The Madisonian. [volume] (Washington City [i.e. Washington, D.C.]) 1837-1845, 1838-06-09

Translated for the Transcript from Cacralier, "Let-
tres sur FAmerique du Nord."
THE YANKEE AND THE VIRGINIAN are two
beings very unlike. They love each other
passably, and are very often at variance. These
are the same men who have cut each others
throats in England, under the names of Cava-
Tiers and Roundheads. In England they have
made peace. thanks TO the interposiiion of the
new dynasty, which Is neither Stuart nor
Cromwell. In America, where no mediatory
power exists, they would have deyoured each
other, as formerly in the mother country, had
not Providence cast them, the one to the
South, the other to the North, leaving between
them the territory where were formerly stretch
ed out the neutral States of Pennsylvania and
New York, with their satellites, New Jersey
and Delaware. The pure-blooded Vrginian
is open, cordial, expansive; he has courtesy
in his manners, nobility in his sentiments,
grandeur in his ideas, and is the worthy de-
scendant of the English gentleman. Sur
rounded by slaves from infancy, and thus
spared from manual labor, he has but little ac-
tiyity-he is even lazy. He is generous and
prodgal; around him, and in the new States
more than in the impoverished Virginia, reigns
profuson. When the cotton harvest has been
good, and the prices are firm, he calls all and
every one, excepting his field slaves to enjoy
his opulence, without giving himself much
trouble Of what will be the coming harvest.
The practice Of hospitality is for him duty, a
pleasure, happiness. After the fashion Of
the patriarchs of the East, or the heroes Of
Homer, to regale the guest whom Providence
sent him, or an old friend recommends to him,
he spits an OK, and for washing down his sub
stantial repast, produces Madeira, which he
prizes as high as his horses, that has twice
made the voyage of the great Indies, and has
at length reposed during full twenty long years.
He loves the institutions of his country, and,
nevertheless, he shows with satisfaction to the
stranger his family plate, the devices of which
half effected by time, attests that he deseends
from the primitive colonists, and that his an
cestors were people of good old English fami-
lies When his mind has been cultivated by
study, and voyage to Europe has graced his
person and polished his imagination, there is
no place in the world where he is unworthy of
figuring; there is no destiny to the height of
which he cannot elevate himself; he is one Of
those men whom one is happy to have tor a
companion, whom one desires as frlend.-
Gifted with an ardent head, and a warm heart,
he is the timber Ct which are made the great
orators. He understands better how to COM
mand men than to conquer nature, or master
the soil. When he possesses certain dose
Of the spirit of order, and will not say OF dis
position (for Of this he is well provided) but OF
that active perseverance so common among
his brethren Of the North, he unites all that Is
requisite to form man Of superior abilities.
The Yankee, on the contrary, is reserved,
concentrated, mistrustful; his humor IS pen
sive and sombre, but uniform; his learning is
without grace, but modest, and nevertheless,
without meanness; his department is at first
cold, often little prepossessing; his ideas are
narrow, but practical; he conceives well that
which is suitable, but has little sentiment OF
what is grand and noble. He has not the
least particle Of chivalric constitution, and
nevertheless, he is adventurous, he takes plea
sure in a roaming life. He has an active ina
gination that brings forth original conceptions
which they here call Yankee notions. IL IS not
poetry, it is whimsicality. The lankeeis the
laboring ant; he is industrious and sober; he
is economical; on the poor soil Of New Eng
land, he was formerly so, even TO sordld ava
rice, transplanted to the promised lands OF the
West, he remains measured still, but counts
less his coppers.