“Pray, don’t talk to me of our literary men! We have as yet, for the most part, but literary imitators, who follow the beaten track of the English or French; and the organization of our society is admirably calculated to retain them in this state of imbecility. It is the want of nationality, the absence of generous and expanded feelings, which are crushed by the vulgar inordinate desire after money, and the little love which our upper classes in general bear to the institutions of our country, which are the cause of our poets singing the praise of the lark and the nightingale, with whose melodious strains they are only acquainted through the medium of some English annual. What is there in our country to inspire poetic sentiments, if it be not the love of liberty and of nature, the great sources of all poetry?
“We are told that our political principles are bad, because they do not meet with the approbation of some two or three score of vain scribblers calling themselves literati, but being in fact pettifogging lawyers, that have not wit enough to make a living by their profession. Now, in order to prove such an assertion to be correct, it would first be necessary to show that these representatives of the wisdom, intelligence, and patriotism of the country are capable of forming a correct judgment of the position and wants of our people; and, secondly, that they are capable of forming an independent judgment. When our literati shall be known otherwise than by writing for the newspapers, or occasionally for an album, I shall believe the first; when I shall see a paper without advertisements, I shall trust in the second.
“We talk of an independent press, and our editors are more easily bought and sold than any writer in France! They are, indeed, not bought by so much money down, simply because there is none to give it them; but by contributions of twenty-five dollars a-piece for annual advertisements, paid at the end of the year,—if the subscriber does not fail in the mean time. Our literati want to make a living with their pen, and are in this respect just like other tradespeople.
“There,” said he, pointing to a young man dressed in the latest London fashion, “is a gentleman, the son of a respectable merchant in New York, who may serve as an illustration of what we mean by a Tory. He is just turned twenty-one, and has already been in France, England, and Italy. His father is rich; that is, he associates with fashionable people, keeps a carriage, and will, if he do not meet with great reverses, leave to his six children from fifteen to twenty thousand dollars a head. This modicum the young man will have to improve, or he will die a beggar; so that, if he does not marry a rich woman, he will be unavoidably condemned to personal labour and exertion. Yet this young man is an aristocrat! His father, knowing his inability to provide for him in such a manner as to render him independent, thought fit to give him a practical rather than a literary education. The young man accordingly learned reading, writing, and spelling; writes a tolerably fair hand, and has studied mathematics—as far as the rule of three! When he had acquired so much of a practical education, he was sent to Europe to perfect himself.
“He first went to England, where he saw all the great actors and actresses, went up St. Paul’s to take a view of the city of London, made the round of the principal gambling-houses and other public establishments worth the attention of a traveller, dined with every gentleman to whom he brought a letter of introduction, and then wrote home, that, being perfectly acquainted with English society, he was now desirous of seeing France. His father accordingly sent the money, and the young man set out in a stage-coach from London to Dover. From Dover to Boulogne he went in a steamer; and at Boulogne he took the malle-poste for Paris, making observations all the way on the manners of the French people.
“Arrived in Paris, his first care was to secure comfortable lodgings; then he delivered his letter of introduction, which was a letter of credit on Messrs. *** and Co.; then dined with his banker; after which he dined again at a restaurant’s, and then set out to prepare for his daily avocation, which consisted in strolling from his lodgings in the Rue Rivoli, through the Rue St. Honoré, to the Palais Royal; from the Palais Royal, through the Rue Vivienne, to the Place de la Bourse; thence through the Passage du Panorama to the Boulevards; and over the Boulevards, through the Rue de la Paix and the Place Vendôme, into the garden of the Tuileries, which, together with the principal theatres and other places of amusement, contained his circle of acquaintance in the French metropolis.
“Society in France being a little easier of access than in England, he obtained, by dint of perseverance,—one of our cardinal virtues,—access to one or two respectable families, and left his card with our minister in order to be presented at court. Whether he was actually admitted into ‘the presence of royalty,’ after which his heart panted ever since he was a boy, I know not; but I rather think he was, since, immediately on his return, he cut most of his old friends and acquaintances, and was, in fact, quite another man.
“The time of his embarkation at Havre being fixed upon, he employed the remaining six or seven weeks to see Italy; not forgetting to buy in Milan some black lace for his sister, in Genoa some velvet for his mother, and in Rome one or two pieces of mosaïque, in order to show his taste in the fine arts. The reason he did not purchase a hat at Leghorn was, that he did not know how to dispose of it in his portmanteau. I forgot to say, that, during all the time the young gentleman was in Europe ‘improving himself,’ he wrote home ‘the most touching letters,’ which were shown to all the acquaintance of the family; and, it being thought a pity that such talents should remain hidden under a bushel, and not enlighten other Americans that did not enjoy the same advantages, some of them actually appeared in the papers, superscribed ‘Correspondence of an American Gentleman now travelling in Europe.’ What was particularly remarkable in his correspondence was the great number of Gallicisms; showing his acquaintance with a foreign idiom, which he had already mastered to such a degree as to forget his own language. At last he came back from his tour, and has ever since been a lion in our fashionable society. Such, sir, is the usual type of our aristocrats, who are constantly railing against the levelling system, which would confound them with the industrious mechanic, the honest farmer, and the enterprising and thriving backwoodsman. But we have already lost too much time with a puppy; I must now show you some of our men.
“That gentleman there, whose animated conversation has brought together a circle of hearers, is Mr. Rives, senator from Virginia. He is one of the best specimens of our Southern gentlemen, uniting great vigour of mind, and the eye of a statesman, with those agreeable and affable manners which throw off restraint without diminishing respect; a gift which nature seldom bestows on those born under more Northern latitudes. He will be a prominent candidate for the Vice-presidency, and a great support to the democratic party. Mr. Rives is an agreeable speaker, clear and precise in his arguments, and an enemy to the rhetorical or flowery style. He has no notion of sinking the bathos, or of shaking the Senate with the thunder of his voice.
“Next to him stands a gentleman with a red wig and a laughing countenance; his eyes sparkle, though he has not yet had any champaign, and the spirits confined within his brain seem to celebrate one continual Lord Mayor’s day. This is Mr. Preston, senator from South Carolina. What a pity it is he is on the side of the opposition! He is full of fun; mixes up repartee, sarcasm, irony, and persiflage in one continual strain of humorous eloquence; and is, in fact, the prince of wags in Congress. His manners, of course, are those of a gentleman,—which indeed he cannot help, being a South-Carolinian; and his wit, though it sometimes touches to the quick, is accompanied by so much good-nature that it is impossible to be angry with him. These qualities, of course, do not make him a leader, but rather the cavalry of the opposition; and his spirited attacks sometimes make greater havoc than the artillery of Clay or Webster.