V'^^ .r^ ^ WASHINGTON IRVING, ESQ. Sir, In dedicating the following pages to you, I know that 1 have but acted in accordance with the view of the author, which in this case entirely coincides with my own. Whether, in doing so, we meet your wishes is another question: but it seemed so formal, to ask your permission to dedicate so trifling a work to you, and this previous permission appears so decidedly to coun- teract the intended courtesy of a dedication, that I preferred to grace this volume with your name without your consent obtained beforehand. However you may dilFer from some opinions stated in the work, I beg you to accept its dedication to you, as a token of admiration, which the author and his editor feel for the pro- ductions with which you have enriched the literature of two great nations. The token, I am aware, is very disproportionate to the meaning it is intended to convey, but may not even indistinct characters express a glowing sentence? I am, with great regard. Sir, Your most obedient servant, Francis Libber. Philmlelphiu, Nov. 1834. LrETTERS, &c. LETTER L So you wish me, my dear friend, to write a whole " se- ries of letters." Why, you seem to have studied with the Franciscans, with whom " begging boldly " is constitution- al. " Vadatis pro eleemosyna confident er,'^* says their founder and saint in the constitution of the order. And on what shall I write? On the United States? You give me a subject as vast as their territory, and surely you do not wish a series of letters running through six volumes as big an4 heavy as a novel of old! Besides a book of that size would be quite out of season. Nowadays every thing, even commentaries on a code, must be twelve-moed out to the public. Nay, this diminutive size is too troublesome for many, may I say for most, people? They require their in- tellectual dishes to be chopped and minced into a newspa- per pie. " Sir," said an old and thoroughly experienced editor lately to me, " an article, calculated for being read, ought never to exceed half a column," and he knows the pa- late of the public as well as any man in the meat or fruit market. Were I to write a history of modern civiliza- tion, I should follow the most philosophical rule, by making • " Go and beg boldly." — Editoh. • w (. 10 ) my division into periods according to striking manifesta- tions of powerful and characteristic*principles.' 1 would call otic of the greatdivisions the period of folios; the time when controversialists knew of no more poisonous iirrow to bury in the heart of their opponent, than to remind him that he had written but' a quarto! See D'Israeli's Ci^riosities, where he speaks of Nominalists. This huge folio age might go down to Cartesius or thereabouts.* Whatever was the subject, folio was the requisite form. Next is the epoch of quartos and the dawn of newspapers — small and single leaves, half of the first page occupied by a quaint title in letters phantastically ornamented. The discovery of a new world and the news of all the wonders successively appearing to the European there, were given to astounded mankind in little diminutive sheets, true " flying leaves,"t not so large as now the smallest handbill which informs you of a poc- ket having been picked or a colt having leaped the fence. Next, comes the period of octavos; newspapers grow ra- pidly, so does the quantity of books. It is succeeded by the age of twelve-mos (as the booksellers classically call duodeci- * Thoug'h our author seems to take the whole in joke, there is mucli scope for reflection in his remark; smd not only is the size of books chaAic- teristic of an age, but also, and, perhaps in a still gi-eater degree, theii- price. But a few centuries ago, a breviary would be left to one heir as an equivalent for all tlie other personal property, even of considerable value, bequeathed to another. At present, we have Penny Magazines, Cyclope- dias, Gazetteers, &.c., accessible by the meanest. Knowledge, wliilst soaring, on the one hand, to the highest regions, and expanding with increasing vi- gor in all directions, has, on the other hand, followed the general tendency of our age, that of /)oipu/ar('rae papers of liis countiy informed him tliat tlic wliig ciianccllor ajjpearcd in tlie house of loixls with a wig of considcral)iy smaller size, and Jiorribile didu — when lie read that the Bishop of Carlisle appciu-ed in his place in tlie house of lords without a wig, and magis horribile didu — when he found, after a sliort time, that tlie Bishop of Oxford had followed the example of his riglit reverend brotlicr of Carlisle? Tliou too, Brutus! Orthodox Oxford! Before we had become accjuainted willi Captain Hall's Travels, we read in the liiography of Jovcllanos, tliat he was tlie firet Spanisli judge wlio at- tempted to appear without a wig, and that it required the wliolc support of the ( 13- ) ■ If wise opinion on the number of copies of the fathers of the church in the United States, or sweepingly to declare all New England to be inhabited by wretches prostrated before Mammon, their only god; it is easy (I now speak of the premier, Count Aranda, to carry this innovation. We smiled, we laughed at the strong- predilections of mankind, at the tenacity with which we cling to errors, follies, evils, sins, hugging them as our dearest blessings, but now we are better informed, we believe Jovellanos a demagogue, and his opponents sound politicians. They, with Hall and all who believe the British empire would crumble to pieces the very moment when no wig should be seen on the woolsack, have, undoubtedly, studied Lichtenberg's Physiognomy of Cues, in which that distinguished writer not only proves the great importance of cues to the general welfare of mankind, but also shows how closely connected their form, twist and bend, are with the dispositions, views, and desires of the wearer. The work is embellished with engravihgs representing the most important cues; it was written at the time, when, with innovations of all kinds, the cutting off of cues, spread from France eastward. A con- tinuation of this instructive work ought speedily to be written, and who would do it better than the author of the above mentioned travels? To say the truth, we have stopped sometimes at the windows of the hairdressers near the learned inns in London, and silently meditated on the variety, beau- ty, utility, and superior importance of the wigs in la haute politique. There was the short and closely trimmed covering of a counsellor's vertex, the weightier one to cover the weightier head of the judge; the flapping peri- wig of the chancellor, like a lion's mane, and, — what is not surpassed in venerable beauty, — a bishop's wig! Shall all this splendor pass away? Shall notliing remain witli us but naked prose? Shall life be stripped of all its characteristic ornaments, on which the poet may seize, by taking the sign for the thing? Shall we be obliged to see all heads in hideous democratic nudity ? Shall the portrait of a Turenne soon stand before us as a beauty unattainable, yet admired, an Apollo of times gone by? Did not Frederic the Great conquer with the long spiral cues of his grena- diers ? Has Napoleon not won his victories with the short stout cues of his guards ? Has Eugene not won his battles with flowing locks, slightly tied together? Did Marlborough expect assistance from Mars, with a head shorn like a sheep in June? If the Romans have conquered the world trimmed like blackguards, what Is it to us; they were heathens, and we are Christians. If Magna Charta was extorted by unpowdered heads, it is by well-wigged ones that it was expounded, developed, and applied. Can you imagine Blackstone or Mansfield looking differently than a weasel peeping out of a haystack ? It is blasphemy to imagine them for a moment clipped and stripped of their exalted costume! Honor for ever to the wig! — Editor. ( 14 ) most renned and^ exalted traveller that ever visited this country, a reverend gentleman,) to crowd a book with statements, which, to name them by their only befitting name, would require three little letters not very frequently used among gentlemen, though of great import; or to tell us of foreigners in this country placed by the Yankees as outposts before their private fortresses, in order to examine visiters before they are allowed to approach the autochthones themselves, (pooh ! what an ass a man must be to use such a simile, which has no sense, to imagine the possibility of such an absurdity, or to believe others so brainless as to give credit to this clumsy story;) it is very easy to make a trip of six weeks through the country and yet write a quarto volume, like the clever author who described a jqurney round his table, but to speak sensibly of a people and their institutions, to let the " guessing" and the chewing for a moment rest, and occupy ourselves with matters of sub- stantial value, to treat them merely with becoming attention and not in a flimsy flippant way, calculated to catch the many, not to gain the thinking, is, I say by no means im- possible, yet not very easy. It requires thinking, patience, a manly calmness, and some pains — requisites not as often met with as the extraordinary faculty enjoyed by some, who can throw off a book as readily as the deer throws ofi" yearly its antlers. Such travellers resemble inexperi- enced youths, to whom every thing is new, every thing important; to whom every thing affords the delightful pleasure of proving to themselves and the world their great sagacity by connecting every trifle with deep, hidden mo- tives, first discovered by their own sharp-sightcdness. They have not that experience which leads us to look at the essence of things, and to expect less variety in the ground-plan and springs of human affairs than tiieir superficial apj)earance would induce the staring novelty-hunter to expect. Two kinds of silly travellers (I do not speak, you will ob- serve, of all the travellers who have written on this country; very excellent men indeed have been amongst them) are. ( 15 ) from time to time, thrown on our shore, almost periodically like the eruptions of the Geysers on Iceland. The one class arrives here with a ready made opinion against the country they have yet to see, and a very high one in favor of themselves. They have not formed their opinion after a careful examination of all the necessary data, but, because this opinion suits them, or, because they start from a pre- conceived idea, vulgarly