From the 1871 edition.
The name "Sam Slick" has passed into popular use as standing for a
somewhat conventional Yankee, in whom sharpness and verdancy are
combined in curious proportions; but the book which gave rise to
the name has long been out of print. It is now revived, under the
impression that the reading public will have an interest in seeing
a work which, more probably than any other one book, served to fix
the prevailing idea of the Yankee character. However true or false
the impression it created, the qualities which rendered it popular
a generation ago remain, in a shrewdness of observation, a fund of
anecdote and racy adventure, a quaintness of expression, and keen
mother wit. In no other work of literature is there preserved so
large a collection of idiomatic phrases, words, and similes,--whole
stories in themselves and pictures of society at the time, which grow
more interesting, the more historic they become.
The keen peddler comes sharply forward from a background of
Provincial shiftlessness and dullness, and it is a mark of the
geniality of the book that, although it seems to have had its origin
in a desire on the part of its author to goad the Provinces into
energy and alertness, the local questions and politics discussed give
a flavour to the narrative without limiting the reader's interest.
One does not need to be deeply concerned in Nova Scotia prosperity,
nor versed in the turnings of petty politics, to take a lively
pleasure in the sharp thrusts which the author, under shield of the
Clockmaker's wit, gives at stupidity and narrowness. The two sides
of the question involved are as little a matter of concern to the
general reader as the opposing factions of York and Lancaster.
No doubt the marked contrast between the neighbouring people of
Nova Scotia and New England was quickly discerned by so good an
observer as the author proved himself to be, while his national and
partisan judgments made his characterization of the Yankee to be a
double-edged sword, that cut with equal keenness the Colonist and the
Democrat. While he has no liking for the United States politically,
he is very glad to make their enterprise and industry put to shame
the slow wits of his countrymen; and the quiet satire of United
States institutions and character which he displays by letting Slick
run to the end of his rope is curiously mingled with the contempt
which he lets the same character express for Nova Scotians, and in
which it is plain he himself joins.
Thomas Chandler Haliburton was born at Windsor, Nova Scotia, in 1796,
was educated at King's College, and admitted to the bar in 1820. He
entered political life shortly after, and was elected member of the
House of Assembly. In 1829 he was appointed Chief Justice of the
Court of Common Pleas, and in 1840 was made Judge of the Supreme
Court. He resigned in 1842, and went to England to reside, where,
in 1859, he was elected member of Parliament for the Borough of
Launceston, and at the dissolution of Parliament in 1865 he declined
reelection on the score of infirm health. He died at Isleworth in
July of the same year. His party politics were of the old Tory
school, and he held rigidly by them, sharing the common experience of
colonial partisans, who, on returning to the mother country, are very
apt to set a higher value on their party principles than those who
have always remained at home.
The first appearance of his "Clockmaker" was in the form of a
series of letters to the "Nova Scotian" newspaper, in 1835. The
contributions were collected into the present volume in 1837, and
were eagerly read, both in America and in England, the wit of the
book making it equally enjoyable on both sides of the water, while
its pointed reflections raised a good deal of angry discussion also.
Perhaps the most vehement attack which his writings received from the
side of purely literary criticism was a review by C. C. Felton in the
"North American Review," in which the critic spoke in tones of great
disgust at the entire conception and execution of the character of
Sam Slick. Quite possibly some of Professor Felton's severity drew
its strength from a personal regard for Mr. Everett, who figures
rather poorly in Judge Haliburton's pages. There was so little,
however, of discriminating criticism at that time by American
writers, that it is not easy to determine just how the book was
measured by our countrymen. Probably it was hardly looked upon as
literature by the scholar, and the ordinary reader did not mar his
pleasure in the fun by looking at it too critically.
The vein was worked by the author with less success in "The Attache,
or Sam Slick in England," where the violent improbability of the
plan, involving an offensive contrast between the English and
American characters, leaves the really clever parts of the book
less attractive. In addition to these Judge Haliburton published
several volumes bearing upon colonial manners and history: "Bubbles
of Canada;" "The Old Judge, or Life in a Colony;" "Historical and
Statistical account of Nova Scotia;" "Rule and Misrule of the English
in America;" "Letters to Lord Durham." His more strictly humourous
writings include "Nature and Human Nature;" "Wise Saws;" "The Letter
Bag of the Great Western."