Diary in America--Series One, by Captain Marryat.
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In the late 1830s Captain Marryat, already a famous literary figure in
North America, visited the United States and Canada, writing his
observations in two Series of volumes, each containing three books.
These were published in Britain as the six books, but were published in
America as two books with small print and thin paper, thus enabling the
Diary to be published as two books only. It is from first editions of
the American version that we have worked, though we do possess three of
the British first edition of six volumes.
While some of the observations are trivial, and some even possibly
misleading, there is a great deal of useful fact in these books, making
them well worth looking at. There are some tables that may not
reproduce well in the PDA version of these books.
Marryat used his knowledge of America to write a novel based in the
more southerly part, especially California and Texas.
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DIARY IN AMERICA--SERIES ONE, BY CAPTAIN MARRYAT.
Volume the First--Introduction.
After many years of travel, during which I had seen men under almost
every variety of government, religion, and climate, I looked round to
discover if there were not still new combinations under which human
nature was to be investigated. I had traversed the old country until
satisfied, if not satiated; and I had sailed many a weary thousand miles
from west to east, and from north to south, until people, manners, and
customs were looked upon by me with indifference.
The press was constantly pouring out works upon the new world, so
contradictory to each other, and pronounced so unjust by the Americans,
that my curiosity was excited. It appeared strange to me that
travellers whose works showed evident marks of talent should view the
same people through such very different mediums; and that their
gleanings should, generally speaking, be of such meagre materials. Was
there so little to be remarked about America, its government, its
institutions, and the effect which these had upon the people, that the
pages of so many writers upon that country should be filled up with how
the Americans dined or drank wine, and what description of spoons and
forks were used at table? Either the Americans remained purely and
unchangedly English, as when they left their father-land; or the
question required more investigation and deeper research than travellers
in their hasty movements have been able to bestow upon it. Whether I
should be capable of throwing any new light upon the subject, I knew
not, but at all events I made up my mind that I would visit the country
and judge for myself.
On my first arrival I perceived little difference between the city of
New York and one of our principal provincial towns; and, for its people,
not half so much as between the people of Devonshire or Cornwall and
those of Middlesex. I had been two or three weeks in that city, and I
said: There is certainly not much to write about, nor much more than
what has already been continually repeated. No wonder that those who
preceded me have indulged in puerilities to swell out their books. But
in a short time I altered my opinion: even at New York, the English
appearance of the people gradually wore away; my perception of character
became more keen, my observance consequently more nice and close, and I
found that there was a great deal to reflect upon and investigate, and
that America and the American people were indeed an enigma; and I was no
longer surprised at the incongruities which were to be detected in those
works which had attempted to describe the country. I do not assert that
I shall myself succeed, when so many have failed, but at any rate, this
I am certain of, my remarks will be based upon a more sure foundation--
an analysis of human nature.
There are many causes why those who have written upon America have
fallen into error: they have represented the Americans as a nation: now
they are not yet, nor will they for many years be, in the true sense of
the word, a nation--they are a mass of many people cemented together to
a certain degree, by a general form of government; but they are in a
state of transition, and (what may at first appear strange) no
amalgamation as has yet taken place: the puritan of the east, the Dutch
descent of the middle states, the cavalier of the south, are nearly as
marked and distinct now, as at the first occupation of the country,
softened down indeed, but still distinct. Not only are the populations
of the various states distinct, but even those of the cities: and it is
hardly possible to make a remark which may be considered as general to a
country, where the varieties of soil and of climate are so extensive.
Even on that point upon which you might most safely venture to
generalise, namely, the effect of a democratical form of government upon
the mass, your observations must be taken with some exceptions, arising
from the climate, manners, and customs, and the means of livelihood so
differing in this extended country.
Indeed the habit in which travellers indulge of repeating facts which
have taken place, of having taken place in America, has, perhaps
unintentionally on their part, very much misled the English reader. It
would hardly be considered fair, if the wilder parts of Ireland, and the
disgraceful acts which are committed there, were represented as
characteristic of England, or the British empire; yet between London and
Connaught there is less difference than between the most civilised and
intellectual portion of America, such as Boston and Philadelphia, and
the wild regions, and wilder inhabitants of the west of the Mississippi,
and Arkansas, where reckless beings compose a scattered population,
residing too far for the law to reach; or where if it could reach, the
power of the government would prove much too weak to enforce obedience
to it. To do justice to all parties, America should be examined and
portrayed piecemeal, every state separately, for every state is
different, running down the scale from refinement to a state of
barbarism almost unprecedented; but each presenting matter for
investigation and research, and curious examples of cause and effect.
