INTRODUCTIONINTRODUCTION
" To seize a character, even that of one man, in its life and secret mechanism, requires a philosopher, to defineate it with truth and impressiveness is work for a poet. How then shall one or two sleek clerical tutors, with here and there a tedium- stricken esquire, or speculative half pay captain, give us views on such a subject? How shall a man, to whom all characters of individual men are like scaled books, of which he sees only the title and the covers, decipher from his four wheeled vehicle, and depict to us, the character of a nation? He courageously depicts his own optical delusions; notes this to be incomprehensible, that other to be insignificant; much to be good, much to he bad, and most of all indifferent; and so, with a few flowing strokes, completes a picture, which, though it may not resemble any possible object, his countrymen are to take for a national portrait. Nor is the fraud so readily detected: for the character of a people has such a complexity of aspect, that even the honest observer knows not always, not perhaps after long inspection, what to determine regarding it. From his, only accidental, point of view, the figure stands before him like the tracings on veined marble,--a mass of mere random lines, and tints, and entangled strokes, out of which a lively fancy may shape almost any image. But the image he brings with him is always the readiest; this is tried; it answers as well as another; and a second voucher now testifies its correctness. Thus each, in confident tones, though it be with a secret misgiving, repeats his precursor; the hundred-times repeated comes in the end to be believed; the foreign nation is now once for all understood, decided on,, and registered accordingly; and dunce the thousandth writes of it like dunce the first."-- Edinburgh Review, No. xlvi, p 309.
This passage cannot but strike upon the heart of any travellerwho meditates giving to the world an account of the foreigncountry he has visited. lt is the mirror held up before his face;and he inevitably feels himself, for the moment, "dunce thethousandth." For my own part, I felt the truth contained inthis picture so strongly, before I was acquainted with thepassage itself, that I had again and again put away the idea ofsaying one word in print on the condition of society in theUnited States. Whenever I encountered half-a-dozenirreconcilable, but respectable opinions on a single point ofpolitical doctrine; whenever half-a-dozen fair-seeming versionsof a single fact were offered to me; whenever the glow ofpleasure at obtaining, by some trivial accident, a piece ofimportant knowledge passed into a throb of pain at the thought ofhow much must remain concealed where a casual glimpse disclosedso much; whenever I felt how I, with my pittance of knowledge andamidst my glimmerings of conviction, was at the mercy ofunmanageable circumstances, wafted now here and now there, by thecurrents of opinion, like one surveying a continent from aballoon, with only starlight above him,--I was tempted to declinethe task of generalising at all from what I saw and heard. In theintervals, however, I felt that this would be wrong. Men willnever arrive at a knowledge of each other, if those who have theopportunity of foreign observation refuse to relate what theythink they have learned; or even to lay before others thematerials from which they themselves hesitate to construct atheory, or draw large conclusions.
In seeking for methods by which I might communicate what Ihave observed in my travels, without offering any pretension toteach the English, or judge the Americans, two expedientsoccurred to me; both of which I have adopted. One is, to comparethe existing state of society in America with the principles onwhich it is professedly founded; thus testing Institutions,Morals, and Manners by an indisputable, instead of an arbitrarystandard, and securing to myself the same point of view with myreaders of both nations.
In working according to this method, my principal dangers aretwo. I am in danger of not fully apprehending the principles onwhich society in the United States is founded; and of erring inthe application to these of the facts which came under my notice.In the last respect, I am utterly hopeless of my own accuracy. Itis in the highest degree improbable that my scanty gleanings inthe wide field of American society should present a preciselyfair sample of the whole. I can only explain that I have sparedno pains to discover the truth, in both divisions of my task; andinvite correction, in all errors of fact. This I earnestly do;holding myself, of course, an equal judge with others on mattersof opinion.
My readers, on their part, will bear in mind that, in showingdiscrepancies between an actual condition and a pure and nobletheory of society, I am not finding fault with the Americans, asfor falling behind the English, or the French, or any othernation. I decline the office of censor altogether. I dare notundertake it. Nor will my readers, I trust, regard the subjectotherwise than as a compound of philosophy and fact. If we canall, for once, allay our personal feelings, dismiss our too greatregard to mutual opinion, and put praise and blame as nearly aspossible out of the question, more that is advantageous to us mayperhaps be learned than by any invidious comparisons and proudjudgments that were ever instituted and pronounced.
The other method by which I propose to lessen my ownresponsibility, is to enable my readers to judge for themselves,better than I can for them, what my testimony is worth. For thispurpose, I offer a brief account of my travels, with dates infull; and a report of the principal means I enjoyed of obtaininga knowledge of the country.
At the close of a long work which I completed in 1834, it wasthought desirable that I should travel for two years. Idetermined to go to the United States, chiefly because I felt astrong curiosity to witness the actual working of republicaninstitutions; and partly because the circumstance of the languagebeing the same as my own is very important to one who, likemyself, is too deaf to enjoy anything like an average opportunityof obtaining correct knowledge, where intercourse is carried onin a foreign language. I went with a mind, I believe, as nearlyas possible unprejudiced about America, with a strong dispositionto admire democratic institutions, but an entire ignorance howfar the people of the United States lived up to, or fell below,their own theory. I had read whatever I could lay hold of thathad been written about them; but was unable to satisfy myselfthat, after all, I understood anything whatever of theircondition. As to knowledge of them, my mind was nearly a blank:as to opinion of their state, I did not carry the germ of one.
