The Sun.
London, England, 1837-01-11 00:00:00

LITERATURE.

THE AMERICANS. 2 Vas.
Longman, London, 1837.
The great merit of these volumes is the plain, com-
mon-sense spirit in which they are written. There is
no attempt at smartness or fine writing ; no aristocra•
tic assumption, or parade of old English prejudice ;
the author is. a dispassionate, observant man of the
world, who looks rather to facts than theories, and
has apparently no other object in writing than to serve
the interests of truth. For these reasons we lay great
stress upon his opinions—always excepting those
which refer to the slave system in the Southern
States,—a system which we regret to find him
advocating, as essential to the legislative in-
terests of America. We have read this portion of
Mr. Grund's work with considerable attention, but
can find nothing tenable in his arguments. He ima-
gines difficulties—conjures up dilemmas and perplexi-
ties en masse—and then gravely proceeds to show that
they are insuperable. Now what is this but a virtual
begging of the question—an attempt to bolster up by
sophistry, that which the writer feels is not to be de-
fended by reason ? View it in whatever light we may,
slavery cannot be justified. It is at direct variance
with one of the first laws of nature, which declares
that man cannot hold property in his brother man.
If we except this blemish, Mr. Grund's volumes are
every way unexceptionable. He is an author who, it
is plain to see, writes from his own impressions of
things ; takes nothing for granted ; but considers and
decides for himself. His long residence in America—
he resided there upwards of fifteen years—admirably
qualifies him for his task of sitting in judgment on
" Brother Jonathan," and it is less with surprize than
gratification that we find him reversing the unfavoura-
ble verdict passed on the Americans by Hamilton,
Hall, and Trollope. The tendency of the transatlantic
institutions, in particular, which these writers find
such fault with, Mr. Grund shows to be every way
beneficial to individuals, not less than to the mass of
the community ; and that it is so far from vulgarizing,
that it enobles, elevates, and even refines the national
character :
" When I said that the manners of republicans must be more
nearly on a level with each other than those of a people living
under a different form of Government, I was far from con-
ceiving it in the sordid sense in which it has often been ap-
plied to Americans. The tendency of American democracy
is not to debase the wealthy in mind or fortune, but to raise
the inferior classes to a moral elevation, where they need no
longer be degraded and despised. It is not a drawback on in-
dividual distinctions or merit, which, on the contrary, it en.
courages more than any other Government ; but it is a great
safe-guard against the total abjectness of the lower classes.
The seeming equality of conditions in America is not effected
by withholding certain privileges from the educated and
wealthy, but by extending them to the middle and even infe-
rior orders of society. The man of education or of fortune is
respected in America as in Europe ; but the deference paid to
his person is untinged with the humiliating consciousness of
being incapable ever to attain to the same distinctions. There
is nothing in the institutions of America to derogate from the
dignity of gentlemen ; they simply prevent a certaia class
from enjoying that title, to the prejudice and exclusion of all
the rest. They are not unjust to the rich and the learned, be-
cause they are more just to the poor; they do not prevent good
breeding or good manners ; but on the contrary, spread them
amongst a larger number of people. But there arc men who
cannot enjoy wealth unless they know that others are poor;
who value knowledge only as it gives them power over their
fellow-creatures ; who could not relish venison unless they
know a half-starved population was dying for the want of
bread. Such men have repeatedly visited the United States,
and were of course much annoyed with the vulgar plenty of the
land, and the desire of every American to be considered a gen-
tleman. It was this feature of democracy which they described
as begetting low breeding ; because it is apt to make Ameri-
cans wanting in that outward respect which a certain class of
men is always sure to meet with in Europe. But deference
for the just claims of others need not necessarily be accompa-
nied by marks of humiliating self-denial."
In the above extract Mr. Grund takes a correct and
enlarged view of the democratic principle as it operates
in the United States. He looks at it with the eye of
a philosopher and a man of the world, whereas Messrs.
Hamilton and Hall viewed it through the medium of
aristocratic prejudice ; and finding that it did not accord
with their own conventional notions ; that it did not
fashion the gentleman agreeably to their views of gen-
tility; they pronounced it a vulgarizing principle, unsuited
to civilised States. But can that be an injurious prin-
ciple whose first object—as the experience of half a
century has shown—is, not to depress the Few, but to
elevate the Many ; not to abridge freedom, but to root
out monopoly; not to prevent "good breeding or good
manners, but on the contrary, to spread them amongst
a larger number of people ?" The Americans may
have no Corinthian capital of Nobility to support
their Constitutional edifice ; they may have no fashion-
able Alit-lacks, or Crockfords, where their wealthier
classes may graduate ; no lordly Prelates clothed in
purple and linen, and drawing from the productive
clasies the revenues of Princes ; but they have instead
—what ?—an intelligent, contented population, blessed
with all the comforts, and many of the luxuries
of life; and Institutions which throw open to in-
dustry, perseverance, and moral worth, the highest
offices in the State ? There is no " cold shade
of aristocracy" in America for the aspiring ple-
beian to " wither under." He need not " stoop to
conquer." He need not play the sycophant to those
whom society may style his superiors, hi
order
to obtain their permission to contend for the prize ; no,
the prize is his, if he will but dare to struggle for, and
be honest and manly enough to deserve, it. We sub-
join a description of the social condition of an Ameri-
can Operative, which, with all their boasted superiority,
may well make the majority of European States blush
for themselves :
" On entering the house of a respectable mechanic. in any
of the large cities of the United States, one cannot but be
astonished at the apparent neatness and comfort of the apart-
ments, the large airy parlours, the nice carpets and mahogany
furniture, and the tolerably good library, showing the inmates'
acquaintance with the standard works of English literature.
These are advantages which but few individuals-of the same
class enjoy, by way of distinction, in Europe ;
but which, in
America, are within the reasonable hopes and expectations of
almost all the inferior classes. -What powerful stimulus is not
this to industry ? What premium on sobriety and unexcep-
tionable conduct? A certain degree of respectability is, in all
countries, attached to property, and is, perhaps, one of the
principal reasons why riches are coveted. A poor man has
certainly more temptations, and requires more virtue to with.
stand them, than one who is in tolerable circumstances. The
motives of the rich are hardly ever questioned, while the Poor
Are but too often objects of distress and suspicion. Pauper übique
jaca. The labouring classes in America are really less removed
from the wealthy merchants and professional men than they
are in any part of Europe ; and the term " mob," with which
the lower classes in England are honoured, does not apply to
any portion of the American community. With greater ease
and comfort in his domestic arrangements, the labouring Ante.
rican acquires also the necessary leisure and disposition for
reading ; his circle of ideas becomes enlarged, and he is roe.
dered more capable of appreciating the advantages of the po-
litical institutions of his country."
Mr. Grund—as it is fit he should be—is in raps
tures with the American ladies. According to his ac-
count they must be perfect Houris ; thought their
'
beauty is but of short duration, giving symptoms of
decay at the age of twenty-four, and going wholly to
ruin at thirty. Alas, that female loveliness should be
so evanescent—that the very thing the eye most de-
lights to dwell on, should be the very first to " drop
into the scar, the yellow leaf I" Miss limbic, if we
remember rightly, has mentioned this proneness to sud-
den decay in American beauty ; but while warmly
praising the external attractions of the transatlantic fe-
males, she has qualified her admiration, by declaring that
they have the shrill voices of peacocks. This, it' must
be confessed, is a drawback--at least Shakspeare would
consider it so, and he is high authority. However,
there is no such thing as perfection in this sublunary
sphere, and we are content to take American faces as
a handsome and satisfactory set-off against American
voices--the more especially as the defects of the voice
may in part be remedied ; but there is no lengthening
a pug-nose ; abridging the dimensions of a mouth from
ear to car ; or transforming an ugly phiz into a beautiful
one. Our fair readers will no doubt thank us for the
following attractive extract :
" The forms of American ladies are generally distinguished

