The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1911-01-03

property entrusted to its care?
1t can not be denied that imme-
diately after the war of independence
the prevailing desire in America was
that the gap between the mother
country and the early colonies be
widened as much as possible. There
fore many propositions We're ad-
yanced, according to which English
customs or English influences in the
new republic were either entirely
abolished or remodeled from the bot
tom up. But the language of Eng
land was considered right from the
start as holy and inviolable. No
matter how much the American was
an innovator in many other respects.
in what concerns he was
always exceedingly conservative.
Benjamin Franklin, while he So
jOurns in England, writes to David
Hume: Il hope like you that we will
always take in America the best En-
glish of this island as our model, and
l am convinced that this will be So
To Noah Webster he writes: Il can
only approve of you great zeal to
preserve the purity of the language.'
Thomas jefferson was SO convinced of
the Importance of A~nglo-Saxon for
t n maintenance Of a pure English
style that, in the midst of his official
duties as vice-president Of the United
States, he himself composed an Anglo
Saxon grammar and had the study OF
this put into the first course
Of study Of the University of Virginia..
The Importance they attach to Anglo
Saxon in American colleges and uni
versities and the large number of
American students that are studying
English in German Universities are
proof Of it that Jetferson's enthusiasm
still OcOntinueS to live.
Still more remarkable appears to
me the fact that, in spite of the vast
extension of the territory Of the
United States, the language as spoken
in New York is less different from the
language spoken in San Francisco
than Y~orkshires language from the
language Of Cornwall or DeVOnS.
Naturally the ground for it is mainly
hat the migration of the population
from the Atlantic to the Pacific
Ocean was going on only after the in
production of the railroads. Another
cause for it lies, however, in the ma
ture of the English language itself;
it's great expreSSiveneSS, it's f1eXibility,
it's power quickly to adapt itself. It
is a language that steadily and logi-
ca1ly changes with the times,
Slowly broadens down FROM prece-
dent to precedent"
but is touched comparatively little by
the extension or diversity Of the pop
ulation over which it rules. Natu-
rally the vocabulary of the two coun-
tries is not the same, but in the gram
NAUTICAL construction with it's whole
machinery Of tense, mode and case,
investigation has not been able to
discover the slightest variation be-
tween the language Of the best au-
thors Of America and England.
Far more important still tina the
| word is the sense.,Is it possible to dis
49, 1,,sr S
literature from hat Of other Htera-
lures? It does not matter here
whether American literature is more
important or more unimpOrtant than
other li%teratures. It matters only
whether it is different from them. Do
the American authors, even where
they have much in common with for
eign authors, nevertheless represent
scientifically or unscientifically a spe-
cially prominent position? It was
striking if his were not the case, for
the Intentions with which the found
ers Of America came across the ocean
and the surroundings into which they
say themselves transplanted into the
new soil seems to forbode something
special, If not unique. And the Dues
ton now is how far this forbod1ng
has been fulfilled.
When we say American literature
is and was all the time a pioneer lit
e%rature, and it's creators in the best
sense of the word pioneers we al
ready touch Herewith it's leading
character. One discovers in almost
every chapter Of American literature
the self-consciousness of the pioneer.
Cooper stood at the natural border
and marked a coming and "a disap-
pearlng civilization. What Cooper
did for New York State that did Mark
Twain for the middle and Bret Harte
for the eXertme West. Joel Chandler
Harris did for the negro what Coop
er had lone for the Indian. AS Chin
~gachgook was the last Mohikan, 50
one may designate Uncle Remus as
the last Southern negro Of the olden
times. In the verse Of William Gull
len Bryant we see the border of the