Many of those who have preceded me have not been able to devote
sufficient time to their object, and therefore have failed. If you have
passed through a strange country, totally differing in manners, and
customs, and language from your own, you may give your readers some idea
of the contrast, and the impressions made upon you by what you saw, even
if you have travelled in haste or sojourned there but a few days; but
when the similarity in manners, customs, and language is so great, that
you may imagine yourself to be in your own country, it requires more
research, a greater degree of acumen, and a fuller investigation of
cause and effect than can be given in a few months of rapid motion.
Moreover, English travellers have apparently been more active in
examining the interior of houses, than the public path from which they
should have drawn their conclusions; they have searched with the
curiosity of a woman, instead of examining and surveying with the eye of
a philosopher. Following up this wrong track has been the occasion of
much indiscretion and injustice on their parts, and of justifiably
indignant feeling on the part of the Americans. By many of the writers
on America, the little discrepancies, the mere trifles of custom have
been dwelt upon, with a sarcastic, ill-natured severity to give their
works that semblance of pith, in which, in reality, they were miserably
deficient; and they violated the rights of hospitality that they might
increase their interest as authors.
The Americans are often themselves the cause of their being
misrepresented; there is no country perhaps, in which the habit of
deceiving for amusement, or what is termed hoaxing, is so common.
Indeed this and the hyperbole constitute the major part of American
humour. If they have the slightest suspicion that a foreigner is about
to write a book, nothing appears to give them so much pleasure as to try
to mislead him; this has constantly been practised upon me, and for all
I know, they may in some instances have been successful; if they have,
all I can say of the story is that "_se non e vero, e si ben trovato_,"
that it might have happened. [Note 1.]
When I was at Boston, a gentleman of my acquaintance brought me Miss
Martineau's work, and was excessively delighted when he pointed out to
me two pages of fallacies, which he had told her with a grave face, and
which she had duly recorded and printed. This practice, added to
another, that of attempting to conceal (for the Americans are aware of
many of their defects), has been with me productive of good results: it
has led me to much close investigation, and has made me very cautious in
asserting what has not been proved to my own satisfaction to be worthy
of credibility.
Another difficulty and cause of misrepresentation is, that travellers
are not aware of the jealousy existing between the inhabitants of the
different states and cities. The eastern states pronounce the
southerners to be choleric, reckless, regardless of law, and indifferent
as to religion; while the southerners designate the eastern states as a
nursery of overreaching pedlars, selling clocks and wooden nutmegs.
This running into extremes is produced from the clashing of their
interests as producers and manufacturers. Again, Boston turns up her
erudite nose at New York; Philadelphia, in her pride, looks down upon
both New York and Boston; while New York, clinking her dollars, swears
the Bostonians are a parcel of puritanical prigs, and the Philadelphians
a would-be aristocracy. A western man from Kentucky, when at the
Tremont House in Boston, begged me particularly not to pay attention to
what they said of his state in that quarter. Both a Virginian and
Tennessean, when I was at New York did the same.
At Boston, I was drinking champaign at a supper. "Are you drinking
champaign?" said a young Bostonian. "That's New York--take claret; or,
if you will drink champaign, pour it into a _green_ glass, and they will
think it _hock_; champaign is not right." How are we to distinguish
between right and wrong in this queer world? At New York, they do drink
a great deal of champaign; it is the small beer of the dinner-table.
Champaign become associated with New York, and therefore is not _right_.
I will do the New Yorkers the justice to say, that, as far as _drinks_
are concerned, they are above prejudice: all's right with them, provided
there's enough of it.
The above remarks will testify, that travellers in America have great
difficulties to contend with, and that their channels of information
have been chiefly those of the drawing-room or dinner-table. Had I
worked through the same, I should have found them very difficult of
access; for the Americans had determined that they would no longer
extend their hospitality to those who returned it with ingratitude--nor
can they be blamed. Let us reverse the case. Were not the doors of
many houses in England shut against an American author, when from his
want of knowledge of conventional _usage_, he published what never
should have appeared in print! And should another return to England,
after his tetchy, absurd remarks upon the English, is there much chance
of his receiving a kind welcome? Most assuredly not; both these authors
will be received with caution. The Americans, therefore, are not only
not to blame, but would prove themselves very deficient in a proper
respect for themselves, if they again admitted into their domestic
circles those who eventually requited them with abuse.
