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THE AMERICAN AS HE IS 
 
BY THE SAME AUTHOR 
 
 The Meaning of Education — The Macmillan Co., 
 1898, xii + 230 pp., $1. 
 
 True and False Democracy — The Macmillan Co., 
 1907, xii + 111 pp., $1. 
 
 Philosophy — Columbia University Press, 1908, 
 27 pp., paper, 25p. 
 
THE AMERICAN AS HE IS 
 
 BY 
 
 NICHOLAS MURRAY BUTLER 
 
 PbesidBx^t of Columbia University 
 
 THE MACMIIXAN COMPANY 
 1908 
 
 All rights reserved 
 
\t)^^ 
 
 LIBRARY ofCONGfitSs! 
 
 Two Co;/:es Received 
 
 NOV 24 IS08 
 
 CLASS CV Wc. N,.| 
 
 COPTEIGHT, 190S, 
 
 Bt the macmillax compact. 
 
 Set up and electrotyped. Published November, 190S. 
 
 JforiDOOli lirrss 
 
 J. S. Cushini: Co. — Berwick & Smith Co. 
 
 Norwood, Mass., U.S.A. 
 
TO THE UNIVERSITY OF COPENHAGEN 
 
 WHOSE BENEFICENT ACTIVITY BEGAN 
 BEFORE AMERICA WAS DISCOVERED 
 
The chapters of this book were delivered as Preface 
 lectures before the University of Copenhagen in 
 September, 1908, in response to the invitation of 
 the Rector pnd Faculty of that University. 
 
 It is not easy to speak dispassionately of the 
 institutions and the civilization of one's own 
 country. The most ardent patriot sees many 
 things that he would improve ; the most detached 
 critic feels many things that are surpassingly 
 good. Only the historian of the future can hold 
 the balance even between the strong and the weak 
 aspects of a nation's life. My task was less am- 
 bitious and less difficult. It was to respond as 
 best I could to the invitation of a sister uni- 
 versity, rich in years and in service to scholar- 
 ship and to science, to set out some of the aspects 
 of American life and to draw, in large lines, a 
 picture of that part of present-day civilization 
 which the world knows as American, 
 [vii] 
 
Preface For a genuine understanding of the government 
 
 and of the intellectual and moral temper of the 
 people of the United States, one must know 
 thoroughly and well the writings and speeches of 
 three Americans, — Alexander Hamilton, Abra- 
 ham Lincoln, and Ralph Waldo Emerson. 
 
 Columbia University, 
 October 20, 1908. 
 
 Eviii] 
 
I Contents 
 
 PAGE 
 
 The American as a Political Type . . 1 
 Unity of the American type — Persistence 
 of the Anglo-Saxon impulse — Effect of inter- 
 state migration — Influence of voluntary organ- 
 izations of national scope — The newspaper 
 press — The political parties — The govern- 
 ment as a unifying force — Economic forces 
 and the national life — Conservatism of the 
 American people — The rule of the Constitu- 
 tion — The Presidency — The Judiciary as an 
 organ of government -^ A government of prin- 
 ciples, not men. 
 
 II 
 
 The American apart from his Government 33 
 The American in the domain of liberty — 
 His self-reliance — The opportunities of Ameri- 
 can life — Attitude toward money — The 
 American's emotional temperament — Religion 
 in American life — The Americans a Christian 
 people — Religious freedom — High standards 
 [ix] 
 
of business honor — The American in business ^^'^^ 
 
 — The large corporations — The West as 
 representative of the United States — The 
 American as a citizen of the world — Possible 
 dangers to American civilization — The warn- 
 ing of Washington — The law-abiding spirit 
 
 — The mob and the people. 
 
 Ill 
 
 The American and the Intellectual Life 65 
 The basis of culture in America — The 
 underlying Puritanism — The great Americans 
 
 — Art and architecture — Scientific activity — 
 Philosophy and the theoretical sciences — 
 Place of reflection in American life — Popu- 
 larity versus worth — Educational activity — 
 Higher education — The American college — 
 The American universities — The urban move- 
 ment in America — New York as the national 
 metropolis — The West — The South — The 
 Pacific slope — The English language in 
 America — American Uterature — The typical 
 American. 
 
 [^1 
 
THE AMERICAN AS A POLITICAL TYPE 
 
The truth is that the general genius of a govern- 
 ment is all that can be substantially relied upon for 
 permanent eflfects. Particular provisions, though not 
 altogether useless, have far less virtue and efficiency 
 than are commonly ascribed to them; and the want 
 of them will never be, with men of sound discernment, 
 a decisive objection to any plan which exhibits the 
 leading characters of a good goverimaent. — Alexan- 
 der Hamilton. 
 
THE AMERICAN AS A POLITICAL 
 TYPE 
 
 The most impressive fact in American life is The 
 the substantial unity of view in regard to the American 
 
 fundamental questions of government and of ^f /* ' 
 
 litzcdt 
 conduct among a population so large, distributed 
 
 -Type 
 over an area so wide, recruited from sources so 
 
 many and so diverse, living under conditions so 
 widely different. There is an American type 
 of mind, complex not simple, discernible under- 
 neath the many individual differences that vary- 
 ing conditions of life, education, occupation, and 
 climate have brought about. This unity amid 
 so much diversity is itself a very impressive fact, 
 and the causes that produced it are important 
 to know. 
 
 The first and chief cause is the extraordinary Persistence 
 persistence of the Anglo-Saxon impulse, which Anglo-Saxon 
 brought the United States of America into exist- ™P"i8e y^ 
 [3] 
 
The 
 
 American 
 as a Po- 
 litical 
 Type 
 
 ence. For the origin of that impulse one must 
 go back to the Teutonic quahties and character- 
 istics of the people so admirably described by 
 Tacitus in his Germania as propriam et sinceram 
 et tantum sui similem gentem. It was in northern 
 Europe, between the Vistula and the Rhine, two 
 thousand years ago, that the impulse which finally 
 made a areat nation on the North American con- 
 tinent took its origin. It grew in strength as it 
 was developed by conflict and by self-expression 
 in institutions, local and national. In England 
 it drew to itself elements from the Dane, the Nor- 
 man, and the Frank, and welded them all into one. 
 Throughout English history it struggled on, some- 
 times checked, but never conquered, until it 
 established parliamentary government, put limi- 
 tations upon the once absolute monarchy, worked 
 out a massive body of common law to regulate the 
 dealings of man with man, and laid the founda- 
 tions of an economic and industrial system in 
 which every opportunity was accorded to indi- 
 vidual initiative and in which individual excel- 
 lence was protected in the possession of its gains. 
 It distinguished liberty from license, and it grew 
 [4] 
 
'litical 
 Type 
 
 to have a profound regard for law and order and The 
 
 to prefer the rule of justice to that of might. American 
 
 In America it laid the foundations of a democ- ^* ^ " 
 racy which conformed to the fine definition of 
 Pasteur, " Democracy," said he, " is that order 
 in the state which permits each individual to 
 put forth his utmost effort." It is this original 
 Anglo-Saxon impulse which finds expression in 
 the early colonial life of America, and which 
 gives form alike to the Mayflower compact of 
 1620, to the Declaration of Rights of 1765, to 
 the Declaration of the Causes and Necessity of 
 Taking up Arms of 1775, to the Declaration of 
 Independence of 1776, to the Ordinance for the 
 Government of the Northwest Territory of 1787, 
 and finally to the Constitution of the United 
 States itself. This impulse persists to this day 
 and is the underlying and controlling fact in 
 American life. It has furnished the warp through 
 which the shuttle of time and of changing events 
 has carried the threads which are American 
 history. 
 
 Despite the large Irish, German, Slavic, Italian, 
 Scandinavian, and Jewish additions to the original 
 
The 
 
 American 
 as a Po- 
 litical 
 Type 
 
 American population, the Anglo-Saxon impulse 
 holds its own. In America it is repeating on a 
 larger scale the history of England, and it is 
 drawing to itself support and strength from the 
 other and varied nationalities that are there 
 joined to it. The English language overrules 
 the immigrant's native tongue, if not in the first 
 generation, certainly in the second, and the 
 English common law, with its statutory amend- 
 ments and additions, displaces the immigrant's 
 customs of life and trade with a rapidity that is 
 truly astonishing. 
 
 It would be hard to find under any single flag, 
 individuals more widely different than the urban 
 and urbane dweller on the Atlantic or Pacific 
 seaboard, the easy-going Southern planter, the 
 rude and rugged mountaineer of East Tennessee, 
 and the restless and often turbulent plainsman; 
 but common to them all is the English tongue 
 and the sense of justice, fair play, and personal 
 liberty which are at the bottom of the English 
 common law. This is the first and chief cause 
 of the unity which underlies the divergent 
 American types. 
 
 [61 
 
In addition to the persistence of this Anglo- The 
 
 Saxon impulse, certain binding and unifying American 
 
 forces have been at work in the United States ^^^ ^~ 
 
 . ^ p 1 • litical 
 
 for more than a century. One ot the most im- 
 
 lype 
 portant of these is the continuing interstate 
 
 migration, which still goes on and which has built 
 
 up the newer States and Territories on the lines Effect of 
 
 of the older ones. States like New York, Ohio, migration 
 
 Virginia, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, and 
 
 Tennessee have sent hundreds of thousands of 
 
 the most ambitious of their youth to build up, 
 
 first the Middle West, then the plains, and then 
 
 the Pacific slope; California, Texas, Kansas, 
 
 and Oklahoma are notable examples of great 
 
 Commonwealths built up in this way. For the 
 
 most part this interstate migration has taken place 
 
 along east and west lines. Massachusetts and 
 
 Vermont sent their pioneering elements to western 
 
 New York and northern Ohio, and these in turn 
 
 sent theirs to Illinois and Iowa, and then these 
 
 sent theirs still farther west, for the most part 
 
 along the same parallels of latitude. It is no 
 
 unusual thing in America to find a family of which 
 
 the grandparents live in New England or New 
 
 [7] 
 
The 
 
 American 
 as a Po- 
 litical 
 Type 
 
 Influence 
 of voluntary 
 organizations 
 
 York, the parents in the Middle West, and some 
 or all of the children in the Rocky Mountain 
 States or in Oklahoma or Texas. 
 
 By the census of 1900 it was shown that twenty- 
 one per cent of the total native-born element of 
 the population had emigrated from the State 
 or Territory in which they were born, and were 
 found living in other States and Territories. It 
 may be doubted whether any similar phenomenon 
 is to be found in any other country. In a nation 
 spread over so large an area as the United States 
 it is plain that the influence of this large inter- 
 state migration as a unifying force is very great. 
 
 Still another influence which binds together the 
 widely separated parts of the nation and assists 
 the development of a common consciousness 
 among the American people, is that exerted by the 
 large number of important voluntary organiza- 
 tions of various kinds that are national in scope 
 and aim. The periodical meetings of these 
 various voluntary organizations bring together 
 representative men from all parts of the country, 
 and through their exchange of ideas and personal 
 friendships they act upon public opinion in many 
 [8] 
 
ways, some of them hardly noticeable at the The 
 
 time, but all of which assist in building up a American 
 
 common national consciousness and a common ^^ ^ 
 
 national interest. These voluntary organiza- 
 
 Type 
 tions are very numerous. The more important 
 
 are those which are educational, religious, phil- 
 anthropic, or scientific in character, but the 
 influence of those whose purpose is merely social 
 or fraternal is also too significant to be over- 
 looked. 
 
 Skill in organization and aptitude for it are very 
 common among Americans. Their parliamentary 
 procedure is well developed and generally under- 
 stood by the people. Their voluntary organiza- 
 tions are conducted in accordance with the estab- 
 lished principles of parliamentary law, and 
 these organizations provide an excellent training 
 ground for many of those who afterwards rise to 
 important places in public life. 
 
 The Americans are great newspaper readers. The news- 
 Nowhere else are so many newspapers published ^^^^ 
 as in the United States. Of the sixty thousand 
 newspapers now published in the world, nearly 
 twenty thousand are published in the United 
 [9] 
 
The 
 
 American 
 as a Po- 
 litical 
 Type 
 
 States. More than sixteen thousand of these 
 are pubhshed once each week, and it is these 
 weekly newspapers that penetrate into the re- 
 motest hamlets, carrying a digest of the news of 
 the world furnished by the well-organized press 
 associations and newspaper syndicates. These 
 weekly newspapers do not as a rule give so much 
 space to news of a purely sensational nature or 
 to the chronicle of vice and crime as do the daily 
 newspapers of the large cities, whose numerous 
 editions are eagerly read by hundreds of thousands 
 of persons. With a few noteworthy exceptions, 
 the best and most creditable American newspapers 
 are to be found in cities of from fifty thousand 
 to two hundred and fifty thousand inhabitants. 
 Some of the larger cities are sadly lacking in 
 daily newspapers that are in all respects worthy. 
 As a rule, the American newspapers give a rela- 
 tively large amount of space to foreign news, 
 with the result that as a whole the American 
 people are much better informed about foreign 
 countries than the people of foreign countries 
 are about them. 
 
 The newspapers assist powerfully in building 
 [10] 
 
a common national consciousness, because they The 
 provide substantially the same food for reflection American 
 
 to all the people. Their editorial discussions of ^^ ^ ^~ 
 
 litical 
 
 current events are, m very many cases, written 
 
 lype 
 
 by men of education and fine feeling, and abound 
 
 in evidences of information and good judgment. 
 Unfortunately, there are to be found in some of 
 the large cities daily newspapers of a quite dif- 
 ferent type. Their purpose is to exploit the 
 people, either for gain or for the political advance- 
 ment of their owners or managers. In order to 
 exploit the people these newspapers must gain 
 their ear. They do this, first, by appealing to 
 the lower and baser feelings and instincts of their 
 readers, by furnishing news or alleged news 
 which either satisfies a prurient and unhealthy 
 curiosity or excites envy, hatred, and malice tow- 
 ard the conspicuous or the well-to-do; second, 
 by claiming to perform — and occasionally by act- 
 ually performing — a public service in connection 
 with a law or administrative measure which has 
 been proposed in the public interest, but which 
 meets with the opposition of some privileged 
 person or group. Having by these or similar 
 [11] 
 
The 
 
 American 
 as a Po- 
 litical 
 Type 
 
 The political 
 parties 
 
 methods built up a large constituency, the con- 
 ductors of these newspapers attempt to use their 
 readers to serve their own or the newspaper's 
 interest. Sometimes they are successful, but only 
 temporarily so. Such deception and such selfish 
 misuse of power cannot continue to be successful 
 indefinitely. 
 
 The critic of the American newspaper should 
 not judge it by its worst examples. They are 
 noisy, but not numerous. At its best, or even 
 in its average, state, the American newspaper is 
 conducted with sobriety and with a due sense of 
 responsibility as an institution powerful for good 
 or evil in a democratic community. It, too, is 
 a unifying force of the highest importance in the 
 nation. 
 
