Richmond enquirer. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1815-1867, 1863-07-24
PROHlNCIALISM.

ton from the Yankee people, will be that w
shall gradually get rid Of that provincial ant
altogether secondhand spirit which would
have kept us contemplate forever. Th'
American Revolution was only political; ane
the liberation then wrought was not IN eman
cipation OF the mind. Americans hitherto
have never had 4 standard by which to inca
sure themselves, nor Il criterion by which t.
Judge themselves, except the English stand
ard and English measure. They have never
been quite sure loud as they boasted) tina
any Of their achievements has been trul.
prcat. until England professed herself aston
ishcd at its grandeur. They have tried very
hard to feel Independent, but it would not do
aud in this war which the NORTHERN people
have wagcd for the suppression OF ''rebel
lion" what has been III their minds all thu
time is, Won't England admire. They I'M
agiuc themselves to be enactinS a magn'
cent drama, with Europe for spectator; and
the leading idea has been to show England
that the United States can surpu:s all crca
Licn in getting up 4 Great Rebcllion'-a
greater rebellion than ever she could turn OUT.
whether in Europe or in Asia, and in crush
ing it more dreadfully than England crushed
IIindostau. As the English term the war be-
tween Charles and the Parliament by the
title of 1.-The Great Rebellion" so that Is the
very word. aud Headley, that model Yankee
historian, advertiSes The Standard History
Of the Great Rebellion" The whole Of Yam
kee life and activity has been mimiery, an
echo and hearsay. They even avow 1t often:
'Sec," says Emerson, what books fill our
shelves. Our criticism, our poetry, history,
philosophy, what are they but English crlti-
cism, poetry and philosophy
One inevitable consequence was that Eu-
rope, though sometimes ironically protesting
admiration, has in her heart despised the Yam
kee nation. And this scorn was general, and
indiscriminate: We were all regarded as one
people: and the Yankee was taken as our
type. Sometimes that contempt. has been
even savagely expressed; as by kossuth,
when he said, eyes, Europe thinks Of Ameri-
ca as of very great nation; and of China
also. We know that there is a vast mass Of
life moving in each, as there is in an old
cheese" Remember, also, the dis1ainful
reason given by Carlyle for neutrality -
The iirtiest chimney in the world has taken
fire; it must burn itself out" An auda-
ciously contemptuous article which lately APP
peared in Blackwood's Magazine, takes care,
for once, to tell us what it calls the real opin-
IONS" Of Englishmen about us and our al
fairs--speaks Of the parades which Ameri-
cans mistake for campaigns, and the scuftles
which they call great battles" and says,
further: We believe that the serious atten.
ton which we have bestowed on their doings,
has had no uncomfortable share in perpetua.
ting the selEdclusions in which they wrap
themselves, = the magnificent spectacle
which they are exhibiting to the civilized
world, and the general awe which is felt OF
their might by European powers"
Neither has that SERIOUS attention" which
they have done US the honor to bestow on OIL
little affairs been altogether in order merely
u tlattcr us with their distinguished conside
ration. There has been deep policy in it.
For the last forty years they have known tina
English ideas, set forth in English newspa
pcrs and periodicals, were more Influential
here than any ideas we could pretend to have
of our own-that the British Reviews were
more widely read in America than in Eng
land-that any article of the 'Times" news
paper, condcscendins to deal with America
was sure to be reprinted in every American
journal, and thus would be read by at leas
ten times as many persons rs ever read al
article homemade. They knew that the lite
raG of America not only drew their idea
from England but looked to England fo
their fame; insomuch that our American
reading public never ventured to pronounce
book good until the British reviews hac
passed upon it,
This state Of the Yankee mind was n pow
erful engine in the hands of England, cnabliu,
her to work her pleasure on this continent
By means Of this agency, she planted and wa
tered Abolitionism; and has brought it SO ia
that it became the entering wedge to split tn
Great Republic" Into two halves. The Eng
lish literature Of the last forty years is grea
encyclopedia of Abolition; and has beel
studied to dreadful purpose by the literar
folk of Boston and New York. They are be
ginning to gather its fruits.
If our total breach with that mean pcopl
is to he rightly, understood, and carried ont t
all its consequences, as we trust it will be, W
shall entirely get rid, for our own part, of tina
second hand public opinion, which is properl
called provincialism. If ever nation o.
earth won q right to be independent, and sell
sustaining, materially and intellectually, W
shall surely have won that right. When w
| challenged our enemies to this struggle, tn
whole civilized world was against US; an
England cspecially-for we had stood on
against the whole Of her abolition philosophy
set at naught all her counsel. and woul
none of her rcproof The people of thes
States felt themselves to be wiser than Excite
Hall, and more competent ito judge of thei
| own affairs than even the "Ediaburg
| observation-disclosures, indeed, being some
! what indolent and insouciant, did not Civ
themselves much trouble to argue the point
and to fill the whole world las Yankees an
English did, with the loud roar of logical dc
monstrations. They felt themselves secure
based upon their own social institutions, an
looked on quietly while the struggling classe
of Europe developed themselves into Englisl
Chartism and French Fourierism, with fear o
Sc 1s L Leo sasF nations All the world "
talistiog. - -