Admitting this, of course I have no feelings of ill-will toward them for
any want of hospitality toward me; on the contrary, I was pleased with
the neglect, as it left me free, and unshackled from any real or fancied
claims which the Americans might have made upon me on that score.
Indeed, I had not been three weeks in the country before I decided upon
accepting no more invitations, even charily as they were made. I found
that, although invited, my presence was a restraint upon the company;
every one appeared afraid to speak; and when anything ludicrous
occurred, the cry would be--"Oh, now. Captain Marryat, don't put that
into your book." More than once, when I happened to be in large
parties, a question such as follows would be put to me by some "free and
enlightened individual":--
"Now, Captain Marryat, I ask you before this company, and I trust you
will give me a categorical answer, Are you, or are you not about to
write a book upon this country?" I hardly need observe to the English
reader, that, under such circumstances, the restraint, became mutual; I
declined all farther invitations, and adhered to this determination as
far as I could without cause of offence, during my whole tour through
the United States.
But if I admit, that after the usage which they had received, the
Americans are justified in not again tendering their hospitably to the
English, I cannot, at the same time, but express my opinion as to their
conduct toward me personally. They had no right to insult and annoy me
in the manner they did, from nearly one end of the Union to the other,
either because my predecessors had expressed an unfavourable opinion of
them before my arrival, or because they expected that I would do the
same upon my return to my own country, I remark upon this conduct, not
from any feeling of ill-will or desire of retaliation, but to compel the
Americans to admit that I am under no obligations to them: that I
received from them much more of insult and outrage than of kindness;
and, consequently, that the charge of ingratitude cannot be laid to my
door, however offensive to them some of the remarks in this work may
happen to be.
And here I must observe, that the Americans can no longer anticipate
lenity from the English traveller, as latterly they have so deeply
committed themselves. Once, indeed, they could say, "We admit and are
hospitable to the English, who, as soon as they leave our country, turn
round and abuse and revile us. We have our faults, it is true: but such
conduct on their part is not kind or generous." But they can say this
no longer; they have retaliated, and in their attacks they have been
regardless of justice. The three last works upon the Americans, written
by English authors, were, on the whole, favourable to them; Mr Power's
and Mr Grund's most decidedly so; and Miss Martineau's, filled as it is
with absurdities and fallacies, was _intended_, at all events to be
favourable.
In opposition to them, we have Mr Cooper's remarks upon England, in
which my countrymen are certainly not spared; and, since that
publication, we have another of much greater importance, written by Mr
Carey, of Philadelphia, not, indeed, in a strain of vituperation or
ill-feeling, but asserting, and no doubt to his own satisfaction and
that of his countrymen, proving, that in every important point, that is
to say, under the heads of "Security of Person and Property, of Morals,
Education, Religion, Industry, Invention, Credit," (and consequently
Honesty,) America is in advance of England and every other nation in
Europe!! The tables, then, are turned; it is no longer the English, but
the Americans who are the assailants; and such being the case, I beg
that it may be remembered, that many of the remarks which will
subsequently appear in this work have been forced from me by the attacks
made upon my nation by the American authors; and that, if I am compelled
to draw comparisons, it is not with the slightest wish to annoy or
humiliate the Americans, but in legitimate and justifiable defence of my
own native land.
America is a wonderful country, endowed by the Omnipotent with natural
advantages which no other can boast of; and the mind can hardly
calculate upon the degree of perfection and power to which, whether the
states are eventually separated or not, it may in the course of two
centuries arrive. At present all is energy and enterprise; everything
is in a state of transition, but of rapid improvement--so rapid, indeed,
that those who would describe America now, would have to correct all in
the short space of ten years; for ten years in America is almost equal
to a century in the old continent. Now, you may pass through a wild
forest, where the elk browses and the panther howls; in ten years, that
very forest, with its denizens, will, most likely, have disappeared, and
in their place you will find towns with thousands of inhabitants; with
arts, manufactures, and machinery, all in full activity.
