gauged by its or his observance of the golden rule, ‘Do as you
would be done by,’ but are considered with reference to their
smartness. I recollect, on both occasions of our passing that illfated
Cairo on the Mississippi, remarking on the bad effects such
gross deceits must have when they exploded, in generating a want of
confidence abroad, and discouraging foreign investment: but I was
given to understand that this was a very smart scheme by which a
deal of money had been made: and that its smartest feature was,
that they forgot these things abroad, in a very short time, and
speculated again, as freely as ever. The following dialogue I have
held a hundred times: ‘Is it not a very disgraceful circumstance
that such a man as So-and-so should be acquiring a large property
by the most infamous and odious means, and notwithstanding all the
crimes of which he has been guilty, should be tolerated and abetted
by your Citizens? He is a public nuisance, is he not?’ ‘Yes,
sir.’ ‘A convicted liar?’ ‘Yes, sir.’ ‘He has been kicked, and
cuffed, and caned?’ ‘Yes, sir.’ ‘And he is utterly dishonourable,
debased, and profligate?’ ‘Yes, sir.’ ‘In the name of wonder,
then, what is his merit?’ ‘Well, sir, he is a smart man.’
In like manner, all kinds of deficient and impolitic usages are
referred to the national love of trade; though, oddly enough, it
would be a weighty charge against a foreigner that he regarded the
Americans as a trading people. The love of trade is assigned as a
reason for that comfortless custom, so very prevalent in country
towns, of married persons living in hotels, having no fireside of
their own, and seldom meeting from early morning until late at
night, but at the hasty public meals. The love of trade is a
reason why the literature of America is to remain for ever
unprotected ‘For we are a trading people, and don’t care for
poetry:’ though we DO, by the way, profess to be very proud of our
poets: while healthful amusements, cheerful means of recreation,
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and wholesome fancies, must fade before the stern utilitarian joys
of trade.
These three characteristics are strongly presented at every turn,
full in the stranger’s view. But, the foul growth of America has a
more tangled root than this; and it strikes its fibres, deep in its
licentious Press.
Schools may be erected, East, West, North, and South; pupils be
taught, and masters reared, by scores upon scores of thousands;
colleges may thrive, churches may be crammed, temperance may be
diffused, and advancing knowledge in all other forms walk through
the land with giant strides: but while the newspaper press of
America is in, or near, its present abject state, high moral
improvement in that country is hopeless. Year by year, it must and
will go back; year by year, the tone of public feeling must sink
lower down; year by year, the Congress and the Senate must become
of less account before all decent men; and year by year, the memory
of the Great Fathers of the Revolution must be outraged more and
more, in the bad life of their degenerate child.
Among the herd of journals which are published in the States, there
are some, the reader scarcely need be told, of character and
credit. From personal intercourse with accomplished gentlemen
connected with publications of this class, I have derived both
pleasure and profit. But the name of these is Few, and of the
others Legion; and the influence of the good, is powerless to
counteract the moral poison of the bad.
Among the gentry of America; among the well-informed and moderate:
in the learned professions; at the bar and on the bench: there is,
as there can be, but one opinion, in reference to the vicious
character of these infamous journals. It is sometimes contended –
I will not say strangely, for it is natural to seek excuses for
such a disgrace – that their influence is not so great as a visitor
would suppose. I must be pardoned for saying that there is no
warrant for this plea, and that every fact and circumstance tends