Part 17

[18] When General Jackson was running alone, in opposition to Mr. Adams, the English, under the impressions alluded to, above, and probably on account of ancient grudges, betrayed a strong disinclination to his success. Still, Mr. Adams was disliked, for he was believed to be unfriendly to England, and favourable to the system of protecting duties. Suddenly, the press of London, altered its tone in reference to the former, and from lavishing the usual scurrility, it began to speak of him in terms of respect. It is said that the English agents in America, notified their government that they were quarrelling with their bread and butter, and that the change of policy took place in consequence. These little occurrences should teach every American, how to appreciate praise, or censure, that comes from sources so venal. Mr. Adams probably understood the true foreign policy of the government, better than any political man who has been in power since the days of Jefferson. The protective system, the congress of Panama, though defeated in its objects by hostile influence, and the protest of the administration of Mr. Monroe, which is understood to have originated with Mr. Adams, are three of the most elevated, far sighted, and statesman-like measures, America ever undertook. The former, though run down by English influence, will quite likely be called for by the very states that now most oppose it, within the next five-and-twenty years. Nothing is more probable, than that the Constitution will be amended, solely with a view to this end, and that the cotton-growing states will first move in the matter. But for the redeeming act of the president, in recommending reprisals against France, the writer, a near looker on for most of the time, should say, that the character of the nation abroad, suffered much less during the administration of Mr. Adams, than during that of his successor, though the diplomatic tone was not what it ought to have been, under either administration. We boast a great deal of the dexterity with which the nation has got out of a difficulty, while we entirely overlook the capital fault by which it got into it. So far from the truculent spirit of democracy, inducing the government to rush into wars, the craven and temporising spirit of trade, the only concentrated interest of much available power in ordinary cases, has prevented it from maintaining the true interests of the country, in a dozen distinct instances, within the last twenty years.

[19] When the writer went to Europe, it was so unusual to hear any thing against the system of America, that disaffection may be said to have become extinct. On his return, however, after an absence of less than eight years, he was astonished to hear monarchical sentiments openly declared, and he believes that it will be generally admitted by all candid observers, that their avowal is now more open and more frequent, than they have been at any time, within the present century. This is not the place to discuss the reasons, but this explanation is due from the writer, on his own account, as, without it, a change that has actually taken place among others, may be ascribed to himself. No one need be ashamed of having honestly altered his opinions, for good cause, and after mature examination; but since the publication of these letters has commenced, the writer has been openly accused of changes that, in point of fact, have occurred among other people. Another occasion may offer to examine this point.

[20] Exaggerated as this may appear, the writer has actually been driven away, by strangers leaning over him, in this manner, no less than eleven times, at the Astor House, within the last twelvemonths.

[21] Mrs. Butler, in her shrewd work on America, has given many good hits at this love for the grandiose. Whenever this lady has gone out of her particular sphere, or that of her sex, her remarks are such as might have been anticipated from a young English woman, visiting America with all her political prejudices about her, and almost as a matter of course, necessarily ignorant of the true machinery and action of governments. Even in this writer, the expectation, not to say the _longing_, for a dissolution of the Union, that has been so often mentioned in these pages, is sufficiently apparent, she, also, has fallen into the very common error of ascribing things to the institutions, such for instance as the _nonchalance_ of the trades people, and the noisy, screeching, hoydenish romps of the sexes, which it suits the caprices of certain people to term society, when they ought to be referred, one to the personal independence of a country prosperous beyond example, and the other to the unsettled condition of towns, that double their population every twenty years, and their wealth in ten.

Mrs. Butler has made many other mistakes, beyond a question, for she has written under erroneous impressions at starting. Of this class are all the misconceptions connected with those usages that are thought to be tending daily towards aristocracy. Any one who knows the country well, knows that in all the ordinary appliances of this nature, America has been gradually receding from such forms, for the last forty years. Thus footmen, liveries, hatchments, coats of arms, &c. &c., are all much less common now, than at the commencement of the century. Mrs. Butler has mistaken the twilight, for the dawn; the shadows of the past for those of coming events. This is a common misapprehension of the English, and it arises from a disposition to see things in their own way.

