ἄγροικος ὀργήν, κυαμοτρώξ, ἀκράχαλος υπόκωφος ill-gotten goods never prosper, and that they who make booty of other men's wits, are not excepted from the general condemnation of wrong-doers. if this be not the direction in which the interest, Some day, perhaps, they will consent to profit by as well as the duty, of the public writer lies. Cerwhat they prig, and thus, like the fat knight, turn tain it is, that even in the United States those books their diseases to commodity-the national disease circulate most freely, which lash most vigorously of appropriation to the commodity of self-know- the vices of the Republic. Honest Von Raumer's ledge and self-rebuke. An American journalist, however, has put the matter in quite a new light, so far as we are concerned. Lord Demus, it appears, like other despots, is a hard master, and exacts from his most oppressed slaves a tribute of constant adulation. We, too, are invited to applaud his felonious favors, and assured that the honor and glory of being read by him on his own free and easy terms, is enough for the like of us. dull encomium fell almost still-born from the press, while the far more superficial pages of Dickens and Trollope were eagerly devoured by a people who are daily given to understand, by their own authors, that they are the greatest, the wisest, the most virtuous nation under the sun. Let a European author be never so well disposed towards them, his partial applause contributes but little to their full-blown complacency. But, when they hear that the Republic has been traduced by a foreign, and especially a British pen, their vanity is piqued, their curiosity excited, and their conscience smitten. Every one denounces the libel in pub "So long," says the editor of the New York Gazette and Times, " as our National Legislature refuses to give the Republic an International Copyright Law, so that American periodicals of a higher lic, and every one admits its truth to himself— class may be supported among us, the English reviews will do the thinking of our people upon a great variety of subjects. They make no money, indeed, directly, by their circulation here; but their conductors cannot but feel the importance, and value the influence of having the whole American literary area to themselves. Blackwood, whose circulation on this side of the Atlantic is, on account of its cheapness, double perhaps that which it can elaim in the British islands, is more and more turning its attention to American subjects, which it handles generally with its wonted humorous point, and witty spitefulness." "What!" say they, "does the Old World in truth judge us thus harshly? Is it really scandalized by such trifles as the repudiation of our debts, and the enslavement of our fellow creatures? Must we give up our playful duels, and our convenient spittoons, before we can hope to pass muster as Christians and gentlemen beyond our own borders? O free Demus! O wise Demus! O virtuous Demus! Will you betake yourself to cleanly and well-ordered ways at the bidding of the scribbler?" Thus "they eat, and eke they swear;" vowing all the time that they will horribly revenge." No doubt, however, the bitter pill of foreign animadThis is very fine; but we can assure our friendly version, though distateful to the palate, relieves critic, that we feel no call whatever to undertake the inflation of their stomachs, and leaves them the gratuitous direction of the American con- better and lighter than before. But when will a science. Our ambition to "do the thinking" of native Aristophanes arise to purge the effeminacy our Yankee cousins is materially damped by the of the American press, and show up the sausageunpleasant necessity which it involves, of being venders and Cleons of the Republic in their true "done" ourselves. They seem, however, to claim light? How long will the richest field of national a prescriptive right to the works of the British folly in the world remain unreaped, save by the press, as well as to the funds of the British pub-crotchety sickles of dull moralists and didactic lic. They read our books, on the same principle pamphleteers? as they borrow our money, and abuse their bene Not that moral courage is entirely wanting in factors into the bargain with more than Hibernian the United States; but it is a kind of courage alasperity. After all, however, we believe that the together too moral, and sadly deficient in animal candor of Maga has as much to do with their spirits. The New Englanders especially, set up, larcenous admiration of her pages, as the "cheap- in their solemn way, to admonish the vices of the ness" to which our New York editor alludes. To Republic, and to inoculate them with the virulent use their own phrase, "they go in for excitement virtues of the Puritanical school. The good city considerable ;" and to be told of their faults is an of Boston alone teens with transcendental schemes excitement which they seldom enjoy at the hands for the total and immediate regeneration of manof their own authors. Now, we are accustomed to kind. There we find Peace Societies, and New treat our own public as a rational, but extremely fallible personage, and to think that we best deserve his support, by administering to his failings the language of unpalateable truth. And we greatly mistake the character of Demus, and even of that conceited monster the American Demus, VOL. XIII-46 Moral World Societies, and Tetotal Societies, and Anti-Slavery Societies, all in full blast," each opposing to its respective bane the most sweeping and exaggerated remedies. The Americans never do things by halves; their vices and their virtues are alike in extremes, and