SECTION V.SECTION V.
It is the practice at Washihgton to pay the Memhers ofCongress, not only a per diem allowance, but their travellingexpenses; at so much per twenty miles. Two Members of Congressfrom Missouri made charges widely different in amount. Complaintswere made that the Members were not confined to a mail route, andthat the country had to pay for any digressions thehonourable gentlemen might be in the humour to make. Upon this, aMember observed that, so far from wishing to confine thecongressional travellers to a mail route, he would, if possible,prescribe the condition that they should travel, both in comingand going, through every State of the Union. Any money thusexpended, would be, he considered, a cheap price to pay for theconquest of prejudices and dispersion of unfriendly feelings,which would be the consequence of the rambles he proposed.
The Members of Congress from the north like to revert to theday when there were only two universities, Harvard and Yale, towhich all the youth of the Union repaired for education. Thesouthern members love to boast of the increase of colleges, sothat every State will soon be educating its own youth. Thenorthern men miss the sweet sounds of acknowledgment which usedto meet their ears, as often as past days were referredto--the grateful mention of the New England retreats where theyears of preparation for active life were spent. The southern menare mortified at the supposition that everything intellectualmust come out of New England. When they boast that Virginia hasproduced almost all their Presidents, they are met by the boastthat New England has furnished almost all the school-masters,professors, and clergy of the country. While the north is stillfostering a reverence for the Union, the south loses noopportunity of enlarging lovingly on the virtue of passionateattachment to one's native state.
There is much nature and much reason in all this. It is truethat there is advantage in the youth of the whole country beingbrought together within college walls, at the age when warmfriendships are formed. They can hardly quarrel very desperatelyin Congress, after having striven, and loved, and learnedtogether, in their bright early days. The cadets at West Pointspoke warmly to me of this. They told me that when a youth iscoming from afar, the youths who have arrived from an oppositepoint of the compass prepare to look cold upon him and quiz him,and receive him frigidly enough; but the second Sunday seldomcomes round before they wonder at him and themselves, andacknowledge that he might almost have been born in their ownState. On the other hand, it is true that it would be anabsurdity and a hardship to the dwellers in the south and west tohave no means of educating their youth at home; but to be obligedto send them a thousand miles in pursuit of necessary learning.It is also true that medical colleges should abound; thatpeculiar diseases, incident to climate and locality, may bestudied on the spot. In this, as in many other cases, some goodmust be sacrificed for the attainment of a greater good.
The question is, need sectional prejudices increase under thenew arrangements? Are there no means of counteracting this greatevil, except the ancient methods? Is West Point the last spotwhereon common interests may rally, and whence state jealousiesmay be excluded?
I should be sorry if the answer were unfavourable; for thisSectional Prejudice, carried beyond the point of due politicalvigilance, is folly,--childish folly. Events prove it to be so.Deadly political enemies meet at Washington, and snarl anddeclaim at one another with mighty fierceness. They findthemselves, some sunny day, lying on the grass under the shade ofa tree, at the country-house of an acquaintance; they rise upcordial friends. They have actually discussed the question ofquestions, the American System and Nullification; and yet theyrise up cordial friends. Again; a Boston gentleman and his ladytravel for health through the south and west. They hear abuse oftheir State and city in abundance by the roadside; but theirhearts are touched by the hospitality and friendliness they meetunder every roof. Again; the planter carries his family to aRhode Island bathing place, for the hot season: and there hefinds some to whom he can open his heart about his domestictroubles, caused by slavery; he gains their sympathy, and carriesaway their esteem. The sectional hatred, if not an abstraction,is founded mainly on abstractions, and gives way at once when theparties are confronted. Does it not deserve to be called childishfolly ?
Yet "hatred" is not too strong a term for thissectional prejudice. Many a time in America have I been consciousof that pang and shudder which are felt only in the presence ofhatred. I question whether the enmity between the British and theAmericans, at the most exasperating crisis of the war, could everhave been more intense than some that I have seen flashing in theeyes, and heard from the lips, of Americans againstfellow-citizens in distant sections of their country. I havescarcely known whether to laugh or to mourn when I have heen toldthat the New England people are all pedlars or canting priests;that the people of the south are all heathens; and those of thewest all barbarians. Nay, I was even told in New York that theRhode Island people were all heathens, and the New Jersey folksno better. Some Baltimore ladies told me that the Philadelphialadies say that no Baltimore lady knows how to put on a bonnet:but that the Philadelphians have something worse the matter withthem than that; for that they do not know how to be hospitable tostrangers. Without stopping to settle which is the gravest ofthese heavy charges, I am anxious to bear my testimony againstthe correctness of either. I saw some pretty bonnets, mostbecomingly worn, at Baltimore; and I can speak confidently to thehospitality of Philadelphia.
