last presidential
election (in 1856) carried Buchanan triumphantly to
power. Under the auspices of his victory, slavery and
filibusterism seemed to have everything their own way.
-But already, within two years, a heavy cloud is passing
between them and the sun of their success ; and nothing
is more likely than that the national passion for change,
acting on the present President's want of firmness, may
cause Walker and his fellow adventurers to be prosecuted
as brigands, and place Fremont, or some still more
decided free-soiler, in 1860, in the Presidential chair.

In the meantime, it may be only fair to state some of
the leading arguments in favour of slavery, put forward
with ingenuity, and pertinaciously maintained by its
supporters. Some of them are so plausible that in any
discussion of the subject they require notice. There is no
question whatever in which a subtle controversialist may
not make the worse appear the better reason. If an
exception exists this is not it, and probably the impartial
enquirer may be for a while embarrassed, when he. is
reminded that certain products of the earth, given by
Providence for the good of man, can only be cultivated
in the climates adapted to their growth, by a race of beings
so constituted as to prove them to be the destined instru-
ments for this great purpose ; that these beings whose
origin was in another and distant land,'^fare evidently

ARGUMENTS IN FAYOUR OF SLAVERY. 431

doomed by God to this particular labour for the general
good of mankind ; and as, in their ignorance and sloth-
fulness, they do not know the means, and even if they
did they would be unwilling to exercise them, for carrying
out this great object of their existence, it became the right
of a superior race, not only to force their labour, but to
possess their persons as property, to be bought, used and
sold, like any other species of chattel. It is added, as a
justification of this latter argument, that in their native
country they are far worse off than when removed to
other lands, that it is a blessing to be released from the
brutality of the savage chieftains of Africa, and placed in
the Christian care of civilized masters in another hemi-
sphere, where the climate and the work they are put to
are in unison with their physical conformation and early
experience. Mind, feehng, sentiment, memory, hope, are
all excluded as mere metaphysical subtleties with which
an African negro has nothing whatever to do, and con-
sequently foreign to the question, and a non sequitur in
the argument.

But those who may choose to reply to this pleading
can do so curtly by denying altogether the premises
on which it is based. They may admit their conviction
as I do mine, that the negro race is inferior to the white,
but maintain that it is still a portion of humanity, and
as such entitled to the common privileges of our nature,
which are, according to the constitution of the United
States, "freedom, equality, and the enjoyment of liberty."

But I will nevertheless continue to give the reasonings
of the slaveholders as a matter of justice to them, and
because I think their unfortunate condition entitles them to
all possible forbearance and fair play.

It is an admitted fact that the estabhshment of slavery

432 SLAVERY.

in the United States was the work of the mother country,
and owing to the cupidity of English merchants ; and that
attempts were made by some of the American colonists to
prevent the importation of slaves, but were always opposed
by the home government. There is good reason to believe
that at the period of the establishment of the Republic,
there was some disposition to do away with the institution
of slavery, but that it was overruled from motives before
adverted to. Mr. Jefferson looking forward to an ultimate
emancipation, said, "I think a change is already per-
ceptible since the origin of the present revolution. The
spirit of the master is abating, that of the slave rising
from the dust, his condition mollifying, the way, I hope,
preparing, under the auspices of Heaven, for a total
emancipation, and that this is disposed in the order of
events to be with the consent of the masters rather than
by their extirpation.^' But the great stimulus given to the
culture of cotton by the scientific discoveries of Whitney
(the inventor of the saw-gin) and others, very soon altered
the whole aspect of this question. The cotton-growing
States saw in the increased value of their negroes a long
perspective of wealth and prosperity, and slavery became
more than ever firmly rooted in the southern part of the
Union. It was, however, even then considered by some of
the leading men as an evil, and but few, if any of them,
countenanced the doctrine of late so zealously maintained,
that slavery is not only an institution to be tolerated, but
that its existence is an actual benefit to the human race.
History and Scripture are appealed to in support of these
pretensions. But certain southern statesmen, following in
the wake of Mr. Calhoun and General McDuffie, and going
even further than ancient authorities, have declared the
domestic institution of slavery to be indispensable to a

THE ANCIENT AND MODERN SLAVE. 433

commonwealth founded on principles of equality, and that
no examples can be cited of a prosperous democracy
having existed without it ; it being essential to the well-
being of all that the servile labour of the State should be
performed by a separate class. The cruel treatment of
their slaves by the ancients is often pleaded by American
masters in extenuation of their own harshness. But there
is only one point of direct analogy between them — the
moral wrong of holding men in bondage. For the slaves
of the Romans were men taken in war, or their descend-
ants, men who went to battle with the knowledge of their
fate before them, if defeated, and with the chance of
reprisals in kind upon their foes. The modern slave is a
poor, helpless creature, either born of a kidnapped father,
sold as he may have been for the meanest purposes of
trade, and with no chance of retaliation, but in his "great
revenge," which he watches for, and may one day attain.
The supporters of slavery as a domestic institution main-
tain that in providing society with an abundant supply
of physical labour taken from an inferior race, they secure
to the higher the benefit of entire equality amongst them-
selves, and of an unrestrained progress towards social and
intellectual improvement. They consider it mere senti-
mentahsm to shrink from rendering this inferior race
subservient to their purposes, and , insist that its subju-
gation emancipates the higher, white race, and opens to
it a wider field for the attainment of civilization and
liberty than could be reached under any other system ;
while at the same time it secures the best interests of the
negro, the latter having been proved deficient in the
power of self-government, and only capable of flourishing
when under the control of higher intelligences. The
abstract rights of man to liberty may be urged, they say,

VOL. II. F P

434 SLAVERY.

as a general principle, yet if it can be shown that the
freedom of a particular class is injurious to society, and
a boon moreover which that class is incapable of appre-
ciating, and not quahfied to enjoy, and that the sacrifice
of the abstract rights of an inferior sefc of men confers
upon the more valuable portion of society benefits which
would otherwise be unattainable, then it must be con-
ceded that the principle is one of expediency and justice
both. So much for abstract philosophic reasoning.

But the chief incentive to the exertions of the slavery-
extensionists of to-day is not the desire of carrying into
effect vague and disputable ideas of social progress, but
the political necessity of keeping up in the United States
Congress the balance of power, hitherto existing between
North and South. The vast accessions of free territory,
by the formation of new States in the north-west, have
caused great alarm to the people of the South. The two
sections are not now equally balanced in Congress, and
the slow increase of population in the Southern States,
the want of immigration from Europe, consequent upon
the existence of slavery in those parts of the Union, as
well as the unwholesomeness of the climate, have made
it a great object to the South to carry that institution
into more attractive and more salubrious regions. Hence
the repeal of the Missouri Compromise in 1854, effected
ostensibly on the ground of that measure having been
originally unconstitutional, but really with a view to the
migration northwards and westwards of slave-holders
with their slaves, and being closely followed by the des-
perate attempt at converting the territory of Kansas into
a slave State. The region of country west of the Mis-
sissippi and north of Mason and Dixon's line, is assuredly
not favourable to negro extension, the chmate being tem-

THE KANSAS STRUGGLE. 435

perate, the soil suitable to agricultural pursuits, and the
country in general eminently inviting to white settlers.
Yet the pressing want of congressional equality by the
accession of two senators in Congress to the Southern side
of the House, urged the slave-owners to try their chance,
and to endeavour, by all means, fair or foul, to force a
constitution admitting slavery upon the inhabitants of the
territory. The unscrupulous manner in which the attempt
was made, as well as the success which at one time seemed
likely to attend it, supported as it was by the great mass
of the Democratic party throughout the Union, and also
by the federal government under the presidency of Mr.
Pierce, are familiar to all persons conversant with modern
American affairs. The details of the war made upon the
free-state settlers of Kansas, and the assaults upon freedom
of speech and action perpetrated by the Southern invaders
were set forth with great force and effect in several of the
Congressional speeches during the session of 1855 — 56,
the chief of which was that delivered by Mr. Sumner, one
of the senators from the State of Massachusetts, on the
19th and 20th of May, 1856, and which resulted in the
dastardly assault upon his person in the Senate Chamber
by Mr. Brooks, one of the representatives in Congress
from South Carolina. But the most important, and in all
likelihood the most impartial, evidence upon the subject is
that afforded by the Report of the Committee of the
House of Representatives, appointed to investigate the
election frauds practised in Kansas, and which were
presented to the House on the 1st July, 1856*.

That report clearly establishes that an organized
invasion of Kansas was carried on from the Southern
States, more especially from Missouri, with the avowed
object of introducing slavery into the territory, and that,

P F 2

436 SLAVERY.

as a consequence of the repeal of the Missouri com-
promise, and of all restrictions against slavery, the
" resolves " of squatter meetings were substituted for the
legitimate action of Congress, and the whole field of
controversy on this subject was, after a lapse of thirty-
five years of peaceful settlement, revived.

The report sums up the matter in the following
words : —

" This unlawful interference (of invaders from Missouri) has been
continued in every important event in the history of the territory ;
every election has been controlled, not by the actual settlers, but by
citizens of Missouri ; and, as a consequence, every officer in the
territory, from constables to legislators, except those appointed by
the President, owe their position to non-resident voters. None have
been elected by the settlers, and your committee have been unable
to find that any political power whatever, however unimportant, has
been exercised by the people of the territory."

All this is very flagrant, but it must be admitted that
the proceedings against Kansas did not meet with
universal approval in the South. Many moderate men
there condemned the whole poHcy of violence and fraud
by which they were marked, doubting also from the first
the success of the movement. The great preponderance
of free-state settlers already established in the territory
was a serious obstacle to be overcome. Yet it is not to
be wondered at that the sympathies of the South
generally were strongly enlisted in favour of the plan.
They had much to gain and nothing to risk, beyond loss
of moral influence and prestige, in case of failure. The
object was the maintenance of their pohtical equahty
with the North — a matter of paramount importance, and
which undoubtedly lies at the foundation of the whole
scheme of Southern policy of the present day. The support

AGGRESSIVE POLICY OF SOUTHERN STATES. 437

which the latter has obtained from a large part of the
people of the North arises from another powerful political
feehng — the desire of keeping together the Democratic
party, the existence of which depends upon the con-
tinuance of union between its members in both sections of
the country. This good understanding has been at times
in great peril. When it became evident after the close ot
the Mexican war that the South was determined upon
extending slavery into the new territories acquired by
that war, and had ceased to be satisfied with its existence
in the limits before assigned to it, and especially after the
repeal of the Missouri compromise. Northern men began
seriously to reflect upon the consequences likely to follow
that system of subserviency to the South which had
hitherto prevailed, and many secessions from the demo-
cratic ranks took place. The free-soil party was originally
formed out of accessions from both the Democratic and
the Whig parties, and even amongst those who still
continued faithful to the democratic standard, shades of
opinion on the subject of slavery began to show them-
selves. In the State of New York " Hard Shells '^ and
" Soft Shells '' contended for supremacy, and it required
all the skill in management of the leaders to keep the
party together. It w^as only by adhering closely to the
South, where a clear democratic majority has always
existed, that the northern democrats could hope to save
the party, and it is to this cause chiefly that their support
of the present policy of the South may be attributed. In
addition to this reason there is always held over the
North the threat of secession on the part of the Southern
States, and the fear of endangering the continuance of the
Union has induced many northern men to support
measures of which they cannot approve.

438 SLAVERY.

Whether there is any real danger in this oft-repeated
Southern threat of secession may be doubted ; but it has
ever produced a powerful eftect in the Northern States.
The Kansas Question and the assault on Mr. Sumner,
have on the other hand done much to strengthen the
feelino- of Northern resistance, and never were the two
sections of the country so distinctly arrayed against each
other as during the last hardly-fought Presidential
contest in 1856.

So fluctuating is the character of American politics,
that it is impossible to foresee what turn any great question
may take from day to day. Judging by the strong array
of free-soil (or Republican, as the party is now called)*
votes at the last Presidential election, and the extraor-
dinary display of anti-slavery feeling manifested in the
North during the contest, one would imagine that the
time was not far distant when every free State in the
Union would co-operate in the election of a President
firmly pledged to resist all further encroachments of the
slave power, and that a majority would be found in
Congress prepared steadily to oppose the admission of
new slave States. But the superior skill and sagacity of
the South — where statesmanship is an art and every man
able to give his undivided attention to political struggles —
has hitherto secured its supremacy in Congress ; and the
Southern States united as one man on any question in-
volving slavery, has been an overmatch for the divided
North. Whenever a Southern object was to be gained.
Northern associates have been found to assist in the
work, and the democratic party has been ready, from the
motives before mentioned, to endorse it.

* The " Platforms" (or political manifestoes of the three principal parties of
the last presidential election) will be found in the Appendix,

EVILS OF ENGLISH SOCIETY. 439

It is only further necessary to remark that the tu
quoque, the argument of conscious discomfiture, is eternally
adopted by those Americans who would defend the insti-
tution of slavery, in opposition to the remonstrances of
EngUsli writers and speakers. Insufficient at any time to
combat a reproach, it is peculiarly so in the present
question. That poor workwomen are basely treated by
their employers, that ruffians cruelly beat their wives, that
wives and mothers poison their husbands and children,
that our peasantry are uneducated, and our manufacturing
classes immoral, are all undeniable and melancholy facts.
The artificial state of society in England, the inequality of
fortunes, the superabundance of population, the short-
sighted pride of aristocracy, the avarice of wealthy
manufacturers, the sectarian virulence of portions of the
clergy of all creeds, the subserviency of many among the
gentry and the middle classes to the domineering great —
these are among the causes of evils which are admitted
and deplored. Parliament is busily employed for their
redress. Our most eloquent authors and speakers wage
an unceasing war against the prevalence of those abuses
in our social system. Numberless societies exist for their
amelioration. Funds to a large amount are subscribed to
carry out the various projects of improvement. No body
of men of any influence, no individuals of either sex,
venture to palliate the existence of these ills ; nor does
any one object to the interference of foreigners, whether
exerted in England or elsewhere, in pointing out,
or devising remedies for, our abounding defects. But
were those blots upon our boasted greatness ten times
more disfiguring than they are, were our priests more
bigotted, our peers more haughty, our commoners
more cringing, our Parliament less active — did the

440 SLAVERY.

sempstresses work their worn fingers still closer to the
bone, or sordid mill-owners drive their operatives still
faster to exhaustion, or were all the vices inherent in our
nature, and inseparable from civilization a thousand fold
greater than they are among us, could all that combina-
tion justify slavery in America '? Could southern slave-
holders be acquitted at the bar of Public Justice for
maintaining, or cotton buyers at the north for defending
it ? or should Englishmen be debarred from publicly
denouncing what they all abhor ? The fact is that it
cannot be defended, nor palliated — and what is w^orse,
there is but small chance of its being soon remedied, and
none that I can see of its being finally abolished.
Admitting all this, w^e in England would be quite satisfied
if Americans admitted it as well. If a bold and straight-
forward sentiment of Anti-Slavery existed in the United
States — if what is undeniable as a fact was avowed to be
an abomination — and if means were adopted to abate it,
ever so insufficient, or with results ever so remote, the
reproaches of Europe w^ould cease, sarcasm be still, and
America be cordially met and co-operated with on the
broad road of philanthropy.

But as long as the country which boasts of liberty
cherishes slavery in its very heart, as long as the States
which are really free fraternize with those that hold
bondage as a privilege and make man an article of barter
and sale, as long as the spinners of cotton make common
cause with those who grow it, and while both combine to
crush the generous few who fight the battle of Emanci-
pation, so long will the voice of the Old World be raised
against those obnoxious portions of the New.

And— finally to dispose of this " great argument "—
admitting from the inferiority of the negro race that its

SLAVE TRADE WITH AFEICA. 441

bondage is an allowable result, its operation only warrants
the enslaving of the absolute, or what the Americans
designate " the full-blooded " negro, the manifest black,
who is stamped by nature with that fatal brand which
proclaims the inferiority, and vindicates the enslavement.
But when this degrading stain is, generation after genera-
tion, so weakened as to be almost entirely effaced, when
amalgamation has done its work, and the struggle of
white against black has been so triumphant that no
visible trace of the latter is left, when the complexion is
clear, the features symmetrical, the form graceful, the
individual a model of female beauty, what possible excuse
is left for the law that condemns such a being to chains
and stripes, to private indignity and public sale '? The
predominance of colour is be^^ond denial white. The
distinction of race decided ; and no perceptible tinge of
African descent. Yet this fair, accomplished, educated
woman, is legally a chatteL liable to be seized wherever
found, and sold in the public slave mart. Quadroons
are in all the slave states, but chiefly in Louisiana, bred
for slavery and " held to '^ prostitution, as the most
valuable property which the odious system can supply.
And this is the chief damning fact of the argument that
would make " involuntary servitude " the inevitable
destiny of an inferior race.

The Slave Trade with Africa is a question entirely
distinct from the one I have been treating. It is out of
the province of this work, and it would be peculiarly
indiscreet at the present moment for any unofficial and
unauthorized person to enter upon it in public discussion,
at the risk of doing mischief, and without the chance of
doing good. It is now in the hands of Her Majesty's
Government, and they are in communication upon it with

442 SLAVERY.

that of the United States and with the Emperor of the
French. Some recent events — the visiting of American
ships bj our cruizers in the Gulf of Mexico, the seizure
of a slaver, and the liberation of the remains of its living
cargo, bj a vessel of the United States, and that of the
French ship the " Charles-Georges '' by the Portuguese
authorities, have occurred in close conjunction, and have
brought the whole concentrated points of the question to
an issue. The interests of the world at large are at stake,
and their importance will, it is to be hoped, ensure a rea-
sonable, prompt, and we may trust, a permanent solution.
In the meantime, the declamation of American slave-
holders and their Northern allies may be safely allowed to
pass unrefuted — they may declare their belief (I have
heard them declare it within the last few months) that
the slave trade will be revived with the sanction of England
within five years, and that the whole world is on the
point of acknowledging the justice, expediency, and abso-
lute necessity, of their system. We may however hope
that the watchful antagonism of the world against such
doctrines will not slumber, but that England will keep the
place she has so long maintained at the head of the anti-
slavery movement, ready as ever to continue her sacrifices
in the cause, and to follow up by every moral means of
persuasion, remonstrance and example, an object which
would not justify, and probably could never be attained
by, War.

CHAPTER XVII.

— ♦ —

MISCELLANEOUS SUBJECTS,
luauguration of Mr. Polk— Oregon Qaestion — British Columbia— Rapid Decline in
Influential Men in the United States — Despondency of the Whigs — Elation
of the Democrats — Mexican War — Last Visit to Washington — Desultory
Reflections — Discipline — In the Army — In Civil Life — The Americans a
Military People — Obedience to Authority — Definition of Lynch Law — Its
Practical Efiect — Not dangerous to the Institutions of the Country.

As I am nearly approaching the termination of my
work, many subjects press upon me, and I must request
my readers to excuse a somewhat incongruous mixture of
materials for its closing chapters ; while I must necessarily
leave several subjects worth remark wholly untouched.

Washington, without the presence of Mr. Clay, was
deprived of one of its greatest attractions. But there
were always objects of interest there, both public and
private, to repay the trouble of a journey ; and a Pre-
sidential inauguration had elements in it, no matter who
Avere the chief personages in the scene, that excited
curiosity, were sure to give amusement, and contained
many chances for something agreeable turning up. Such
was the case in March, 1845, when I was next there, and
Mr. Polk had come to take possession of his honours and
the White House, vacated by his predecessor Mr. John
Tyler.

The inauguration and its fetes formed a very indifferent
spectacle. No enthusiasm could possibly circle round men

444 MISCELLANEOUS SUBJECTS.

of such second or third rate cahbre as those who now
filled the chief places in the government. The whole of
the " scenery, machinery, and decorations,'' as well as the
principal actors, had been changed ; and public affairs
offered but little excitement. Society, however, though
many of its ornaments had been removed, was still agree-
able. The Corps diplomatique was always there as a
rallying point, and several of the private houses were as
usual open freely to visitors.