the principles of the second book of the Ethics of Aristotle are alto- culiarities are not very marked; in truth, there is a gether unknown to their philosophy. At one mo- marvellous uniformity of bad habits amongst them; ment they are all for "brandy and bitters," at the but when viewed in their collective capacity, whennext, tea and turn-out is the order of the day. ever two or three of them are gathered together, Here, you must "liquor or fight"-there, a little shades of Democritus! commend us to a sevenwine for the stomach's sake is sternly denied to a fold pocket-handkerchief. The humors of most fit of colic, or an emergency of gripes. The moral nations expend themselves on carnivals and feastsoul of Boston thrills with imaginings of perpetual days, at the theatre, the ball-room, or the public peace, while St. Louis or New Orleans are volca-garden; but the fun of the United States is to be noes of war. Listen to the voice of New England, looked for at public meetings, and philanthropiand you would think that negro slavery was the only cal gatherings, in the halls of lyceums, female crime of which a nation ever was, or could by pos-academies, and legislative bodies. There, they sibility be guilty; go to South Carolina, and you spout, there they swell, and cover themselvos with are instructed that "the Domestic Institution" is adulation as with a garment. From the inaugurathe basis of democratic virtue, the corner-stone of tion of a President to the anniversary of the fair the Republican edifice. Cant, indeed, in one form graduates of the Slickville female Institute, no and other, is the innate vice of the "carnest" An- event is allowed to pass without a grand palaver, glo-Saxon mind, on both sides of the Atlantic, and in which things in general are extensively discussridicule is the weapon which the gods have ap-ed, and their own things in particular extensively pointed for its mitigation. You must lay on the praised. They got the trick no doubt from us, rod with a will, and throw "moral suasion" to the whose performances in this line are quite unrivalled dogs. Above all, your demagogue dreads satire in the Old World, but they have added to our plat as vermin the avenging thumb-"Any thing but form common-places a variety and “damnable itthat," squeaks he, 66 an you love me. Liken me to eration" entirely their own. Besides, when Bull Lucifer or Caius Gracchus; charge me with am- is called upon to make an ass of himself on such bition, and glorious vices; let me be the evil ge- occasions, he seems for the most part to have a nius of the commonwealth, the tinsel villain of the due appreciation of the fact, while Jonathan's impolitical melodrama; but don't threaten me with perturbability and apparent good faith are quite subthe fool's cap, or write me down with Dogberry lime. The things that we have been compelled to above all, don't quote me in cold blood, that the hear of that "star-spangled banner!" and all as if foolish people may see, after the fever heat has they were spoken in real earnest, and meant to be subsided, what trash I have palmed upon them in so understood. We look back upon those sidethe name of liberty!" Yet this is the way, Jona-rending moments with a kind of Lucretian pleathan, to deal with demagogues. You make too sure, and indemnify ourselves for past constraint much of yours, man. You are not the blockhead by a hearty guffaw. All this magniloquence and we take you for after all; but you delight to see bad taste, however, is intelligible enough. It your public men in motley, and the rogues will fool springs partly from a want of discipline in their you to the top of your beat, till it is your pleasure society, and partly from the absence of those stuto put down the show. So now that the piper has dies which purify the taste, enlighten the judgment, to be paid, and a lucid interval appears to be dawning and make even dulness respectable. American upon you, to the pillory at once with these "stump" audiences are not critical-not merely because orators, and pot-house politicians, who have led you they are not learned, but because they all take it into such silly scrapes; turn them about, and look in turns to be orators, as they do to be colonels of at them well in the rough, that you may know them militia and justices of the peace. Thus they learn again when you see them, and learn to avoid for to bear each other's burdens, and Dulness is fully the future their foolish and mischievous counsels. justified of her children. In a country where all It is remarkable that while a perception of the men, at least in theory, are equal, and where every ridiculous, perhaps to excess, is characteristic of man does in fact exercise a certain influence on the British mind, and is at the bottom of many de- public affairs, it is not surprising that a large numfects in the national manners, commonly attributed ber of persons should possess a certain facility of to less venal feelings, our Transatlantic descen- public speaking, which even in England is far from dants err in just the opposite direction. The Amer- universal, and is elsewhere possessed by very cans seldom laugh at anybody, or anything-never few. No man in the United States is deterred at themselves; and this, next to an unfortunate from offering his views upon matters of state, by trick of insolvency, and a preternatural abhorrence the feeling that neither his education nor his poof niggers, is perhaps the besetting sin of an oth-sition justify his interference. It is difficult in erwise "smart" people. As individuals, their pe- England to realize the practical equality which obtains as a fundamental principle