The Sketch-Book of Geoffrey Crayon

by Washington Irving

  ENGLISH WRITERS ON AMERICA.

  Methinks I see in my mind a noble and puissant nation, rousting herselflike a strong man after sleep, and shaking her invincible locks;methinks I see her as an eagle, mewing her mighty youth, and kindlingher endazzled eyes at the full mid-day beam.--MILTON ON THE LIBERTY OFTHE PRESS.

  IT is with feelings of deep regret that I observe the literary animositydaily growing up between England and America. Great curiosity has beenawakened of late with respect to the United States, and the London presshas teemed with volumes of travels through the Republic; but they seemintended to diffuse error rather than knowledge; and so successful havethey been, that, notwithstanding the constant intercourse betweenthe nations, there is no people concerning whom the great mass of theBritish public have less pure information, or entertain more numerousprejudices.

  English travellers are the best and the worst in the world. Where nomotives of pride or interest intervene, none can equal them forprofound and philosophical views of society, or faithful and graphicaldescription of external objects; but when either the interest orreputation of their own country comes in collision with that of another,they go to the opposite extreme, and forget their usual probity andcandor, in the indulgence of splenetic remark, and an illiberal spiritof ridicule.

  Hence, their travels are more honest and accurate, the more remote thecountry described. I would place implicit confidence in an Englishman'sdescription of the regions beyond the cataracts of the Nile; of unknownislands in the Yellow Sea; of the interior of India; or of any othertract which other travellers might be apt to picture out with theillusions of their fancies. But I would cautiously receive his accountof his immediate neighbors, and of those nations with which he is inhabits of most frequent intercourse. However I might be disposed totrust his probity, I dare not trust his prejudices.

  It has also been the peculiar lot of our country to be visited by theworst kind of English travellers. While men of philosophical spirit andcultivated minds have been sent from England to ransack the poles, topenetrate the deserts, and to study the manners and customs of barbarousnations, with which she can have no permanent intercourse of profit orpleasure; it has been left to the broken-down tradesman, the schemingadventurer, the wandering mechanic, the Manchester and Birmingham agent,to be her oracles respecting America. From such sources she is contentto receive her information respecting a country in a singular state ofmoral and physical development; a country in which one of the greatestpolitical experiments in the history of the world is now performing; andwhich presents the most profound and momentous studies to the statesmanand the philosopher.

  That such men should give prejudicial accounts of America, is not amatter of surprise. The themes it offers for contemplation, are too vastand elevated for their capacities. The national character is yet in astate of fermentation: it may have its frothiness and sediment, butits ingredients are sound and wholesome; it has already given proofs ofpowerful and generous qualities; and the whole promises to settledown into something substantially excellent. But the causes which areoperating to strengthen and ennoble it, and its daily indications ofadmirable properties, are all lost upon these purblind observers; whoare only affected by the little asperities incident to its presentsituation. They are capable of judging only of the surface of things;of those matters which come in contact with their private interests andpersonal gratifications. They miss some of the snug conveniencesand petty comforts which belong to an old, highly-finished, andover-populous state of society; where the ranks of useful labor arecrowded, and many earn a painful and servile subsistence, by studyingthe very caprices of appetite and self-indulgence. These minor comforts,however, are all-important in the estimation of narrow minds; whicheither do not perceive, or will not acknowledge, that they are more thancounterbalanced among us, by great and generally diffused blessings.

  They may, perhaps, have been disappointed in some unreasonableexpectation of sudden gain. They may have pictured America to themselvesan El Dorado, where gold and silver abounded, and the natives werelacking in sagacity, and where they were to become strangely andsuddenly rich, in some unforeseen but easy manner. The same weaknessof mind that indulges absurd expectations, produces petulance indisappointment. Such persons become embittered against the country onfinding that there, as everywhere else, a man must sow before he canreap; must win wealth by industry and talent; and must contend with thecommon difficulties of nature, and the shrewdness of an intelligent andenterprising people.

  Perhaps, through mistaken or ill-directed hospitality, or from theprompt disposition to cheer and countenance the stranger, prevalentamong my countrymen, they may have been treated with unwonted respectin America; and, having been accustomed all their lives to considerthemselves below the surface of good society, and brought up in aservile feeling of inferiority, they become arrogant, on the commonboon of civility; they attribute to the lowliness of others theirown elevation; and underrate a society where there are no artificialdistinctions, and where, by any chance, such individuals as themselvescan rise to consequence.

  One would suppose, however, that information coming from such sources,on a subject where the truth is so desirable, would be received withcaution by the censors of the press; that the motives of these men,their veracity, their opportunities of inquiry and observation, andtheir capacities for judging correctly, would be rigorously scrutinized,before their evidence was admitted, in such sweeping extent, against akindred nation. The very reverse, however, is the case, and it furnishesa striking instance of human inconsistency. Nothing can surpass thevigilance with which English critics will examine the credibility ofthe traveller who publishes an account of some distant and comparativelyunimportant country. How warily will they compare the measurements of apyramid, or the description of a ruin; and how sternly will they censureany inaccuracy in these contributions of merely curious knowledge, whilethey will receive, with eagerness and unhesitating faith, the grossmisrepresentations of coarse and obscure writers, concerning a countrywith which their own is placed in the most important and delicaterelations. Nay, they will even make these apocryphal volumes text-books,on which to enlarge, with a zeal and an ability worthy of a moregenerous cause.