The burning of the Theatre at this period was an event
that caused some local emotion, though fortunately no
lives were lost ; and a new subject of dispute with England,
the Oregon question, was soon involved in the intricacies
of a diplomatic correspondence, in which, as usual, the
Americans had the best of the argument, owing chiefly,
as I believe (from the best English authority), to the
very ingenious (not ingenuous) manner in which it was
handled by the then Secretary of State, who is now in his
turn the present President.

I have already entered so much at length into the
history of two memorable transactions relating to increase
of territory, that I will here barely allude to this one, of
Oregon, which offered no great interest from either the
subject or its negotiators. A good deal of blustering, and
as I can well beheve, some chicanery, on the part of the
United States, ended in a settlement which gave to
England that fine territory, the value of which was Utile
imagined at the time ; but which now, under the title of
Bkitish Columbia, affords an opportunity to a man of
genius to prove, that the highest order of Hterary fame
is not incompatible with the great business of official
colonial management.

Year after year, as my stay in the United States was

RAPID DECLINE IN INFLUENTIAL MEN. 445

drawing to an end, the country lost by degrees the far
greater part of its interest for me. The most remarkable
of the pubhc men were rapidly disappearing altogether
from the scene of life, or withdrawing from the struggles
to which their rivalry had given eclat. The great game
of politics was fast losing its importance, the area of its
exhibition became narrowed, while it was played by those
whose greatest skill seemed but trickery, and who were not
capable of conceiving the bold moves of their more daring,
but not more scrupulous, predecessors. It was pitiable
to mark the succession of adventurers, who so quickly
became prominent, and the tone of despondency which
pervaded all the better regulated minds. The lofty hopes
of philanthropists seemed fading away before every false
step which the country was, as they believed, making.
Every one of those appeared to lead inevitably to another
still more disastrous ; and to quote a burst of American
eloquence on the painful state of things, " a profound
sigh seemed to be wrung from the nation's heart ; tears,
such as Cato might have wept, were shed from manly
eyes ; and many of its truest friends began to despair of
the republic."*

This was, however, only one side of the question. A
large majority of the millions whose will gave the law,
saw a boundless expanse of greatness and glory before
the advancing destiny of the country. Both parties
were convinced of their own sagacity ; and it is an axiom
as old as Plato, that whatever appears true to each
man's individual mind, is true for him. Events, the great
test which alone can prove a speculative truth, were
hurrying on.

* " Life of Henrjr Clay," by Epes Sargent ; edited by Horace Greely.

446 MISCELLANEOUS SUBJECTS.

THE MEXICAN WAR.

War with Mexico Was the inevitable consequence of
the Annexation of Texas ; and it was no doubt an item in
the plans of American politicians by whom that policy of
spohation was effected. The prophetic voice of Channing
in its dying sounds, denounced the transaction and pretty
accurately foretold its results. As the best known in
England of all the many writers w^ho treated that subject
in the same tone, I will insert a portion of his published
letter to Mr. Clay, which, eloquent and truthful as it is,
produced small effect on the consciences or convictions of
the American Government and its supporters.* The
extent of its predictions has not as yet been ratified by
results ; nor would it be prudent to anticipate or reckon
on their entire fulfilment. Channing, as a moralist and a
Christian, held a high rank ; but I doubt if he always took
the true measure of public characters, or saw largely into the
depths of political combinations. In prognosticating a w^ar
on the part of England to sustain the integrity of Mexico
against American aggression, he was certainly at fault.
English statesmen have not come forward as the champions
of " oppressed nationalities," even when the interests of
England itself seemed to be involved. The complications
of European affairs forbid the chivalric interference which
high and generous feehng would prompt, and tyranny too
often scorns the remonstrances which are not followed up
by blows. The words of Dr. Channing found many an
echo in the public, but fell dead on the political minds of
his countrymen, and the inevitable war was soon prepared
for, provoked, and entered on.

* See Appendix.

ENERGY OF AMERICAN PEOPLE. 447

The Mexican Minister at Washington had announced to
the Government there that the act of the Annexation of
Texas could only be considered as tantamont to a decla-
ration of war, and the first measure of actual aggression
on the part of the United States, the advance of General
Taylor and his forces into the neutral and still disputed
territory between the two counties was of course con-
sidered as the commencement of hostihties. It was in
vain that Clay, Gallatin, Webster, and all the other poli-
ticians of that school proclaimed in their writings and
speeches the unjust proceedings of the United States.
The only answer by the Government and Congress was a
levy of 50,000 volunteers ; and within two years, from
March, 1846 to February, 1848, the whole of Mexico was
subjugated, after an obstinate resistance, and several actions,
of which General Scott was the chief commander, and
Zachary Taylor the principal hero. The vain pretensions
of Scott to the next Presidential vacancy were passed
over, and Taylor, whom he superseded in Mexico, left
him in the back ground at Washington, also beating
his democratic opponent General Cass, whose chief dis-
tinction at that time was, like that of another of those
lawyer-and-attorney Generals, Caleb Gushing, a bitter
enmity to England which latter has, I believe, in no way
abated.

The conquest of Mexico, and the consequent large
accession of territory, including the valuable acquisition
of California, afforded unquestionable proofs of energy,
courage, and discipline in the American people. I left the
country, not to return, during the progress of the war ;
and I had previously two further opportunities of looking
on in Washington at the march of events and the men
by whom they were directed. My last visit was in the

448 MISCELLANEOUS SUBJECTS.

summer of 1846, in that hot, dull season when the Capitol
being empty, Pennsylvania Avenue deserted, and the White
House dependant for attraction on the social qualities of
its temporary occupants, I found little to regret in taking
my last leave of the place where I had spent so many
pleasant days.

In reference to the subject I have been more imme-
diately touching on, some reflections arise on one very
remarkable quality of the people I am now so nearly
parting with, though they may wander into less important
associations than those from which they spring.

The Americans appear to me to possess, beyond all
other people, the instinct of discipline. I mean this in its
highest sense, according to the distinction pointed out by
the Duke of Wellington in one of his letters — " Habits of
obedience to orders as well as military instruction." This
peculiarity extends, in a very extraordinary degree,
through the portions of the country which I have visited ;
and its development has decided me in ranking the United
States among the military nations of the earth. Mere
animal courage forms a very common element towards
that character. Most men and all people will fight. The
Irishman flourishing his shillelah, the Switzer levelling
his rifle, the Spaniard wielding his knife, are all brave,
and can all be drilled into disciphne. But the spirit of
order pervading a whole population, by the influence
of which men are soldiers ready made, is the national
quality which I saw so eminently displayed in the United
States.

Obedience to authority is supposed by superficial
observers to be repugnant to the spirit and the practice
of the American people. This is a great mistake ; and I
account for it by believing that those who formed the

OBEDIENCE TO AUTHORITY. 449

opinioA have only had in view the positive, and at times
obstinate, resistance offered by the people at large to
certain encroachments of executive power, or to judicial
decisions which the general sense pronounced to be unjust.
That such instances have occasionally occurred is unques-
tionable, and that deplorable violations of law and acts of
great violence may be cited is equally a fact. But it is,
in the first place, to be remarked that such excesses are
common in all the civiKzed countries of Europe ; and, in
the second, it should be remembered that they may be
considered as inseparable from the workings of a demo-
cratic constitution. Local outbreaks of popular force are
the natural consequence of power lodged in the people at
large. Human nature, with all its impulses, its passions,
and its imperfections, is liable to those explosions, as the
elemental harmonies are interrupted at times by storms,
or as the mortal frame is subject to febrile eruptions or
internal spasms. Occasional popular excess is the price
paid for self-government ; and it is absurd to be surprized
at a burst of mob fury, while we complacently consider
tyrannical outrage as quite consistent (however odious)
in a single despot. The true way of becoming reconciled
to the lamentable irregularities of our social existence is
to consider it in the nature of a compromise, to be con-
tent with the fiat that has doomed it to imperfection, but
to labour to lessen its deficiencies.

And in largely considering the social and political
system of the United States, I confess it appears to me
marvellous that so little is to be found exceptionable
in the conduct of things. It should never be forgotten
that, on the formation of the Federal Constitution, very
little confidence was entertained of its well-working even
by its framers. The debates in the convention assembled

VOL. II. G G

4.50 MISCELLANEOUS SUBJECTS.

for the purpose, as lately published in the Madison papers,
show that fact very plainly. The constitution was con-
sidered merely as a great experiment. It has been now
in action for seventy years, and latterly on a scale of
seven-fold its original extent. When it is remembered
that inventions of machinery which perform their func-
tions admirably in the narrow sphere of the original
models, often fail when adapted to the practical pur-
poses of science on a larger scale, it must strike us as
astonishing that this constitution, framed for the uses
of four millions of men, has up to this day been found
to work so well for the governance of thirty millions
and more.

This great result is to be attributed to the good sense
of these " milhons ;" for, had the masses been deficient in
that quality, their leaders could not by any arguments
have kept things straight. And when it is considered
that those leaders are the very individuals who have
formed the chief exceptions to the general propriety, and
that it is among them that instances of imprudence and
outbreaks of selfish violence have been most frequent, the
people at large deserve a still greater share of our admi-
ration and respect. Indeed, the greater my experience of
the country, the more did I esteem the masses, and the
less did individuals seem to merit regard. It is certainly
in pubhc that the national character appears to most
advantage — at large meetings, political or otherwise, at
great festivals, in steamboats, railroad trains, &c. ; and the
thing which of all others was the most striking and most
wonderful to me was that instinct of discipline by which
the greatest portion of. the general good is estabhshed
and maintained.

This pervading quality may be seen all through the

PUBLIC ENTERTAINMENTS. 451

social system. Beginning with the immense concourses
which are brought together during election times, such as I
have described in a preceding chapter, many thousands
meet together, are regularly organised like military bodies,
divided into platoons, companies, battalions, brigades,
under the command of " marshals ; " and thus com-
manded, these large bodies manoeuvre, and disperse, with
an order and regularity as complete as that of any army
at a review. Interruptions or accidents of the slightest
kind are extremely rare on these occasions. The spirit
of subordination is perfect, and is a guarantee against all
harm.

It is the same with regard to public entertainments. On
such occasions the Americans are not satisfied, as with us,
that each individual should buy his ticket and repair to the
banquet-hall as best suits his convenience. With them a
certain parade-ground is always fixed on, where the pre-
sident of the feast and his assistants, invited guests, and
all those who hold tickets by purchase, are called on by
advertisements to assemble ; and, being duly marshalled
into proper order, they march, preceded by a band of
music, to the dining place through the most public
thoroughfares. It has been my lot to walk in those pro-
cessions, which are by no means confined to military
celebrations. I have had for my right or left hand file
Judge Story, Governor Everett, the venerable ex-
President John Quincy Adams, and other distinguished
civilians on such occasions, and I have invariably re-
marked the precision with which they all attended to
the keeping of time and distance, and the other duties
of the drill.

Large public balls are conducted with much of the
same management. Committees are formed to supervise

a o 2

452 MISCELLANEOUS SUBJECTS.

each particular branch of the matter in hand. Some take
charge of the decorations, others of the music, others of
the formation of the dancing groups, of the supper, the
reception-rooms, and so on ; and in each compartment
several gentlemen are to be seen, all through the evening
and night, performing with indefatigable zeal the most
fatiguing and monotonous offices, entirely from a sense of
duty, and sustained by the pride of discipline, which seems
the ruling principle among them.

Let us next look at the management of the hotels and
inns, great and small, and of the boarding-houses which
abound throughout the country. In every one of
these estabhshments rules are made with a severity and
observed with a strictness that would be remarkable
anywhere, but which in a country of such boasted
independence, are truly surprizing. The master of the
hotel, very often a colonel or major of militia (titles that
are frequently borne by even the bar-keepers) is a perfect
despot. He fixes and changes hours, orders his waiters,
and controls his customers with an air of command that
might be supposed to arise from his military rank ; but
the merest old woman who is mistress of a boarding-house
exercises an equal amount of authority. The most arbi-
trary and capricious regulations are submitted to by the
lodgers with a deference that is at times laughable.
They fly to the sound of the gong or bell with the
forced alacrity of soldiers rushing from their .barrack-rooms
at the bugle's call. To be a minute late for any meal
seems looked on as a breach of duty. The ease, comfort,
or convenience of individuals is never thought of in the
arrangements of the house. Gentlemen are removed from
one room to another without their consent being asked,
and often in defiance of their wish. Every one submits,

MILITARY CHARACTER OF PEOPLE. 453

if not cheerfully at least without remonstrance,* to the
rules for the general convenience, which can only be
caused by a pervading good sense that consults the
" greatest happiness of the greatest number," or, what is
less utilitarian but more likely — that instinct of discipline
to which I have previously alluded.

If it were not descending too much into minutiae, I could
give abundant instances, some of them ludicrous enough,
of my general positions.

The despotism of stage drivers throughout the Union
is proverbial, and every book of travels in this country
contains examples. On board the steamboats the system
is the same. But there it seems all right, and is, indeed,
indispensable to the common good. On the deck of a
ship, no matter of what kind, we naturally look for implicit
obedience to the commander. "Whether yielded by crew
or passengers, it is a fitting tribute to the authority
which maintains the general safety. But in marking the
admirable regularity, and the quiet despatch of business,
among the many hundreds of human beings conveyed and
fed in these floating hotels, we must still confess that it is
in this country alone that such a striking application could
be looked for, of the self-evident propriety of the general
rule.

In all public institutions or private places of business,
in schools, poorhouses, hospitals, prisons, workshops or
factories, the military system of tactics is universally
observed. I remember on one occasion, when I accom-
panied the directors of a house of correction for females
on their inspection, observing with admiration the clever
manner in which the head matron conducted her scores
of women-prisoners, as though they were soldiers on
parade. " Ah, sir,'' said one of my conductors, " she is

454 MISCELLANEOUS SUBJECTS.

the true grit, and no mistake. Yes, sir, Mrs. Kidder is
considerable of a Gineral Bonypart, more than any lady
I ever met with any wheres.''

The air of pride with which these few words were
uttered, and the sentiment they expressed, are exactly
illustrative of the national feeling in a thousand circum-
stances and situations. To be " considerable of a Gineral
Bonypart '^ is the aim of everyone in authority, from
Henry Clay, dictator of the Whig-party in Congress, down
to the meanest coach driver; and obedience to authority
is the universal concomitant in the public mind. The
law is not observed, because it is the Law, but because
it is the expression of general opinion for the general
good, which latter is the idol of American worship.
Occasional violation of right is but a consequence of
this sentiment. *' Lynch Law " ^^^ is not an outburst of
individual ferocity ; it is the execution of a sentence
irregularly pronounced by the majority, and submitted to
as an equitable exercise of sovereign authority. Judge
Lynch is not a solitary functionary, nor are his lictors few
and obscure. He is, it is true, but an abstraction ; but
he is an ideal embodiment of the mass. He is Demus
himself, in the plenitude of his power ; and those who
punish, like those who suffer, are but integral parts of the
whole which he personifies.

Seeing, then, that wholesale violations of law are not
very frequent, that isolated crime- is generally, but not
often enough punished in the civihzed portions of the
country, and that popular excess is always held in check,
though it cannot be always prevented, by public opinion,
there seems no cause to fear on those grounds for the

* Owing its name to a Virginian farmer so called, a violent person, who
took the law into his own hands.

LYNCH LAW NOT VERY DANGEROUS. 455

stability of institutions, made and maintained by and for
the people.

Were particular classes assailed by the masses, or did
popular fury manifest itself only in individual persecution,
the case would be very different. But as things really
are, and, without venturing lightly to argue so serious a
subject, I think the exercise of what Bacon calls " the wild
justice " of the multitude, is in great exigencies and in
certain bounds, a wholesome check upon offences which
regular laws cannot reach, and on the prompt punishment
of which the existence of society itself in sparsely peopled
districts may depend.

But it must be admitted that the portions of the
country in which the law of preservation may be invoked
to tolerate that other ordinance, can have yet no claim
to be placed in the first or even the second category of
CiviUzed America.

CHAPTER XVIII.

MISCELLANEOUS SUBJECTS— (CoTi^inwerf).

British North American Provinces — Glances at Canada — Boston Emigration
Society — A Yankee Job on a Small Scale — Departure from America —Resig-
nation of Consulship — Commercial Dishonesty — Fame of Public Men short-
lived — Concluding Remarks.

Our North American provinces do not come within the
scope of the subject to which I am prescribed ; though as
regards the actual apphcation of the term " civihzation/'
they are beyond question as fully entitled to it, under
the influence of their monarchical forms, as any of the
States of the neighbouring republic. But in calling those
Colonial possessions by their distinctive names, Canada,
New Brunswick, Nova-Scotia, Prince Edward Island,
and Newfoundland, we separate them from the United
States altogether ; and I believe that none of their in-
habitants feel very ambitious of being designated as
" Americans ; '^ except the portion of those Yankee
settlers who may have crossed the frontiers, with the
hope of one day forming part of some great scheme X)f
Annexation.

By far the most important and most interesting of
those provinces is Canada, in its two divisions of Upper
and Lower. I made excursions into it more frequently
than any of. the others, and I had many inducements to
go again and again, for the enjoyment of its splendid

GLANCES AT CANADA. 457

scenery and the charm of its social circles. The various
routes by which I approached or returned from it pos-
sessed abounding attractions ; — the magnificent country
traversed in New York State, much of it left as Nature
first fashioned it, its wide-spreading plains, forests, and
rivers — the noble railroad for 200 miles, from Boston to
Albany, through the beautiful hills and valleys of Massa-
chusetts ; the enchanting scenery of Trenton Falls ; lakes
Champlain, George, Ontario, and Erie ; Niagara, the
thousand Islands of the St. Lawrence, the rapids, the
grandeur of the view from Quebec, Montreal, and the
neighbouring mountain from which it takes its name, and
Kingston, where I first saw in the New World, with a
proud sensation I could not define, the English flag
floating over a fort garrisoned with British soldiers.
That little town has strong claims to a place in my
memory. For there, on my first visit, the walls of the
fort just alluded to contained one of the persons dearest
to me in the world ; and there, on my last, I saw, for
the last time, one of my best friends. Sir Charles Bagot,
worn out and sinking under the fatigues of public duty to
which he died a martyr.

. I hurry from this theme, at which I have merely
glanced. Knowing Canada as I did, and hearing of it as
I now so constantly do, I can only wonder and rejoice at
the progress it has made in all the elements of prosperity
and power ; wish for its prompt consolidation with its
sister colonies ; and hope that they may some day form
a real empire under a British Prince, where Constitutional
Monarchy, untrammelled by oligarchical control, may
run the race of civilization side by side with Democratic
Republicanism, interchanging examples of good and
honest government.

458 MISCELLANEOUS SUBJECTS.

Many other subjects crowd upon me, more or less of a
personal nature, which I must put aside. I wish I had
room to detail the proceedings of the Emigkation
Society, which I laboured hard for two whole years to
estabhsh at Boston, which I did succeed in organizing,
and which ought to have been a source of enduring
advantage to the foreign population seeking a settlement
in America, and requiring information, encouragement,
and protection. It was no easy matter to unite for even
this obviously useful object, men of almost all the various
religious sects and political parties. Governors and ex-
Governors, Mayors and ex-Mayors, native and European
citizens, rich and poor. Yet this I was fortunate enough
to effect, and I confess I felt proud of my success.
Having brought everything as I hoped into good working
order, after two public meetings, the nomination of a
President and Vice-President of the new-formed society
and a well-chosen committee, one point alone remained to
be settled — the selection of a fitting agent to receive the
Immigrants as they landed, and save from the harpies
who always wait the arrival of every ship to pounce on
the poor foreigners, to mislead, monopolize, and fleece
them. The individual suited to such a laborious and
responsible post, required physical strength and such a
knowledge of national peculiarities as would give him
influence with the ignorant new comers. Plenty of
applicants were sure to be found for a place like this, ^th
a yearly salary of a thousand dollars (200/.), the only
paid place in the gift of the Society. Several candidates
were rejected, probably all on sufficient grounds. But
the choice of the Committee fell on a person of all the
others perhaps the most unsuitable, a sickly, feeble,
attenuated Yankee gentleman, a good classical scholar, a

DEPARTURE FROM AMERICA. 459

near relative of one of the chief members of the society,
but altogether incapable of the rough work required, and
knowing nothing practical of the habits, manners, or
characters of the motley crew of Europeans whom
it was his business to mix with, guide, and instruct. I
thought this a mean and paltry job. I remonstrated
against the appointment in vain ; and greatly disappointed
and disgusted I withdrew from the Society, and I believe
that within a year it utterly fell to the ground, though
the plan was subsequently revived in another shape.