in the Republic. There every man feels himself to be, and in fact is, or at least may be, a potential unit in the com * Εστίν άρα ἡ ἀρετὴ ἐξιςπροαιρετικὴ, ἐν νεότητι δνέα τῇ πρὸς ἠας ὡρις μένη λογω. munity. As a man, he is a citizen-as a citizen," everlastingly used up-and no two ways about a sovereign, whose caprices are to be humored, it." Poor old Adams did actually begin his Oregon and whose displeasure is to be deprecated. Judge speech with the first chapter of Genesis. The Peddle, for instance, from the backwoods is not title-deeds of the Republic, he said, were to be perhaps as eloquent as Webster, nor as subtle as found in the words, Be fruitful and multiply and Calhoun, but he has just as good a right to be heard replenish the earth!" Happily, the fatal hammer when he goes up to Congress for all that. Is of the Speaker put down the venerable antediluhe not accounted an exemplary citizen "and a vian, before he got to the end of the chapter. pretty tall talker" in his own neighborhood, and In the Senate, on the other hand, which is a less where on "the univarsal airth" would you find a numerous, and somewhat more select body, things more enlightened public opinion? It would never still go on in the old fashioned way. There, when do to put Peddle down; that would be lese-maj- a member has once caught the Speaker's eye, his esté against his constituents, the sovereign people fortune is made for the day-perhaps for the week. who dwell in Babylon, which is in the county Accordingly he takes things easy from the very first, of Lafayette, on the banks of the Chattawichee. kicks his spittoon to a convenient angle, offers a libaThus endorsed, Peddle soon lays aside his native tion of cold water to his parched entrails, and begins. bashfulness, and makes the walls of Congress vocal When he leaves off is another matter altogetherto that bewitching eloquence which heretofore cap- but not generally till he has gone through the round tivated the Babylonish mind. He was "raised of human knowledge, explored the past, touched a leetle too far to the west of sun-down" to be lightly upon the present, and cast a piercing glance snabbed by Downeasters, any how; he's a cock of into the darkness of the future. Soon after three, the woods, he is; an "etarnal screamer," "and the Senate adjourns for dinner, and the orator of that's a fact"-with a bowie knife under his waist- the day goes to his pudding with the rest, happy eoat, and a patent revolver in his coat pocket, both in the reflection that he has done his duty by his very much at the service of any gentleman who his country, and will do it again on the morrow. may dispute his claims to popular or personal consideration. To meet the case of these volcanic statesmen, "Aw'd by no shame, by no respect controll'd," We have somewhere read of a paradise of fools. Undoubtedly, Congress is that place. There they enjoy a perfect impunity, and revel in the full gratification of their instincts. Nobody thinks of coughing them down, or swamping them with ironical cheers. There "Dulness with transport, eyes each lively dunce, and in order that the noble army of dunces, (a potent majority, of course,) may have no reason to complain that the principles of equality are violated in their persons, the House of Representatives has adopted a regulation, commonly called "the one-hour rule." Upon this principle, whenever a question of great interest comes up, each member is allotted one hour by the Speaker's Indeed, all the arrangements of Congress favor watch-as much less as he pleases, but no more the influence of the sable goddess. In the first on any consideration. Of course it occasionally place, the members are paid by the day-eight happens that a man who has something to say, is dollars each. Permit us to observe, Jonathan, that not able to say it effectively within the hour; but you scarcely display your usual “smartness” here. then, for one such, there are at least a dozen who It would be much better to contract with them by would otherwise talk for a week without saying the scrape. As for instance-To involving the anything at all. Upon the whole, therefore, this country in a war with Mexico, so much—To ditto same one-hour rule is deserving of all praise-the with Great Britain so much more. time of the country is saved by it, the sufferings might lay down a lumping sum for a protective of the more sensible members are abbreviated, tariff, with an understanding, that it was to be rewhile the dunces, to do them justice, make the most pealed the next at a moderate advance. You would of their limited opportunities. Who knows, but that thus insure the greatest possible variety of politithe peace of the world may be owing to it? For cal catastrophes, with the least possible friction as there are about 230 representatives, we should and expense. Again, the furniture of the Capitol have had, but for it, just as many masterly demon- is altogether too luxurious. Each member is prostrations of the title of the Republic to the whole vided with a private desk, stationery ad lib., a of Oregon-and something more. In such a cause, stuffed arm chair, and a particular spittoon. they would make nothing of beginning with the wonder, then, that your Simmses and Chipmans creation of the world, and ending with the last pro- are listened to with complacency. It's all in the tocol of Mr. Buchanan! Decidedly, but for "the day's work-it's considered in the wages. While one hour rule," we Britishers should have been these worthies hold forth for the benefit of distant One year you No Missouri and Michigan, their colleagues write their who know them best. All this, and much more to letters, read the newspapers, chew tobacco, as little the same effect, may be admitted without demur, boys do taffy in England, and expectorate at leisure. but all these admissions will avail the traveller No one cheers, no one groans, no one cries Oh! nothing. He will be expected to congratulate them Oh!