THE VALLEY OF THE OHIO—MUCH OF THE UNITED STATES WILL PRODUCE
WINE—ILLINOIS AT NIGHT—FIRST VIEW OF LAKE MICHIGAN—CHICAGO—A SIGN OF
OUTWARD RELIGION—‘SMALL-POX HERE’—FIRE ALARM—LIBERALITY OF CHICAGO
MERCHANTS—THE DOLLAR NOT ALL IN ALL—A CHURCH LIGHTED FROM THE ROOF—A
HANDSOME AMERICAN—AMERICA HAS DEVELOPED A NEW TYPE OF FEATURES—CHICAGO
SCHOOLS—AN EXCEPTION TO THE AMERICAN WAY OF DENOUNCING THE OFFICIAL
CLASS—CHICAGO SUNDAY SCHOOLS—PROGRAMME OF ONE I ATTENDED—EXCELLENCE
OF WATER AT CHICAGO—HOW SUPPLIED—LIFTING UP THE CITY—POST OFFICE
ARRANGEMENTS—A DISADVANTAGE OF FREQUENT CHANGE OF CLERKS—AMERICANS ON
ARISTOCRACY—HOW THE GERMANS, THE MASSES OF THE PEOPLE, AND THE UPPER
CLASS FEEL TOWARDS IT.
The valley of the Ohio pleased me—all things considered—more than any
other district I saw in the United States. The land was generally very
fertile, and much diversified with riverside levels and contiguous
hills; with cultivated land, and woodland; with apple and peach
orchards, and with wheat and maize. Its most novel feature was the
space devoted to the culture of the vine.
[Sidenote: _Lake Michigan._]
In many parts of the Union, as in this State, California, and several
others, a great deal of wine is already made; and the planting of
vineyards is yearly extending. I tasted two wines, sparkling Catawba,
and a red Californian wine, which are really good now, and which no
doubt in course of time will become still better. The former was a
little too sweet; but that is a fault, if it be regarded as a fault
in America, which can easily be remedied by carrying the process of
fermentation a little further. There is every prospect of a larger
proportion of America, than of Europe, producing wine; in that case
the same proportion of its inhabitants will become a wine, and not a
beer, or spirit-drinking population. In Europe we attribute certain
differences of national character to this difference in the beverage of
a people. It appears as if, in this highly-favoured region, upon which
Nature has heaped all her gifts, that nothing in the way of climate,
occupation, or even food, which can diversify life and character, will
be wanting. America will contain within herself all that other people,
less bountifully provided, have to seek all over the world.
On passing through almost any part of Illinois after sunset, there are
so many lights seen in every direction, glancing from the innumerable
farm houses, that I could hardly help thinking, at one time, that the
train was entering a large town, while at another, I was reminded of
the gleaming on all sides from the shutterless windows of a scattered
English village, during the first hour or two of darkness. And this is
the way in which all these fertile North-western States are filling up.
On arriving at Chicago, my first thought was to see the Lake, one of
the great fresh-water seas I had been reading of, since I was a boy. I
was now within a few paces of it, and was only prevented by the houses
from looking upon it. I had driven to the Sherman House, a large hotel
on one side of the square in the centre of which stands the City Hall;
and I had been told that the only good view of the city, and of the
Lake, was to be had from the gallery round the top of the dome of
this building. It was not long before I ascended the stairs that led
to it; and as I stepped out on the balcony, the boundless blue water,
reflecting the undimmed hazeless sky, and washing up almost to the
foot of the building, and stretching away beyond the horizon, suddenly
burst on the view. It was Lake Michigan. Imagination does much on such
occasions. I felt satisfied. It was not only worth seeing, but it was
worth coming to see.
Here, in these vast reservoirs, is Nature carrying on some of her
hydraulic operations upon the grandest scale in the world. Here, too,
at this very spot, at its southern point, the countless buffalo used
to drink the water of the Lake, and here it was that the red man
was waiting to welcome him; and now the white man is ploughing, and
harvesting, and building cities all around its shores, and its waters
are wafting to this great central depôt the produce of his labours, and
then bearing it away again, to feed the millions of New England and of
the distant seaboard cities, and even to aid the deficient supplies of
Old England and France.
