Cleveland daily leader. [volume] ([Cleveland, Ohio]) 1865-1873, 1865-10-06
A -FRENeHMAN IN AMERICA
Impressions of New York City-Graph-
lie Sketches of Seward ana sum-

Mr.. Duvergier de Haurance, the young
er, who passed some time in this country
not long ago, has published in the RepUt
des Deler Mondes a summary of his obser.
vations on the United States, under the
title of Eight Months in America" We
give a few extracts:
@The first sight of New York is repul-
sive and vulgar; it is a large village which
dates from yesterday, without monuments,
without recollections, without limits, en-
croaching upon the surrounding country
in proportion as it wants new houses and
new stores. Its dirty streets, the squares
overgrown with grass and bushwood, its
omnibuses and unsightly railroad cars, the
irregular houses pasted over with colossal
advertisements; lastly, its population, I'M
pleasant, morose, busy and full of cares,
jostling with each other, and thronging
amid carts and wagons, present the disa-
Bile spectacle of a bazaar in the open air.
Neither the Boulevards of Paris or the
Strand Of London give any idea of the
tumultuous stir which reigns in the bust
ness part of the city. Broadway, Wall
street. and all the lower part of the city
are every day the universal rendezvous
during ten hours. You see there nothing
but floating banners, monstrOus sign-beards
and glittering advertisements, which en-
croach ven upon the sidewalks and the
very street, above the heads and under the
feet of the passengers.
"The part of the city where I am lodg-
ing, presents an entirely different charac-
ter. Here, very close to Broadway, the
crowd is growing thinner, and the noise is
dying out. The silent streets are shadow
ed with large trees; the r~ed-cOlored brick
houses are inclOsed with elegant ratings,
and the fight of stairs of red sandstone
give them a severe appearance. For the
most part without useless ornaments. thew
nevertheless have an air of comfort and
quiet solidity. This part of the city
breathes the well-being of family life. 1t
is there that these men of business, these
daring spectators, these untiring workers
return in the evening in order to enjoy
their peaceful home and the wealth uhiah
they have acquired IN the whirl of every
day. You hear of rich families which are
living in hotels and never knew the pleas
ures of a home. These are the upstairs,
the Bohemians of finance, who lead such
an agitated and uncertain life. Bnt every
wealthy and respectable man wants his
W home far from the hustle and dirt of
the business part of the city. The adven-
turous -individualism of the American
Spectator has not yet stified in him the
taste for II home which is proper to the
A~nglO7Saxon race.
~ called yesterday on Mr..
Charles Sumner, who is sufficiently known
to relieve me from giving you his biogra-
ply. He received me with great kind
ness and was pleased to converse with me
some time. Mr.. Summer is a tall man
with somewhat htavy features, but an in
telligent and kind expression. His man
ners are phlegmatic, simple and cordial,
with the distinctive marks of uprightness
and sincerity. He is conscious of his own
merit, but without vanity or that false
modesty which is often worse thar vanity.
Erudite, curious of whatever is new, know
by heart our literature and history,
he has immensely read, learned and stored
up in his memory. During our long and
conversation he passed in review
many men and many epOchs. To say the
he is more of a philosopher than a
Under his calm exterior he is
a sort of enthusiast, full of faith in his
moral mission, and in the dominant idea
10 which he has devoted his life. He is
rather the representative of a principle
the chief of a party. / hear that he
neglects diplomacy somewhat in order to
himself with his cherished negroes,
whose ordinary defender, and, in some
measure, whose f~oster-father he is.
'This is, without doubt, the noble but
too exclusive idea to which he has
consecrated his life. Yesterday his face
frightened up with contentment: he had
just obtained in the Senate the abrogation
of thelaw, hateful in many respects, which
withheld from negroes the right of testify
ing in courts. His proposition was at first
he returned to the charge and
While exposing to me his
policy, in a grave voice, and in an almost
religious tone, he said to me: "The states
man must guide himself by the ~unchange-
light of principles, as the sailor by the
polar STAR And this solemn language fell
naturally from his lips like the intimate
and familiar language of his thoughts. l
believe this simple expression is sufficient
10 characterize him, You see now before
you that man of elevated mind and of loyal
conscience, that convinced philanthropist,
The propagation, l was almost going to say,
The persevering preacher Of the great moral
the triumph of which is his only
ambition. He is blamed for always march,
ing straight onward, guided, as he himself
says, by the light of principles, without
those concessions which politics
and for not suficietly thinking of
the principles which endanger the public
liberties.
1t is even laid that he sometimes sac
ritices the e%sseIsial rights of the citizens
to the rights OF the negroes. If this were
so, 1t is the common fault of idealists
like the soldiers of Villars who threw
away their bread in order 60 run faster to
the battle, they forget the Necessary good
of every day for the glorious contest of
superiuous gOod-to get rid of slavery, and
to rehabilitate America among the lations
of the world2 Would to God the repuh-
lie had numbered from the beginning
many fanatics of thit kind.
8 "At last / know Mr..
Seward; he had invited me to come and
see him at his office. Imagine a man of
small stature, fragile and quick of motion,
Notwithstanding his age, with a forest of
uncombed white hair, and a Roman nose,
a tOothless, but hooking mouth, who looks
at you with two black eyes full of good
humOr and malice. Here, he is called a
Jesuit; it is true, neither in his mind nor
in his manners is there anything of the
American rudeness or stiffness. There is
in his gestures, in his neglected dress, in
his good-humored reception, an easy
mer, a plebeian unconstraint, amid which
a kind of natural distinction always
shines. His conversation is neither origi-
nal nor very brilliant; it is in keeping
with the character of his country that is
to say, of a certain slOwness, of a some
what heavy solidity of thought and sim
plioity of expression. There is, however,
runninglthrongh it a subtle and delicate
thread, a vein of inbred refinement, that
lends piquancy to very simple things.
Nature gave him all the subtle qualities
which we call Esprit Francois, but the
American education, the democratic Gus
toms of the country, the commonplace
character of the public intellect obliged
him to place himself on the same level.
He has been compared with Lord Pal
merston, without, however, possessing the
accomplished scholarship or the elegant
manners of the English statesman. With
the stuff of an %aristoorat in him, Mr.. Sew
ard preserves the exterior of the old Amer
lean politician, devoid of refinement and
of ~pretensions, and shut up within his
party. However, it does not need avery
sharp eye to discover, under these manners