There is scarcely a step from the school to the forum--from the nursery
to the world. Young girls, who in England would be all blushes and bread
and butter, boldly precede their mammas into the ball-room; and the code
of a mistaken gallantry supplies no corrective to their caprice, for
youth and beauty are here invested with regal prerogatives, and can do
no wrong. In short, the Americans carry their complaisance to the sex
beyond due bounds--at least in little things--for we by no means think
that the real influence of their women is great, notwithstanding the
tame and submissive gallantry with which the latter are treated in
public. We doubt whether the most limited gynocracy would tolerate the
use of tobacco as an article of daily diet, or permit ferocious murders
to go unwhipped of justice under the name of duels. But the absorbing
character of the pursuits of the men forbids any strong sympathy betwixt
the sexes; and perhaps the despotism which the women exercise in the
drawing-room arises from the fact that all that relates to the graces
and embellishments of life is left entirely to them. We do not know
that this can be avoided under the circumstances of the country, but it
has a most injurious effect upon social intercourse. The Americans of
both sexes want tact and graciousness of manner, and that prompt and
spontaneous courtesy which is the child of discipline and
self-restraint. They are seldom absolutely awkward, because they are
never bashful; they have no _mauvaise honte_, because they are all on an
equality; hence they never fail to display a certain dry composure of
bearing, which, though not agreeable, is less ludicrous than the
_gaucherie_ so commonly observed in all classes of English society,
except the very highest.
It is curious to observe how the manners of two nations of the same
origin, and, in a great degree, of similar instincts, are modified by
their political institutions. Neither the British nor the Americans are
distinguished for that natural politeness and _savoir vivre_, which is
to be found more or less in all other civilised countries. They are both
too grave, too busy, and too ambitious to lay themselves out for
trifles, which, after all, go far to make up the sum of human happiness.
As for the Americans, the general aspect of their society is dreary and
monotonous in the extreme. Whatever "our first circles" may say to the
contrary, there is a great equality of manners, as of other things,
amongst them; but if the standard is nowhere very high, it never falls
so low as with us; if there is less refinement and cultivation amongst
the higher classes, (we beg Demus' pardon for the expression,) there is
on the other hand less grossness, certainly less clownishness, among the
mass. Of course there are many individuals in this, as in other
countries, remarkable for natural grace and genteel bearing; but the
class which is pre-eminent in these respects, is very small and
ill-defined. The great national defect is a want of sprightliness and
vivacity, and an impartial _insouciance_ in their intercourse with all
classes and conditions of men. For if inequality has its evils, it has
also its charms; as the prospect of swelling mountains and lowly vales
is more pleasing to the eye than that of the monotonous, though more
fertile champaign. Now, as the relation of patrician and plebeian, of
patron and client, of master and servant, of superior and inferior, can
scarcely be said to exist in the United States, so all the nice
gradations of manner which are elicited by those relations, are wanting
also. The social machine rubs on with as little oil as possible--there
is but small room for the exercise of the amenities and charities of
life. The favours of the great are seldom rewarded by the obsequiousness
of the small. No leisure and privileged class exists to set an example
of refined and courtly bearing; but there are none, however humble, who
may not affect the manners of their betters without impertinence, and
aspire to the average standard of the Republic. Hence, almost every
native American citizen is capable of conducting himself with propriety,
if not with ease, in general society. What are fine ladies and gentlemen
to him, that he should stand in awe of them? Simply persons who have
been smarter or earlier in the field of fortune than himself, who will
"burst up" some fine morning, and leave the road open to others. The
principle of rotation[6] is not confined to the political world of the
United States, but obtains in every department of life. It is throughout
the same song--
"Here we go up, up, up,
And here we go down, down, down."
Law and opinion, and the circumstances of the country, are alike
opposed to the accumulation of property, so that it is rare for two
successive generations of the same family to occupy the same social
position. The ease with which fortunes are made, or repaired, is only
equalled by the recklessness with which they are lost. Prosperity, at
some time or other, appears to be the birth-right of every citizen; and,
where all are _parvenus_ alike, there are none to assume the airs of
exclusiveness, or to crush the last comer beneath the weight of
traditional and time-honoured grandeur.
It is not easy to dismiss the peculiarities of our British society in a
paragraph. Bull, however, to be appreciated, must be seen in the midst
of his own household gods, with his family and bosom friends about him.
This is what may be called the normal state of that fine fellow--and
here Jonathan can't hold a candle to him. American interiors want relief
and variety of colouring. Their children are not like the children of
the Old World: they don't romp, or prattle, or get into mischief, or
believe in Bogie. They seem to take brevet rank, from the first, as men
and women, and are quite inaccessible to nursery humbug of any kind.
