Daily American telegraph. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1851-1852, 1852-09-14
The Yankees.

From our earliest years, we have heard this
word employed rs term Of reproach. Its use
in that way has been by no means confined to
the Southern States Throughout Pennsylvania,
and from the waters Of New York Bay to the
head of navigation at Albany, the term cyan
KEGS" has been associated from time immemorial
with trickery, humbug, and wooden nutmegs."
Traditions of the adroit and INSCRIPTIONS man
ner in which the Yankee pedlars cheated the cred
ulous Dutch settlers of New York have been
handed down as heirlooms in both Yankee and
Dutch families, to the admiration, we fear, Of
many of the former; and the horror and detesta-
ton of the latter. The feelings of aversion and
contempt entertained towards Yankees in the
Middle States were even more intense and gen.
eral in the South and they have been heightened
and aggravated by the thieving and kidnapping
propensities of the Abolitionists in the free
States Abroad, we are all known as Yankees,
and we are so denounced in a contemptuous and
insulting spirit.
In this world Of wonders, nothing is more
astonishing to us than the ignorance of each
others character, which we find ia the different
sections of the United States The people Of this
country have as many and blind prejudices in re-
gard to each other as those Of France and Eng
land. Hence we esteem 1t recommendation of
any public man for the Office Of President of the
United States, that his duties have called him TO
quninted with the character, condition and pros
poets of all. And, there can be little doubt that,
If all our members Of Congress and all public men
under the general government, should travel in
all parts Of the Union before entering upon the
discharge Of their national duties, 1t would add
much to the harmony and peace Of the country
In England, travel upon the continent is con-
sidered essential TO a gentleman's education how
much more essential 10 the education of gentle
man and public man in the United States that
he should at least travel in his own country:
* n
In any event, the term Yankee" used as a
term implying scorn and contempt, is not de-
served by that portion Of the American people to
whom ii is applied. Their rugged soil and
crowded population may compel them, if they
would live at ALL to live with frugaity and econ
omy, and they are educated to regard bloodshed
in private quarrels in the same light with the
taking of life in any other way. But as people,
they are neither the penurious nor the cowardly
race they are SO often represented The battle
of Bunker's Hill was fought by men who, when
duty demanded, could sacrifice both consdera-
tons of interest and Of safety. The enormous
sums annually distributed in private and public
charity by the people Of New England, asd the
heroic manner in which their naval commanders
maintained the honor Of the United States in the
late war against the Wanted mistress Of the seas
prove that generosity and courage are not con-
,fned to any particular latitude. Such people
may be hated but do not deserve to be despised.
The term Yankee should never be employed in a
spirit of contempt toward race whose indomit-
able energy and practical wisdom have converted
desert into garden. If they are our friends,
the use of reproachful language 10 unknd as
well as unwiss; If our adversaries, we should
recoect that it is perilous error to underrste
an enemy Richmond Republican.