called prejudice. Whatever they are or may have been, students of mankind or not, whether they have read or seen much or little, as soon as they set foot on this shore, they are suddenly initiated into all branches of human industry and knowledge, know the prin- ciples of all occupations, and are judges of all sciences, all arts, and all institutions. But one art which they have never endeavored to learn and practise is to take things as they are. A gentleman has been an officer in the army and has written a novel — two very good things; he arrives here, and forthwith begins; he speaks, now in a flippant, now in a dogmatic style, in one breath, about every thing that comes under his eye, and very many that do not come within the horizon of his vision — about science, arts, politics, trades, commerce, statistics, society, education, industry, history, laws, canals, railroads, scenery, agriculture, cookery, naviga- tion, horses, morals, prisons, pauperism, about every thing on, above, and under the earth; he is an adept in every subject cognizable by man. A polyhistor like Leibnitz would be but a schoolboy compared to a traveller of this kind. You know me, my dear friend, too well to suspect me of criticizing others merely because they criticize the United States. Nothing is farther from me; do I always praise this country? If a man prefer a monarchy to a re- public, why not; let him state his reasons, and tiy to make out his case by taking the Americans as an example. One of my best friends in Rome was a Dominican, and with more than one royalist I am on terms of intimacy. Let me but see sincerity, the wish to arrive at truth and readi- ness to acknowledge it, and I am satisfied. I am, indeed. ( 16 ) not one of those who believe that every institution here is incomprehensible to all human beings except the natives of this country. The institutions of the United States are the work of man, and can be understood by men, if they are founded in reason; but the action of a cotton spinning ma- chine cannot be comprehended in half an hour by one pre- viously unacquainted with it, nor a nation with all its various aspects within a day. I love spirited animadversion dearly, but let it be spirited, and not a bubble of vanity, and above all, let it abstain from positive fiilsehoods with which the reve- rend tourist has seen fit to grace every page of his classical production. The other kind of travellers arrives with an opinion equal- ly ready, but enthusiastically in favor of the country. They expect — heaven knows what. The most phantastic illusions fill their brains. They believe to find at every corner at least one Aristides, on every farm a Cincinnatus, and every street sweeper with silk ribands coleur de rose, flowing from his liberty cap, which he would be as far from doffing before Gessler's hat on the pole, as was William Tell. When I was in Liverpool, I visited, with a friend of mine and ano- ther young man, a self-deceiver of this kind, the packet which was to carry me the next day to this shore. The first thing we happened to see on board of this noble and elegant vessel, was an old hat belonging, perhaps, to the " doctor."* "What," exclaimed my friend, apparently surprised, "an old hat in youthful America!" I thought it a good hit, but it had no effect on the enthusiast; he continued to believe that heroes and matchless citizens were stalking about here arm in arm with pure philanthropists and ncvcr-sullied po- liticians. He crossed the Atlantic, and what was the con- sequence, I need not say. I undertake to foretell of every European arriving here, what he will think and say of this country a year hence, if he will fairly tell me at the time • It is a strange, yet quite general custom with American and Englisli sailors to call the cook, especially when a black man, "the doctor." — Editor. ( 17 ) what he expects to find. I have done it often, and never failed. With me it was different. I came here expecting lit- tle, because I expected little from man. I had lived in many countries and in a great variety of situations; I had already learned to sail when occasion required it, with a jury-mast on the wide sea of life, nor was its daily tread- mill altogether unknown to me. Experience and reality had already forced upon me, young as I was, that patient shoulder-shrugging way of regarding matters and things, which, bitter as it may be, no thinking man, whose lot it is to see mankind through the microscope, can help arriving at. Recollect what men of all ages have said, from Solomon down to the last sage. I think, then, that I took things a little more as they are than many others do; and this may be the cause of my having arrived at different conclusions. I found that the Americans have their good and bad points of character. I have won friends among them, whom I shall dearly love wherever I may be, even among the proscribed New Englanders. Their country I have found wanting in many interesting things and abounding in others. It is true, here is no gallery of pictures or great collection of sta- tues to delight your friend, whom you know to have spent days and days in the Vatican, feeding his soul upon those realized perfections, which nature seems continually to strive for, but which to conceive is left to the human mind. Sup- pose, however, I were obliged to live in a European provin- cial town, what should I have there? Say, what has a man who lives in Manchester or Breslaw? I find that people often compare America with Europe, when they mean Lon- don, Paris, or Rome. The great interest of this country lies in its institutions. There the observer of society and student of mankind finds enough with which to occupy himself. You may ob- serve at once, in this country, some of the boldest appli- cations of principles, the most recently developed, and the first manifestations, the first pulsations, so to speak, of those 3 ( l-"^ ) (Irinciplcs of life which lie at the hottom of every political society. You may sec in the farthest west, beyond the boundaries of organized society, the incipient stages of poli- tical relations, of law and justice laid bare, as if prepared for the student of history, and of the gradual development of man as a member of political society. Perhaps all this would become clearer to you, should I write you about the regula- tors and the manner in which communities, beyond the limits of established law, meet the imperious necessity of dealing out justice; of this kind was one of the most inte- resting cases that ever came to my knowledge, when, lately, the assembled men of a district, arrested, tried, and executed a murderer. By what right? — By the right to punish crime, natural, indispensable and inalienable to every society, and growing out of the necessity, both physical and moral, of punishment. The United States form a republic of thirteen millions of inhabitants, founded on broader principles of liberty, than any former political society. This is a fact, and is it not interesting to study how so great a fact came to pass? But you will agree that, with a subject matter of this kind, institutions and their operations must be studied, which is what most travellers are not very willing to do. My ha- bits and occupations have afforded me the opportunity of collecting more materials in regard to the United States than, perhaps, ever a native of a foreign country had either the disposition or opportunity to collect, whilst my long re- sidence here, together with some additional causes, have ren- dered me intimately acquainted with the whole social life of the Americans. I can say, in this respect, of them what Byron said of his acquaintance with the Italians. If, then, you do not think me quite destitute of skill and a habit of observation, you may possibly, as you in fact intimate in your letter, consider me, in some measure, qualified to give a correct picture of this, at least, interesting country. But I could not do it, even if so many travellers had not given mc a distaste for this kind of authorship. I dislike ( 19 ) the idea of being classed among the travellers by profession. They are, besides the Bedouins, the most dangerous class of people to deal with, and I no longer permit one of them to approach me with his pencil unsheathed. " Lay down your arms," I cry, " come like an honest man, but no stabbing in the back, and you are welcome; don't drink my wine, and go many thousand miles off and say you drank cider; and put things into my mouth which never dropped from my lips." Yet I might give a work, treating of the country, its in- stitutions, and the true state of its civilization, without any gossip of the kind. This could be properly done only in a work similar to that of Goede on England;* and still deeper than that ought it to enter into all important matters. The time to do this has not yet come for me, and I dislika ex- ceedingly to be half understood. A true and clear picture of the state of religion, theology, and church affairs, alone would require half a volume. If I say that theology, catho- lic and protestant, is at least a century behind the theology of Germany, — I speak here of the science as such, and of the general state only, because who does not know the dis- tinguished merits of a Stuart in Andover, — that we meet with the same controversial views and limited philological knowledge, which existed with us at that time, my asserr tions would be immediately extended, and conclusions made, to which I should be very unwilling to subscribe. How would it be possible to treat thoroughly of law and jurispru- dence in a short chapter? You may unqualifiedly praise or censure in very few words; I am not willing to do either; truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, on sub- jects of this kind, requires a detailed investigation. You must not then expect me to give you a connected ac- count, claiming to show the United States like a well-dried plant laid out on the blotting paper of a herbarium. For tay views on some single institutions, I must refer you to • It has been translated into Enarlish. — Editor. ( 20 ) single works of mine. However, as I have just made a trip to Niagara, I will write, for you and our private circle, some letters on subjects as they may happen to occur to my mind in recalling the events of my journey. But do not forget two things; it is summer, and a summer in Philadelphia is no trifle — and you know that mercury and the human mind are like the two