The treatment that this lady has received, cannot be too loudly condemned. She has been derided, caricatured, almost, if not positively, slandered, because she has presumed to speak the truth about us! Mrs. Trollope has met with similar denunciations, though with a greater show of reason, for Mrs. Trollope has calumniated her own sex in America. Besides, one sees, in the book of Mrs. Trollope, a malignant feeling, and calculations of profit; while the work of Mrs. Butler is as honest as it is fearless. The latter has designated persons too plainly, perhaps, as coupled with unpleasant remarks; but all these faults may be overlooked, as the whims of a very young female.

In one thing Mrs. Butler is singularly mistaken. She says that neither England, nor France, manifests any sensibility on the subject of the comments of travellers! The French do not, ordinarily, understand the comments of the English, or the English those of the French. Neither nation reads nor knows any thing about the comments of the Americans at all. Nothing is easier than to manifest indifference to things of which we are totally ignorant. As respects the English, however, one has only to name Pillet, d’ Haussez, and Puckler-Muskau, in order to show how much abuse and calumny they can heap on those whose opinions displease them. The stories circulated in English society, concerning the latter, by way of retaliation for his book, were quite on a level with the Trollopeana of America. Both are a disgrace to civilization.

TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE

Obvious typographical errors and punctuation errors have been corrected after careful comparison with other occurrences within the text and consultation of external sources.

Some hyphens in words have been silently removed, some added, when a predominant preference was found in the original book.

Except for those changes noted below, all misspellings in the text, and inconsistent or archaic usage, have been retained; for example, “cooly” and “coolly” are both valid variants and have been left unchanged in the etext.

Catalog: ‘o. Virginia’ replaced by ‘of Virginia’. Pg 13: ‘Lansdown, Grey, and’ replaced by ‘Lansdowne, Grey, and’. Pg 31: ‘lath and stuccoe’ replaced by ‘lath and stucco’. Pg 34: ‘like Stawberry Hill’ replaced by ‘like Strawberry Hill’. Pg 38: ‘is their no analogy’ replaced by ‘is there no analogy’. Pg 40: the heading ‘LETTER XVIII.’ replaced by ‘LETTER XVII.’. Pg 42: ‘arbritrary selection’ replaced by ‘arbitrary selection’. Pg 46: ‘the the truth even, in’ replaced by ‘that the truth, even in’. Pg 48: ‘hast the merit’ replaced by ‘has the merit’. Pg 54: ‘nervous, fidgetty’ replaced by ‘nervous, fidgety’. Pg 60: ‘have postively no’ replaced by ‘have positively no’. Pg 62: ‘atwhart the cables’ replaced by ‘athwart the cables’. Pg 82: ‘adapting both both to’ replaced by ‘adapting both to’. Pg 88: ‘scarcely recal’ replaced by ‘scarcely recall’. Pg 95, 96: ‘are dependant on’ replaced by ‘are dependent on’. Pg 109: ‘Sir James M‘Intosh’ replaced by ‘Sir James Macintosh’. Pg 111: ‘these mistatements’ replaced by ‘these misstatements’. Pg 119: ‘etherial essence’ replaced by ‘ethereal essence’. Pg 121: ‘recal that passage’ replaced by ‘recall that passage’. Pg 124: ‘in dicussion, and’ replaced by ‘in discussion, and’. Pg 138: ‘one by by one’ replaced by ‘one by one’. Pg 173: ‘from her workships’ replaced by ‘from her workshops’. Pg 175: ‘results dependant’ replaced by ‘results dependent’. Pg 177: ‘are incompatable’ replaced by ‘are incompatible’. Pg 192: ‘particularily active, they they have’ replaced by ‘particularly active, they have’. Pg 207: ‘to corrobate the’ replaced by ‘to corroborate the’. Pg 210: ‘is dependant on’ replaced by ‘is dependent on’. Pg 214: ‘El Derado’ replaced by ‘El Dorado’. Pg 229: ‘than dependant, to’ replaced by ‘than dependent, to’. Pg 232: ‘children often die.’ replaced by ‘children often do.’. Pg 239: ‘in Regent street’ replaced by ‘in Regent’s street’. Pg 242: ‘of the Himilayas’ replaced by ‘of the Himalayas’. Pg 253: ‘home, I asscribe’ replaced by ‘home, I ascribe’. Pg 257: ‘than elesewhere’ replaced by ‘than elsewhere’. Footnote 14: ‘Mr. Cobbet said’ replaced by ‘Mr. Cobbett said’.