[Sidenote: _Evidence of Outward Religion._]
Chicago well deserves its reputation. Its stores, and private houses
and churches, are good, and would be so considered in any city. Its
stores are in buildings, two floors higher than the shops of Oxford
or Regent Street, as is generally the case in all the large American
cities. They have an air of solidity, and are not entirely devoid of
external decoration. There are suburbs containing many good private
residences, the best of which are to be seen in Michigan Avenue, along
the shores of the Lake. These are built of a cream-coloured stone, and
many of them give one a favourable idea of the architectural taste,
as well as of the wealth, of their inhabitants. From the gallery of
the City Hall I counted twenty-three towers and spires; but this is
very far from giving the number of churches, as perhaps the majority
of them still being incomplete, or only temporary structures, are
without these embellishments. In the central parts of the city, where
all the buildings are good and massive, and the smoke—for here they
burn bituminous coal—has put a complexion upon them something like that
of London, you could never guess that you were standing in a city so
young, that many of its inhabitants, still young themselves, remember
the erection of the first brick house in the place; you would be
more likely to suppose that you were surrounded by the evidences and
appliances of the commercial prosperity of many generations.
On my mentioning to a ‘citizen’ of Chicago the number of the churches I
had counted from the top of the City Hall, ‘Yes,’ he replied, ‘we are a
religious people outwardly.’
In this, one of the youngest cities in the world, I observed some
regulations that would be worthy of adoption elsewhere. For instance,
wherever in the city a case of small-pox occurs, a large yellow sheet
is pasted to the door of the house, announcing in conspicuous letters,
‘Small-pox here.’ I could not but compare this wise regulation with
our carelessness on the same subject at home. This very disease of
small-pox, or scarlet fever, or any other infectious disease, may have
struck down many of the inmates of a house; yet, according to our
custom, it is allowable for the occupiers of the house, if they keep
a shop, to invite customers to enter, and to sell them articles of
dress, or of food, which in some way or other may become vehicles of
infection.
Another very useful arrangement I found in operation here, is that
by which the whole city is instantly informed of the existence of a
fire, and of the locality in which it has burst out. The city is, for
this purpose, divided into districts, each district being known by
its number. In some central and conspicuous place in each, is a box
containing an apparatus by which a bell may be rung in a room at the
City Hall. In this room there are men constantly watching the bells.
As soon as the bell of any district is rung, the watchers reply with
a hurried kind of chime on the large bell of the City Hall, which can
be heard in every part of the city. This is to announce that there is
a fire. There is then a pause of half a minute, after which the number
of the district is struck on the bell. This informs everyone of the
exact locality of the fire. The policeman on duty in each district is
the person whose business it is to go to the box and ring the bell.
In order, however, to save time, it is competent for any respectable
citizen to do this; for the place where the key of the box is kept is
always mentioned on the outside of the box, and the keeper of the key
is ordered to give it up to any respectable applicant. I was surprised
to find how often during the night announcements of fire were made from
the City Hall.
[Sidenote: _The Dollar not all in all._]
A few days before my arrival at Chicago there had been, in the best
part of the city, one of those monster fires which are of such frequent
occurrence in American towns. A fine hall belonging to the Young
Men’s Christian Association, and many of the largest stores in the
city, had been completely destroyed. This gave the merchants of the
place an opportunity for exercising the liberality which is one of
the characteristics of America, and in no part of America exists in a
higher degree than in Chicago. In a few hours after the occurrence,
before the embers had ceased to smoulder, enough had been subscribed to
rebuild the hall of the Young Men’s Christian Association on a larger
scale than that of the one that had been destroyed; and the merchants
of the place had met, and had put down their names for considerable
sums, to form a fund upon which their brother merchants who had been
burnt out by the great fire, and lost their stock in trade, might
draw for as much as was needed for rebuilding, and re-establishing
themselves in business. Repayment was not to be thought of till the
recovery of their affairs conveniently admitted of it.
It is commonly supposed that the Americans are entirely devoted to the
pursuit of the dollar. It is true that they pursue the dollar more
energetically, intelligently, and successfully than any other people,
but no mistake can be greater than that of supposing that they pursue
it exclusively. First there is no other country in the world in which
the political sentiment is so widely diffused, and so deeply felt;
where so much time and thought are devoted to it; where it calls forth
so much hard intellectual work in the forms of writing, reading, and
speaking. And this is true not of one, but of all classes, from the top
to the bottom of society.
Nor is there any other country in which the religious sentiment works
so vigorously and so spontaneously, and is so fruitful in great,
obvious, and ponderable results. And this as well among those who
labour, as among those who elsewhere are supposed to have almost the
monopoly of thinking and feeling.