 The two great political parties, the Republican 
 and the Democratic, operate as a unifying force 
 of the first magnitude. Nowhere else, save 
 perhaps in Great Britain, is attachment to party 
 name and party symbol so strong as in the United 
 States. A party may wholly change its prin- 
 ciples and its point of view, as, for example, the 
 Democratic party has done since the candidacies 
 [12] 
 
of Tilden in 1876 and of Cleveland in 1884, The 
 1888, and 1892, — and yet the great mass of Demo- American 
 crats continue to follow, year after year, the old ^^ ^ ~ 
 
 lltZCdC 
 
 name and the old symbol despite the changed 
 leadership and the altered programme. This fact 
 indicates that in the United States party member- 
 ship and party loyalty are often more a matter 
 of sentiment and association than of political 
 conviction; and such indeed is the case. From 
 habit and difference of temperament two men 
 quite in accord on most political questions will 
 frequently vote for opposing candidates and 
 policies. 
 
 Perhaps one in ten of the voting population — 
 in some communities as many as one in five — 
 hold themselves wholly aloof from party organ- 
 ization and vote each year as their judgment at 
 the moment dictates. They constitute the so- 
 called independent vote, and as the power to 
 determine the result of a given election is often 
 in their hands, their support is more eagerly and 
 more anxiously sought by party managers than 
 these managers are always willing to admit. 
 
 Nevertheless, the party organizations are very 
 [13] 
 
litical 
 Type 
 
 The powerful, and of late years they have been gen- 
 
 American erally recognized by law in the enactments of 
 ^^ ^ ^^~ the various States in regard to the supervision 
 and control of elections and the steps preliminary 
 thereto. Members of a given party organiza- 
 tion are drawn closely together by interest and 
 sympathy, no matter how far apart their homes 
 may be. A prominent Democrat of Texas is 
 a welcome guest of his fellow-partisans in New 
 York or Massachusetts, and a distinguished 
 Republican from Maine is greeted as an old and 
 valued friend by the Republicans of Illinois or 
 California. 
 
 The great national conventions of the two 
 parties, which meet once in four years to nomi- 
 nate candidates for President and Vice-President 
 and to adopt a declaration of principles — or 
 platform, as it is called, — are the most charac- 
 teristic gatherings known to American politics. 
 They are wholly unknown to the Constitution 
 and the laws, and their existence and importance 
 illustrate very well the capacity of the American 
 to adapt himself and his institutions to changed 
 circumstances and conditions. By the terms of 
 [14] 
 
the Constitution, the President and Vice-Presi- The 
 dent were to be chosen, not by the voting masses American 
 at all, but by electors chosen by the voters of the "* " " 
 
 Lttl/CClt 
 
 several States. It was the theory of the Consti- _ 
 
 Type 
 tution that these electors wpuld deliberate and 
 
 select as President and Vice-President the per- 
 sons in their judgment best fitted for these high 
 offices. But after Andrew Jackson's time (1828- 
 1836), when the presidency first took on the com- 
 manding position that it has since occupied in 
 American politics, the voting masses, in order to 
 control the selection of the party candidates, 
 developed the system of national nominating 
 conventions, consisting of delegates chosen by 
 the voters belonging to a given party in the 
 several States. The choice of the party's nomi- 
 nating convention then became morally obliga- 
 tory upon the electors chosen by that party's 
 voters. In this way, the electors — the Electoral 
 College, as they are collectively known — lost 
 their constitutional functions entirely, and they 
 now register, in a purely perfunctory manner, 
 the will of the party to which they belong. It is 
 probable that before many years precisely the 
 [15] 
 
The 
 
 American 
 as a Po- 
 litical 
 Type 
 
 same process will be gone through with as to the 
 election of United States senators. Senators are 
 now chosen by the several State legislatures, as 
 the Constitution provides; but State conventions 
 of delegates chosen by the voting masses are 
 already assuming the right to dictate to the 
 legislature a party candidate for senator, and 
 before long the legislatures, or most of them, 
 when they elect senators, will doubtless act quite 
 as perfunctorily as the Electoral College does 
 now. 
 
 It is plain, therefore, that both as to the elec- 
 tion of President and Vice-President and as to 
 the election of senators, the people, operating 
 through the parties and through the party organ- 
 izations, have altered and are altering the pro- 
 visions of the Constitution, without formal 
 amendment, in a way that makes the choice of 
 these high officers respond as directly as possible 
 to the people's will. 
 
 Moreover, the parties and the party organiza- 
 tions have brought about a substantial uniform- 
 ity of the forms of political action in all parts of 
 the country. Even a specific legislative proposal, 
 [16] 
 
as a Po- 
 litical 
 Type 
 
 the principle of which is supported by a political The 
 party for the time dominant, is likely to appear American 
 in much the same form and language upon the 
 statute books of several States. Since the party 
 organizations are constantly at work, not only 
 at times of election, but at all times, it is obvious 
 that their part in developing a common national 
 consciousness is a highly important one. 
 
 The govcxument of the United States as estab- The govern- 
 lished by the Constitution, and the progressive unifying 
 development of the nation's political conscious- ^°^'^^ 
 ness that has taken place under it, have exerted 
 a steady pressure, for more than a hundred years, 
 toward the making and the strengthening of a 
 common national type and a common national 
 point of view. Every appropriation of money by 
 the Congress for a public building in a city or 
 town, for the improvement of a river or harbor 
 for purposes of navigation, for the extension of 
 the postal service to rural districts, for the irriga- 
 tion of arid lands in the West and Southwest, 
 or for the beneficent work of the Department of 
 Agriculture, leads the part immediately affected 
 or benefited to lean more heavily upon the whole. ' 
 [17] 
 
The 
 
 American 
 as a Po- 
 litical 
 Type 
 
 Circumstances have built in the United States a 
 nation far more soHd, far more unified, and far 
 more centraHzed than was thought to be possible 
 when the Constitution was framed. 
 
 The circumstances which have worked together 
 to this end have been in no small part political, 
 but they have also been in large part economic. 
 As Professor Burgess has so convincingly shown, ^ 
 the individual liberty of a citizen of the United 
 States is national in its origin, content, and sanc- 
 tion. One may think himself a Rhode Islander, 
 a Virginian, or a Calif ornian first, and an Ameri- 
 can afterwards, but if he analyzes carefully the 
 question of his civil liberty, its guarantees, and its 
 defender, he will soon find that he is primarily 
 a citizen of the United States and that the Con- 
 stitution of the United States is his ultimate pro- 
 tector. It is this political fact which gives to the 
 Constitution such supreme importance. If, like 
 the French constitution, the Constitution of the 
 United States merely created a government and 
 prescribed the functions of its several parts, it 
 
 * Burgess, Political Science and Constitutional Law 
 (1890), 1:184 et seq. 
 
 E18] 
 
would be a far less vital document than it really The 
 
 is. But in addition to creating a government American 
 
 and prescribing the functions of its several parts, ^^ ^ ^~ 
 
 litzcdl 
 the Constitution of the United States marks off ^ 
 
 lype 
 the field of civil liberty and guarantees the indi- 
 vidual citizen against an invasion of his rights 
 not only by another individual, but by the gov- 
 ernment itself. This is the one particular char- 
 acteristic in which the Constitution of the United 
 States is superior to any other. It is also the 
 particular characteristic which makes it difficult 
 for a European student or critic to understand. 
 Walter Bagehot, the English publicist, complained 
 that he could not find whereabouts in the gov- 
 ernment of the United States the sovereignty 
 was placed. He could not find sovereignty in 
 the American government simply because it is 
 not there. The President is not sovereign, the 
 Congress is not sovereign, the judiciary is not 
 sovereign, all three together are not sovereign; 
 their powers and duties are all marked out for 
 them by the Constitution. The forty-six States 
 which now compose the United States are none 
 of them sovereign; they are all subject to the 
 [19] 
 
The 
 
 American 
 as a Po- 
 litical 
 Type 
 
 Constitution of the United States, and to the laws 
 and treaties enacted and adopted in accordance 
 therewith. The sovereignty is not to be found 
 in the Constitution or under it, but behind it. 
 It is vested in the people of the United States, 
 who adopted the Constitution, acting through 
 conventions of the people in the several States, 
 and who may, if they choose, alter and amend 
 it in ways which they have provided in the Con- 
 stitution itself. 
 
 In other words, the government of the United 
 States represents and controls but a part of the 
 people's activities. Into the wide domain of 
 the individual's civil liberty it may not enter, and 
 that domain is a most important element of the 
 life of the United States to-day. This explains 
 why so much of the highest and best trained and 
 most representative talent and ability of America 
 are found outside of the government. The 
 leaders of the country's education, bar, journalism, 
 finance, commerce, and industry, not the govern- 
 ment officials of the moment, are the most im- 
 portant and the most influential factors in Ameri- 
 can life. Only occasionally, as in the case of 
 [20] 
 
Secretary Root or the late Governor Russell of The 
 Massachusetts, or a very few leading members American 
 
 of the Senate and the House of Representatives, ^^ * 
 
 IxtxcciL 
 do men of the highest intellectual and moral type 
 
 Type 
 enter the government service and remain in it. 
 
 There are many reasons for this regrettable fact, 
 
 but it is mentioned now only to emphasize the 
 
 point that in America the words " governmental " 
 
 and "public" are by no means interchangeable. 
 
 In America many undertakings, many policies, 
 
 many men, are in every true sense of the word 
 
 public, in that they represent the public and rest 
 
 upon its will, without having any direct relation 
 
 to the government at all. 
 
 Great, therefore, as is the unifying and uniting 
 influence of the government of the United States, 
 its policies and its activities, the unifying and 
 uniting forces and influences outside of the gov- 
 ernment are more numerous and more powerful 
 still. They are educational, social, and economic, 
 and they are ceaselessly and tirelessly at work. 
 
 The provision of the Constitution that gave Economic 
 to the Congress the power "to regulate commerce n^tionaMife * 
 with foreign nations and among the several 
 [21] 
 
The 
 
 American 
 as a Po- 
 litical 
 Type 
 
 States, and with the Indian tribes," has made it 
 possible for the whole vast economic and indus- 
 trial development of the nineteenth century to 
 work directly toward uniting and unifying the 
 American people. First water-power, then steam, 
 then electricity; first roads, then canals, then 
 railways; first individual manufacturers and 
 traders, then companies, then huge corporations, 
 have together brought about an industrial develop- 
 ment and prosperity such as the world has never 
 before seen. The statistics of agricultural pro- 
 duction, of manufactures, and of transportation 
 now reveal figures that are literally stupendous. 
 The interstate commerce has risen to huge pro- 
 portions. The tonnage passing the Sault Ste. 
 Marie, the Detroit River, or the harbor of Buffalo, 
 equals or exceeds that of ports like London, 
 Liverpool, or Hamburg. The application of 
 science to agriculture and mining steadily increases 
 the return from these natural resources of the 
 nation. Close study of the mechanical and 
 financial problems connected with transportation 
 steadily diminishes the cost and increases the 
 safety of carrying goods from one part of the 
 [22] 
 
country tb another. Wages have risen both ab- The 
 solutely and relatively. The operation of the Avierican 
 
 protective tariff, despite the just criticism that ^f ^ ^' 
 
 , ,. , . p • p litical 
 
 may be directed agamst some oi its teatures, 
 
 1 ype 
 has been on the whole very favorable to the up- 
 building and the diversification of industry, to 
 the raising of wages and increasing the steadiness 
 of employment, and to securing satisfactory 
 returns for capital embarked in new enterprises. 
 While the tariff will certainly undergo needed 
 revision in the near future, no considerable body 
 of opinion in either political party proposes seri- 
 ously to overthrow it, or to reverse a political 
 and economic policy that has now lasted for 
 nearly half a century. 
 
 The American people are essentially conserva- Conservatism 
 
 mi • p 1 i^ • • 1 ''^ ^^^ Ameri- 
 
 tive. T-he persistence of the Constitution sub- can people 
 
 stantially unchanged is proof of the nation's 
 
 conservatism. The Constitution persists because 
 
 its founders, with almost superhuman wisdom, 
 
 made it really a Constitution — a document of 
 
 underlying principles freed from attempts at their 
 
 detailed application — and not a cods cf laws ; 
 
 and because they made it conform to the settled 
 
 [23] 
 
The 
 
 American 
 as a Po- 
 litical 
 Type 
 
 The rule 
 of the Con- 
 stitution 
 
 habits of political thinking of the Anglo-Saxon 
 colonists, who were the original builders of the 
 nation. The moods and passions of a people, 
 whether European or American, must never be 
 permitted to overthrow the institutions which 
 represent the historical development and ex- 
 pression of their deepest convictions. So the 
 Constitution, interpreted by the judiciary, stands 
 as sentinel over the hard-won civil liberty of the 
 American branch of the Anglo-Saxon people 
 and those others who have joined them, and 
 prevents a passing wave of opinion, which com- 
 mands a temporary majority, from subverting 
 or damaging the foundations of the whole polit- 
 ical structure. 
 
 Sometimes the superficial observer or the im- 
 patient advocate of a new proposal complains 
 that the Constitution prevents genuinely popular 
 government because of the fact that the limita- 
 tions it imposes prevent his having his way. 
 Such an one does not understand what the Con- 
 stitution is or what popular government really 
 means in the case of a great civilized people with 
 civil liberty to protect and a part to play in the 
 [24] 
 
progress of the world's life. For America at The 
 
 least it is the Constitution that makes genuinely American 
 
 as a Po- 
 
 litical 
 Type 
 
 popular government possible, and that protects 
 the people from the rule of the changing, the fickle, 
 and the cruel mob. 
 
 It is an error to liken the position of the Presi- The Presi- 
 dent of the United States to that of a sovereign 
 in a constitutional monarchy. In a constitu- 
 tional monarchy, the king holds an office ; he is 
 a sovereign only in name. The king is generally, 
 in form at least, a part of the executive branch 
 of the government, the other part being exercised 
 by the prime minister or president of the council. 
 This part of the executive power is closely related 
 to, and often made by the constitution of the 
 country dependent upon, the legislature. In 
 the United States, conditions are quite different. 
 The President is an organ of government, and 
 he directly represents the sovereign people who 
 choose him. He is entirely independent of the 
 legislature, save through the process of impeach- 
 ment. His powers and duties are those which 
 the Constitution prescribes. He is not a kmg or 
 the successor of kings. He is the nation's chief 
 [25] 
 
The 
 
 American 
 as a Po- 
 litical 
 Type 
 
 executive, separated by the terms of the Consti- 
 tution from the nation's legislature, the Congress, 
 as well as from the nation's judiciary, the United 
 States Supreme Court and the inferior federal 
 tribunals. 
 