This failure cooled my ardour. The ignorant opposition
of some of the Irish, before adverted to, to efforts made
in their favour, was not encouraging ; and altogether the
feelings and objects which generally influence the partial-
ities of men becoming weaker, and the increasing pecuniary
value of my position being insufficient to counterbalance
its defects, I turned my views back to Europe, and after a
seven years' residence in the United States, some of the
results of which are now before the reader, though very
many subjects are left untouched, I quitted Boston with
my family one fine summer's day, touched at Halifax,
where I shook hands with my old acquaintance the Author
of " Sam Slick,'' and after a voyage of altogether ten days
and four hours, I once more gladly stepped on real English
ground, for Colonial soil does not after all feel so firm, so
solid, or so national.

Domestic causes induced me to request a long extension
of my leave of absence. This was most liberally and
kindly accorded by Lord Palmerston, who again filled his
old post of Minister for Foreign Affairs. Still stronger
additional motives made a permanent residence in Europe
almost indispensable to me. No opportunity offered for
my being transferred to a post at all equivalent to the

460 MISCELLANEOUS SUBJECTS.

one I held ; so on application to my chief, his Lordship
allowed me to resign, and appointed in my place my son,
who had for several years filled the office of Vice-Consul,
in the Consulate to the management of which he was now
promoted.

Eeaders will pardon this page on personal affairs, which
are of no interest except in as far as the matter of these
volumes is concerned. And my sole object in intruding
the mention of my removal from America back to Europ e
is to explain the position from which the following con-
cluding observations are taken and made.

As long as I had such a binding link between the New
and the Old World, the pubHc transactions of the United
States continued to excite my constant attention. I
followed closely the accounts transmitted across the Ocean
of all the chief movements that took place in political
circles, and, as far as was apparent, the personal objects
of politicians which so much influence the course of public
affairs.

The Fishery Question, a sharp dissention fomented by
the leading men of the day, including even Daniel
Webster, then again in office as Secretary of State, was
promptly settled, by the vigorous and decisive action of
the British Government ; a few additional ships of war
in the disputed waters being admirable arbitrators.

The proposal for a tripartite treaty between France,
England, and the United States, for guaranteeing the
integrity of Cuba, proposed jointly by the first two of
those powers, and rejected by the last, was a small item
in what may be technically called the running account of
American designs on that Island. And the plausible reply
of Mr. Everett, Secretary of State after Webster's death,
was only, as I have elsewhere intimated, a loophole for

THE CLAYTON-BULWER TREATY. 461

the future escape of those fiUbustering schemes, which the
late message of President Buchanan (December 4th,
1858), more emphatically avows under some "imperative
and overwhelming law of self-preservation ! " quite in
accordance with the unscrupulous scroll called the Ostend
Manifesto, put forth by him and his diplomatic associates
some few years back.

The affairs of Central America form a more palpable
and still-existing subject of serious consideration; that
country deriving its chief interest from being the direct
route of communication between the Atlantic arid Pacific
Oceans. The Clayton-Bulwer treaty, framed between
the United States and England, for the purpose of
securing the independence and neutrality of the isthmus,
across which the line of connection must pass, is still
the document which guarantees those rights.

This region, formerly the site of the old Kingdom of
Guatemala, is now occupied by five independent repubhcs,
Nicaragua, Costa- Rica, San Salvador, Guatemala, and
Honduras. Projects were entertained by the Spaniards
as far back as the time of Cortez for the construction of
a ship canal across the isthmus, of late a subject of so
much interest and negociation between the great maritime
powers. The most thorough explorations of the country
with that object in view were those of Humboldt in the
early part of the present century. Many men of science
have more lately followed up his researches, England and
the United States taking the lead, though other countries
were not inactive. The remarkable pamphlet of the pre-
sent Emperor of the French, published about a dozen
3^ears back, gave much prominence to the subject. In
the year 1848 a concession was obtained from the go-
vernment of Nicaragua by Messrs. Vanderbilt and White,

462 MISCELLANEOUS SUBJECTS.

two Americans, under the condition of constructing a
canal in twelve years, and in the interval enjoying the
privilege of transit for passengers and merchandize by
the Eiver San Juan, and through Lake Nicaragua to the
Pacific. These speculators having failed to inspire the
capitalists of London with sufficient confidence in their
project, it had no result, and in the meantime a railroad
from Chagres to Panama was built by an American com-
pany, and has been for some years in active operation.

The expeditions of Walker proved a serious interruption
to all plans of permanent construction ; but the recent
conclusion of a convention between the Governments of
Nicaragua and Costa Rica with M. Felix Belly, for the
formation of an inter-oceanic canal, seems to promise a
realization of the long-talked-of enterprize, under the
expected guarantee of France, England, and the United
States. The interest taken by England in these Central
American affairs is proved by the fact of the mission of
Sir William Gore Ouseley, who is at present busily engaged
with the various governments, having been previously in
close communication with the President and cabinet of
the United States at Washington, and, it is to be hoped,
with a due recollection of the old feats of diplomacy
transacted on that stage.

It would be but wilful blindness to doubt the occult
intentions of the United States with regard to Central
America, or to Mexico, or any other territory within
their reach, and left to their mercy. The manifest con-
nivance at the expeditions of Lopez against Cuba, and
Walker against Nicaragua, is only surpassed in effrontery
by the sham Presidential proclamations in denunciation of
those piratical raids. The last of these palinodes from
Mr. James Buchanan, is signed with the very hand that

THE MONROE DOCTRINE. 463

sent forth the Ostend Manifesto, and which is ready to
grasp in fellowship that of the first successful freebooter.
There is no hope for the integrity of Central America but
in a federation between the five republics, and the joint
protectorate by France and England, over rights which
their united wisdom and power can alone maintain. The
greatest hope of the United States for the realization of
their plans is in a possible rupture between France and
England. Should such a misfortune to mankind occur,
short work would be made with the territory they so
much covet. If that magnificent centre of the world, in
a geographical point of view, is destined to be one day
also the centre of commercial intercourse between the
West and the East, the two great nations of Europe, as
the guardians of civihzation, should save those regions
in the West, as they have already saved Turkey in the
East ; and prove to Republican cupidity, as they did to
Imperial ambition, that there are barriers which Right
and Might together make impassable.

And what is there with any shadow of principle to
oppose this intervention 1 The obsolete figment called
"the Monroe doctrine." What is the meaning of, and the
authority for, that new law of nations 1 One sentence
gives two answers.

Mr. James Monroe, President of the United States for
two successive terms (1817 — 1824), a brave, prudent, and
respectable man, enounced his opinion that " the United
States ought not to suffer any European power to interfere
with the internal concerns of the independent South
American Governments."

This was in those days a just and appropriate opinion.
It was concurred in willingly by England, for its object
was to protect those young republics from any new hostile

404 MISCELLANEOUS SUBJECTS.

attempt on the part of their old masters the Spaniards.
But though it was well-timed then it is now out of date,
a counterpart to it might be justified at present, to the
effect that "Europe ought not to suffer the United
States to interfere/' This might make a very rational
Derby doctrine to day, being quite as just and still
more necessary than its prototype. I do not cavil at
the presumptuous adaptation of the word doctrine to
a dogma issuing from so secondary a source as James
Monroe, though an article of political faith requires some
more oracular origin. It has not been in any one
instance applied even to the most sagacious sayings of
Washington. But even had the doctrine come from that
venerated authority, it would have had only the value of
those human dicta that have a temporary influence on the
guidance of affairs, but cannot legislate for all time, or
stop the free highway of the world.

That painful and humiliating subject the Recruiting
Question, through which the coarse hatred and cunning
tactics of such men as Marcy and Caleb Gushing passed
a gross affront on English honour, in the person of its
Minister and Consuls, may be for the present laid aside,
but will not be forgotten. The animus of America was
openly displayed, and perhaps she did not make us pay
too dearly for its exhibition.

But all the subjects mentioned in these volumes,
whether deeply inquired into or briefly sketched, do not
in their combined importance, as far as England is con-
cerned, reach the magnitude of one other— the commercial
relations between her and the United States. In those
relations are involved, not only the material interests, but
the public credit and the private honour of the two nations.
On the maintenance or the loss of character on either side

COMMERCIAL DISHONESTY. 465

depends the moral status which statistics cannot deter-
mine, but on which history will surely pronounce.

Hundreds of documents which have never seen the
light, and of transactions which are for the present hidden,
will surge up upon the flood of Time and openly tell the
tale which is now not half developed. But enough is
patent in our days to let the world in general estimate the
balance-sheet of probity and truth, deception and dis-
honour, which regulates the transactions between the two
countries.

Matters so pregnant with great consequences should not
be treated lightly. A declamatory tirade, half joke half
earnest, may be discharged against a vulgar habit, or a
caustic paragraph expose a paltry trick. The inimitable
wit of Sidney Smith made every jest appropriate, and
every sarcasm tell, and such attacks from his pen, were
always the right words in the right place. Yet the
United States Bank would have been little affected by
them had it still retained its capital and its credit, though
the first w^as floating and the latter sinking. It was after
its bankruptcy that the suffering satirist fell foul of it, and
he could only succeed in refusing to it a moral certificate,
but not in saving its defrauded creditors.

But that instance of dishonest doings, confined to a
single establishment assuming a false name, forms no
parallel to the wide-spread defalcations of dozens of
public enterprizes, all compromised to-day in serious
implications. The long list of banks, factories and
railroads, in the various stocks of which deluded Euro-
peans have rashly invested their funds — not from specu-
lative gambling, but to realize a fair interest — are not
susceptible of being dragged, one by one, into day, and
their cheateries individually pointed out. The system at

466 MISCELLANEOUS SUBJECTS.

large requires a wholesale exposure ; the delinquent com-
panies must be taken en masse ; one large machine,
capable of branding the " staffs " of a score of " Corpo-
rations '^ would be required, to do justice on these
mismanaging malefactors.

In proportion to the extent of the evil should be the
knowledge of the scrutinizer and the wisdom of the judge.
The entire arcana of trade should be practically studied
and understood, before sentence can be safely pronounced
and punishment apportioned. There may be many shades
of guilt, from deception down to actual fraud. Tricks and
contrivances exist no doubt by which a clever operator
may gain his ends without losing his character. Con-
federates may thoroughly practise the division of labour,
so as to effect the robbery and screen the rogues.* What
is still more embarrassing is the question as to what is or
is not roguery in the commercial code — as to whether
there is, in fact, one system for men in trade and
another for those who are not in it. If a private gentle-
man believes that in dealing with a man of business,
they are both equally bound by the rules of .honour

* An instance once came to my knowledge of a firm in Boston which admirably
understood this method of sharing among them the sin of a minor breach of
morals. There were three partners, two very pious, and one, the junior, such a
contrast to the others, that he bore the sobnquet of " Wicked Will," being rather
more than commonly addicted to *'* slings," " cobblers," " juleps," and the like,
and he was my informant. The firm affected to do no business whatever on a
Sunday, not even in the way of ordinary correspondence. Wicked Will had
personally no scruples of the kind, so it was his duty to go to the post-office on
the Sabbath morning and receive the letters — to take them to the next partner,
who would read but not apply for them ; and he in his turn proceeded to the head
of the house, after church service, and explained the contents, which that great
example of religious observance would neither read nor receive, but devoutly
listened to, and was able to cogitate over, before answering the next morning.
The senior partner died a natural death some years back. Poor good-natured
Will was carried off first by delirium tremens. The middle-man is a bankrupt, and
large defaulter to the shareholders of a corporation of which he was joint
treasurer.

COMMERCIAL DISHONESTY. 467

ordinarily observed among respectable persons, but that
the other has a different creed to go bj, which gives
impunity to conduct the private gentleman thinks infamous,
the latter is at a serious and most unfair disadvantage. He
places confidence, where he should, to say the least, look
sharply out, and he takes for granted what he should
thoroughly sift ; buys shares or bonds, which he is assured
are good security, but finds by and bye, that the first pay
no dividends or that the latter are *' unsecured." If when
he discovers his mistake and perceives his danger the
business man still urges him to " hold on," falsely states
his investment to be " as good as the funds," and finally
leaves him in the lurch, holding back all information, and
treating all inquiry with neglect, while he had in good
time safely sold all his own stocks or bonds in the same
rotten concern, to keep up the false credit of which he
advised his dupe to " hold on " — what then 1 the gentleman
counts his loss, looks very foohsh and has no redress ;
while he who outwitted him may swagger about as before,
and give an ostentatious dinner to a hundred guests,
among whom he may secure a dozen new customers, to
reimburse his " hospitality" tenfold. This is fiot " Fancy's
Sketch," like the song in the Opera, but one of many
facts.

In an early written passage of this book, I disclaimed
any practical knowledge of American dishonesty. Cir-
cumstances which I thought fortunate — but I reckoned
too soon — allowed me some experience which cost me
rather dear. I invested some money in several concerns,
following in every case what I thought the most disinte-
rested advice. There is not one of the concerns in
which those investments were made that has not, from
fraud or something not easily distinguished from it,

H H 2

468 MISCELLANEOUS SUBJECTS.

caused a loss of from forty to seventy per cent., or more ;
which is here recorded in the hope that it may put some
one or other European on his guard. Should any one be
tempted to trust his money in American ventures let him
inquire the history of the New York and Erie Railroad
Company, or that of the Middlesex Woollen Company of
Lowell, near Boston, in the State of Massachusetts. The
affairs of the first-mentioned are notorious from their
discussion in every American newspaper. Those of the
latter are somewhat more obscure. But it contained
among its supporters an array of names that would give
the least credulous man full confidence. Its late manager
is one of a family that stood the very first in public
estimation, and the brother of a late United States
Minister in Europe. The House of Lawrence and Stone
were the Treasurers of the Company. That firm is
bankrupt ; the Manager an untried fugitive ; the defal-
cation several hundred thousand dollars ; the company
nearly ruined.

I may be told that these things happen in England
also. True. But a fraudulent Baronet-banker is now in
prison, wearing the dress of a convict. The defaulting
Manager, when I last heard of him, was reported to be in
Home sitting for his portrait. That marks another dif-
ference between England and America. If the latter
country will persist in refusing to punish her mercantile
or warlike filibusters, or allow them to escape, she
must accept for herself the application of the well-known
motto : —

*' Judex damnatur cum nocens absolvitur,"

the whole nation standing in the place of the conniving
judge.

FAME OF PUBLIC MEN SHOKT-LIVED. 169

After several years practical experience of America,
then closely watching its progress from afar, I am utterly
surprised at the evanescent nature of public and private
feelings. None of them seem to last. They are fleeting
and fickle, running over the surface of society, scarcely
ever taking root. There seems but faint recollection of
things gone by after a period inconceivably short. The
affairs of yesterday are forgotten to-morrow. Events
and persons of the greatest mark perish like ephemera.
There is a strange absence of historical thought. The
memorable men of other days have left names to be glibl}'
syllabled, but apparently no examples to be followed.
While other nations think of the past and act for the
future, America may be said to exist in the present alone.
The past has left no shadow, and the future promises no
substance. The first is a dream, the latter but a problem.
As the leading politicians drop ofl", almost all thought
of them dies out, with the puff of over-praise which wafts
them to the tomb. They are embalmed in smoke. The
most important transactions pass away like a mist on the
earth's surface. They have been breathed on the mirror
of the popular mind, but it is in a moment as clear as
ever, and as incapable as before of receiving more than
a shallow reflection of facts, which neither impress nor
improve it. Within a few years from the day on which
I am writing, several of the most prominent citizens of
the Union have been removed from the world. Dr.
Channing the Divine, Judge Story, Chancellor Kent,
great lawyers, Washington Allston, the painter, Calhoun,
Clay, Webster, and many others of note, most of them
personally, some intimately, known to me ; and I can
now without suspicion of flattery pronounce them to have
been men of eminent abilities ; yet no record is Hkely to

470 MISCELLANEOUS SUBJECTS.

be raised to them more lasting than the fulsome speech of
some member of Congress, or a few vulgar newspaper
paragraphs. As to those who were snatched from life
twenty years ago, they might as w^ell have never
lived. Oblivion seems to have swept over them — over
all, in fact, except the founders of the Republic, whose
names are for ever monumental.

If however, to avoid the reproach of exaggeration, I
may admit that the nation is not altogether without fore-
thought, I must add that it always takes a downward
direction, even when the people talk of lofty destinies.
They educate for reverse of fortune, loss of property, a
depressed position. They do not prepare for a rise in
station or with elevation of mind. Boys are taught hard-
ships, for the rough work of life ; girls are brought up
with a view to going down. They are practised in the
menial duties of household work, prepared for a change,
not for the better but the worse, and taught, rationally
perhaps, a somewhat stingy prudence instead of a
refining, but possibly a deceptive elegance. As mature
life shows the fruits of early lessons, so does adolescent
America foreshadow the picture of the fullgrown people.

It is certain that America shows as yet no decided
proof of the enlightenment which her institutions promised.
There are strong evidences of social decline among the
upper portions of the mass, the ''Guardians'' and
" Auxiliaries '' of Plato's republic. It is among the lower
orders, if the distinction may be used, that the better
attributes of human nature are more commonly found, a
sturdy independence, absence of servility, and a freedom
from the degrading impulses superinduced by want in the
poor of Europe. That lower class is not only the bone
and sinew, but the pride and hope of the United States.

CONCLUDING REMARKS. 471

And now, in reviewing briefly my intentions through-
out this work, when venturing on subjects of theoretic
speculation, I have endeavoured to show that the true
philosophy of the democratic principle consists in the
great truth, that a medium civilization is alone feasible
for those who are opposed to social inequalities. If
mountains were levelled, and the chasms between them
filled up, the plain could have no pretensions to the
romantic or picturesque. Applying this axiom to the
analogy presented by the United States, those who envy
the splendid contrasts of the European system must make
a compromise between their regrets and the necessity
of things. Let the masses of civilized America be what
they are — independent, unmannered, but still, in accord-
ance with their tastes and wants, contented if not actually
happy, decorous if not entirely virtuous, intelligent if not
absolutely wise. Let the wealthier and better educated
approximate to this middle state, nor labour to abstract
themselves from, or become incongruous excrescences on,
the harmonious whole. Let a few choice spirits, here and
there, devote themselves to the pursuits of literature and
the arts, communing with each other, or with their models
and counterparts elsewhere ; but let them not force their
superiority upon the crowd, nor strain for an avowed pre-
eminence. Let them not attempt the high tone of English
manners, nor the overstrained refinements of a class
which could not exist without an inferior multitude to
lord it over. Those who believe that such a class could
exist without the other, must believe in Plato's perfect
republic or dream of an Utopia. The people of the
United States should balance well between the insatiable
thirst for wealth, and its moderate possession, and ponder
over the following laconic truths : —

472 MISCELLANEOUS SUBJECTS.

Aristocracies are built on the indestructible rights of
property. Democracies on the indefeasible rights of
Liberty. Now, as wealth, tending to corruption, is the
basis of misrule ; so freedom, while fostering virtue, is
that of good government. The few must always be the
rich ; the poor are the many. Then, if property become
practically more sacred and stronger than liberty, the
few will assuredly become oppressors and the many be
enslaved.