Trifling as some instances appear of the manifestation of thispuerile spirit, it sormetimes, it alwavs, issues in results whichare no trifle;--always, because the spirit of jealousy is adeadly curse to him who is possessed by it, whether it be foundedon fact, or no. It cannot co-exist with a generous patriotism,one essential requisite of which is an enlarged faith infellow-citizens. All republicans are patriotic, more or lessfrequently and loftily. If every American will look into himselfat the moment he is glowing with patriotism, he will find hissectional prejudices melted away and gone, for the season. TheAmericans feel this in their travels abroad, when their countryis attacked. They yearn towards the remotest dwellers in theircountry as if they were the nearest and dearest. Would they couldalways feel thus at home, and in the absence of provocation!
The most mortifying instance that I witnessed of thissectional prejudice was at Cincinnati. It was the mostmortifying, on two accounts; because it did not give way beforeintercourse; and because its consequences are likely to be veryserious to the city, and, if it spreads, to the whole west. Onemay laugh at the untravelled citizen of the south who declaresthat he knows the New Englanders very well. "How should youknow the New Englanders?" "O, they drive about in ourparts sometimes:"--"they" meaning the Yankeepedlars with wooden clocks for sale. One may laugh at the simpleyouth on board a steam-boat on Lake Erie, who warned me not tobelieve anything the Huron people might tell me against theSandusky people, because he could tell me beforehand that it wasall false, and that the Sandusky people are far better than theHuron people. One may laugh at the contemptuous amazement of theBoston lady at my declaration that I liked Cincinnati; that wildwestern place, where she believed people did not sit down todinner like Christians. All mistakes of this kind, it is clear,might be rectified by a little travelling. But it is a seriousmatter to see the travelled gentlemen, the professional men ofsuch a place as Cincinnati, setting up their sectional prejudicesin one another's way.
Cincinnati is a glorious place. Few things can be conceivedfiner than the situation of this magnificent city, and the beautyby which she is surrounded. She is enthroned upon a highplatform, --one of the rich bottoms occurring on the Ohio, whichexpand the traveller's notions of what fertility is. Behind herare hills, opening and closing, receding and advancing; hereglowing with the richest green pasturage, and there crested andribbed by- beeches which seem transplanted from some giantland.Wherever we went among these hills, we found them roundingaway from us in some new form of beauty; in steep grassy slopes,with a running stream at the bottom; in shadowy precipices,bristling with trees; in quiet recesses, pierced by sunsetlights, shining in among the beechen stems, which spring,unencumbered by undergrowth, from the rich elastic turf. Thesehill-sides reminded me of the Castle of Indolence, of the quietpaths of Eden, of the shades that Una trod, of WindsorForest,--of all that my memory carried about undulatingwood-lands: but nothing would do; no description that I amacquainted with is rich enough to answer to what I saw on theOhio,--its slopes, and clumps, and groves. At the foot of thesehills runs the river, broad and full, busy with the commerce ofthe wide West. A dozen steam-boats lie abreast at the wharf, audmany more are constantly passing; some stealing along, unheard sofar off, under the opposite bank; others puffing and ploughingalong the middle of the stream. Fine, level turnpike-roads branchoff from the city among the hills, which open so as to allow afree circulation of air over the entire platform. Cincinnati isthe most healthy large city in the United States. The streets arewide; and the terraces afford fine situations for houses. Thefurnishing of the dwellings is as magnificent as the owners maychoose to make it; for commerce with the whole world is carriedon from their port. Their vineyards, their conservatories, theirfruit and flower gardens delight the eye in the gorgeous month ofJune. They have a native artist of great genius who has adornedthe walls of their houses with, perhaps, the best pictures I sawin the country. I saw their streets filled with their thousandsof free-school children. "These," said a lady to me,"are our populace." I thought it a populace worthy ofsuch a city. There is no need to speak of its long ranges offurnaces, of its shipping, of its incredible commerce in pork, ofits wealth and prospects. Suffice it that one of its mostrespected inhabitants tells that when he landed in Ohio, lessthan fifty yeals ago, it contained fewer than a hundred whites;and buffalo lodged in a cane brake where tbe city now stands;while the State at present contains upwards of a millionof inhabitants, the city between thirty and forty thousand; andCincinnati has four daily, and five or six weekly, newspapers,besides a variety of other periodicals.