 Therefore, a controversy between the President 
 and the Congress is not parallel to a controversy 
 between an absolute monarch and the legislature 
 of his country, in which the representatives of 
 the people are all on one side. It is a controversy 
 between two of the people's representatives. 
 The history of American politics shows clearly 
 how thoroughly the people regard the President 
 as their direct representative. At first this was 
 not the case. More interest was taken in the 
 election of Congressmen than in the election of a 
 President. The controlling groups in the Con- 
 gress really chose the early Presidents. At the 
 election of 1820, when the slavery debates were 
 in their early stages and when the whole country 
 was enormously interested in them, only seven- 
 teen votes for President were cast in the city of 
 Richmond, Virginia, which at that time had a 
 population of more than twelve thousand. After 
 [26] 
 
Andrew Jackson's time (1828-1836), however, The 
 there came a change, and for many years past American 
 the popular interest has centred in the election ^^ ^ ' 
 
 lltXCCLt 
 
 of the President. Without the President's co- _, 
 
 iype 
 operation and without the President's initiative 
 
 no party can hope to carry its policies into effect, 
 even if it has a large majority in the Congress. 
 The power of the presidential office has steadily 
 increased, not in opposition to the will of the 
 people, but because of their will and their confi- 
 dence in the presidents of their choosing. 
 
 A word must be added in explanation of the The judiciary 
 independent and highly important position of the government 
 judiciary under t^ie Constitution. "The judicial 
 department," said John Marshall in the Vir- 
 ginia Convention of 1829, "comes home in its 
 effect to every man's fireside: it passes on his 
 property, his reputation, his life, his all. Is it 
 not to the last degree important that he (the 
 judge) should be rendered perfectly and com- 
 pletely independent, with nothing to control him 
 but God and his conscience ? " " 
 
 ^ Proceedings and Debates of the Virginia State Conveu' 
 lion of 1829-30, p. 616. 
 
 [27] 
 
as a Po- 
 litical 
 Type 
 
 The In England, and generally elsewhere, the judi- 
 
 American cial power is subordinate to the legislative, and 
 as Chief Justice Taney remarked, the English 
 courts must enforce an act of Parliament even 
 if they believe that act to conflict with Magna 
 Charta or the Petition of Rights. In the United 
 States this is not the case. The Congress has 
 only those powers that are delegated to it in the 
 Constitution. The Federal courts, on the other 
 hand, possess the full judicial power of the nation, 
 unlimited and untrammelled, which power the 
 Congress cannot invade or diminish. The Fed- 
 eral courts, therefore, have the right to determine 
 whether or not the Congress has exceeded its 
 powers in any given case. If they find that it 
 has done so, the act in question is at once void 
 and of no effect, because contrary to the Con- 
 stitution. So the courts, too, as well as the 
 President and the Congress, represent the people 
 of the United States. They are not merely a 
 part of the nation's administrative machinery, 
 but, like the President and the Congress, they are 
 an independent organ of government. 
 
 Most completely of all the organs of govern- 
 [28] 
 
ment the courts represent the settled habits of The 
 thinking of the American people. A President American 
 may be, and at times is, powerfully influenced ^^ ^ ' 
 by the passions and clamor of the moment. The 
 Federal courts are much less likely to be so 
 influenced. The Congress may be stampeded by 
 a popular outcry into passing some crude or 
 unjust act. The Federal courts are there, in 
 all their majesty, to decide whether the popular 
 outcry has ^ asked for and obtained something 
 which runs counter to the constitutional guaran- 
 tees of civil liberty and to the division of powers 
 between nation and States. If so, the popu- 
 lar clamor cannot have what it thinks it 
 wants. To override the . Constitution would be ' 
 revolution; orderly and rational change in its 
 provisions can only take place by revision or 
 amendment. 
 
 Here we come upon the one most marked A government 
 
 , , . • . , . , • • (. 1 A • of principles, 
 
 and distmguishmg characteristic oi the American ^^^ ^^^ 
 
 form of government. Every immediate demand 
 
 for political action is tested as to its validity by 
 
 the standard of the fundamental principles of 
 
 organized government to which the American 
 
 [29] 
 
The 
 
 American 
 as a Po- 
 litical 
 Type 
 
 people give allegiance, and which their Constitu- 
 tion embodies. The test is made not by the 
 President, however wise or however popular, or 
 by the Congress, however cautious and however 
 deliberate, but by the courts. It is made in 
 accordance with well-settled and familiar prin- 
 ciples of law and equity. It is this rule of law, 
 of principles, not of men, which dominates all 
 American political action. Every departure from 
 it, every outburst against it, every violation of it, 
 is not American; it is anti-American, abnormal 
 and pathologic. 
 
 By considering these facts and the operation of 
 the forces named, it can, perhaps, be understood 
 how it is that, despite differences of climate as 
 marked as those between Denmark and Greece, 
 despite separation by distance greater than that 
 between England and Siberia, despite variety 
 of race origin greater than that of all Europe, 
 the ninety millions of American people are at 
 bottom a single and recognizable political type. 
 On to one vigorous original tree many new and 
 strange branches have been grafted, but the parent 
 stem sustains and nourishes them all. Forces 
 [30] 
 
of every kind, political, economic, social, and edu- The 
 cational, have for more than a century enriched American 
 the soil in which the tree was planted and have "* ^ " 
 
 LXtXCCLt 
 
 helped it to its sturdy growth. 
 
 Type 
 
 [31] 
 
THE AMERICAN APART FROM HIS 
 GOVERNMENT 
 
The world has never had a good definition of the 
 word Hberty, and the American people, just now, are 
 much in want of one. We all declare for liberty; but 
 in using the same word we do not all mean the same 
 thing. We assume the word liberty may mean for 
 eiich man to do as he pleases with himself, and the 
 product of his labor; wliile with others the same word 
 may mean for some men to do as they please with 
 other men, and the product of other men's labor. 
 Here are two, not only difiFerenl but incompatible 
 things, called by the same name, liberty. And it fol- 
 lows that each of the things is, by the respective par- 
 ties, called by two different and incompatible names 
 — liberty and tyranny. — Abraham Lincoln. 
 
THE AMERICAN APART FROM HIS 
 GOVERNMENT 
 
 The Constitution of the United States, as has The 
 
 ah'eady been pointed out, not only erects a gov- American 
 
 ernment and prescribes the functions of its several ^V^^'' 
 
 parts, but it defines the sphere of the individual's _, 
 
 Gov em- 
 civil liberty and protects it. It is in this domain ^ , 
 
 of civil liberty that by far the larger part of the 
 
 American's life is carried on, and it is here that 
 
 his peculiar traits and qualities are most fully 
 
 and naturally manifested. 
 
 The average law-abiding American has but little The American 
 
 , 1 •.! ,1 , 1 (» p in the domain 
 
 to CIO witli tiie government, and sees but tew ot of liberty 
 
 its agents. Away from Washington or one of 
 the larger centres of population, he sees no gov- 
 ernment official save the postmaster. The na- 
 tional government lays no direct tax upon him, 
 and only in rare instances, and after attaining 
 a certain local prominence, is he summoned to 
 serve as juror in a United States court. Indeed, 
 [35] 
 
The 
 
 American 
 apart 
 from his 
 Govern- 
 ment 
 
 he sees but little more of the State government 
 and its officers. Occasionally the State legis- 
 lature enacts a law which directly affects him or 
 his business, but not often. In fact, the whole 
 system of government, national, State, and local, 
 is represented to the ordinary rural dweller by the 
 post office, and to his fellow in the city or town 
 by the policeman and the fire department. The 
 American has up to this time lived a life fairly 
 free from official surveillance and control. He 
 has been left to his own resources, and that very 
 fact has been the making of him. 
 
 The tendency, strongly marked in every Euro- 
 pean country, to extend to the individual the 
 increasingly paternal cai'e and oversight of the 
 government, is manifest in the United States as 
 well, but it is so repugnant to American traditions, 
 and so at war with the principles that have made 
 America what it is, that every proposal for its 
 advance is strongly resisted. So long as develop- 
 ments of this kind confine themselves to safe- 
 guarding the public health, to preventing manifest 
 injustice and fraud, and to limiting law-given 
 privilege, they can, however, readily be defended 
 [36] 
 
and justified ; for we have passed forever beyond The 
 
 the rule of laissez-faire. But when they attempt American 
 
 to regulate and curtail private business, to limit ^P^" 
 
 fvOTfh Il/ZS 
 
 personal fortunes for purely punitive purposes, ' 
 and to spy upon the private life of individuals, f 
 
 they are so obnoxious to the American instinct 
 that they will not be permitted by the people — 
 until their national character is wholly changed 
 — even if measures of such a kind could success- 
 fully pass the scrutiny of the courts. 
 
 The American is self-reliant by nature and by His self- 
 reliance 
 tradition. His forefathers braved the dangers 
 
 of the unknown seas and the risks of a strange 
 and unsettled land in order to try their fortunes 
 on the other side of the world. Even to-day 
 it is the Lithuanian, the Italian, or the Scandi- 
 navian of imagination and energy, and not the 
 opposite type, who leaves his old home, and makes 
 part of the tide of emigration to America. This 
 self-reliance and independence manifest them- 
 selves in many ways. They make forever im- 
 possible the establishment of any fixed and per- 
 manent social and economic classes in America. 
 Almost without exception the men who to-day 
 [37] 
 
The 
 
 American 
 apart 
 from his 
 Govern- 
 ment 
 
 occupy the most conspicuous positions in the 
 United States have worked their way up, by their 
 own abihty, from very humble beginnings. The 
 heads of the great universities were every one of 
 them not long ago humble and poorly compen- 
 sated teachers. The most distinguished judges 
 began life as struggling barristers with their own 
 way to make. Nineteen of the men who to-day 
 direct the great transportation systems of the 
 country, and who command very large salaries, 
 were, in every case, a short generation ago, wage- 
 earners of the humblest kind in the service of one 
 or another of the railway companies.^ This 
 unlimited opportunity to rise, and to rise young, 
 acts as a perpetual stimulus to the American 
 youth, and spurs him on to master some calling 
 or career. It is a spur to ambition and an incen- 
 tive to hard work. No observation of American 
 life is correct and no prediction in regard to its 
 future will be justified that proceeds upon the 
 assumption that there are in America ^xed and 
 stable economic classes. 
 
 ^ Harper's Weekly, New York, June 20, 1908, p. 12. 
 [38] 
 
This explains why teachers of the sociaHstic The 
 
 philosophy find so much difficulty in arousing a American 
 
 feeling of class consciousness among the wage- ^P^^'' 
 
 earners of the United States, for the wage-earners _, 
 
 Govern- 
 have no possible intention of remaining such if , 
 
 they can help it, and they look forward with cer- 
 tainty to having their children, well trained in The oppor- 
 the public schools, gain positions as independent American life 
 property owners or employers. They see ex- 
 amples of such changes all about them, and hope 
 equally to profit by the opportunities that Amer- 
 ican life affords. 
 
 Because the American has been so successful Attitude 
 in acquiring a fortune, because so many men have money 
 risen from the smallest possible beginnings to the 
 possession of great riches, and because the country 
 as a whole is so enormously wealthy, the American 
 is generally supposed by Europeans and by not 
 a few Americans who are but superficial observers 
 of their own people, to be given over to money- 
 getting, and to be enamoured of money for its own 
 sake. Nothing could be farther from the fact. 
 The American cares much less for money than the 
 Frenchman, less even than the Englishman or the 
 [39] 
 
The 
 
 American 
 apart 
 from his 
 Govern- 
 ment 
 
 German. His main ambition is successful self- 
 expression, the putting forth of all his powers in 
 order to gain a desired end, or to accomplish a 
 difficult purpose. The money that comes with 
 success of this kind the American takes gladly 
 as the outward and visible sign and measure of 
 what he has done. But the money itself he treats 
 as a toy, or — if of finer moral calibre — as a 
 trust, to be in some way administered for the public 
 good, after making provision for his own family. 
 This is the reason of the constant stream of bene- 
 factions, great and small, in the United States. 
 Universities, colleges, hospitals, asylums, libraries, 
 public undertakings and memorials of every kind 
 are founded and supported by private bene- 
 factions of this sort. 
 
 The ethical and political value of this state of 
 affairs is very great. The sense of responsi- 
 bility for the administration of great wealth, and 
 the sense of obligation in regard to it, are valuable 
 moral assets for any nation. The political and 
 economic system which opens the way to indi- 
 vidual self-expression and achievement of every 
 kind, which assures to each individual the un- 
 [40] 
 
Govern- 
 ment 
 
 disturbed possession of the fruits of his own The 
 efforts, and which develops in him a sense of American 
 obligation to the community for the proper use ^P^^ 
 and expenditure of his gains, is far preferable to ' 
 one which commits the political and economic 
 injustice of adjusting the rewards to needs and to 
 desires, instead of to achievements, in the hope 
 that thereby equality and happiness — a false 
 equality and an illusory happiness — will be 
 promoted. 
 
 Contrary, perhaps, to common belief, the The Ameri- 
 American has a highly emotional temperament, tionaitem- 
 His so-called practicality is in part tempered and P^rament 
 in part controlled by warmth of feeling and a 
 persistent idealism that are very remarkable. 
 It was not practicality but idealism that settled 
 the Atlantic seaboard. It was not practicality 
 but idealism that pushed out across the Alleghany 
 Mountains, bridging rivers, felling forests, plough- 
 ing prairies, building homes, and opening a new 
 world to settlement and to civilization. The 
 American will sacrifice any amount of money, 
 undergo any privation or suffering, put forth any 
 effort, for his beliefs. The Civil War proved that 
 [41] 
 
The 
 
 American 
 apart 
 from his 
 Govern- 
 ment 
 
 beyond peradventure. It is commonplace, too, 
 that he responds quickly and sympathetically 
 to a noble idea or a lofty sentiment. In the lit- 
 erature of his own language, he is touched and 
 moved by the best, both in poetry and in prose. 
 
 The American people show their best and finest 
 qualities in time of great national grief and sor- 
 row. During the long dreary Aveeks when Presi- 
 dent Garfield lay dying, and again when President 
 McKinley Mas shot, the emotional temper of the 
 people was so splendid as to be awe-inspiring. 
 On the other hand, the unreasoning outburst of 
 blind rage and hate which followed the blow- 
 ing up of the battleship Maine, in the harbor of 
 Havana, just before the outbreak of the Spanish- 
 American War, was something to be heartily 
 ashamed of. 
 