APPENDIX

At the Meeting of the llepeal Association in Dublin, on Wednes-
day, October 11th, 1843,

Mr. O'CoNNELL begged leave to draw the attention of the Associa-
tion to a matter of great importance. It was, doubtless, in their
remembrance that some weeks ago a remittance was received from
the Irish Eepealers of Cincinnati, in the state of Ohio. This
remittance was accompanied by a letter which was ordered to be
inserted upon the minutes, and which contained an elaborate and
very minutely written apology for negro slavery in the American
States. He did not mean to contend that an offence was deliberately
intended, but he really felt as if an offence had been virtually offered
to the Eepeal Association by sending such a composition to them ;
for the members of the Repeal Association of Ireland were the last
men in the world to whom any man should presume to address a
vindication of slavery. What did he care for the hue of any man's
skin ? It mattered not what a man's colour might be, or what his
class, or what his creed, if he was a slave, he had in him (Mr.
O'Connell) an advocate, and in the members of the Eepeal Association
men who could compassionate his misfortunes and sympathize in his
sufferings. They wanted not any defence or extenuation for slavery,
for they had nothing to do with the hateful, the execrable system,
but to detest and denounce it. It was with sorrow and pain there-
fore that he read the letter from Cincinnati, and his feelings of
anguish were the more keen w^ien he remembered that it reflected
the sentiments of Irishmen. He must indeed be a degenerate Irish-
man who would put himself forward as the apologist of slavery.

474 APPENDIX.

They began by declaring that they had no interest in slavery, for
that it was not an " institution " in the State of Ohio ; but this state
of facts, so far from detracting from their criminality, rather added
to the heinousness of their guilt. If the welfare of themselves or of
their families were involved in the maintenance of slavery — if their
judgment were blinded or their faculties numbed by considerations
of personal interest, something might perhaps be urged by a plausible
reasoner in extenuation of their delinquency to the cause of virtue
and humanity ; but that Irishmen, the sons of Irishwomen, should
gratuitously volunteer their services as the apologists of slavery,
was what excited his indignation to the utmost, and almost suffocated
him, so to speak, with sorrow. But what went to his heart most of
all was to think that the amiable and high-minded Lord Morpeth —
the best Englishman that Ireland ever saw — had been compelled, out
of respect to truth, to bear reluctant testimony against the Irish resi-
dent in America, for the manner in which they conducted themselves
with respect to the slavery question. Lord Morpeth, who in the
House of Commons had not hesitated to declare that the domestic
and social virtues were more cultivated by the humbler classes in Ire-
land than by any other class of men in any other country whatsoever
— even Lord Morpeth himself, the friend and advocate of the Irish
people, had been obliged to confess, at an anti-slavery meeting,
held in Exeter Hall, that the worst enemies to the people of colour
in America were Irishmen. Lord Morpeth was incapable of calum-
niating any one, and least of all an Irishman. He had visited
America himself — his declaration was the result of minute personal
observation, and when his high character was taken into account,
there were few who could not venture to assert that the allegation
of such a man virtually proved the charge against the parties whom
he accused. Was it not the business of that Association to remove
this blot, if possible, from the national escutcheon of the country,
and to endeavour to disconnect Ireland and slavery as widely asunder
as the poles? Let them raise the shout for liberty in favour of all
mankind, irrespective of all considerations of colour, clime, or caste.
The committee which had been appointed for the purpose had pre-
pared the following address to the Eepealers of Ohio, which he
trusted would meet the unanimous approbation of the Association.
He was sure there was not a man of them all who could be induced
under any circumstances whatsoever to continue slavery for an instant.
The honourable and learned gentleman then read the following

APPENDIX. 475

address, which was received with enthusiastic demonstrations of
applause :

The Committee to whom the address from the Cincinnati Irish
Eepeal Association, on the subject of negro slavery in the
United States of America, was referred, have agreed to the
following report : — ■

To D. T. DiSNET, Esq., Corresponding Secretary.
"W". Hunter, Esq., Yice-President.
Pateick M'Ceoskey, Esq.,
P. CoDT, Esq.,
T. Connolly, Esq.,

AND

Stephen Bonner, Esq., J

The Executive Committee
of the Cincinnati Eepeal
Association.

Corn- Exchange Booms y Duhlin^
nth October, 1843.

Gentlemen, — "We have read with the deepest affliction, not
unmixed with some surprise and much indignation, your detailed and
anxious vindication of the most hideous crime that has ever stained
humanity — the slavery of men of colour in the United States of
America. We are lost in utter amazement at the perversion of mind
and depravity of heart which your address evinces. How can the
generous, the charitable, the humane, the noble emotions of the Irish
heart have become extinct amongst you ? How can your nature be so
totally changed as that you should become the apologists and advo-
cates of that execrable system which makes man the property of his
fellow-man — destroys the foundation of all moral and social virtues —
condemns to ignorance, immorality, and irreligion, millions of our
fellow-creatures — renders the slave hopeless of relief, and perpetuates
oppression by law, and in the name of what you call a constitution ?

It was not in Ireland you learned this cruelty. Tour mothers
were gentle, kind, and humane. Their bosoms overflowed with the
honey of human charity. Tour sisters are probably many of them
still amongst us, and participate in all that is good and benevolent
in sentiment and action. How, then, can you have become so
depraved ? How can your souls have become stained with a dark-
ness blacker than the negro's skin ? You say you have no pecuniary
interest in negro slavery. "Would that you had ! for it might be

476 APPENDIX.

some palliation of your crime ! but, alas ! you bave inflicted upon us
the horror of beholding you the yolunteee advocates of despotism
in its most frightful state — of slavery in its most loathsome and
unrelenting form.

We were, unhappily, prepared to expect some fearful exhibition of
this description. There has been a testimony borne against the
Irish, by birth or descent, in America, by a person fully informed
as to the facts, and incapable of the slightest misrepresentation — a
noble of nature more than of titled birth — a man gifted with the
highest order of talent and the most generous emotions of the heart
— the great, the good Lord Morpeth ; he who, in the House of
Commons, boldly asserted the superior social morality of the poorer
classes of the Irish over any other people — he, the best friend of any
of the Saxon race that Ireland or the Irish ever knew — he, amidst
congregated thousands at Exeter Hall, in London, mournfully, but
firmly, denounced the Irish in America as being amongst the worst
enemies of the negro slaves and other men of colour.

It is, therefore, our solemn and sacred duty to warn you, in words
already used, and much misunderstood by you, to " come out of her,"
not thereby meaning to ask you to come out of America ! but out of
the councils of the iniquitous, and out of the congregation of the
wicked, who consider man a chattel and a property, and liberty an
inconvenience. Yes, we tell you to come out of such assemblages ;
but we did not, and do not invite you to return to Ireland. The
volunteer defenders of slavery, surrounded by one thousand crimes,
would find neither sympathy nor support amongst native uncontami-
nated Irishmen.

Your advocacy of slavery is founded upon a gross error. You
take for granted that man can be the property of his fellow-man —
you speak in terms of indignation of those who would deprive white
men of ^their ^^ property ^'^ and thereby render them less capable'of
supporting their families in affluence. You forget the other side of
the picture — you have neither sorrow nor sympathy for the sufterings
of those who are iniquitously compelled to labour for the affluence of
others ; those who work without wages, who toil without recompense
— who spend their lives in procuring for others the splendour and
wealth in which they do not participate. You totally forget the
sufferings of the wretched black men who are deprived of their all
without any compensation or redress. If you yourselves— all of you,
or if any of you— were, without crime or offence committed by you.

APPENDIX. 477

handed over into perpetual slavery — if you were compelled to work
from sunrise to sunset without wages — supplied only with such
coarse food and raiment as would keep you in working order — if
when your " owner " fell into debt, you were sold to pay his debts, not
your own — if it were made a crime to teach you to read and to write
— if you were liable to be separated, in this distribution of assets,
from your wives and your children — if you, above all, were to fall
into the hands of a brutal master — and you condescended to admit
that there are some brutal masters in America — if among all the cir-
cumstances some friendly spirit of a more generous order were
desirous to give liberty to you and to your families, with what
ineffable disgust would you not laugh to scorn those who should
traduce the generous spirits who would relieve you, as you now,
pseudo-Irishmen — shame upon you ! — have traduced and vilified the
abolitionists of North America.

But yoa came forth with justification, forsooth ! You say that the
constitution in America prohibits the abolition of slavery. Paltry
and miserable subterfuge ! The constitution of America is founded
upon the declaration of independence ; that declaration published to
the world its glorious principles — that charter of your freedom
contained these emphatic words : —

We hold these truths to be self-evident : that ALL MEN KKE
CREATED EQUAL ; that they are endowed by their Creator with
certain "inalienable " rights; that amongst these are life, LIBERTY,
and the pursuit of happiness. And the conclusion of that address
is in those words : " For the support of this declaration, with a firm
reliance o\\ the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge
each other, our lives, our fortunes, and ouk sacked honor."

There is American honor for you ! There is a profane allusion to
the adorable Creator !

Eecollect that the declaration does not limit the equality of man,
or the right to life and liberty, to the white, to the brown, or to the
copper-coloured races — it includes all races — it excludes none.

"We do not deign to argue with you on the terms of the American
constitution, and yet we cannot help asserting that in that constitu-
tion the words " slavery " or " slave " are not to be found. There are,
indeed, the words, " persons bound to labour," but it is not said how
bound; and a constitutional lawyer or judge, construing the
American constitution with a reference to the declaration of inde-
pendence, which is its basis, would not hesitate to decide that

478 APPENDIX.

"bound to labour" ought in a court of justice to mean " bound hy
contract to labour," and should not be held to imply ^^ forced or
compelled to labour," in the absence of all contract, and for the
exclusive benefit of others.

However, we repeat that we do not deign to argue this point with
you, as we proclaim to the world our conviction that no constitu-
tional law can create or sanction slavery. Slavery is repugnant to
the first principles of society ; but it is enough for us to say, as
regards Americans, that it is utterly repugnant to that declaration of
the equality of all men, and to the inalienable right of all men to life
and liberty. To this declaration the free citizens of the United
States have, in the person of their ancestors, solemnly pledged their
" sacred honor. ^'*

We shall at once show you how that " sacred honor " is basely
violated, and also demonstrate how totally devoid of candour your
address is, inasmuch as you rely on the constitution of the American
States as precluding the abolition of slavery, whilst you totally omit
all mention of one district, which the constitutional law alleged by
you does not reach — we mean the district of Columbia.

In the district of Columbia there is no constitutional law to
prevent the Congress from totally abolishing slavery within that
district. Tour capital is there — the temple of American freedom is
there — the hall of your republican representatives — the hall of your
republican senators — the national palace of your republican President
is there — and slavery is there too, in its most revolting form. The
slave trade is there — the most disgusting traffic in human beings is
there. Human flesh is bought and sold like swine in the pig market
— ay, in your capital, your Washington ! Yes, let Americans be as
proud as they please, this black spot is on their escutcheon. Even
under the shade of the temple of their constitution, the man of
colour crawls a slave, and the tawny American stalks a tyrant. '

The cruelty of the slave principle rests not there — it goes much
farther. The wretched slaves are totally prohibited even from
petitionmg Congress — the poor and paltry privilege even of prayer is
denied them; and you, evenyow, friends. Irishmen, are the advocates
and vindicators of such a system. What ! would not you at least
insist that their groans should be heard ?

It is carried still farther. Even the free-born white Americans are
not allowed to petition upon any subject, including the question of
slavery ; or, at least, no such petition can be read aloud or printed ;

APPENDIX. 479

and althougla the Congress k entitled to abolish slavery in Columbia,
the door for petition praying that abolition is closed without the
power of being opened.

We really think that men who came from generous and warm-
hearted Ireland should shrink into nonentity rather than become the
advocates and defendants of the system of slavery. But we trust
that the voice of indignant Ireland will scathe them, and prevent
them from repeating such a crime.

In another point of view, your address is, if possible, more
culpable. You state that before the abolitionists proclaimed the
wish to have slavery abolished, several slaveholding states were
preparing for the gradual emancipation of their negroes, and that
humane individuals in other states were about to adopt similar
measures.

We utterly deny your assertion, and we defy you to show any
single instance of preparatory steps taken by any state for the
emancipation of the negroes, before the abolition demand was raised.
You violate truth in that assertion. There were no such preparations.
It is a pure fiction invented by slaveholders out of their unjust
animosity to the abolitionists. It is said that the fear of abolition
has rendered the slaveholders more strict, harsh, and cruel towards
their wretched slaves, and that they would be more gentle and
humane if they were not afraid of their abolitionists. We repeat
that this is not true, and is merely an attempt to cast blame on
those who coalesce to put an end to negro slavery.

It is in the same spirit that the criminal calumniates his prosecutor,
and the felon reviles his accuser. It is therefore utterly untrue that
the slaveholders have made the chains of the negro more heavy
through any fear of abolition.

Yet, if you tell the truth — if the fact le that the negro is made to
suffer for the zeal of the abolitionists — if he is treated with increased
cruelty by reason of the fault of the friends of abolition — then^
indeed, the slaveholders must be a truly Satanic race. Their conduct,
according to you, is diabolical. The abolitionists commit an offence,
and the unhappy negroes are punished. The abolitionists violate the
law of property, and the penalty of their crime is imposed upon the
negro ! Can anything be more repugnant to every idea of justice ?
Yet this is your statement.

We, on the other hand, utterly deny the truth of your allegations ;
and where we find you calumniate the slaveholders, we become their

480 APPENDIX.

advocates against your calumny. You calumniate everybody — slaves,
abolitionists, and slaveowners ; framers of constitutions, makers of
laws, everybody ! The slaveholders are not favourites of ours; but
we will do them justice, and will not permit you to impute an
impossible crime to them.

Tou tell us, with an air of triumph, that public opinion in your
country is the great lawgiver. If it be so, how much does it enhance
the guilt of your conduct, that you seek to turn public opinion
against the slave and in favour of the slaveholder — that you laud the
master as generous and humane, and disparage, as much as you can,
the unhappy slave, instead of influencing, as Irishmen ought to do,
the public mind in favour of the oppressed. You carry your
exaggerations to a ludicrous pitch, denoting your utter ignorance of
the history of the human race. You say, " that the negro is really
inferior as a race ; that slavery has stamped its debasing influence
upon the African ; that between him and the white almost a century
would be required to elevate the character of the one, and destroy
the antipathies of the other." You add— we use your words —
" The very odour of the negro is almost insufferable to the white, and,
however much humanity may lament it, we make no rash declaration
when we say the two races cannot exist together on equal terms
under our government and our institutions."

"We quote this paragraph at full length, because it is replete with
your mischievous errors and guilty mode of thinking.

In the first place, as to the odour of the negroes, we are quite
aware that they have not as yet come to use much of the otto of
roses or "Eau de Cologne. But we implore of your fastidiousness to
recollect that multitudes of the children of white men have negro
women for their mothers, and that our British travellers complain,
in loud and bitter terms, of the overpowering stench of stale tobacco-
spittle, as the prevailing " odour " amongst the native free Americ&,ns.
It would be, perhaps, better to check that nasal sensibility on both
sides, on the part of whites as well as of blacks. But it is, indeed,
deplorable that you should use a ludicrous assertion of that descrip-
tion as one of the inducements to prevent the abolition of slavery.
The negroes would certainly smell at least as sweet when free as they
now do being slaves.

Your important allegation is, that the negroes are naturally an
inferior race. That is a totally gratuitous assertion upon your part.
In America you can have no opportunity of seeing the negro

APPENDIX. 4B1

educated. On the contrary, in most of your states it is a crime.
Sacred Heaven ! a crime, to educate even a free negro. How, then,
can you judge of the negro race when you see them despised and
contemned by the educated classes, reviled and looked down upon as
inferior ? The negro race has naturally some of the finest qualities.
They are naturally gentle, generous, humane, and very grateful for
kindness. They are as brave and as fearless as any other of the
races of human beings ; but the blessings of education are kept from
them, and they are judged of, not as they would be with proper
cultivation, but as they are rendered by cruel and debasing oppres-
sion. It is as old as the days of Homer, who truly asserts that the
day which sees a man a slave takes away half his worth. Slavery
actually brutalizes human beings. It is about sixty years ago, when
one of the Sheiks not far south of Pez, in Morocco, who was in the
habit of accumulating white slaves, upon being strongly remonstrated
with by a European power, gave for his reply, that by his own
experience he found it quite manifest that white men were of an
inferior race, and intended by nature for slaves ; and he produced his
own brutalized white slaves to illustrate the truth of his assertion.
And a case of an American with a historic name, John Adams, is
quite familiar. Some twenty-five years ago, not more, John Adams
was the sole survivor of an American crew wrecked on the African
coast. He was taken into the interior as the slave of an Arab chief.
He was only for three years a slave, and the English and American
consuls, having been informed of a white man's slavery, claimed him,
and obtained his liberation. In the short space of three years he
had become completely brutalized ; he had completely forgotten the
English language, without having acquired the native tongue; he
spoke a kind of gabble, as uninteilectual as the dialects of most of
your negro slaves ; and many months elapsed before he recovered his
former habits and ideas.

It is also a curious fact as connected with America, that the
children of the Anglo-Saxon race, and of other Europeans born in
America, were for many years considered as a degraded and inferior
class — indeed, it was admitted as if it were an axiom, that the native-
born American was in nothing equal to his European progenitor, and
so far from the fact being disputed, many philosophic dissertations
were published, endeavouring to account for the alleged debasement.
The only doubt was about the cause of it. "Nobody doubted"
(to use your words) " that the native-born Americans were

VOL. II. I I

482 APPENDIX.

really an inferior race." Nobody dares to say so now, and nobody
thinks it.

Let it, then, be recollected that you have never yet seen the negro
educated. An English traveller through Brazil, some few years ago,
mentions having known a negro who was a priest, and who was
a learned, pious, and exemplary man in his sacerdotal functions.
"We have been lately informed of two negroes being educated at the
Propaganda and ordained priests, both having distinguished them-
selves in their scientific and theological course.

The French papers say that one of them celebrated Mass, and
delivered a short but able sermon before Louis Philippe. It is
believed that they have both gone out with the Eight Eev. Doctor
Barron, on the African mission.

We repeat, therefore, that to judge properly of the negro, you
should see him educated, and treated with the respect due to a fellow-
creature, uninsulted by the filthy aristocracy of the skin, and untar-
nished to the eye of the white by any associations connected with his
state of slavery.

We next refer to your declaration that the two races — viz., the
black and the white, cannot exist on equal terms under your govern-
ment and your institutions. This is an extraordinary assertion to
be made at the present day. You allude, indeed, to Antigua and the
Bermudas : but we will take you to where the experiment has been
successfully made upon a large scale — namely, to Jamaica.

There the two races are upon a perfect equality in point of law.
There is no master — there is no slave. The law does not recognize
the slightest distinction between the races. You have borrowed the
far greater part of your address from the cant phraseology which the
West Indian slaveowners, and especially those of Jamaica, made
use of before emancipation. They used to assert (as you do now)
that abolition meant destruction ; that to give freedom to the negro
would be to pronounce the assassination of the white ; that the
negroes, as soon as freed, would massacre their former owners, and
destroy their wives and families. In short, your prophecies of the
destructive effects of emancipation are but faint and foolish echoes
of the prophetic apprehensions of the British slaveowners. They
might, perhaps, have believed their own assertions, because the
emancipation of the negroes was then an untried experiment. But
yon— you are deprived of any excuse for the re-assertion of a disproved
calumny.

APPENDIX. 483

The emancipation has taken place. The compensation given by-
England was not given to the negroes, who were the only persons
that deserved compensation. It was given to the so-called " owners "
— it was an additional wrong — an additional cause of irritation to
the negroes.

But, G-racious Heaven ! how nobly did that good and kindly race,
the negroes, falsify the calumnious apprehensions of their task-
masters ! Was there one single murder consequent on the
emancipation? Was there one riot — one tumult — even one assault?
Was there even one single white person injured in person or pro-
perty ? Was there any property spoiled or laid waste ? The
proportion of negroes in Jamaica to white men is as 300 to 60,
or 80 per cent. Yet the most perfect tranquillity has followed the
emancipation. The criminal courts are almost unemployed. Nine-
tenths of the gaols are empty and open ; universal tranquillity
reigns, although the landed proprietors have made use of the harshest
landlord-power to exact the hardest terms, by way of rent, from the
negro, and have also endeavoured to extort from him the largest
possible quantity of labour for the smallest wages.

Yet the kindly negro race have not retaliated by one single
act of violence or of vengeance. The two races exist together
upon equal terms under the British government and under British
institutions.