They are never whipped, and eat as much pastry as they think proper;
whereby they grow up dyspeptic and rational beyond their years. Parents
don't appear to exercise any particular functions, masters (we again beg
Demus's pardon for the poverty of the vernacular) have nothing
magisterial about them, and servants won't stomach even the name, at
least if they wear white skins, and know it. After the first burst of
admiration at the philosophy of the thing, it grows tiresome to live
amongst people who are all so much alike. Now in England the
distinctions of age, and rank, and sex, are much more strongly marked;
while in those countries of Europe which are still less under the
influence of the equalising spirit of the age, the social landscape is
still more variegated and picturesque. With us, two adverse principles
are at work; and this is the reason why our British society is so
anomalous to ourselves, and so entirely beyond the comprehension of
foreigners. Whenever our brave Bull is thrown into a mixed company
abroad, or even at home, where the social position of those with whom he
is brought into contact is unknown to him, there is no end to the
blundering and nonsense of the worthy fellow. Go where he will, he is
haunted by the traditions of his eccentric island, and desperately
afraid of placing himself in what he calls a false position. At home, he
has one manner for his nobleman, another for his tradesman, another for
his valet; and he would rather die than fail in the orthodox intonation
appropriate to each. Who has not observed the strange mixture of
petulance and _mauvaise honte_ which distinguishes so many of our
English travellers on the Continent? Decidedly, we appear to less
advantage in public than any people in the world. Place a Briton and an
American, of average parts and breeding, on board a Rhine steam-boat,
and it is almost certain that the Yankee will mix up, so to speak, the
better of the two. The gregarious habits of our continental neighbours
are more familiar to him than to his insular kinsman, and he is not
tormented like the latter by the perpetual fear of failing, either in
what is due to himself or to others. His manners will probably want
polish and dignity; he will be easy rather than graceful, communicative
rather than affable; but he will at least preserve his Republican
composure, alike in his intercourse with common humanity, or in the
atmosphere of more courtly and exclusive circles.
The art of pleasing is nowhere well understood in the United States: but
the beauty of the women, though transient, is unrivalled while it lasts,
and perhaps in no country is the standard of female virtue so high. The
formal and exaggerated attention which the sex receives from all classes
in public, is at least a proof of the high estimation in which it is
held, and must, we think, be put down as an amiable trait in the
American character.
We are quite sure, for instance, that females may travel unattended in
the United States with far more ease and security than in any country of
the Old World: and the deference paid to them is quite irrespective of
the rank of the fair objects--it is a tribute paid to the _woman_ and
not to the _lady_. Some travellers we believe have denied this. We can
only say, that during a pretty extensive tour we do not recollect a
single instance in which even the unreasonable wishes of women were not
complied with as of course. We _did_ remark with less satisfaction the
ungracious manner in which civilities were received by these spoilt
children of the Republic--the absence of apologetic phrases, and those
courtesies of voice and expression, with which women usually acknowledge
the deference paid to their weakness and their charms. But this is a
national failing. The Americans are too independent to confess a sense
of obligation, even in the little conventional matters of daily
intercourse. They have almost banished from the language such phrases
as, "Thank you," "If you please," "I beg your pardon," and the like. The
French, who are not half so attentive to women as the Americans, pass
for the politest nation in Europe, because they know how to veil their
selfishness beneath a profusion of bows and pretty speeches. Now, when
your Yankee is invited to surrender his snug seat in a stage or a
railroad carriage in favour of a fair voyager, he does not hesitate for
a moment. He expectorates, and retires at once. But no civilities are
interchanged; no smiles or bows pass betwixt the parties. The gentleman
expresses no satisfaction--the lady murmurs no apologies.
Even now we see in our mind's eye the pert, pretty little faces, and the
loves of bonnets which flirt and flutter along Broadway in the bright
sunshine--_Longum Vale_! In the flesh we shall see them no more. No more
oysters at Downing's, no more terrapins at Florence's, no more fugacious
banquets at the Astor House. We have traduced the State, and for us
there is no return. The commercial house which we represent, has offered
to renew its confidence, but it has failed to restore ours. No amount of
commission whatever, will tempt us to affront the awful majesty of
Lynch, or to expose ourselves to the tar-and-feathery tortures which he
prepares for those who blaspheme the Republic. We have ordered our buggy
for the Home Circuit, and propose, by a course of deliberate
mastication, and unlimited freedom of speech, to repair the damage which
our digestion, and we fear our temper, has sustained during our travels
in "the area of freedom."