l)uckets in the well, when one is up the other is down. For several weeks we have been forcibly reminded of the situation of the three men in the fiery fur- nace; yes, I have thought that we shall stand in need of some such annealing place, in order to pass with safety from this heat into the cooler days of autumn. When the air we inhale is as hot as the steam in the Stiife di Ncrone* when from the bed which receives us, parched and arid, in the eve- nings after the trouble of falling asleep, we rise in the morn- ing unrefreshed and unrestored to elasticity of mind, to drag ourselves through the same existence for the next twelve hours, which is rather a permission of breathing than a real life — you must not be surprised, should you find Dante's heavy, leaden mantle of mediocrity hanging round my mind. I am astonished that we do not all become beau-ideals of mo- rality, since this heat ought to purify the basest metals. Without ice wc should undoubtedly melt, and it is fortu- tunate that the active farmer of the north omits not to lay in a (juantity during winter, and that the enterprising mer- chant of New England ships it in summer to the south, to the Carolinas, Georgia, New Orleans, and Ilavanna. By the way, have you seen in the papers, that an ice-merchant of Boston has sent a cargo of his goods to the East Indies? It arrived well-conditioned, and the captain of the vessel re- ceived a silver tankard with an appropriate inscription from • This, it is haixl'y ncccssaiy to say, is an cxajgoration. The baths of Nero, near Pozziioli, arc so hot that it is necessary to undress in order to ap- proach their wells. Few travellers dare to follow the guide who is in the habit of fetching water from them, in order to boil eggs. We remember how scorchingly hot the air felt in tlie lungs when we visited the place, and succeeded in penetrating to the end with our guide, — Editoh. ( 21 ) the governor at Calcutta. Other cargoes have followed. What an enterprise ! Vasco did not dream of discovering the way for Kennebec and Boston ice to the " land of spices," when he doubled the Cape. Compare it to the paddling and creeping along the shores of the ancients, and yet Ulysses had his Homer. Some years ago, I remember, some ice ar- rived in London from Sweden, and the custom-house offi- cers did not know what rate of duty to demand. They were as embarrassed as the officers here some years ago when a mummy arrived from Egypt. Was it a manufactured arti- cle? Did we want protection for our mummies? These were the important questions. Certainly it ought to pay duty. If salt pork pays duty, why not smoked emigrant? It was lucky that the spiced man, being accustomed to waiting, did not suffer from delay like the Swedish ice, which melted, and, before the decision had arrived what duty should be paid, the article which was to pay, had vanished, a situation similar to many law-cases.* In addition to heat and other things, I have to plead want of time; I must steal an hour here and an hour there, and you cannot expect that spirit which a man may give to his writings, who has the whole twenty-four at his disposal, and may choose the time when his mind is the bright- est — with myself, after I have taken that decoction which Voltaire could not obtain strong enough and Leibnitz not weak enough. I will write most piously, in the sense of Sterne: begin, and trust the rest to the gods, as many poli- ticians do. I know not how many letters you will probably receive, for I cannot speak with the precision with which the author of the Fredoniad was able to sing: — " Songs thirty I have sung-, yet ten remain. Crude, undigested, written in the brain." • It is not a little characteristic of the enterprising turn of the Americans, that, while Bostonians send their ice to distant shores of Asia, a keeper of a menagerie sends an expedition to the Cape of Good Hope; to catch new and interesting animals. It has succeeded, and we have now here some of the rarest and most interesting animals. — Editor. ( 22 ) He knew how much his indigestion would allow him to produce. Have you seen the Fredoniad? All I knew of it for a long time was, that it was an absurd concoction not looked at by any one, until chance threw it into my hands at an auction. If he who makes us laugh be really our benefac- tor, this poet deserves a more flourishing wreath than Escu- lapius himself. How I have enjoyed this grand poem! It is hardly known now; and this is a pity, for it is eminently fit- ted to shake the diaphragm, ( 23 ) LETTER II. A BALL ROOM the moming after the feast; the giosira after the bull-fight is over, and the people have left the place; a stage from which tableaux vivans have delight- ed gazing friends with their fairy-like charms, and upon which now falls from without the glare of every day re- ality, disenchanting green baize into green baize, and white gauze into white gauze, are sights which never failed to produce peculiar impressions upon me. I have stood on the evening of the 18th on the battle-field of Waterloo, when, as one of my company said, " the fun was o'er," and made my Hamlet contemplations, which forced themselves even on the mind of a lad; but nothing equals, I think, a morning after a closely contested election in a populous city. Rise early on the morning after and walk through the quiet streets. Walls and corners are yet covered with flaming hand-bills, witnesses and documents of the high- running excitement, which but yesterday seemed to roll like an agitated sea. You are told in large capitals that if the candidates of the other ticket are elected, the common- weal needs must perish; our liberty, happiness, national ho- nor are lost: close by sticks another huge paper which de- clares, in equally measured terms, that the opposite side is composed of a set of Catilinas at least, a nest of designing demagogues, corrupt, sold, and panting for the people's money. They tell you that orphans and widows, whose money has been squandered away, call upon you to vote against the opposite candidate; they warn you to look well ( 24 ) at your ticket before you throw it into the ballot box, be- cause spurious ones have been circulated by their opponents, to whom all means appear fair.* Above these placards are others of a somewhat earlier date, calling upon the citizens of a certain party of such or such a ward to attend a meeting, where election business of great importance will be transacted, and the chair be occupied by some old revo- lutionary crony, for they have their Marathon-men (may not f^ct^x^afOLcxxoi thus be translated analogous to Waterloo- men?) here as well as the Greeks had, and wherever an old honest revolutionary soldier can be hunted up, he is sure to be used for the chair of some meeting or other.t It is na- • Elections in New England arc much calmer tlian those described by the author; indeed, they ai-c, of all elections we have seen, both in Europe or America, by fur the most orderly. Without populai- elections, we mean elections by larg-e bodies, whoever may compose them, no true representa- tion is possible, and wherever popular elections are, there will be at the time of the election excitement, yet, as is also our author's opinion, much more in appearance than in reality. It is like the agitation of the atmosphere, necessary from time to time, in order to clciu- it We may add, however, that of all elections we ever have seen in the United Stxites, nothing is to be compared to a well-contested English election in a large place; for example, a Westminster election. The excitement, the overbearing rudeness dis- played by the populace, and the knowledge of the immense system of bribing which is carried on in an English election, render it one of the most interesting spectacles to the obsener. — Euitoh. I Tlie battle of Mar.ithon was, as may be imagined, a subject of peculiar pride with the Athenians, and tlie gloiy of the heroes of Manithon, (,««g:td»- vo/uaxot or Marathon-warriors,) was ever in the mouth of tlieir orators; so tliat, at last, it degenerated into the ridiculous, as is often the course of simi- lar things. Tlie sweetest airs of Mozart have been so mercUcssly hackneyed by street organs, that we lain as soon as we hcai- the tunc. Lucian, in Il/iclontrn Prxc. c. 18, makes a teacher of clecution impress his pupil with the importance of never forgetting Marathon, however alien to the subject. " If you speak," he says, "at Athens of .an adulterer, relate what was done with the Indians and in Ecbatana; but before all, mention Marathon, and Cynegirus, without which it will not do. Let always vessels pass through the Atlios, and sokliei-s tread upon the Hellespont; let the sun be darkened by the Persian arrows, let Xerxes flee, and Leonidas be admired, tlie inscription of Othryades be read, and sound the names of Salamis and Aitcmisium and Platia often and close together." — Editob. ( 25 ) tural; how could it be otherwise? They are, in one respect, more than Marathon-men, because they did not only defend liberty but conquered independence, and the rarer an article, the higher the price. Carroll of Carrolton, for a long time the last surviving signer, received more honor than many others together, who were more active in the sacred business of declaring independence; and the farther we recede from the time of our " blessed revolution," and the rarer " revo- lutionary soldiers" become, the more they are sought for. I think there may be a time when people will run after me to see one of the last Waterloo-men, as my brother used to say that he had no doubt but his face, marked by the small- pox, would become in time so great a rarity that people would take it for a beauty. But to return to our election. A noise is made before every election, proportionate (or rather disproportionate) to its importance, from that of the president down to a constable; sometimes the uninitiated would think the whole country in a dangerous fever; new papers are established, if the importance of the election warrant it, pamphlets circulated, articles written, letters pub- lished, handbills printed, "sumptuous" dinners got up, meetings held, correspondence with committees of the same party kept up, whole districts deluged with printed speeches and political publications, all of which is expensive, and yet supported by contribution without coercion. And in order to arrive at the true statement of the expense of a govern- ment with elective representatives, I think that allowance for the expense of electing should be made, since it cannot be avoided, is inherent in the nature of this kind of govern- ment, and is paid after all by the nation; though I allow it is a tax which falls solely on the wealthy. Yet do not believe that our elections are at all as expensive as the English; nothing like it; nor is the kind of expense the same. Po- sitive bribes are not known with us, and the candidate him- self has no expenses to incur.