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Character of the American People . 1 sing the mariner who first unfurFd Au eastern banner o ' er the western world , And taught mankind where future empires lay , In these fair confines of descending day \ COLUMBIA !) ,
Islington , Sir , Sept . 1 , 1826 . NORTH & SOUTH AMERICA are at length running together the glorious race of freedom . But I deeply regret that against the United States prejudices are still indulged by very many persons in this country . I hare not , however , seen
these prejudices more happily exposed than they are in a work entitled , t € A Year in Europe , comprising a Journal of Observations in England , Scotland , Ireland , France , Switzerland , the North of Italy and Holland , in 1818 and 1819 . By John Griscom
Professor of Chemistry and Natural Philosophy in the New York Institution , Member of the Literary and Philosophical Society of New York , &c . In 2 Volumes . Second Edition , published 1824 , at New York . " The author is an honest Quaker , who writes with good sense and simplicity . The
following extract , dictated by the purest patriotism , will , I am persuaded , prove acceptable to the readers of your Miscellany : t € Having taken a seat in the Defiance coach for Derby , I left London Feb . 15 , 1819 , in a mood but little disposed to join in the conversation of two inside passengers , one of whom I found wus from Manchester , and
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the other W ^ py i ^ ^ ftfr colloquial topm I M ^ m wt $ r m , till the fonner-Jaapj > £ i ^ ea , tp th ^ t | ityj that he had recently returned firprj * the United States . He had secju the principal towns on the sea-coast , and had ascended the Hudson river as far as Albany . On being asked by the other how he liked the country , he replied , that he was not at all
pleased . He was disgasted every where with the want ctf good manners ; for , in Ms whole route , he h ^ d not fallen in with a * single person , whom he could ^ cail a gentleman ! This reply appeared to startle lus
companion , and he asked him how this could possibly happen . * I know not how to account for it / said he , * unless there are no real gentlemep in the country * ' ' But / said the othqr ,
£ A * 11 * we see Americans ; occasionally in this country who do not appear to be deficient in the qualities of gfintleroen . ' * That may be ; but I believe none but the best of them ever visit
England . Information is at a very low ebji ) among ti } em . ' . * fiat do they not read ? ' * Yes , they may react , but they do not seem to profit much by it . The roads are miserably bad , and the coaches worse !* 4 Such was the flippant and unqualified invective in which this citizen
of Manchester , with a true Lancashire aspirate , chose to indulge against our national character and customs . My feelings were somewhat roused , but suppressing the excitement , I proceeded to question him farther respecting America , as one desirous of
information and having some intention of going there myself . I found that he had spent only two and a half months in the United States , nearly the whole of which time was devoted to his commercial concerns ,
and that he had been introduced into no society except that of dealers ! Our steam boats , he admitted , were worthy of praise , but he saw little or nothing else in the country deserving commendation . Of the honesty and fair dealing of the merchants he Lad no great opinioij . "To account for thte unreserved vituperation ia a maa who app eared to be at least civil and good nature ^ and without any particular antipathies against America , I am tfjuch M a loss . He hud probably beea disap-
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Ig Character of the American People *
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the sinful patipias either in the East or Wefcfe 3 * # oi $ ing to the oath of the aogel : and that the short period of a ventury will accomplish all the purposes of Divine Providence for the overthrow of all those powers which have been established in wickedness
aod blasphemy for so many ages , but in their place introducing and establishing , on everlasting foundations , all the blessings of pure Christianity and its glorious and eternal rewards , when the kingdoms of this world will become the kingdoms of Jehovah and of his Messiah , who shall reig § for ages of ages . PHILALETHES .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Sept. 2, 1826, page 518, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2552/page/10/
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