In reviewing America, we must look upon it as showing the development of
the English character under a new aspect, arising from a new state of
things. If I were to draw a comparison between the English and the
Americans, I should say that there is almost as much difference between
the two nations at this present time, as there has long been between the
English and the Dutch. The latter are considered by us as phlegmatic
and slow; and we may be considered the same, compared with our energetic
descendants. Time to an American is everything, [Note 2] and space he
attempts to reduce to a mere nothing. By the steamboats, rail-roads,
and the wonderful facilities of water-carriage, a journey of five
hundred miles is as little considered in America, as would be here a
journey from London to Brighton. "_Go ahead_" is the real motto of the
country; and every man does push on, to gain in advance of his
neighbour. The American lives twice as long as others; for he does
twice the work during the time that he lives. He begins life sooner: at
fifteen he is considered a man, plunges into the stream of enterprise,
floats and struggles with his fellows. In every trifle an American
shows the value he puts upon time. He rises early, eats his meals with
the rapidity of a wolf, and is the whole day at his business. If he be
a merchant, his money, whatever it may amount to, is seldom invested; it
is all floating--his accumulations remain active; and when he dies, his
wealth has to be collected from the four quarters of the globe.
Now, all this energy and activity is of English origin; and were England
expanded into America, the same results would be produced. To a certain
degree, the English, were in former times, what the Americans are now;
and this it is which has raised our country so high in the scale of
nations; but since we have become so closely packed--so crowded, that
there is hardly room for the population, our activity has been
proportionably cramped and subdued. But, in this vast and favoured
country, the very associations and impressions of childhood foster and
enlighten the intellect and precociously rouse the energies. The wide
expanse of territory already occupied--the vast and magnificent rivers--
the boundless regions yet remaining to be peopled--the rapidity of
communication--the dispatch with which everything is effected, are
evident almost to the child. To those who have rivers many thousand
miles in length, the passage across the Atlantic (of 3,500 miles)
appears but a trifle; and the American ladies talk of spending the
winter at Paris with as much indifference as one of our landed
proprietors would, of going up to London for the season.
We must always bear in mind the peculiar and wonderful advantages of
_country_, when we examine America and its form of government; for the
country has had more to do with upholding this democracy than people
might at first imagine. Among the advantages of democracy, the greatest
is, perhaps, that _all start fair_; and the boy who holds the
traveller's horse, as Van Buren is said to have done, may become the
president of the United States. But it is the _country_, and not the
government; which has been productive of such rapid strides as have been
made by America. Indeed it is a query whether the form of government
would have existed down to this day, had it not been for the advantages
derived from the vast extent and boundless resources of the territory in
which it was established. Let the American direct his career to any
goal he pleases, his energies are unshackled; and, in the race, the best
man must win. There is room for all, and millions more. Let him choose
his profession--his career is not checked or foiled by the excess of
those who have already embarked in it. In every department there is an
opening for talent; and for those inclined to work, work is always to be
procured. You have no complaint in this country, that every profession
is so full that it is impossible to know what to do with your children.
There is a vast field, and all may receive the reward due for their
labour.
In a country where the ambition and energies of man have been roused to
such an extent, the great point is to find out worthy incitements for
ambition to feed upon. A virtue directed into a wrong channel may, by
circumstances, prove little better than (even if it does not sink down
into) actual vice. Hence it is that a democratic form of government is
productive of such demoralising effects. Its rewards are few. Honours
of every description, which stir up the soul of man to noble deeds--
worthy incitements, they have none. The only compensation they can
offer for services is money; and the only distinction--the only means of
raising himself above his fellows left to the American--is wealth;
consequently, the acquisition of wealth has become the great spring of
action. But it is not sought after with the avarice to hoard, but with
the ostentation to expend. It is the effect of ambition directed into a
wrong channel. Each man would surpass his neighbour; and the only great
avenue open to all, and into which thousands may press without much
jostling of each other, is that which leads to the shrine of Mammon. It
is our nature to attempt to raise ourselves above our fellow-men; it is
the main-spring of existence--the incitement to all that is great and
virtuous, or great and vicious. In America, but a small portion can
raise themselves, or find rewards for superior talent, but wealth is
attainable by all; and having no aristocracy, no honours, no
distinctions to look forward to, wealth has become the substitute, and,
with very few exceptions, every man is great in proportion to his
riches. The consequence is, that to leave a sum of money when they die
is of little importance to the majority of the Americans. Their object
is to amass it while young, and obtain the consideration which it gives
them during their lifetime.