* • Oup expenses, indeed, sound hardly worth mentioning, when we read in English papers of instances as tlie following': — "Mr. Fuller stood success- 4 ( 26 ) The morning after the election all is quiet, the sea is calm as if a heavy rain had fallen upon it There hang the staring handbills with their enormous imputations and caricature exaggerations, now lifeless, tasteless, and with- out any farther effect or use than haply to point a moral. Soon after the rains of heaven wash down these traces of man's passion. In Paris some old woman would scrape them down, and soon placards of all parties would be mashed in one vat, peaceably to combine in the formation of a new sheet, destined perhaps to the same fate. These periodical excitements lead to curious considera- tions. Is it not strange that year after year the same thing is acted over, and year after year brings the same bustle, noise, and clamor? That man never seems to gain in ex- perience? That again and again excitement rises to a high pitch, though we know, to-morrow it will appear like labor lost. But, pray, do not misunderstand me, as if I were de- sirous for political apathy; nothing is worse in a free coun- try than a lifeless disregard of its politics; I would prefer even an undue excitement. Ambition, bad as it often is, is far better than supercilious disdain of the politics of one's own country; one thing only is worse than both — greediness for money in politics. Wherever this corruption is found, the commonwealth is irretrievably lost. Rome and France af- ford the proofs. I censure only that party spirit, which makes unjust assertions, and that clamor which knows its assertions not to be true. And how often — though I willingly allow by no means always — is it a trifle, a bubble, a mere no- thing, that consumes so much activity, and energy, and leads to such doubtful views of political morality! You sec, man is man every where; the same spirit, though in another form, is observed at courts, among sects, in families, with school- boys, scholars, and artists. Oh, the tabourets, the tabourets fully a severely-contested election with Colonel Sergisson, whicli lasted six- teen days, and cost tlie former 20,000/., iit addition to a siil)scription purse of 30,000/. made by the county. The expenses incuncd by Mr. Sergisson were, we believe, equally heavy." — Editou. ( 27 ) of Retz ! * The " Our Father," and " Father of us," of the Calvinists and Lutherans!! The blue and green caps! The white and red roses! The Nominalists and the Realists! The big-endians and little-endians, who are indeed no carica- tures, at least, no fictitious caricatures. Who has not seen them acted in real life? But a few years ago, one part of a congregation, in a considerable town of New England, was for the erection of a stove in their meeting-house, whilst the rest strenuously opposed the measure; and stovites and anti- * The author must refer to a passage in the Memoh-s of the Cardinal de Retz. It is so amusing throughout, particularly to us republicans, that we consider ourselves justified in giving a translation. On page 23, vol. ii., of the Ge- neva edition of If 52, the Cardinal says: " The prince had engaged to cause the tabouret (a chair, without back, on which certain privileged ladies were allowed to seat themselves in the presence of the court) to be given to the Countess de Foix; and the cardinal, (Mazarin,) who was much opposed to it, excited all the youths of the court to oppose all tabourets which were not founded upon brevets. The prince, who suddenly saw opposed to him the nobility of the court, at the head of which the Marshal L'Hospital had placed himself, was not willing to cause public excitement against himself for interests which where indifferent to him, and he thought it enough to do for the house of Foix, if he upset the tabourets of the other privileged houses. That of the house of Rohan was the first of the number; and imagine how unpleasant a shock of this nature must have been to the ladies of this name! They re- ceived the news on the same evening, when the Duchess de Guimene re- turned from Anjou. Ladies de Chevreuse, de Rohan, and de Monbazon, re- paired the next morning to her. They pretended that the affront offered to them was only to take vengeance against the Fronde, (the party to which the Cardinal de Retz belonged. ) We concluded upon a counter-party among the nobility for the support of the tabouret of the house de Rohan. Made- moiselle de Chevreuse was much pleased tliat she had thus been distinguished from the house of Lorraine; but the consideration of her mother was tlie reason that she did not dare to contradict general feehng. It was proposed to try to shake the prince, before it should come to an open rupture; I undertook the mission, and went the same evening; my pretext was my relationship with the house de Guimene. The prince, who understood me before I had end- ed, said, ' You are a good relative; it is right to satisfy you. I promise you that I shall not oppose the tabouret of the house of Rohan.'" — Editor. f Luther had translated tlie beginning of the Lord's Prayer by '^Father of us," (analogous to the Greek original,) Calvin, however, by " Our Father," and this difference was insisted upon with great pertinacity in the controver- sies and contests of the two sects in Germany. — Ebitor. ( 28 ) stovites allowed themselves to be carried to a degree of ex- citement unexampled in the memory of the oldest inhabi- tants. In former times, it would have led to bloodshed, and put a whole province in fire. I once found the inhabitants of a small town in England in great agitation, because the rector's wife had appeared in church with a fashionable hat from London ; half of the female inhabitants sided with her, half were against her. A goose is a goose, and a monkey a monkey; an ass is an ass, and a tiger a tiger, but a man — I do not know what he is, certainly not a man. Would you believe that, in 1830, a man was killed at an election in Nova Scotia? What a tremendous tornado in a tea-kettle! Losing a life in a Nova Scotia election! This is carrying the fun too far, particularly for one of the party, though, ac- cording to Pierquin, dying is a " delicious, nay, voluptuous sensation," and no greater inducement to crime can be held out, than the sweet tickling of a guillotine,* or the smiling little abbreviation: Susp. per. col. Again, it is remarkable what excited language is used by the papers and public speakers in these times of political contest, whilst every body knows that not half of it is meant in reality. It reminds me of a picture which I found in one of my pedes- trian journeys, in a Silesian tavern. It represented a fellow with a knowing face, and, as spoken by him, were written the words: "Who knows whether it is true!" thus throw- ing a serious doubt over every thing that was said by the garrulous guests of the inn. I happen to know here three families, in each of which there are two brothers, directly opposed in politics, and manifesting their political opinions in public and very decided speeches; some of their sons are for, some against the father; yet they stand on the most amicable footing with each other. On the whole, I like this much. I believe that nowhere else do men allow, • Pierquin, in his work Dc la Peine dc Mort, thinks to prove tliat, as tlic author states, dying is a voUiptuous pleasure and that capital punishment is an incongruity since torture has been abolished, if it be the intention of the legislators to inflict pain, and deter by it. — Editor. ( 29 ) with so much good humor, every one to have and follow his political opinion. You may see senators and represent- atives in Washington fighting deadly battles, and an hour later, walking and joking together. Not that this always indicates that all their political course flows from interest, and not from conviction; I have seen instances where no such suspicion can exist. No, it is because people here have always been accustomed to acknowledge in every one the right politically to act as he thinks best. It is a manly qua- lity which I love to see, as long as there is no real politi- cal ;crime imputed. But in the newspapers all, of course, wears a heightened aspect; there every thing is rouged to the utmost. We must be fair, however, and consider that all language, if used out of the narrowest circle of our family or long-tried friends, is exaggerated, and that not in politics alone. Is not our language in social and polite intercourse equally exag- gerated? " I am extremely happy to see you," " your most obedient servant;" is this not language equally overcharged with any newspaper article, for or against a candidate?* • We think all exaggerations of this kind find their beau ideal in the let- ter wliich Ibrahim-Pacha of Egypt wrote to the sultan in 1832, after having' beaten him soundly, and exacted a peace on conditions sufficiently onorous for the sultan. There is such insolence in this oriental civiUty of a successful rebel to his master, that we cannot help inserting it here. Ibralum thanks the sultan for the investiture of the government of Adana: — " My sublime, magnanimous, awe-inspifing, mighty, great Sovereign, our benefactor, the benefactor of mankind. " May God grant to your Sublimity a life without end, and make the au- gust shadow of your Sublimity a protection for all men, and especially for my humble head. "Your inexhaustible goodness has induced you, most gracious Sovereign, to grant me the government of Adana as mahassilik (in farm.) "Animated by tliis new favour of your Sublimity, the duration of my frail existence shall be wholly devoted to praying to God for the prolongation of your hfe and reign. 