textfiles/etext/AUTHORS/IRVING/irving-english-597.txt

                                    1819-20

                                THE SKETCH BOOK

                           ENGLISH WRITERS ON AMERICA

                              by Washington Irving

  "Methinks I see in my mind a noble and puissant nation, rousing
herself like a strong man after sleep, and shaking her invincible
locks: methinks I see her as an eagle, mewing her mighty youth, and
kindling her endazzled eyes at the full mid-day beam."

                         MILTON ON THE LIBERTY OF THE PRESS.

  IT IS with feelings of deep regret that I observe the literary
animosity daily growing up between England and America. Great
curiosity has been awakened of late with respect to the United States,
and the London press has teemed with volumes of travels through the
Republic; but they seem intended to diffuse error rather than
knowledge; and so successful have they been, that, notwithstanding the
constant intercourse between the nations, there is no people
concerning whom the great mass of the British public have less pure
information, or entertain more numerous prejudices.

  English travellers are the best and the worst in the world. Where no
motives of pride or interest intervene, none can equal them for
profound and philosophical views of society, or faithful and graphical
descriptions of external objects; but when either the interest or
reputation of their own country comes in collision with that of
another, they go to the opposite extreme, and forget their usual
probity and candor, in the indulgence of splenetic remark, and an
illiberal spirit of ridicule.

  Hence, their travels are more honest and accurate, the more remote
the country described. I would place implicit confidence in an
Englishman's descriptions of the regions beyond the cataracts of the
Nile; of unknown islands in the Yellow Sea; of the interior of
India; or of any other tract which other travellers might be apt to
picture out with the illusions of their fancies; but I would
cautiously receive his account of his immediate neighbors, and of
those nations with which he is in habits of most frequent intercourse.
However I might be disposed to trust his probity, I dare not trust his
prejudices.

  It has also been the peculiar lot of our country to be visited by
the worst kind of English travellers. While men of philosophical
spirit and cultivated minds have been sent from England to ransack the
poles, to penetrate the deserts, and to study the manners and
customs of barbarous nations, with which she can have no permanent
intercourse of profit or pleasure; it has been left to the broken-down
tradesman, the scheming adventurer, the wandering mechanic, the
Manchester and Birmingham agent, to be her oracles respecting America.
From such sources she is content to receive her information respecting
a country in a singular state of moral and physical development; a
country in which one of the greatest political experiments in the
history of the world is now performing; and which presents the most
profound and momentous studies to the statesman and the philosopher.

  That such men should give prejudicial accounts of America is not a
matter of surprise. The themes it offers for contemplation are too
vast and elevated for their capacities. The national character is
yet in a state of fermentation; it may have its frothiness and
sediment, but its ingredients are sound and wholesome; it has
already given proofs of powerful and generous qualities; and the whole
promises to settle down into something substantially excellent. But
the causes which are operating to strengthen and ennoble it, and its
daily indications of admirable properties, are all lost upon these
purblind observers; who are only affected by the little asperities
incident to its present situation. They are capable of judging only of
the surface of things; of those matters which come in contact with
their private interests and personal gratifications. They miss some of
the snug conveniences and petty comforts which belong to an old,
highly-finished, and over-populous state of society; where the ranks
of useful labor are crowded, and many earn a painful and servile
subsistence by studying the very caprices of appetite and
self-indulgence. These minor comforts, however, are all-important in
the estimation of narrow minds; which either do not perceive, or
will not acknowledge, that they are more than counterbalanced among us
by great and generally diffused blessings.

  They may, perhaps, have been disappointed in some unreasonable
expectation of sudden gain. They may have pictured America to
themselves an El Dorado, where gold and silver abounded, and the
natives were lacking in sagacity; and where they were to become
strangely and suddenly rich, in some unforeseen, but easy manner.
The same weakness of mind that indulges absurd expectations produces
petulance in disappointment. Such persons become embittered against
the country on finding that there, as everywhere else, a man must
sow before he can reap; must win wealth by industry and talent; and
must contend with the common difficulties of nature, and the
shrewdness of an intelligent and enterprising people.

  Perhaps, through mistaken, or ill-directed hospitality, or from
the prompt disposition to cheer and countenance the stranger,
prevalent among my countrymen, they may have been treated with
unwonted respect in America; and having been accustomed all their
lives to consider themselves below the surface of good society, and
brought up in a servile feeling of inferiority, they become arrogant
on the common boon of civility: they attribute to the lowliness of
others their own elevation; and underrate a society where there are no
artificial distinctions, and where, by any chance, such individuals as
themselves can 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 with caution by the censors of the press; that the motives of
these men, their veracity, their opportunities of inquiry and
observation, and their capacities for judging correctly, would be
rigorously scrutinized before their evidence was admitted, in such
sweeping extent, against a kindred nation. The very reverse,
however, is the case, and it furnishes a striking instance of human
inconsistency. Nothing can surpass the vigilance with which English
critics will examine the credibility of the traveller who publishes an
account of some distant, and comparatively unimportant country. How
warily will they compare the measurements of a pyramid, or the
descriptions of a ruin; and how sternly will they censure any
inaccuracy in these contributions of merely curious knowledge: while
they will receive, with eagerness and unhesitating faith, the gross
misrepresentations of coarse and obscure writers, concerning a country
with which their own is placed in the most important and delicate
relations. Nay, they will even make these apocryphal volumes
text-books, on which to enlarge with a zeal and an ability worthy of a
more generous cause.