Or shall you say that the British government and British insti-
tutions are preferable to yours ? The vain and vapouring spirit of
mistaken republicanism will not permit you to avow the British
superiority. You are, bound, however reluctantly, to admit that
superiority, or else to admit the falsity of your own assertions.
Nothing can, in truth, be more ludicrous than your declamation in
favour of slavery. It, however, rises to the very border of blasphemy.
Your words are — " God forbid that we should advocate human
bondage in any shape." Oh ! shame be upon you ! How can you
take the name of the All-good Creator thus in vain ? What are you
doing ? Is not the entire of your address an advocacy of human
bondage ?

Another piece of silliness — You allege that it is the abolitionists
who make the slave restless with his condition, and that they scatter
the seeds of discontent.

How canjow. treat us with such contempt as to use assertions of
that kind in your address ? How can you think we could be so

I I 2

484 APPENDIX.

devoid of intellect as to believe the negro would not know the
miseries of slavery, which he feels every hour of the four-and-twenty,
unless he were told by some abolitionists that slavery was a miserable
condition ?

There is nothing that makes us think so badly of you as your
strain of ribaldry in attacking the abolitionists. The desire to
procure abolition is in itself a virtue, and deserves our love for its
charitable disposition, as it does respect and veneration for its
courage under unfavourable circumstances. Instead of the ribaldry
of your attack upon the abolitionists, you ought to respect and
countenance them. If they err by excessive zeal, they err in a
righteous and holy cause. You would do well to check their errors
and mitigate their zeal within the bounds of strict propriety, but if
you had the genuine feelings of Irishmen, you never would confound
their errors with their virtues. In truth, we much fear, or rather
we should candidly say, we readily believe that you attribute to them
imaginary errors for no other reason than that they really possess
one brilliant virtue — namely, the love of human freedom in intense
perfection.

Again, we have to remark that you exaggerate exceedingly when
you state that there are fifteen millions of the white population in
America, whose security and happiness are connected with the
maintenance of the system of negro slavery. On the contrary, the
system of slavery inflicts nothing but mischief on the far greater
part of the inhabitants of America ; the only places in which
individual interest is connected with slavery, are the slaveholding
states. Now, in those states, almost without an exception (if, indeed,
there be any exception), the people of colour greatly exceed the
whites ; and thus, even if an injury were to be inflicted on the whites
by depriving them of their slaves, the advantages would be most
abundantly counterbalanced and compensated for, by the infinitely
greater number of persons who would thus be restored to that
greatest of human blessings, personal liberty : thus the noble Ben-
thamite maxim, of doing the greatest possible good to the greatest
possible number, would be amply carried out into effect. By the
emancipation of the negroes you charge the abolitionists as with a
crime, that they encouraged a negro flying from Kentucky to steal a
horse from an inhabitant of Ohio in order to aid him, if necessary, in
making his escape. "We are not, upon full reflection, sufficiently
versed in casuistry to decide whether under such circumstances the

APPENDIX. 485

taking of tlie horse would be an excusable act or not. But even
conceding that it would be sinful, we are of this quite certain, that
there is not one of you that address us, who if he were under
similar circumstances — that is, having no other means of escaping
perpetual slavery, would not make free with your neighbour's horse
to effectuate your just and reasonable purpose. And we are also
sure of this — that there is not one of you who, if he were compelled
to spend the rest of his life as a personal slave, worked, and beaten,
and sold, and transferred from hand to hand, and separated at his
master's caprice from wife and family — consigned to ignorance —
working without wages — toiling without reward, without any other
stimulant to that toil and labour than the driver's cart-whip — we do
say that there is not one of you who would not think the name of
pickpocket, thief, or felon, would not be too courteous a name for the
being who kept you in such thraldom.

"We cannot avoid repeating our astonishment that you. Irishmen,
should be so devoid of every trace of humanity as to become the
voluntary and peculiarly disinterested advocates of human slavery,
and especially that you should be so in America ; but what excites
our unconquerable loathing is, to find that in your address you speak
of man being the property of man — of one human being being the
property of another, with as little doubt, hesitation, or repugnance
as if you were speaking of the beasts of the field. It is this that
fills us with utter astonishment — it is this that makes us disclaim
you as countrymen. We cannot bring ourselves to believe that you
breathed your natal air in Ireland — Ireland, the first of all the
nations of the earth that abolished the dealing in slaves — the slave
trade of that day was, curiously enough, a slave trade in British
youths — Ireland, that never was stained with negro slave trading —
Ireland, that never committed an offence against the men of colour
— Ireland, that never fitted out a single vessel for the traffic in blood
on the African coast.

It is, to be sure, afflicting and heart-rending to us to think that so
many of the Irish in America should be so degenerate as to be
amongst the worst enemies of the people of colour. Alas, alas, we
have that fact placed beyond doubt by the indisputable testimony of
Lord Morpeth. This is a foul blot that we should fain wipe off the
escutcheon of expatriated Irishmen.

Have you enough of the genuine Irishman left amongst you to
ask what it is we require you to do ? It is this : ,

486 APPENDIX.

Eirst — We call upon you in the sacred name of humanity
never again to volunteer on behalf of the oppressor; nor even
for any self-interest to vindicate that hideous crime of personal
slavery.

Secondly — We ask you to assist in every way you can in promoting
the education of the free man of colour, and in discountenancing
the foolish feeling of selfishness, of that criminal selfishness, which
makes the white man treat the man of colour as a degraded or
inferior being.

Thirdly — We ask you to assist in obtaining for the free men of
colour, the full benefit of all the rights and franchises of a freeman in
whatever state he may inhabit.

Fourthly — We ask you to exert yourselves in endeavouring to
procure for the man of colour, in every case, the benefit of trial by
jury, and especially where a man, insisting that he is a freeman, is
claimed to be a slave.

Fifthly — We ask you to exert yourselves in every possible way to
induce slaveholders to emancipate as many slaves as possible. The
Quakers in America have several societies for this purpose. Why
should not the Irish imitate them in that virtue ?

Sixthly — We ask you to exert yourselves in all the ways you
possibly can to put an end to the internal slave trade of the states —
the breeding of slaves for sale is probably the most immoral and
debasing practice ever known in the world. It is a crime of the
most hideous kind ; and, if there were no other crime committed by
the Americans, this alone would place the advocates, supporters, and
practisers of American slavery in the lowest grade of criminals.

Seventhly — We ask you to use every exertion in your power
to procure the abolition of slavery by the Congress in the district of
Columbia.

Eighthly — We ask you to use your best exertions to compel ^the
Congress to receive and read the petitions of the wretched negroes,
and, above all, the petitions of their white advocates.

Ninthly — We ask you never to cease your efibrts until the crime
of which Lord Morpeth has accused the Irish in America, " of being
the worst enemies of the men of colour," shall be atoned for and
blotted out and effaced for ever.

Tou will ask, how you can do all these things ? Tou have already
answered that question yourselves, for you have said that public
opinion is the law of America. Contribute, then, each of you in his

APPENDIX. 487

sphere, to make up that public opinion. Where jou have the
electoral franchise give your votes to none but those who will assist
you in so holy a struggle.

Under a popular government, the man who has right, and reason,
and justice, and charity, and Christianity itself at his side, has great
instruments of legislation and legal power. He has the elements
about him of the greatest utility ; and even if he should not succeed,
he can have the heart-soothing consolation of having endeavoured to
do great and good actions. He can enjoy, even in defeat, the sweet
comfort of having endeavoured to promote benevolence and charity.

It is no use to allege that the Congress is restricted from emanci-
pating the slaves by one general law. Each particular slave state
has that power within its own precincts ; and there is every reason
to be convinced that Maryland and Virginia would have followed the
example of New York, and long ago abolished slavery but for the
diabolical practice of " raising " (as you call it) slaves for the southern
market of pestilence and death.

Irishmen, and the sons of Irishmen, have, many of them, risen
to high distinction and power in America. Why should not
Irishmen, and the sons of Irishmen, write their names in the
brightest pages of the chapter of humanity and benevolence in
American story ?

Irishmen, our chairman ventures to think, and we agree with him,
that he has claims on the attention of Irishmen in every quarter of
the globe ; the Scotch and French philosophy have proved, by many
years' experiment, that the Irishman stands first, among the races of
man, in his physical and bodily powers ; America and Europe bear
testimony to the intellectual capacity of Irishmen. Lord Morpeth
has demonstrated in the British parliament, the superior morality of
the humble classes of Irish in all social and family relations. The
religious fidelity of the Irish nation is blazoned in glorious and
proverbial certainty and splendour.

Sons of Ireland ! descendants of the kind of heart and affectionate
in disposition ! think, oh ! think only with pity and compassion on
your coloured fellow-creatures in America. Offer them the hand of
kindly help ; soothe their sorrows ; soothe their oppressions ; join
with your countrymen at home in one cry of horror against
the oppressor — in one cry of sympathy with the enslaved and

oppressed —

" Till prone in the dust slavery shall be hurl'd,
Its name and nature blotted from the world."

488 APPENDIX.

We cannot close our observations upon the unseemly as well as
sillj attacks you make upon the advocates of abolition, without
reminding you that you have borrowed this turn of thought from the
persons who opposed Catholic emancipation in Ireland, or who were
the pretended friends of the Catholics. Some of you must recollect
that it was the custom of such persons to allege that, but for the
"violence" and "misconduct" of the agitators, and particularly of
our chairman, the Protestants were about to emancipate the Catholics
gradually. It was the constant theme of the newspaper press, and
even of the speeches in the Houses of Parliament, that the violence
and misconduct of the agitators prevented emancipation. It was the
burden of many pamphlets, and especially of two, which were both
written, under the title of " Faction unmasked," by Protestants of
great ability. They asserted themselves to be friends of emancipa-
tion in the abstract, but they alleged that it was impossible to grant
emancipation to persons whose leaders misconducted themselves as
the agitators did. They gratified their hatred to the Catholics as
you gratify your bad feeling towards the negroes, by abuse of the
Catholic leaders as virulent as yours is against abolitionists. But they
deceived nobody, neither do you deceive anybody. Every human
being perceives the futility and folly of your attacks upon the aboli-
tionists, and understands that those attacks are but the exhibition of
rancour and malignity against the tried friends of humanity.

Tou say that the abolitionists are fanatics and bigots, and especially
entertain a virulent hatred and unchristian zeal against Catholicity
and the Irish. We do not mean to deny, nor do we wish to conceal,
that there are among the abolitionists many wicked and calumniating
enemies of Catholicity and of the Irish, especially in that most
intolerant class, the Wesleyan Methodists. But the best way to
disarm their malice is not by giving up to them the side of humanity
while you yourselves take the side of slavery ; but, on the contrary, by
taking a superior station of Christian virtue in the cause of benevo-
lence and charity, and in zeal for the freedom of all mankind.

We wish we could burn into your souls the turpitude attached to
the Irish in America by Lord Morpeth's charge. EecoUect that it
reflects dishonour not only upon you but upon the land of your birth.
There is but one way of effacing such disgrace, and that is, by
becoming the most kindly towards the coloured population ; and the
most energetic in working out in detail, as well as in general prin-
ciple, the amelioration of the state of the miserable bondsmen.

APPENDIX. 489

You tell us, indeed, that mauy clergymen, and especially the
Catholic clergymen, are ranged on the side of the slaveholders. "We
do not believe the accusation.

The Catholic clergy may endure, but they assuredly do not
encourage the slaveowners. We have, indeed, heard it said that
some Catholic clergymen have slaves of their own ; but, it is added,
and we are assured positively, that no Irish Catholic clergyman is a
slaveowner. At all events, every Catholic knows how distinctly
slaveholding, and especially slave-trading, is condemned by the
Catholic Church. That most eminent man, his Holiness the present
Pope, has by an allocution published throughout the world, con-
demned all dealing and traffic in slaves. Nothing can be more
distinct nor more powerful than the Pope's denunciation of that
most abominable crime. Yet, it subsists in a more abominable form
than his Holiness could possibly describe, in the traffic which still
exists in the sale of slaves from one state of America to another.
What, then, are we to think of you^ Irish Catholics, who send us an
elaborate vindication of slavery without the slightest censure of that
hateful crime — a crime which the Pope has so completely condemned
— namely, the diabolical raising of slaves for sale, and selling them to
other states ?

If you be Catholics, you should devote your time and best
exertions to working out the pious intentions of his Holiness.
Yet you prefer — oh! sorrow and shame ! — to volunteer your vindi-
cation of everything that belongs to the guilt of slavery.

If you be Christians at all, recollect that slavery is opposed to the
first, the highest, and the greatest principles of Christianity, which
teach us " to love the Great and Good God above all things whatso-
ever, and next to love our fellow-men as ourselves," which command
"us to do unto others as we would be done by." These sacred
principles are inconsistent with the horrors and crimes of slavery —
sacred principles which have already banished domestic bondage
from civilized Europe, and which will also, in God's own good time,
banish it from America, despite the advocacy of such puny declaimers
as you are.

How bitterly have we been afflicted at perceiving, by the American
newspapers, that recently, in the city which you inhabit, an oppor-
tunity was given to the Irish to exhibit benevolence and humanity to
a coloured fellow-creature, and was given in vain ! We allude to
the case of the girl " Lavinia," who was a slave in another state, and

490 APPENDIX.

brought by her owner into that of Ohio. She by that means became
entitled to her freedom if she had but one friend to assert it for her.
She did find friends. May the Great God of Heaven bless them !
Were they Irish ? Alas ! alas ! not one. You sneer at the sectaries.
Behold how they here conquer you in goodness and charity.
The owner's name, it seems, was Scanlan, unhappily a thorough
Irish name. And he, it appears, has boasted that he took his
revenge by the most fiendish cruelty, not upon Lavinia or her pro-
tectors, for tJiey were not in his power, but on her unoffending father
mother, and family.

And this is the system which you, Irishmen, through many folio
pages of wicked declamation, seek at least to palliate, if not to justify !
Our cheeks burn with shame to think that such a monster as
Scanlan could trace his pedigree to Ireland. And yet you, Irishmen,
stand by, in the attitude rather of friends and supporters than of the
impugners of the monster's cruelty. And you prefer to string
together pages of cruel and heartless sophistry, in defence of the
source of his crimes, rather than take part against him.

Perhaps it would offend your fastidiousness if such a man were
compared to a pickpocket or a felon. "We respect your prejudices
and call him no reproachful Lavinia name — ^it is indeed unneces-
sary.

"We conclude by conjuring you, and all other Irishmen in America,
in the name of your fatherland — in the name of humanity — in the
name of the God of mercy and charity — we conjure you. Irishmen,
and descendants of Irishmen, to abandon for ever all defence of the
hideous negro slavery system. Let it no more be said that your
feelings are made so obtuse by the air of America that you cannot
feel, as Catholics and Christians ought to feel, this truth — this plain

truth — THAT ONE MAN CANNOT HATE ANY PROPERTY IN ANOTHER

MAN. There is not one of you who does not recognize that principle
in his own person ; yet we perceive — and this agonizes us almost to
madness — that you, boasting an Irish descent, should without the
instigation of any pecuniary or interested motive, but out of the sheer
and single love of wickedness and crime, come forward as the volun-
teer defenders of the most degrading species of human slavery. Woe !
woe! woe!

There is one consolation still, amid the pulsations of our hearts :
there are, there must be, genuine Irishmen in America — men of
sound heads and Irish hearts-— who will assist us to wipe off" the foul

APPENDIX. 491

stain that Lord Morpeth's proven charge has inflicted on the Irish
character — who will hold out the hand of fellowship, with a heart in
that hand, to every honest man, of every caste and colour, who will
sustain the cause of humanity and honor, and scorn the paltry
advocates of slavery — who will show that the Irish heart is in
America as benevolent, and as replete with charitable emotions, as in
any other clime on the face of the earth.

"We conclude. The spirit of democratic liberty is defiled by the
continuance of negro slavery in the United States. The United
States themselves are degraded below the most uncivilized nations
by the atrocious inconsistency of talking of liberty and practising
tyranny in its worst shape. The Americans attempt to palliate their
iniquity by the futile excuse of personal interest ; but the Irish,
who have not even that futile excuse, and yet justify slavery, are
utterly indefensible.

Once again, and for the last time, we call upon you to come out of
the councils of the slaveowners, and at all events to free yourselves
from participating in their guilt.

Irishmen, I call on you to join in crushing slavery, and in giving
liberty to every man, of every caste, creed, and colour.

Daniel O' Cornell,

Chairman of the Committee.

Mr. O'Connell wished to observe that this composition was his
own. He of course submitted it to the committee before bringing
it up, and it was unanimously approved of by them. There was one
remarkable circumstance connected with it, and it was this, that while
he was dictating it to Mr. Daunt, who was good enough to take it
down, Hogan the sculptor was modelling his statue; so that he was
standing for Hogan and denouncing slavery at one and the same
moment. He begged leave to move that the address be received
and adopted by the association.

Mr. Q-ordon seconded the motion.

The question was put from the chair, and carried amid unanimous
acclamation.

492 APPENDIX.

PLATFOEM OE THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY.

At the Democratic Convention held, in Cincinnati in June last, the
Committee on Resolutions submitted the following resolutions, which
were adopted as the Democratic Platform : —

Resolved, — That the American Democracy place their trust in the
intelligence, the patriotism, and the discriminating justice of the
American people.

Resolved, — That we regard this as a distinctive feature of our
political creed, which we are proud to maintain before the world, as
the great moral element in a form of government springing from and
upheld by the popular will, and we contrast it with the creed and
practice of Federalism, under whatever name or form, which seeks to
palsy the will of the constituent, and which conceives no imposture
too monstrous for the popular credulity.

Resolved, therefore, — That entertaining these views, the Demo-
cratic party of this Union, through their delegates assembled in a
general Convention, coming together in a spirit of concord, of devo-
tion to the doctrines and faith of a free representative government,
and appealing to their fellow-citizens for the rectitude of their inten-
tions, renew and re-assert before the American people the declara-
tion of principles avowed by them when on former occasions, in
general Convention, they have presented their candidates for populai*

I. That the federal government is one of limited power, derived
solely from the Constitution ; and the grants of power made therein
ought to be strictly construed by all the departments and agents sjf
the government ; and that it is inexpedient and dangerous to exercise
doubtful constitutional powers.

II. That the Constitution does not confer upon the general
government the power to commence and carry on a general system
of internal improvements.

III. That the Constitution does not confer authority upon the
federal government, directly or indirectly, to assume the debts of the
several states, contracted for local and internal improvements, or other
state purposes, nor would such assumption be Just or expedient.

APPENDIX. 493

IV. That justice and sound policy forbid tlie federal government
to foster one branch of industry to the detriment of any other, or to
cherish the interests of one portion to the injury of another portion
of our common country ; that every citizen and every section of the
country has a right to demand and insist upon an equality of rights
and privileges, and to complete and ample protection of persons and
property from domestic violence or foreign aggression.

Y. That it is the duty of every branch of the government to enforce
and practise the most rigid economy in conducting our public affairs,
and that no more revenue ought to be raised than is required to
defray the necessary expenses of the government, and for the gradual,
but certain extinction of the public debt.

YI. That the proceeds of the public lands ought to be sacredly
applied to the national objects specified in the Constitution ; and that
we are opposed to any law for the distribution of such proceeds among
the states, as alike inexpedient in policy and repugnant to the
Constitution.

YII. That Congress has no power to charter a national bank ; that
we believe such an institution one of deadly hostility to the best
interests of the country, dangerous to our republican institutions and
the liberties of the people, and calculated to place the business of the
country within the control of a concentrated money power, and above
the laws and the will of the people ; and that the results of democratic
legislation in this and all other financial measures upon which issues
have been made between the two political parties of the country, have
demonstrated to candid and practical men of all parties, their sound-
ness, safety, and utility, in all business pursuits.

YIII. That the separation of the moneys of the government from
banking institutions is indispensable for the safety of the funds of the
government and the rights of the people.

IX. That we are decidedly opposed to taking from the President
the qualified veto power, by which he is enabled, under restrictions
and responsibilities amply sufficient to guard the public interests, to
suspend the passage of a bill whose merits cannot secure the approval
of two-thirds of the Senate and House of Representatives, until the
judgment of the people can be obtained thereon, and which has saved
the American people from the corrupt and tyrannical domination of
the Bank of the United States, and from a corrupting system of
general internal improvements.

