CHAPTER II.

EFFECTS OF THE UNION ON NATIONAL CHARACTER.

THE American, of the middle class, may be said to have two distinct characters. In private life, a most agreeable companion, full of general information, of a pleasant temper, fulfilling all domestic duties in an exemplary manner. The same person in public life, upon American topics, will become at once arrogant, quarrelsome, full of wrong impressions as to much of the real history of his own country, unable to realize the motives that actuate the policy of this country. Even his standard of right and wrong will alter. Perfectly honourable as an individual, he will be prepared as a Unionist, to defend any principle, even that of mere spoliation under the name of manifest destiny, when regarded as part of the policy of the Union. There is evidently some sinister influence, which, leaving him the same as a man, has entirely changed his sentiments as an American.

We are not now alluding to (and entirely exclude from all our observations) that small number of men of letters, ministers of religion, or eminent merchants, who come over to Europe, with whom

friendships are formed, which are based on esteem. Combining European sentiment with an energy peculiarly their own, and possessing views enlarged by a knowledge of the world, these are in every respect exceptions to the mass, and it will be very necessary to escape from impressions, produced by their acquaintance, if we are to form a correct judgment of those, who are the political power in the United States.

Has the Union exercised any influence, that will account for this difference between the man and the citizen? The immediate idea which it awakens in the mind, is that of magnitude. Apart from it, the States, although on the average larger than the secondary kingdoms of Europe, would still excite no wonder. But regarded as a Union,as a whole, the mind becomes at once impressed and filled, with a sense of colossal magnitude. Natural features of the country tend to add to the impression-the enormous length of its rivers, the vast dimensions of its lakes, the interminable expanse of the prairie-all surrounding circumstances combine to foster the idea, until at length, as we have observed, magnitude, has been adopted in the popular mind as the summum bonum; mere quantity, becoming the standard of value, in place of excellence or worth.

If this be the case, we should expect to find, as natural developments of this change from the original standard, a general tendency to amplification, to exaggeration, to an ambitious craving for

still more space, and to an arrogance built upon the possession, already, of so much. Few will deny that these are characteristics of the present day, or that they have grown more prominent year by If we examine the manner of their growth, we think they may be clearly traced to their source, in the magnitude of the Union.

year.

In the early days of the history of the United States, this principle of exaggeration had no existence. At that time, each man's country was the former colony in which he lived, now transformed into the State, of which he had become a citizen. His views were bounded by an horizon within moderate distance. It never entered into his mind to threaten all the rest of the world. Throughout!

the documents of that period there runs a vein of calm, good sense-a disposition to deal with facts temperately and truly, as they really existed. The age of declamation had not yet come.

The rapid growth of the Union has distorted all this. The horizon has become illimitable; the moderate standard has stretched into immeasurable space. Views that were adapted to the dimensions of a kingdom, have expanded to those of a continent. As State was added after State, the growth of these views became more rapid and indefinite, until it seemed impossible to assume any dimensions, too large for another year quite to equal in reality. It' became a habit, to exaggerate all present things, to keep pace with a future so constantly expanding! A statement that agreed with the facts to-day!

would be behind them to-morrow; it might be better to make it, at once, large enough to last. Thus, to avoid constant inconvenience, truth came to be made expansive. This spirit of exaggeration, taking at times the form of a very quaint and original humour, is then indeed harmless enough, but largely incorporated, as it has been, into the very essence of the national character, its effects could not fail to be highly prejudicial. We shall find it pervading not only statements and belief, but the whole tone of thought and sentiment.

Exaggeration must needs be a departure from

truth.

When an exaggerated standard is once adopted, truth must be altered up to it, history must be made to conform with it. A great dominion must have a great people, and a great people must have a great history; and if there be no such history in real existence, it must be made great. Hildreth, the most able of American historians, thus describes the cause of his unpopularity: "In dealing with our Revolutionary annals, a great difficulty had to be encountered in the mythic, heroic character above, beyond, often wholly apart from, the truth of history, with which, in the popular idea, the fathers and founders of pur American Republic have been invested. American literature having been mainly of the hetorical cast, and the Revolution and the old ime of the forefathers, forming standing subjects or periodical eulogies, in which every new orator rives to outvie his predecessors, the true history

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of those times, in spite of ample records, illustrated by the labours of many diligent and conscientious inquirers, has yet been almost obliterated by declamations, which confound all discrimination and just appreciation, in one confused glare of patriotic eulogium."

Here, then, we find it the established practice of the country, in the face of ample records of the facts, wilfully to pervert its own history, in order to satisfy this desire for exaggeration. It is not easy to imagine a more deplorable spectacle, than that of a people thus employed in self-deception, receiving their knowledge, and forming their opinions, on the exaggerations of declaimers, each striving, in this manner, to "outvie his predecessors" in departure from truth. Miss Martineau, than whom no more favourable witness could be found, describes one of these fourth of July orations, and its effect on her own mind. The anniversary seems to be a kind of saturnalia, dedicated to the annual worship of the god-Self. Unaccountable it is, indeed, how respectable men can be found, who will descend to this kind of performance; or how a people, so shrewd in other respects, can be assailed with such fulsome flattery, without detect ing its real mockery.

And this perversion of history, is by no means confined to the glorifications of each fourth of July. The virus of its influence is inoculated into the system in early youth. The school-boo of the boy have been formed on this rule of exa