The southern press., 1850-11-06
James, the Novelist.

MIR. JAMES has written the following letter to
his friend M. b. FIELD, esq, in answer to an
attack upon him in the last number of the Amer
ican Wing Review. ...... go.
| We think Mr.. JAMES is infinitely more anus
| Ing and instructive as novelist than as a
commentator on the institutions of which he is
profoundly ignorant
JAMAICA, L. l., Oct. IA,
! My DEAR SIR: Since | saw you have been
| thinking over the observations upon myself, &c,
| which you showed me in the American Review
The first part Of the article made me laugh, as you
know. 1t is very good, very amusing, and, per-
haps, very true--but of that cannot be the Judge
| The comments on two scraps of poetry, put
most unfairly in iuxta position, however, | can
not pass without remark. The first COM
| mented on--though written with no view to pub
lication, (ndeed did not know that it ever had
| be en- published till / saw what you showed me
| to-day,) should not have been called up by any
| frank and candid American in the present day.
1t was written in time of great excitement,
when war seemed imminent between your coun-
try and mine when your country was putting
forth claims which thought unjust, and when our
papers teemed with accounts or your citizens en-
deavoring, even before any declaration OF hosti-
ty to stir up the people of Ireland to hopeless re-
| yolt--which thought more unjust. | shared the
universal feeling in England on this subject
wrote the poem | avow it ; l am proud Of it,
Nay more, had England needed volunteers at that
time, one would have shouldered musket
against you more readily than myself. But let
me ask, if there be one man in the United States
who would not have done the same against Eng
land, If there be-.and do not believe that such
| a man exists--let him stand forth for the Kisses
and execraton of his country.
only ask the same fair and liberal construc-
| ton which extend to others. ] can sit down and
read the beautiful poem Of Holmes, upon the old
| frgats Constitution, and almost share the en-
| thuslasm with which he speaks of that gallant
vessel. Without one feeling Of mean and ptiful
| jealousy, can admit that il Is of the finest
pieces of poetry in The English language, and
does honor 10 the nation and the man.
Let me, in the name Of honesty and truth, be
dealt with in the same manner. As to the insinu-
atoms afterwards conveyed--as to the perversion
of the language and the sense OF what wrote,
repel them as they merit. Every one who knows
me-every one who has read my works, knows
well that the character Of Washington has ever
been in my eyes, perhaps the most perfect in his
tory. and that have ever contended that the bat
tie Of the British constitution was fought, by him
and his, upon this soil, as much for the benefit of
Englishmen for their own,
let any one produce a word that have ever
written or thought in a contrary if they can.
But what is to be said of such perversion of plain
sense, as that which occurs when I-speaking Of
saNery,a ana comparing III with the very hrst clause
in your Declaration of Independence-I "caIl it
living lie," and am made to give that name to
American liberty?
A man must have been hard pressed for some
thing to censure when he had recourse to such
q means this,
shrink not from the responsibility of England
in the matter of slavery in this land | acknowl-
edge, and with shame for my country, that the sin
and disgrace ofhaving imposed such burden up
on the Southern States, and in such manner that
it is hardly possible for them to free themselves
from it with safety to themselves and without dan
ger and damage to the whole republic, is mainly
and primarily attributable to England. But no
one has a right to twist words only applicable (and
distinctly applicablel 10 the weak point in the con-
sttution of these States, into an attack upon Ame'
pican liberty generally.
There is one point on which would wish to
correct the writer Of that graceful and eloquent
ticle. The lines upon the ship Washington, which
he says have taken care to have widely crcua.
ted, were written for the ships album, were never
seen by me after they were written, and were pub
lished without my knowledge or concurrenoes -
The rest, about sof-solder," British lions, !"
and 'tqur own small account" " does not merit any
notice.