X. That the liberal principles embodied by JeflTerson in the

494 APPENDIX.

Declaration ot Independence, and sanctioned in the Constitution,
which makes ours the land of liberty and the asylum of the oppressed
of every nation, have ever been cardinal principles in the democratic
faith, and every attempt to abridge the privilege of becoming citizens
and the owners of soil among us, ought to be resisted with the same
spirit which swept the alien and sedition laws from our statute-
books.

And "Wheeeas, — Since the foregoing declaration was uniformly
adopted by our predecessors in National Conventions, an adverse
political and religious test has been secretly organized by a party
claiming to be exclusively American, it is proper that the American
Democracy should clearly define its relations thereto, and declare its
determined opposition to all secret political societies, by whatever
name they may be called.

Eesolved, — That the foundation of this union of states having been
laid in, and its prosperity, expansion, and pre-eminent example in free
government built upon entire freedom in matters of religious concern-
ment, and no respect of person in regard to rank or place of birth : no
party can justly be deemed national, constitutional, or in accordance
with American principles, which bases its exclusive organization upon
religious opinions and accidental birth-place. And hence a political
crusade in the nineteenth century, and in the United States of
America, against Catholics and foreign-born, is neither justified by
the past history or the future prospects of the country, nor in
unison with the spirit of toleration and enlarged freedom which
peculiarly distinguishes the American system of popular government.

Eesolved, — That we re-iterate with renewed energy of purpose, the
well-considered declarations of former Conventions upon the sectional
issue of Domestic Slavery, and concerning the reserved rights of the
states :

1. That Congress has no power under the Constitution, to interfere
with or control the domestic institutions of the several states, and
that such states are the sole and proper judges of everything apper-
taining to their own affairs, not prohibited by the Constitution ; that
all eff'orts of the abolitionists or others, made to induce Congress to
interfere with questions of slavery, or to take incipient steps in
relation thereto, are calculated to lead to the most alarming and
dangerous consequences ; and that all such efforts have an inevitable
tendency to diminish the happiness of the people, and endanger the

APPENDIX. 495

stability and permanency of tlie Union, and ought not to be counte-
nanced by any friend of our political institutions.

2. That the foregoing proposition covers, and was intended to
embrace, the whole subject of slavery agitation in Congress ; and
therefore, the Democratic party of the Union, standing on this national
platform, will abide by and adhere to a faithful execution of the Acts
known as the Compromise Measures, settled by the Congress of
1850 ; " the Act for reclaiming fugitives from service or labor,"
included ; which act being designed to carry out an express provision
of the Constitution, cannot, with fidelity thereto, be repealed, or so
changed as to destroy or impair its efficiency.

3. That the Democratic party will resist all attempts at renewing
in Congress, or out of it, the agitation of the slavery question, under
whatever shape or colour the attempt may be made.

4. That the Democratic party will faithfully abide by and uphold
the principles laid down in the Kentucky and Virginian resolutions of
1798, and in the report of Mr. Madison to the Virginian Legislature,
in 1799 ; that it adopts those principles as constituting one of the
main foundations of its political creed, and is resolved to carry them
out in their obvious meaning and import.

And that we may more distinctly meet the issue on which a
sectional party, subsisting exclusively on slavery agitation now relies,
to test the fidelity of the people, North and South, to the Constitu-
tion and the Union :

1. Eesolved, — That claiming fellowship with, and desiring the
co-operation of all who regard the preservation of the Union under
the Constitution as the paramount issue — and repudiating all
sectional parties and platforms concerning domestic slavery, which
seek to embroil the states and incite to treason and armed resistance
to law in the territories ; and whose avowed purposes, if consummated,
must end in civil war and disunion — the American Democracy
recognize and adopt the principles contained in the organic laws
establishing the territories of Kansas and Nebraska as embodying
the only sound and safe solution of the " slavery question " upon
which its great national idea of the people of this whole country
can repose in its determined conservatism of the Union — NoN-

INTEErERENCE BT CoNGBESS WITH SlAYEET IN STATE AND TEERI-
TOEY, OB IN THE DISTEICT OF COLUMBIA.

2. That this was the basis of the Compromises of 1850 — confirmed

496 APPENDIX.

by both tbe Democratic and Whig parties in national conventions —
ratified by the people in the election of 1852, and rightly applied to
the organization of territories in 1854.

3. That by the uniform application of this Democratic principle to
the organization of territories, and to the admission of new states,
with or without domestic slavery, as they may elect — the equal rights
of all the states will be preserved intact — the original compacts of
the Constitution maintained inviolate — and the perpetuity and expan-
sion of this Union insured to the utmost capacity of embracing, in
peace and harmony, every future American state that may be con-
stituted or annexed, with a republican form of government.

Eesolved, — That we recognize the right of the people of all the
territories, including Kansas and Nebraska, acting through the
legally and fairly expressed will of a majority of actual [residents,
and whenever the number of their inhabitants justifies it, to form a
constitution, with or without domestic slavery, and be admitted into
the Union upon terms of perfect equality with the other states.

Resolved, finally, — That in view of the condition of popular insti-
tutions in the Old World (and the dangerous tendencies of sectional
agitation, combined with the attempt to enforce civil and religious
disabilities against the rights of acquiring and enjoying citizenship in
our own land), a high and sacred duty is devolved with increased
responsibility upon the Democratic party of this country, as the party
of the Union, to uphold and maintain the rights of every state, and
thereby the Union of the states ; and to sustain and advance among
us constitutional liberty, by continuing to resist all monopolies and
exclusive legislation for the benefit of the few at the expense of the
many, and by a vigilant and constant adherence to those principles
and compromises of the Constitution which are broad enough and
strong enough to embrace and uphold the Union as it was, the Union
as it is, and the Union as it shall be, in the full expansion of the
energies and capacities of this great and progressive people.

1. Eesolved, — That there are questions connected with the foreign
policy of this country, which are inferior to no domestic questions
whatever. The time has come for the people of the United States to
declare themselves in favor of free seas and progressive free trade
throughout the world, and by solemn manifestations, to place their
moral influence at the side of their successful example.

2. Eesolved, — That our geographical and political position with
reference to other states of this continent, no less than the interest of

APPENDIX. .497

our commerce and the development of our growing power, require
that we should hold as sacred the principles involved in the Monroe
doctrine ; their bearing and import admit of no miscoustruction ;
they should be applied with unbending rigidity.

3. Eesolved, — That the great highway which Nature, as well as the
assent of the states most immediately interested in its maintenance
has marked out for a free communication between the Atlantic and
Pacific Oceans, constitutes one of the most important achievements
realized by a spirit of modern times, and the unconquerable energy
of our people. That result should be secured by a timely and
efficient exertion of the control which we have the right to claim over
it, and no powder on earth should be suffered to impede or clog its
progress by any interference wdth the relations it may suit our policy
to establish between our government and the governments of the
states within whose dominions it lies. We can, under no circum-
stance, surrender our preponderance in the adjustment of all questions
arising out of it.

4. Eesolved, — That in view of so commanding an interest, the
people of th-e United States cannot but sympathize with the efibrts
which are being made by the people of Central America to
regenerate that portion of the continent w^hich covers the passage
across the Inter-Oceanic Isthmus.

5. Eesolved, — That the Democratic party will expect of the next
administration that every proper effort will be made to insure our
ascendancy in the Gulf of Mexico, and to maintain a permanent pro-
tection in the great outlets through which are emptied into its waters
the products raised out of the soil, and the commodities created by
the industry of the people of our Western valleys, and of the Union
at large.

Eesolved, — That the Democratic party recognizes the great
importance, in a political and commercial point of view, of a safe
and speedy communication, by military and postal roads through
our own territory, between the Atlantic and Pacific coasts of
this Union, and that it is the duty of the federal government to
exercise promptly all its constitutional power for the attainment of
that object.

498 APPENDIX.

PLAITOHM OF THE EEPUBLICAN PAETY.

Eesolved, — That the maintenance of the principles promulgated in
the Declaration of Independence and embodied in the Federal Con-
stitution, are essential to the preservation of our republican institu-
tions, and that the Federal Constitution, the rights of the states, and
the union of the states, shall be preserved.

Eesolved, —That with our republican fathers we hold it to be a self-
evident truth, that all men are endowed with the inalienable right to
life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, and that the primary object
and ulterior design of our federal government were, to secure these
rights to all persons within its exclusive jurisdiction; that as our
republican fathers, when they had abolished slavery in all our national
territory, ordained that no person should be deprived of life, liberty, or
property, without due process of law, it becomes our duty to maintain
this provision of the Constitution against all attempts to violate it for
the purpose of establishing slavery in the United States by positive
legislation, prohibiting its existence or extension therein. That we
deny the authority of Congress, of a territorial legislature, of any
individual or association, or individuals, to give legal assistance to
slavery in any territory of the United States, while the present
constitution shall be maintained.

Eesolved, — That the Constitution confers upon Congress sovereign
power over the territories of the United States for their government,
and that in the exercise of this power it is both the right and the
duty of Congress to prohibit in the territories those twin relics of
barbarism, polygamy and slavery.

Eesolved, — That while the Constitution of the United States was
ordained and established in order to establish a more perfect Union,
establish justice, insure domestic tranquillity, provide for the common
defence, and secure the blessings of liberty, and contains ample pro-
visions for the protection of the life, liberty, and property of every
citizen, the dearest constitutional rights of the people of Kansas have
been fraudulently and violently taken from them — their territory has
been invaded by an armed force-— spurious and pretended legislative,
judicial, and executive officers have been set over them, by whose

APPENDIX, 499

usurped authority, sustained by the military power of the government,
tyrannical and unconstitutional laws have been enacted and enforced
— the rights of the people to keep and bear arms have been infringed
— test oaths of an extraordinary and entangling nature have been
imposed, as a condition of exercising the right of suffrage and holding
office — the right of an accused person to a speedy and public trial by
an impartial jury has been denied — the right of the people to be secure
in their houses, papers, and effects against unreasonable searches and
seizures has been violated — they have been deprived of life, liberty,
and property without due process of law — that the freedom of speech
and of the press has been abridged — the right to choose their repre-
sentatives has been made of no effect — murders, robberies, and arsons
have been instigated and encouraged, and the offenders have been
allowed to go unpunished — that all these things have been done with
the knowledge, sanction, and procurement of the present administra-
tion, and that for this high crime against the Constitution, the Union,
and humanity, we arraign the Administration, the President, his
advisers, agents, supporters, apologists and accessories either before
or after the facts, before the country and before the world ; and that
it is our fixed purpose to bring the perpetrators of these atrocious
outrages and their accomplices to a sure and condign punishment
hereafter.

Resolved, — That Kansas should be immediately admitted as a state
of the Union, with her present free constitution, as at once the most
effectual way of securing to her citizens the enjoyments of the rights
and privileges to which they are entitled, and of ending the civil
strife now raging in her territory.

Eesolved, — That the highwayman's plea, that "might makes
right," embodied in the Ostend circular, was in every respect
unworthy of American diplomacy, and would bring shame and dis-
honor upon any government or people that gave it their sanction.

Eesolved, — That a Railroad to the Pacific Ocean, by the most
central and practical route, is imperatively demanded by the interests
of the whole country, and that the federal government ought to
render immediate and efficient aid in its construction; and as an
auxiliary thereto, the immediate construction of an emigrant route
on the line of the railroad.

Eesolved, — That appropriations by Congress for the improvement
of rivers and harbours, of a national character, required for the
accommodation and security of our existing commerce, are authorized

K K 2

500 APPENDIX.

by the Constitution, and justified by the obligation of government to
protect the lives and property of its citizens.;

Eesolved, — That we invite the affiliation and co-operation of the
men of all parties, however different from us in other respects, in
support of the principles herein declared ; believing that the spirit of
our institutions, as well as the Constitution of our country, guarantees
liberty of conscience and equality of rights among citizens who
oppose all legislation impairing their security.

PLATFOEM OF THE AMEEICAN PAETY.

I. An humble acknowledgment to the Supreme Being who rules
the universe, for His protecting care vouchsafed to our fathers in
their revolutionary struggle, and hitherto manifested to us, their
descendants, in the preservation of the liberties, the independence,
and the union of these States.

II. The perpetuation of the Federal Union, as the palladium of
our civil and religious liberties, and the only sure bulwark of
American independence.

III. Americans must rule America^ and to this end, native-hovn
citizens should be selected for all state, federal, or municipal offices
or government employment, in preference to naturalized citizens —
nevertheless,

lY. Persons born of American parents residing temporarily
abroad, shall be entitled to all the rights of native-born citizens ;
but,

V. No person should be selected for political station (whether of
native or foreign birth), who recognizes any alliance or obligation of
any description to any foreign prince, potentate, or power, who
refuses to recognize the federal and state constitutions (each within
its sphere), as paramount to all other laws, as rules of particular
action.

YI. The unqualified recognition and maintenance of the reserved
rights of the several states, and the cultivation of harmony and
fraternal good-will between the citizens of the several states, and to

APPENDIX. 501

this end, non-interference by Congress with questions appertaining
solely to the individual states, and non-intervention by each state with
the affairs of any other state.

YII. The recognition of the right of the native-born and natural-
ized citizens of the United States, permaDently residing in any terri-
tory thereof, to frame their constitution and laws, and to regulate
their domestic and social affairs in their own mode, subject only to
the provisions of the Federal Constitution, with the right of admis-
sion into the Union whenever they have the requisite population for
one representative in Congress. Provided always, that none but
those who are citizens of the United States, under the Constitution
and laws thereof, and who have fixed residence in any such territory,
ought to participate in the formation of the constitution, or in the
enactment of laws for said territory or state.

YIII. An enforcement of the principle that no state or territory
can admit others than native-born citizens to the right of suffrage,
or of holding political office, unless such persons shall have been
naturalized according to the laws of the United States.

IX. A change in the laws of naturalization, making a continued
residence of twenty-one years, of all not heretofore provided for, an
indispensable requisite for citizenship hereafter, and excluding all
paupers and persons convicted of crime from landing on our shores ;
but no interference with the vested rights of foreigners.

X. Opposition to any union between Church and State ; no inter-
ference with the religious faith or worship, and no test oaths for
office, except those indicated in the 5th section of this platform.

XI. Free and thorough investigation into any and all alleged
abuses of public functionaries, and a strict economy in public
expenditures.

XII. The maintenance and enforcement of all laws until said laws
shall be repealed, or shall be declared null and void by competent
judicial authority.

XIII. Opposition to the reckless and unwise policy of the present
administration in the general management of our national affairs, and
more especially as shown in removing " Americans " (by designation)
and conservatives in principle, from office, and placing foreigners and
ultraists in their places ; as shown in a truckling subserviency to the
stronger, and an insolent and cowardly bravado towards the weaker
powers ; as shown in re-opening sectional agitation, by the repeal of
the Missouri Compromise ; as shown in granting to unnaturalized

502 APPENDIX.

foreigners the right of suffrage in Kansas and Nebraska ; as shown in
its vacillating course on the Kansas and Nebraska question; as
shown in the removal of Judge Bronson from the Collectorship of
New York upon false and untenable grounds ; as shown in the
corruptions which pervade some of the departments of the govern-
ments; as shown in disgracing meritorious naval officers through
prejudice or caprice ; as shown in the blundering mismanagement of
our foreign relations.

XIY. Therefore, to remedy existing evils, and prevent the
disastrous consequences otherwise resulting therefrom, we would
build up the " American party " upon the principles hereinbefore
stated, eschewing all sectional questions, and uniting upon those
purely national, and admitting into said party all American citizens
(referred to in the 3rd, 4th, and 5th sections) who openly avow the
principles and opinions heretofore expressed, and who will subscribe
their names to this platform. — Provided, nevertheless, that a majority
of those members present at any meeting of a local council where
an applicant applies for membership in the American party, may,
for any reason by them deemed sufficient, deny admission to such
applicant.

XV. A free and open discussion of all political principles embraced
in our platform.

APPENDIX.

EAILEOADS IN THE UNITED STATES.

The following Table gives the names of the principal Railroads in the United States,
and their condition near January, 1857. The roads of less importance are put together under
the item '* Other roads ; " and against that line, in the column headed " State," is given the
aggregate length of Railroads in the State. The length of each road includes the Branches,
but not the double track. When a road is in two or more States, it is put in the list in the
State in which the greater portion of it lies.

State.

Name of Road.

Hi O

1.
P

III

Miles.

Maine.

Androscoggin & Kennebec
Atlaatic and St. Lawrence

671,500

1,546,840

2,218,316

225,000

118,000

(Grand Trunk, Port. Dist.)

149

2,494,900

3,874,000

6,368.577

565,169

461,313

Kennebec and Portland .

1,107,526

1,760,000

2,870,000

220,000

Portland, Saco, & Portsm'th

1,396,400

120,000

1,359,000

253,800

135,000

475

Other roads .

148'

N. H.

Boston, Concord, &Montr'l

1,810,000

1,081,177

2,770,860

297,000

192,000

Concord . . . .

1,500,000

None.

1,500,000

317,050

191,388

Portsmouth and Concord .

1,108,859

Manchester & Lawrence .

800,000

242,619

1,000,000

189,789

107,281

Northern . . . .

3,068,400

378,701

3,068,400

418,032

228,602

480

Other roads

196

Vermont

Connecticut & Passump. R.

1,000,000

800,000

1,784,147

177,588

104,187

Rutland and Burlington .

119'

2,233,376

4,158,369

4,575,397

384,125

306,904

Rutland and Washington*.

950,000

800,000

1,771,683

168,845

157,029

Western Vermont . .

331,939

331,519

1,083,561

Vermont Central

118

5,000,000

5,283,299

8,402,055

808,328

653,059

Vermont and Canada . .

1,350,000

Vermont Valley

515,374

793,200

1,301,455

50,783

38,271

496

Other roads . . .

Mass.

Boston and Lowell .

1,830,000

447,660

2,336,450

490,733

38.5,347

Boston and Maine . .

4,076,975

150,000

4,176,205

910,355

512,229

Boston and N. York Central

2,240,300

1,696,976

3,659,250

Boston and Providence

3,160,000

277,465

3,659,966

632,227

337,375

Boston and Worcester . .

4,500,000

614,514

4,855,411

1,108,782

671,720

Cape Cod

681,690

299,705

1,028,152

124,073

84,480

Cheshire . . . •

2,085,925

852,390

3,077,606

355,630

242,552

Connecticut River .

1,591,110

, 267,858

1,801,944

288,670

197,046

Eastern . . . .

2,853,400

2,674,136

4,587,435

717,869

395,926

Fitchburg

3,540,000

100,000

3,872,821

668,974

418,142

New Bedford and Taunton

500,000

None.

541,580

168,923

141,100

Norwich and Worcester .

2,122,300

891,141

2,598,672

323,402

232,496

Old Colony and Fall River

3,01^,100

260,100

3,362,949

683,357

378,217

Providence and Worcester

1,510,200

300,000

1,781,048

344,773

189,730

Taunton Branch

260,000

3,000

313,156

164,375

136,600

Vermont & Massachusetts

2,232,541

1,019,148

3,241,975

259,671

149,146

Western . . . .

155

5,150,000

5,839,080

10,495,50.5

2,117,982

1,228,219

Worcester and Nashua

1,141,000

205,565

1,351,271

216,887

134,167

1470

Other roads . . .

378

R. Island

New York, Prov. & Boston

1,508,000

425,267

2,158,000

246,754

144,218

Prov. , Warren, and Bristo]

281,337

146,706

428,500

34,615

31,801

Conn.

New Haven and Hartford

2,350,000

944,000

3,329,378

730,795

383,191

New Haven and New York

2,980,839

2,163,537

5,170,916

1,007,666

558,128

New London, Willimantic,

and Palmer .

510,500

1,052,000

1,603,230

120,571

69,027

Housatonic. . . .

110

2,000,000

363,899

2,437,597

329,297

180,745

Hartford, Prov. & Fishkill

122

2,017,600

2,1.50,499

4,156,335

340,598

171,160

506

APPENDIX.

Rtfl,t,e.

Name of Road.