-all the noise that is made is on private ac on the elegance of their manners, the copiousness count, and not at all personal to the gentleman on of their literature, and the refinement of their his legs. Yet, such is the deceitfulness of the tastes. He will be confidentially informed that human heart, that the Americans are much given "Lord Morpeth's manners were much improved to boast of the dignity and decorum of their Le- by mixing with our first circles, sir," and what is gislature, and to thank God that it is not a bear garden like another place of the kind that they wot of. We must have been asked at least six times a day during our visit at Washington, "How Congress compared with the British Parliament ?" To which we used to reply, "That they did not compare at all;" an answer which fully met the truth of the case, without in the least wounding the self-love of the querist. 66 worse, he will be expected to believe it, and to carry himself accordingly. "Ripe scholars," who make awful false quantities, second-rate demagogues passing for "distinguished statesmen," literary empirics, under the name of "men of power," will claim his suffrages at every turn; and in vain will he draw upon his politeness to the utmost, in vain assent, ejaculate, and admire-no amount of positive praise will suffice, till America Felix is admitted to be the chosen home of every grace and every muse. "Did Mr. Bull meet with any of our literary characters at Boston ?" Mr. Bull had that happiness. Well, he was very much pleased of course!" Bull hastens to lay his hand upon his heart, and to reply with truth that he was pleased. "Yes, sir, we do expect that our Boston literature is about first-rate. We are a young people, sir, but we are a great people, and we are bound to be greater still. There is a moral power, sir, an elevation about the New England mind, which Europeans can scarcely realize. Did you hear Snooks lecture, sir? The Rev. Amos Snooks of Pisgah? Well, sir, you ought to have heard Snooks. All Europeans calculate to hear Snooks-he's a fine man, sir, a man of power-one of the greatest men, sir, in this, or perhaps any other country." When these malignant pages arrive in New York, every inhabitant of that good city will abuse us heartily, except our publisher. But great will be the joy of that furacious individual, as he speculates in secret on the increased demand of his agonized public. Immediately he will put forth an advertisement, notifying the men of "Gotham," that he has on hand a fresh sample of BRITISH INSOLENCE, and hinting that, although he knows they care nothing about such things, the forthcoming piracy of Maga will be on the most extensive scale. Then, all the little newspapers will take us in hand and bully us in their little way. It is perhaps a shame to forestall the acerbities of these ingenious gentlemen, but we know they will call us anonymous scribbler," and "bagman," amongst the rest. They called us "bagman" for our last article, and we were sure they would. The fact is, that since Lord Morpeth's visit to the United States, the Americans have taken a very high tone indeed. Their gratitude to that amiable nobleman for not You leave Boston somewhat snubbed and subwriting a book about them, is unbounded, and they dued, and betake yourself to the more cosmopoliput him down (why, it is difficult to say,) as the tan regions of New York. Here, too, "men of aristocratic, and therefore impartial champion of power" are to be found in great numbers—but “our Demus. Whenever we fell into the bilious moods first circles" divide the attention and abuse the pa to which our plebeian nature is addicted, we were tience of the traveller. Boston writes the books, gravely admonished of his bright example, and as-but New York sets the fashions of the Republic, sured that to speak evil of the Republic was the infirmity of vulgar minds. There is, it would appear, a sympathy betwixt "great ones;" a kind of free-masonry betwixt the sovereign people and the British peerage, which neither party suspected previously, but which is confessed on the slightest acquaintance. "Semper ego auditor tantum, nunquam ne reponam, Vexatus toties." and is the Elysium of mantua-makers and upholsterers. We doubt whether any city in the world of its size can boast so many smart drawing-rooms and so many pretty young women. Indeed, from the age of fifteen to that of five-and-twenty, female beauty is the rule rather than the exception in the United States, and neither cost nor pains are spared As generally happens in such cases, the conceit to set it forth to the best advantage. The Ameriof the Americans takes the most perverse direc- can women dress well, dance well, and in all that tion. It is certain that they do many things better relates to what may be called the mechanical part than any people under the sun. Their merchant of social intercourse, they appear to great advannavy is the finest in the world-their river steamers tage. Nothing can exceed the self-possession of are miracles of ingenuity,-at felling timber and these pretty creatures, whose confidence is never packing pork they are unrivalled; and their smart-checked by the discipline of society, or the resness in the way of trade is acknowledged by those 'traints of an education which is terminated almost as soon as it is begun. There is no