which he has in common with the AngloSaxon race, enable him to succeed tolerably well even in the forest, but he finds it more to his advantage to settle on a farm bought at second-hand and partially cultivated. The Swiss are much the same with the Germans. The French and Italians, on the other hand, are totally unfit for planting colonies in the woods. Nothing could possibly be more alien to the usual habits of a Frenchman. The population of France is almost universally collected in cities, towns, villages, and hamlets, and thus, from early habit as well as constitutional disposition, Frenchmen love society, and cannot endure the loneliness and isolation of the settlements we have described. When they attempt to form colonies, it is by grouping together in villages, as may be seen along the banks of the St. Lawrence and of the Lower Mississippi. Hence their settlements are seldom either extensive or vigorous. They find themselves happier in the cities and large towns. If resolved to establish themselves in the country, they should go to comparatively well-settled neighbourhoods, not to the forests of the Far West. CHAPTER VII. ON THE ALLEGED WANT OF NATIONAL CHAR- upon the existence of but one language, can the citizens of the United States make any claim to it; for the colonists from whom they are descended brought with them the languages of the different countries from which they came, and these are retained in some instances to the present day. At least eleven of the different languages of Europe have been spoken by settlers in the United States. But let us examine these two points somewhat more minutely, and we cannot fail to be struck with the facts which will be presented to our view. And in the first, never has there been witnessed so rapid a blending of people from different countries, and speaking different languages, as may be seen in the United States. Within the last two hundred years, people have been arriving from some eleven or twelve different countries, and distinguished by as many different tongues, yet so singular a fusion has taken place, that in many localities, where population is at all compact, it would puzzle a stranger to determine the national origin of the people from any peculiarity of physiognomy or dialect, far less of language. Who can distinguish in New-York the mass of persons of Dutch descent from those of Anglo-Saxon origin, unless, perhaps, by their retaining Dutch family names? Where discover, by the indices of language, features, or manners, the descendants of the Swedes, the Welsh, with a few exceptions the Poles, the Norwegians, the Danes, or the great body of French Huguenots? Almost the only exceptions to this universal amalgamation and loss of original languages are to be found in the Germans and French; and even in regard to these, had it not been for comparatively recent arrivals of emigrants caused by the French Revolution, the St. Domingo massacres, and various events in Germany, both the French and German languages would have been extinct ere now in the United States. The former is spoIf oneness of origin be essential to the ken only by a few thousands in the large formation of national character, it is clear cities, and some tens of thousands in Louithat the people of the United States can siana. In the cities, English as well as make no pretensions to it. No civilized French is spoken by most of the French; nation was ever composed of inhabitants and in Louisiana, the only portion of the derived from such a variety of sources; Union which the French language has ever for in the United States we find the de- ventured to claim for itself, it is fast giving scendants of English, Welsh, Scotch, place to English. German, also, spoken Irish, Dutch, Germans, Norwegians, Danes, although it be by many thousands of emiSwedes, Poles, French, Italians, and Span- grants arriving yearly from Europe, is fast iards; and there is even a numerous and disappearing from the older settlements. distinguished family in which it is admitted, The children of these Germans almost uniwith pride, that the blood of an Indian prin-versally acquire the English tongue in their cess mingles with that of the haughty Norman or Norman-Saxon. Many other nations are of mixed descent, but where shall we find one derived from so many distinct races? FOREIGNERS Who have written about the United States have often asserted that it is a country without a national character. Were this the mere statement of an opinion, it might be suffered to pass unnoticed, like many other things emanating from authors who undertake to speak about countries which they have had only very partial, and hence very imperfect, opportunities of knowing. But as the allegation has been made with an air of considerable pretension, it becomes necessary that we should submit it to the test of truth. Neither, if national character depends infancy, and where located, as generally happens, in the neighbourhood of settlerswho speak English as their mother tongue, learn to speak it well. Indeed, over nearly the whole vast extent of the United States, English is spoken among the well-educa ment of their claims to national character, do the same. ted, with a degree of purity to which there