 Because of this strongly emotional temper 
 great waves of political interest and feeling sweep 
 over the body politic in a way that astounds and 
 disconcerts the observer who is used to more 
 intellectual processes. Examples of these waves 
 are the so-called granger and greenback move- 
 ments of the 70's, the Free-silver movement of 
 [42] 
 
the 80's and 90's, as well as the movements of The 
 
 to-day against the trusts, and in favor of the American 
 
 prohibition of the liquor traffic. The process in ^V^^ 
 
 ,11 • 11 11 JTom his 
 
 all these matters is one and the same. A real ' 
 
 Govern- 
 
 grievance or abuse, more or less severe, exists, , 
 
 and for it some person or party proposes a prompt 
 and plausible remedy. In their anxiety to bring 
 the grievance or abuse to an end, large numbers 
 of people grasp eagerly at the proffered remedy 
 and become ardent in its support. The current 
 of feeling runs on like a torrent, but gradually 
 the intellect asserts itself, and after careful dis- 
 cussion and examination, the proposed remedy 
 for the grievance or abuse is accepted in a modi- 
 fied form, or rejected entirely. In all these 
 experiences the dangerous moment comes when 
 ambitious demagogues, apt at inflammatory 
 speech, try to use the people's aroused feelings 
 as a means to gain position and power for them- 
 selves. This exploitation of the people is a danger 
 inherent in all democracies. There is no safe- 
 guard against it but the native good sense and the 
 firm hold on political principle of the people 
 themselves. 
 
 £43] 
 
The He would be but a poor observer of the Amer- 
 
 American jcan people who failed to take note of the strong 
 apart hold which religious belief has upon them. 
 
 fVOTYh ll/XS 
 
 ' Christianity in some one of its many forms is a 
 
 Govern- 
 
 . part of their nature. Undoubtedly the religious 
 
 observance of Sunday and church-going are not 
 
 The Americans so universal as they once were, particularly in 
 
 a Christian , . pi 
 
 people the more populous communities ; yet tor the most 
 
 part not to have some church connection is held 
 
 to be as lacking in respectability as not to have 
 
 a regular occupation. There are in the United 
 
 States one hundred and sixty thousand ministers 
 
 of religion, more than two hundred thousand 
 
 church buildings, and over thirty-two million 
 
 communicants. In small villages and in rural 
 
 districts, and to some extent elsewhere, the church 
 
 is the social as well as the religious centre. The 
 
 clergy in the rural districts almost uniformly 
 
 exercise a strong influence over their parishioners 
 
 in all matters. Religious groupings in the South, 
 
 and often in the West also, are the basis of social 
 
 classification. Certainly religious forms per^st 
 
 even if beliefs are weakened or altered. All 
 
 important political conventions are opened with 
 
 [44] 
 
prayer. The daily sessions of the Senate and The 
 
 House of Representatives and of many State American 
 
 legislatures are opened with prayer. Chaplains ^P^''* 
 
 are provided by law for the army and navy. ' 
 
 Govern- 
 This religious influence and this regard for the , 
 
 Christian religion go back to the very beginning 
 of American history. They may be found in the 
 commission given by Ferdinand and Isabella of 
 Spain to Columbus, in that issued by Queen 
 Elizabeth of England to Sir Walter Raleigh, in 
 the first charter of Virginia, in the Compact by 
 the Pilgrims on the Mayflower, in the Funda- 
 mental Orders of Connecticut, in the Charter of 
 Privileges granted by William Penn to the Prov- 
 ince of Pennsylvania, in the Declaration of Inde- 
 pendence, and in the constitutions of the several 
 States. The United States Supreme Court, 
 speaking by Mr. Justice Brewer, has declared 
 the religious character of the American people in 
 no uncertain terms. The Court said ^ : — 
 
 " If we pass beyond these matters to a view of 
 American life as expressed by its laws, its business, 
 its customs, and its society, we find everywhere 
 
 ^ Holy Trinity Church v. United States, 143 U. S. (1891). 
 [45] 
 
The 
 
 American 
 apart 
 from his 
 Govern- 
 ment 
 
 a clear recognition of the same truth. Among 
 other matters note the following: The form of 
 oath universally prevailing, concluding with an 
 appeal to the Almighty; the custom of opening 
 sessions of all deliberative bodies with prayer; 
 the prefatory words of all wills, 'In the name of 
 God, Amen'; the laws respecting the observance 
 of the Sabbath, with a general cessation of all 
 secular business, and the closing of courts, legis- 
 latures, and other similar public assemblies on 
 that day; the churches and church organizations 
 which abound in every city, town, and hamlet ; 
 the multitude of charitable organizations existing 
 everywhere under Christian auspices ; the gigan- 
 tic missionary associations, with general sup- 
 port, and aiming to establish Christian missions 
 in every quarter of the globe. These and many 
 other matters which might be noticed add a vol- 
 ume of unofficial declarations to the mass of or- 
 ganic utterances that this is a Christian nation." 
 There is of course no established church in the 
 United States, and no legal or official preference 
 of one form of religious belief to another. The 
 fact remains nevertheless, as the Supreme Court 
 [46] 
 
has said, that the United States is a Christian The 
 nation. After taking into consideration the ab- American 
 solute rehgious tolerance that prevails, it is still ^P^" 
 
 JYOTtt this 
 
 true that the religion of the Jew, the Mahometan, ' 
 
 Govern- 
 or the Confucian does not have and cannot have . 
 
 the same place and injfluence in American life as 
 the re\igion of the Christian. The United States 
 is both in law and in fact a Christian nation, and 
 it would be so even if a majority of its inhabitants 
 were not — as they are — adherents of some 
 form of the Christian faith. It is so, despite the 
 fact that a very large number of its inhabitants 
 profess no form of the Christian faith whatsoever. 
 To say that the United States is in law and in 
 fact a Christian nation means that the whole 
 point of view of the people, as well as their in- 
 stitutions and traditions, are those which have 
 been developed under the dominance of the Chris- 
 tian faith, first in Western Europe and then in 
 America, and because of that dominance. The 
 legal calendar is the Christian calendar, and it is 
 inconceivable that there should be any other. 
 
 On the other hand, the United States is a country Religious 
 in which there is complete separation between 
 [47] 
 
The 
 
 American 
 apa rt 
 from his 
 Govern- 
 ment 
 
 church and state, and which is happily catholic 
 in spirit, and hospitable to citizens of every race 
 and every creed. Therefore, care is always 
 taken to observe the constitutional guarantee that 
 the free exercise of religion shall not be prohibited, 
 and the adherents of any given creed, however 
 divergent from Christianity, are allowed to live 
 in accordance with their traditions and con- 
 victions, provided only that in so doing they do 
 not come in conflict with the laws of the land. 
 It is because of this policy that Mormons are 
 permitted to live in the United States, while their 
 practice of polygamy is now prohibited. 
 
 That this attitude of the people of the United 
 States is not inimical to the interests of religious 
 bodies is proved both by the fact that these bod- 
 ies are wholly satisfied with it, and that they thrive 
 under it. The many vexatious problems that un- 
 der modern conditions confront an established 
 church are wholly avoided, and the churches each 
 and all grow and flourish. Perhaps nowhere in 
 the world is the Roman Catholic church so fortu- 
 nately situated as in the United States; that it is 
 able to stand without state support, its more than 
 [48] 
 
ten million communicants in the United States The 
 amply prove. American 
 
 The standards of business honor, as well as "?"" 
 
 1 PI- m • 1 • 1 • .1 from hiii 
 
 those ot busmess etnciency, are very high m tlie ' 
 
 Govcrn- 
 United States. The credit system is widely , 
 
 extended, and it rarely results in serious loss. 
 The people have invested their savings very largely High stand- 
 in the stocks and bonds of railways and industrial j^^^g ^^^^^ 
 corporations, in most cases to their profit and 
 great advantage. The financial, operating, and 
 manufacturing managers of these corporations 
 are almost without exception men of unusual 
 ability, great technical knowledge and skill, 
 and scrupulous honesty. Such huge under- 
 takings as the United Sjtates Steel Corporation, 
 the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, and the 
 Chicago and Northwestern Railway Company 
 are models of good management and fair dealing. 
 Their size and the character of their business 
 makes them really public, not private, organiza- 
 tions. Yet, of course, they are in no sense gov- 
 ernmental. 
 
 In a period of rapidly expanding business activ- 
 ity and great accumulation of wealth, such as have 
 [49] 
 
apart 
 from his 
 Govern- 
 ment 
 
 The marked the history of the United States since 
 
 American the Civil War, some adventurers, speculators, 
 and exploiters have found themselves in promi- 
 nent places of trust and responsibility. Some 
 such — not many, in reality a very few — have 
 misused their opportunities and betra3'8d their 
 trust. This fact has been carried all over the 
 world, and the wholly unjustifiable inference has 
 been drawn that in America business honor and 
 business honesty are at a low ebb. The contrary 
 is the case. New York, which now rivals London 
 in financial importance, administers hundreds 
 of millions of trust funds and deposits with scru- 
 pulous honesty and fairness. The heads and 
 directors of the leading banks, trust companies, 
 and commercial houses of New York are among 
 the best known and most honored of / merican 
 citizens. They hold fast with jealous care to the 
 high traditions of honor and conservatism which 
 have lasted for more than a century. 
 
 Similar conditions exist in other parts of the 
 
 country. The local banker in a village or small 
 
 town in the interior is almost certainly a man 
 
 of high repute and public spirit. He is proud of 
 
 [50] 
 
his community and solicitous for its welfare and The 
 growth. The same is true of the mercantile American 
 classes. Of the whole vast business of the United ^P*^" 
 
 iTOTYt h/t 9 
 
 States it is estimated that only five per cent, one- ' 
 
 Govern- 
 twentieth part, is settled for with cash payments. , 
 
 The remaining nineteen-twentieths is settled for 
 by banic checks or other instruments of credit. 
 This would not be possible in a country whose 
 banking and commercial class were tricky and 
 dishonest. 
 
 Despite his material success, the American has The American 
 still much to learn about the conduct of business, 
 particularly with foreign nations. He is apt to 
 confuse attention to business with physical pres- 
 ence at his office or factory. He has yet to learn 
 that twelve months' work may be done in ten 
 months or even in eleven, but that it cannot pos- 
 sibly be done in twelve. Relaxation, outdoor 
 life, physical exercise, and change of scene refresh 
 and invigorate both mind and body, and thereby 
 contribute to business efiiciency. This lesson is 
 being learned by Americans, but slowly. Nor 
 have American business men mastered to any 
 large extent the secret of carrying on a successful 
 [51] 
 
The 
 
 American 
 apart 
 from his 
 Govern- 
 ment 
 
 The large 
 corporations 
 
 foreign trade. To make what the buyer wants, 
 not what the manufacturer prefers or thinks the 
 buyer ought to have, must become the controlling 
 principle. Buyers in other countries have their 
 own strong preferences as to style, marks, and 
 forms of packing. The American trader often 
 neglects these details, and fails thereby to compete 
 successfully with his English or his German trade 
 rival. But he is learning rapidly, as the mount- 
 ing value of the manufactured goods exported 
 from the United States plainly indicates. 
 
 The organization of the large corporations, 
 popularly but quite improperly known as trusts, 
 has given a strong impetus to business efficiency 
 in America. They have greatly reduced waste 
 in production, and they have increased productive- 
 ness while generally reducing the price of the 
 commodities in which they deal. They have 
 opened new and much more lucrative avenues of 
 employment to men of capacity and zeal. They 
 have excited the animosity of the small because 
 they are big, and they have incurred widespread 
 public hostility because their managers have 
 sometimes interfered in matters of legislation, or 
 [52] 
 
have tried to secure special and unfair advantages The 
 
 from the common carriers. These abuses, how- American 
 
 ever, are now correcting themselves, or are being "P^' 
 
 corrected, and public sentiment in regard to the v, 
 
 Govern- 
 large corporations may reasonably be expected , 
 
 to change. The large corporations are both a 
 legitimate and a necessary outgrowth of modern 
 economic conditions as these exist in the United 
 States, and the balance of advantage and dis- 
 advantage is largely in their favor, provided only 
 that they be restrained from using their great 
 strength inequitably or from damaging some other 
 and more important public interest. A corpora- 
 tion is cooperative, and cooperation is the best 
 use an individual can make of his individuality. 
 
 Some years ago a distinguished Englishman The West 
 visited the United States, and spent the first three ^^^j^g ^^ ^he 
 weeks of his stay in Boston and then three weeks United states 
 in New York. Shortly before sailing for home 
 he expressed his intention of writing a book about 
 the country whose hospitality he had so much 
 enjoyed, and was greatly surprised when an 
 American friend remarked : " You cannot pos- 
 sibly write a book about the United States; you 
 [53] 
 
The 
 
 American 
 apart 
 from his 
 Govern- 
 ment 
 
 have not been to the United States at all; you 
 have only visited New York and Boston." 
 Though spoken in jest, these words convey a 
 truth that is almost always overlooked. While 
 New York and Boston are, of course, genuinely 
 American, yet they are so near to Europe, and 
 their relations with Europe are so many and so 
 close, that a visit to them does not suffice to give 
 to the visitor either an accurate or a complete 
 impression of American life and of the American 
 habit of mind. The American type is seen at its 
 purest and best in any one of the hundred or more 
 small cities and towns in the Middle West. If 
 one were to select a restricted area in which to 
 study American life and American characteris- 
 tics, he would do best to choose northern Illinois 
 and the adjacent parts of Iowa, Wisconsin, and 
 Minnesota. Here the soil is rich, the settlements 
 are old enough to have an aspect of comfort and 
 order, the population is well-to-do, there is little 
 or no extreme poverty, the public schools are of 
 the best, churches abound and are strong in 
 influence, and the average of intelligence and of 
 intellectual interest is very high. Here Europe 
 [543 
 
is perfectly familiar, but not quite so adjacent as The 
 
 in New York or Boston. The population read American 
 
 the best books, and take in the best magazines, ^V^^ 
 
 reviews, and weekly journals. The boys and \^ 
 
 Govern- 
 girls are sent to college almost as a matter of , 
 
 course, usually in the tax-supported State uni- 
 versities. There is little vice and less crime, 
 and both the manners and morals of the people 
 are excellent. In Indiana, Missouri, Kansas, 
 Nebraska, Colorado, California, and elsewhere, 
 similar conditions abound, but the particular 
 part of the country that has been named may 
 justly be taken as truly American in a repre- 
 sentative sense. 
 
 The traveller through the United States who is The Americau 
 so fortunate as to meet with really representative of the world 
 men in their homes and clubs, who is not restricted 
 merely to seeing the country and the people in 
 hotels and through the windows of a railway car, 
 cannot fail to be impressed by their general mental 
 alertness, by their wide and accurate information 
 as to men and things in other countries, by their 
 knowledge of literature and scientific progress, 
 and by their fairness and openness of mind. The 
 [55] 
 
The 
 
 American 
 apart 
 from his 
 Govern- 
 ment 
 
 old-time American habit of decrying all languages, 
 all countries, and all culture not its own, is wear- 
 ing away. That habit marked a provincial self- 
 assertive state of mind which not unnaturally 
 succeeded one of colonial subordination and 
 dependence. This growth from colonial subordi- 
 nation to a provincial self-assertiveness was as- 
 sisted by what Lowell calls a certain habit of 
 condescension in foreigners. 
 