by great symmetry and fineness of proportion ; but their
frames and constitutions seem to be less vigorous than those
of the ladies of almost any country in Europe. Their com-
plexions which, to the South, incline towards the Spanish,
are, to the North, remarkably fair and blooming, and while
young, by far the greater portion of them arc deaidedly hand.
some. A marked expression of intelligence, and a certain in-
describable air of languor—probably the result of the climate
—lend to their countenances a peculiar charm, to which it
would be difficult to find a parallel in Europe. An American
lady, in her teens, is perhaps, the most sylph-like creature on
earth. Her limbs are exquisitely wrought, her motions light
and graceful, and her whole carriage at once easy and digni-
fied. But these beauties, it is painful to say, arc doomed to an
early decay. At the period of twenty-four a certain want of
fulness in her proportions is already perceptible ; and, once
passed the age of thirty, the whole fabric goes seemingly into
decay. As the principal cause of this sudden decline, some
allege the climate ; but I ascribe it more willingly to the great.
assiduity with which American ladies discharge their duties as
mothers. No sooner are they married than they begin to lead
a life of comparative seclusion ; and, once mothers, they are
actually buried to the world. At. the period of ushering their
in
children into society they appear, deed once more, as respect-
able matrons ; but they are then only the silent witnesses of the
triumphs of their daughters. An American mother is the
nurse, tutor, friend, and counsellor of her children. Nearly
the whole business of education devolves upon her; and the
task is, in many instances, beyond her physical ability."
We hope—indeed we are convinced--that Mr.
Grund's volumes will go far to dispel many of the
irrational prejudices that still linger in the minds of
Englishmen towards America. They will here see
that brother Jonathan, despite his occasional swagger
and self-conceit, is in the main a good-hearted fellow,
upright in his dealings, social in his nature, patriotic—
quick-witted—enterprizing—and energetic. He May
have his crotchets and whimsies, but who has not?
We at least should not twit him on this score, or
throw the first stone ; for who more remarkable
than John Bull for bluff, national eccentricity ? Our
conceit of pocket may be fairly placed against his con-
ceit of country ; and of the two foibles we think
Jonathan's the most excusable. Let us then cease to
ridicule and despise him ; but take him to our heart
as a friend and brother. He speaks our language ;
he inherits our love of freedom and enterprize ; his an-
cestors were ours ; his religion is ours ; nay, his ruling
foible was ours, till the throwing open of the
Continent some few `ears since, taught us to feel with
Cymbeline, that there were " livers out of Britain ;"
why then should we treat him with contempt as a de-
generate " alien" from the parent stock ? He is
worthy of all our respect, and, in many instances, of
our imitation.