  I shall not, however, dwell on this irksome and hackneyed topic; nor
should I have adverted to it, but for the undue interest apparently
taken in it by my countrymen, and certain injurious effects which I
apprehended it might produce upon the national feeling. We attach
too much consequence to these attacks. They cannot do us any essential
injury. The tissue of misrepresentations attempted to be woven round
us are like cobwebs woven round the limbs of an infant giant. Our
country continually outgrows them. One falsehood after another falls
off of itself. We have but to live on, and every day we live a whole
volume of refutation.

  All the writers of England united, if we could for a moment
suppose their great minds stooping to so unworthy a combination, could
not conceal our rapidly-growing importance, and matchless
prosperity. They could not conceal that these are owing, not merely to
physical and local, but also to moral causes- to the political
liberty, the general diffusion of knowledge, the prevalence of sound
moral and religious principles, which give force and sustained
energy to the character of a people; and which, in fact, have been the
acknowledged and wonderful supporters of their own national power
and glory.

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

  For ourselves, therefore, it is comparatively of but little
importance whether England does us justice or not; it is, perhaps,
of far more importance to herself. She is instilling anger and
resentment into the bosom of a youthful nation, to grow with its
growth and strengthen with its strength. If in America, as some of her
writers are laboring to convince her, she is hereafter to find an
invidious rival, and a gigantic foe, she may thank those very
writers for having provoked rivalship and irritated hostility. Every
one knows the all-pervading influence of literature at the present
day, and how much the opinions and passions of mankind are under its
control. The mere contests of the sword are temporary; their wounds
are but in the flesh, and it is the pride of the generous to forgive
and forget them; but the slanders of the pen pierce to the heart; they
rankle longest in the noblest spirits; they dwell ever present in
the mind, and render it morbidly sensitive to the most trifling
collision. It is but seldom that any one overt act produces
hostilities between two nations; there exists, most commonly, a
previous jealousy and ill-will; a predisposition to take offence.
Trace these to their cause, and how often will they be found to
originate in the mischievous effusions of mercenary writers; who,
secure in their closets, and for ignominious bread, concoct and
circulate the venom that is to inflame the generous and the brave.

  I am not laying too much stress upon this point; for it applies most
emphatically to our particular case. Over no nation does the press
hold a more absolute control than over the people of America; for
the universal education of the poorest classes makes every
individual a reader. There is nothing published in England on the
subject of our country that does not circulate through every part of
it. There is not a calumny dropped from English pen, nor an unworthy
sarcasm uttered by an English statesman, that does not go to blight
good-will, and add to the mass of latent resentment. Possessing, then,
as England does, the fountain-head whence the literature of the
language flows, how completely is it in her power, and how truly is it
her duty, to make it the medium of amiable and magnanimous feeling-
a stream where the two nations might meet together, and drink in peace
and kindness. Should she, however, persist in turning it to waters
of bitterness, the time may come when she may repent her folly. The
present friendship of America may be of but little moment to her;
but the future destinies of that country do not admit of a doubt; over
those of England there lower some shadows of uncertainty. Should,
then, a day of gloom arrive; should these reverses overtake her,
from which the proudest empires have not been exempt; she may look
back with regret at her infatuation, in repulsing from her side a
nation she might have grappled to her bosom, and thus destroying her
only chance for real friendship beyond the boundaries of her own
dominions.

  There is a general impression in England, that the people of the
United States are inimical to the parent country. It is one of the
errors which have been diligently propagated by designing writers.
There is, doubtless, considerable political hostility, and a general
soreness at the illiberality of the English press; but, generally
speaking, the prepossessions of the people are strongly in favor of
England. Indeed, at one time, they amounted, in many parts of the
Union, to an absurd degree of bigotry. The bare name of Englishman was
a passport to the confidence and hospitality of every family, and
too often gave a transient currency to the worthless and the
ungrateful. Throughout the country there was something of enthusiasm
connected with the idea of England. We looked to it with a hallowed
feeling of tenderness and veneration, as the land of our forefathers-
the august repository of the monuments and antiquities of our race-
the birthplace and mausoleum of the sages and heroes of our paternal
history. After our own country, there was none in whose glory we more
delighted- none whose good opinion we were more anxious to possess-
none towards which our hearts yearned with such throbbings of warm
consanguinity. Even during the late war, whenever there was the least
opportunity for kind feelings to spring forth, it was the delight of
the generous spirits of our country to show that, in the midst of
hostilities, they still kept alive the sparks of future friendship.