 While the spread of intelligence results in quite 
 too hasty judgment of men and events, yet that 
 same spread of intelligence provides the means 
 for correcting such hasty judgments. Travel 
 broadens the American's view of life and helps 
 him to the material for a comparative study of 
 his social and political problems. Of late the 
 references in the Congressional debates to the 
 experience of other nations in matters of finance 
 and corporate control and in regard to the rela- 
 tions between capital and labor, have increased 
 greatly both in number and in understanding. 
 The American of to-day feels himself decidedly 
 a citizen of the world, and not, as w^as once the 
 case, a citizen of a world apart. He is now sen- 
 [56] 
 
sitive to foreign criticism and appreciative of The 
 foreign approval and commendation. This is American 
 a rather recent development, and one which ^V^^^ 
 
 marks a distinct step forward in civilization. To ' 
 
 Govern- 
 
 stand in isolation is to cut one's self off from the 
 
 ment 
 
 privilege of serving or of being served. 
 
 The dangers which America may yet encounter Possible 
 will not be those which the older peoples fear, ^^f^jcan^* 
 Economic pressure from without could have no civilization 
 serious effects; the nation's consuming power 
 is too great and its natural resources too varied 
 and too extensive. An offensive war against the 
 United States is almost unthinkable : first, because 
 it would certainly be futile, and, secondly, because 
 we are rapidly reaching a plane of civilization 
 where self-respecting nations will not go to war 
 with each other. 
 
 The dangers which confront America are quite 
 different, and will come, if at all, from within. 
 The original and persistent Anglo-Saxon impulse, 
 now nearly two thousand years old, may conceiv- 
 ably lose its force. Its capacity to subdue and 
 to assimilate the alien elements brought to it 
 by immigration may possibly be exhausted. A 
 [57] 
 
The 
 
 American 
 apart 
 from his 
 Govern- 
 ment 
 
 The warning 
 of Washing- 
 ton 
 
 generation forgetful of the fundamental prin- 
 ciples upon which the nation was built, may in 
 a fit of passion or of temper follow a popular but 
 shallow leader over a political precipice. The 
 reverence and regard for law which alone make 
 a civilized state and free institutions possible may 
 yield to passionate violence and to lawless ven- 
 geance, in forgetfulness of Lincoln's fine maxim, 
 "There is no grievance that is a fit object of 
 redress by mob laAv." No one of these <^angers 
 is imminent, but it would be simple blindness 
 not to realize that they are possible. 
 
 One of the wisest and most illuminating docu- 
 ments of American history is the farewell address 
 which Washington addressed to his countrymen 
 in 1796, when about to retire from the Presidency. 
 It is the fortunate custom in the United States 
 Senate to cause the farewell address to be read 
 aloud by a senator on each recurring anniversary 
 of Washington's birthday. That address, which 
 mingles the wisdom of Washington with the pro- 
 found insight of Hamilton, points out to Ameri- 
 cans where their path of safety as a nation lies. 
 With especial emphasis, W^ashington counsels 
 [58] 
 
the spirit of obedience to law because it is the law. The 
 
 and not merely if and because a law meets the Avierican 
 
 approval of the individual upon whom the duty ^P^" 
 
 of obedience rests. He points to a spirit of law- 
 
 ■ . . Govern- 
 
 lessness as a means of substituting the will of a 
 
 ° ment 
 
 party or faction for the delegated will of the 
 nation ; and that party or faction often only a 
 small but artful and enterprising minority of the 
 community. This is an ever-present danger in 
 the United States. Small groups exert themselves 
 vigorously to obtain certain acts of legislation, 
 acts sometimes desirable in the public interest, 
 but more often in aid or protection of a selfish or 
 a special interest. Perhaps they succeed in their 
 eflFort, and so impose upon the community a policy 
 which it does not want or approve, but which a 
 majority of its representatives had not the wit or 
 the skill to defeat. This law and a hundred like 
 it fall into disuse or are openly violated, and so 
 operate to spread abroad a disregard or contempt 
 for the law as such. The large number of legis- 
 lative bodies in the United States, the passion of 
 many of the people for legislating in regard to all 
 sorts and kinds of things that legislation had better 
 [59] 
 
The 
 
 American 
 apart 
 from his 
 Govern- 
 ment 
 
 The law-abid- 
 ing spirit 
 
 leave alone, and the ease with which much legis- 
 lation of a certain kind is accomplished, are all 
 causes cooperating to weaken respect for law 
 and the law-abiding spirit. 
 
 It is proper to say that outbursts of lawlessness 
 and disorder, while still numerous and shocking, 
 are increasingly infrequent. Anything like the 
 Draft Riots of 1863 in the city of New York would 
 now be impossible. President Cleveland's vig- 
 orous and patriotic handling of the outbreak at 
 Chicago in 1894, over the heads of the local and 
 State officials who were in sympathy with the 
 disorderly classes, was a memorable act and one 
 which makes any repetition of that offence most 
 unlikely. Lynching still continues alike in the 
 South — where the problem is complicated by 
 strong race antagonism — and in some parts of 
 the North ; but public sentiment and public offi- 
 cials are much more vigorous in preventing and 
 in punishing such crimes than they once were. 
 
 To obey the law because it is the law and to 
 
 labor for its alteration or repeal in an orderly 
 
 way if any given law is repugnant to one's sense 
 
 of justice, is the first and chief lesson for the 
 
 [60] 
 
Govern- 
 ment 
 
 American parent and the American school to The 
 teach the children of to-day who are to be the American 
 responsible American citizens of to-morrow. No ^P^^^ 
 one ever stated the dangers of a spread of the ' 
 spirit of lawlessness better than Lincoln himself. 
 " I know the American people are much attached 
 to their government," he said. "I know they 
 would suffer much for its sake; I know they 
 would endure evils long and patiently before 
 they would ever think of exchanging it for an- 
 other, — yet, notwithstanding all this, if the laws 
 be continually despised and disregarded, if their 
 rights to be secure in their persons and property 
 are held by no better tenure than the caprice of a 
 mob, the alienation of their affections from the 
 government is the natural consequence; and to 
 that, sooner or later, it must come." ^ 
 
 The only alternative to a spirit of obedience to 
 law for its own sake, is the man on horseback. 
 
 But the American finds protection against the 
 dangers which might easily threaten his civili- 
 zation, in his natural cheerfulness, his unabated 
 
 ^ Complete Works of Abraham Lincoln, edited by Nico- 
 lay and Hay (1902), I : 11-12. 
 [61] 
 
The 
 
 American 
 apart 
 from his 
 Govern- 
 ment 
 
 The mob and 
 the people 
 
 self-confidence, and his natural optimism. He 
 cannot be persuaded that come what may, things 
 will not turn out well, and if necessary, he will 
 put his sturdy shoulder to the wheel, and see that 
 they do turn out well. He rises to a crisis of any 
 kind, whether in his personal or family fortunes, 
 or in public affairs, with surprising good humor, 
 readiness, and skill. He rarely remains defeated 
 long. So far as his political institutions are con- 
 cerned, his confidence in them is such that in his 
 heart, no matter what dolorous language he may 
 use in the exigencies of a political contest, he does 
 not believe that even his most distrusted political 
 opponent can really injure or overturn them. 
 
 In a democracy, the line between the mob and 
 the people is a narrow one. The same individuals 
 compose both the mob and the people. When 
 reason is unhinged by passion, and when appetite 
 rules the will, then the people are the mob. 
 When intelligent reflection asserts itself and when 
 action is based on principle, then the mob becomes 
 the people. Just because this line between the 
 mob and the people is so narrow, the responsi- 
 bility attached to leadership in the American 
 [62] 
 
democracy is correspondingly heavy. Violent The 
 
 and inconsidered speech, appeals addressed to American 
 
 the appetites of men and to their baser natures, ^V^^- 
 
 • 1 1 1 1-1 <• from his 
 
 exhortations that lead to envy and lealousy ot ' 
 
 . . . Govern- 
 those who have gained just distinction or earned . 
 
 honest wealth, are all appeals not to the people, 
 but to the mob. He who really, not merely 
 verbally and vocally, puts his trust in the people, 
 trusts their higher instincts and makes liis appeal 
 to them. Such a leader clearly and patiently 
 expounds principles and illustrates them. He 
 urges policies on grounds of justice, mercy, na- 
 tional benefit; he never tries to develop a class 
 consciousness as opposed to a consciousness of 
 common citizenship, much less attempts to array 
 class against class. He hears all sides, and acts 
 as his conscience and his reason alone dictate. 
 The greatest triumph of the American people \l 
 to have produced such a leader, to have followed 
 him through the Valley of the Shadow of national 
 death, and to revere increasingly his memory. 
 He was Abraham Lincoln. 
 
 [63] 
 
THE AMERICAN AND THE 
 INTELLECTUAL LIFE 
 
Culture is the suggestion, from certain best thoughts, 
 that a man has a ranwe of affinities through which he 
 can modulate the violence of any master-tones that 
 have a droning preponderance in his scale, and succor 
 him against himself. Culture redresses the balance, 
 puts him among his equals and superiors, revives the 
 delicious sense of sympathy and warns him of the 
 dangers of solitude and repulsion. — Ralph Waldo 
 Emerson. 
 
THE AMERICAN AND THE 
 INTELLECTUAL LIFE 
 
 On July 4, 1778, in the first oration known to The 
 have been delivered in the United States in com- American 
 
 memoration of the nation's independence and ^ 
 
 ., . r •. 1 1 i- T\ • 1 Intellectual 
 
 on the anniversary ot its declaration, David 
 
 Life 
 Ramsay, a distinguished South Carolina publicist 
 
 and man of letters, predicted that literature would 
 flourish in America and that American indepen- 
 dence would mark an illustrious epoch, remark- 
 able for the spreading an.d improvement of science. 
 Already, he pointed out, a zeal for promoting 
 learning, hitherto unknown, had begun to over- 
 spread the United States. What has been the 
 result ? How far have these prophecies beer 
 justified ? 
 
 By common consent the United States has The basis of 
 
 taken a place among; the most enliohtened and "l" "^^ ^° 
 r G o Amenca 
 
 cultivated nations of the earth. This follows, 
 
 however, by no means from the wide distribution 
 
 [67] 
 
Intellectual 
 Life 
 
 The of wealth and material comfort; for those con- 
 
 Amencan ditions are entirely compatible with a sluggish and 
 ana the inert civilization of the higher sort. Nor does it 
 
 follow altogether from the free and liberal char- 
 acter of the country's political and economic 
 institutions ; for they may be abused as well as 
 used. It results, rather, from an intense devotion 
 to high intellectual and moral ideals, and to a 
 never-failing faith in the power of education to 
 promote both individual and national happiness, 
 efficiency, and virtue. The American people are 
 almost Socratic in their acceptance of the prin- 
 ciple that knowledge will lead to right and useful 
 action and conduct. History has done much to 
 dispel the illusion that Socrates cherished, for 
 knowledge and virtue are certainly not inter- 
 changeable terms. The American people, never- 
 theless, have an almost fanatical belief in educa- 
 tion because of the practical results which they 
 feel certain will flow from it. In large measure 
 these expected practical results do flow from 
 education, and if the formula be not pressed too 
 far, the American conviction as to education is 
 quite defensible. 
 
 [68] 
 
Behind all this lies the fundamental and original The 
 Puritanism which gives so much of its form to Arnencan 
 American life. It is a Puritanism, transformed, ^^^ ^ 
 
 LTttclLcCl'tiCll 
 
 overlaid, and warmed into a more generous glow, 
 but still it is Puritanism. Puritanism built New 
 England, and for nearly a hundred years New The under- 
 England powerfully influenced the United States. .J^°^ 
 If New England now seems isolated and pro- 
 vincial, and if its identity is almost lost through 
 the admixture of large Irish and French-Canadian 
 elements in the population, yet the fact must 
 never be overlooked that New England Puri- 
 tanism, built on the rock of Geneva, is the secure 
 theological and philosophical foundation on which 
 all that is distinctive in American life and culture 
 has been built. No philosophy of life has been 
 so influential in America as that of John Calvin. 
 This fact explains much of the narrowness and 
 lack of sympathy with strange customs and views 
 which one observes among Americans, and it 
 explains also much of the determination and 
 energy of the American temperament. Devo- 
 tion to duty for its own sake and a determination 
 to persevere to the end in any undertaking simply 
 [69] 
 
and the 
 
 Intellectual 
 
 Life 
 
 The because it has been undertaken, are almost uni- 
 
 American versal American applications of Calvinism. The 
 ideal has always influenced the American more 
 than the material, but he manifests grim and ill- 
 concealed satisfaction when the pursuit of his 
 ideal brings with it a material reward. 
 The great While American conditions have been extremely 
 
 Americans 
 
 favorable to individual initiative and accomplish- 
 ment, and while the average of accomplishment, 
 taking the whole population into account, is high, 
 yet achievements of the very first class, judged 
 by world standards, have not been numerous in 
 America. If the eighteenth and nineteenth cen- 
 turies were searched for great spirits and great 
 intelligences of the highest rank, America could 
 furnish perhaps ten. — not altogether a bad show- 
 ing for a people so new, with economic and politi- 
 cal tasks of such magnitude pressing for accom- 
 plishment, which tasks, almost of necessity, drew 
 the highest talent to themselves, and away from 
 science, art, and lette"^. These ten would, in 
 my judgment, be Jonathan Edwards, philosopher 
 and theologian; Benjamin Franklin, man of the 
 world ; George Washington, father of his country ; 
 [70] 
 
Alexander Hamilton, statesman and political phi- The 
 losopher ; Thomas Jefferson, leader of the people ; American 
 
 John Marshall, jurist ; Daniel Webster, orator "^^ ^^^ 
 
 , , ,. . . All T • 1 1 T 11 Intellectual 
 
 and publicist; Abraham Ldncoln, whom Liowell ^., 
 
 Life 
 significantly called " the first American " ; Ralph 
 
 Waldo Emerson, teacher of religion and morals ; 
 and Willard Gibbs, mathematician and physicist. 
 Perhaps two other names should be added: 
 Francis Parkman, historian, and William Dwight 
 Whitney, philologist. Of these ten, Washington, 
 Hamilton, Jefferson, Marshall, Webster, and 
 Lincoln were the products of the nation's im- 
 mediate needs, and take rank with the world's ' 
 publicists and statesmen ; while Edwards, Frank- 
 lin, Emerson, and Gibbs — as well as Parkman 
 and Whitney — were all of the reflective type of 
 mind, and are to be classed with the world's men 
 of letters, philosophers, and men of science. 
 