is no parallel in the British realm. There, on a space not much larger than a sixth part Amalgamation takes place, also, by inof the United States territory, no fewer than termarriages to an extent quite unexamthree or four languages are spoken; and in pled anywhere else; for though the AngloEngland alone, I know not how many dia- Saxon race has an almost undisputed poslects are to be found which a person unac-session of the soil in New-England, peocustomed to them can hardly at all com- ple are everywhere else to be met with prehend, however familiar he may be with in whose veins flows the mingled blood pure English. As for France, with its Gas- of English, Dutch, Germans, Irish, and con, Breton, and I know not how many French. other remains of the languages spoken by * Nor has the assimilation of races and the ancient races which were once scat-languages been greater than that of mantered over its territory, the case is still ners, customs, religion, and political prinworse. Nor does either Germany or Ita-ciples. The manners of the people, in ly present the uniformity of speech that some places less, in others more refined, distinguishes the millions of the United are essentially characterized by simplicity, States, with the exception of the newly-ar-sincerity, frankness, and kindness. The rived foreigners; a uniformity which ex-religion of the overwhelming majority, and tends even to pronunciation, and the ab- which may therefore be called national, is, sence of provincial accent and phraseology.in all essential points, what was taught by A well-educated American who has seen the great Protestant Reformers of the sixmuch of his country may, indeed, distin- teenth century. With respect to politics, guish the Southern from the Northern with whatever warmth we may discuss the modes of pronouncing certain vowels; he measures of the government, but one feelmay recognise by certain shades of sound, ing prevails with regard to our political if I may so express myself, the Northern institutions themselves. We are no propor Southern origin of his countrymen; but agandists: we hold it to be our duty to these differences are too slight to be read-avoid meddling with the governments of ily perceived by a foreigner. other countries; and though we prefer our Generally speaking, the pronunciation own political forms, would by no means of well-educated Americans is precisely insist on others doing so too. That govthat given in the best orthoëpical authori-ernment we believe to be the best for any ties of England, and our best speakers people under which they live most happiadopt the well-established changes in pro-ly, and are best protected in their rights of nunciation that from time to time gain ground there. A few words, however, are universally pronounced in a manner different from what prevails in England. Either and neither, for example, are pronounced eether and neether, not ither and nither, nor will our lawyers probably ever learn to say lien for leen. There is a very perceptible difference of accent between the English and Americans, particularly those of the Eastern or New-England States. There is also a difference of tone; in some of the states there is more of a nasal inflexion of the voice than one hears in England. person, property, and conscience; and we would have every nation to judge for itself what form of government is best suited to secure for it these great ends. Assuredly no country possesses a press more free, or where, notwithstanding, pub|lic opinion is more powerful; but on these points we shall have more to say in another part of this work. The American people, taken as a whole, are mainly characterized by perseverance, earnestness, kindness, hospitality, and selfreliance, that is, by a disposition to depend upon their own exertions to the utmost, English literature has an immense cir- rather than look to the government for asculation in America; a circumstance which sistance. Hence, there is no country where may be an advantage in one sense, and a the government does less, or the people disadvantage in another. We are not want- more. In a word, our national character ing, however, in authors of unquestion- is that of the Anglo-Saxon race, which able merit in almost every branch of liter- still predominates among us in conseature, art, and science. Still, if a litera-quence of its original preponderancy in ture of our own creation be indispensable the colonization of the country, and of the to the possession of a national character, energy which forms its characteristic diswe must abandon all claim to it. tinction. It may be added, that we have no fashions of our own. We follow the modes of Paris. But in this Germans, Russians, Italians, and English, without any abate* I have been informed that there are twelve distinet lauguages and patois spoken in France, and that interpreters are needed in courts of justice with in a hundred miles of Paris! Has the reader ever heard Haydn's celebrated oratorio of the Creation performed by a full orchestra? If so, he cannot have forgotten how chaos is represented at the commencement, by all the instruments being sounded together without the least attempt at concord. By-and-by, however, something like order