'As my heart is pervaded by a feeling of happiness, I en- tertain (God is my witness) no wish but to act so as to obtain the gracious approbation of your Sublimity, and to find occasion to devote myself to your service. For the purpose of expressing my gratitude to your Sublimity, and ( 30 ) The comparison could be carried through many branches, and it must be, therefore, borne in mind, particularly by people abroad, who wish to judge of the political state of a country by its papers and other publications, that much of all the violence and contest exists on the paper alone; there it remains and there it dies. There was a man, at the be- ginning of the French revolution, who edited two newspa- pers at the same time; one for the popular party, one for the king, and both in violent language. I do not mean to say that he is a fair specimen of all editors and public .orators, but most of them have a passion which they can pull out like the stops of an organ. Promises, proclaimed by mo- narchs when they assume the sceptre, are not the only things which are to be taken as words of course, though, I confess, I think editors might be a little more civil with each other, since the sultan has given them a good example in prohibit- ing, as early as 1830, by a regular fetwa, the calling of Chris- tians, Christian dogs. Thirdly, those very bills on the corners of the street, and the perfect, good-humored calmness as soon as the contest is over, show that the Americans, the least excitable nation* I know of, are eminently qualified for a government of law. It is my full conviction, founded upon the little knowledge of history I have, and on constant and close observation, that there never Avas a nation so fitted for it, in ancient or modern times, so calculated to solve a number of difficult political problems, as the Americans, descending as they do from that noble nation to which mankind owes nearly all those great ideas, the realization of which forms the aim of all the political struggles on tlie European continent, and to express my most humble thanks, I venture to lay tlils humble petition at the foot of the throne of the sublime, magnanimous, awe-inspiring, mighty, great padishah, our august sovereign and benefactor, the benefactor of all men." This letter was written by Ibrahim-Pacha witli his own hand, and sealed with his seal. — Editor. • Hence there is little of what is called fun in America. — Editor. ( 31 ) which the historian will single out as the leading and cha- racteristic political features of the present age — namely, elective representation, two houses, an independent judiciary, liberty of the press, responsibility of ministers, a law stand- ing above the highest ruler even if a monarch, and a proper independence of the minor communities in the state — that great nation which alone sends along with its colonies a germ of independent life and principle of self-action, (ren- dering the gradual unfolding of their own, peculiar law, pos- sible,) and above all, that nation which first of all elevated itself to the great idea of a lawful opposition.* Descend- ing, as the Americans do, from this nation, which seems to have civil liberty in its bones and marrow, and situated as they are, in a boundless country, allowing scope to the bold- * Reading over my letter, I will hastily add, here on the margin, a few ideas of mine on opposition. Do you recollect that about eight years ago a member of pai-liament, I forget his name, used in the house the expres- sion, "His Majesty's opposition." Now, this sounded very ridiculous, but tliere was a deep sense in this apparent paradox. Opposition is an ingre- dient part of a free government. The minister cannot act without — but the scanty paper will not allow me to say all I should wish to say. Only thus much will I add. A systematic and lawful opposition shows a high state of political development, and if the future historian knew nothing of the Eng- lish but that tliey fii-st elevated themselves to this idea, he would conclude that it must have been a nation in a very high stage of political advancement. The Turks formerly did not even know of such a thing as tlie mere official discharge of a minister; he was turned out of office and life at tlie same time. Now they have an-ived at this stage of civilization, yet the minister is. banished. In France the discharge of a minister was formerly called dis- grace. There was always the idea of something personal between the mo- narch and the minister connected with the dismissal of the latter. In Spaia a minister receives his discharge and banishment from the capital at the same time. In England, and now also in France, when a minister is dischargee^ he goes quietly to the house, and, in all probability, takes his seat with the opposition. No one di-eams of conspiracies and revolutions. The monarch even has been known to have a personal Lking for a minister, and to show it after his removal from office. — So much greater is moral security than phy- sical. In Asia every dismissed vizier is supposed to meditate rebellion, he must die; in Em-ope a monai'ch is detlironed and allowed peaceably to make his exit. Antiquity never elevated itself to tlie idea of a lawful and orga- nized opposition. ( 32 ) est enterprise without causing discontent and political fric- tion, (which, in countries closely populated, cannot be avoid- ed,) — at a great distance from Europe and all her intricate questions and diplomatic influences, yet blessed with the civilization of that part of the world by means of the all- uniting sea, over which they have thrown their flying bridges, the fleet messengers of the Atlantic, conductors and reconductors of civilization, and, in addition to all these ad- vantages, possessed of their calm and sedate disposition — truly, if they are not made for a government in which the sway of the law alone is acknowledged, then tell me what nation is or was so? As a thousand things co-operated in ancient Greece to produce that unrivalled state of perfection in which we fmd the fine arts to have been there — a happy constellation of the most fortunate stars — so a thousand fa- vorable circumstances concur in America, to make it pos- sible that a far greater amount of liberty can be introduced into all the concerns of her political society than ever was possible before with any other nation, or will be at any fu- ture period, yet also requiring its sacrifices, as the fine arts with the Greeks required theirs. The influence of this nation has been considerable al- ready; it will be much more so yet in ages to come: poli- tical ideas will be developed here and have a decided efiect on the whole European race, and, for aught I know, upon other races; but as the Grecian art has kindled the sense of the beautiful with many nations, but never could be equalled again (as a national aflair,) so it is possible that political no- tions developed here and received by other nations, will have a sound influence only if in their new application they arc modified to the given circumstance; for it is not in the power of any man or nation, to create all those circumstances, under the shade of which liberty reposes here. Politics is civil architecture, and a poor architect indeed is he who for- gets three things in building: the place where the building is to be raised, the materials with which he has to build, and the object for which the structure is erected. If the ( 33 ) materials are Jews of Palestine and if the object of the fabric be to keep the people as separate from neighbors as possible, the architect would not obtain his end by a constitution si- milar to that of one of our new states.* It was necessary for the Americans, in order to make them fit to solve certain political problems, which, until their so- lution here, were considered chimerical (take as an instance the keeping of this immense country without a garrison,) that they should descend from the English, should begin as persecuted colonists, severed from the mother country, and yet loving it with all their heart and all their soul ; to have a continent, vast and fertile, and possessing those means of internal communication, which gave to Europe the great su- periority over Asia and Africa; to be at such a distance from Europe, that she should appear as a map ; to be mostly Protestants, and to settle in colonies with different charters, so that, when royal authority was put down, they were as so many independant states, and yet to be all of one metal, i so that they never ceased morally to form one nation nor to feel as such. You may say: " Strange, that an abuse of liberty, as this apparent or real party strife in election contests actually is, should lead you to the assertion that no nation is fitter for a government of law." Yet do I repeat it. How would it be with other nations? It would be after an election of this kind that the real trouble would only begin; we see an instance • We know the author well, and are thoroughly acquainted with his poli- tical views. He is far from agreeing with tliose politicians who use the above argument in order to impede exertions for liberty among different nations, as if it were a mere aping of other people. On the contraiy, it is his firm belief, that from the beginning of the middle ages the European race had always in common certain broad political principles, and that, at the present time, one of these is that of representative government. And we would ask the absolutists, who designate the desire among nations to profit by the ex- ample of others as mere aping, when there was ever a more " tedious uni- formity " among European states than in the feudal times i* All the author wished to express is, that his true love of liberty made him regard its essence as more important still than its form. — Editor. 