 The reflective product of America, outside of Art and 
 the field of political science, is thus far, not un- 
 naturally, small. In the fine arts, too, with the 
 noteworthy exception of architecture, the Ameri- 
 can contributions must be admitted to be either 
 frankly imitative or clearly to fall short of the 
 [71J 
 
and the 
 
 Intellectual 
 
 Life 
 
 The highest excellence. The sculpture of Saint Gau- 
 
 American dens and the stained glass of La Farge, both of 
 which are of marked distinction, stand out as 
 noteworthy exceptions. With architecture, how- 
 ever, the case is different, Richardson, Hunt, and 
 McKim have led the way to an important art 
 movement in architecture, and the past generation 
 has witnessed a remarkable outburst of originality 
 and inventiveness, particularly in the interweav- 
 ing of design with problems of engineering and 
 construction, which is evidence of real power and 
 of the possession of a genuinely artistic imagina- 
 tion. 
 
 Art feeds on things artistic. Much may there- 
 fore be expected from the significant collections 
 of paintings, sculpture, and other art objects that 
 are now being rapidly brought together in the 
 great museums of New York, Boston, and Chi- 
 cago, and to a lesser degree elsewhere, as well as 
 from the important collections of private individ- 
 uals in all parts of the country. 
 Scientific Scientific inquiry and the application of scien- 
 
 tific discovery to industry and art are eagerly 
 pursued in America and with marked success. 
 [72] 
 
 activity 
 
Intellectual 
 Life 
 
 The universities have been most hospitable to The 
 the new scientific movement, and the government American 
 "has fostered it generously and in many ways. ^ ^ 
 For almost every department of scientific activity 
 the United States can to-day furnish representa- 
 tives whose work is everywhere recognized as 
 contributing to scientific advance and whose 
 distinction is equal to that of their fellow-workers 
 in other countries. 
 
 De Tocqueville expressed the opinion that the Philosophy 
 
 p , ... . , and the 
 
 very structure oi a democratic society is unsuited theoretical 
 
 to meditation and inimical to it. This is certainly s"^°<^^^ 
 true if one's observation or attention be confined 
 to a democratic society in the making; for then 
 the pressure and struggle for power and for gain, 
 the unending tumult which accompanies the task 
 of economic and political organization, and the 
 practical interpretation of underlying formulas 
 and principles, as well as the novelty of the con- 
 ditions of life, all unite to compel the attention 
 outward, and to make reflection an impossible 
 luxury. Only a Hegel could pursue the course 
 of his abstruse meditations uninterrupted, with 
 the guns of Jena sounding in his ears. But after 
 [73] 
 
Intellectual 
 Life 
 
 The a democratic state of society has established itself, 
 
 American and traditions have become fixed, there seems no 
 ana trie reason to believe that reflection and meditation 
 will not then take and hold the commanding place 
 which they have always held among civilized men. 
 Certainly the history of the American universities 
 justifies this expectation. Philosophy is now, 
 and for some time past has been, one of the 
 favorite studies at the American universities and 
 colleges, and the reputation and productive ac- 
 tivity of the teachers of philosophy at Columbia, 
 Harvard, and California Universities, in particu- 
 lar, has drawn general attention to them as cen- 
 tres of reflective studies. Ijikewise the study of 
 the theoretical aspects of economics, law, mathe- 
 matics, physics, biology, and other departments 
 of science is pursued by large numbers of students 
 in America, and in time these studies must bear 
 fruit. Epoch-making discoveries in science or 
 contributions to philosophy of high importance 
 are not made with great frequency, however. 
 All Greece only produced one Plato and one 
 Aristotle, and it was a far cry even from Descartes 
 and Newton to Laplace. 
 
 [74] 
 
The influence and importance of meditation The 
 and of reflective studies will increase in the United American 
 States as the people generally learn to distinguish ^^ ^ 
 
 J.7Zf dlcctUQ/t 
 
 between public noise and public service, between ^_ 
 
 Life 
 passing popularity and permanent worth. It 
 
 takes some time for the masses in a democracy Place of re- 
 
 1 • 1 mi • PI- flection in 
 
 to learn this lesson. Ihey are conscious oi their American life 
 
 power, they are not trained to reflection, they feel 
 the pressure of immediate necessities, and they 
 are quick to follow the leader who, having won 
 their sympathy by his personality or by his acts, 
 promises them the most. Popularity is, there- 
 fore, the path to immediate power, but it is a 
 path strewn with dangers both to the leader and 
 to the led. The believer in democracy cannot ac- 
 cept temporary popularity as a test of greatness 
 in a leader; he must look rather to those basic 
 principles on which the nation's institutions rest, 
 and to their orderly and equitable development 
 and application. Writing of Alexander Hamilton, 
 his most recent biographer, with sure insight, has 
 said : " A man who never disagrees with his coun- 
 trymen, and who shrinks from unpopularity as 
 the worst of all evils, can never have a share in ' 
 
 [75] 
 
The 
 
 American 
 and the 
 Intellectual 
 Life 
 
 Popularity 
 versus worth 
 
 Educational 
 activity 
 
 moulding the traditions of a virile race, though 
 for a time he may make its fashions." ^ In like 
 spirit a contemporary statesman, speaking from 
 the vantage ground of a unique public service in 
 a most difficult post, has written : " Occasions do 
 occur, which in these democratic days are becom- 
 ing more, rather than less frequent, when the best 
 service a government official can render to his 
 country is to place himself in opposition to the 
 public view. Indeed, if he feels certain that he 
 is right, it is his bounden duty to do so, especially 
 in respect to questions as to which public opinion 
 is ill informed." ^ A majority carries no moral 
 weight because it is a majority, although it may, 
 if it chooses, enforce its views and preferences 
 by brute force. A majority carries moral weight 
 only when it is right. A democracy learns this 
 invaluable lesson only when it has first learned 
 to give weight to the reflective habit of mind. 
 The vast and unremitting educational activity 
 in the United States, the constant and generous 
 support of literary and scientific undertakings 
 
 ^ Oliver, Alexander Hamilton, p. 436. 
 ^ Earl of Cromer, Modern Egypt, 1 : 438. 
 [76] 
 
of every kind, and the increasing deference paid The 
 
 to the opinions of those who speak with the au- American 
 
 thority of knowledge, are all evidences that at ^^ ^^ 
 
 bottom the American people do believe that re- 
 
 Life 
 flection is a better guide for life than appetite. 
 
 The demagogue is constantly telling those who 
 will listen to him that the voice of the people is 
 the voice of God, and that it is better to trust the 
 instincts and common-sense of the masses to 
 solve political and economic problems than to 
 follow the guidance of the expert or to study the 
 experience of other nations. Nevertheless, he 
 sends his own children to school to learn the rudi- 
 ments of the world's knowledge, and those who 
 applaud his false teaching do the same. The 
 demagogue is a by-product of democracy, not its 
 fruit. 
 
 Perhaps there is no surer indication of the Higher educa- 
 progress of a modern people toward conscious 
 dependence upon reflection instead of impulse, 
 than the character and influence of a nation's 
 universities. If the universities stand vis-a-vis 
 to the nation ; if they serve it and represent it in 
 all possible ways; if their scholars are mature, 
 177] 
 
Intellectual 
 
 Life 
 
 The well-trained, and devoted to the advancement of 
 
 American knowledge; if their students are drawn freely 
 ana trie ^^^jj widely from all classes in the community; 
 and if the professions of law, medicine, d.vinity, 
 teachin<^, and engineering are largely recruited 
 from men trained in the universities, — then the 
 nation is assuredly on the upward j)ath, away 
 from government and life by impulse and appetite, 
 toward government and life by reflection and 
 experience. That this is true of the United States 
 Ctannot be doubted. 
 
 The history of llie American universities is 
 unique iiiul significant. They are, perhaps, a 
 dozen or fifteen in number, and tliey are, without 
 exception, young and new. They are a develop- 
 ment, under the guidance and stimulus of German 
 example, out of the American college, which, in 
 turn, was the New World's adaptation and devel- 
 opment of the English Oxford and Cambridge, 
 as those were in the seventeenth and eighteenth 
 centuries. In Europe the usual divisions of the 
 formal educational process are the elementary, 
 the secondary, and the higher, or university stage. 
 In America the corresponding divisions consist 
 [78] 
 
of four stages, instead of three. These four are The 
 
 the elementary school, the secondary school, the American 
 
 college, and the university. In America the ele- ^'^ 
 
 , , , 1 , , Intdledual 
 
 mentary school and the secondary school meet 
 
 each other end to end, instead of overlapping as 
 
 is usually the case in European countries. The 
 
 American college in turn takes about two years 
 
 of the work of the .secondary school (Gymnasium, 
 
 Real-Schule) as that institution is organized in 
 
 Germany, for instance. As a result, the American 
 
 secondary school has normally a four-year course 
 
 and the college has normally one of equal length. 
 
 The college has been, is, and — it is greatly The American 
 
 college 
 
 to be hoped — will continue to be, the central 
 point and the foundation of higher education in 
 America. The American college is the efficient 
 representative of the tradition of liberal learning 
 which took its rise early in the middle ages in the 
 Faculty of Arts in the University of Paris, and 
 which, handed on through Oxford and Cambridge, 
 reached America in colonial days. Of nominal 
 colleges there are in the United States several 
 hundred, but the number of effective institutions 
 which truly deserve and worthily bear the name 
 [79] 
 
Intellectual 
 Life 
 
 The is perhaps a hundred or a hundred and twenty. 
 
 American Scattered widely over the country, found in every 
 and the State, these colleges reach with their instruction 
 
 and their influence thousands of American youths 
 each year, and send them into the world to take 
 up their life-work with a new and more elevated 
 outlook, and with minds and characters marked 
 with the personal influence of devoted and schol- 
 arly teachers. In the college course the subjects 
 usually taught are Greek and Latin, English, 
 French, and German; history, economics, and 
 philosophy ; mathematics, physics, chemistry, and 
 biology. The college confers upon its graduates 
 the degree of bachelor, and the young alumnus 
 goes, at twenty-one to twenty-three years of age, 
 either into the practical work of life, or to a uni- 
 versity to pursue more advanced or professional 
 studies. 
 
 The popularity of the college in America, the 
 extreme sacrifices made by many parents to give 
 their children the advantage of a college education, 
 the fact that the college students come literally 
 from every class in the community, the influence 
 of college traditions and ideals and of college 
 [SO] 
 
association in after life, all testify to the strong The 
 hold which scholarship and the life of reflection American 
 
 have upon the imagination of the American people. * 
 
 iTifcllccii-Kd 
 As the number of men and women who have en- 
 
 Life 
 joyed the privilege of college residence and college 
 
 study increases, it will furnish the nation with a 
 rapidly growing and influential body of citizen- 
 ship, which will have a respect for the results of 
 reflection and a confidence in them. These men 
 and women will be a steadying influence of almost 
 incalculable value, as the nation confronts its 
 numerous and difficult problems of internal 
 development and welfare. With his caustic wit, 
 Lord Palmerston once said that if a little learn- 
 ing is a dangerous thing, no learning at all is 
 more dangerous still. To open the way to a cer- 
 tain amount of liberal learning for large numbers 
 of American youths is the self-imposed and, on 
 the whole, the successfully executed task of the 
 American college. 
 
 While the American college goes back for its The American 
 
 1 ^ 1 ,p p , 1 universities 
 
 origm to the farst halt ot the seventeenth century, 
 
 the American university has come into existence 
 
 during the past forty years. Here again, as in the 
 
 [81] 
 
The • case of the college, the thing must be distinguished 
 
 American from the name. Since in the United States an 
 
 ana me educational institution may be either established 
 
 Intellectual , • . • i i ^i . i? ^ j.i_ 
 
 and mamtamed by the government oi one oi tne 
 
 Lif 
 
 States or cities, or exist, with a general or a spe- 
 cial charter, without direct government support or 
 control, many institutions have taken the name 
 University without any proper warrant what- 
 ever. Therefore, the number of nominal Ameri- 
 can universities is very large. The real univer- 
 sities, however, are easily recognized in Europe 
 and America alike, and it is those only that are 
 properly spoken of as the American universities. 
 The American universities are organized largely 
 upon the German model. They have, however, 
 adapted that model to the requirements of Ameri- 
 can life and to American administrative habits. 
 With but insignificant exceptions, these univer- 
 sities have grown up out of colleges, and they 
 retain colleges as part of their organization and 
 work. The name University is consequently 
 used in America in a twofold sense. It is used 
 to designate either the whole educational activity 
 of an institution properly called a university, 
 [82] 
 
or it is used to designate the advanced, research, The 
 and professional work of such an institution, as Am,erican 
 
 distinguished from the collegiate or undergraduate ^'^ ^^ 
 
 , . , . , . rri, . Intellectual 
 
 instruction, which it also eives. Ihis uncer- ^., 
 
 tainty of nomenclature makes a real difficulty, 
 both for foreigners who wish to understand and 
 estimate the American educational system, and 
 for Americans themselves. It makes clear think- 
 ing about colleges and universities and their 
 work, extremely difficult, and it is only proper to 
 say that even intelligent Americans are them- 
 selves quite often confused by this confusion of 
 names and things. 
 
 To the universities fall, in chief part, the tasks 
 of promoting research and publication in all 
 departments of letters and of science, of training 
 men and women for the work of scientific investi- 
 gation, of preparing teachers for the higher posts, 
 and of equipping the future lawyers, physicians, 
 engineers, and architects for their professional 
 careers. Ministers of religion, for reasons pe- 
 culiar to American social and political history, 
 have thus far been trained chiefly apart from the 
 universities in seminaries maintained by the 
 [83] 
 
Intellectual 
 Life 
 
 The several religious bodies. The time is likely to 
 
 American come, however, when the ministry will be relieved 
 ana me from this limitation and disadvantage, and when 
 all the chief universities will either maintain theo- 
 logical faculties or ally theological seminaries 
 with themselves. 
 
 The universities, too, render to the community, 
 and often to the government as well, expert service 
 of the highest and most useful kind, and they are 
 fertile in devising both methods of extending their 
 influence and ways and means of bringing a gen- 
 eral knowledge of topics in literature, science, and 
 art, to large numbers of the adult population. 
 