begins, and at length the clear notes of the clarionet | Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and Michigan, but are heard over all the others, controlling the northern and southern bounding lines, them into harmony. Something like this if extended according to the terms of the has been the influence in America of the charter, would have terminated, the one in Anglo-Saxon language, laws, institutions, the Pacific Ocean, and the other in Hudson's Bay; yet by the same charter, they were both to terminate at the South Sea, as the Pacific Ocean was then called. CHARACTER. But if, when it is alleged that we have no national character, it be meant that we have not originated any for ourselves, it may be asked, What nation has? All owe much to those from whom they have sprung; this, too, has been our case, although what we have inherited from our remote ancestors has unquestionably been much modified by the operation of political institutions which we have been led to adopt by new circumstances, and which, probably, were never contemplated by the founders of our country. CHAPTER VIII. THE ROYAL CHARTERS. FEW points in the colonial history of the United States are more interesting to the curious inquirer than the royal charters, under which the settlement of the country first took place. The North Carolina and Georgia charters conveyed to the colonists provinces that were to extend westward to the South Sea. Look The Massachusetts and Connecticut charters made these colonies also reach to the South Sea, it never appearing to have entered the royal head that they must thus have interfered with the claims of Virginia. New-York, which they must also have traversed, seems not to have been thought of, though claimed and occupied at the time by the Dutch. Indeed, considering the descriptions contained in their charters, it is marvellous that the colonies ever ascertained their boundaries. ing at the charter of Massachusetts, for example, and comparing it with that state as laid down on our maps, we are amazed to think by what possible ingenuity it should have come to have its existing These charters were granted by James boundaries, especially that on the northI., Charles I., Charles II., James II., Will-east. Still more confounding does it seem iam and Mary, and George I. They were that Massachusetts should have successvery diverse, both in form and substance. fully claimed the territory of Maine, and Some were granted to companies, some to yet have had to relinquish that of Newsingle persons, others to the colonists Hampshire. themselves. Most of them preceded the foundation of the colonies to which they referred; but in the cases of Rhode Island and Connecticut, the territories were settled first; while Plymouth colony had no crown charter at all, and not even a grant from the Plymouth Company in England, until the year after its foundation. The ordinary reader can be interested only in the charters granted by the crown of England; those from proprietary companies and individuals, to whom whole provinces had first been granted by the crown, can interest those readers only who would study the innumerable lawsuits to which they gave occasion. Such in those days was the utter disregard for the correct laying down of boundaries, that the same district of country was often covered with two or more grants, made by the same proprietors, to different individuals; thus furnishing matter for litigations which lasted in some colonies more than a century, and sometimes giving rise to lawsuits even at the present day. The royal charters give us an amusing idea of the notions with respect to North American geography entertained in those days by the sovereigns of England, or by those who acted for them. The charter of Virginia not only included those vast regions now comprised in the States of The charter granted to William Penn for Pennsylvania was the clearest of all, yet it was long matter of dispute whether or not it included Delaware. On the other hand, Delaware was claimed by Maryland, and with justice, if the charter of the latter province were to be construed literally. Still, Maryland did not obtain Delaware. Such charters, it will be readily supposed, must have led to serious and protracted disputes between the colonies themselves. Many of these disputes were still undetermined at the commencement of the war of the Revolution; several remained unadjustified long after the achievement of the national independence; and it was only a few years ago that the last of the boundary questions was brought to a final issue before the Supreme Court of the United States. After the Revolution, inmense difficulties attended the settlement of the various claims preferred by the Atlantic States to those parts of the West which they believed to have been conveyed to them by their old charters, and into which the tide of emigration was then beginning to flow. Had Virginia successfully asserted her claims, she would have had an empire in the Valley of the Mississippi sufficient, at some future day, to counterbalance almost importunity, the bribery of the chiefs, and sometimes even threats. Thus, although, with the exception of lands obtained by right of conquest in war, I do not believe