childhood in America-no youth-no freshness. We look in vain for the "Ingenui vultus puer, ingenuique pudoris," "The modest maid deck'd with a blush of honor, Whose feet do tread green paths of youth and love." DANIEL. amongst them; but if the standard is nowhere very high, it never falls so low as with us; if there is less refinement and cultivation amongst the higher classes (we beg Demus' pardon for the expression,) there is on the other hand less grossness, certainly less clownishness, among the mass. Of course there are many individuals in this, as in other countries, remarkable for natural grace and genteel bearing; but the class which is pre-eminent in these respects, is very small and ill-defined. The There is scarcely a step from the school to the great national defect is a want of sprightliness and forum-from the nursery to the world. Young vivacity, and an impartial insouciance in their ingirls, who in England would be all blushes and tercourse with all classes and conditions of men. bread and butter, boldly precede their mammas into For if inequality has its evils, it has also its charms, the ball-room; and the code of a mistaken gallan- as the prospect of swelling mountains and lowly try supplies no corrective to their caprice, for youth vales is more pleasing to the eye than that of the and beauty are here invested with regal preroga- monotonous, though more fertile champaign. Now, tives, and can do no wrong. In short, the Ameri- as the relation of patrician and plebeian, of patron cans carry their complaisance to the sex beyond and client, of master and servant, of superior and due bounds—at least in little things-for we by no inferior, can scarcely be said to exist in the United means think that the real influence of their women States, so all the nice gradations of manner which is great, notwithstanding the tame and submissive are elicited by those relations, are wanting also. gallantry with which the latter are treated in pub- The social machine rubs on with as little oil as poslic. We doubt whether the most limited gyno-sible-there is but small room for the exercise of cracy would tolerate the use of tobacco as an arti-he amenities and charities of life. The favors of cle of daily diet, or permit ferocious murders to go unwhipped of justice under the name of duels. But the absorbing character of the pursuits of the men forbids any strong sympathy betwixt the sexes; and perhaps the despotism which the women exercise in the drawing-room arises from the fact that all that relates to the graces and embellishments of life is left entirely to them. We do not know that this can be avoided under the circumstances of the country, but it has a most injurious effect upon social intercourse. The Americans of both sexes want tact and graciousness of manner, and that prompt and spontaneous courtesy which is the child of discipline and self-restraint. They are seldom absolutely awkward, because they are never bashful; they have no mauvaise honte, because they are all on an equality; hence they never fail to display a certain dry composure of bearing, which, though not agreeable, is less ludicrous than the gaucherie so commonly observed in all classes of English society, except the very highest. the great are seldom rewarded by the obsequiousness of the small. No leisure and privileged class exists to set an example of refined and courtly bearing but there are none, however humble, who may not affect the manners of their betters without impertinence, and aspire to the average standard of the Republic. Hence, almost every native American citizen is capable of conducting himself with propriety, if not with ease, in general society. What are fine ladies and gentlemen to him, that he should stand in awe of them? Simple persons who have been smarter or earlier in the field of fortune than himself, who will "burst op" some fine morning, and leave the road open to others. The principle of rotation is not confined to the political world of the United States, but obtains in every department of life. It is throughout the same song"Here we go up, up, up, And here we go down, down, down." Law and opinion, and the circumstances of the country, are alike opposed to the accumulation of property, so that it is rare for two successive generations of the same family to occupy the same It is curious to observe how the manners of two nations of the same origin, and, in a great degree, of similar instincts, are modified by their political institutions. Neither the British nor the Amerieans are distinguished for that natural politeness and savoir vivre, which is to be found more or less of the Democratic party, and is founded upon the Repub*The principle of rotation in office is a favorite crotchet in all other civilized countries. They are both too lican jealousy of power. General Jackson went so far as grave, too busy, and too ambitious to lay them-to recommend that all official appointments whatever should selves out for trifles, which, after all, go far to make be limited by law to the Presidential term of four years. up the sum of human happiness. As for the Ameri- As it is, whenever a change of parties occurs, a clean cans, the general aspect of their society is dreary sweep is made of all the officers of government, from the highest to the lowest. Custom-house officers, jailors, &c., and monotonous in the extreme. Whatever "our all share the fate of their betters. It is only surprising that first circles" may say to the contrary, there is a the business of the country is carried on as well as it is, great equality of manners, as of other things, under the influence of this corrupting system. |