The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1897-06-20

iish descent the snti-English feeling In
strong, but when II goes on 70 attribute the
fact to the early education Of American
youth In anti.English feeling through the
text books Of American history, aided by
the influence exercised by American teach.
ers. The Spectator says that " the primary
school In America 10 q forcing house OF
what the French call Chauvinism, and OF
what 10 termed 'Americanism' by those
who wish to glorify and ldealiEe a very un.
ideal fact" Inside the schoolhouse faro
taught the doctrines which even 30 enlight-
ened a writer as BANCROFT made common
property in America that the Declaration
of Independence opened an absolutely new
era in the worlds history, and that the
Constitution Ia a model Of human wisdom,
compared with which the constitutions
Of European countries, especially Of Eng
land, are contemptible." Is there any
doubt about the truth of those doctrines3
and, II true, is it not well that they should
be promulgatedi Is 1t not a fact that about
half a century after our Declaration Of In.
dependence England reluctantly consented
to embody one Of its chief principles in her
first Reform act and In her concession OF
the powers Of self-government to CanadaR
Is 1t not a fact that the Constitution of
the United States Is an incomparably
wiser, %sounder, and safer organic law than
any Of the written constitutions OF
Continental Europe7 Is II not a fact,
also. that every British Conservative
and old.fashioned Liberal, including the
Spectator itself, would be glad to adopt 1t.
IL they could, in lieu of their own unwrit-
ten constitution Another source Of the
anti.English influence exerted by American
schoolbooks is deprecated by our London
weekly contemporary "The undoubted
wrongs committed by England, especially
the using Of hired Hessians and Indian saw
ageo to kill their own heroic ances.
tors, are dwelt upon and impressed
in their most exaggerated fo-ms on
the boys and girls Of America"
Why should not the hellish wrongs
done to Americans by pretended kinsmen
be c~ommemorated in American text-booksf
They cannot lie spoken of by us in terms
more scathing and abhorrent than were used
at the time in the British Parliament by
Lord CHATHAM and others. but Why"
the Spectator may expostulate, " rake up
the far distant pasti The Hessian and
Indian barbarities took place more than a
century ago" That Is true. and there
fore the Spectator should not have
stopped the list Of it's admissions
at the Revolutionary War. 1t should
have gone on and acknowledged the
part played by England in the con.
spiracy Of Pontiac, and condemned the in.
famous acts of vandalism perpetrated at
Washington in the war of 1928, at the
very time when the Duke of WELLINGTON
In Paris, with a chivalry reserved for aliens
In blood and language, was r~escuing the
Pont de Jena from destruction. Nor should
thu Spectator omit to confess the indecent
haste with which the British Government
recognized the Confederates as belligerents
long before the first battle of Bull
Run, and the scarcely disguised com'
plicity Of the British Government and
governing classes in the Alabama out.
RACES, for which but tardy and made.
quate compensation was made by the
treaty Of Washington. How could faithful
textbooks of American history fail to re.
call such facts as thesei The portentous
truth Is that the United States have never
had q war with any European country e1
cept England on the other hand, the regis
ter Of our national relations with Great
Britain for q century and a quarter is &
horrid and repellent tissue Of wars, insults
and injuries, and of q~uarrels that barrel!
stopped short Of war.
Englishmen have short memories wher
they find it convenient to forget. They
would willingly contract, no doubt. to fur
nish us with our school literature on tn,
theory, LET me MAKE the schoolbooks o
, q nation, and l care not who makes il
laws" 1t Is also possible that they regre
the evil work done by their forefather
lest they reap In the twentieth century thu
harvest of the seeds sown before. That tn,
handspring Of their regret. however, /
} fear. and not repentance, Is evident from
the fact that they are even now preparing
3 to treat the feeble Transvaal common
wealth precisely as they dealt with tn
nascent American republic.