The society in the United States is that which must naturally be
expected in a new country where there are few men of leisure, and the
majority are working hard to obtain that wealth which almost alone gives
importance under a democratic form of government. You will find
intellectual and gentlemanlike people in America, but they are scattered
here and there. The circle of society is not complete: wherever you go,
you will find an admixture, sudden wealth having admitted those who but
a few years back were in humble circumstances; and in the constant state
of transition which takes place in this country, it will be half a
century, perhaps, before a select circle of society can be collected
together in any one city or place. The improvement is rapid, but the
vast extent of country which has to be peopled prevents that improvement
from being manifest. The stream flows inland, and those who are here
today are gone to-morrow, and their places in society filled up by
others who ten years back had no prospect of ever being admitted. All
is transition, the waves follow one another to the far west, the froth
and scum, boiling in the advance.
America is, indeed, well worth the study of the philosopher. A vast
nation forming, society ever changing, all in motion and activity,
nothing complete, the old continent pouring in her surplus to supply the
loss of the eastern states, all busy as a hive, full of energy and
activity. Every year multitudes swarm off from the east, like bees: not
the young only, but the old, quitting the close-built cities, society,
and refinement, to settle down in some lone spot in the vast prairies,
where the rich soil offers to them the certain prospect of their
families and children being one day possessed of competency and wealth.
To write upon America _as a nation_ would be absurd, for nation,
properly speaking, it is not; but to consider it in its present chaotic
state, is well worth the labour. It would not only exhibit to the
living a somewhat new picture of the human mind, but, as a curious page
in the Philosophy of History, it would hereafter serve as a subject of
review for the Americans themselves.
It is not my intention to follow the individualising plans of the
majority of those who have preceded me in this country. I did not sail
across the Atlantic to ascertain whether the Americans eat their dinners
with two-prong iron, or three-prong silver forks, with chopsticks, or
their fingers; it is quite sufficient for me to know that they do eat
and drink; if they did not, it would be a curious anomaly which I should
not pass over. My object was, to examine and ascertain _what were the
effects of a democratic form of government and climate upon a people
which, with all its foreign admixture, may still be considered as
English_.
It is a fact that our virtues and our vices depend more upon
circumstances than upon ourselves, and there are no circumstances which
operate so powerfully upon us as government and climate. Let it not be
supposed that, in the above assertion, I mean to extenuate vice, or
imply that we are not free agents. Naturally prone to vices in general,
circumstances will render us more prone to one description of vice than
to another; but that is no reason why we should not be answerable for
it, since it is our duty to guard against the besetting sin. But as an
agent in this point the form of government under which we live is,
perhaps, the most powerful in its effects, and thus we constantly hear
of vices peculiar to a country, when it ought rather to be said, of
vices peculiar to a government.
Never, perhaps, was the foundation of a nation laid under such
peculiarly favourable auspices as that of America. The capital they
commenced with was industry, activity, and courage. They had, moreover,
the advantage of the working of genius and wisdom, and the records of
history, as a beacon and a guide; the trial of ages, as to the
respective merits of the various governments to which men have
submitted; the power to select the merits from the demerits in each; a
boundless extent of country, rich in everything that could be of
advantage to man; and they were led by those who where really giants in
those days, a body of men collected and acting together, forming an
aggregate of wisdom and energy, such as probably will not for centuries
be seen again. Never was there such an opportunity of testing the
merits of a republic, of ascertaining if such a form of government could
be maintained--in fact, of proving whether an enlightened people could
govern themselves. And it must be acknowledged that the work was well
begun; Washington, when his career had closed, left the country a pure
republic. He did all that man could do. Miss Martineau asserts that
"America has solved the great problem, that a republic can exist for
fifty years;" but such is not the case. America has proved that, under
peculiar advantages, a people can govern themselves for fifty years; but
if you put the question to an enlightened American, and ask him, "Were
Washington to rise from his grave, would he recognise the present
government of America as the one bequeathed to them?" and the American
will himself answer in the negative. These fifty years have afforded
another proof, were it necessary, how short-sighted and fallible are
men--how impossible it is to keep anything in a state of perfection here
below. Washington left America as an infant nation, a pure and, I may
add, a virtuous republic; but the government of the country has
undergone as much change as everything else, and it has now settled down
into anything but a pure democracy. Nor could it be otherwise; a
republic may be formed and may continue in healthy existence when
regulated by a small body of men, but as men increase and multiply so do
they deteriorate; the closer they are packed the more vicious they
become, and, consequently, the more vicious become their institutions.
