Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1884-10-04
WHY HE WISHES TO VISIT AMERICA.

It puzzles the reader to ascertain whether
Rev. DR.. Jessopp, an English clergyman, is
serious or Satirical in his witty paper in the
October North Ame-icat Regiew, entitled
Why Wish to Visit America Certain
it IS he propounds some questions that pro-
yoke a smile, and others that invite to
gravity or consideration
From childhood he has been possessed rs
an ardent desire to visit the United States,
but old age has come upon him without
his hopes meeting with realization. lie has
been wholly dissatisfied with nearly ell the
books written upon America. He finds
them unreliable, vague, and rejecting
mainly the seifishneSs Of the writer's in
this judgment Americans will concur and
would gladly join him in suppressing for
all the future most books Of Travel " and
"Tours and "reminiscences having
this country for L text. If they have
seemed not even true" to this cultivated
Englishman, he may be able to realize what
contempt the most of them excite among
cultured Americans.
The Doctors reasons for desiring to visit
America are many; but the chief Of them
will indicate the trend Of his curiosity, and
enable the readers to judge whether this
merry Wit docs not now and then poke fun
at US between lines Of wisdom He would
visit America because he IS so ignorant ="
about the life Of great nation -" that has
sprung into magnificent maturity in a sin
gle century Here is refreshing frankness
confession SO rare among English schol-
ars, that We instnctively bow in acknowl-
ment Of the broad compliment paid by it.
As 20 our mere wealth aud numbers he cares
little for, says ne, in q liberal spirit which
we commend to the Eastern sentimental
lists, if the Chinese had happened 10 get the
st2rt, they might have done as much in
America in that respect rs We, but they
would have remained horde Of Cinnamon
still. There would have been no new ma
ton; there would have been nothing like
the sublime patriotism that, to my mind.
charac,erizes the great American nation.
lie would come here to iathom the depth
Of meaning involved when Americans
speak OF the Has to ascertain what is the
amazing cohesive force Sc infinitely potent
to bind together into one corporate, living
nationality, atoms so dissimilar as the pop
uiation tl,at makes the great American
people Ike would like to learn from OBJ
servation what is the Sget and spring OF
our patriotism what makes Americans
above al, men, scjf-relian; and seifassert-
ing, and why il is that The fierce war OF
parties in politics never seems to affect pat
riotism To find cut why ii is, that willie
the Dutehman living all his life in Java
bess that his bones may rest at Amsterdam
or the Hague; that while the Australian col
on;st looks forward to q return home" to
England; that while the Frenchmau else
where is always Frenchman all these
and others III America are absorbed into
the new nationality and become 'Ameri-
cans" There is one answer 10 be made to
Mr. Jessopp which he will find TO be ade-
ouaie. upon reflection = for all these
things the cause is, the recognition that in
America, as Professor Sumner puts, it q a
free man is sovereign" Not enjoying
freedom by grace of grant from an assumed
SUPERIOR class, but by human, manly
right, beside which the divinity of crowned
kings shrivles and crumbles. The Ameri-
can sovereign, as Sumner phrases it, and
more concisely than any other, is SOW
erciga because he is u member of a free
democracy. He has no superior. He
wants to be subject to no man. lie wants
TO be equal to his fellows, as all sovercigns
are equal So be it. but he cannot escape
the deduction that he calls no man to his
aid The ether sovereigns will not respect
his independence if he becomes dependent,