“Not only does it render property insecure,” rejoined the other senator, “but it undermines the stability of our institutions. Instead of adhering to the text of the constitution, our parties are led by different policies. There is the tariff policy; as if manufacturing, or getting rich by selling home made cotton and broad-cloth, were the last end proposed by government. Then comes the national improvement policy; people must have large roads and canals in order to force trade into one or the other direction. They cannot wait until the wants of commerce shall have called them into existence; neither will they rely upon private enterprise for their execution: it must be done by the protecting guardianship of the government, and the whole country en masse must contribute to benefit particular States. Then comes the question of a national bank; which has agitated the country before it was quite ushered into the world, and ever after. What great national question has occupied public attention more than the art, science, practice, custom, and expediency of making money? It has employed all the wisdom, all the discretion, and all the energies of our statesmen; clearly indicating what direction the republic of the nineteenth century would take, and wherein consists the greatness of our times.
“All these questions have been so continually agitated that we have found no time for anything else; and yet we wonder Europeans do not take a sufficient interest in the progress of our country. What have we done that is so very marvellous? We have, thanks to the infinite resources of our country, built more railroads and canals than they have; we have built and blown up more steam-boats; and we have, in proportion to our population, a larger mercantile navy than any other people. But what progress have we made in the arts and sciences, in literature, or in philosophy, to entitle us to be ranked foremost in the scale of nations? There exists now an international literature among the civilized nations of the world. What share do we take in that? The present age is in labour to give birth to a new order of things, to a new era in history; what is America doing to aid the delivery?—she who has had so much to do with the conception, and who is now responsible to the world if the whole prove an abortion. Is not every such sympathy expressed by our people—I mean by the mass of our population—laughed to scorn by our ‘respectable’ citizens; and are not nine-tenths of all the Americans travelling in Europe a living parody of our republican institutions? Has not even Cooper written half a dozen books on England, Italy, France, &c. as if his main purpose were to teach his countrymen good manners, and to convince them that he is a competent instructor, having himself been admitted into the best society? Why, if the speeches of our fashionable gentlemen were published in Europe, if their estimation of our people and of our institutions were taken as a criterion of the justice and strength of our government, then the state of our country might, indeed, be held up in terrorem to every nation aspiring to liberty.
“What have we achieved to be proud of, if it be not our national charter? And is not this expounded by every party in a different manner? We do not even seem to know whether we shall really have a republican government, or whether our constitution shall be a mere mock-word, granting to the people in theory what a large and influential portion of our citizens endeavour to deny them in practice. As long as our institutions are looked upon as a mere experiment, not only by a certain class in Europe, but by the élite of our own people; as long as our fashionable toadies pour out their contempt for popular governments in the ante-chambers of princes and nobles; and as long as our enlightened press finds no better food for the patriotism of our people than to entertain them with the court fashions and the court etiquette of Europe,—we have no right to find fault with the literary and thinking portion of Europeans for not wondering at our progress, or not thinking us the very first nation in the world.
“To boast of the inexhaustible resources of the country God in his infinite mercy has granted us for the noblest experiment; to be proud of our getting rich, of our being well-fed and well-clothed; and to look down with a mixture of pity and contempt on the millions which in less favoured climes are struggling against hunger and despotism,—proves a degree of vulgar egotism against which European writers have a right to use every weapon with which sarcasm and ridicule can furnish them.
“Instead of bawling like little children when we are hurt by some European critic, let us be sufficiently independent to go on fearlessly, and without reference to the fashions of other nations, in the developement of those maxims and principles which have led to the establishment of our government. Let every nation develope and improve that to which it is principally indebted for its existence and power, instead of continually borrowing from others, and introducing heterogeneous elements into the state, which can only weaken its cohesion. The peculiar genius of our people is their capacity for self-government. Let them follow the inspiration of that genius, and esteem themselves for their real worth, and they will have no need of fearing the sting of European sarcasm.”
“That’s it—that’s it exactly!” shouted the member. “Instead of going on ‘gloriously,’ ‘irresistibly,’ and ‘triumphantly,’ we stop all the time to pick up knowledge in Europe.”
“There is enough knowledge to be picked up in Europe for you or me,” replied the senator with a significant look on the member; “but, when our people go to Europe, they pick up the weed, and overlook the wholesome plant. We have no discrimination in our choice; and hence most of our countrymen, when they return home from abroad, arrive in a poisoned state, and immediately infect their neighbourhood. We ought to establish a sort of moral quarantine at the entrance of all our ports, where we ought to retain gentlemen and ladies returning from Europe, until they should have given symptoms of returning reason.”
“That’s exactly what I say,” cried the member. “I wish somebody would make such a motion!”
“Is it not strange,” continued the senator, “that we, who are descended from the English, should resemble them so little in one respect? The English carry their national customs and manners wherever they go; whereas we, poor unfortunate Yankees! with the sympathy of half the world in our favour, are absolutely ashamed of our own, and embarrassed when asked about the nature of our government.”
“If any such there be, I wish I knew their names,” interrupted the member; “they ought to be published.”