The Milan exchange. (Milan, Gibson County, Tenn.) 1874-1978, 1877-07-19
American Gentlemen.

The following is an extract from an
address delivered by Hon. Thomas F.
Bayard, of Delaware, before the Phi
Beta Society of Harvard College:
l never reflect upon the breadth and
generosity of the underlying idea of our
system of government, with all its man.
ly equities, its constant demand upon
its citizens for the most elevated senti-
ments known to our nature, and the OPP
portunities afforded for their exercise,
that 1t does not appear to me more and
more, and beyond all other forms of
government yet devised, the most favor
able theater for the exercise of all the
qualities that dignity and adorn man
kind, and that, if penetrated with true
sense of the part which each man among
us should bear in such plan, an Amer
lean citizen ought to be in the best sense
of the word gentleman.
have had good reason to realize the
exacting nature of the toll and varied
occupations sof our busy struggle in
American life, and amid what a rush of
events we have been carrying civiliza-
ton out of the wilderness, emulating
with hot impotence the results and ac-
cumulations of centuries of work and
thought in the older nations. The graces
of life-those fruits of repOse and
well earned wealth and leisure-are of
gradual growth, and have been neces-
sarily postponed until our temple of civil
and religious liberty was erected upon
secure foundations and our grand ex-
pertinent of self-control by free people
shall have been well tested. Art, its
studies and higher influences, do not
underrate, and the great advantages it
can impart to its disciples; but personal
contact had taught me how much of that
true refinement, delicacy of sentiment,
and sensitive consideration for the feel
ings of others, which we justly regard
as the best fruit of high breeding and
culture, can and does exist in the sim
plicity of American society, uninstruct-
ed even by that European example which
to some of our cOuntrymen seems the
necessary imprimatur of social success.
The American snOb has none of the
inducements or excuses of his British
brother, and when he follows in his
track and gilds and veneers his petit
ness and vulgarity in imitation of rank
and distinguished station, he sins more
against nature and the honest simplicity
and natural dignity which are akin to
Republican institutions, and which may
well be worn by every man who lives
under them according to their true and
manly spirit.
1t is in our power to create a standard
of American character and manhood as
lofty as that of any age or nation, and
to compel our representatives at home
and abroad to conform their conduct to
it. The spirit of true chivalry in all its
gentleness and unselfishness, showing
tenderness to the feeble and resistance
to the overbearing, mercy to whom
mercy was due, and honor to whom
honor is due, can and does exist in
America to-day, under the holden
gray'' of the laborer and mechanic,
the threadbare coat of the clerk or the
grave garb of the hard-worked mer-
chant or man of the professions, as truly
as it ever did under the helmet and chain
armor of any knight-errant of the olden
time.
The American people can justly de-
mand from those who are delegated to
represent them abroad or at home a
punctilious observance of honor and
delicate pride in their private and pub
lie conduct, and the moral influence to
be obtained by dignified self-respect, in
telligence, and high personal integrity
will far outweigh any attempted COM
petition with the show and glitter of
the representatives of other govern
ments not based upon the principle of
voluntary and orderly self-contrOl. In
truth it will be found that when Ameri-
can representatives abroad have drawn
obloquy and just censure or contempt
upon themselves or their country, it has
been usually caused by some ignorant
attempt at ostentatious display, or the
unworthy pursuit of private gain, in
both of which the dignity of their posi-
ton was forgotten or disregarded, and
the fault was not "Americanism," but
tho ahcanoa of If