The American. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1857-1857, 1857-09-12

UOWcT.
The eighty-ninth annual commencement Of Brown
University, Rhode Island, was celebrated with
much enthusiasm on the cd instant Among the
exercises was an address before the Alumni, do
livered by the Hon. Samuel s. Cox, Of Ohio, a
member elect from that State to the next Congress
and Of which we find the following abstract in the
Providence journal In this address, it seems to
have been the object of the speaker to hold the
mirror up TO american nature and catch the
" manners living as they rise" among us; and that
there is as much of truth as of caricature in his
portraitnre will, we think, be generally admitted
The subject, as announced by the speaker, was
!" The Necessity for More of that Benignant Mode
ration which Scholarship should infuse into An,or-
can life' After stating the existence in our midst
Of an exaggerated immoderation, he proceeded to
examine into the causes which produced it.
He examined, lst, our Celtic pecularities, which
have contributed not little to the recklessness
and extravaganza of our American life. He COM
plimented the Celtic race highly. The pure Saxon
and the pure Angle were a stupid and inferior
race When combined with the Celtic there has
sprung from the cross the beauty and aroma Of
our civilization but with them has grown that
excessive luxuriance which no pruning can re-
press. From this combination we have that in
nate quickness Of apprehension and needless haste
in action under which we are rushing 30 fast and
headlong. y,
I'd The speaker considered, as a cause Of our
characteristic immoderation the keen, nervous,
unbalanced intellect of America. From it has
sprung that unrest which allows no fat to grow
upon our muscles; from it we have that nervous
irritability which displays itself in the impatience
and intolerance Of our politics. The speaker made
thrust at the quick eager intellects who go
around agitating the rstimulated public pulse.
" Agitate! agitate !" they cry, when there is the
least reason for it, they being most agitated, be-
cause nobody else is. 4 .-4
3D.. Our imagination datcd under the great
physical surroundings, political prominence, and
increasing grandeur of the Republic. The speaker
elabora'ely illustrated this point by referring to
our immense tonnage, our large lakes, our long
rivers, our mountain ranges, our mammoth conf.
fera, our vast mineral treasures our wide praires
our great crops, our growing cities our enlarging
territory, our unrivalled teegraphs our extensive
raroacs and their equally extensive disasters, our
mechanical skill and its infinite productions-all
of which led the American to exaggerate his abil
ity, his position, and his country. He found such
unity in the human mind that it could not be
high strung on one subject without being similarly
keyed up on all There is such an excitement
running through our American mind on account
OF our growing Importance that we must aggran-
die every thing with which we have to do An
American cannot sit stl unless he does it with
might and main. He must take an extravagant
position. The orator hit this Off very happily in
the following episode: tAa aa .a@ 'aas
Now the highest enjoyment of Frenchman
is to have the last cantatice in fashionable opera
The Spaniards transport reaches its climax when
in the arena the matador, with skillful thrust
stretches his antagonist into the dust. The Nea
politan finds his paradise in the lengthening con
sciousness of his maccaroni. The German rises tc
his heaven on the cloud of his dreamful pipe and
misty metaphysics. The Englishman grows com
fortably extatic over roast beef and naval glory
The Turk ascends to his seventh heaven among
the houris while he smokes his NarghiIac and sips
his mocha. The African, with his banjo on his
knee, is (" off for the other side of Jordan" The
lrshmans chiefjoy is to take off his frieze coat at
a fair, and with with shelah whirling, invite any
gintleman TO stand before il; or, for the love OF
God, just to step on the tip end of his coat tail
and be smashed into smithereens." .s.
But the American #,.ss I=fr... 4.
\" Finds not in the wide world pleasure 50 sweet
As TO sit near the window aud tilt up his feet;
Puff away at the Cuba, whose favor just SUITS
And gaze at the world twixt the toes of his boots y
His adventurous and rovipg disposition was next
adverted to. The American e,, route in Europe,
the American on the Borders at home, the unrest
ing American everywhere was drawn to the life
in illustration Of the exaggeratioR of his nationa
character.
The speaker gave succinctly what we had done
as nation in the last half century and found il
these elements of success the cause of that excess
which is so characteristic Of the Americans VIZ
had increased our tonnage manufactures agri
culture, numbers, incomes, and, proportionately
| our conceit, pride, and exaggeration. Thirty-siz
years ago, the Edinburgh Review had cautioned
us against the use of that galaxy of epithets by
which we persuaded ourselves we were the great
est of nations. We were even then cautioned
against the use Of superlatives. But the belief in
our greatness will make us so as surely as thought
precedes action. .#.
We do not like people who belittle US. We are
great in the past greater in the present, and
greatest in the future. We never tire Of hearing
our own praises We are not satisfied with mark
ing the lines OF empire in the infant face of the
Graded Hercules, but we must be always dandline
the plump young one on our knee, and charming
him until the world observes his prematurity o.
size and lungsl ,..0 -
4th. Our dialect has become exaggerated oui
best words perverted aud emasculated One o
our scholars has published dictionary containing
over four hundred pages of Americanisms. We
naturalize words easily. Our people are mosaic
We have the French, Spanish, German, Dutch,
Norwegian, Welsh, Indian, and Africanese, in ouI
lexicography. The metaphorical and other odd
expressions belonging to the West and South, q
list Of which Mr.. Bartlett has collected in his die
tionary, originate in some funny anecdotc, which
makes its way up through many mouths until il
obtains the imprimatur of the Congressional
Globe and the currency of the metropolitan press.
IL the history Of our own lexcography we're writ
ten it would be comic one; for where no anec
dote could be found ss the root of our new
phrases, their origin would be traced to the
necessities of uneducated but original geniuses
who make words for their ideas, precisely as they
make new ox.yoke or threshing machine, which
words soon become popular from the oddity o.
the thing, and in time find places beside the dig
nified Latin and homely Saxon Of our tongue" 9..
Perhaps VIC ought to welcome said the ora
tor, this genesis Of new words; since so mani
of our good English words have lost all meaning.
The word powerful is powerless to convey an!
significance; magnificent is tawdy mighty i
weak; desperate allking,' alfred are gen
tie terms; first-rate is generally acknowledge,
to be ifth-rate old-hoss,' when analysed, /
found to be the tenderest appelation Of bpet
Juvenile, without hoofs; and an institution i
anything which the institutor peases--an eatin,
saloon, free-love club shoe-peg factory,
steam fire engine, water cure, six.barrclle
pistol, a barbers shop, or a sausage stnffing-ma
chine A New Orleans paper calls the negrous
institution. heard young father call his bab
an institution, The generalizing mind OF Americ
sees in the baby the germ of future republice an