that any whatever was obtained without something being given in exchange for it, yet I fear that the golden rule of "doing to others as we would that they should do unto us," was sadly neglected in many of those transactions. In Pennsylvania and New-England, unquestionably, greater fairnes was shown than in most, if not all the other colonies; yet even there, full justice, according to the above rule, was not always practised. Indeed, in many cases it was difficult to say what exact justice implied. To savages roaming over vast tracts of land which they did not cultivate, and which, even for the purposes of the chase, were often more extensive than necessary, to part with hundreds, or even thousands of square miles, could not be thought a matter of much importance, and thus conscience was quieted. But although our forefathers may not have done full justice to the poor Indians, it is by no means certain that others in the same circumstances would have done better. all the other states put together. North yet unjustifiable means were often emCarolina and Georgia also laid claim to ployed to induce the latter to cede their territories of vast extent. The claims of claims to the former, such as excessive Connecticut and Massachusetts directly conflicted with those of Virginia. Hence it required a great deal of wisdom and patience to settle all these claims, without endangering the peace and safety of the confederacy. All, at length, were adjusted except that of Georgia, and it, too, was arranged at a later date. Virginia magnanimously relinquished all her claims in the West; a spontaneous act, which immediately led to the establishment of the State of Kentucky, followed in due time by the foundation of those of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Michigan, in what was long called the Northwestern Territory. The relinquishment by North Carolina of her claims west of the Alleghany Mountains led to the creation of the State of TennesBut Connecticut refused to abandon her claim to the northeastern part of Ohio, often called to this day New Connecticut, without receiving from the General Government a handsome equivalent in money, which has been safely invested, and forms the basis of a large capital, set apart for the support of the common schools of the state. Georgia also ceded her claims in the West to the General Government, on the condition that it should obtain for her from the Indians a title to their territory lying to the east of the Chattahoochee River, now the western boundary of that state. Out of the cession thus made by Georgia have been formed the States of Alabama and Mississippi. see. The impatience of the colonists to obtain possession of lands which their charters, or arrangements consequent thereon, led them to regard as their own, has at times thrown the General Government into much embarrassment and difficulty. Thus, in the conflict between it and the State of The United States have had to struggle Georgia, a few short years ago, Congress with still more serious difficulties, origina- had agreed to buy the claims of the Inditing in the old royal charters. Little re- ans still remaining within that state, and to gard was paid to the prior claims of the provide for their removal beyond its limIndians in the extensive grants made by its, in return for the relinquishment of its those charters, directly or indirectly, to claims in the West. But this removal of the colonists. The pope had set the ex- the Indians, it had been expressly stipulaample of giving away the Aborigines with ted, was to be effected peaceably, and with the lands they occupied, or, rather, of giv- their own consent. Time rolled on, the ing away the land from under them; and population of Georgia increased, the setalthough in all the colonies founded by tlements of the white men had begun to our English ancestors in America there touch those of the red men, and the latter was a kind of feeling that the Indians had were urged to sell their lands and to retire some claims on the ground of prior occu- farther to the west. But to this they pation, yet these, it was thought, ought to would not consent. Thereupon the Gengive place to the rights conferred by the eral Government was called on to fulfil its royal charters. The colonists were sub-engagement. It exerted itself to the utject to the same blinding influence of selfishness that affects other men, and to this we are to ascribe the importunity with which they urged the removal of the Indians from the land conveyed by the royal charters, and which they had long been wont to consider and to call their own. In no case, indeed, did the new-comers seize upon the lands of the aboriginal occupants without some kind of purchase; * Amounting to 2,040,228 dollars. most to persuade the Indians to sell their lands; but neither would it employ force itself, nor allow Georgia to do so, though much was done by the colonists, and something, too, by the state indirectly, to worry the Indians into terms. The chiefs, however, long held back. But at length the lands were sold at a great price, and their occupants received others west of the Mississippi, and have removed to these. There, I doubt not, they will do better than in their former abode. To rid itself of such embarrassments cations afterward introduced during the created by the old charters, the General subjugation of the Saxons by the NorthGovernment, at the instance of great and men or Danes, lasting through 261 years,* good men, adopted, some years ago, the plan and which, though both partial in its exof collecting all the tribes still to be found tent, and interrupted in its continuance, within the confines of any of the states, left not a few monuments of its existence, upon an extensive district to the west of and gave a name to one of the orders of Arkansas and Missouri, claimed by no the English nobility.