Fifty years in Wall Street

by Henry Clews

If it were not for the constant stream of immigration to these shores, the people of this country might begin to think that Republicanism was the birthright of all, and forget that they enjoyed especial privileges by birth, and came into this world with a very important start of other nations. I fear that some of them are prone to imagine, especially some of the fair sex, that we suffer here from that long felt want of a hereditary and native nobility. Some of these fair ones have had sad experience, that should have disabused their young minds of these notions not very long ago. The force of these examples will have some effect, at least, in moderating the folly of their mothers. It can hardly be expected that many of the young ladies will learn much themselves, except by a repetition of the same sad experience, but the persuasive powers of the mammas may exercise a deterring effect in many instances where hasty matrimonial alliances to catch the bauble of a foreign title would be the forerunner of much misery and sometimes shame.

I might cite many instances of these from our own city, but the sensational papers will deal with them ad nauseam. I don’t aspire to be sensational in this book. I only attempt to state in matters of this kind what may suffice to point the moral, leaving the sensational story-teller to adorn the tale Nor do I mean to cast any reflection on such happy marriages as that of Miss Jerome to Lord Randolph Churchill, and others I could mention.

Our expansive territory has enabled the adventurous and energetic of all nations of the world to come here and make homes for themselves, instead of remaining in the land of their birth, where many of them were existing in a modified condition of slavery under other names.

The idea of encouraging this large exodus from other lands, and this freedom of assimilation with our people, has been one of the great bulwarks of our prosperity.

I realized this fact very clearly at the commencement of the war of the Rebellion, and have cherished it ever since.

I therefore felt deeply earnest in my sympathy with the North against the South, whose great effort was to break up the present form of government, attempting to destroy its autonomy and powerful cohesiveness.

The nation would have been split in twain to start with, if Horace Greeley’s advice had been taken, “Let them secesh.” Mr. Greeley’s counsel was well meant, as he thought the Southern people would soon be glad to return to the Union, but it would have been national suicide to follow it.

The two parts of the dissevered nation would have been constantly menacing each other, and kept on a war footing, with occasionally recurring hostilities across the border on every slight provocation. The result would have been that some or all of the European powers would have taken advantage of this state of affairs to plant the standard of despotism once more on these shores, making this fair land a battle ground for Imperial and kingly ambition.

These designs were foreshadowed by Napoleon III., whose actions I have dealt with more fully in another place, and Great Britain was only awaiting the opportunity to avenge Bunker Hill, Saratoga and Yorktown.

In fact, all the powers of Europe would have taken advantage of the chance of acquiring a slice of such a fine domain, where in the event of successful secession only feeble resistance could have been offered to foreign aggression.