America, and the Americans ... by a Citizen of the World
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Library of Congress America, and the Americans ... By a citizen of the world AMERICA, AND THE AMERICANS. “AUDI ALTERAM PARTEM.” BY A CITIZEN OF THE WORLD. James Broadman LONDON: PRINTED FOR LONGMAN, REES, ORME, BROWN, GREEN, & LONGMAN, PATERNOSTER-ROW. 1833. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CITY OF WASHINGTON 378 973 E165 Bb9 London: Printed by A. & R. Spottiswoode, New-Street-Square. TO LAFAYETTE, THE COMPANION OF WASHINGTON, AND THE FRIEND OF MANKIND, THE FOLLOWING PAGES ARE MOST RESPECTFULLY INSCRIBED, BY THE AUTHOR. A 2 PREFACE “ WHEN a writer,” says the excellent Paley, “offers a book to the public, upon a subject on which the public are already in possession of many others, he is bound by a kind of literary justice to inform his readers, distinctly and specifically, what it is he professes to supply, and what he expects to improve.” America, and the Americans ... By a citizen of the world http://www.loc.gov/resource/lhbtn.26745 Library of Congress In compliance with this injunction, I shall proceed to state the causes which induced me to incur the responsibilities of an author. In the course of my travels and residence in the United States of America, which country I visited solely with commercial views, and unprovided with any direct demands for what are termed civilities, notwithstanding the plague spot, slavery, in one district, I saw so much to cheer the philanthropist, so much to delight the lover of liberty, vi so much to interest even the money-spending, as well as the money-getting class; in short, I saw a nation so much further advanced in all the useful arts, as well as the elegancies of life, than I, in common with the great majority of Englishmen, were willing to believe; that my impressions upon the whole were decidedly favourable, and were freely communicated to all with whom I conversed. The praise of Englishmen is esteemed by the Americans, perhaps somewhat more highly, on account of its being so rarely bestowed; but although it was evident my observations were often such as the latter might desire to appear in print, no such wish ever fell from their lips; nor could a single native, with whom I came in contact, even suppose from any thing which fell from mine, that in tendering civilities, or in performing any other act, his conduct or manner might, perchance, contribute to the aggregate estimate of national character in the note-book of a traveller. On my return to England, I found, even among the population of the great emporium of American commerce, Liverpool, such gross vii ignorance as to the actual state of society among our trans-atlantic descendants, that I felt a strong desire to assist in removing the feeling generated during the long reign of Toryism. Accidentally taking up a periodical, in which was inserted an article, containing an allusion to America, I read therein, with disgust, the following libellous tirade:— America, and the Americans ... By a citizen of the world http://www.loc.gov/resource/lhbtn.26745 Library of Congress “America, where there is nothing to steal but grass or water, where the spade is the only thing of value, and the land the only thing out of which a man can live; America, where every man must be his own tailor, carpenter, lawyer, and rearer of cabbages; where, if a man devises the stealing of a pair of breeches, he must first slay and strip the wearer, inasmuch, as no man, from the president downwards, has a second pair; where the arts of life consist in planting maize and potatoes, and the luxuries of life consist in boiling them into puddings; where there are more acres of land than knives and forks,— a looking- glass is a show that congregates the population of a province. A picture has never viii been seen, a salt-spoon is a phenomenon, which no American traveller, who values his reputation for veracity in the States, has ever ventured to announce; and it is notorious, that a tea-service of French plate, accumulated the unpopularity of the Adams to such a degree, that it overthrew that ancient dynasty, and federalism along with it for ever.” Waxing warm, I screwed my courage to the sticking place, and resolved to give to the world the result of the observations of an independent “business man,” to write a book which should not only contain the truth, but the whole truth, which should render the Americans justice, and which should inform my countrymen, that on landing in the United States, in the older ones at least, they neither fall among Chocktaws nor Chickasaws, nor have they to fear the tomahawk and scalping-knife; but that they land in a country in a high state of civilisation,—a country in which “every village contains legislators, where the obligations of society are universally understood, and a degree of information