0-2.I

ill

$ o ^

Jo-

|p<

"m '^ ^

Miles.

Memphis and Ohio .

725,000

767.242

115,500

47,000

773

McMinnville & Manchester

140,096

414,671

565,459

Kent'ky.

Kentucky Central . .

117

1,302,804

2,235,939

4,000,000

Lexington and Frankfort .

430,000

158,000

637,000

Louisville and Frankfort .

700,000

670,000

1,590,000

279

Louisville and Nashville .

Ohio

see Pa., Mid., Va., & Ind.

Central Ohio .

137

1,626,850

5,191,877

6,421,908

712,213

575,000

Cincinnati and Chicago .

108

Cin., Hamilton, & Dayton

2,155,800

1,526,092

3,130,315

555,709

361,602

Cin., Wil, and Zanesville .

131

1,761,749

2,587,432

5,320,271

221,792

Clevel'd. Columbus, & Cin.

135

4,741,220

103,489

4,731,626

1,329,754

628,950

Cleveland and Erie .

Cleveland and Pittsburg .

226

Cleveland and Toledo . .

200

2,675,000

3,739,207

6,697,920

736,272

339,286

CleveFd. Zanesville, & Cin.

600,000

500,000

1,300,000

Columbus, Piqua, and Ind.

Columbus and Xenia

1,490,450

149,000

1,582,475

403,212

211,524

Ohio

Dayton and Michigan .

Dayton and Western

310,000

700,481

1,035,173

125,940

58,687

Little Miami . . .

2,981,282

1,324,568

3,798,093

806,424

433,048

Marietta and Cincinnati .

173

Mad River and Lake Erie .

169

2,451,650

2,572,932

4,446,661

Ohio & Miss. (0. & la. Div.)

192

Pitts., Ft. Wayne, & Chic.

383

5,994,144

7,344,827

11,718,511

1,111,626

449,509

Sand., Mansfd. & Newark

125

1,350,000

2,206,000

3,550,000

Scioto and Hocking Valley

Steubenville and India,na, .

124

Toledo, Wabash, and West.

250

2,965,100

7,577,500

10,542,600

Indianap., Pitts., & Clevel.

206

2,708,460

2,249,400

4,843,253

692,795

384,885

3411

Other roads . . .

289

Indiana

See Ohio, Mich., and Illinois

Bellefontaine and Indiana .

Included

in Indian

apolis. Pit

tsburg, &

Clevel'd.

Evansville and Crawfordsv.

109

707,000

1,178,000

Indiana Central . . .

612,350

1,261,179

1,909,911

434,000

184,000

Indianapolis & Cincinnati .

1,655,139

1,576,107

2,884,922

579,959

287,098

Jeffersonville . . .

1,014,000

695,000

Lafayette & Indianapolis .

Madison and Indianapolis .

1,647,700

1,336,816

1,205,000

286,146

173,266

New Albany and Salem .

288

2,535,000

5,282,000

6,643,000

Peru and Indianapolis

858,314

Terre Haute & Richmond .

975,000

605,000

1,502,000

631,635

, 341,832

Northern Indiana, air line

Included

in Mich.

S. and N.

Indiana.

1060

Other roads

142

Illinois

Chicago, Alton, & St. Louis

220

Chi., Burl' ton. & Quincy .

210

2,911,810

3,681,590

6,042,370

1,882,219

913,389

Chicago, Fulton, and Iowa

106

Owned &

run by the

Galena &

Chicago

Union.

Chicago and Milwaukee .

Chicago and Rock Island .

182

5,248,000

1,734,318

6,628,272

1,886,196

1,036,157

Peoria and Bureau Valley .

Ch. , St. Paul, & Fond du Lac

123

2,300,000

1,325,000

3,625,000

Galena and Chicago Union

266

5,441,500

3,318, 03li

7,742,614

Gt.Wes., Danville to Naples

167

111. Central and Ch. Branch

706

3,258,615

19,841,724

23,100,339

2,476,036

1,444,546

Ohio and Miss. (111. Div.).

148

1,780,295

3,292,000

4,871,000

Peoria and Oquawqua

160

Quincy and Chicago

100

2581

Other roads

APPENDIX.

507

state.

Name of Road.

. o

1.3
•5:2

Funded

loatiiig.

. 73 .
O rt S

-si

§1

h5 o

Miles.

lich.

Detroit and Milwaukee

• 141

Michigan Central . .

329

6,058,092

7,287,387

11,848,957

3,104,602

1,872,894

Mich. South. & North. Incl.

475

6,928,900

9,219,360

13,337,170

2,714,848

1,548,769

1000

Other roads . . .

owa

Burlington and Missouri .
Mississippi and Missouri .
Dubuque and Pacific
Keokuk, Fort des Moines,
and Minnesota

38
76
50

213

Keokuk, Mount Pleasant .
and Muscatine

Vise.

La Crosse and Milwaukee
(includes Watert'n. Div.,
50 miles) . . .

162

Milwaukee and Horicon .

1,101,200

919,757

Milwaukee and Mississippi

192

1,826,439

2,400,000

3,578,757

691,844

273,797

Racine and Mississippi

1,586,405

498,479

2,681,086

192,459

73,992

Mineral Point . . .

534

Kenosha, Rockf. and R. Isl.

kfissouri

iN'"orthern Missouri . .

1,848,700

326,407

2,848,834

184

Pacific . . . .

125

4,083,900

4,337,828

8,200,841

426,285

:!alifor.

Sacramento Valley . .
Total in United States .

1,200,000

162,200

85,400

24,220

Panama (Aspinwall to Pa.)

3,743,000

1 6,564,852il,254,639l 326,054|

Uatem&nt of Public Revenues and Public Expenditures during the Fiscal Year ending June 30,
1857, agreeably to warrants issued, exclusive of Tricst Funds and Treamry Notes funded.

Receipts.

From Customs, quarter ending Sept. 30, 1856, $20,677,740.40

Dec. 31, 1856, 14,243,414.90

Mar. 31, 1857, 19,055,328.55

June 30, 1857, 9,899,421.20

$63,875,905.05

Lands, quarter ending Sept. 30, 1856, 892,380.39

Dec. 31, 1856, 808,252.86

Mar. 31, 1857, 1,065,640.11
June 30, 1857, 1,063,213.28

3,829,486.64

Miscellaneous and incidental sources . . . . 926,121.98

Total receipts $68,631,513.67

Balance in Treasury, July 1, 1856 .... 19,901,325.45

Total means $88,532,839.12

Expenditures.

For Civil List . . . . , $7,207,112.42

Foreign Intercourse . 1,019,435.16

Miscellaneous _ . . 19,305,374.79

Under direction of the Department of the Interior (Indian and Pensions) . 6,358,274.72

War Department 19,261,774.16

Navy 12,726,856.69

For Public Debt 6,943,896.91

Total expenditure $70,822,724.85

Balance in Treasury, July 1, 1857 . .$17,710,114.27

506

APPENDIX.

state.

Name of Road.

.2fl
"&2

1.1 1

■a

it.

Jl.

.-§ §

|||

Miles.

$ .

Memphis and Ohio .

725,000

767,242

115,500

47,000

773

McMinnville & Manchester

140,096

414,671

565,459

Kent'ky.

Kentucky Central . .

117

1,302,804

2,235,939

4,000,000

Lexington and Frankfoi-t .

430,000

158,000

637,000

Louisville and Frankfort .

700,000

670,000

1,590,000

i 279

Louisville and Nashville .

Ohio

See Pa., Mid., Va., & Ind.

Central Ohio .

137

1,626,850

5,191,877

6,421,908

712,213

575,000

Cincinnati and Chicago .

108

Cin., Hamilton, & Dayton

2,155,800

1,526,092

3,130,315

555,709

361,602

Cin., Wil., and Zanesville .

131

1,761,749

2,587,432

5,320,271

221,792

Clevel'd. Columbus, & Cin.

135

4,741,220

103, 48P

4,731,626

1,329,754

628,950

Cleveland and Erie .

Cleveland and Pittsburg .

226

Cleveland and Toledo . .

200

2,675,000

3,739,207

6,697,920

736,272

339,286

Clevel'd. Zanesville, & Cin.

500,000

1,300,000

Columbus, Piqua, and Ind.

Columbus and Xenia

1,490,450

149,000

1,582,475

403,212

211,524

Ohio

Dayton and Michigan .

Dayton and Western

310,000

700,481

1,035,173

125,940

58,687

Little Miami

2,981,282

1,324,568

3,798,093

806,424

433,048

Marietta and Cincinnati .

173

Mad River and Lake Erie .

169

2,451,650

2,572,932

4,446,661

Ohio & Miss. (0. & la. Div.)

192

Pitts., Ft. Wayne, & Chic.

383

5,994,144

7,344,827

11,718,511

1,111,626

449,509

Sand., Mansf d. & Newark

125

1,350,000

2,206,000

3,550,000

Scioto and Hocking Valley

Steubenville and Indiana .

124

Toledo, Wabash, and West.

250

2,965,100

7,577,500

10,542,600

India-nap., Pitts., & Clevel.

206

2,708,460

2,249,400

4,843,253

692,795

384,885

3411

Other roads . , .

289

Indiana

See Ohio, Mich., and Illinois

Bellefontaine and Indiana .

Included

in Indian

apolis. Pit

tsburg, &

Clevel'd.

Evansville and Crawfordsv.

109

707,000

1,178,000

Indiana Central . , .

612,350

1,261,179

1,909,911

434,000

184,000

Indianapolis & Cincinnati .

1,655,139

1,576,107

2,884,922

579,959

287,098

Jeflfersonville . . .

1,014,000

695,000

Lafayette & Indianapolis .

Madison and Indianapolis .

1,647,700

1,336,816

1,205,000

286,146

173,266

New Albany and Salem .

288

2,535,000

5,282,000

6,643,000

Peru and Indianapolis

858,314

Tei-re Haute & Richmond .

975,000

605,000

1,502,000

631,635

•v 341,832

Northern Indiana, air line

Included

in Mich.

S. and N.

Indiana.

1060

Other roads .

142

Illinois

Chicago, Alton, & St. Louis

220

Chi., Burl'ton. & Quincy .

210

2,911,810

3,681,590

6,042,370

1,882,219

913,389

Chicago, Fulton, and Iowa

106

Owned &

run by the

Galena &

Chicago

Union.

Chicago and Milwaukee .

Chicago and Rock Island .

182

5,248,000

1,734,318

6,628,272

1,886,196

1,036,157

Peoria and Bureau Valley .

Ch. , St. Paul, & Fond du Lac

123

2,300,000

1,325,000

3,625,000

Galena and Chicago Union

266

5,441,500

3,318,031'

7,742,614

Gt.Wes., Danville to Naples

167

111. Central and Ch. Branch

706

3,258,615

19,841,724

23,100,339

2,476,035

1,444,546

Ohio and Miss. (111. Div.).

148

1,780,295

3,292,000

4,871,000

Peoria and Oquawqua

160

Quincy and Chicago . ,

100

2581 lOther roads .

APPENDIX.

507

state.

Name of Road.

Funded
loatiug.

1 t3 .

all

M a 5

Miles.

lich.

Detroit and Milwaukee

• 141

Michigan Central . .

329

6,058,092

7,287,387

11,848,957

3,104,602

1,872,894

i Mich. South. & North. Ind.

475

6,928,900

9,219,360

13,337,170

2,714,848

1,548,769

1000

Other roads . . .

owa

Burlington and Missouri .
Mississippi and Missouri .
Dubuque and Pacific
Keokuk, Fort des Moines,
and Minnesota

38
70
60

213

Keokuk, Mount Pleasant .
and Muscatine

Vise.

La Crosse and Milwaukee
(includes Watert'n. Div.,
50 miles) . . .

162

Milwaukee and Horicon .

1,101,200

919,757

Milwaukee and Mississippi

192

1,826,439

2,400,000

3,578,757

691,844

273,797

Racine and Mississippi

1,586,405

498,479

2,081,086

192,459

73,992

Mineral Point . . .

534

Kenosha, Rockf. andR. Isl.

fissouri

Northern Missouri . .

1,848,700

326,407

2,848,834

184

Pacific . . . .

125

4,083,900

4,337,828

8,200,84]

426,285

?alifor.

Sacramento Valley . .
Total in United States .

22 I

1,200,000

162,200

85,400

24,2-^U;

Panama (Aspinwall to Pa.)

49 1 3,743,000

6,564,8.'i2ll,254,639l 326,054|

icUement of Public Revenues and Public Expenditures during the Fiscal Year endive/ June 30,
1857, agreeably to warrants issued, exclusive of Trust Funds and Treamry Notes funded.

Receipts.

From Customs, quarter ending Sept. 30, 1856, $20,677,740.40

Dec. 31, 1856, 14,243,414.90

Mar. 31, 1857, 19,055,328.55

June 30, 1857, 9,899,421.20

163,875,905.05

Lands, quarter ending Sept. 30, 1856, 892,380.39

Dec. 31, 1856, 808,252.86

Mar. 31, 1857, 1,065,640.11
June 30, 1857, 1,063,213.28

, 3,829,486.64

Miscellaneous and incidental sources . . . . 926,121.98

Total receipts $68,631,513.67

Balance in Treasury, July 1, 1856 .... 19,901,325.45

Total means $88,632,839.12

Expenditures.

For Civil List . . . . , $7,207,112.42

Foreign Intercourse . 1,019,435.16

Miscellaneous 19,305,374.79

Under direction of the Department of the Interior (Indian and Pensions) . 6,358,274.72

War Department 19,261,774.16

Navy 12,726,856.69

For Public Debt 5,943,896.91

Total expenditure $70,822,724.85

Balance in Treasury, July ], 1857 • .$17,710,114.27

508

APPENDIX.

Statement of the Debt of the United States on the 15th of November, 1856.

Rate of

Denomination of Debt. Interest

per cent

When
Redeemable.

Amount.

Principal and interest of the old "^
funded and unfunded debt, 1
Treasury-notes of 1812, and C
Yazoo scrip . . .J

Outstanding Treasury-notes fund- )
able or payable . . S

Tioan of April 15, 1842 . .
„ July 22, 1846 .
„ January 2 8, 1847
,, March 31, 1848 .

Texan indemnity . . . .

Texas debt. Act Feb. 28, 1855 .

Present amount as above

6
6

•

On presentation .

Dec. 31. 1862 .
Nov. 12, 1856 .
Jan. 1, 1868 .
July 1, 1868 .
Jan. 1, 1865 .

$114,118.54

112,661.64

3,784,066.98

319,800.00

11,773,500.00

10,704,291.80

3,632,000.00

523,470.68

•$30,963,909.64

Extract of Letter from Br. Channing to Mr. Clay, on Annexation
of Texas, and the War with Mexico.

Some crimes, by their magnitude, have a touch of the sublime ;
and to this dignity the seizure of Texas by our citizens is entitled.
Modern times furnish no example of individual rapine on so grand
a scale. It is nothing less than the robbery of a realm. The pirate
seizes a ship. The colonists and their coadjutors can satisfy them-
selves with nothing short of an empire. They have left their Anglo-
Saxon ancestors behind them. Those barbarians conformed to the
maxims of their age, to the rude code of nations in time of thickest
heathen darkness. They invaded England under their sovereigns,
and with the sanction of the gloomy religion of the North. But it is
in a civilized age, and amidst refinements of manners — it is amidst
the lights of science and the teaching of Christianity, amidst expo-
sitions of the law of nations and enforcements of the law of universal
love, amidst institutions of religion, learning, and humanity — that

APPENDIX. 5Ue

the robbery of Texas has found its instruments. It is from a free,
well-ordered, enlightened Christian country, that hordes have gone
forth, in open day, to perpetrate this mighty wrong.

"We boast of our rapid growth, forgetting that throughout nature,
noble growths are slow. Our people throw themselves beyond the
bounds of civilization, and expose themselves to relapses into a
semi-barbarous state under the impulse of wild imagination, and for
the name of great possessions. Perhaps there is no people on earth,
on whom the ties of local attachment sit so loosely. Even the
wandering tribes of Scythia are bound to one spot, the graves of their
fathers ; but the homes and graves of our fathers detain us feebly.
The known and familiar is often abandoned for the distant and
untrodden ; and sometimes the untrodden is not the less eagerly
desired, because belonging to others. To this spirit we have sacri-
ficed justice and humanity ; and through its ascendancy, the records
of this young nation are stained with atrocities, at which communities
grown grey in corruption might blush.

Texas is a country conquered by our citizens ; and the annexation
of it to our Union will be the beginning of conquests, which, unless
arrested and beaten back by a just and kind Providence, will stop
only at the Isthmus of Darien. Henceforth we must cease to cry.
Peace, peace. Our Eagle will whet, not gorge, its appetite on its
first victim, and will snufi" a more tempting quarry, more alluring
blood, in every new region which opens southward. To annex
Texas is to declare perpetual war with Mexico — that word, Mexico,
associated in men's minds with boundless wealth, has already
awakened rapacity. Already it has been proclaimed, that the
Anglo-Saxon race is destined to the sway of this magnificent realm ;
that the rude form of society, which Spain established there, is to
yield and vanish before a higher civilization.

A deadly hatred burns in Mexico towards this country. No
stronger national sentiment now binds her scattered provinces
together, than dread and detestation of Kepublican America. She
is ready to attach herself to Europe for defence from the United
States. All the moral power which we might have gained over
Mexico, we have thrown away ; and suspicion, dread, and abhorrence
have supplanted respect and trust.

I am aware that these remarks are met by a vicious reasoning
which discredits a people among whom it finds favour. It is some-
times said, that nations are swayed by laws, as unfailing as those

5^0 APPENDIX.

which govern matter ; that they have their destinies ; that their
character and position carry them forward irresistibly to their goal :
that the stationary Turk must sink under the progressive civilization
of Eussia, as inevitably as the crumbling edifice falls to the earth ;
that, by a like necessity, the Indians have melted before the white
man, and the mixed, degraded race of Mexico must melt before the
Anglo-Saxon. Away with this vile sophistry ! There is no necessity
for crime. There is no Fate to justify rapacious nations, any more
than to justify gamblers and robbers in plunder.

Hitherto, I have spoken of the annexation of Texas as embroiling
us with Mexico ; but it will not stop here. It will bring us into
collision with other states. It will, almost of necessity, involve us
in hostility with European powers. Such are now the connexions
of nations, that Europe must look with jealousy on a country whose
ambition, seconded by vast resources, will seem to place within her
grasp the empire of the New World. And not only general con-
siderations of this nature, but the particular relation of certain
foreign states to this continent, must tend to destroy the peace
now happily subsisting between us and the kingdoms of Europe.
England in particular must watch us with suspicion, and cannot but
resist our appropriation of I exas to ourselves. She has at once a
moral and political interest in this question, which demands and will
justify interference.

By the annexation of Texas we shall approach her liberated
colonies ; we shall build up a power in her neighbourhood, to which
no limits can be prescribed. By adding Texas to our acquisition of
Florida, we shall do much towards girdling the Grulf of Mexico ; and
I doubt not that some of our politicians will feel as if our mastery in
that sea were sure. The West Indian Archipelago, in which the
European is regarded as an intruder, will, of course, be embraced
in our over-growing scheme of empire. In truth, collision with the
West Indies will be the most certain effect of the extension of our
power in that quarter. The example which they exhibit of African
freedom, of the elevation of the coloured race to the rights of men,
is, of all influences, most menacing to slavery at the South. It must
grow continually more perilous. These islands, unless interfered
with from abroad, seem destined to be nurseries of civilization and
freedom to the African race.

Will a slave-holding people, spreading along the shores of the
Mexican Gulf, cultivate friendly sentiments towards communities,

APPENDIX. 511

whose whole liistory will be a bitter reproach to their institutions, a
witness against their wrongs, and whose ardent sympathies will be
enlisted in the cause of the slave ? Cruel, ferocious conflicts must
grow from this neighbourhood of hostile principles of communities
regarding one another with unextinguishable hatred. All the islands
of the Archipelago will have cause to dread our power ; but none so
much as the emancipated. It is not more than possible, that wars
having for an object the subjugation of the coloured race, the
destruction of this tempting example of freedom, should spring
from the proposed extension of our dominion along the Mexican
Gulf? Can England view our encroachments without alarm!