† state, and, therefore, considered as part of But, above all, he must study the influence the public domain. There it has already of the Norman Conquest, which was comcollected the Cherokees, the Choctas, the pleted within twenty years from the battle Chickasas, the Creeks, and several smaller of Hastings, fought A.D. 1066. Without tribes. Soon the territories of all the states extirpating all the Saxon institutions, that will be cleared of them, except in so far as event reduced the Anglo-Saxons of Engthey may choose to remain and become land to the condition of serfs; gave their citizens. Nor can I avoid cherishing the lands to sixty thousand warriors, compohope that the great Indian community now sing the conqueror's army; established an forming, as I have said, west of Missouri absolute monarchy, surrounded by a powand Arkansas, will one day become a state erful landed aristocracy; and thus introitself, and have its proper representatives duced an order of things wholly new to in the great council of the nation. I may the country, and foreign to its habits. conclude these remarks by observing, that He must attentively mark the influence the late painful dispute between the Uni- exercised by the Anglo-Saxon and Norted States and Great Britain, now so hap-man races upon each other, during the pepily terminated, relative to the boundaries between the State of Maine on the one hand, and Lower Canada and New-Brunswick on the other, originated in the geographical obscurity of certain limits, described in one of these old charters. CHAPTER IX. HOW A CORRECT KNOWLEDGE OF THE AMER- TER, MAY BEST BE ATTAINED. from the fact of his being no less earnest in calling for assistance from Rome, than Becket was in invoking her protection. riod that has since elapsed, of nearly eight hundred years; and he will there find a clew to many transactions which appear wholly unintelligible in the common histories of England. The reciprocal hatred of the two races will explain the quarrel of Becket, the first archbishop of the Saxon race after the Conquest, and Henry II., the fifth of the Norman kings; that national animosity leading Becket to resist the demands of the king, as calculated to extend the tyranny of a hated race of conquerors, and the king to humble the conquered by crushing their haughty representHe who would obtain a thorough knowl-ative. That this, and not the diminution edge of the people of the United States, their of the power of the pope, as is commonly national character, the nature of their gov-believed, was Henry's object, may be seen ernment, and the spirit of their laws, must go back to the earliest ages of the history of England, and study the character of the various races that from early times have settled there. He must carefully mark the influences they exerted on each other, and upon the civil and political institutions of that country. He must study the Saxon Conquest, followed by the introduction of Saxon institutions, and Saxon laws and usages; the trial of an accused person by his peers; the subdivision of the country into small districts, called townships or hundreds; the political influence of that arrangement; and the establishment of seven or eight petty kingdoms, in which the authority of the king was shared by the people, without whose consent no laws of importance could be made, and who often met for legislation in the open fields, or beneath the shade of some wide-spreading forest, as their Scandinavian kinsmen met, at a much later period, round the Mora stone.* He must next study the modifi * On the plains of Upsala in Sweden. The mora stone signifies the stone on the moor. He will perceive this mutual animosity manifesting itself in innumerable instances and in apparently contradictory conduct. At one time the Anglo-Saxons sided with the nobility against the monarch, as in the wars between the barons and King John, and also Henry III., not because they loved the barons, who were of the same detested Norman race, but because they dreaded the consequences to themselves of another conquest, by a king who had invited over the Poitévins, the Aquitains, and the Provençals, to help him against his own subjects in England. At other times they sided with the king against the barons, when they saw that the triumph of the latter was likely to augment their burdens. And although, as M. Thierry remarks,‡ From A.D. 787 to A.D. 1048. + That of Earl, from the Danish and Norwegian Jarl, who was at once the civil and military governor of a province. "Conquête de l'Angleterre," vol. iv., p. 366-368, Brussels edition. |