I landed at New York on the 19th of September, 1834: paid ashort visit the next week to Paterson, in New Jersey, to see thecotton factories there, and the falls of the Passaic; and passedthrough New York again on my way to stay with some friends on thebanks of the Hudson, and at Stockbridge, Massachusetts. On the6th of October, I joined some companions at Albany, with whom Itravelled through the State of New York, seeing Trenton Falls,Auburn, and Buffalo, to the Falls of Niagara. Here I remainednearly a week; then, after spending a few days at Buffalo, Iembarked on Lake Erie, landing in the back of Pennsylvania, andtravelling down through Meadville to Pittsburgh, spending a fewdays at each place. Then, over the Alleghanies to Northumberland,on the fork of the Susquehanna, the abode of Priestley after hisexile, and his burial place. I arrived at Northumberland on the11th of October, and left it, after visiting some villages in theneighbourhood, on the 17th, for Philadelphia, where I remainednearly six weeks, having very extensive intercourses with itsvarious society. My stay at Baltimore was three weeks, and atWashington five. Congress was at that time in session, and Ienjoyed peculiar opportunities of witnessing the proceedings ofthe Supreme Court and both houses of Congress. I was acquaintedwith almost every eminent senator and representative, both on theadministration and opposition sides; and was on friendly andintimate terms with some of the judges of the Supreme Court. Ienjoyed the hospitality of the President, and of several of theheads of departments: and was, like everybody else, in societyfrom morning till night of everyday; as the custom is atWashington. One day was devoted to a visit to Mount Vernon, theabode and burial-place of Washington.
On the 18th of February I arrived at Montpelier, the seat ofMr. aud Mrs. Madison, with whom I spent two days, which werewholly occupied with rapid conversation; Mr. Madison's share ofwhich, various and beautiful to a remarkable degree, will neverbe forgotten by me. His clear reports of the principlesand history of the Constitution of the United States, his insightinto the condition, his speculations on the prospects of nations,his wise playfulness, his placid contemplation of presentaffairs, his abundant household anecdotes of Washingrton,Franklin, and Jefferson, were incalculably valuable andexceedingly delightful to me.
The intercourse which I had with Chief Justice Marshall was ofthe same character, though not nearly so copious. Nothing ineither delighted me more than their hearty admiration ofeach other, notwithstanding some wide differences in theirpolitical views. They are both gone; ard I now deeply feel what aprivilege it is to have known them.
From Mr. Madison's I proceeded to Charlottesville, and passedtwo days amidst the hospitalities of the Professors ofJefferson's University, and their families. I was astonished tolearn that this institution had never before been visited by aBritish traveller. I can only be sorry for British travellers whohave missed the pleasure. A few days more were given to Richmond,where the Virginia legislature was in session; and then ensued along wintry journey though North and South Carolina toCharleston, occupying from the 2nd to the 11th of March. Thehospitalities of Charleston are renowned; and I enjoyed them intheir perfection for a fortnight; and then a renewal of the samekind of pleasures at Columbia, South Carolina, for ten days. Itraversed the southern States, staying three days at Augusta,Georgia, and nearly a fortnight in and near Montgomery, Alabama;descending next the Alabama river to Mobile. After a short staythere, and a residence of ten days at New Orleans, I went up theMississippi and Ohio to the mouth of the Cumberland river, whichI ascended to Nashville, Tennessee. I visited the Mammoth Cave inKentucky, and spent three weeks at Lexington. I descended theOhio to Cincinnati; and after staying there ten days, ascendedthe river again, landing in Virginia, visiting the Hawk's Nest,Sulphur Springs, Natural Bridge, and Weyer's Cave, arriving atNew York again on the 14th of July, 1835. The autumn was spentamong the villages and smaller towns of Massachusetts, in a visitto Dr. Channing in Rhode Island, and in an excursion to themountains of New Hampshire and Vermont. The winter was passed inBoston, with the exception of a trip to Plymouth, for"Forefather's Day." In the Spring I spent seven weeksin New York; and a month in a farmhouse at Stockbridge,Massachusetts; making an excursion, meanwhile, to Saratoga andLake George. My last journey was with a party of friends, farinto the west, visiting Niagara again, proceeding by Lake Erie toDetroit, and across the territory of Michigan. We swept round thesouthern extremity of Lake Michigan to Chicago: went a long day'sjourney down into the prairies, back to Chicago, and by the LakesMichigan, Huron, and St. Clair to Detroit, visiting Mackinaw bythe way. We landed from Lake Erie at Cleveland, Ohio, on the 13thof July; and travelled through the interior of Ohio till wejoined the river at Beaver. We visited Rapp's Settlement atEconomy, on the Ohio, and returned to New York from Pittsburgh,by the canal route through Pennsylvania, and the railroad overthe Alleghanies. I sailed from New York for England on the 1st ofAugust, 1836, having then been absent just two years.