Again, in no other country do a million persons taken not from a
horizontal, but from a vertical section of society, read so much; and
there can be no surer gauge of the amount of pure mental activity than
the amount of reading. The Americans are a nation of readers, and read
far more than any other nation in the world. And not only do they read
more, but what they read has more effect on them than is the case with
any other people.
In the three great departments then of intellectual activity and
life—politics, religion, and in the use of literature—this people who
are supposed to devote their whole soul to the pursuit of the dollar,
are greatly in advance of ourselves and of all other nations.
But whatever the amount of toil Americans may impose on themselves
in getting money, it is not done with a view to saving. The American
who hoards is a rare exception. They will make a good fight for the
purpose of enlarging their business, and increasing their income. But,
when this increase comes, it is used and not accumulated. All the
world knows that there are no other people who spend so much on their
families and houses, on travelling and entertaining, in hospitality and
in charity.
[Sidenote: _Improved Type of Features._]
On Sunday evening I attended a service at Trinity Church, having been
attracted by the exterior of the building, which is a conspicuous
object from some points in Michigan Avenue. I mention this because
I observed a peculiarity in the means used for lighting it, which
might occasionally be adopted with advantage in London, and large
cities where sites are costly. I suppose the space was so confined by
dwelling houses on the north and south sides, that windows in the walls
of the aisles were inadmissible. This difficulty had been met boldly
by enlarging the clerestory windows, and adding in the roof rows of
quatrefoil skylights, filled with very dark stained glass. I should
have been glad to have seen the effect of this by daylight. Nine tenths
of the congregation I saw in this church that evening were gentlemen,
from which I inferred that the service was intended mainly for the
rougher sex.
What is conventionally regarded by us as the American type of features
is not uncommon on the Eastern seaboard, but is seldom seen in the
West. The clergyman whom I saw officiating in Trinity Church might have
sat for the bust of a Greek philosopher. He had a massive head, with
much refinement about it; a lofty forehead, a straight nose, and a
magnificent beard. He spoke in a manly and soldierly way of what he had
witnessed on the battle-fields of the late war.
A new and completely distinct type of features has been developed
in America. Of all races of men, that from which the Americans are
descended has the greatest mixture and variety of features. We have no
facial type. We have round heads and long heads; low, high, prominent,
and receding foreheads; large jaws and small; our noses are infinite
in multiformity; we have long and short, thick and fine, pug, Roman,
and straight, each in all degrees. In America, however, the whole of
this variety has been lost and obliterated. The descendants of the
most various-featured race of mankind have become one of the most
uniform-featured race in the world. Whatever part of the country you
may be in, you will find the same thing. As a general rule, the native
Americans all have straight noses off straight foreheads, and small
jaws. Their faces have been brought to one type, and that a far more
intellectual one than what we are familiar with in the old country: it
is almost the antipodes of that to which the conventional John Bull
belongs. To be convinced of this, it is only necessary to look at the
features of the passengers in a railway car, or at the Americans one
meets in private houses, or at places of public amusement. The straight
nose and forehead are everywhere the rule. I saw at Richmond a frame
containing the photographs of the fifty Southerners who had most
distinguished themselves in the late war. There was not a single pug,
or short or Roman nose among them. It has been just the same with the
Greeks; whatever race of people has inhabited the soil of Greece, has
assumed the Greek type of feature. The present inhabitants of Greece
are chiefly Bulgarians, but their features are Greek.
[Sidenote: _Schools at Chicago._]
In America this transformation is observable chiefly in those of
Anglo-Saxon descent. The French, both of Canada and Louisiana, retain
their French features. This may give us some clue to the cause which
has acted on our descendants. The French have retained French habits
of life. They have not given in to and adopted the American love
of excitement, love of work, and devotion to business, which never
pause to enjoy life, but are always struggling forward, and doing
something and doing it at high pressure. It is also observable that the
descendants of the easy-going Germans retain their old European type
longer than those who are of Anglo-Saxon parentage.
I was taken over some of the schools of Chicago by the Superintendent
of Schools for the city. Those I saw were chiefly used by the children
of German and Irish parents. They did not appear so quick as the
children of native Americans: the variety, also, of feature, and more
general fulness of face observable among them, indicated their foreign
extraction. Americanization in these particulars takes place in the
second or third generation. They were cleanly and orderly, and looked
well clothed and well fed. In the Illinois system there are ten grades;
the tenth is the lowest in the Primary School, and the first the
highest in the Grammar School. No copy slips are used in these schools.