 The moral and intellectual influence of the 
 universities, and of their representative scholars, 
 is very great, and the universities themselves are 
 generously, even munificently, supported. Some 
 universities, especially in the Western States, are 
 supported mainly by public tax; others, chiefly 
 in the Eastern States, are supported by endow- 
 ments and by the benefactions of individuals. 
 The average of scholarship in American university 
 teachers is very high, and the zeal for research 
 produces annually hundreds of publications of 
 [84] 
 
Intellectual 
 Life 
 
 various sorts, not a few of which are of more than The 
 average merit. American 
 
 While the American colleges were originally, " ' 
 and for the most part continue to be, situated in 
 villages, towns, or small cities, the universities 
 flourish most vigorously in the larger centres 
 of publication. The reason for this is plain, 
 and Paris, Berlin, and Copenhagen are witnesses 
 of its cogency. As Cardinal Newman once 
 pointed out, a large city, particularly a metropoli- 
 tan city, is peculiarly fitted to be the seat of a 
 university. Thither are drawn, by an irresistible 
 force, those personalities and those influences 
 which, quite as much as direct formal instruction, 
 stimulate and cultivate the mind of the student 
 who has passed through the earlier stages of his 
 educational career. There are to be found the 
 great collections of books and of art, there are the 
 opportunities to see the best dramas and to hear 
 the best music. There, either as residents or as 
 occasional visitors, are to be seen and heard the 
 men who are leaders in the world's life and 
 thought, and who most powerfully direct and 
 influence public opinion. This explains why 
 [85] 
 
The 
 
 American 
 and the 
 Intellectual 
 Life 
 
 The urban 
 movement in 
 America 
 
 the most vigorous and productive American uni- 
 versity life is to be found in New York and 
 Chicago, and in the suburbs of Boston and San 
 Francisco. 
 
 Under modern conditions of life and labor, 
 the population of the United States is being drawn 
 with increasing rapidity into cities, which the 
 United States census officially interprets as com- 
 munities having a population of 8000 or more. 
 This means not only that university life, but all 
 American activity, is becoming more and more 
 urban in character. .When the first United States 
 census was taken in 1790 only about 130,000 
 persons, or 3.3 per cent of the whole population, 
 dwelt in places having 8000 or more inhabitants, 
 and there were only six such places in the country. 
 When the twelfth census was taken in 1900, 
 25,000,000 persons, or over 33 per cent of the 
 population, dwelt in places having 8000 or more 
 inhabitants, and there were no fewer than 545 
 such places. There were at that time 38 cities 
 having 100,000 or more inhabitants each. Free 
 mail delivery in rural districts, the rapid extension 
 of the farm telephone system, and the constant 
 [86] 
 
improvement of the roads, all tend to make farm The 
 
 and village life more agreeable and less isolated; ^fnerican 
 
 but still the rapid drift toward the cities goes on. "^^ ^^^ 
 
 ^ . , 1 ,1 • 111 I Intellectual 
 
 Curiously enough, this remarkable urban con- ^.. 
 
 . Life 
 centration and growth has taken place without 
 
 deflecting the centre of the country's population 
 
 appreciably from the parallel of latitude on which 
 
 it was when the first census was taken. At that 
 
 time the centre of population was 23 miles east 
 
 of Baltimore, and just north of the 39th parallel 
 
 of latitude. From that 39th parallel — about 
 
 the latitude of Lisbon or Palermo — the centre 
 
 of population has never moved more than a few 
 
 miles in either direction, although it has travelled 
 
 about 520 miles west, and in 1900 was in the 
 
 immediate vicinity of the town of Columbus, 
 
 Indiana. The nation has become much more 
 
 urban and much more western in the century and 
 
 more that has passed, but the population of 
 
 75,500,000 in 1900 was distributed on either side 
 
 of the 39th parallel just as was the population of 
 
 4,000,000 in 1790. 
 
 These developments have powerfully affected 
 
 the nation's history, and they have put a stamp 
 
 [87] 
 
Intellectual 
 Life 
 
 The upon its culture and upon its public opinion. 
 
 American Whatever else one sees of the United States, if he 
 
 ana trie jg ^^ study its dominant and its representative 
 characteristics, if he is to know its culture, he must 
 know the greatest of its cities, New York, and he 
 must know the West. 
 
 New York as The highest culture — letters, art, science, 
 
 the national • i r» t ^ 
 
 metropolis social refanement — rests upon an economic 
 
 basis, as does life itself. Intellectual vigor and 
 dominance tread hard upon the heels of wealth 
 and commercial supremacy. This was true in 
 the ancient world and in the middle ages, and it 
 is true still. The knowledge of how to use wealth 
 follows, but does not precede, the possession of 
 wealth itself. New York is the intellectual and 
 the social capital of the United States, as it is 
 the financial centre of the nation. Its immense 
 masses of foreign-born citizens have not pre- 
 vented a certain well-marked continuity in the 
 history of New York ever since its commercial 
 leadership was made secure by the opening of the 
 Erie Canal and by the building of railroads. 
 
 There is a superficial generalization quite com- 
 mon to observers of America from abroad, that 
 [88] 
 
Washington is the political capital, New York The 
 
 the commercial capital, and Boston the intellec- American 
 
 tual leader of American life. The small amount ^^^ ^^ 
 
 !• X iT- !_• I- J T 1.1- • 1 X • ^- Intellectual 
 oi truth which underlies this characterization . 
 
 Life 
 sometimes conceals its essential falsity. Wash- 
 ington is the seat of government, but it is far from 
 being a capital city as are London, Paris, and 
 Berlin. Each year, however, it is taking on more 
 and more of the attributes of a real capital, and it 
 may well be that in time it will be a metropolis 
 as well as the seat of government. Boston was 
 the intellectual leader of America while and so 
 long as its commercial prosperity was well marked 
 and until the opening up of the great Western 
 States to settlement completely altered the na- 
 tion's centre of gravity, political and intellectual 
 ahke. Since the Civil War (1861-65) the intel- 
 lectual eminence of Boston has declined both 
 relatively and absolutely. 
 
 That of New York, on the contrary, has steadily 
 and rapidly increased. The membership of the 
 Century, the Players, and the Authors' Clubs 
 includes an astonishingly large proportion of the 
 representative directive force and capacity of the 
 [89] 
 
and the 
 
 Intellectual 
 
 Life 
 
 The nation in every part of the field of culture. Men 
 
 American of letters, artists, scientific investigators, scholars 
 of every type, find themselves drawn in increasing 
 numbers to New York, to share its cosmopolitan 
 and urbane intellectual life, and to feel the stim- 
 ulus of its friendly criticism. The opportunities 
 which New York offers to men of capacity are 
 literally boundless. It possesses, at Columbia 
 University, one of the world's greatest companies 
 of scholars, and, at its museums of Art and of 
 Natural History, two extraordinary and increas- 
 ingly valuable collections of art and science. It 
 has been for many years a musical centre of the 
 first rank. It is catholic in its tastes, warm in its 
 appreciation of excellence, and generous almost 
 to a fault. Contrary to a widespread impression. 
 New York offers, in its citizenship, numerous in- 
 stances of men who have turned their backs upon 
 the more gainful occupations to which they have 
 been solicited, in order to devote themselves to 
 the career in education, in letters, in art, or in 
 science, which most strongly appealed to them. 
 
 New York is so large and so many-sided and 
 its intellectual activity is so widely diffused, that 
 [90] 
 
the passing stranger is less strongly impressed by The 
 
 it than by the lesser but more compactly or- American 
 
 ganized intellectual life of a smaller place. The "^^ ^'^^ 
 
 J Tit GLLBCtlAQJi 
 
 vulgar and the bizarre happenings which are 
 
 Lije 
 sometimes blazoned abroad as characteristic of 
 
 New York, are as infrequent as they are dis- 
 agreeable, and they are no true index of the 
 polished, refined, and highly intellectual social 
 life of which New York is able to exhibit so much. 
 
 The West is a vague term which is only partly The West 
 geographical, partly political, and partly social, in 
 its significance. It includes, generally speaking, 
 the population living in Ohio, and the States 
 west thereof to the Rocky Mountains, extending 
 far enough south to include Missouri, Kansas, 
 and Colorado. In the hands of this population 
 lies the control of the political policy of the United 
 States. When combined with the power and 
 influence of New York, the West must always 
 be irresistible. 
 
 The West is very apt to exaggerate the diflFer- 
 
 ences between itself and the population of the 
 
 Eastern States. These differences are, in reality, 
 
 more largely in modes of expression than in modes 
 
 [91] 
 
and the 
 
 Intellectual 
 
 Life 
 
 The of thought. The West is freer from the wish to 
 
 American conform to conventions than the East, and its 
 camaraderie is that of a population which has 
 still about it the traditions of a pioneering period. 
 The Western people are proud, intensely earnest, 
 law-abiding, and ambitious in the highest degree 
 for their sons and daughters. They are great 
 readers of the best books and of the periodical 
 literature of the day. They have developed, and 
 are continually developing, writers and scholars 
 as excellent as any in the land. They are well 
 informed as to men and things abroad and inde- 
 pendent in their judgments of them. The best 
 critical literary newspaper in the country. The 
 Dial, is published in Chicago, and one of the best- 
 edited weekly journals. The Argonaut, is published 
 in San Francisco. Among the universities in the 
 West are some of the best and most active in 
 America. 
 
 To know New York, therefore, and to compre- 
 hend the spirit of the West, are indispensable to 
 an understanding of American civilization and 
 American culture. 
 The South The South, opce politically dominant in the 
 
 [92] 
 
United States, had led a life apart since the close The 
 
 of the Civil War, partly because of the war and its American 
 
 immediate political and economic results, partly ^^ 
 
 1 e ..X. ^ J -1 ui -i. u Intellectual 
 
 because oi the stupendous social problem it has ^., 
 
 Life 
 had to face in the negro question. The economic 
 
 results of the Civil War are rapidly giving way to 
 
 a new industrial order, and in time the political 
 
 results will, doubtless, similarly disappear. Only 
 
 faith, patience, and courage can ever solve the 
 
 negro question, and to that the South is now 
 
 bravely addressing itself. The South is intensely 
 
 American, and its social life reflects a charm and 
 
 a grace that are all its own. The time will come 
 
 when the South, too, will bear its full share in the 
 
 upbuilding of the intellectual life in America. 
 
 The dwellers beyond the Rocky Mountains in The Pacific 
 the States of the Pacific slope have more char- 
 acteristics in common with the Eastern than with 
 the Western States. So solid is their civilization, 
 so keen their intellectual activity, and so substan- 
 tial their achievements in letters, in science, and 
 in art, that it is hard to believe how young these 
 States are in years. 
 
 The Americans are now the most considerable 
 [93] 
 
The 
 
 American 
 and the 
 Intellectual 
 Life 
 
 The English 
 language in 
 America 
 
 body of English-speaking people in the world. 
 Despite their numbers and their wide geographi- 
 cal distribution, their English speech is more nearly 
 uniform than that of the inhabitants of England 
 itself. No differences of intonation, accent, or 
 vocabulary in the United States are so great as 
 those between the Yorkshireman and the Cornish- 
 man, or between the dwellers in Westmoreland 
 and those in Devon. Many so-called American- 
 isms are only survivals of sixteenth and seven- 
 teenth century English usages which have disap- 
 peared in the mother country. The exaggerated 
 drawl of many Englishmen is as far from being 
 good English as is the nasal twang of the uncul- 
 tivated American. The purity of the language 
 must rest with the educated classes who use the 
 English speech and with the makers of its litera- 
 ture, and it is as safe on one side of the Atlantic 
 as on the other. The fact is not without signifi- 
 cance that until the appearance of the monumen- 
 tal dictionary now passing through the Oxford 
 University Press, the best modern dictionaries of 
 the English language were the work of American 
 scholars. 
 
 [94J 
 
The richest and most elegant modern prose is The 
 that of the French academicians and of the Eng- American 
 lish scholars trained under the classical traditions ^^^ 
 
 r, ^-. PI ip/~ii»i x-1 A • LiiieiLCCtUClL 
 
 oi Oxiord and oi Cambridge, lew Americans ^.. 
 write so well as either of these, and if the classical 
 tradition further weakens in the American colleges 
 and universities, or perishes altogether, there will 
 be fewer still in years to come. Only occasionally 
 is an American book of even exceptional scholar- 
 ship really well written. When it is both of 
 genuine scholarship and well written, it finds 
 readers and influences opinion very quickly, in 
 Europe as well as in America. 
 
 The American literary tradition centres largely American 
 
 literature 
 about New York and Boston. Irving, Cooper, 
 
 Bryant, Poe, Curtis, and Stedman belong to New 
 York. Whittier, Longfellow, Hawthorne, Emer- 
 son, Holmes, and Lowell belong to Boston. Whit- 
 man stands outside both, as do the few names that 
 one remembers from the South, the West, and the 
 Pacific slope. Of these Poe was the first to win a 
 European reputation, and Poe and Whitman are 
 the most read and the most admired in other 
 countries. These writers, and others less cele- 
 [95] 
 
and the 
 
 Intellectual 
 
 Life 
 
 The brated, have made a very respectable contribu- 
 
 Amencan tjon to the hterature of the Enghsh language 
 during the nineteenth century. 
 
 Enough has been said, perhaps, to justify, in 
 considerable measure, the predictions of David 
 Ramsay. If the intellectual history of America 
 is not yet illustrious, it is dignified, serious, and 
 significant. Neither the political contests nor 
 the economic struggles of a new people in a new 
 land have checked the tendency inborn in man to 
 express his nature, his aspirations, and his reflec- 
 tions, in the forms of science, of letters, and of art. 
 The American's devotion to education, and his 
 zeal and generosity in its behalf, are quite without 
 precedent. The intellectual life is familiar in 
 America, and its power and influence will steadily 
 increase. 
 
 The typical Who is this American who, whatever his limi- 
 
 American . i , . r. i i n 
 
 tations and his faults, has so many excellent traits 
 
 and so fine a nature ? He is not the man who, 
 suddenly grown rich, disports himself vulgarly 
 in the public gaze; he is not the boastful Philis- 
 tine, who is ignorant of the world's civilization, 
 [96] 
 
and despises what he not does not know; he is The 
 
 not the decadent of the large cities who wastes American 
 
 his patrimony and his hfe in excess and frivohty. 
 
 ill tPilcctUdL 
 
 All these exist in America, but their notoriety is 
 unfortunately out of all proportion to their num- 
 bers. The typical American is he who, whether 
 rich or poor, whether dwelling in the North, South, 
 East, or West, whether scholar, professional man, 
 merchant, manufacturer, farmer, or skilled worker 
 for wages, lives the life of a good citizen and a 
 good neighbor; who believes loyally and with all 
 his heart in his country's institutions, and in the 
 underlying principles on which these institutions 
 are built; who directs both his private and his 
 public life by sound principles; who cherishes 
 high ideals; and who a;ims to train his children 
 for a useful life and for their country's service. 
 These, and not the accidental and unusual types, 
 are the Americans of whom I speak. Fortunately, 
 there are many millions of them in the United 
 States. 
 
 [971 
 
INDEX 
 
Achievements, First-class, not 
 numerous, 70. 
 
 American, The, as a political 
 type, 3-31 ; conservative, 23. 
 
