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    • would often have been adopted by the most humane of our statesmen as much as by the most heartless of the Romans ; and the oppression of the people , with or without our will , would have continued , as it did , until , by the miseries cf several generations , all that was native , and racy , and prominent in the character of the conquered people had been violently ground away . After they had lost m anliness , and bravery , and personal dignity , they would at last begin to thrive and fatten like tamed cattle . Such was the civilization which Rome bestowed , until the admiring emperor was able to point at the marks of prosperity and physical abundance .

    The problem of our empire is not yet solved ; nor will any great light be shed on the question , What ought we now to do ? by considering what the Romans did , or did not . This would be pedantic , even in a practical argument of politics ; and quite absurd to enter upon in a lecture to ladies . But , on the other hand , I think much light is shed on . the question , " What ought we to wish for ? by studying this history : and this is a very main point , and , I may add , one in which women are far from being uninfluential . Men devise how an end is to be brought about ; women in no small degree dictate to men to what ends they shall aspire . But I pass to the matter itself before us . No history was ever better adapted than that of Rome to show us the undesirableness of conquest to the people that conquers , and to rid us of that false

    patriotism which desires aggrandizement for our country at any price and in any cause . How unbridled ambition at last plunges itself into dangers that overpower it is exhibited by many thrilling tales of history ; but the story of Rome shows peculiarly the evil of success . She did not fall , like Athens , by failing in distant and splendid enterprises , but by allowing a general to form armies strong enough to subdue France . These same armies afterwards overpowered Italy , and made freedom for ever impossible . The cruelty of the early Caesars rooted out the Roman aristocracy : little remained of pure Roman blood in the plebeian multitude . For whom then had Rome conquered ? For a series of emperors and their German guard . A despotism was thus erected which destroyed genius and steadily cut away all the roots of national greatness , until the decay had gone so far that the irruptions of northern barbarians were

    irrepressible . We hear a great deal , and justly , about false religion ; but I think we need to hear a little more about false patriotism . I would on no account disparage military merit , where the cause is assumed to be a good one . But I cannot admit that it is the part of a good or wise man to wish success to his country , where he is convinced that the cause is bad , or to wish to her such successes as shall tempt her to insolence and injustice . For our country we must desire a real welfare , a true happiness , not a hollow and deceitful prosperity . But as to an individual nothing is more dangerous than to be left without controul , so to

    a state it is not good to be too powerful . There are many who think it patriotic to deprecate the growth of other countries , who grudge that the United States should be powerful on the Atlantic , or Russia in the extreme East , lest either interfere with the supremacy of England . I reply : oh , that British power had more restraint in Asia ! There is no permanence for a country which has no antagonism . The true patriot will desire that his country may not only be just , but be constrained to be ; for states are not mere virtuous than individuals , but less so ; and we cannot individually bear the permission to be rude and violent . We will then not wish for Roman aggrandizement ,

    Roman isolation , Roman decay and ruin ; but to be good as well as great , just as well as splendid , to be one powerful state among many sisters ; and , if so it may be , wish to aid others onward into like strength , being persuaded that in states , as in individuals , selfishness is folly , and prudence needs not to be selfish . Let us hope to approximate to a time when we shall not love Country less , but Mankind more , so that as Count ]/ interests are swallowed up in those of the Nation , so at length National interests may be absorbed and comprized in those of Man ,

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    SONG . Cold heart , I heed not thee ; Cold heart , judge thou not me ; Soon , soon , must I depart : Farewell , farewell , cold heart ! Farewell , farewell 1 As in the lonely vale Fadeth the windflower pale , Where bee nor butterfly Mourns when her blossoms die , In her sweet cell * So none will mourn for me , When from lone earth I nee ; So , too , must I depart : Farewell , farewell , cold heart ! Farewell , farewell ! M

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    teeth ( and appetite ) of a shark . Their knife and , fork exercise was a study , even in America . Yet it never interfered , in the leas * , with the exercise of his tongue . And such a tongue ! It reminds me yet or a cotton-mill . Not that Peter was anything of a bore . Far from it . He talked incessantly , to be sure , but he always talked to some purpose . His keen eye darted at once into the heart of a thing . He never swam long on the surface , but dived to the bottom at once , and staid there as long as he could hold his breath , and then came up , like a whale , to spout . Peter could not only talk , he could do . He could do anything . He was " Jack of all trades , " , despite the old saw , good at all . He could be carpenter , smith , tailor , sweep , painter , cook , architect , shoemaker , parson , at will . He was a good boxer , a first-rate swimmer , a crack whip , a famous conjuror , a noted mesmerist , and a—dead shot .