They write at first from something set before them on the black board
as I noticed was done at Cincinnati. When sufficiently advanced, they
write each day from memory something they were taught on the previous
day. In Chicago the number of children attending school is very much
below the number of those who are of an age to attend. This is what
might have been expected in a town that has grown to such dimensions in
a single generation. Great efforts, however, are being made to overtake
the work. The difficulty just at present is to get school-buildings
quickly enough. It is certain that neither the city itself, nor their
zealous and able superintendent, will fall short of the occasion.
The Americans are in the habit of speaking very disparagingly of their
official class. I never heard one speak in any other tone on this
subject. If the canon, that whatever all men, at all times, and in
all places, affirm must be true, is to be accepted, then this class
in the United States occupies a position of very bad pre-eminence. No
one is spared. ‘The President is a Judas Iscariot who has sold his
country. Senators, and representatives, are a set of log-rollers and
wire-pullers, who make, on an average of the whole body, £6,000 a year
out of their votes in Congress. Judges receive such small salaries,
that they must also receive bribes. Every town councillor (if that is
the right title), every exciseman, every customhouse officer, every
tax assessor, or collector, is open to conviction, if the argument
used be the dollar. They work quick, for they know they have only four
years for making their fortunes.’ These are the mildest terms in which
they inveigh against what they call the universal rottenness, from top
to bottom, of the official class throughout the Union. On this very
dangerous and delicate ground a stranger can only act the part of a
reporter. He cannot give any comment, or even have any opinion of his
own. I feel, however, that I should be guilty of foul ingratitude, if
I did not give the results of my own experience and observation with
respect to one class, at all events, of American public servants. I saw
much of the superintendents of schools, and was everywhere struck with
their devotion to their work, and with their ability. As far as I could
judge, the public are well and faithfully served by these officers.
And as the superintendent in each city is practically, though not
theoretically, the doer of all that is done in the general management,
and is responsible for the condition of all the schools in the city,
his office is, in fact, second in importance to none.
[Sidenote: _How they speak of those in Authority._]
On a Sunday, while I was at Chicago, the gentleman who had given up to
me his berth in the sleeping-car to Cincinnati, took me to see one of
the large Sunday-schools, which have been organised on a very extensive
scale in this great Western city, and from which great results are
expected. The one I went to see is held in a Congregationalist church.
It is customary at the end of the meeting to give out the number of
those who are present, as everybody is supposed to be interested in
the maintenance and spread of the movement. At the meeting I witnessed
there were 998 persons present, of whom 84 were teachers. They now
have in the city 75 of these schools; of these, however, only five are
organised on the scale of the one I am speaking of. One of the five
is held in an Episcopal church, I believe that of the Holy Trinity.
The pupils in these Sunday-schools are not confined to one class in
society, or to children, or to the members of any particular communion.
All classes attend them; so do many grown-up persons, and all religious
denominations, except the Roman Catholics, are to be found among the
taught and the teachers.
The work of the day commenced by singing three hymns, which were
evidently intended to excite religious emotions of a highly
enthusiastic kind. The leading manager then recited the Commandments,
all present repeating, after each commandment, the petition of our
Ante-Communion service. To this was added what follows the commandments
in the American Episcopal service. ‘Hear also what the Lord Jesus
Christ says: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart,
and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and
great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love
thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law
and the prophets.”’ The last chapter in St. Mark’s Gospel was then
read, the chief manager reading the first verse, and all present
simultaneously reading the second, and so on throughout the chapter.
The object of their reading it in this alternate method is to prevent
monotony, and to keep up attention. The pupils had been requested
to commit five verses of this chapter to memory. These verses were
now repeated simultaneously. This was all that was learnt by heart;
and even the learning of this was left entirely to the discretion of
each pupil. A prayer was then offered; but, as a preliminary to it,
the subjects it was proposed to make mention of in the prayer were
announced, with a few brief and pointed comments. The whole assemblage
was now divided into classes of fourteen in each, with a separate
teacher for each. This was done without a single person leaving his
seat, by the simple process of reversing the back of every alternate
seat; so that, where before there were a hundred pews holding seven
persons each, there were now fifty holding fourteen each. The change
was effected in a few seconds. Each teacher now commented on, and
expounded to his class, the five verses that had been committed to
memory. Then followed another hymn, and another short prayer, being
founded entirely on the five verses which had formed the subject for
the day’s instruction. The whole was concluded with the singing of the
Doxology.