An English Minister would be unworthy of his office, who should
see another state greedily swallow up territories in the neighbourhood
of British colonies, and not strive by all just means to avert the
danger.

By encroaching on Mexico we shall throw her into the arms of
European states, shall compel her to seek defence in transatlantic
alliance. How plain is it that alliance with Mexico will be hostility
to the United States, that her defenders will repay themselves by
making her subservient to their views, that they will thus strike root
in her soil, monopolize her trade, and control her resources ? And
with what face can we resist the aggressions of others on our
neighbour, if we give an example of aggression ? Still more, if by
our advances, we put the colonies of England in new peril, with what
face can we oppose her occupation of Cuba ? Suppose her, with
that magnificent island in her hands, to command the Mexican Gulf
and the mouths of the Mississippi ; will the Western states find com-
pensation for this formidable neighbourhood, in the privilege of
flooding Texas with slaves ?

Thus wars with Europe and Mexico are to be entailed on us by the
annexation of Texas. And is war the policy by which this country
is to flourish ? Was it for interminable conflicts that we formed our
Union ? Is it blood shed for plunder which is to consolidate our
institutions ? Is it by collision with the greatest maritime power that
commerce is to gain strength ? Is it by arming against ourselves
the moral sentiments of the world, that we are to build up national
honour ? Must we of the North buckle on our armour to fight the
battles of slavery ; to fight for a possession which our moral principles
and just jealousy forbid us to incorporate with our confederacy ? In
attaching Texas to ourselves, we provoke hostilities, and at the same

512 APPENDIX.

time expose new points of attack to our foes. Vulnerable at so
many points, we shall need a vast military force. Great armies will
require great revenues and raise up great chieftains. Are we tired
of freedom that we are prepared to place it under such guardians ?
Is the republic bent on dying by its own hands ? Does not every
man feel that, with war for our habit, our institutions cannot be
preserved ? If ever a country were bound to peace it is this. Peace
is our great interest. In peace our resources are to be developed,
the true interpretation of the constitution to be established, and
the interfering claims of liberty and order to be adjusted. In
peace we are to discharge our great debt to the human race, and to
diffuse freedom by manifesting its fruits. A country has no right to
adopt a policy, however gainful, which, as it may foresee, will deter-
mine it to a career of war. A nation, like an individual, is bound to
seek, even by sacrifices, a position which will favour peace, justice,
and the exercise of a beneficent influence on the world. A nation
provoking war by cupidity, by encroachment, and above all, by efforts
to propagate the curse of slavery, is alike false to itself, to God, and
to the human race.

This possession wdll involve us in new Indian wars. Texas,
besides being open to the irruption of the tribes within our terri-
tories, has a tribe of its own, the Camanches, which is described as
more formidable than any in North America. Such foes are not to
be coveted. The Indians! — that ominous word, which ought to
pierce the conscience of this nation more than the savage war-cry
pierces the ear. The Indians ! — have we not inflicted and endured
evil enough in our intercourse with this wretched people, to abstain
from new wars with them ? Is the tragedy of Florida to be acted
again and again in our own day, and in our children's ?

But one thing does move me. It is a sore evil that freedom
should be blasphemed, that republican institutions should forfeit the
confidence of mankind, through the unfaithfulness of this people to
their trust. - *

APPENDIX. 513

Extracts from Reports hy Mr. J. C. G-. Kennedy, Superintendent of
the last Decennial Census of 1850.

Since the census of 1 840, there have been added to the territory
of the United States, by annexation, conquest, and purchase, 833,970
square miles ; and our title to a region covering 341,463 square
miles, which before properly belonged to us, but was claimed and
partially occupied by a foreign power, has been established by nego-
tiation, and it has been brought within our acknowledged
boundaries. By such means the area of the United States has been
extended during the past ten years, from 2,055,163 to 3,230,572
square miles, without including the great lakes which lie upon our
northern border, or the bays which indent our Atlantic and Pacific
shores ; all which has come within the scope of the seventh census.

In the endeavour to ascertain the progress of our population since
1840, it will be proper to deduct from the aggregate number of
inhabitants shown by the present census, the population of Texas in
1840, and the number embraced within the limits of California, and
the new territories at the. time of their acquisition. From the best
information which has come to hand, it is believed that Texas con-
tained in 1840, 75,000 inhabitants ; and that when California, New
Mexico, and Oregon came into our possession, in 1846, they had a
population of 97,000. It thus appears that we have received by
accessions of territory since 1840, an accession of 172,000 to the
number of our people.

The increase which has taken place in those extended regions
since they came under the authority of our government, should
obviously be reckoned as a part of the development and progress of
our population : nor is it necessary to complicate the comparison by
taking into account the probable natural increase of this acquired
population, because we have not the means of determining the rate of
its advancement, nor the law which governed its progress while yet
beyond the influence of our political system. The year 1840, rather
than the date of the annexation of Texas, has been taken for esti-
mating her population, in connexion with that of the Union, because
it may safely be assumed, that whatever the increase during the five
intervening years may have been, it was mainly, if not altogether

VOL. II. L L

514 APPENDIX.

derived from the United States. Assuming the population of Cali-
fornia to be 165,000 (which we do partly by estimate), the total
number of inhabitants in the United States was, on the first of June
1850, 23,263,488. The absolute increase from the first of June, 1840,
has been 6,194,035, and the actual increase per cent, is 36-28. But
it has been shown that the probable amount of population acquired
by additions of territory should be deducted in making a comparison
between the results ot the present and the last census. These
reductions diminish the total population of the country as a basis of
comparison to 23,091,488, and the increase to 6,022,035. The
relative increase after this allowance, is found to be 35-27 per cent.
The aggregate number of whites in 1850 was 19,630,738, exhibiting
a gain upon the number of the same class in 1840 of 5,434,933, and
a relative increase of 32-28 per cent. But excluding the 153,000
free population supposed to have been acquired by the addition of
territory since 1840, the gain is 5,281,933, and the increase per cent,
is 37-2. The number of slaves by the present census is 3,204,089,
which shows an increase of 716,733, equal to 28*81 per cent. If we
deduct 19,000 for the probable slave population of Texas in 1840, the
result of the comparison will be slightly different. The absolute
increase will be 697,733, and the rate per cent. 28 05.

The number of free coloured in 1850, was 428,661 ; in 1840,
386,292. The increase of this class has been 42,369 or 10-96 per
cent.

The decennial increase of the most favoured portions of Europe is
less than one and a half per cent, per annum, while with the United
States it is at the rate of three and a half per cent. According to our
past progress, viewed in connexion with that of the European
nations, the population of the United States in forty years will
exceed that of England, France, Spain, Portugal, Sweden, and Swit-
zerland combined. *****

One of the most interesting results of the census, is the classifi-
cation of inhabitants according to the counties of their birth. We
are thus enabled to discover, for the first time, of what our nation is
composed. The investigations under this head have resulted in
showing that of the free inhabitants of the United States, 17,737,505
are natives of its soil, and that 2,210,828 were born in foreign
countries ; while the nativity of 39,014 could not be determined. It
is shown that 1,965,518 of the whole number of foreign-born inha-
bitants were residents of the free states, and 245,310 of the slave

APPENDIX. 515

states. It is seen that the persons of foreign birth form 11-06 per
cent, of the whole free population. The countries whence have been
derived the largest portions of these additions to our population
appear in the following statement: —

Natives of Ireland in the United States

in 1850

961,719

Germany „ ,

573,225

England „ ,

278,675

British America ., ,

147,700

Scotland

70,550

France „ ,

54,069

Wales

29,868

All other countries ,

95,022
2,210,828

The proportion in which tlie several counties above-named have
contributed to the aggregate immigrant population is shown in the
subjoined statement : —

Ireland 43"04 per cent.

Germany 25-09

England 12*06

British America » 6"68

Scotland 3-17

France 244

Wales 1-34

Miscellaneous 4*47

This view of the immigrant population is important, as serving to
correct many extravagant notions concerning it which have attained
extensive currency.

516

APPENDIX.

SEVENTH CENSUS OF THE UNITED STATES.

Population of the United States according to the Seventh Census and Representatives in Congress*

Free

Federal

i^ .

States.

White
Population.

Coloured
Popula-
tion.

Total
Free.

Slaves.

Represen-
tative
Population.

Fractions
over.

Maine

581,813

1,356

683,169

— 1

22,631

New Hampshire

317,456

520

317,976

—1

37,707

Vermont .

313,402

718

314,120

— 1

33,851

Massachusetts .

985,450

9,064

994,514

994,614

+60,284

Rhode Island .

143,875

3,670

147,545

147,645

+54,122

Connecticut

363,099

7,693

370,792

+90,523

New York . .

3,048,325

49,069

3,097,394

— 1

14,435

New Jersey

465,513

23,820

489,333

222

489,466

22,351

Pennsylvania .

2,258,463

53,323

2,311,786

+69,634

Delaware

71,169

18,073

89,242

2,290

90,616

Maryland

417,943

74,723

492,666

90,368

546,886

+79,771

Virginia

894,800

64,333

949,133

472,628

1,232,649

—2

18,150

North Carolina .

653,028

27,463

580,491

288,648

753,619

—1

6,236

South Carolina .

274,567

8,956

283,523

384,984

514,613

—1

+47,398

Georgia . .

521,572

2,931

624,503

381,682

753,612

6,128

Florida .

47,211

924

48,135

39,309

71,720

Alabama . .

426,486

2,293

428,779

342,892

634,514

+73,976

Mississippi

295,718

930

296,648

309,878

482,674

15,495

Louisiana . .

255,491

17,462

272,963

244,809

419,838

46,146

Texas .

154,034

397

154,431

58,161

189,327

2,481

Arkansas . .

162,189

608

162,797

47,100

191,057

4,211

Tennessee

756,753

6,401

763,154

239,460

906,830

—1

+66,022

Kentucky . .

761,417

10,007

771,424

210,981

898,012

+57,20£

Missouri .

592,004

2,618

594,622

87,422

647,076

+86,537

Ohio . . .

1,955,108

25,319

1,980,427

18,54^

Michigan .

395,097

2,557

397,654

397,664

23,965

Indiana . .

977,628

10,788

988,416

+54,18f

Illinois

846,035

5,435

861,470

851,470

+ 2

10,66?

Wisconsin . .

304,758

633

306,391

305,391

25,125

Iowa

191,879

335

192,214

6,36S

California +
Total .

91,632

965

92,697

234

19,423,915

423,384

19,847,301

3,200,634

21,767,673

Dis. of Columbia

38,027

9,973

48,000

3,687

Minnesota . .

6,038

6,077

New Mexico

61,530

61,647

Oregon . .

13,088

206

13,294

Utah

Total .

11,330

11,354

19,553,928

433,643

19,987,573

3,204,347

Total by last )
Census Tables \

19,653,068

434,495

19,987,563

3,204,313

* The aggregate representative population (21,767,673), divided by 233,— the number of representatives esl
blished by law, — gives 93,423 as the ratio of apportionment among the several States. But this gives only 2
members, leaving 13 to be assigned to the States having the largest residuary fractions.

t In the column of fractions, those marked thus, f, entitle the State to an additional Representative, who
included in the number given the State in the column of Representatives.

X By the act of July 30, 1852, an additional representative is assigned to California, making the whole numl
of Representatives 234. The ratio of representation remains unchanged. The last published census tables difi
slightly from the above, but as the apportionment of representation is made by the above table, it is continut

APPENDIX.

517

Recapitulation.

Total

Population

in 1840.

Slaves in
1840.

Total

Population

in 1850 *

Total Free

Population

in 1850.

Slaves in
1850.

Representa-
tive Popula-
tion in 1850.

Rep.

1850.

Gain

or
Loss.

Free States .
Slave States .
Dist. & Ter. .

Total . .

9,654,865

7,290,719

117,769

1,102

2,481,532

4,721

13,434,922

9,612,969

143,985

13,434,798

6,412,503

140,272'

222

3,200,412

3,713

13,436,931
8,330,742

144
90

+ 1
—1

17,063,353

2,487,355

23,191,876

19,987,573

3,204,347

21,767,673

234

POPULATION OF SOME OF THE PEINCIPAL CITIES.

According to the several Censuses of the United States.

Cities.

1790.

1800.

1810.

1820.

1830.

1840.

1845.

1850.

Portland,

Me.

3,677

7,169

8,581

12,601

15,218

20,816

Bangor,

} J

850

1,221

2,867

8,627

14,432

Manchester,

N. H.

615

761

877

3,235

13,932

Boston,

Mass.

18,038

24,027

32,250

43,298

61,392

93,383

114,366

136,881

Lowell,

6,474

20,796

28,841

38,383

Springfield,

) )

2,767

3,914 6,784

10,985

11,766

Salem,

7,921

9,457

12,613

12,721

13,886

15,082

20,264

Worcester,

7,497

17,049

Providence,

R. L

7,614

10,071

11,767

16,832

23,171

41,613

New Haven,

Ct.

6,772

7,147

10,180

14,890

20,345

Hartford

.3,955

4,726

7,071

12,793

13,555

New York,

N. Y.

33,131

60,489

96,373

123,706

203,007

312,710

371,102

515,647

Brooklyn,

3,298

4,402

7,175

12,042

36,233

59,566

96,838

Albany,

3,498

5,349

9,356

12,630

24,238

33,721

41,139

60,763

Buffalo,

1,608

2,095

8,653

18,213

29,773

42,261

Rochester,

1,502

9,269

20,191

26,265

36,403

Williamsburg,

5 )

1,620

6,680

30,780

Troy,

))

3,886

5,264

11,401

19,334

21,709

28,786

Syracuse,

5 )

6,502

22,271

Utica,

) )

2,972

8,323

12,782

17,665

Newark,

N. J.

6,507

10,953

17,290

34,140

38,894

Paterson, *

, )

7,596

11,334

Philadelphia,

Pa.

42,520

70,287

96,664

108,116

167,188

258,037

408,762

Pittsburg

1,565

4,768

7,248

12,542

21,115

46,601

Baltimore,

Md.

13,503

26,614

46,555

62,738

80,625

102,313

169,064

Washington,

D. C.

3,210

8,208

13,247

18,827

23,364

40,001

Richmond,

Va.

5,537

9,735

12,046

16,060

20,153

27,570

Charleston,

s. c.

16,359

18,712

24,711

24,480

30,289

29,261

42,985

Savannah,

Ga.

7,523

9,748

11,214

15,312

Mobile,

Ala.

3,194

12,672

20,615

Nashville,

Tenn.

6,666

6,929

10,478

Louisville,

Ky.

1,357

4,012

10,362

21,210

43,194

Cincinnati,

Ohio

760

2,640

9,644

24,831

46,338

115,436

Columbus,

> J

2,435

6,048

17,882

Cleveland,

) )

647

606

1,076

6,071

17,034

Detroit,

Mich.

1,422

2,222

9,102

21,019

Chicago,

111.

4,479

29,963

Milwaukee,

Wis.

1,700

20,061

St. Louis

Mo.

4,598

6,852

16,469

63,491

77,860

New Orleans,

La.

17,242

27,176

46,310

102,193

116,375

San Francisco,

Cal.

15,000

This column is from the last published Census returns.

LONDON :
BRADBUKV ASD EVANS, PRINTERS, WfUTEFUIAKS.

CHARLES KNIGHT'S HISTORY OF ENGLAND.

This day is published, in Four Volumes, Demy 8vo, price 36s., and Illmtraled by 32
Steel Engravings and numerous Woodcuts,

THE

POPULAR HISTORY of ENGLAND.

FROM THE EARLIEST TIME TO THE REVOLUTION OF 1688.
(WITH A COPIOUS INDEX.)

BY CHARLES KNIGHT.

In a Postscript to tlie Foui-th Volume, whicli concludes this Period, the author says, —
" It is now almost the invariable custom in all competitions of students, to divide their
examinations in English History into two great eras — the period before the Eevolution,
and the more modern period. For the period to 1689, either Hume's or Lingard's Histories
have been generally chosen as the works to be studied. I may venture to affirm that,
in our immediate day, the growth of a sounder public opinion repudiates such a choice
of either of these books, in some respects so valuable. The political prejudices of Hume,
— the ecclesiastical convictions of Lingard, — render them very unsafe guides in the for-
mation of the principles of the youth of this kingdom. Without pretending that I have
supplied the want, I trust that I have made some approaches to such a result, by an
earnest desire to present a true picture of past events and opinions, as far as I could realise
them." For the reason thus stated, the narrative of public events, and all the subsidiary
details of this First Division of the Popular History are treated as forming a Separatk
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which has become a constitutional epoch in the important change of the commercial policy
of the country.

" The Popular History of EnglanIo of
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greatly superior, and its literary merits are of a
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"As an immense store-house — some two
thousand pages of facts bearing upon the his-
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of England from the Romans to the Revolution
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is beyond all question a very remarkable work.
Not the least remarkable feature in it perhaps
is tlie freshness of feelin^c and the catholicity of
mind which still inspires a man, whom many
yet associate with nothing else than the utilita-
rianism of the ' Useful Knowledge Society.' "

Spectator.

" Meantime, we very cordially recommend
Mr. Knight's volumes to the readers whom they
seek. We know of no history of England so
free from prejudice, so thoroughly honest and
impartial, so stored with facts, fancies, and illus-

trations, — and therefore none so well adapted
for school or college as this ' Popular History of
England.' " — AtJwnceum.

" Mr. Knight's Book well deserves its name ;
it will be emphatically popular, and it will gain
its popularity by genuine merit. It is as good a
book of the kind as ever was \VTitten. * » » »
' The Popular History of England ' has reached
its fourth volume. •» * * This extension of
the province of history to manners and common
life, and all that intUcates the condition of the
people, is far from new, but it has never been
executed with anything like the happy ease
with which it is here attempted, not overlaying
the public annals, but interpenetrating them.
* * * * The author apologises for having
outgfrown the limits originally proposed. This
apology will be very readily accepted by his
readers, for no one can think that there is a
word too much." — Westminster Review.

" Thus, by hearty enthusiasm, yet without a
particle of bombast ; in short, by his genuine
sympathy with all of English kind ; he disarms
the critic ; and we predict that the reception of
his book will fully justify its title. Hisattempt
to supply the place of Hume's History is in a
great measure successful, at least we know to
which we ourselves shall henceforth turn to by
preference."— Timea, Dec. 29, 1858.

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THE ENGLISH CYCLOPEDIA,

rOTJETH DIVISION. .

ARTS AND SCIENCES.

THREE of the Four Divisions of this important work having been completed, and
the publication of the FOURTH DIVISION being about to commence, the Pro-
prietors desire to call attention to the character of the Cyclopaedia, as a complete body of
knowledge.

As separate works, the nature of the Cyclopaedia of Geography, of Biography, of
Natural History, and of Arts and Sciences, is sufficiently clear. But, taken as a
whole, the connection of these great Divisions may require some very brief elucidation.

If the English Cyclopaedia had been arranged in two Alphabets instead of in foui-,
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The Cyclopaedia of Geography, and the Cyclopaedia of Biography, forming Ten
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The Cyclopaedia of Natural History, and the Cyclopaedia of Arts and Sciences,
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The English Cyclopaedia is founded upon the valuable Copyright of the Penny
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Thousand Pounds, making the cost of literary production alone of these Twenty
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Three-fourths of the Cyclopaedia being now completed, no doubt can arise as to the
certainty of the remaining fourth being regularly carried to a conclusion. The last
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1859, and will be finished in the last month of 1860.

It will be issued in Monthly Parts, Twenty-four in number ; price 2s. Qd. each : and
in Volumes, Six in number, at intervals of four months.

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THE COMPLETED DIVISIONS ARE PUBLISHED AS FOLLOWS :

THE ENGLISH CYCLOP/EDIA OF GEOGRAPHY,

Four Volumes, Price 21. 2s. ; or, in Two Volumes, half-bound morocco, 21. lOs.

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THE ENGLISH OYCLOP>EDIA OF BIOGRAPHY.

Six Volumes, Trice SI. ; or, in Three Volumes, half-bound morocco, 31. 12s.
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