Daily union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1865-1866, 1866-04-04
A FRENCH VIEW OF AMERICAN
LIFE.


LIFE.
A French tourist has recently published
his experience in the United States undei
the title Of Hut Mois en- Amerique"-
Eight Months in America. He was much
struck with the contrast between the Amer
lean and European family system. He
says:
There are few families in New York Of
whom some member in not either wander
ing as traveller in distant parts of the
world, or has taken up his permanent abode
there, and become almost stranger TO his
own country. These family trials are &C.
cepted with an incredible composure and
resignation. You know the story Of that
American father whose son, arrived from
Australia, Unexpectedly knocked at the
door; he received him politely, inquired
after his health, offered him a chair, and
finally invited him to dinner. The Ameri-
can family resembles a little, a brood of
sparrows; the little ones escape as soon as
they have feathers to fly with and claws to
defend themselves; they forget the mater
nal nest, and often the parents themselves
know them no more. They take the pains
10 protect them in their youth, but once
this task accomplished, their rights and
their duties terminate at the same time IL
is the law of nature in all its crude IaiUese.
family associations last only Just so long as
il is indispensable b. its members
BY way Of retaliation, if the parents give
little they exact less. Paternal power has
never been a very rigorous law in the Amer
lean family, and filial docility never one Of
its greatest virtues. Neither do the parents
make much effort 10 retain their authority,
or 10 keep the imprisoned bird in its shell.
Or the contrary, they feel pleasure in de-
veioping in him the precocious instinct of
liberty, and they are in haste TO emancipate
him, either because they wish to get rid as
early as possible Of an importune charge, or
because it is repugnant to them long to ex-
ercise a species of domestic royalty, and be-
cause they Immediately respect the spirit of
Independence which they possess themselves.
1t is a fact that nowhere are children as free,
as bold, as much entants terri6les as in Amer
lea. In public places, in railroad cars and
elsewhere, you see them run, yelling with all
their might, climbingup your knees, PLAYING
with your watch chain, spell IN the book YOU
hold in your hand, and speak TO you famili-
They are not overwhelmed with those dis
cources, those precepts, those fine moral les
sons OF which we are so prodigal, and which
make no more impression than water on the
surface Of glass.
Still less do they employ against them
those energetical means of conviction which
are called the fright Of the strongest" AT
all times the Americans reserved this for
their negroes.
As 10 their children and their horses,
they have always treated them with kindness,
as intelligent aud reasonable creatures, in
whom care must be taken not to arouse the
spirit Of revolt In order to form and de-
velop their reason, they rather count upon
experience than punishment; instead Of
keeping them with their feet and arms tied
up to the age Of manhood, they suffer them
at an early hour 10 knock against things. 1t
is this freedom whichVipens the Americans
and develops in them practical reason at an
age when, with us, it is still slumbering in
the dreams and illusions of youth.
With us, the intellectual education pre-
cedes the moral; here is the reverse. At
twelve years, the moral education of Ameri-
can girls is considered finished; they freely
go and come, often alone; their practical
ideas seem 10 be all formed, and custom even
permits that they be initiated in all the re-
alities Of life. They are not led by the hand
as il they were blind, nor ordered TO always
east down their eyes up 10 the day when the
horizon Of life is suddenly disclosed to them;
nothing is hidden from them which is ne
cessary for them 20 learn, since they have TO
be one day sole mistresses Of their own fate.
They also choose their partners without
illusion and without enthusiasm, and when
notifications and trials present themselves
before them, they have 10 bear them without
murmuring since they can only accuse
themselves for all their errors and self-de-
ceptions.
As TO the men, this rough school of liberty
and experience is not less salutary to them.
As soon as they begin to think they find
themselves engaged in TIE struggle with the
positive necessities of life the affairs, the
interests, the continual labors of their pro-
fession, absorb, form and mark them with
stamp that is perhaps somewhat rough, but
which, at the same time, preserves them from
the sickly agitations of the unoccupied, and
which eneryate the character and render
the mind sterile. When not yet twenty
years old, at the age when with us, young
men are still cropping their way, harrass
themselves with unsuccessful poetical at
tempts, or give themselves upto the vagaries
of an apocalyptical philosophy, they think Of
establishing themselves, of taking a wife, of
founding for therir own account bank or
commercial house, and of leaving the pro-
visonal hospitality of the parental roof.
In the meatime, what becomes Of the
family? Ii lasts as long as the same house
hold keeps il united; but it is loosened from
the moment il is dispersed; for the bonds of
inheritance and Of common interests do not
exist 10 keep it together You know that
in America the liberty of requests is Inlim-
tied, the only restriction which the laws
admit being in favor, not Of the children,
blt Of the wife
The right of the wife has the precedence
Of that Of the children; with the exception
of the reservation in favor of the wife, the
father disposes Of his fortune as he pleases.
lie can disinherit his children without their
having any right TO complain, and often he
oequeaths on them but the smaller portion
Of his property. Often he gives to one Of
them 10 the detriment Of the others. He
leaves, for example, the largest part Of his
fortune, either to the eldest or to any of his
sons; and you know that in Massachusetts
the real estate is rarely divided. The eldest
son inherits the land; the younger enter
commercial or industrial career, or betake
themselves TO the West in order 20 find there
a new patrimony. The father of family
can even make will in favor of the eldest
Of his raee--limited, il is true, only to the
second generation, and legally binding only
ON the immediate heir. Thus, the Ameri-
can law is quite the contrary of the French.
Liberty Of Request, inequality of portions,
are allowed-even substitution, to a certain
extent All of which French democracy
condemns as odious, as remains of feudal
oppression, American democracy authorizes
and covers with the name Of liberty. Here
again, in matters Of wills aud inheritance,
as in all Others, the same question arises !:
Which Of the two is true democracy-that
which is ruled by a desire for liberty, or the
other, which sacrifices liberty itself TO an
Unsuitable love of equality?