[Sidenote: _A Chicago Sunday School._]
This Sunday-school was divided into three grades. First came the
infants. They were placed in a large room behind the west-end gallery,
and over the porch. None of them could read. Nothing was attempted in
this department except awakening the moral sentiments, and teaching
a few facts of Christian history, and if possible a little Christian
doctrine. This was done by telling the children little stories. Three
of these I heard. My friend, who was the chief doer of all that was
done and taught on the occasion of my visit, told these infants, in a
very effective manner, well adapted to their little understandings, how
he had spent on himself, after a long and uncertain struggle (which he
minutely described to them), the first ten cents he had ever possessed;
and how ashamed he afterwards felt of himself.
As soon as they can read, they are promoted into the second grade,
which has its place in the gallery. After a time they are passed on
to the third or highest grade, which has its place in the body of the
church.
It is believed that this Sunday-school organisation has already
effected a great deal of good, by bringing all classes together, and by
influencing, in a way nothing else could, the destitute, the ignorant,
and the reckless. And still more abundant fruit is expected from it in
the future.
Who is there but will entertain bright hopes for America, where among
the rural population the moral tone is sound and healthy, and in the
cities there is so much zeal for doing good?
From the time I left New York till I reached Chicago, I had nowhere
seen in the towns clear drinking water. At New Orleans it was of
the colour of a mulatto, at Cincinnati of a mestizo, and at the
intermediate places of the intermediate shades. At Richmond it had a
kind of ochreous tint. The reason is the same everywhere. The rivers,
with the water of which the towns are supplied, all run through a
yellowish or reddish loamy soil—sometimes sandy, sometimes clayey;
this is easily worn away, and carried off in suspension by the stream,
and is largely added to, after rains, by the surface-washing of the
country. At Chicago, by a boldly-conceived and most successfully
carried-out plan, the whole city is supplied with the purest water. A
tunnel, large enough for two mules to work abreast in it, was carried
out for a distance of two miles beneath the lake. At this point they
had reached water which is perfectly free from all the impurities of
the shore; and here it is admitted into the tunnel in sufficient volume
to supply all the wants of a population of about 280,000 souls. It is
calculated that this tunnel will be ample for all that 100,000 more
inhabitants will require. When the population has grown to this extent,
a second tunnel will have to be constructed. The water is pumped up
from the level of the tunnel to reservoirs that are above the level
of the city: which latter is not the original level of the prairie,
but considerably above it; for it having been found, after a great
part of the city was built, that it was subject to being occasionally
flooded, they raised the ground several feet. In doing this they did
not pull down or bury any part of the streets and blocks of houses
that were already completed, but lifted them up to the desired height
by hydraulic machinery. In this way the Sherman House, one of the
large American hotels (I stayed in it while at Chicago) was elevated
to the level of the raised street, without a guest leaving it, or any
interruption of its business.
[Sidenote: _Post-office Arrangements._]
A foreigner is much struck with the amount of business going on at an
American post-office. Society not being in so settled and stationary a
condition as with us, a far greater proportion of letters are directed
to the post-office, and must be called for. A list of the names of the
persons whose letters have not been called for is printed twice a week,
and hung up in the post-office hall, for the inspection of the public.
This list is divided into three separate parts—English, French, and
German; each part is hung up by itself in its own frame, and there is
a window of enquiry for each of the three nationalities. In the hall
of the post-office, or rather in the screen that separates the office
from the hall, are innumerable pigeon-holes, each with a door to the
hall-side as well as the office-side. The key of the office side door
is kept by the officials, of the hall side door by the person to whom
the box has been assigned. Into this box that person’s letters are put
as soon as a mail is sorted; and he can go, or send at any hour of the
day (or night), unlock his door, and take them out. He is not therefore
obliged to wait for the general delivery, but can get his letters as
soon as the mail arrives. There is, too, less chance of his letters
being lost, for they never get into the hands of the letter-carrier.
And, as everyone whose correspondence is of any consequence adopts this
plan, the number and labour of the letter-carriers are much diminished.
On account of the large amount of business always going on at the
post-office, they separate the ladies from the gentlemen, assigning
them a place for making enquiries, getting their letters, and buying
stamps, quite distinct from that assigned to the men.