    Before Peter had been at " The American Eagle " an hour , he saw . that it needed a master . Before he had been there twenty-four hours he resolved to be that master . To this end , the morning after his arrival ( having first prepared himself for his work by a regular American breakfast of baked beans and pork ) he pulled the bell-rope to order up the — landlord . The rope ; broke , and Peter turned a somersault over his chair , which would have drawn cheers from . Widdicomb . He then commenced an entirely original air upon the pine floor , with the tongs and the poker . By this means he at last raised the maid , who , on receiving her orders , vanished like a shadow . In about an hour ( by the Eagle clock ) up came the landlord , like the ace of trumps , and began to grumble like the deuce . . _

    What had he done to be called up at that time in the morning . He had slept in that house for forty years , and never been disturbed in this way before . He wouldn ' t stand it . If people didn ' t like the " American Eagle , " they might go to the " British Lion , " , for aught he cared , to the " Mexican Ass . " • " There , old fellow , now you keep quiet , " said Peter , " while I talk to you like a father I Now , then , don ' t go to sleep , but button back your eyelids till I ' ve done with you . Just look here ! I want to drive a bargain with you . What 'II you take for the American Eagle f

    Now , be it known that no unburied Yankee is proof against the word bargain . It goes like an arrow to every American heart .- Not even the somnolent nature of our landlord could resist it ; for the moment the word was spoken his little elephant eyes began to twinkle , and his old brain to revolve as if he had experienced an electric shock . " What ' II you take for the American Eagle t " Though it was like asking the old fellow what he would take for his soul , or his wife , or his pipe , he addressed himself to the question with all his remaining faculty , and for about half an hour seemed to be wholly absorbed by it . During his meditations , Peter paced to and fro the room with , the-restlessness of a caged lion . _ _

    At last , the labouring pipe having quite exhausted itself , the landlord took the hint , and beckoning Peter to a chair , said to him that if he had any proposition to make concerning " The American Eagle , " he might " goa-head with it . " Peter obeyed the summons , and , in a few words , not difficult even for our host to understand , set forth that as the aforesaid " Eagle " was evidently going to the dogs , he , Peter Folger , from the enterprizing port of Damariscotta , was prepared to take it into his own keeping , and , in less than a twelvemonth , transform it into just the smartest bird that ever presented a bill . The landlord demurred in general terms to Peter ' s scheme ; insisted , in the face of all evidence , that the " Eagle" was in a high state of preservation ; and swore , by his very pipe , that it had been as good to him as a raven for the last

    PETER FOLGER . A YANKEE SKETCH . In the year 1840 I spent a few months in the pleasant island town of Sherburne , in the state of Massachusetts , making my home at a second-rate hotel called " The American Eagle . " The landlord was a quiet , good-natured , stupid sort of man , wholly given over to sleep and tobacco , and disposed to treat his house as if it were a huge Connecticut clock , to be wound up once a week , and then left to manage itself . At the time of my visit , however , the old clock was about to assume a new face , and there was to be a change of hands . For just at that time there happened to come to the " Eagle" as a guest a Yankee named Peter Folger . Peter was a tall , thin , broad-shouldered man , with long , hollow cheeks , high , precipice sort of forehead , large aggressive nose , fierce grey eyes , and the mouth ,

    forty years . Peter , asserting all such talk to be " gammon , " and appealing to the empty coffee-room , the broken bell rope , and even the sprawling chair , for proof , proceeded with a series of calculations and guesses , which so impressed the landlord with a sense of shrewdness and power , that he suddenly broke in upon his guest with the startling question : — " What 'II you give for the American Eagle t *' Now commenced the tug of war . Behold these two Yankees , disciples , both ,

    of " Tub Almighty Dollau , " as they stand , in the utmost attitude of trade , and seek each to get to the windward of the other . They shake their heads ; seize each other by the button ; snap their eyes ; whistle ; whittle ; make curious passes , like a brace of mesmerists ; draw in their breath ; discharge it again ; puff , pant , perspire j until , at last ( as was certain from the first ) the vanquished landlord sinks back into his chair a used-up man , and the conqueror , making a bow to the company * consisting of myself and the cat , announces himself to the surprise of us both , and to the evident dismay of the cat , " Govehnor-in-Chief op the American Eaolb . "

    The old landlord disappeared at once and for ever , and Peter assumed his place . Such a ringing of bells ( for bells now rung that never rung before ) , such a rattling of crockery , quarrelling of pots and kettles , flying of dust and feathers , hammering of nails , smashing of glass , barking of dogs , throttling of kittens , never was heard of . The old " Eagle" screamed with agony . The neighbouring streets wore crowded , from morning till night , for a week , with swarms of black and white vagabonds , who could be dispersed only by a free distribution of old washsta nds and bedposts , varied by periodical discharges of hot water and ashes . But out of all this chaos soon came perfect order ; and in a

    month from Peter ' s inauguration the now house was one of " the best m the country , " and Peter was the Prince of Publicans . All this happened ten years ago , and we have our eye on Peter yet . But he is no longer landlord of tho " American Ea » le" at Sherburne . . The same Yankee activity thut placed him in that position , has since then carried him , triumphantly through a scries of changes all leading upward ; and Peter is now a great man and a member of Congress . Wo shall , probably , soon see him as a , candidate for the Presidency ; nml if so , everybody else may as well make way for him , and come down , like David Crockett ' s ' coon j for Peter , asr we said before , is a dead shot .

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    Oct . 5 , 1850 . ] « & * & *****? Bm

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Oct. 5, 1850, page 669, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1855/page/21/