  Is all this to be at an end? Is this golden band of kindred
sympathies, so rare between nations, to be broken for ever?- Perhaps
it is for the best- it may dispel an illusion which might have kept us
in mental vassalage; which might have interfered occasionally with our
true interests, and prevented the growth of proper national pride. But
it is hard to give up the kindred tie! and there are feelings dearer
than interest- closer to the heart than pride- that will still make us
cast back a look of regret, as we wander farther and farther from
the paternal roof, and lament the waywardness of the parent that would
repel the affections of the child.

  Short-sighted and injudicious, however, as the conduct of England
may be in this system of aspersion, recrimination on our part would be
equally ill-judged. I speak not of a prompt and spirited vindication
of our country, nor the keenest castigation of her slanderers- but I
allude to a disposition to retaliate in kind; to retort sarcasm, and
inspire prejudice; which seems to be spreading widely among our
writers. Let us guard particularly against such a temper, for it would
double the evil instead of redressing the wrong. Nothing is so easy
and inviting as the retort of abuse and sarcasm; but it is a paltry
and an unprofitable contest. It is the alternative of a morbid mind,
fretted into petulance, rather than warmed into indignation. If
England is willing to permit the mean jealousies of trade, or the
rancorous animosities of politics, to deprave the integrity of her
press, and poison the fountain of public opinion, let us beware of her
example. She may deem it her interest to diffuse error, and engender
antipathy, for the purpose of checking emigration; we have no
purpose of the kind to serve. Neither have we any spirit of national
jealousy to gratify, for as yet, in all our rivalships with England,
we are the rising and the gaining party. There can be no end to
answer, therefore, but the gratification of resentment- a mere
spirit of retaliation; and even that is impotent. Our retorts are
never republished in England; they fall short, therefore, of their
aim; but they foster a querulous and peevish temper among our writers;
they sour the sweet flow of our early literature, and sow thorns and
brambles among its blossoms. What is still worse, they circulate
through our own country, and, as far as they have effect, excite
virulent national prejudices. This last is the evil most especially to
be deprecated. Governed, as we are, entirely by public opinion, the
utmost care should be taken to preserve the purity of the public mind.
Knowledge is power, and truth is knowledge; whoever, therefore,
knowingly propagates a prejudice, willfully saps the foundation of his
country's strength.

  The members of a republic, above all other men, should be candid and
dispassionate. They are, individually, portions of the sovereign
mind and sovereign will, and should be enabled to come to all
questions of national concern with calm and unbiased judgments. From
the peculiar nature of our relations with England, we must have more
frequent questions of a difficult and delicate character with her than
with any other nation; questions that affect the most acute and
excitable feelings; and as, in the adjusting of these, our national
measures must ultimately be determined by popular sentiment, we cannot
be too anxiously attentive to purify it from all latent passion or
prepossession.

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

  What have we to do with national prejudices? They are the inveterate
diseases of old countries, contracted in rude and ignorant ages,
when nations knew but little of each other, and looked beyond their
own boundaries with distrust and hostility. We, on the contrary,
have sprung into national existence in an enlightened and
philosophic age, when the different parts of the habitable world,
and the various branches of the human family, have been
indefatigably studied and made known to each other; and we forego
the advantages of our birth, if we do not shake off the national
prejudices, as we would the local superstitions of the old world.

  But above all let us not be influenced by any angry feelings, so far
as to shut our eyes to the perception of what is really excellent
and amiable in the English character. We are a young people,
necessarily an imitative one, and must take our examples and models,
in a great degree, from the existing nations of Europe. There is no
country more worthy of our study than England. The spirit of her
constitution is most analogous to ours. The manners of her people-
their intellectual activity- their freedom of opinion- their habits of
thinking on those subjects which concern the dearest interests and
most sacred charities of private life, are all congenial to the
American character; and, in fact, are all intrinsically excellent; for
it is in the moral feeling of the people that the deep foundations
of British prosperity are laid; and however the superstructure may
be time-worn, or overrun by abuses, there must be something solid in
the basis, admirable in the materials, and stable in the structure
of an edifice, that so long has towered unshaken amidst the tempests
of the world.

  Let it be the pride of our writers, therefore, discarding all
feelings of irritation, and disdaining to retaliate the illiberality
of British authors, to speak of the English nation without
prejudice, and with determined candor. While they rebuke the
indiscriminating bigotry with which some of our countrymen admire
and imitate every thing English, merely because it is English, let
them frankly point out what is really worthy of approbation. We may
thus place England before us as a perpetual volume of reference,
wherein are recorded sound deductions from ages of experience; and
while we avoid the errors and absurdities which may have crept into
the page, we may draw thence golden maxims of practical wisdom,
wherewith to strengthen and to embellish our national character.

                        THE END
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