5 ( 3-1 ) In South America. Here, on the other liantl, as soon as tlic election is over the contest is settled, and the citizen obeys the law. " Keep to the right, as the law directs," you will often find on sign-boards on bridges in this country. It ex- presses the authority which the law here possesses. I doubt v^ery much whether the Romans, noted for their obedience to the law, held it in higher respect than the Americans. A traveller who goes from the European continent to England is struck with the respect paid to the law in that country. I conversed once with an English stage-coach- man on a certain law, which I thought very oppressive: " Yes, said he, but such is the law of the land." You miglit travel all over Austria and Prussia before a postil- lion would give you such an answer. He would say, in a similar case, " Yes, but they take good care that you do not get round them." If you go from England to the United States, you find that there the law is held in still "higher respect. But to see the whole truth, to feel the full Aveight of what I say, it is necessary to see the law admi- nistered on minor occasions, to see riots quelled by citizens themselves sworn in for the occasion, to sec banks and mints without sentinels, to travel thousands of miles and never meet with a uniform; and farther, to observe that what the law requires is here held. honorable. No man looks upon a district attorney as upon a tool of government because he prosecutes in the name of the United States. I was once with INIessrs. sent by their government to this country to inquire into our , in a Boston party. A gentleman of fine appearance attracted their attention; "who is he?" they asked. " The sherifi"," I replied. " The sheriff?" said one of them:- "is not the sheriff the officer who directs the infliction of capital punishment?" "He is," I answered. " And did he superintend the execution this morning?" "He did," was my answer. "And he here! ma fois that is rather too much!" exclaimed my friend, in whom, though a gentleman of clear mind, all the European prejudices against every person who has any ( 35 ) thing to do with the administering of capital punishments were excited; but reflection soon came to his aid, and he was struck with the rationality of this state of things. The more civilized a nation the fewer are the prejudices against professions and classes. In Spain, the business of the butcher, and even the business of the wine-merchant, is con- sidered as dishonorable; in Germany, but a few years ago, the executioner had his own small table in the inn, and his own glass fastened by a string to the wall. — What was a merchant in France before the revolution? what a mechanic all over Europe in the beginning of the middle ages? Speaking of the good traits of the Americans I may as well mention here, that they are ever ready to acknowledge and make use of ability come whence it may — a Jew, a Christian, a publican, a bricklayer, a man whom nobody knows whence he comes, will meet with encouraging ac- knowledgment of his capacity if he knows any thing which they consider worth knowing. Of course, in this you will not misunderstand me. I am not now speaking of the Ameri- cans in their more social relations. Pour le reste the Ame- ricans are no more angels than other people, nor am I blind, I trust, towards the deficiencies of this country or the faults of its inhabitants. I know that the criminal code of Delaware is a disgrace, consisting of laws which cold inte- rest and cruelty combined to enact, and that the unfathoma- ble mud of the capital has at immense expense been changed for impenetrable dust, arising in large clouds from a road, made under the very eye of government, and of stones, which it required gross ignorance to use for the building of a high- way or street. I visited yesterday our Eastern Penitentiary, the place where the only practical and essentially merciful and phi- losophical system of prison discipline, that which is founded on solitary confinement with labor, was first successfully be- gun and continued. You have read or may read my letters to on this important subject. I hope he has been ( 3G ) able to found the criminal code which he is charged to draw up on this theory of discipline. A penal law, which only provides for the number of years of imprisonment that are to be awarded for a certain infringement of the laws, with- out strictly determining the kind and manner of this im- prisonment, is much like a bill which would give you the prices in mere numbers without informing you to what units these numbers refer. The nature of the punishment ought to be accurately defined, unless we choose to leave it to the discretion of the judge, as the Carolina does in so many cases. As to that matter, the Spanish law, formerly in use in Louisiana, determined only the crimes for which capital punishment is to be inflicted, but leaves it to the judge whether the criminal shall suffer by " decapitation of the sword (for the statute, with great humanity, forbids the saw and the reaping hook,) or burning or hanging, or casting to be devoured by wild beasts;" very nice discretion indeed! and all this after confession had been squeezed out by ap- propriate means. {Escudrinar la verdad was the Spanish expression for getting at the truth by torture, or as it still is, for aught I know.) My motto for all penal justice is, lex clemens, Judex certus, poena sapieiis.* That practical sense in which the Americans, as I think, excel all other nations, has shown itself in nothing more than in their making the manner in which punishment shall be inflicted a matter of the penal law itself. But it is not my intention to read you a lecture on penitentiaries, my dear friend; I only intended to tell you a story. When I was walking in the long corridor of one of the blocks of the prison, I heard two weavers, each in his lonely cell, evidently striving to outdo each other in the swiftness of their shuttles. My excellent friend the warden, seeing that I noticed the rivalship, told me that they were often observed running this race. Now this simple fact has in it something • Mild laws, sure judges, wise punishments-^EoiTOR. ( 37 ) unspeakably touching to me. Two men of active minds, to whom nothing of all this vast world remains but the narrow ceil of their prison-house, and to neither of whom is left, of all the possible spheres of activity in which to engage, but a rivalship with his neighbor, of whom he knows not even the name or face, in the rapidity of his shuttle! They can perceive of each other actually nothing but the sound of this little instrument as it flies from one hand to the other, and this sound is sufficient to stimiilate their ambition. Perhaps the mere mentioning of the fact here upon paper may not affect you as the actual sight of it did me; but to my mind there was certainly something indescribably pain- ful in the emulation of these imprisoned hermits at their soli- tary loom. It affords one more illustration, of which daily life and history give so many, that man cannot deny his na- ture; it will show its original and deepest traits in situations where you expect it least. Vanity has broken forth on the guillotine; a mother's tenderness has shown itself in spite of certain ruin, the acknowledgment of superiority of mind in the black hole. That principle, which God has planted deep in the human heart, in order to propel mankind, and without which all would stagnate — call it emulation, ambition, envy, pride, jealousy, what you will, it is originally the same, — the desire of separating ourselves by some distinction from the crowd, and of outstripping our neighbor — this onward principle, as it might be called, this original ingredient of the human soul, manifests itself in this case in a most striking manner. Two men who know nothing of each other, who are confined, and whose exertions will be applauded by no one, whose labors bring them no gain, and whose toiling is for the be- nefit of no favorite, but is immerged in the produce of other and less active; two men with whom no stimulus can ope- rate that commonly incites to exertion, and who only know that both are weavers by the rattling of the busy shuttle, yet exert themselves to surpass each other in the only kind of ^( 38 ) activity which aflbrds them the possibility of rivalship! Here is a strong instance of that principle in our soul which gives life blood to society, and which, if not bridled, brings its ruin; here are Cesar and Pompey. ( 39 ) LETTER III. " Why shall we go to Europe's bloody shores To seek the herbs which gi'ow before our own doors?"* Quoth I, to a friend of mine, a Swiss, who pines for his towering Alps and their glowing summits, when the last rays of a setting sun slowly take their leave of the snow- capped peaks. " Let's go to Niagara, that seems to be no trifle, either, in its way," My friend smiled at the grandi- loquent lines quoted above, which I found on a catalogue of herbs and medicines gathered and prepared by the Mora- vians of Bethlehem; there these good folks had put it as a sweetener for bitter draughts. " Cos! all' egvo fanciul porglamo aspersi Di suave licor gli orli del vaso."f The couplet at the beginning reminds one of a poor Ger- man peasant, lately crushed under a barn, and who was dragged from out the ruins with twenty-seven fractures; yet he Avas cured! Nil desperandum! So do not despair of the motto; it may, and, in all probability, does, stand at the head of very salutary preparations. Considering the immense and various mass of rhyming in the present time, from the fore- going distich to the poetry of King Louis, of Bavaria, one * A true copy. — Editok. f Thus we give physick to a sick cliild, by covering tlie brim of tlie ves- sel with sweet liquor. Tasso, canto i. iii. — Eiuthk. ( 10 ) might almost wish that all mankind should decree as did once the constituent assembly in Paris: " Que dortnavant on n* entendra plus a la barrc de la conve7ilio7i que la rai- son en prose.''