The Cairo bulletin. [volume] (Cairo, Ill.) 1872-1878, 1877-04-21
Ghe 8ulletin.
A Nasioe without a Name.


The fact Is, that the United States are
remarkable case Of a great country and
a great nation which really has no name.
Oddly enough. the same may be said of
the other two chief federal states OF the
modern world. One Of them never got
name: the other got name only Ia
quiet, modern times. The united prov
inces never had name. What was there
to call themS "IIolland' was too little.
Ii was the name OF only one province
out of seven. though undoubtedly the
greatest of the seven. The "Nether-
lands" the "Low Countries
was too much, as the coptel.
Grafton did not take in the whole of the
Netherlands. There was no name which
took in the whole of the seven PROVING,
and nothing beyond them. In their
present state az kingdom they have got
the name OF the Netherlands; but that il
because the Kingdom at first took in the
whole OF the Netherlands, from which
the kingdom OF Belgium was afterward
cut of. But In ordinary speech we are
much more apt to extend the name OF
Holland to the whole king
dom than to give it its more
formal title OF the Netherlands" The
other confederation was in strictness
the "Old League of High Germany -
and though. as early as the time Of Philip
OF Commihes. the name OF the canton of
Schwyz had come in common use to be
applied TO the whole confederation.
though that use was universal for sew
eral centuries, yet SchwyZ, Suisse, did
bec0me formsI geographical term
I'LL our own century. SO with the thir.
teen colonies in North America. Each
had its own name, but there was no
common name. They were the limited
States OF America" And they have re.
manned more completely without name
than the other considerations, because
no one state has been able, like Holland
and Schwyz, In the other two cases. 10
spread its name, either in form or ordi.
nary use, over the whole union. All
the other parts of the conti-
nent mad tneir several names.
This part had none. The
name OF the continent Itself has. there
become the name of the United States
only. II We oppose america" to Can
adam" or Mexican" it is geographically
like opposing European" to English
or French but everybody knows
perfectly well what Is meant.
This curious limitation OF the Ameri-
can name is, OF course, the result OF the
political independence of the United
states. No Ole would have so applied
it before their quarrel with the mother
country; no one, indeed, would have ap.
Piled the name TO any one but the origi.
nal inhabitants Of the continent. Eu.
ropean colonists were Englishmen,
trenchmen, Spaniards, settled in Amer.
lea. They were not Americans. An Eng.
lish colonoist OF Wesley's day no more
counted himself an American than-to
use Lord Macanlay's omparison-Swift
counted himself an Irishman, or that an
knglishman born in India counts himself
Hindu. Wesley's vOtaries among the
coionists might have joined him in his
prayer for the dark Americans without
Its coming into their heads that II implied
the slightest reflection either on their
faith or on their skins.
IL would be worth while to trace out
what may be the course OF nomenclature
in the other English colonies, especially
il any of them ever separates from the
mother country. Canadian is rec
oguized name. Austrian is not We
speak OF Australia, Australian colonists,
and many more phrases of the kind.
But We should hardly call an English
colonist in Australia an Australian
still less should we call an English ma
tive OF New Zealand a New Zeaiander.
Yet the careful application Of the word
Maori 10 the native race seems to look as
if time might come when all the inhab-
itants OF New Zealand should call them.
selves New Zealanders. At the same
time, the name is very awarkward one
far more awkward than Canadian,
Australian or American.