The Van Buren press. [volume] (Van Buren, Ark.) 1859-1914, 1897-06-19
IN THE OLD TINE.
Rebuike Administered to the Anglo
nnaniucs Eighty Years Ago.


naniucs Eighty Years Ago.
1t is not only astonishing, but really
humiliating, to observe with what VEN
Grafton a certain class of our good citi-
zens look upon everything of British
birth, or British origin; and-with what
sickly affectation and parrieidal CON
tempt they speak of their own coun-
try, its powers, its products, its govern
ment, its manners and its instltu-
tons. This is neither the effect Of
ambition, of power, of honest prejudice,
of party heat. 1t results from innate
and conscious littleness. 1t is the obia-
ton of a low, groveling, and syeophan-
tic spirit-of a mind that shrfnks from
independence and graduates to tyranny,
as atoms to the center 1t must
not be disguised that there is
another class more numerous
and more respectable; possessed of
talents, if not of integrity; and of in
nuencc, if not of neutrality-suspicious.
ly attached 10 their country. its inter-
ests and its honor, who, neverthe-
less seem to look up TO the Eng
lish with kind of awful reverence;
sort of bewildered admiration-as the
source of all that is sublime and beauti-
full on earth!
From whence rises this strange at
tachmcnt? Is it TO be traced to those
Turing and amiable qualities that base
and constitute the character of an Eng
,ishman? That inflated arrogance; that
assumption of excellence; that boast OF
power, which admits of no equal and
| allows of no competitions; that insolent
but affected contempt of other govern
ments and other countries; that i'm
| potent but imposing attitude; that
nerveless but dictatorial spirit-in
short, that boasted and exclusive perfec-
| ton in arts and in arms, in morals and
| in manners! Or does it arise from
their superior observance of religious
| duties? Is our admiration excited by
| that false and affected piety-that hypo-
| critical devotion which, amid lust and
| rapine, murders, massacres and con-
fagrations, saerilegiously appeals to
| the cross, and assumes at once the con-
| troll and defense of the Christian world ?
| Are these the captivating traits that
| dazzle our countrymen? Are these the
alluring qualities that Danish from our
breasts that love of country, that spirit
of independence, that self-respect and
| all those local affections which nature
| has implanted alike in the Indian and
| the Arab? Or does the remembrance Of
| L.
of England during our filial vassalage
| inspire US with this unbounded admra-
ton? Is the debt of gratitude for The
support of our infancy, and for the
manifold blessings bestowed upon us
in our ripper years, never to be dis
| charged?
Is our love excited by the recollection
of her affcctionate embraces at LeXing-
ton-her more than maternal fondness
in arning the merciless savages and
pouring them upon our defenscless
women and children-her employment
of the mercenary barbarians of Ger
many and the refuse of her own king
dom to ravage our coasts, 10 burn our
cities, and to carry fire and sword into
the heart of our peaceful country-in
short, to rob us of our property and free
dom. and to reduce us to state of SER
vile dependence, of base and uncondi-
tional submission? Does the recollec-
ton of these things-does her own his
tory, or the history of our revolution,
fill us with this Unreasonable respect?
Or, must we descend to her more re-
cent achievements, and attribute it TO
her total disregard Of the laws of ma
tions, and of those principles that gov
ern the civilized world-to the spol'a-
tons of our commerce and the impress
ment of our seamen; to the murder OF
Pierce; TO the base and cowardly attack
upon the Chesapeake; to the inhuman
treatment of American prisoners; TO the
! petty pillage and wanton destruction OF
private property at Havre-de-Grace; %
the shocking outrages at Hampton; TO
the burning of the capitol; to the horr:d
mutilations and massacres Of our de-
fenseless inhabitants by her Scotch ruff
fans and savage allies, and, lastly, 10
that bastard cruelty, that character
istic baseness, that bloodthirsty dispo-
sition displayed in the late murders at
Dartmoor prison ?-N. Y. Collector OF
1915.