  I shall not, however, dwell on this irksome and hackneyed topic; norshould I have adverted to it, but for the undue interest apparentlytaken in it by my countrymen, and certain injurious effects which Iapprehend it might produce upon the national feeling. We attach too muchconsequence to these attacks. They cannot do us any essential injury.The tissue of misrepresentations attempted to be woven round us, arelike cobwebs woven round the limbs of an infant giant. Our countrycontinually outgrows them. One falsehood after another falls off ofitself. We have but to live on, and every day we live a whole volume ofrefutation.

  All the writers of England united, if we could for a moment supposetheir great minds stooping to so unworthy a combination, could notconceal our rapidly growing importance and matchless prosperity. Theycould not conceal that these are owing, not merely to physical andlocal, but also to moral causes--to the political liberty, the generaldiffusion of knowledge, the prevalence of sound, moral, and religiousprinciples, which give force and sustained energy to the character ofa people, and which in fact, have been the acknowledged and wonderfulsupporters of their own national power and glory.

  But why are we so exquisitely alive to the aspersions of England? Whydo we suffer ourselves to be so affected by the contumely she hasendeavored to cast upon us? It is not in the opinion of England alonethat honor lives, and reputation has its being. The world at large isthe arbiter of a nation's fame: with its thousand eyes it witnesses anation's deeds, and from their collective testimony is national glory ornational disgrace established.

  For ourselves, therefore, it is comparatively of but little importancewhether England does us justice or not; it is, perhaps, of far moreimportance to herself. She is instilling anger and resentment into thebosom of a youthful nation, to grow with its growth, and strengthenwi
th its strength. If in America, as some of her writers are laboringto convince her, she is hereafter to find an invidious rival, and agigantic foe, she may thank those very writers for having provokedrivalship, and irritated hostility. Every one knows the all-pervadinginfluence of literature at the present day, and how much the opinionsand passions of mankind are under its control. The mere contests of thesword are temporary; their wounds are but in the flesh, and it is thepride of the generous to forgive and forget them; but the slanders ofthe pen pierce to the heart; they rankle longest in the noblest spirits;they dwell ever present in the mind, and render it morbidly sensitiveto the most trifling collision. It is but seldom that any one overt actproduces hostilities between two nations; there exists, most commonly, aprevious jealousy and ill-will, a predisposition to take offence. Tracethese to their cause, and how often will they be found to originate inthe mischievous effusions of mercenary writers, who, secure in theirclosets, and for ignominious bread, concoct and circulate the venom thatis to inflame the generous and the brave.

  I am not laying too much stress upon this point; for it applies mostemphatically to our particular case. Over no nation does the presshold a more absolute control than over the people of America; for theuniversal education of the poorest classes makes every individual areader. There is nothing published in England on the subject of ourcountry, that does not circulate through every part of it. There is nota calumny dropt from an English pen, nor an unworthy sarcasm uttered byan English statesman, that does not go to blight good-will, and add tothe mass of latent resentment. Possessing, then, as England does,the fountain-head whence the literature of the language flows, howcompletely is it in her power, and how truly is it her duty, to make itthe medium of amiable and magnanimous feeling--a stream where the twonations might meet together and drink in peace and kindness. Should she,however, persist in turning it to waters of bitterness, the time maycome when she may repent her folly. The present friendship of Americamay be of but little moment to her; but the future destinies of thatcountry do not admit of a doubt; over those of England, there lowersome shadows of uncertainty. Should, then, a day of gloom arrive--shouldthose reverses overtake her, from which the proudest empires havenot been exempt--she may look back with regret at her infatuation, inrepulsing from her side a nation she might have grappled to her bosom,and thus destroying her only chance for real friendship beyond theboundaries of her own dominions.

  There is a general impression in England, that the people of the UnitedStates are inimical to the parent country. It is one of the errorswhich have been diligently propagated by designing writers. There is,doubtless, considerable political hostility, and a general soreness atthe illiberality of the English press; but, collectively speaking, theprepossessions of the people are strongly in favor of England. Indeed,at one time they amounted, in many parts of the Union, to an absurddegree of bigotry. The bare name of Englishman was a passport tothe confidence and hospitality of every family, and too often gave atransient currency to the worthless and the ungrateful. Throughout thecountry, there was something of enthusiasm connected with the ideaof England. We looked to it with a hallowed feeling of tenderness andveneration, as the land of our forefathers--the august repository of themonuments and antiquities of our race--the birthplace and mausoleum ofthe sages and heroes of our paternal history. After our own country,there was none in whose glory we more delighted--none whose good opinionwe were more anxious to possess--none toward which our hearts yearnedwith such throbbings of warm consanguinity. Even during the late war,whenever there was the least opportunity for kind feelings to springforth, it was the delight of the generous spirits of our country to showthat, in the midst of hostilities, they still kept alive the sparks offuture friendship.