In the course of this tour, I visited almost every kind ofinstitution. The prisons of Auburn, Philadelphia, and Nashville:the insane and other hospitals of almost every considerableplace: the literary and scientific institutions; the factories ofthe north; the plantations of the south; the farms of the west. Ilived in houses which might be called palaces, in log-houses, andin a farm-house. I travelled much in wagons, as well as stages;also on horse back, and in some of the best and worst ofsteamboats. I saw weddings, and christenings; the gatherings ofthe richer at watering places, and of the humbler at countryfestivals. I was present at orations, at land sales, and in theslave market. I was in frequent attendance on the Supreme Courtand the Senate; and witnessed some of the proceedings of statelegislatures. Above all, I was received into the bosom of manyfamilies, not as a stranger, but as a daughter or a sister. I amqualified, if any one is, to testify to the virtues and the peaceof the homes of the United States; and let it not be thought abreach of confidence, if I should be found occasionally to havespoken of these out of the fulness of my heart.
It would be nearly impossible to relate whom I knew, during mytravels. Nearly every eminent man in politics, science andliterature, and almost every distinguished woman, would grace mylist. I have respected and beloved friends of each politicalparty; and of nearly every religious denomination; amongslave-holders, colonisationists, and abolitionists; amongfarmers, lawyers, merchants, professors, and clergy. I travelledamong several tribes of Indians; and spent months in the southernStates, with negroes ever at my heels.
Such were my means of information. With regard to my power ofmaking use of them, I have but a few words to say.
It has been frequently mentioned to me that my being a womanwas one disadvantage; and my being previously heard of, another.In this I do not agree.
I am sure, I have seen much more of domestic life tban couldpossibly have been exhibited to any gentleman travelling throughthe country. The nursery, the boudoir, the kitchen, are allexcellent schools in which to learn the morals and manners of apeople: and, as for public and professional affairs,--those mayalways gain full information upon such matters, who really feelan interest in them,--be they men or women. No people in theworld can be more frank, confiding and affectionate, or moreskilful and liberal in communicating information, than I haveever found the Americans to be. I never asked in vain; and Iseldom had to ask at all; so carefully were my inquiriesanticipated, and my aims so completely understood. I doubtwhether a single fact that I wished to learn, or any doctrinethat I desired to comprehend, was ever kept from me because I wasa woman.
As for the other objection, I can only state my belief, thatmy friends and I found personal acquaintance so much pleasanterthan any previous knowledge by hearsay, that we alwaysforgot that we had heard of each other before. It would bepreposterous to suppose that, received as I was into intimateconfidence, any false appearances could be kept up on account ofany preconceptions that could have been entertained of me.
I laboured under only one peculiar disadvantage, that I amaware of; but that one is incalculable. I mean my deafness. Thisdoes not endanger the accuracy of my information, I believe, asfar as it goes; because I carry a trumpet of remarkable fidelity;an instrument, moreover, which seems to exert some winning power,by which I gain more in tete-a-tetes than is given topeople who hear general conversation. Probably its charm consistsin the new feeling which it imparts of ease and privacy inconversing with a deaf person. However this may be, I can hardlyimagine fuller revelations to be made in household intercoursethan my trumpet brought to me. But I am aware that there is noestimating the loss, in a foreign country, from not hearing thecasual conversation of all kinds of people, in the streets,stages, hotels, &c. I am aware that the lights which are thusgathered up by the traveller for himself are often far morevaluable than the most elaborate accounts of things offered tohim with an express design. This was my peculiar disadvantage. Itcould not be helped; and it cannot be explained away. I mentionit, that the value of my testimony may be lowered according tothe supposed worth of this circumstance.
Much is often said about the delicacy to be observed, in theact of revealing the history of one's travels, towards the hostsand other friends of the traveller, who have reposed confidencein him. The rule seems to me a very plain one, which reconcilestruth, honour and utility. My rule is to speak of the public actsof public persons, precisely as if I had known them only in theirpublic character. This may be sometimes difficult, and sometimespainful, to the writer; but it leaves no just cause of complaintto any one else. Moreover, I hold it allowable and necessary tomake use of opinions and facts offered in fire-side confidence,as long as no clue is afforded by which they may be traced backto any particular fire-side. If any of my American friends shouldfind in this book traces of old conversations and incidents, letthem keep their own counsel, and be assured that the conversationand facts remain private between them and me. Thus far, all issafe; and further than this, no honourable person would wish togo.
This is not the place in which to speak of my obligations orof my friendships. Those who know best what I have in my heart tosay meet me here under a new relation. In these pages, we meet aswriter and readers. I would only entreat them to bear thisdistinction in mind, and not to measure my attachment tothemselves by anything this book may contain about their countryand their nation. The bond which unites us bears no relation toclime, birth-place, or institutions. In as far as our friendshipis faithful, we are fellow-citi zens of another and a bettercountry than theirs or mine.
From Harriet Martineau, Society in America, VolumeI, "Introduction." London: Saunders and Otley, 1837,pp. v-xix.
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