_Conclusion.--Reply to the American Question.--Social
Condition of Europe and America.--European Debt and American
Surplus.--The Americans are not so Happy as the French.--What
Jonathan has Accomplished.--A Wish._
"Well, sir, and what do you think of America?"
Without pretending to judge America _ex cathedra_, I will sum up the
impressions jotted down in this little volume, and reply to the
traditional question of the Americans.
When one thinks of what the Americans have done in a hundred years of
independent life, it looks as if nothing should be impossible to them in
the future, considering the inexhaustible resources at their
disposition.
America has been doubling its population every twenty-five years. If
emigration continues at the same rate as it has hitherto, in fifty years
she will have more than two hundred millions of inhabitants. If, during
that time, continental Europe makes progress only in arts and sciences,
while the social condition of its nations does not improve, she will be
to America what barbarism is to civilisation.
While the Hohenzollerns, the Hapsburgs, and the _Firebrandenburgs_
review their troops; while her standing armies cost Europe more than
L200,000,000 a year in peace time; whilst the European debt is
L5,000,000,000, the American treasury at Washington, in spite of
corruption, which it is well known does exist, has a surplus of sixty
million dollars. Whilst European Governments cudgel their wits to devise
means for meeting the expenses of absolute Monarchies, the Washington
Government is at a loss to know what to do with the money it has in
hand. Whilst the European telegrams in the daily papers give accounts of
reviews, mobilisations, and military manoeuvres; of speeches in which
the people are reminded that their duty is to serve their Emperor first,
and their country afterwards; of blasphemous prayers in which God is
asked to bless soldiers, swords, and gunpowder; the American telegrams
announce the price of wheat and cattle and the quotations on the
American Stock Exchange.
Happy country that can get into a state of ebullition over a
Presidential Election, or the doings of John Sullivan while Europe in
trembling asks herself, with the return of each new spring, whether two
or three millions of her sons will not be called upon to cut each
other's throats, for the great glory of three Emperors in search of a
little excitement!
America is not only a great nation, geographically speaking. The
Americans are a great people, holding in their hands their own destiny;
learning day by day, with the help of their liberty, to govern
themselves more and more wisely; and able, thanks to the profound
security in which they live, to consecrate all their talents and all
their energy to the arts of peace.
The well-read, well-bred American is the most delightful of men; good
society in America is the wittiest, most genial, and most hospitable I
have met with.
But the more I travel, and the more I look at other nations, the more
confirmed am I in my opinion that the French are the happiest people on
earth.
The American is certainly on the road to the possession of all that can
contribute to the well-being and success of a nation; but he seems to me
to have missed the path that leads to real happiness. His domestic joys,
I am inclined to think, are more shadowy than real. To live in a whirl
is not to live well.
America suffers from a general plethora.
Jonathan himself sometimes has his regrets at finding himself drawn into
such a frantic race, but declares that it is out of his power to hang
back. If it were given to man to live twice on this planet, I should
understand his living his first term _a l'Americaine_, so as to be able
to enjoy quietly, in his second existence, the fruits of his toil in the
first. Seeing that only one sojourn here is permitted us, I think the
French are right in their study to make it a long and happy one.
If the French could arrive at a steady form of government and live in
security, they would be the most enviably happy people on earth.
* * * * *
It is often charged against Americans that they are given to bragging.
May not men who have done marvels be permitted a certain amount of
self-glorification?
It is said, too, that their eccentricity constantly leads them into
folly and licence. Is it not better to have the liberty to err than to
be obliged to run straight in leash? If they occasionally vote like
children, like children they will learn. It is by voting that people
learn to vote.
Is there any country of Europe in which morals are better regulated,
work better paid, or education widerspread? Is there a country in Europe
where you can find such natural riches, and such energy to employ them;
so many people with a consciousness of their own intellectual and moral
force; so many free schools where the child of the millionaire and the
child of the poor man study side by side; so many free libraries where
the boy in rags may enter and read the history of his country, and be
fired with the exploits of its heroes? Can you name a country with so
many learned societies, so many newspapers, so many charitable
institutions, or so much widespread comfort?
M. Renan, one day wishing to turn himself into a prophet of ill omen,
predicted that, if France continued Republican, she would become a
second America.
May nothing worse befall her!
THE END.
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