The most remarkable circumstance, and the most favourable,with regard to the peopling of Cincinnati is, that its populationcontains contributions of almost every element that goes toconstitute society; and each in its utmost vigour. There are herefew of the arbitrary associations which exist among the membersof other societies. Young men come with their wives, in alldirections, from afar; with no parents, cousins, sects, orparties about them. Here is an assemblage from almost everynation under heaven,--a contribution from the resources of almostevery country; and all unburdened, and ready for naturalassociation and vigorous action. Like takes to like, andfriendships are formed from congeniality, and not from accidentor worldly design. Yet is there a tempering of prejudices, amutual enlightenment, from previous differences of education andhabits,--difference even of country and language. Great force isthus given to any principle carried out into action by the commonconvictions of differing persons; and life is deep and rapid inits course. Such is the theory of society in Cincinnati; and suchis, in some degree, its practice. But here it is that sectionalprejudice interferes, to set up arbitrary associations where, ofall places, they should be shunned.
The adventurers who barbarize society in new places, have gonewestward; and, of the full population that remains, aboveone-fifth are Germans. Their function seems to be, everywhere inthe United States, to develope the material resources of theinfant places in which they settle; and the intellectual ones ata more advanced stage. They are the farmers and market-gardenershere. There are many English, especially among the artizans. Isaw two handsome white houses, on the side of a hill above theriver, with rich ground lots, and extensive garden walls. Theseare the property of two English artizans, brothers, who emigrateda very few years ago. An Englishman, servant to a physician inCincinnati in 1818, turned pork-butcher; was worth 10,000 dollarswhen I was there, and is rapidly growing rich. There are many NewEnglanders among the clergy, lawyers, and merchants; and this isthe portion of society that will not freely mix with thewesterners. It is no wonder if the earliest settlers of theplace, westerners, are proud of it, and are careful to cherishits primitive emblems and customs. The New Englanders should nottake this as an affront to themselves. It is also natural enoughthat the New Englanders should think and speak alike, and be fondof acting together; and the westerners should not complain oftheir being clannish. I was at a delightful party at the house ofone of the oldest inhabitants, where a sprig of the distinctivebuck-eye was hung up in the hall, and a buck-eye bowl of lemonadestood on the table. This was peevishly commented upon by some ofeastern derivation: but I thought it would have been wiser toadopt the emblem than to find fault with it. Cincinnati has notgone to the eastern people: the eastern people have gone to her.If they have adopted her for their city, they may as well adopther emblems too, and make themselves westerners at heart, as wellas in presence. These discontents may appear trifling; but theyare not so while they impede the furtherance of great objects. Iwas told on the spot that they would be very transient; but Ifear it is not so. And yet they would be very transient if thespirited and choice inhabitants of that magnificent city couldsee their position as it is viewed by people at a distance. WhenI was one day expressing my admiration, and saying that it was aplace for people of ambition, worldly or philanthropic, to livein, one of its noblest citizens said, "Yes, we have a newcreation going on here; won't y ou come and dabble in themud?" If they will but remember that it is a new creationthat is going on, and not a fortuitous concourse of atoms; thatthe human will is, or may be, the presiding intelligence; thatcenturies hence, their posterity will either bless their memorieswith homage like that which is paid to the Pilgrim Fathers, orsuffer the retribution which follows the indulgence of humanpassions, all petty jealousies will surely subside, in theprospect which lies before every good man. In a place likeCincinnati, where every man may gratify his virtuous will, anddo, with his own hands, the deeds of a generation, feelingsshould be as grand as the occasion. If the merchants of Genoawere princes, the citizens of Cincinnati, as of every first cityof a new region, are princes and prophets at once. They canforesee the future, if they please; and shape it, if they will:and petty personal regards are unworthy of such a destiny. It ismelancholy to see how the crusading chiefs quarrelled forprecedence on the soil of the Holy Land: it would be more so tosee the leaders of this new enterprise desecrating their highermission by a like contention.
From Harriet Martineau, Society in America, VolumeI, Part I, Chapter III, Section V - "Sectional Prejudice." London: Saunders and Otley, 1837, pp. 181-193.
Forward to Society in America, Ch.III, Section VI, - "Citizenship of People of Colour."
Back to Society in America, ChapterIII, Section IV- "Allegiance to Law."
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