THE PURITAN

IN

HOLLAND, ENGLAND, AND AMERICA

INTRODUCTION

THE PEOPLE AND INSTITUTIONS OF THE UNITED STATES

MOST American authors, and all Englishmen who have written of America, set out with the theory that the people of the United States are an English race, and that their institutions, when not original, are derived from England. These assumptions underlie all American histories, and they have come to be so generally accepted that to question them seems almost to savor of temerity. Perhaps, however, the temerity is only in the seeming. Hans Christian Andersen, in one of his charming tales, describes a royal court all of whose members believed that the emperor was arrayed in priceless garments from a magic loom, until he showed himself unclothed in the public street, and a little urchin blabbed the truth. Then every one perceived that the magic garments had no existence except in their imaginations. And so, when men and nations reach the stage in their development where they use their own eyes instead of echoing the thoughts of others, popular delusions often vanish before a breath.

In history this process is rapidly going on. The discovery of new facts from year to year shatters the idols of centuries, rehabilitates injured reputations, and throws light on disputed or obscure questions; but, what is of greater importance, the people of this generation are getting out of leading-strings, are seeing with their own eyes, and thinking for themselves. Thus subjecting even old facts to an original examination, regardless of prej udice and untrammelled by convention, the history of all countries is assuming a new form. Brains," says Machiavelli, "are of three generations-those that understand for themselves, those that understand when another shows them, and those that understand neither of themselves nor by the showing of another." The last, of course, are always hopeless, but the first class is rapidly increasing. To its members the history of America looked at only as an offshoot from England must always seem incomplete and full of contradictions. To reconcile these apparent contradictions, fill out the record, and show the growth of the republic as a consistent whole, two facts should be given their proper place-that the population of America has always been largely cosmopolitan, and that its institutions have been gathered from many quarters of the globe.

Of course, if these propositions are correct, we must change the point of view to which we have been accustomed in the study of our early history. If it is true that our people and institutions come largely from other lands than England, it is important to see how these foreign races developed in their homes, and of still greater moment to learn the history, character, and workings of the institutions which are un-English in their origin. This is the only philosophic mode of treating history, and it is the only way in which it can be made of value.

WHY AMERICANS ARE REGARDED AS AN ENGLISH RACE 3

To begin with the settlement of Jamestown, or the landing of the Mayflower, is well enough if America is simply England transplanted across the sea. But if America is much more than a transplanted England, the case is very different. Then the neglect of the other nations which have contributed to its population and institutions leads to a result like that of writing a biography without referring to the subject's ancestors or describing his youth and education.

How the idea that the Americans are purely an English race has been developed is apparent at a glance. Englishmen, when in good humor, or "afraid we may do them a mischief," as Lowell says,* call us their kin across sea, American cousins, or children of the mother country, although always expressing surprise that the offspring bears so little resemblance to its fond parent.† On the other hand, Americans have done their part. Until a recent date, many of our writers seemed to think that England held the only stamp for literary as well as social reputation; and perhaps even now society has not a monopoly of the class whose members feel flattered at being mistaken for second-rate Englishmen. The mass of the people, however, have no such feeling. Independence has come, or at least is speedily coming, in thought as well as in political relations. This the future historian will notice as one of the most important results flowing from the great civil war, which first gave Americans assurance of the strength of the republic.

Looking back, after the lapse of centuries, we see the

"Among My Books," p. 239.

"The American Philistine, however, is certainly far more different from his English brothers than I had before supposed."-Matthew Arnold, after his first visit to America. Nineteenth Century, Feb., 1885.

effects produced upon Greece by the defeat of the Persian invaders, upon England by the annihilation of the Spanish Armada, and upon Holland by the victory over Spain. The results in America of a gigantic struggle for national existence, carried to a successful termination, will be no less far-reaching. We see them already in the marvellous development of the industrial pursuits of the country, in literature, science, and art; and they will be still more marked in time. Not the least important, however for it is connected with all the others-is the change of feeling in America regarding our relations to other countries, and especially to Great Britain.

A few years ago, although we professed to care nothing for foreign opinion, the author of an American book waited with bated breath until he heard what the English critics had to say about it, and our grandiloquent orators and editors never felt happy unless the traveller whom they patronized praised our "glorious institutions." But to-day our American authors, artists, architects, scholars, and men of science no longer need to look abroad to secure a reputation. As for our institutions, they have stood the crucial test of war. It is to be hoped that we shall never undervalue their earnest criticism from any quarter, but the American has the feeling that in some respects he understands their nature. better than a foreigner. Our revolution gave us political independence; perhaps our civil war was needed to give

*It was this feeling which led to the bitter resentment of the criticisms published by writers like Mrs. Trollope and Charles Dickens. Many of our people felt like lynching Mr. Dickens for his early remarks about America; but a recent English traveller, Sir Lepel Griffin, has said things much more severe. Yet of him few Americans have even heard, and those who have read his book merely smile and think him entitled to his opinions.