  Is all this to be at an end? Is this golden band of kindred sympathies,so rare between nations, to be broken forever?--Perhaps it is for thebest--it may dispel an allusion which might have kept us in mentalvassalage; which might have interfered occasionally with our trueinterests, and prevented the growth of proper national pride. But itis hard to give up the kindred tie! and there are feelings dearer thaninterest--closer to the heart than pride--that will still make us castback a look of regret as we wander farther and farther from the paternalroof, and lament the waywardness of the parent that would repel theaffections of the child.

  Short-sighted and injudicious, however, as the conduct or England may bein this system of aspersion, recrimination on our part would be equallyill-judged. I speak not of a prompt and spirited vindication of ourcountry, or the keenest castigation of her slanderers--but I allude toa disposition to retaliate in kind, to retort sarcasm and inspireprejudice, which seems to be spreading widely among our writers. Let usguard particularly against such a temper; for it would double the evil,instead of redressing the wrong. Nothing is so easy and inviting asthe retort of abuse and sarcasm; but it is a paltry and an unprofitablecontest. It is the alternative of a morbid mind, fretted into petulance,rather than warmed into indignation. If England is willing to permit themean jealousies of trade, or the rancorous animosities of politics, todeprave the integrity of her press, and poison the fountain of publicopinion, let us beware of her example. She may deem it her interestto diffuse error, and engender antipathy, for the purpose of checkingemigration: we have no purpose of the kind to serve. Neither have weany spirit of national jealousy to gratify; for as yet, in all ourrivalships with England, we are the rising and the gaining party.There can be no end to answer, therefore, but the gratification ofresentment--a mere spirit of retaliation--and even that is impotent. Ourretorts are never republished in England; they fall short, therefore,of their aim; but they foster a querulous and peevish temper amongour writers; they sour the sweet flow of our early literature, andsow thorns and brambles among its blossoms. What is still worse, theycirculate through our own country, and, as far as they have effect,excite virulent national prejudices. This last is the evil mostespecially to be deprecated. Governed, as we are, entirely by publicopinion, the utmost care should be taken to preserve the purity ofthe public mind. Knowledge is power, and truth is knowledge; whoever,therefore, knowingly propagates a prejudice, wilfully saps thefoundation of his country's strength.

  The members of a republic, above all other men, should be candid anddispassionate. They are, individually, portions of the sovereign mindand sovereign will, and should be enabled to come to all questions ofnational concern with calm and unbiassed judgments. From the peculiarnature of our relations with England, we must have more frequentquestions of a difficult and delicate character with her, than withany other nation,--questions that affect the most acute and excitablefeelings: and as, in the adjustment of these, our national measuresmust ultimately be determined by popular sentiment, we cannot betoo anxiously attentive to purify it from all latent passion orprepossession.

  Opening, too, as we do, an asylum for strangers every portion of theearth, we should receive all with impartiality. It should be our prideto exhibit an example of one nation, at least, destitute of nationalantipathies, and exercising, not merely the overt acts of hospitality,but those more rare and noble courtesies which spring from liberality ofopinion.

  What have we to do with national prejudices? They are the inveteratediseases of old countries, contracted in rude and ignorant ages, whennations knew but little of each other, and looked beyond their ownboundaries with distrust and hostility. We, on the contrary, have sprunginto national existence in an enlightened and philosophic age, when thedifferent parts of the habitable world, and the various branches of thehuman family, have been indefatigably studied and made known to eachother; and we forego the advantages of our birth, if we do not shake offthe national prejudices, as we would the local superstitions, of the oldworld.

  But above all let us not be influenced by any angry feelings, so faras to shut our eyes to the perception of what is really excellent andamiable in the English character. We are a young people, necessarily animitative one, and must take our examples and models, in a great degree,fr
om the existing nations of Europe. There is no country more worthy ofour study than England. The spirit of her constitution is most analogousto ours. The manners of her people--their intellectual activity--theirfreedom of opinion--their habits of thinking on those subjects whichconcern the dearest interests and most sacred charities of privatelife, are all congenial to the American character; and, in fact, are allintrinsically excellent: for it is in the moral feeling of the peoplethat the deep foundations of British prosperity are laid; and howeverthe superstructure may be timeworn, or overrun by abuses, there must besomething solid in the basis, admirable in the materials, and stable inthe structure of an edifice that so long has towered unshaken amidst thetempests of the world.

  Let it be the pride of our writers, therefore, discarding all feelingsof irritation, and disdaining to retaliate the illiberality of Britishauthors, to speak of the English nation without prejudice, and withdetermined candor. While they rebuke the indiscriminating bigotry withwhich some of our countrymen admire and imitate every thing English,merely because it is English, let them frankly point out what isreally worthy of approbation. We may thus place England before us asa perpetual volume of reference, wherein are recorded sound deductionsfrom ages of experience; and while we avoid the errors and absurditieswhich may have crept into the page, we may draw thence golden maxims ofpractical wisdom, wherewith to strengthen and to embellish our nationalcharacter.