The Minnesota pioneer. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn. Territory) 1849-1855, 1851-03-20
NO. XLyiIIl..

able beings. Some symptoms Of fiorid
health, to be sure, we're TO be seen in
our faces, butto eyes that looked through
monarchial, and especially English spec
ifacles, they were rather evidences of
our suffering under fatal sickness, than
Of any thing else. II is only some seven
or eight years ago that no less a man
than Sydney Smith told us. in good
round terms, that we were weaker than
! Tuni., and tha. we couldn't make war
like civilized men, if we were Inclined
to do so-because nobody that had
money would trust us. We. were,
though not exactly sayages, quite asAbad
pffas that interesting portion of creation
in the article, of war--they, as is wei:
known, waging hostilities in very beg
arly manner, without causing taxation
or creating a public debt. If man was
killed in New England, that vas proof
that the descendants Of the Pilgrims had
degenerated, and were shockingly given
to hlood-thirstiness. If somebody was
lynched, u thousand miles west of the
Mississippi, that was an evidence OF the
most conclusive character that, lawless-
ness prevailed all over the republic be-
cause it was a republic. The Seminole
war shocked the delicate sensibilities
of the English, who were SO absorbed
by the sufleriogs of the aimiable Wild
Cat and his braves that they had'nt';:
moments time to think Of the course of
things ia Ireland, India, and other por-
tions of the British empire ''guilty of be-
ing suspected" Of not being the happi-
est countries under the sun, They were
surprised that Americans should cut
down or Danish those brares, who had
learned their title by scalping women
land dashing out the brains of children
against trees and stone walls. Then
they were so astonished about slavery
/ that they couldn thinko { their own folks
who were working in the mines, little
girls acting the part of brntes and adults
and children ignorant alike of comfort
and of God. Every thing was said
against us that would be likely to have
tendency to inlure us in the opinion of
! all classes of all other nations. We
chewed tobacco, and didn't have our
boots well BACKED, and spat upon the
| floor, and sat with our feet pleasingly
stuck upon the maDtel-pieces of the land
far above our heads, and were not 10y
al, and loved the almighty dollar, and
had for currency notexs issued by banks
that by an agreeable fiction were sup
posed to be solvent and believed lynch
law to be better than the common law,
and did and thought divers other acts
and thoughts that clearly established
our right to high place in the scale of
cannibalism and infidelty.
British travellers who devoted them
selves to hunting up and recording our
weaknesses and eccenti icities were sure
to make a capital sale of their books,
the few candid travellers, wh6n they pub
lishcd found that, while their books
would not sell, they themselves were
"sold and sent home" But times change,
and men with them. The whole British
nation now admits that we are somebody,
and even the great London Times Itself
the Jupiter Tonans Of the press Of
Christendom--has been pleased to ad-
nit that of the two nations most likely to
escape the storms of revolution, this
Union is one, England being the ether.
When an Ehgiishman admits that Amer
ica is equal to England in any respect,
it is time for us TO feel that we are actu-
ally deserving of respect, from some
cause or other, tor such a sentiment must
be extorted, not freely given. 1t shows
that we have become demonstrative
nation that We have something more
than thrown off the shell, and are COM
petent to make an Impression the world
over. If we look for the causes of this
change of opinion on the part Of Eng
land, for the oblivion into which spit
itoons have Just now fallen, and the utter
silence which is observed respecting re-
pudiation, we shall find in the vast in
crease of our material power, somewhat
aided by the repeated falsifications Of
ruin prophecies made at our expense
England is the capital and heart of ma
terialism. Her people believe what
they can test by their senses, and ''noth-
no else" L. s. u. are the three mag
ical letters Of the people of the people Of
the fiast-anchored isie-the Sesame that
they never forget--the spell with which
ticy COujuit-tuc nets Will WHICH tucf
have unlocked the repositories of the
power of the world--the inscription ON
the insignia Of the British Order of the
Golden Fleece Of Mammon a people
who thus reverence the material part Of
crcation,-who bow down before mani
festations Of wealth wherever they are
exhibited, ARE likely to have a very
lively admiration Tor US in the end, how
ever much they may have heretofore
sncered at US, or even hated or despised
US. The dollar is al!-migbty under the
sun, and no where is better evidence of
its potency exhibited than in the change
!, of English sentime mt toward US Yankees,
for no other important reason than be-
cause our pockets are full as were the
: granaries of Egypt when Joseph so es-
seniially did the people of that country.
We are no better than we were when
the British public were treated to daily
dishes Of blackguardism setting forth in