on the nature of law and civil subordination is diffused, such as history ix affords no example of* ;” further, that they land among a people who, although they eat with their knives, as all Englishmen were wont to eat, before rare roast beef was superseded by beef á la daube , and as ninety and nine out of every hundred of those who have anything to eat still do;—a people who, because their political institutions are the most perfect in the world, would fain have every one believe that nothing American can be faulty, are, despite of these peccadillos, polite without being affected, liberal without being ostentatious, and whose test of their fellow men is neither the unphilosophical doctrine of caste , the fruit of barbarism, nor the possession of “the damned earth that places thieves, and gives America, and the Americans ... By a citizen of the world http://www.loc.gov/resource/lhbtn.26745 Library of Congress them title, knee, and approbation with senators on the bench;” but moral worth, and the cultivation of the natural gifts of God, the only true touchstone of his creatures. a * Lord Wycombe's opinions of the Americans, as expressed to the late Dr. Currie, and communicated by that celebrated character in a letter to Dr. Percival. Vide Memoirs of Dr. Currie, by William Wallace Currie, a work of great interest, and highly creditable to the talented son of so talented a father. x During the progress of my task, which has been protracted by circumstances beyond my control, several works upon the subject of America have made their appearance; and I might have hesitated upon the very eve of committing it to the press, had not some extracts from the most extensively circulated of the volumes alluded to, for I have not yet perused the works themselves, led me to believe that an unprejudiced account of America, one free from that bane of English authorship when treating of other countries, John Bullism , was even yet a desideratum. How far I have succeeded in the attempt the public will judge: that I have done my best may be supposed, but that I should escape the lash of criticism is more than I have a right to expect. And although the elegant biographer of the Medici has observed, that the disadvantages under which an author labours are no excuse for the imperfections of his work, it may, perhaps, be some slight extenuation for such, in my case, to say, with the great and learned Johnson, whose language, as applied to my nothings, I use xi with all humility, that my book has been written amid inconvenience and distraction; and, however defective, I deliver it to the world with the spirit of a man that has endeavoured well. If the perusal tends, in the smallest degree, to disabuse the British public of their prejudices as regards America, and to teach them to respect a people, from any individual of whom the immortal Byron was proud to confess, he valued a nod more highly than the America, and the Americans ... By a citizen of the world http://www.loc.gov/resource/lhbtn.26745 Library of Congress gift of a snuff-box from an emperor, I shall feel abundantly recompensed for my midnight oil. CONTENTS. CHAP. I. Voyage.—Arrival at New York.—First Impressions on Landing.—Americanisms. Page 1 CHAP. II. New York.—Broadway.—Hotels.—Boarding Houses.— Servants. 21 CHAP. III. Public Edifices.—City Hall.—Courts of Law.—Exchange. —Auctions.—Religion.— Protestant Episcopal Church.—Trinity.—St. Paul's.—Liturgy. 38 CHAP. IV. Unitarians.—Dr. Channing.—Catholics.—Presbyterians. —Methodists.—Deists.—Hall of Science.—Marriages. —Funerals.—Education.—Columbian College. —Infant Schools.— Fine Arts.—Academy.—Museums. —Libraries.—Book Auctions. 57 CHAP. V. News-rooms.—Newspapers.—TheDrama.—Theatres.— Freemasons' Hall.—American Institute.—Exhibition of Manufactures.—Markets.—Slaughter-houses.— Hospital.— Arsenal.—Navy Yard.—Ship Building.— Fire Police. 75 b CHAP. VI. America, and the Americans ... By a citizen of the world http://www.loc.gov/resource/lhbtn.26745 Library of Congress Excursion to Niagara.—Steam Vessels.—Breakfast.— Major Andre.—State Prison.— Prison Discipline.— Punishment of Death.—Highlands.—Hudson.—Albany. Page 100 CHAP. VII. Stage Coach.—Schenectady.—Canal Packet Boat.— Scenery of the Mohawk.—Utica.— Villages.—Forests. —Rochester.—Lockport.—Tonnewanta.—Niagrara. 120 CHAP. VIII. Falls.—Scientific Landlord.—Ride to Lewistown.— Romantic Scenery.—Maniacs.— Queenstown.—Monument to General Brock.—British Fall.—Table Rock. —Chippewa.— Fields of Battle.—Waterloo.—Affecting Incident.—Blackrock.—Buffalo. 136 CHAP. IX. Buffalo.—Hotel.—Museum.—Rattlesnakes.—Indians. —Indian Village.—Return to New York.—Sam Patch. —Country Inn.—Winter Scene.—Country Stores.— Black Barber. —Little Falls.—Albany.—Sall down the Hudson.—Interesting Mute.—Reflections on the State of Society. 154 CHAP. X. Departure for Philadelphia.—Classification of Passengers.