 American, The, and the intel- 
 lectual life, 67-97. 
 
 American, The, apart from his 
 government, '35-63; in the 
 domain of liberty, 35-37 ; his 
 self-reliance, 37-38; his op- 
 portunities, 39; attitude of, 
 toward money, 39-41 ; his 
 emotional temperament, 41- 
 43; a Christian people, 44- 
 46; religious freedom, 47-48; 
 high standards of business 
 honor, 49-51 ; in business, 
 51-52; as a citizen of the 
 world, 55-57 ; his law-abiding 
 spirit, 60-62; the typical, 
 96-97. 
 
 American people, Variety in 
 the, 6. 
 
 American type, Unity of the, 
 3,6. 
 
 Americans, The ten or twelve 
 greatest, 70-71. 
 
 Anglo-Saxon impulse. Persist- 
 ence of the, 3-6 ; its source 
 and development, 4 ; its ex- 
 pression in America, 5-6, 24 ; 
 57. 
 
 Appropriations, Congressional, 
 Unifying effect of, 17. 
 
 Argonaut, The, 92. 
 
 Aristotle, 74. 
 
 Art and architecture, 71-72. 
 
 Bagehot, Walter, on American Jfidgx 
 
 sovereignty, 19. 
 Boston, 54 ; not the intellectual 
 
 leader, 89. 
 Brewer, David Josiah, on the 
 
 religious character of the 
 
 American people, 45-46. 
 Bryant, William Cullen, 95. 
 Burgess, Prof. J. W., on indi- 
 vidual liberty, 18. 
 Business, The conduct of, 51- 
 
 52. 
 Business honor, High standards 
 
 of, 49-51. 
 
 Calvin, John, Influence of, in 
 America, 69. 
 
 Christianity of the American 
 people, 44-47. 
 
 'Church, No established, 46, 48. 
 
 Cleveland, Grover, 13; and the 
 Chicago outbreak in 1894, 60. 
 
 College, The American, 79-81. 
 
 Columbia University, 74, 90. 
 
 Columbus, 45. 
 
 Congress, Powers of, deter- 
 mined by the courts, 28. 
 
 Conservatism of the American 
 people, 23. 
 
 Constitution of United States, 
 5, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 21, 28, 29, 
 35; the one particular char- 
 acteristic of the, 19; persist- 
 ence of the, 23; the rule of 
 the, 24-25. 
 
 Conventions, National, 14. 
 
 Cooper, James Fenimore, 95. 
 
 [101] 
 
Index Corporations, Industrial, 49; 
 
 the large, 52-53. 
 Cromer, Earl of, quoted, 76. 
 Culture, Emerson on, 66; the 
 
 basis of, in America, 67-68. 
 Curtis, George William, 95. 
 
 Dangers, Possible, to American 
 
 civilization, 57-58. 
 De Tocqueville on meditation, 
 
 73. 
 Declaration of Independence of 
 
 1776, 5, 45. 
 Declaration of Rights of 1765, 5. 
 Declaration of 1775, 5. 
 Demagogue, The, a by-product 
 
 of democracy, 77. 
 Democracy, Pasteur on, 5. 
 Department of Agriculture, 
 
 Beneficent work of the, 17. 
 Descartes, 74. 
 Dial, The, 92. 
 Dictionaries, The best modern, 
 
 American, 94. 
 Draft Riots of 1863, 60. 
 
 Economic classes. No fixed and 
 stable, 38. 
 
 Economic forces and the na- 
 tional life, 21-23. 
 
 Education, Belief in the prac- 
 tical results of, 68 ; the higher, 
 77-86. 
 
 Educational activity, 76-77. 
 
 Edwards, Jonathan, 70, 71. 
 
 Electoral College, The, and the 
 Constitution, 15. 
 
 Emerson, Ralph Waldo, on cul- 
 ture, 66 ; one of the greatest 
 Americans, 71, 95. 
 
 Emotional temperament of the 
 American, 41-43. 
 
 English common law. Power of 
 the, 6. 
 
 English language. Influence of 
 the, 6 ; in America, 94-95. 
 
 possess 
 power. 
 
 Federal courts, The, 
 
 the full judicial 
 
 28-29. 
 Franklin, Benjamin, 70, 71. 
 Free-silver movement. The, 
 
 42. 
 
 Garfield, James Abram, Popu- 
 lar sympathy with, 42. 
 
 Gibbs, Willard, 71. 
 
 Government, Hamilton on 
 good, 2. 
 
 Government, The, as a unifying 
 force, 17 ; outside forces more 
 powerful than, 21. 
 
 Granger movement. The, 42. 
 
 Greenback movement, The, 42. 
 
 Hamilton, Alexander, viii, 2, 
 
 58, 71, 75. 
 Harvard University, 74. 
 Hawthorne, Nathaniel, 95. 
 Hegel, 73. 
 Holmes, Oliver Wendell, 95. 
 
 Idealism vs. practicality, 41; 
 satisfaction in, 70. 
 
 Independent vote. The, 13. 
 
 Individual liberty national, 18 ; 
 not controlled by govern- 
 ment, 20-21. 
 
 Intelligence widespread, 55-57. 
 
 Interstate commerce, 22. 
 
 Interstate migration. Effect of, 
 7-8. 
 
 Irving, Washington, 95. 
 
 Jackson, Andrew, 15, 27. 
 Jeiferson, Thomas, 71. 
 Judiciary, The, as an organ of 
 government, 27-29. 
 
 [102] 
 
La Farge, 72. 
 
 Laplace, 74. 
 
 Law, Rule of, 30. 
 
 Law-abiding spirit, The, 60-61. 
 
 Lawlessness decreasing, 60; 
 Lincoln on, 61. 
 
 Laws, Reckless making of, 59. 
 
 Leaders, Public, outside of the 
 government, 20-21. 
 
 Lincoln, Abraham, on the defi- 
 nition of liberty, 34; on 
 lawlessness, 01; as a leader, 
 63 ; one of the greatest Ameri- 
 cans, 71. 
 
 Lincoln's maxim, 58. 
 
 Literature, American, 95-96. 
 
 Longfellow, Henry Wads- 
 worth, 95. 
 
 Lowell, James Russell, 66, 95. 
 
 McKinley, William, The shoot- 
 ing of, 42. 
 
 Maine, Unreasonable rage at 
 destruction of the, 42. 
 
 Marshall, John, on the judi- 
 ciary, 27; 71. 
 
 Mayflower compact of 1620, 5, 
 45. 
 
 Migration, Interstate, 7-8. 
 
 Mob, The, and the people, 62- 
 63. 
 
 Money, The American cares 
 little for, 39-40. 
 
 Mormons, The, 48. 
 
 Negro question. The, 93. 
 
 New York, 54; as the national 
 
 metropolis, 88-91. 
 Newman, Cardinal, on the 
 
 university, 85. 
 Newspaper press. Influence of 
 
 the better, 9-1 1 ; character of 
 
 the baser, 11-12. 
 Newton, 74. 
 
 Opportunities of American Index 
 
 life, 38-39. 
 Optimism of the American, 61- 
 
 62. 
 Ordinance of 1787, 5. 
 Organizations, voluntary, of 
 
 national scope. Influence of, 
 
 8-9. 
 
 Pacific slope. The, 93. 
 
 Parkman, Francis, 71. 
 
 Parliamentary procedure, 
 
 Knowledge of, 9. 
 
 Parties, The two great political, 
 12-17. 
 
 Party name. Attachment to, 
 12-13. 
 
 Party organizations very pow- 
 erful, 13-14, 16-17. 
 
 Pasteur on democracy, 5. 
 
 Paternalism resented by the 
 American, 36-37. 
 
 Penn, William, 45. 
 
 People, Exploitation of the, a 
 danger, 43. 
 
 Philosophy and the theoretical 
 sciences, 73-74. 
 
 Plato, 74. 
 
 Poe, Edgar Allan, 95. 
 
 Political action, Uniformity of 
 forms of, 16-17. 
 
 Political waves. Emotional, 
 42-43. 
 
 Popularity vs. worth, 75-76. 
 
 Population, The centre of, 87. 
 
 Post ofifice. The, and the rural 
 dweller, 36. 
 
 Presidency, The, 25-27. 
 
 President and Vice-President, 
 how chosen, 15-16. 
 
 Principles not men, A govern- 
 ment of, 29-31. 
 
 Prohibition movement, The, 43. 
 
 Prosperity, Industrial, 22. 
 
 [103] 
 
Index " Pu^'ic " ^°d " governmen- 
 
 tal " not interchangeable 
 words, 21. 
 Puritanism, New England, the 
 foundation of American life 
 and culture, 69. 
 
 Raleigh, Sir Walter, 45. 
 Ramsay, David, on literature 
 
 in America, 67, 96. 
 Reflection impossible, 73; place 
 
 of, in American life, 75-78. 
 Religious freedom, 47-48. 
 Root, Elihu, 21. 
 Russell, Gov. William E., 
 
 21. 
 
 Saint-Gaudeus, 72. 
 
 Scientific activity, 72-73. 
 
 Self-expression the ambition of 
 the American, 40. 
 
 Self-reliance of the American, 
 37-38. 
 
 Senators, United States, Elec- 
 tion of, 16. 
 
 South, The, 92-93. 
 
 Sovereignty not in the Ameri- 
 can government, 19; behind 
 the Constitution, 20. 
 
 Stedman, Edmund Clarence, 
 95. 
 
 Tacitus on the German people, 
 
 4. 
 Taney, Chief Justice, on the 
 
 English courts, 28. 
 Tariff, The, 23. 
 Tilden, Samuel Jones, 13. 
 
 United States, The, in law and 
 in fact a Christian nation, 
 47. 
 
 Universities, the American, 
 Philosophy in, 74 ; history of, 
 78-79, 81-83; tasks and in- 
 fluence of, 83-86. 
 
 University, Twofold use of the 
 name, 82-83. 
 
 University of California, 74. 
 
 University of Paris, 79. 
 
 Urban movement. The, 86-87. 
 
 Washington, George, The 
 
 warning of, 58-59; 70,71. 
 Washington not a metropolis, 
 
 89. 
 Webster, Daniel, 71. 
 West, The, as representative 
 
 of the United States, 53-55 ; 
 
 91-92. 
 Whitman, Walt, 95. 
 Whitney, William Dwight, 71. 
 Whittier, John Greenleaf, 95. 
 
 [104] 
 
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 THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 
 
 64-66 FIFTH AVENUE, NEW YOBZ 
 
As Others See Us 
 
 A ^UDY OF PROGRESS IN THE UNITED STATES 
 
 By JOHN GRAHAM BROOKS 
 
 Author of "The Social Unrest" 
 
 Illustrated Cloth $1.75 «^^'' h ^^ail, $iSg 
 
 During the last century and a quarter several hundred volumes have 
 been written by foreigners concerning our government, institutions, 
 politics, education, manners, customs, voice, and general behavior. 
 Coming from all nations of Europe, many of these criticisms are amus- 
 ing, some almost ludicrous, while others furnish valuable material for a 
 serious estimate of what America is in the eyes of the rest of the world. 
 
 In his new book, « As Others See Us," the author attempts to test 
 the value of foreign criticism against our country, using this criticism 
 as material through which the social movement in the United States 
 may be measured. 
 
 From Chastellux, through De Tocqueville and James Bryce, to the 
 last book by the critic Archer, he tries to ask and answer the question : 
 How far have these critics been telling the truth about our American 
 character and institutions? 
 
 The placing of these critics side by side promises a great deal of 
 amusement, but it should also furnish valuable material for a serious 
 estimate of what America is in the eyes of the rest of the world. 
 
 John Graham Brooks is widely known as the author of "The Social 
 Unrest," one of the most thought-provoking discussions of modern 
 social conditions, of which Mr. Bliss Perry, the editor of The Atlantic 
 Monthly, said : " A fascinating book — to me the clearest, sanest, most 
 helpful discussion of economic and human problems I have read for 
 years." 
 
 PUBLISHED BY 
 
 THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 
 
 64-66 PIFTH AVENUE, NEW YOEK 
 
Races and Immigrants in America 
 
 By JOHN R. COMMONS 
 
 University of Wisconsin 
 Cloth ismo 242 pages $i.£o net 
 
 " The colonial race elements are considered, brief chapters are given to 
 the negro and recent immigrants, and industry, labor, city life, crime, poverty, 
 and politics are treated in their relation to the maintenance or destruction of 
 democracy. Professor Commons' purpose appears to be to summarize the 
 latest available data upon his subject and leave conclusions largely to the 
 reader. In line with this purpose is a valuable list of authorities consulted. 
 It is certain that the book will be of great service to ministers, sociologists, 
 and all who are concerned in the problems of the day." — Chicago Interior. 
 
 "The work is scientific as to method and popular in style, and forms a 
 very useful handbook about the American population." — Dial. 
 
 "Well fortified throughout by statistics, and evidencing a wide range of 
 observation, the great merit of the volume is its sensibleness." — Nation. 
 
 " While not profound, it is a brief and concise treatment of serious pub- 
 lic problems, and is characterized by the good judgment and general sanity 
 which are evident in Professor Commons' works in general. The general 
 point of view and conclusions of the book are undoubtedly sound, and it 
 will serve a useful purpose in introducing to many the serious study of our 
 racial and immigration problems. To one who can spend but a brief time 
 in reading along the line of these problems, but who wishes a general survey 
 of them all, there is no book that can be more heartily commended." — 
 Charles A. Ellwood in The American Journal of Sociology. 
 
 " This is an extremely valuable study of the greatest problem which the 
 United States has to solve to-day ; perhaps greater than that of all the ages 
 that have preceded it, namely, the assimilation of large numbers of dissimilar 
 races into a composite race. . . . To-day in the city of New York sixty-six 
 different tongues are spoken. A century hence there will probably be only 
 one. And throughout the country there are communities in which the Eng- 
 lish is not the dominant language. But the railroad, the post-office, and the 
 telegraph as they bind them in interest will bind them in speech. It is in this 
 view that the book is of inestimable value." — American Historical Magazine. 
 
 " Professor Commons has long been a diligent and penetrating student 
 of industrial conditions in this country, and particularly of the labor move- 
 ment. His investigations in this latter field have brought him face to face 
 with the situation that confronts the arriving immigrant, and he has been 
 led to inquire into the varying abilities of different races to make use of the 
 opportunities presented in this land for their advancement. . . . We do 
 not recall another book of its size that presents so much important and 
 essential information on this vital topic," — Review of Reviews. 
 
 PUBLISHED BY 
 
 THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 
 
 64-66 FIFTH AVENUE, NEW YOEK 
 
 C 310 88 
 

 
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 BINDERY INC. 
 
 ^ AUG 88 
 
 !^^ N. MANCHESTER, 
 '"^ INDIANA 46962