An American Vindication Of Americans.

he wishes to submit it to the criticism of competent American judges before publishing it in France . He has been so short a time in the United States , and has been compelled to depend so much on conversation for his knoAvledge of the present state of the country , that it Avas prudent for him

to submit his conclusions to the judgment of people who have had better opportunities with a view to revise what he has Avritten if it should appear that he has been misled into errors . If , after sending copies to the American press , he should find no dissent

from his conclusions , he would feel justified in publishing his book in France as an authentic exposition of American morals and culture in 1876 . We think the marquis has been unfortunate in his sources of information , and it is due alike to him and

the country that his implied request to have his mistakes rectified before reprinting his book in France should be candidly aoceeded to .

He portrays the people of this country as in a state of revolting degeneracy , representing us as having lost the virtues of our ancestors and destitute of the intellectual and sesthetic culture Avhich is the best fruit of civilization . " It is a people" he says ,

, " Avhose morality is that of a people in decadence . " "It is a people which produces things , but no longer produces men . " We have " no men of letters , no orators , no statesmen , no works of art , or at least very few , to attest the existence of a civilized

nation . This judgment would be too sweeping even if our culture were compared Avith that of contemporary Europe , but when the comparison is betAveen America m 1876 and America in 1776 we are perhaps more competent to judge than the most intelligent forei can be after the

gner hast y inquiries Avhich are possible during a brief sojourn in the United States . We are , too , painfully aware that it becomes us to be modest in comparing ourselves with Europe in the more refined "ranches of intellectual cultivation . But if the

comparison were between the United states and Russia , Spain , Italy , or any of 'he Scandinavian nations there Avould perhaps be no presumption in maintaining 'tat America has no reason to blush for her barbarism . England , France , and Germany are the only European countries Avith Avhich * comparison Avould not be absurd , for we

have outstripped every other nation in all the moral , social , intellectual , and lesthetic , as well as the material elements of civilization . Within the last half of the century Avhich has elapsed since our independence American literature has had many names Avhich command respect in the most enlightened countries of Europe . Our historians need not shrink from a comparison Avith those of other cultivated nations .

Prescott and Motley have treated European subjects with a breadth of original research and a pictorial grace Avhich have received admiring recognition from the most distinguished men of letters in Europe . The best history of the connexion of Spain Avith the New World is by an Americanthe

, best history of the reign of Philip II . is by an American , the best history of the Dutch Republic is by an American , the most learned and critical history , of Spanish literature is by an American , the best life of Columbus is by an American , and the labours of Bancroft in American

history have won for him the respect of Europe as well as of his OAVU country . Our American historians are as remarkable for elegance of style as for research and erudition , and have been made honorary mem * hers of the most learned societies of Europe , Our poets may not be greatbut

, Europe has produced no great poet AvitMn the last half-century . Our LongfelloAV is almost as popular and as widely read in England as in the United States , and Bryant , Whittier and LoAvell deserve to rank as high as most of the contemporary

poets of Europe . Within the last fetf years Ave have produced the best trans lation of Dante , the best translation of Homer , and the best translation of Goethe ' s " Faust" in the English language . Our Cooper has been translated into every

European tongue , our Hawthorne is as warmly admired in England as he is at home , and the inimitable graces of our Irving , Avhich suffer by translation , make him a favourite wherever the English language is read . American law books are

quoted as authorities in all the higher Courts of England , and if they have not been translated it is because the jurisprudence of Con tinental Europe is so different from that of the United States and

Great Britain . On that great branch of jurisprudence Avliich is common to all 2 A 2