These are good arrangements. My personal experience, however, of the
working of the office is not quite favourable. Two-thirds of the
letters posted for me miscarried, and the remaining third I only got
after a great deal of trouble. It is the rule in America that all
officials must be changed as often as the President is changed; and
this for the double reason of enabling the President to reward those
who worked for his election, and because it is a principle in democracy
that all good things of this kind shall be made to go as far as
possible, which can only be done by making the tenure of each occupant
short. I found that this had the disadvantage that the clerks were not
retained so long as to enable them to become familiar with the letter
Z. In consequence of this, in the direction of all the letters written
to me from Europe, it was mistaken for an L; and in the directions of
the letters written to me from New York, where it appears the Z is
decorated with a crossbar, it was mistaken for an F.
[Sidenote: _Americans on Aristocracy._]
The feeling of the Americans on the subject of aristocracy is very
far from being the same in all classes or sections of the community.
I have already made some slight reference to the way in which the
German part of the population regard this institution. We must
consider not only what they think, but also how much they count for
in America. They count for a great deal; because, though they do not
take a very prominent part in politics, still from their numbers, their
intelligence, and their wealth, they form everywhere in the North, and
in a still greater degree in the great West, a very influential portion
of society. And as to this matter, there is no mistaking their thoughts
and feelings. They hate aristocracy, as if it were the foul fiend in
human society; and of all aristocracies they hate that of England the
most, because they regard it as the purest type the world exhibits
of this mighty evil. We may be sure, then, that there is nothing
they would not do to humble the aristocracy of England. Theirs is a
philosophical, instinctive, active, implacable hatred. And the vogue
and influence of it is just in proportion to the strength of the German
element in American society.
But far beyond the Germans in solid telling influence are the great
masses of the native population. They may be described as a stirring,
striving, half-educated people, as very much led by newspapers, and
generally ready believers in local politicians. All these, too, have an
active dislike to the idea of aristocracy, or (as it presents itself to
their matter-of-fact minds) of privileged classes. They condemn it on
two grounds. It is, they say, a ridiculous institution, for it assumes
a superiority which it is impossible can exist; and it is an unjust
institution, because it degrades the great bulk of society, by putting
them in an inferior position. Their ideas on the subject appear to
be more closely connected with contempt than with bitterness. Still
they are distinctly felt, and clearly defined. And they too would be
ready, were there ever an opening for anything of the kind, to join in
a crusade against privileged classes. They would be glad to lend a hand
in the overthrow of any institution which embodies the denial of what
they regard as the natural equality of man.
There remains the class which corresponds with what we call the
Upper Ten Thousand—that is, the class of the refined and highly
educated. Now, these persons do themselves form the aristocracy of
American society. It is true that, speaking generally, they are all
in business of one kind or another, some even in what we would speak
of as retail business; but, in the almost total absence of anything
higher, they constitute, and feel that they do so, a kind of social
aristocracy. And though most of them would, theoretically, condemn
aristocracies, yet they would have neither a contemptuous nor a
bitter feeling against what they were condemning. Some of this class,
following an inextinguishable feeling of human nature, have begun to
look about, and see whether they are not connected by descent with
old families of the old country. And this instantly gives rise to
exclusiveness of feeling, because they are seeking for an advantage in
which the multitude cannot participate. Here, therefore, it would be
contradictory and inconsistent were there any strong feeling against
aristocracy. Of themselves, such persons would be far more disposed to
leave the thing alone, than to join in any endeavours to overturn it.
But, practically, it is of little consequence, except to themselves,
what this class thinks or feels. The majority disposes of everything in
America; and the first step towards gaining its support in the race for
power and place, is to suppress in one’s self everything that would be
distasteful to it.
[Sidenote: _Americans on Aristocracy._]
For himself an American claims the same social position which in Europe
is accorded to the possessors of hereditary wealth and hereditary
titles; and he grounds his claim on the simple fact that he is an
American. It may be as well that we should recognise and that he
should enforce this claim; because it is part of a system which has
for its aim to elevate every individual in the population of a mighty
continent, by awakening in each a sense of political responsibility,
by opening every career to everyone, and by obliging all to think for,
and to depend on, themselves. This is a grander effort than any other
political system has ever before made for humanity; and it is being
worked out under the most favourable circumstances, for in America
there are employment, food, and position for everybody, and no old
and firmly established antagonistic institutions to be fought against
and overthrown in opening the course for the new order of things.
Slavery alone was arrayed against it; but that having been swept away
in a convulsion that was felt not in America only, but all over the
civilised world, the stage is now everywhere perfectly clear, and the
great experiment can be fairly tried.