Washington and his coadjutors had no power to control the nature of man.
It may be inquired by some, what difference there is between a republic
and a democracy, as the terms have been, and are often, used
indifferently. I know not whether my distinction is right, but I
consider that when those possessed of most talent and wisdom are
selected to act for the benefit of a people, with full reliance upon
their acting for the best, and without any shackle or pledge being
enforced, we may consider that form of government as a republic ruled by
the most enlightened and capable; but that if, on the contrary, those
selected by the people to represent them are not only bound by the
pledges previous to their election, but ordered by the mass how to vote
after their election, then the country, is not ruled by the collected
wisdom of the people, but by the majority, who are as often wrong as
right, and then the governing principle sinks into a democracy, as it
now is in America. [Note 3.]
It is singular to remark, notwithstanding her monarchical form of
government, how much more republican England is in her institutions than
America. Ask an American what he considers the necessary qualifications
of a president, and, after intellectual qualification, he will tell you
firmness, decision, and undaunted courage; and it is really an enigma to
him, although he will not acknowledge it, how the sceptre of a country
like England, subject to the monarchical sway which he detests, can be
held in the hand of a young female of eighteen years of age.
But upon one point I have made up my mind, which is that, with all its
imperfections, democracy is the form of government _best suited to the
present condition of America_, in so far as it is the one under which
the country has made, and will continue to make, the most rapid
advances. That it must eventually be changed is true, but the times of
its change must be determined by so many events, hidden in futurity,
which may accelerate or retard the convulsion, that it would be
presumptuous for any one to attempt to name a period when the present
form of government shall be broken up, and the multitude shall separate
and re-embody themselves under new institutions.
In the arrangement of this work, I have considered it advisable to
present, first, to the reader those _portions_ of my diary which may be
interesting, and in which are recorded traits and incidents which will
bear strongly upon the commentaries I shall subsequently make upon the
institutions of the United States, and the results of those institutions
as developed in the American character. Having been preceded by so many
writers on America, I must occasionally tread in well-beaten tracts;
but, although I shall avoid repetition as much as possible, this will
not prevent me from describing what I saw or felt. Different ideas, and
different associations of ideas, will strike different travellers, as
the same landscape may wear a new appearance, according as it is viewed
in the morning, by noon, or at night; the outlines remain the same, but
the lights, and shadows, and tints, are reflected from the varying
idiosyncrasy of various minds.
My readers will also find many quotations, either embodied in the work
or supplied by notes. This I have considered necessary, that my
opinions may be corroborated; but these quotations will not be extracted
so much from the works of English as from _American_ writers. The
opinions relative to the United States have been so conflicting in the
many works which have been written, that I consider it most important
that I should be able to quote American authorities against themselves,
and strengthen my opinions and arguments by their own admissions.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Note 1. _Paragraph from a New York paper_. That old, deaf English
maiden lady, Miss Martineau, who travelled through some of the states, a
few years since, gives a full account of Mr Poindexter's death;
unfortunately for her veracity, the gentleman still lives; but this is
about as near the truth as the majority of her statements. The
_loafing_ English men and women who visit America, as penny-a-liners,
are perfectly understood here, and Jonathan amuses himself whenever he
meets them, by imposing upon their credulity the most absurd stories
which he can invent, which they swallow whole, go home with their eyes
sticking out of their heads with wonder, and print all they have heard
for the benefit of John Bull's calves.
Note 2. The clocks in America--there rendered so famous by Sam Slick--
instead of the moral lessons inculcated by the dials in this country,
such as "Time flies," etcetera, teach one more suited to American
feeling:--"Time is money!"
Note 3. And in this opinion I find that I am borne out by an American
writer, who says--"It is true, indeed, that the American government,
which, as first set up, was properly republican--that is, representation
in a course of salutary degrees, and with salutary checks upon the
popular will, on the powers of legislation, of the executive, and the
judiciary,--was assailed at an early period of its history, and has been
assailed continuously down to the present time, by a power called
democracy, and that this power has been constantly acquiring influence
and gaining ascendency in the republic during the term of its
history."--(_A Voice from America to England_, by an American Gentleman,
page 10.)