* My friend agreed; the day was fixed; the day arrived; he could not go, and — so I went by myself. Of a voyage round the world, the first half mile is always half the way. I have been many years in this country; every spring and every autumn I intended to go to the Falls, but always something or other prevented me. Once, I was on my way in the winter, but was called back. Now, something entirely alien, brought me, at last, to execute my long proposed jaunt. Animals which think themselves vastly superior to boar-hunting dogs, do, nevertheless, equal- ly with these, require " barkers," or " finders," to stir and excite them to action. t Some stand in need of the barker to incite them, others require the little ass, which, in Lyons, • In future, nothing' shall be heard at the bar of tlie convention but reason In prose. — Editoh. ■j" Boar-liunting, in several respects the most interesting hunting in Ger- many, requires two kinds of dogs — tlie finders or barkers, wiiich find tlie boar and follow the animal, barking all the time, and packer, (from the Ger- man /jacA-eTj, to seize forcibly.) The latter are very strong and heavy dog^, bold enough to attack the boar, wiien they come up with him, and bring him to the ground. The animal often inflicts serious wounds upon them, by tear- ing their flesh with his tusks. The hunter always has, for this purpose, a thread and needle to sew up the wound, if possible. The boar tries to rip open the belly, and it is astonishing to sec how serious wounds, when even part of the intestines protrude, arc cured in this way. The luniter has be- sides a small instrument, with which he breaks open the jaws of the dogs, which are so furious in tlieir attacks, that, if they have once obtained a hold on the boar, a cramp generally rendei-s them incapable of opening their mouth. Boars are shot witli balls and rifles, but, when wounded, or the sow, when she sees her young ones endangered, fearlessly attacks man. It is when the hunter uses his cutlass, jilaces it in ])osition, that the enraged bo.or runs it into his body; this requires much courage and is extremely dangerous. AVild boars will call together their tribe, as tame hogs do, and if a himter has fled to a tree, it is not uncommon for these animals to uproot it with great perseverance, and bring down the hunter. — Kiuron. ( 41 ) is put before the horses merely to induce them to a steady pull. Suppose me then on board a Delaware steamboat, leaving Philadelphia early in the morning. " Sir, do you go to New York?" — " Yes sir; why?" — " Please take these letters, and throw them into the post-office." I did not know the gen- tleman; I took the letters, at least five in number, and had no sooner opened my carpet bag to put them in, than letters rained in from all sides as if epistolary matter had broken loose from the clouds. The liberty wliich everj^ one takes in this country, in asking you to carry letters, bundles, andy now and then, a bandbox, though very great, is what every one is equally ready to do for you, and so, on the whole, the matter neutralizes itself, and is rather a convenience. I believe, this is the only civilized country in which no law exists prohibiting private persons from carrying sealed let- ters. It would be considered a strange interference with private concerns if ever a law of this kind should be at- tempted here. The convenience of the public is the only object of posts; if the public find a more convenient way for themselves, let them make use of it. It is only forbidden to employ the regular means of conveyance in the carriage of letters, unless a previous agreement to that purpose be made with the post-office. This is but fair. If other governments would be unable to carry on the mail-establishment, were private persons permitted to take letters, it is well to forbid such : to forbid it, and yet derive a revenue from the postage, is what many people consider a very unjust law, but to seize upon a traveller's unsealed letters of recommendation, as so much smuggled goods, as was the case with myself when I arrived in England, I hold to be barbarous. Equally arbitrary was (or still is) the law in Prussia which prohibited a tra- veller, who set out by extra-post, from continuing his jour- ney by private conveyance, unless, indeed, he chose to pay a fine. I was on the upper deck, when five lads arrived; without (i ( 42 ) saying a word, each of them took a chair, tilted it over, placed himself in a position worthy the pencil of a Cruik- shank, and took out a paper or book. This leads mc to remark upon two cliaracteristics of the Americans, their lounging ha- bit, and their eagerness to read. It is strange that Americans are as unable to sit like the rest of the European race as a Turk when he first arrives in Vienna. Whatever may be the reason, and however strongly self-indulgence may plead in its favor, it is an uncouth custom; and, though not prac- tised in the higher ranks, you meet even there with the same disposition, only refined by manner. A lady of my acquaintance carried the thing, as a joke, so far as to have in one of her rooms twelve chairs, not one of which was like the other, and that abomination, the rocking-chair, was not wanting. If the ladies but knew how ill they look in it with contracted shoulders and raised knees! However, you do not find these mongrel chairs in the parlors of the better houses in New York and Philadelphia. Their use is much more general in the eastern states, where I once saw a judge on the bench rocking himself in his easy chair. That prac- tical philosopher, Franklin, has the credit of their inven- tion. The following is characteristic in its way: — When the steam-cars on the rail-roads pass each other, and this often at the rate of fifty miles an hour, newspapers — these necessary surrogates for the market of the ancients, where every thing was transacted orally — are exchanged, so that passengers coming, for instance, from Philadelphia, receive the news of New York, before they arrive even on board the second steamboat, which takes them up to that city; this is effected by twisting the paper into a long roll, and holding it out of the window of the car, when it is caught by the passengers in the car passing in the opposite direction. I was once present when a young chap wished to deceive the others, and held out an old paper, but what was our merriment when we found that the paper wc had received in turn, was of still older date. ( 43 ) But to proceed with my travels. The boat was full; com- fortable situations w'ere sought, groups of acquaintances formed, and soon all was pretty quiet. Foreigners often complain of this silence; but besides the taciturn disposition of Americans in general, it must be remembered that a steam- boat is a moving street. Would you talk to every one in a street? People of all trades and classes meet in the steam- boat, and as there can be no great familiarity on an open square, so is it impossible on board " the boat/' on which crowds of people collect together but for a short time. On the Mississippi, indeed, the case is different. Much has been said about steamboats, and very natu- rally so. They save time, and that, alone, is saying much. Steam has become the handmaid of civilization. Steam has not only quickened the intercourse of men, but has united things which, without it, would have remained se- parate forever. Steam, I do not hesitate to say, has ce- mented our union. How would it have been possible for States, at such a distance from each other as Louisiana and Maine, Missouri and Delaware, to remain firmly united, had these distances continued to signify what they formerly did, had, in short, a mile remained a mile? They would have pulled one this way, the other that way; what inter- ested, moved, or disturbed the one, might not have affected the others; the conductors of the political fluid would have been wanting, and the parts would naturally have been shi- vered asunder. It was by roads as much as the forces which used them, that the Roman empire was kept together for a time. When I was in Buffalo, I saw a steamboat and asked the captain where he was going. " To Chicago," was the an- swer. How far is that? "Eleven hundred miles by water," he replied. Half the way across the Atlantic ! And this he said in a tone in which a waterman on the Thames would an- swer a similar question, by " To Greenwich, sir." People go to and fro between Chicago and Buffalo. There are steam- boats for greater distances )^et. But I probably shall touch ( 44 ) upon the distances in the United States again, and give you some more remarks upon the subject. Let me only add here, that, in my opinion, the history of civilization runs pa- rallel with the history of communication, both physical and intellectual, as roads, canals, steamboats, printing-presses, newspapers. For this reason, and because Fulton made the remote re- gions of the west easy of access to us, thus opening an im- mense field of enterprise to the fast-growing population, and preventing for a long time that discontent and uneasiness, so dangerous to calm and firm liberty, with which a crowd- ed population will ever be pregnant, I consider him a true benefactor of this Union and the liberty of the American people; separate the Union, and you will have jealousies, misunderstandings, war; have war, and you will have ar- mies and taxes and consolidation, and then — good bye to liberty. Were I asked for an inscription on the pedes- tal of a statue of Fulton, (which ought to stand, if possible, on the spot from which his first steamboat started,) I should propose this: — ROBERTO . FULTON . PENSYLVANIENSI FLUMINA . LACUSQUE . SUBEGIT ET . IN . TERRAS . REMOTAS ARATRUM . TULIT NECNON EXTREMAS . PATRI^ . REGIONES JUNXIT ITAQUE . FIRMIUS SACRUM . FCEDUS . NOSTRUM PEPIGIT.* There is a circumstance connected witli the invention of • In honor of Robert Fulton, of Pennsylvania. He subdued the rivers and the lakes, and carried the plougli to remote regions. He united the ex- treme parts of his country, and thus made firmer the stored covenant of our union. — Editoh. ( 45 ) Steamboats, which it has in common, though not in the same degree, with the invention of the art of printing. Most great discoveries have been made by chance or suffering. Wliat would the world be to this day without bills of ex- change? It was cruelty that goaded men to this invention.* What would the world be without posts and post-roads? It was tyranny that invented them. What would the world be without division of power? It was oppression that led to it. But the art of printing was not invented in order to multiply the decrees of a monarch or the orders of a minister; it was the free invention of the human mind, which had ar- rived at that stage of maturity where it required this means of multiplication. Nor was the steamboat invented in order to injure an enemy, or as a means of domestic tyranny; nor was it the result of chance. It was the invention of a pri- vate individual, who foresaw the immense advantages which his country would derive from a navigation, able to brave wind, tide, and current, and which in speed would leave all other means of navigation far behind.t Yet in giving their due to modern inventions or brilliant discoveries, let us not forget old ones or those which now appear so natural that millions are benefited by them, with- out ever reflecting upon the immense influence they have exercised upon mankind for centuries. He who invented the saw, in imitation, probably, of the jaw of some large fish, was, to say the least, no fool ; the inventors of the wheel • The Jews, against whom the European race in the middle ag-es com- mitted crimes as enormous as those perpeti-ated at a later period by the same race against the Africans, were driven from time to time from one or the other countiy, that their master, whether monarch or feudal lord, might ap- propriate their property to his own use. At last, these persecuted men, when Philip Augustus and Philip the Long drove them out of France, trust- ed their property to Christians in France, and when they found a resting- place in Lombardy, gave to foreign merchants and travellers secret letters di- rected to the persons who held tlieir property in trust, drawing thereby upon them. — Editor. \ Let us never forget John Fitch, when we speak of steamboats. — Editor. ( 46 ) and screw conferred as great benefits upon mankind as did Fulton, but history mentions not their names, as she passes over all these early and great benefactors in silence. We know the bold woman who taught us to protect our children against the small-pox, and Roscoe celebrates the mother who dared to return to nature.* But who invented the distaff? When was the complicated process of making bread com- pletely discovered? Is it certain that Ctesebes contrived the pump? A bold man, indeed, he must have been who first conceived the idea of nailing a piece of iron to the hoof of a living animal. We forget the file, the knife, the sail, the rudder, when we talk of our improvements. We forget what inj^enuity was requisite to hit upon the idea of milk- ing a cow, when the calf had given up to receive nourish- ment from her. The inhabitants of South America do not even now know this important art, and leave the calf with the cow as long as they wish to have milk.t And yet how important is a milking cow to our whole comfort. Consi- der what a part milk, butter, and cheese play in our do- mestic, and, hence, political economy. Think of a farm without milk! Cobbet justly attaches, in his Cottage Eco- nomy, the greatest value to a cow; and Finke| calls this good animal, in a report, on his province, to the king, inva- luable to the poor man, and he thinks that the capacity of providing food for a cow, should form the standard of lawful divisibility of land. You have only to observe how much a • The Duchess of Devonshire, who nursed her child, mentioned in Ros- coe's translation of the Balia. — Editor. I It is very frequent to see, in Soutli America, cows either with sore ud- ders, because the calves having already teeth, injure them in sucking, or with very small udders, because tiiey are left in a natural state, in which cows have not much larger udders than mares. — Editor. \ Von Finke, a distinguished Prussian statesman, is President of West- phalia. The work to which the author alludes, must be, " Report to the Minister of the Interior on the Division of Farms and Splitting up of real Estates in the Province of Wcstphaha, in 1824." Mr. Von Finke is known, also, by a work on the domestic government of Great Britain, edited by Nic- buhr, the historian, Berlin, 1815.— Editor. ( 47 ) milking cow is valued by a family, especially where there are children; how parents feel a real gratitude towards "the good old animal/' " the old lady," how every member of the fa- mily takes an interest in her meals. — And, then, who can name the inventor of that sweetest of all things, sleep, to- ward whom Sancho, the wise fool, felt such intense grati- tude. Ah, honest Panza, if thou wert here, in our summer, thou wouldst not say " Sleep covers a man all over like a cloak;" its covering capacity hardly exceeds that of a short pea-jacket. The Delaware has always been to me the jDicture of gentle peace and calm enjoyment. Its banks are low, nothing striking appears to you whilst you glide along; but as far as you can see back into the country you behold cultivated land and fine vegetation. Many farmers here are quakers, and capital farmers they make. You should see their neat wives with their clean and polished vessels and nicely kept produce in the Philadelphia market. It must be a pleasure to buy butter from them ; you imagine all the neatness that pre- pared it. Some parts of the Delaware present very fine pic- tures, for instance when you cross from Burlington to Bristol, but I promised no description of my journey ; I write in my own way, and must be allowed to meander about. There is a rail-road at present between Bordentown and Amboy through New Jersey, whose sand reminds me of my native Mark Brandenburg. This is not the only artificial communication between the Delaware and the New York waters. I send you a map of Pennsylvania and New York, from which you will see that there are several canals and rail-roads which connect or will connect the eastern part of Pennsylvania and New Jersey with the waters around or leading to New York. Look well at this map; I believe, as long as history records the deeds of men, there has never been a territory equal in extent to Pennsylvania and the western part of New York, where human activity and ingenuity have done equally much in so short a time for internal communication; much as I honor the grand and majiifold improvements of the an ( '1« ) cient Egyptians. Some years ago Pennsylvania alone had spent twenty millions of dollars on her canals and other ar- tificial means of communication. And all this is done hy a self-taxing people; it is not a powerful government with any coercive means either over the money or the labor of the people at its disposal, but a pure representative govern- ment, which resolves upon these great undertakings: it is a subject of pleasing contemplation. When I first came to this country, I went from the Dela- ware to the Chesapeake, across the little state of Delaware, (which, not unlike the rotten boroughs of England, has pro- duced more able men than, her size considered, might be expected,) in a confounded and confounding stage-coach. A few years later I had to go again to Washington, and found a canal cut through Delaware state, and got on very comfortably; a year or so later, I crossed the same state on a rail-road; now I wait impatiently for a passage over the state, for aerial navigation is the next in order, all other means being exhausted. An American distinguishes him- self from the inhabitants of all other countries by a rest- lessness, a striving and driving onward, without which this country would never have shot up in such an unexampled growth, and which opens to thousands of men, possessed of nothing but their energy, a successful career; whilst it also extinguishes in many individual cases the calm enjoyment of what they have and possess, a disposition the very op- posite of that which gives to the Italian such deep enjoy- ment in liis dolce far niente. So strangely are we con- stituted! Have the one, and you must resign the other. The same disposition which, in this country, renders the word enterprising a most popular and laudatory epithet, and which leads a Daniel Boone* farther and farther to the west, or guides a small New England craft to the New • Not alone yoimg' men and poor emigrants seek the distant M'est; many families in comfortable circumstances leave the places where they have en- joyed all the pleasures of social intercourse, and to which they ai-e tied by all tlic bonds which usually fix a man in life, and proceed to the fertile ( 49 ) Shetland Islands, where her crew chase the seal, and from whence the}'' sail for London, because they happen to hear that the market for their skins will be best there — this same disposition makes the American little satisfied with what he has, and therefore little fit for the calm enjoyment of any thing; while, on the other hand, the turn of mind which makes the Roman blacksmith look out of his shop door, turn round to his hands with — " boys, let's go to Monte Testaccio," and then send for a coach into which he jumps with his journeymen and all, and dance and drink away the afternoon happy as a child: that same disposition makes him dance in rags and sleep in a house that is no home» But if one or the other must be, give me, I say, the man^ the striving, enterprising man. There is, besides, a happi- ness in toiling and braving of difficulties. Who rules? the Babylonian on his couch or the Mede? The Mede or the hardy Persian? The degenerated Persian or the stirring Ma- cedonian and enterprising Greek? Voluptuous Asia or manly Rome? The luxurious inhabitant of the south, or the ac- tive Englishman? An American cannot make a piece of machinery, twice, precisely the same; he endeavors always to improve, some- times merely to change. How beneficial an influence.this dis- position must, on the whole, exert on all mechanical and ma- terial affairs, you can easily imagine; it has a different effect upon those subjects which lie beyond the sphere of the mere material world. Often sufficient time for necessary development is not allowed to an institution; its rpots have plains of Illinois and Missouri, which they have yet to clear, and where they have to begin with the log-hut. It was but lately that a friend of mine, a gentleman bom and bred in one of the largest cities of the Union, who is highly esteemed by his fellow citizens whom he represented repeatedly in Congress, whose family enjoyed the best standing, who is " fallen into the sear, the yellow leaf," who had a most agreeable country seat and a farm conducted on the best principles, warranted by his own experience, — broke up his establishment and set off with his whole family for Illinois. It is ati instance which could not possibly happen any where but in tlic United States. — Editor . 7 ( 50 ) hardly begun to spread, when changes are begun. This is owing also to the peculiar situation of Americans in a new country which calls continually for the application of new forces, and which leads them to look upon changes and no- velties in a totally different light from that in which they would appear to the inhabitant of an old European state. But as to the improvement of the material world the beneficial influence of this disposition cannot be doubted, especially as the Americans are as great hands for division of mechanical labor as they are for uniting the different branches of mental labor. A few days ago I found out at my book-binder's that the gilding and marbling of books is done by men who do nothing else, and not by the book-binder himself. The same is done in England; I never heard of it on the continent. So do the butchers occupy themselves with killing but one and the same species of animals. Pork butchers I have found in many countries entirely separated from the others, but hero we have veal, mutton, beef and pork butchers, — each separate from the other. A fai'mer rarely sen